This Weekend:

* The "Ladies" spontaneously put together a breakfast on the spot Friday morning; 

 we went to Sill's Cafe. 

(home of the scones as big as your face)

By the time we left there, they were serving lunch to all the tables around us!  :)

* I was planning on going to the temple afterwards - I'd gone to breakfast dressed for it...

But, first I went to a store,

then to get gas,

then to a grocery store,

then to drop off two garbage bags full of stuff at the D.I. from our closet clean-out.

And by that time, the kids who'd gotten home from school were calling me.....

So, I returned home.

* I sent Kyle off on a group date he had planned with his friends.

The went to the Ice Castles up in Midway, UT.

(sidenote: this girl's mom was one of Kyle's preschool teachers!)

* Matt & I had date night at Sizzler.

We were seated in THE SMALLEST booth ever!

There was NOT enough room for me, my coat, AND my purse.

* On Saturday morning, I took Kyle and Katelyn to go audition for 

the Farmington Youth Theatre upcoming production of... 

There was quite a long wait to get in to audition,

and some good silly, young teenager watching in the meantime, too!  ;)

The fact that Kyle is a 16 yr. old MALE auditioning, made him very noticeable to the directors!

Not a bad position to be in at auditions!  :) 

* My official [write-on] calendar was finally delivered,

so I spent the afternoon filling it in with all the things we have going on this month/year.

It felt so good - I've been a bit unsettled without my "brain."

* Matt & I went on a group date of our own - I think you'd call it a quintuple date.

Our friends had reserved a court at the Rec Center and we played wallyball.

We first did girls vs. guys - I was told that it was so the girls

would actually get a chance to touch the ball!  ;)  haha.

After that, we mixed it up - and I quickly learned it was very 

advantageous to be on Matt's team!

We were reaching/lunging/jumping/hustling in ways we

are not accustomed to.....and boy, have we felt it in our bodies ever since!!!

#gettingoldstinks

Two of the couples had to return home to their young babies/toddlers,

but the rest of us went to Dairy Queen for "cool treats" 

and visited for another hour - or two....

* Church-y Church on Sunday.

This year we changed to the 9:00 a.m. time block - my favorite [at this season in my life]!

* We watched our 2015 Year-in-Review 

slideshow that Matt makes for us every year.

Always fun to reminisce!

(BUT do I REALLY look like that lady in some of the photos???)

* Brookelle got on a crazy-hair kick,

and did her own hair first....

...and then she moved on to Kyle!

* We got a surprise visit from Grandma/pa.

* I ended the day by writing my weekly email to our missionary.

This [UEA] Weekend:

Every year, the second week of October, we get Thursday & Friday off school for U.E.A. (it means Utah Education Association, and there's a 2-day convention for educators).  But, working in the airline industry, we know U.E.A. actually stands for: Utah Escapes to Anaheim!

Although, many Utahns do go to Disneyland over this long weekend, we do not. (the crowds!)  We usually go somewhere, but this year, we stayed right in Utah.

We:

* Celebrated "Wingtoberfest," and got half-price boneless wings at Sonic for lunch.

* Went to the WitchFest at Gardner Village

And, while there, we HAD to go to the Chocolate Covered Wagon (a sweets shop) for caramel apples, Utah shaped chocolate dipped Rice Krispie treats on a stick,
old-fashioned candy sticks, etc. (of course!)

We did the "Witch Scavenger Hunt" and we were on a mission to find them all, so we could take our completed list to the Naborhood Bakery to get our cookies for $0.50!
(We did it, getting "help" on just the last [elusive] one).

* That evening, Haylee & Brookelle went to play night games and have a sleepover with their cousins.  Katelyn went for a late-night at her friend's house.

* Matt & I picked up our Bountiful Basket, went to donate plasma, and then to Station Park to do some birthday shopping
for a couple of our children in between taking our kids places.

* On Friday, I took Katelyn out to her favorite smoothie joint: Roxberry's. 

(since she was the only girl at home - the others were still at their cousins, 

and Kyle just wanted to hang out at home and rest for once, after so much XC running/practice!)

* Matt & I had date night at Joy Luck Restaurant.

(It seems they "replaced" some of the shrimp in our Walnut Shrimp dish with broccoli florets - pretty disappointed!)

* We went over to Matt's brother's house to catch the last half of the USU vs. Boise State football game.

It was a great day to be an Aggie!  :)

52-26!  

* On Saturday, Matt & I went out to breakfast at a new place I've been wanting to try, Criddles Cafe.

It seemed their menu was very close to our favorites; the former Doug & Emmy's, and Sill's Cafe.

I had a cinnamon roll the SIZE OF MY PLATE 

(I only could eat a couple of bites, and took the rest home to my kids - they didn't mind at all!)

* We took the family up to the Ogden Temple

Matt, Kyle, and Haylee went in and did Baptisms for the Dead.

I walked around the temple block with Katelyn & Brookelle (too young to go in still) while we waited.

 Katelyn was excited to be almost as tall as one of the stop signs we passed!

We also thought we could take a tour at the nearby D.U.P. while we were killing time....

but it's only open Memorial Day to Labor Day - too late!

So, we found somewhere else to go!  ;)

* We finally helped the kids with one of the "bucket list" items, by taking them 

shopping at Smith & Edwards - the Country Boys Store.

Ya know, the one with the slogan, “We’ve got anything you need....IF we can find it!” 

To say the girls were THRILLED about the largest Schleich toy inventory at a store they've ever seen, would be an understatement!

From Schleich to saddles....this store has it ALL!

*  Then we had dinner at the Burger Bar on our way home.  It’s been featured on the Food Network’s show, “Diners, Drive Ins, and Dive’s.”
Even though their specialty meat they were highlighting that week was ALLIGATOR....none of us opted for it!  ;)
(But we did get deferred when trying to donate plasma later, due to us being lipemic = fat levels in blood too high) I wonder why?  ;)

* Churchy-Church on Sunday 

* Third Sunday dinner/FHE over at the Brenchley's.
Haylee commented on our way home, "That was SO MUCH FUN tonight with the cousins!"  

*  I wrote my weekly novel letter to our missionary son.

This Weekend

* On Friday, we went to a new place at Station Park, Brixton's (a baked potato restaurant!), for my birthday lunch out with 'The Girls.'
I didn't realize S.P. was such a happening place in the middle of the day - I saw several other people I knew there.
I guess I'll have to 'make an appearance' there more often!  ;)

* The afternoon was spent carting my daughters to and from friends'/parties.

* We went to The Roof with Matt's parents for our "anniversary dinner" on Friday night.

 (they want to take out each of their kids/spouse on an annual basis, so they use their
anniversary date to keep track of who they've taken out and whose turn is next)

* After returning home (and consuming much food & dessert), we thought it prudent to go out in our neighborhood in an attempt to WALK OFF dinner.

* Saturday morning, I did my first (of the required five) turn of being the chaperon/volunteer at the Bye Bye Birdie rehearsal that Katelyn is a part of (and will be performing in November).
Side Note: it was an interesting "study" in human behavior.
Each participant is suppose to sign in with their name and time of arrival prior to each rehearsal.
As background information, there has been a lot of emphasis put on the importance of being at and ON TIME to every rehearsal.  The directors have said that they will be giving out additional parts to those who do well in this area, and taking away from those who do not demonstrate dependability in this area.
One of my jobs is to check in all the kids.  So, when not everyone was there by the starting time, I wondered what those other kids would write down when they finally did arrive....
AND I observed that the majority of the kids (who were anywhere from 1 to 15 minutes late) STILL wrote down the time that the rehearsal started (when they were suppose to be there by) on the sign in sheet.
Hmmmm....See?  Interesting, huh?

* Matt & I took a jaunt up to Snowbasin...

for a Gondola ride and afternoon mountaintop dining,

followed by some hiking.

Apparently, we didn't get the memo about the XTERRA Utah off-road triathlon that was going on up there Saturday!
(notice all those cars down in the parking lot?  Normally, you wouldn't expect to see that AT A SKI RESORT in late Summer/early Fall)
So, we shared the area and our lunch table with that crowd!  (talk about some amazing athletes!)

* I attempted to go donate plasma....and was rejected. :(
The snag? Low protein.  I guess I better start eating more liver and tofu!  Yippee! (not.)

* Matt & I went up to the Bountiful Temple to do a session.

(I did pretty good staying awake this time!)  ;)

* We made sure to end the evening with a treat at Dairy Queen.
A Cherry float always hits the spot.

* Since we have afternoon church, I like to spend the morning reading/viewing things on www.lds.org.

I first read this blog post.

Which led to/referenced this article.
Valuable things to ponder. 

* We did our "yearly measurements" on the kids (height, weight, shoe size, waist/inseam).
It was only about 2 months late, I usually like to get to it in the Summer PRIOR TO going school shopping, but oh well.....
I write these all down and keep it in my purse, so I don't have to keep it all in my brain,
and I can look at it when I'm out shopping.
It's also fun to see how much they've grown from the year before!
Although everyone has grown and gained weight, the most unanticipated are:
Kyle now sports the same size shoe as his dad - a size 12!
Katelyn is just 4 inches away from being taller than I am!  She is only 10 yrs. old!

* Churchy-Church

In Sacrament meeting, we heard from a returned missionary who'd served in New Zealand.
THAT'S where I dreamed of going on my mission back in my youth!

While sitting there, I tuned-in to the fact that Matt needed me to rub his neck - he was not exactly
displaying a great deal of calmness at the moment - because of his first Gospel Doctrine lesson he had to teach in Adult Sunday School the next hour.
He prepared A TON on this lesson - and only taught a small portion of it before time ran out.
(Ya never know how it'll go with the class participation factor)

* After church, I made squash casserole.
(we've still got an overabundance from our garden!)

* We had dinner and FHE at Brenchley's

While talking together afterwards, we had an intriguing conversation about the lesson many of us had had in our Relief Society/Priesthood classes today titled,
 "Beware of Pride."

Bottom Line:  We ALL have it in some form.
(withholding gratitude and praise that might lift another, won't change our mind to accept truth, comparison, fault finding, jealousy, love the praise of man, don't receive correction easily, rebellion, puffed up,  defensiveness, not happy for another's acheivement, etc., etc.)

AND we all need to overcome/repent of this sin!

* I started my [Sunday night ritual] weekly letter to Ryan out on his mission.

Miscues, Misunderstandings, and Mistakes

I just spent my weekend at Queen of the Kingdom with about 400 other women.
It is a training/learning opportunity and women's conference by the company, 3 Key Elements.

But, in addition to being trained all weekend, there were some funny/embarrassing/baffling parts of the weekend, too.  :)

#1  For one activity, words to a song were passed out, and we sang together.  It was a song that I was not familiar with, had never heard.  The title is, "Princess" as sung by Galen Crew.  In the song, there's a sentence where the lyrics pause....pause...pause while music is playing softly, then the final words of the sentence are sung after the pause.
So, here's my disclaimer: if you didn't know the song (like I didn't) and were only looking at the printed words on our paper, you might not get the tune/tempo/timing right, at first. 
As we were all standing and singing as a group, the leader/mentor (who was wired with a mike) was walking through the crowd, and would touch our arm, signaling she wanted us to sing with her (and louder?!)  Well, she came up to me, and at that moment, it happened to be that one part of the song with the pause!  So, I'm all singing with her (kinda louder than I had been) and I totally jumped the gun on those lyrics that were suppose to come AFTER the pause, and I sang out strong (near her mike) during the pause!  Woops!  It was heard by many!  AND the thing is; my premature entrance on my singing caused her to follow and sing at the wrong time, too!  hahaha.

#2  For another activity, we walked around the room and mingled with as many other women as we could in a designated period of time.  We were suppose to go up to someone and say, "What do you see in me?"  And then, they were suppose to just look at us, and go with their feelings/intuition and say the first word that came to their mind.  We would then switch roles, and the other person would ask us the same question, and we would tell them what we "saw."  We were suppose to write down what everyone said, so that at the end, we had a whole list of attributes about us.
So, I'm going along doing the activity, and had already talked to many when I come to a new [younger] woman and I asked, "What do you see in me?"
And she replied, "Dumb S_ _ _"
Taken back, I asked, "Pardon?"
"Dumb S_ _ _," she said again.
By now I'm thinking, Is she REALLY saying that about me?  Or is this the new "compliment" amongst the younger crowd these days?
But, just to be sure, I repeated back to her, "Did you say 'dumb s_ _ _?'"
And she said, "NO. Dumb s_ _ _."
Well, I was relieved she said, "No" but I was still hearing the same word that followed.
She must've seen my perplexed face because then she repeated it more slowly so I could understand this time, "Gumption."
"Oh, gumption!?!" I responded.
"Yes," she answered.
Whew!  I'll take it!  Following what I'd just thought I heard, that was the best word ever!  Gumption: initiative, resourcefulness, ingenuity, sense, backbone, courage, spunk.

#3 On one of our breaks, I had to go to the bathroom, and so I headed to it.  There was another lady entering the bathroom ahead of me, and the door was closed about half-way when I reached it, so I pushed it open so I could go in after her.  The lady turned and stood in front of the door opening and blocked me from going any further.
"This is a one-person bathroom," she informed me.
Huh?!?  How many bathrooms don't have multiple stalls these days?  I just assumed......
Well, you know what they say about assuming.....
As soon as I realized what was going on, I apologized profusely.  Poor lady.....she probably thought I wanted to "share" in her using the facilities experience that day - which I totally didn't!

Oh, dear.  Just a sampling of the cringeworthy things that happen to me on a regular basis!  ;)

This Weekend:

* I was home in the afternoon on Friday (good thing!) and my doorbell rang.
My girls answered it and called to me, saying it was for me.  

My visiting teachers were there.  (I'd totally forgot they were coming!)

But, luckily, I was here so we got to visit.
It was also lucky I'd changed out of the muumuu I had been hanging out in earlier in the day!
 (THAT would've been a sure giveaway that I'd forgotten!)

(Except my family room was a mess with kids' games, back packs, papers, clothes, scriptures, etc. strewn on the floor & chairs.
One of the ladies literally had to pick up
stuff off the couch and move it first before she was able to sit down!  Aaugh!
So, maybe they figured out my forgetfulness anyway?)

* Before going out on our date in the evening, we had to play "taxi service" for

Kyle, taking him to his social events/party.

* We went out to dinner at Sonora Grill in Ogden.

Matt had received a birthday "free entree" coupon already,

so that helped us choose the place tonight.

(I'm on this no-white-flour challenge, so I had to order my meal with corn tortillas......tonight was just not as yummy as their flour tortillas entrees I've had there in the past.)

* After dinner, it was still early enough that we figured our children would

still be up, so we stopped at Ross to kill some time go shopping.

We had to get some pool & beach essentials for the fam in preparation for our upcoming vacation.

* On Saturday morning, I walked to the library to return and pick up some books.
AND to get my fitbit steps in.  As I was out & about, I saw a couple of friends
who were outside, so I stopped to visit.  My 40 min. walk/errand turned into TWICE that long! :)

* We spent some time out in the yard.  Matt set up a pump to pump out the water
that is in our trampoline hole (a natural spring?)  The water was coming
out a hose - and it was crystal clear - so I took the hose up to the
garden we planted last week and watered the whole thing with the "good" water.
{I think we've got our emergency water situation taken care of!}
I cut up a watermelon and it tasted SO GOOD coming in from the warm outdoors.

* I went through the pile of clothes that has somehow ended up on my laundry room counter.
For some reason, the kids were putting clothes they didn't want to wear anymore there.
WHY?
I separated and organized them all into Put Away/Give Away/Throw Away piles
and now we can see the counter top again!

* Matt & I went to the plasma donation center.
I started a new book to read while I layed there donating:

(I haven't decided if it's good or not, yet.)

* We were driving towards an eating establishment, and right before we got there,
we got a text from Matt's brother inviting us to go to Sushi Monster with them.
Well, of course!  So, we switched gears and headed to meet them.
Except, I needed to eat one more vegetable for the day with this challenge I'm on,
and I wasn't sure I could get a whole serving from just sushi, so we
stopped at a grocery store to buy some carrot chips.
While we were in there, my flip flop straps totally came out and the foot-bed cracked
and was dangling on a thread, just seconds from breaking into two pieces.
I knew I couldn't go to Sushi Monster without any shoes on,
so we swung by our house to get new flip flops for me.
(Sidenote: I had a feeling that this 2nd pair of flip flops might fail me, too,
so I put a "replacement" pair in purse just in case.....and guess what?
I DID need them when my 2nd pair also broke.  Two in one night?!?  Wow! I'm talented!)

* Sushi Monster was good, and the company was great.
My recommendation: the Las Vegas roll.
Delish.

* Afterwards, we went to six stores looking for a new light blue purse for me.
My current one (in my beloved color, red, but I thought I venture out to a new color) is kinda hammered.

 (Yes, this is the same purse that Kohl's replaced for me last year.  I didn't have the gall to ask them for a new one AGAIN - it's tearing because I put the whole kitchen sink in it!)
Kohl's is ONE of the stores I went to, but in the end, I found my purse at Target (on clearance even!)

* On Sunday morning, I slept in until 9:30 a.m.!!!
This has just become a luxury in recent years.
Our kids have [finally]  figured it out that IF they wake us up,
we put them to work/tell them to get dressed/make them eat REAL, healthy food,
so it's so much better, in their minds, to let us sleep! ;)
Smart kids!

* I went out visiting teaching with my companion on Sunday,
then I came home, and our home teachers came to my family.
(Was it the last day of the month, or something?!?)  ;)

* Churchy-Church
It was the missionary farewell of one of my former young women!
They're growing up! {sniff, sniff}  She did a great job!
She shared an awesome quote from a Elder Holland talk he delivered at the MTC back in 2000.
Read it HERE.

 * Because it was the 5th Sunday, we had a combined meeting with the
Priesthood men and Relief Society women the last hour of our church block.
The theme of the meeting was "Family Home Evening" and we had been
asked to speak about our experience, representing a "family with children at home."
(There was also a newlywed couple and an Empty Nester couple who spoke.)
The thing about this "assignment" was, last Sunday Matt had mentioned to me, in passing, that
the Elder's Quorum President had talked to him about something and that he'd have to tell me about it later......
Well, that "later" happened to be last night around 10:00 p.m.!
(Ya gotta love it, baby!)

* I had a meeting after church, so I gave Matt instructions on everything
he needed to do to get dinner ready.
He owed it to me after the lack of notice he gave me on my speaking assignment in church, don't ya think?!?  ;)
We had Ranch Chicken.  It was a new recipe (found HERE) and I approved.

* We went on a family walk on the Lagoon Trail up to Farmington Pond
with grandma/pa and Matt's brother, wife, & kids.

A lot of other people had the same idea...and somehow some people
had confused our quiet Farmington Pond for a swimming hole that day.
There were a ton a people jumping off the fishing docks, splashing around,
and wearing skimpy suits - I'd never seen THAT up there.
Needless to say, we didn't stay long at all.

* Wrote my weekly letter to our missionary

* I quit eating before 9:00 p.m. (another part of this blasted challenge I'm on),
while Matt baked up some cookies for himself from the cookie
dough I'd made (but I didn't eat any!) for the missionary farewell/lunch.
 Only one week left of the challenge!  Yay!  ;)

Be Mine

We had a great Valentine's Day -- even though it was Friday the 13th that weekend, too!! 
And since it was on a weekend, we spread it out and celebrated dates on both days!  :)

The girls had their Valentine's parties at school on Friday.  I had purchased their valentine cards & treats for their classmates a while ago and they were on a shelf in our storage room.  Well......when I got them out for the girls to sign, one of the boxes had been opened - and 11 of the treats were missing!!!  It seems Brookelle helped herself to some treats whenever she felt like it over the last little while!  I told her I wasn't going to go out and buy more valentine treats since she's the one who caused the problem of not having enough for her whole class now.  She thought for a minute, then informed me she'd decided she would just be EXTRA NICE to some boys in her class as their "treat" from her, instead of giving them a candy to go along with her valentine card.  ;)  That girl is thinkin;! 
And, ya never know, maybe the boys would like that "treat" better anyway?!?

Matt & I went out to Sushi Monster on Friday night

Katelyn got creative with the Valentine's morning breakfast she made me!

Messages for Matt

Matt took me up to Taggart's Grill.  This has been on our "bucket list" but we've never made it happen, yet, because it's out of the way and there's always a wait - not exactly the type of place you can just drop by when you're passing through.  But, we planned to make the journey up there for V-day!  It was kinda weird going on that long drive up the canyon in FEBRUARY and having the sunroof open!  Instead of our surroundings being covered with snow, it was all brown & barren.  Taggart's is a popular place, I tell ya.  We thought we'd miss the crowds by going at 2:00p.m.  Nope!  Still an hour wait, so we went hiking in the hills behind the restaurant while we waited.  (I needed steps for my Fitbit!)  There's many more things on the menu that I want to try, so we'll definitely be back!

Matt surprised me with a new treadmill!

So I won't have trouble getting my steps in the snowy winter......WHAT WINTER this year?  ;)

He had put it in the front room, but I hadn't seen it.  Katelyn kept trying to get me over there.
She'd call me, telling me to "Come here."  Saying she had to show me something, and I told her to just bring it to me!

Then they finally got me to go up the stairs (that are by the front room) but I

didn't even look in that direction.

(They were trying - I was just oblivious!)

Eventually, Matt had to say, "Just go look in the front room!"  ;)

We finished it off with our traditional HEART pizza from Papa Murphy's and red drink with Valentine-y dishes and table (and Cherry Ju-Ju hearts!).  

Then we watched our traditional movie: "Sleepless in Seattle" (Empire State Building on V-Day!) together with the girls.

  (Kyle went to a didn't-go-to-the-school-Valentine-Dance-party instead of hangin' at home with us!)

#LOVEISINTHEAIR

This Weekend:

* Our elementary school had a “Color Run” and Silent Auction this Saturday.
 No one wanted to really run, but they wanted to get “colored” so we went down
to the school for the event anyway.

  They had a couple of “COLOR BOMBS” as a group out on the field, so Katelyn & Brookelle got all pink, blue, green, yellow, & orange.
Katelyn DID jump in for the 1K (without an official race number bib) and ran with a bunch of kids.   
One of the baskets in the auction was a U of U theme, so Katelyn TOTALLY wanted to get it
(in honor of her die-hard-Utes-fan missionary brother)!
There was another boy classmate of hers that was hanging around close by
to always UP his bid on the U of U basket if anyone else ever placed a bid.
She got it out of him that he had $100 that he was capable of bidding for it.
She was BEGGING and BEGGING me to give her $105 so she could beat that other boy!  Ummm....NOT going to happen!!!
  (Actually, I think he was mostly trying to flirt/tease her just to see her get riled up,
and so that she would keep talking to him and paying attention to him!
I could see it in his smile & eyes!)


* My nephew, and my kids' cousin, Cameron, tested for his BLACK BELT
in Tae Kwon Do on Saturday afternoon.  It was a 3 HOUR test!
We went for the last half to cheer him on.  There were 7 boys total testing.  Interestingly enough, there were multiple times
when one of the boys couldn’t quite make his kick high enough or clear a hurdle he was jumping, so the owner of the dojo would ask his peeps to cheer for him,
and it seemed like EVERY TIME their crowd started making some noise/chanting his name, the boy was able to DO IT!
Who doesn't believe in moral support?!  There's POWER in it, I tell ya!

  As part of the test, they had to break boards – 4 with their hands with different kinds of strikes,
 and 4 with their feet with different kinds of kicks all in consecutive order.
The owner and his assistant held two of the boards, but then the boy was suppose to pull
two other people from his crowd to hold the other two.
Kyle said, “I ain’t holdin’ no board!”
He was afraid his wrist would break when Cameron hit it.
So, Cameron's dad, Mike, and Matt were the ones who went out on the floor to hold the boards.
The photographer got a pic RIGHT AS he was striking the board Matt was holding.
Look at Matt's face -  SO FUNNY!
BUT, Cameron is OFFICIALLY A BLACK BELT, now!!!!
What a great accomplishment – we are happy for him!

* Matt & I had tickets to the ReAL game on Saturday night, so we went – someone spilled beer at my feet, so it was pretty exciting!  haha.

2-0 WIN vs. the San Jose Earthquakes

 

* We went to the missionary farewell of one of Ryan's long time friends' (all through childhood) on Sunday morning.
He is going to FIJI and he GETS  to wear a SKIRT with his white shirt & black missionary name tag on his mission!
(THINK:  “The Other Side of Heaven” movie)  COOL!

{Jared & Ryan, circa 2008}

I can't believe these two little boys are grown up, serving missions now!!!

  * We went to our own church later.
Some of the pink is still in the girls' hair/on their scalp TODAY
and they still have it around their mouths a bit, too!  Nice look for church!  haha

* One of my former Young Women was the youth speaker in our own ward (I'm so proud of "my" YW!)
She gave a talk on the parable of The Great Supper (Luke 14:16-24).
I’d kind of forgotten about it, but it is a really good!
When she was talking about how the man invited many, but most of them had excuses
why they couldn’t come, I leaned over to Matt and said,  
“That sounds like what happens to us; whenever we invite other couples to go out with us!”   
Bwa ha ha ha!
BUT, THE REAL MESSAGE is about US fully partaking of the Gospel, without excuses, and then we will receive the FULL blessings.


* My Sunday evenings are now spent writing my weekly letter to our missionary, Ryan, so
when he reads his email on Monday (his one P-day a week), he will have the latest
updates from home.

Now, THIS is My Kind of Camping

About five years ago, there was a motor home that Matt's work repossessed and he got permission to "try it out" and he brought it home.
(I blogged about it back HERE)
The kids were ecstatic!!!

 {Li'l 7 yr. old Haylee}

And it was perfect timing because our ward campout was already scheduled for THAT weekend!

The kids played in it, and packed their stuff in it, in anticipation to go.

WELL, it turns out that the credit union's president's definition of "trying it out" ONLY MEANT to drive it home - and DID NOT mean we could actually take it anywhere for real camping (our definition of "trying it out.") 
OH.
So, Matt drove it back to work and the kids did not take this "misunderstanding" well.  We tented it that weekend.....And they have always wished for "what could've been" five years ago.
In fact, these old photos have been coming up on our computer's screen saver lately, and the kids are all like, "Ahhhhhhh!" whenever they see them.


Fast forward to the present day:  My good friend's mom bought a camping trailer with the hopes that her kids would USE IT - but they're not.  So, after two summers of non-use, she opened it up to a broader circle of contacts; her kids' friends - which is where we come in!  She let us use it - and her truck to pull it with - AND she WAS GRATEFUL it was getting USED!  ;)
(SOOO generous!)
So, our kids previous unfulfillment can now be filled!  :)  Better late, than never!

The weekend outing was a SUCCESS because MY kind of camping now includes:

1.  THIS....

{After a few recent years of Girls' Camp, I think a camper trailer is the only way I want to camp now!  If I have my choice!}

2.  Weather that is 'just right' - not too hot, not too cold

(And the turning leaves add a nice touch, too!)

 3. Nice big rocks that provide a place to sit down.

 4. Something to keep the kids busy, so they aren't creating [dangerous or annoying] "fun."

 Brookelle really took the hunting-for-a-leaf-at-least-as-big-as-your-palm to heart!!  ;)

5. Being close enough to a town that has famous shakes. 

 {Dairy Keen in Heber City}

6. Having full hook-ups/electricity so that the T.V./VCR worked

How much can we CHEAT at camping?!? ;)

7. Also, thanks to the full hook-ups, being able to cook everything in a "kitchen" and have all the food in a refrigerator - plus wash dishes in a sink!

8. A BED to sleep on.

9. Real cover/protection for when it rains. 

10. But, I won't ax "The Great Outdoors" altogether - the camp fire part, with the s'mores, 

and the fire's relaxing, hypnotizing affect, along with the great talks/stories 

that happen as we sit around it, is still a favorite of ours!

Thanks so much to the Williams' & Badham's!