Donut Falls While Mom's Away

Mike has been taking care of the kids while I am up at girls camp and man am I impressed!  He not only took them to Madagascar 3 yesterday but today he took them on a hike!  Impressive babe!  The kids loved it and the pics he snapped are priceless :).

Donut Falls

Girls Camp 2012 {flaming gorge} Day 2

We woke up bright and early today and got things ready for our fun day of rafting on the Green River.  We packed up the lunch stuff and picked up the rafts and everyone was so excited!  

4 of our 5 rafts

Sariah & Katelyn

Isabella, Ella, and Briquel

Kaylee and Me

Tish, Allie, & Haylee

The trouble maker raft!

Gorgeous!

Boat wars!

Tish & Kirsten

Tish, Katelin, Allyson, Kirsten, Jess, Mikki, & Heather

Jessica, Tish, & Me

My 1st boat

Swim time!

After we did the first 7 miles we pulled out and had lunch.  It was super hot and everyone was pretty tired and beat but we loaded up again and did the same 7 mile stretch again.  I was honestly not to happy about it since I had rowed pretty  much the entire first 7 miles and new I was in for another long and hard 7 miles especially since we had to go even faster so we could get the boats back in time.  But I tried to put on my happy face ;)!

Squished in the truck

My second boat (and best attempt at looking happy)!

At least the Green River was gorgeous!

Sandy, Nichole, Kimberlee, Kim, & Me (rowing......)

Finally we made it off the river and I was seriously so tired and grumpy!  At least my friend Kim helped pull me out of my funk the last half of the river so I could be a little bit happier.  Its funny because I don't get mean I just get ultra quiet and so Kim was the only one who noticed thank goodness!  But regardless the experience was so much fun for the girls!

Sariah, Allie, Danielle, Me

Back at camp!  BFF's Lyndsee & Kirsten

Our amazing view at camp

Today was pretty much exhausting but it was still a lot of fun!  The girls stayed up and did their snipe hunt and a few games but I was beat so I headed to bed!

Girls Camp 2012 {flaming gorge} Day 1

I have been so excited for girls camp this year since last year I had to miss it since Emmie was just a few weeks old.  This year was Ward Camp so we headed to Flaming Gorge with our girls and set out for a fun week!

Setting up tents was a challenge:

Seriously our view is gorgeous!

Tish, Heather, and Lori

Our camp theme this year was pirates and our camp directors Jessica and Janet had a blast at the camp kickoff!

After we got the girls sorted into their tents we headed to the lake to "walk the plank" aka cliff jump and swim.  It was so hot so we were all very excited to get into the water!

I think most of the girls, leaders, and bishopric were shocked I just went for it and wasn't scared at all.  Thanks to all the Lake Powell jumps I have done with Mike I knew I just had to go for it :).  It was so much fun!

Me jumping off the 30 ft cliff

Chalyse, Me, Allie

Kaylee, Allie, Me

Our fabulous YW President Tish is very afraid of heights and was so scared to make the jump.  She was shaking so bad and even crying at one point as I tried to talk her through doing it.

She is such a rock star though and finally did it!  All the girls were so excited and screamed like crazy!

Tish was pretty ecstatic too!

We have such a great group of girls and there are so many girls that it just makes things so much fun!

Everyone gathered for FHE

For our FHE activity we did the iron rod object lesson and even though the girls have done it before everyone still had such a great spiritual experience.  I loved watched the girls go through my section and seeing how they approached it and handled themselves.  Some girls had no fear and just went for it while others were very timid and waited for the little promptings to help them.  But the best part by far was at the end when our YW president Tish welcomed each girl with a huge hug!

Brother Kilpack & Jessianne

Brother Lythgoe & Aitana

Tish & Alicia

Such a great ending to a great first day of camp!  

Will's Favorite Activity

Lately Will has decided he loves his little tractor that Great Grandpa Beard made for him.  He loves it and has been having so much fun with it this summer.

He also loves not wearing pants ;)

July 10,11,12,13 in St George Girls Trip

I was lucky enough to get invited with the Houghton ladies for a girls trip at Dale and SherRon's second home in St George this week.  I was so excited that I could actually make it since they invite us a lot and things never seem to work out.  Stacy and Whitni were going to go too but they both ended up sick so I made the trip solo.  Will and Emmie were pretty good on the drive down but it was a little challenging doing that long of a drive on my own!  We stopped in Cedar City to see my cousin Samantha and it was the perfect little break.  I wish we would have had more time to spend there but regardless it was so nice to see her!

We made it to the house just in time for dinner and a quick swim before bedtime.  The house is so nice and such a perfect getaway especially with the pool.  Will was so excited!

The best part about this trip is that we literally had nothing planned so I was able to meet up with a few friends that I never get to see.  Wednesday morning the kids and I went to Menchies with my adorable friend Kourtney.  It was so fun getting to catch up with her and just talk for a bit.  I always seem to be texting her asking where things are in St George so it was nice to actually have time to see her!  We headed back to the house and spent the day swimming and relaxing together.  The best part of spending time with the Hougton's is never feeling like an outsider and just feeling apart of the fam!  It truly is amazing :).

Pool time!

Will, Emmie, Heather, SherRon, and Alisha

Will was in heaven!

Emmie & Mason

Thursday I was able to meet up with a friend I haven't seen for over 10 years!  I was excited to get together with my friend Kristen and meet her adorable girls at her gorgeous house!  She was like a big sister to me at my first job ever (shout out to Robyn Todd!) and one of those people you can just pick up where you left off without any awkwardness.  We had such a fun time catching up and her hubby Bret made it home in time to say hi as well.  I cant wait to do it again!

Friday morning it was time to head home and Will and Emmie decided to wake up at 5am, 5AM!  So I kept the kids in my room and got all my stuff packed up before anyone in the house was even awake.  I helped clean up and then started the trek back home.  It was such a fun break and I loved everything about the trip.  I felt so at home and relaxed and it was definitely a fun week!

Emmie Walking

Our little Em is officially walking!  She has really figured it out these last few weeks and it pretty dang adorable.  Emmie is the first baby I have seen with "swag" in her walk and it is so stinkin cute!  She is already trying to figure out how to run and keep up with Will and he loves running all over the place while she chases him.  My kiddos are getting so big!

Football Kids

Last time when I came to IF to watch Jess, Nat, and Ty, Tyler made a football helmet out of duct tap and it is definitely one of Will's favorite toys ever!  So of course today they had to have a football game against Papa Clint!

Thanks Grandpa for playing along ;)