Girls Camp

This is the only picture I took at Girls Camp. I forgot my camera and then a lady brought it up, but by then I had lost my drive for photography.

I have an amazing ability to adapt to most situations I am put in. I can become an awesome lover  when my kids are gone and Darrin and I are on a trip, I can become a great adventurous mother when I have no computer, I can be a funny girlfriend when I go on a girls trip and most recently I have learned I can become a teenager again when I go to girls camp.

I had a BLAST, talk about reliving High School, yep I am THAT leader. I am the loudest at the cheers, I am jumping off the zip line into the freezing cold lake, with young women in tow, and I am staying up later then anyone else. I don't know what comes over me but it was AWESOME!!!
With all the fun that I was surrounded with I was blindsided by one thing. That was the Spirit. I did not expect getting drenched with the spirit and feeling Heavenly Fathers love as much as I did. I was fortunate to serve with 3 amazing women, Tricia, Tracey, and Jenny. They are spiritual giants, that have astounding testimonies of our Savior Jesus Christ. They testify of him through their actions and words, and I feel so honored to know them and to have spent a week with them. Then you have the girls, they are equally as spiritual, the way they testified of Christ brought tears to my eyes, they are just beautiful.

Weeks have passed since girls camp, and I am back home being mom, wife, and primary leader, but on Sunday when I get a little wave or a smile from the young women I am ready to go back to camp and sing "Jar of Hearts", around the campfire.

Oh, there's no pressure

I am sure I have mentioned this before, but I will say it again. Darrin is the best, husband and dad. With that awesomeness he embodies there is a lot of pressure for me, the wife and mother. He doesn't forget birthdays, he plans and prepares exceptionally well for any dinner or party that we throw and he can clean circles around me. These are all things that I would like to take pride in by saying, I am just as good at those things, but the truth is I'm just not. Before you get confused and think that my self-esteem is taking a hit and I need a personal note stating my great qualities, that is not the case (although notes are always appreciated!) What is really happening is that I have been challenged to be better.

It began on Easter morning when I woke up to a large filled basket of new Sunday Clothes, Darrin had picked out and purchased just for me. I felt terrible, I hadn't even gotten him a tie! Terrible wife. So I vowed to be better, and I planned well in advance for Father's Day. With Pintrest at my fingertips I was able to pull it off and we had a great celebration to honor my husband.

So with all this prep for Darrin guess what lousy daughter forgot all about her own father? Yep, that would be me. Seriously?! (Sigh) I guess there is always next year.

Amazing runner

My girl, Jaya, is absolutely awesome. She participated in Girls on the run this year, and just loved it. This was especially fun to watch and be apart of because Darrin and I are both runners. I wasn't sure if she would enjoy herself, but she did. The day of her big 5k came and I got to run it with her. Just after the race started she found one of her friends from Fruita (Kylee) and they ran together while Celeste (Kylee's mom) and I ran together. The girls were so funny, they were determined to beat their moms. They would sprint for awhile, looking back every few steps. When they felt like they were far enough ahead of us, or maybe too tired to keep that pace, they would walk for a few minutes. By then Celeste and I had caught up and off they ran up ahead again. I was waiting for Jaya to tire out completely but she did great. They both came in ahead of the moms, and Jaya got her best time ever, which was 33 minutes. She was so happy to beat her time from her last race which was the thanksgiving Turkey Trot. Way to go Jaya!!

Scaredy Cat

It's time you knew. Soon after this post about our new cat Midnight, we lost her. I feel bad about it, I feel even worse that we didn't look very hard for her after we realized she was missing. Maybe we would have found her, who knows.
So soon after, we found another cat named Lucy. We found her on Craigslist and after an hour drive we came home with her. I had a hard time adjusting to her, for one she is a scaredy cat, she hides out (in the garage) all day long. Expect for the times Eden brings her in and holds her while they watch a movie. The problem though, is if Eden loses her grip, Lucy bolts. I know what you thinking "obviously she doesn't want Eden to hold her" and while that is true, I don't really care, Eden loves her so much and I wish that Lucy wouldn't run.
Anyway, she is turning into a pretty good cat, she doesn't run so much anymore (at night when the kids are in bed.) She really only likes the kids when they are sleeping, this is where we found her the other night. Yep, that's right, right on top of Kale. He didn't care. The next morning when we told him, I think it made him feel good that she likes him, even if it is only when he's sleeping.

Life at the Zoo

On April 21, 2012 Darrin ran the Salt Lake City Marathon, in a different post I will share more from his journey. When Darrin decided to run we decided to make a mini-vacation out of this opportunity. He got Friday off of work and we took the kids to the Hogle Zoo. They were so excited, for days before the trip it was all that was talked about, "when are we going to the zoo?" "How many more days till our trip?" Were questions I answered daily (sometimes several times a day). When we finally made it the kids were not disappointed. We saw...Tigers, monkeys, Apes (which Kale hid the minute we approached this area), elephants, giraffes', birds and insects. We got lucky because just as we left the giraffe area one of the giraffes headed inside, so we ran in and got an up close and personal visit. It was so nice to spend sometime with Darrin and the kids, where no chores, housework or homework were involved.
Here is the kids favorite sight at the zoo...
Jaya = Giraffe
Baylie = Squirrel
Eden = Giraffe/Snakes
Kale = Crocodile
Darrin = Gorilla
Darcy = Crocodile

Eden impersonating an animal

The rainforest area, stunk so bad. I was having a hard time handling it, then I looked over and this was what Eden was doing.

Our little navigator

Kale's little handprints after playing with the water ball.

Our Sunday Best

I have been talking to my kids a lot this year about going to church looking our Sunday best. 1:00 church helps in the fact that we have some time to get ready and there aren't many good excuses to look scraggly (yes that's a word) to church. Now I can't say that every Sunday we achieve this but we do try, and it's more a mentality that I want to instill in my children, that they remember really putting time into worshiping on the Sabbath. It's not about having new clothes, or trying to impress others, for me it's about telling the Lord that you are putting time and energy towards his day. With that said, Easter was especially fun, because we did have some new clothes. I did all the kids hair (Kale's included) and we got some great photos, looking pretty spiffy!

Running Mother

Mothers day is coming. I will be running 13.1 miles to honor myself. I am not really sure how much of an honor that really is, but I am looking forward to it. Wait...did I really type that? Wow sometimes I even surprise myself, I am surprised because it's true.
This will be my 3rd half marathon and this time around I want to feel RELAXED. I don't want to worry about a time, I just want to enjoy the accomplishment. There is a group of ladies running it with me and I just finished designing the t-shirts we are going to wear. Because it's the Saturday before Mother's Day we wanted to make a "mom" statement. I think I might take the design and incorporate it into some gift idea for my own mother.
The pink box is the color of our shirts. If anyone else is interested in the design leave your email in the comment and I will send it to you.