i love fire pit roasted bananas with marshmallows and chocolate chips smashed in, they look disgusting but oh man, they were so good! think, banana split without the ice cream.
i loved wearing braids in my hair the whole time, it made me feel like a kid again. i especially loved that i was never the one doing the braids, it was so fun to have other people do my hair each day.
i loved riding up to camp with these turkeys in my car laughing it up the whole time, but i didn't especially love getting lost on the way. we all cheered when we finally saw this sign!
saran wrapping the toilets in the leaders cabin never gets old. luckily, no one fell for it! (i'm seriously choosing this awesome turquoise color for my next bathroom re-do!)
nothing lifts your mood like loud obnoxious camp songs sung by silly girls strung out on too much sugar!
allie doesn't really love having her photo taken (by me) when there are other people watching - i have several photos with this same look on her face - it says to me, "mom, you're so weird!"
allie has bb gun skills - go girl!
nothing says camp like everyone doing each other's hair, and tiny braids with beads, i think allie came home with four or more in her hair.
mmmm smores, what is camping without smores? i learned that one is enough though, why do they have to be so incredibly messy? 
i've never laughed so hard in all my life than playing the "get up on that big fat pony" game with the girls. i learned that if i could laugh like that every day i would have abs of steel!
camp is better with a big group of wonderful friends - i'm so grateful for this awesome ward! (notice how allie is about a head taller than all of them?!)
shrink-a-dinks make a great camp craft as long as you're not using a convection oven that blows them all over the inside of the oven - doh!
allie has rhythm, the cup game was so fun to watch and learn but it took me A LOT longer than the rest of the girls to finally get it down.
girls' camp is more fun than scout camp because we eat yummy strawberry cupcakes and they don't!
hot tamales are WAY better dipped in chocolate! YUM-O.
i learned that i could combat homesickness by hugging this cutie patootie and immediately feel better. i'm so glad i got to experience her first year of camp with her, she is a real princess inside and out!
and last of all...i learned that i CAN pull off something this big, this overwhelming as long as i spend enough time on my knees. i'm thankful for a loving heavenly father who knows exactly what i need and when i need it in my life. camp has been a fabulous experience for me, and hopefully everyone. it wouldn't have been the same though without such fantastic girls being enthusiastic about everything that i planned and smiling the whole time. i'm so lucky to get to know them all a little bit better and share some laughs with them this week. they really are princesses, hopefully they know it too.
man i love these girls....
i loved wearing braids in my hair the whole time, it made me feel like a kid again. i especially loved that i was never the one doing the braids, it was so fun to have other people do my hair each day. i loved riding up to camp with these turkeys in my car laughing it up the whole time, but i didn't especially love getting lost on the way. we all cheered when we finally saw this sign! saran wrapping the toilets in the leaders cabin never gets old. luckily, no one fell for it! (i'm seriously choosing this awesome turquoise color for my next bathroom re-do!) nothing lifts your mood like loud obnoxious camp songs sung by silly girls strung out on too much sugar! allie doesn't really love having her photo taken (by me) when there are other people watching - i have several photos with this same look on her face - it says to me, "mom, you're so weird!" allie has bb gun skills - go girl! nothing says camp like everyone doing each other's hair, and tiny braids with beads, i think allie came home with four or more in her hair. mmmm smores, what is camping without smores? i learned that one is enough though, why do they have to be so incredibly messy? i've never laughed so hard in all my life than playing the "get up on that big fat pony" game with the girls. i learned that if i could laugh like that every day i would have abs of steel! camp is better with a big group of wonderful friends - i'm so grateful for this awesome ward! (notice how allie is about a head taller than all of them?!) shrink-a-dinks make a great camp craft as long as you're not using a convection oven that blows them all over the inside of the oven - doh! allie has rhythm, the cup game was so fun to watch and learn but it took me A LOT longer than the rest of the girls to finally get it down. girls' camp is more fun than scout camp because we eat yummy strawberry cupcakes and they don't! hot tamales are WAY better dipped in chocolate! YUM-O. i learned that i could combat homesickness by hugging this cutie patootie and immediately feel better. i'm so glad i got to experience her first year of camp with her, she is a real princess inside and out! and last of all...i learned that i CAN pull off something this big, this overwhelming as long as i spend enough time on my knees. i'm thankful for a loving heavenly father who knows exactly what i need and when i need it in my life. camp has been a fabulous experience for me, and hopefully everyone. it wouldn't have been the same though without such fantastic girls being enthusiastic about everything that i planned and smiling the whole time. i'm so lucky to get to know them all a little bit better and share some laughs with them this week. they really are princesses, hopefully they know it too. man i love these girls....
and this is us at youth conference right before a dance, do you like my plaid dress and scarf? what a dork! marci was always way cuter and more fashionable then me! which maybe explains why i was always borrowing her clothes.
i like this photo of us at my fourteenth birthday party (notice all my cutie red-headed brothers!) because it shows how we had almost the same hair cut - super short because that's what cool skater girls did (even though neither of us actually skated!). what dorks!
ok, so the story is that when we were fourteen her family moved to arizona and we wrote letters all the time. the summer after they moved my mom got me to go on the pioneer trek for youth conference by waving a plane ticket to arizona to visit marci in my face. it worked! it was a super fun-filled ten days hanging out with her and her cute family. some time after that trip, i don't know what happened but we started to lose touch, i can't believe we let this happen! it was something i had always regreted and tried several times to find her with no luck. so years later, when we were maybe 29 or so, my dad calls me up one day to tell me that an old friend of his ran into marci's parents at a grocery store in idaho! he had written down the name of their city and i was so excited, i literally left the kids in the tub to call information and find their number. i got marci's number from them - it turned out she was living in indiana - and we talked on the phone for about an hour getting caught up! rich had to get the kids out of the bath and to bed that night! luckily, her parents living in idaho means that she has had to drive right passed my house on the freeway whenever she visits them and so we have actually had a few opportunities to see each other since that phone call! the last time they were in town, we got her parents and mine and our husbands and kids together for dinner before they left town. it was so fun to get caught up and hang out like old times. and she has the cutest kids! her dad made me feel like i was a thirteen year old air head again, he is a major teaser.
so that's the story of my long lost friend marci, i'm so glad we found each other after all these years! :) now if we could just locate our other friend from back then, laura lee andrew...
anyone know where we can find her?
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oh man, i started drooling right there in the store while doing the math in my head at the same time that i was rehearsing my sales pitch to rich about why i had to have these dishes. yes dear, dishes. i stopped by patsy's for a minute and found out that she had a coupon for an EXTRA 30% off, including sale stuff. ok, seriously, 80% off?! that's practically stealing the dishes, how could i pass this opportunity up of owning my own fiestaware that i've dreamed about all these years? i couldn't, i didn't. after a quick call to rich and visiting two kohl's locations to collect all the colors i wanted, i got $625 worth of dishes for.......$220!!!
and i was singing, (really singing, that's not a figure of speech) on my way out of the store carrying all those glorious boxes. allie got into too, she unpacked and washed all the dishes and then took about a million photos of it all stacked nicely on the counter. 
my counter just looks prettier with all these cheerful colors adorning it. happy happy joy joy, happy happy joy joy, i love a good deal!
the kids ended up spending most of their time in the hot tub which was great until...it was time to get out. we tortured them long enough to get a photo though, is it just me or is their skin purple?
and spencer looks like a serial killer. i even caught the reluctant teenager who thought she could escape my camera lens by hiding behind a pillar! silly girl!
the moms, who were smart enough NOT to get wet in the freezing rain, had fun chatting and laughing at our die-hard kids. brrrrrr, hopefully next time we go it will feel more like summer.
every morning since school got out, ethan thinks he's died and gone to heaven, because all the kids are home and i'll admit i haven't seen him as much as when they're gone all day. he's too busy to hang out with me because he's following spencer and taylor around like a puppy. but really it's heaven for him because his favorite person is home now...allie of course! every morning this past week he wakes up and starts calling her name, when he used to call mine. lucky for him, allie loves him as much as he loves her and entertains him all day long. his favorite activity lately is sitting on her lap with his hands on hers while she practices the piano. he's the luckiest kid in the world to have three older sibblings who adore him, most of the time. it's going to be so hard in the fall when they go back to school, and once again, he's stuck with just me all day long. for now, we're both enjoying every minute of it.
ever since i was a little girl i have looked forward to seeing my grandpa and having my guts squeezed from one of his family-famous hugs. everyone in the family, even my dad, agrees that he is the world's best hugger. i used to think that it was because he was a big cowboy kind of man and he maybe didn't know his own strength. but as i got older i realized there is no accident about how tight he holds you, it's all about letting you know how much you are loved. they're the kind of hugs that say, "you are the most important thing in the whole world" and "you are my favorite granddaughter" and there's nothing in the world quite like them.
i'll be honest that i was a little worried when i saw him on memorial day, it's been a few years and he's definitely looking more frail and aged. but when he saw me, he hugged me just as tight as ever, and i was so grateful. in fact, i hugged him more than once just to get my fill until the next time.