Scout Camp at Goshen, VA

Natalies dad is the Young Mens President, and had been having trouble finding someone to go to scout camp with the deacons. He was telling Natalie about his problem then jokingly made the suggestion that I could go. Then he realized I could and decided to check out a few more possibilities from his ward while we looked at ticket prices for a flight for us out to VA. A few days later it was decided that I was going to VA for scout camp for the Lakeridge ward. Natalie hung out with her mom and Sarah and painted Aaron's bedroom, and bought a King size bed, while I spent a week sleeping on a cot in an A-frame tent. There were a few bumps in the road early on at scout camp. We woke up at 2:30 a.m. to leave to Goshen, and when we got there, nobody was prepared for our arrival. Our campsite was not ready, we did not have enough tents. When we arrived no one was there to sign us in and take us to our campsite. The final and worst bump was all week long. The food service we had a camp was horrible, everyday they got later with the food. One morning the boys totally missed breakfast all together because they were so late. Between being progressively late and always seeming to be missing a few key elements of the meal the food service was definitely lacking. Other than that I think the boys really liked camp they all did very well. I was the leader over five boys from Lakeridge ward, we were combined with the five boys from Woodbridge ward. They all got along well for the most part with a few teenage egos getting bruised. They all had fun playing Ninja Destruction with every waking moment, or screaming in their tents at every Daddy Long Leg they saw and calling them Brown Recluses, or I guess it should be Brown Lecrew is what they were calling them. It was a funny week.

The boys hanging out in Dallin's tent at Goshen Scout Camp.

The boys playing soccer against the restroom wall.  The wall was goal.  At one point there was a shot that hit just above the break in the wall, which was the top of the goal.  The boys were arguing about whether it was a goal or not, then some kid that was using the toilet voiced his opinion on the goal or no goal arguement. 

 

Dallin and Griffin at their Canoeing Merit Badge.

The boys practicing building a fire for Wilderness Survival.

The boys working on their presentation for Weather.

Joseph at his First Aid Merit Badge class, making a stretcher with wood and a tarp.

Noah and Victor working on their Basketry Merit Badge.

Dallin at Archery.

Most of the spare time during the week was spent playing Ninja Destruction.

Thursday was Dallin's Birthday, so the older scouts came by and we had a cupcake birthday party for Dallin.

Joseph chopping some firewood.

The boys spent a lot of their spare time eating junk food and hanging around camp.

It surprisingly got pretty cold, so the boys built a fire.

The boys all playing Monkey in the middle.

Dallin after finishing third in the Endurance Swim.

Dallin and Griffin after finishing the Mile Swim.  Dallin finished second, behind a 17 yr old.

Friday was the Water Carnival, the boys competed in the Sand Castle Building Competion as well as Volleyball the SPL Scout Master Shooting Competition.

Home, Sweet, Home!

So, on Sunday, June 20th, my dad called to say hi and see how we were doing. During our conversation it came up that my dad's ward was still in need of a second adult to go to scout camp with the Deacons the next week. He jokingly said, "Well, if I get desperate enough maybe I'll fly Darren out here." I responded and told him that I'm sure Darren would love to go. He got quiet and thought about it, and then said, "Hey, maybe that's not a bad idea!"

Dad still had a few more people to check with in his ward, so he asked me to talk it over with Darren and he'd get back to us on Tuesday. So I talked to Darren about it and he was ok with the idea, and then Tuesday came and my dad told me to look at flights for Darren, AND that my mom really wanted me to come as well to "help" her with my little sister while everyone else was gone. Ha. So, we booked a flight on Wednesday the 23rd and flew out Saturday the 26th!

We got to hang out with my family on Sunday, and then bright and early Monday morning the boys all headed off to camp for the week (which Darren has said he will blog about next). I loved my time at home with my mom and my little sister. Monday we went and bought my parents a new King sized bed! My dad had no clue, so it was quite fun hopping from bed to bed in the store finding the perfect mattress. My mom even made friends with the sales lady. Good times. Tuesday we went and got pedicures. Wednesday my mom decided to paint my brother's room (it was formerly Sarah's so it was purple) so we spent Wednesday afternoon and most of Thursday priming and painting. Friday my dad got home with Aaron, they'd been at a different camp, and we started getting everything ready for the rest of the boys to come home on Saturday.

Saturday morning Sarah and Aaron had a swim meet so I got up bright and early and went with my mom to watch them swim. I went quite a bit when I was growing up (I am the only one in my family that wasn't on the team) and it was so fun to be at a meet again. On our way to the meet we ran into a little bit of a roadblock:

Aaron and Sarah rocked in their events and it was so much fun to watch them.

Sarah

Aaron

Saturday night after Dallin and Darren got back we celebrated Dallin's birthday, which had been during the week while he was gone. My dad took Hostess cupcakes and put candles in them on Dallin's birthday, so I decided to recreate his cupcake, but like ten times bigger, for his birthday cake:

Sunday after church we had our big 4th of July barbeque! I love the 4th and was so excited to spend it with my family for the first time in quite a few years. We ate wonderful chicken and steak that Justin grilled up and then made smores out on the deck.

Me and Aaron

Darren

Justin and Dallin

Aaron and Sadie

While we were waiting it for it to be dark enough for fireworks we all passed the time on the rope swing in the backyard!

Darren

Me

Dusk finally fell and we lit off fireworks in the driveway.

I absolutely loved our 4th of July and was sad to see it come to an end, knowing we would be leaving the next afternoon. We decided to take full advantage of our last day and headed off to another swim meet Monday morning to see all three of the kids compete with their relay teams.

Dallin (since I already saw Sarah and Aaron)

We got home with enough time to eat lunch, finish packing up all of our things and head out the door. I was so sad to go, evident by the fact that I cried off and on the whole flight from DC to Phoenix. Darren is an amazing man to put up with so much blubbering.

It was a great trip, and we thank my mom and dad so much for footing the bill for our trip. We're excited to see all of my family again next week for Grant's wedding, and then they're coming back with us to California for a week! There will be so much more to blog about soon...

Camping!!...Well, Kinda

The Friday after Wicked, June 25th, most of Darren's siblings and their families headed up to Calaveras Big Trees State Park to camp. I had never been up there and was SO excited to spend some quality time outside and camp. Darren's parents had been planning this trip for a while too, so it was quite the bummer when just two days before the scheduled trip we found out we needed to fly to Virginia on Saturday to help my dad out of a jam (more on that to come).

Anyway, Darren had a job interview, so we couldn't head up with most everyone else on Friday morning. He got back about 1:30 so we headed up soon after that. We got to the campsite and met up with everyone else about 4 I think. We hung out for a bit and then decided to head off to walk the trail and see the old sequoias. It was a long walk, but I loved it. We stopped at almost every marker on the first half and took photos. I couldn't believe how huge the trees are/were.

After we finally found our way back to the car we headed back to the campsite for some memorable tin-foil dinners. My hamburger was pretty much as hard and dark as a hockey puck, but the potatoes and beans were pretty good. And of course, the s'mores. It wouldn't be camping without s'mores. We played a game of Acquire when the kids went down for bed, but had to leave soon after so we wouldn't have to make such a trek to the airport Saturday morning.

We had a great time, but wish we could've stayed the night with everyone else. We'll just have to make plans to go camping before the summer is over!

Summertime and the Living is Easy

Well, our lives haven't been exactly easy this summer, but they've sure been fun! I was doing some blog reading a few minutes ago and Darren leaned over and said, "Speaking of blogs..." I know, I know. It's been over a month since I last wrote anything. I promise I will bring everyone back up to speed with our lives, I just make no promises as to how long that will take :)

After my birthday came and went Darren and I got into a routine of job searching, job searching, and more job searching. Thrilling isn't it? Not so much. Things did liven up the last week or two of the month though.

On June 21st, Darren and I headed off to San Francisco with his brother Jeff and our sister-in-law Sheila. It was such a fun afternoon and evening. The fun started just outside San Fran with a stop at Ikea. Too bad Darren and I are so dirt poor, or we would have spent a pretty penny on stuff there! I just hope that when we finally have some green in our pockets the stuff I like will still be there. 

After Ikea we headed over the bridge and worked our way to Union Square and had dinner at this lovely place: 

It was oh so yummy and fun to eat at the top of Macy's. Darren and I split a slice of their chocolate raspberry cheesecake and it was heaven. After dinner we walked down to our next stop, this place:

And we saw this!:

When we heard that Wicked was leaving San Francisco this Fall we knew we had to go see it. I had the opportunity to see it a few years ago when it was still in Los Angeles, so I was so excited to see it again. I absolutely love musicals and wish I had the opportunity to see them in the theater more often. I was not disappointed this time around, and I actually think I liked it even more. The actress playing Glinda was amazing and made her character absolutely hysterical. Darren even liked it :)

I loved our night out and hope that we have the opportunity to have a few more of them soon. Thanks Jeff & Sheila for such a fun night!

One Year Older, and Wiser Too

I celebrated my 26th birthday on Tuesday! Sad, that I'm now closer to 30 than 20. Oh, well. It was a great day. Darren made me pancakes for breakfast, which I love. He even got creative and made them in the shape of a heart. Too cute. We then headed out to run some errands and had lunch at home. I got to talk to my parents, all of my brothers and sisters, and my dad's parents. I loved it.

Darren then surprised me with dinner at my favorite restaurant, Olive Garden.

We ate WAY too much, but I loved every minute of it. He spoiled me even more when we got home and I opened my gifts. He got me the movie Blindside (which we saw on our honeymoon), a San Francisco Giants hat, and a Giants t-shirt.

It'll be fun to wear them both to a game this summer. We finished off the night by having some wonderful birthday cake and ice cream! Darren made his first cake ever (I was shocked) and did a great job. It was chocolate with chocolate frosting, which is the only cake that anyone should have in my book.

It was a great day, and I'm blessed to have such a wonderful husband to spend my birthday with.

We're Back!

We are back in California now! Darren finished his sub job on May 27th and found out he would have absolutely nothing to do on the 28th if he went in, so we opted to leave early Friday morning instead of waiting until that afternoon after his job ended. We don't get paid for that day, but we made it back to Hughson about 9:30pm on Friday the 28th.

We spent the next morning unloading and unpacking all of our stuff. We managed to find a place for everything we won't be using for the next few months, and still had room for our clothes in our closet. Score.

We then headed up to Salida to spend the weekend with Darren's family. We hung out Saturday, went to church on Sunday and then had a double birthday and graduation party for Darren, Jenny, Eric & I. It was fun to be back with family. Monday we had planned on heading back down to Hughson to swim and barbecue, but that didn't really work out so we all barbecued at Darren's parents' house and played games. Still just as fun for me :)

Darren and I are now on the job hunt, and hoping that something will come of it in the next week or two. We are still looking for a teaching job for the Fall as well, but it's great to be back and close to family and friends. We'd missed everyone!

I Love To See the Temple...

Yesterday Darren and I had the wonderful opportunity to attend the second dedicatory session of the Gila Valley Arizona Temple!

The temple is actually almost 3 hours away, so we were in attendance via our stake center. All of the stakes in Arizona and one stake in New Mexico had their regular Sunday meetings cancelled so they could have the opportunity to attend at their local meetinghouse.

Darren and I had both previously watched dedication sessions for other temples, so we pretty much knew what to expect. It was a great experience none the less. President Monson was presiding, with Elder Eyring and Elder Holland accompanying him. It was much more casual setting than General Conference, and there were a few slip-ups that made me love these men even more.

Elder Eyring spoke and then was about to turn the time over to the choir when he said, "Wait, they've already done that." And then preceeded to say it was better to hear from our Prophet then the choir, then apologized to the choir and told them that they sounded great and he didn't mean to sound like they were bad. We all got a good laugh.

President Monson was in fine form as well. He started off telling the congregation that he was feeling emotional today. And then said, "I must have inherited it from my mother." He got quite a few laughs throughout his talk, and then finished up and turned to sit down. He quickly came back to the pulpit and said, "My counselor has reminded me that I'm supposed to give the dedicatory prayer." He is a great man, and I feel lucky to have been able to listen to him in such a special setting.

I was reminded throughout the session of the importance of temple attendance, and wish Darren and I had taken greater advantage of having one so close during our time here in Mesa. We made it almost every month, but we could have gone more frequently. Hopefully we can find time over the summer to make the trip out to Oakland, or maybe even up to Sacramento.

Countdown: 4