Mawwiage

Is a great institution. I highly recommend it. I've been married as of today for 27 years to the man of my dreams. I love you!

Family's in town, let the fun begin!

So, my sister, brother in law and nephews brought back my kids at the end of July. They came back on the 26th and Tanner and Taz left on the 28th to head to Provo for Ballroom and Volleyball camp.  They had a great time and even got to see President Monson's house...a thrill for Taz.  Meanwhile back here we all had a blast.  We took them to Popped for frozen popcorn.  Clay liked it...

Kres liked it...

and Beckham tolerated it.

Taz got in one last playing session before he left.

We watched lots of DVD's and enjoyed watermelon.

Beckham and Kres were obsessed with Ninja and Beckham saw her drinking out of our bathroom faucet and decided to give it a try.

We played lots of volleyball and Talon shows up right after work, so he had his athletic neon socks on and put his work shoes back on to leave.  (I thought it was cute).

Cynjyn had a bump looked at on her leg and was NOT thrilled to be going.  Her pediatrition told her that it would probably have to be removed.  The wounds Dr. was a very nice elderly gentleman and told her it was nothing to worry about and if she didn't want it removed, she didn't have to have it removed.  She brightened right up and they were best buds by the time we left!

We went into Hancock Fabric and had fun with their decorations for Halloween,

and crazy hats and

fun hair.

At Excalibur, Cynjyn bought these glasses...too cute.

We took Clay (who had never seen it) and Beckham and Kres (who saw it a couple of years ago and didn't really remember it) to the Knight show.  Only me, Cynj and Grandma went.  Other family members opted to stay home rather than pay the money to see it for the umpteenth time.  But we sat in Ireland and didn't have the best seats, but had fun afterwards taking pictures.

The prince/King

The dragon knight...oooo scary!

Talon bonded with Beckham and

Kres even managing to get his workouts in with them.

And as usual...lots and lots of swimming. 

On Friday, the Thurston's took Cynjyn out with them on a day on the town.  They went to the Shark Reef and then to Rainforest Cafe for lunch.

The night after Tanner came back he got "forked" by some girls welcoming him home from his long summer absence.

We always have such a great time when family is in town. We packed a lot into our two weeks with them.

Girls Camp and the kids in Idaho

Well, camp was intersting to say the least. This was my third year going and we were back at Kolob. Garry and I both went and we were there Tuesday-Saturday starting July 17.   The camp theme was Arise and Shine Forth and our ward was the woodland fairies of light.  We had a fairy theme throughout our campsite.

The tutus, wands and fairy wings along with the toadstools they made really made the skit turn out cute. 

Here is an excerpt that I put together for the ward newsletter:  Here are some highlights from our week.  The fourth year hike started out with a bang (thunder, lightning and a torrential down pour of rain.  Luckily, it was the only major rainstorm we received that week.  The water up at Kolob had a poison in it, so we were not able to use it at all.  No showers, no cooking with it, no washing anything with it.  We found out the night before camp that we were to bring water up (5 gallons per person for the week).  We managed to survive all week with NO SHOWERS!  We witnessed several tender mercies from our Heavenly Father during the week.  On our way to the amphitheater for skit night, it started sprinkling.  It stopped as soon as the skits started.  They lasted almost two hours.  The minute the last skit was done, it started raining again.  We had a sunrise hike and were able to witness the beauty from our Heavenly Father as the sun rose over the ridge.  We were able to see three stars hold on to the break of dawn, we felt it was Heavenly Father telling us he was there.  In the meadow the night of our night hike, we witnessed a sky filled with stars, more stars than most of us had ever seen.  It was breathtaking.  By far, one of the highlights of camp was writing our testimonies on seed paper and tying them to helium balloons and releasing them in the sky.  As our theme song played (Arise and Shine Forth), 200 yellow balloons were sent high in the sky.  We had such a good time at camp, wonderful girls, wonderful leaders and wonderful priesthood.  This is just a sprinkling of camp.

So, here are Garry and I on Friday with no showers for the week!!

On Thursday, they had crazy hair day and so Garry gelled his hair.  He was lamenting that I'd forgotten to take a picture of his hair and then a week or so after camp Chris Jenkins emailed me this picture that she took of him!  Thanks Chris!!

Meanwhile in Idaho the kids were kept occupied apprently. They went to the Birds of Paradise overlook in the Kuna area.

Ky gave them back to school haircuts too!  Thanks Ky!

I ordered Cynjyn her flute while she was gone.  She is going to play it in band this year.

And the kids took one last trip to Lucky Peak to go boating before they came back.

Apparently, Taz was shaking because he was so cold.

Here are the crafts we made at camp:  A journal and some headbands

and a frosted lantern to take on our night hike and such.

So, overall, we had a great time at camp despite the water situation. Just a side note, Sunday August 5th we were released as a YW presidency. So it's bitter sweet that this was my last girls camp for awhile.