We Finally Made it to Summer Vacation!

We had a wonderful week at YW camp.  The theme this year was RSVP -Return to the Savior Virtuous and Praiseworthy. The scripture was the 13^th article of Faith (this year’s mutual theme).  The camp had a party theme- each cabin a different party. 

 The YCLs (Party Police)  welcome all the YW to the PARTY

Melissa was a councilor over 2^nd years and she had a blast – her cabin was the Harry Potter Party.  Jessica was with the 3^rd years:  Dance Party.  Their 4 cabins were Swing (that is where Jess was), Fiesta, Ballerina, and Hip Hop (Rachel was in this cabin).  I was with the 1^st years helping with certification and was cabin mom for the Masquerade Madames.   Jessica was also a YCL (youth camp leader) and they were the Party Police.  They all did a wonderful job decorating thier cabins.  I'll post some pictures when I get copies.

Counselors of the Harry Potter Party Cabin

Masquerade Madams

Dance Party

The  women leaders at camp were all Superheroes. For this skit I was a chauffeur in the League of Extraordinary Women. (all the superheroes bestowed a super power on the YW).  Instead of cabins doing skits this year each ward did one. Requirements were for the skit to each contain a wig, swim noodle, pose, and movie quote.  Our ward did project runway.  All the designers used a noodle in their design, and of course the models each had a wig.  We had “short people” as our judges (Rachel was a head and feet, and Jessica was a set of arms).  Rachel said the movie quote at the end which was "Alas, Earwax". Pretty stupid but fun. 

The Project Runway, Camp Edition  Judges

As usual, camp was one big party, but extremely spiritual too. A great experience for all.  Highlight for the bishopric of course was winning the canoe race on Bishopric night.  They had a nice fireside with us.  Talked about listening.  Getting away from the noise and distractions of the world and listening.  They had us all find quiet places outside by ourselves and listen and pray.  It was a spiritual experience for us.  Brother Atack gave everyone ibuds (earplugs on string attached to nothing) with this note: “iBud  Inspirational listening device.  Take time away from the world to listen to your Heavenly Father.”  Jessica (and the YCLs) did a great job working and planning the camp this year.  She wrote a nice part in the scripture study program on “Endure”  for the devotional on Thursday night and she bore an inspiring testimony on the subject.  Camp ended on a high with Saviors Eve on Thursday night, and testimony meeting on Friday morning before heading for home.

Leete Ladies

Saturday was relaxing being home.  It was nice to sleep in my own bed and take a long shower.  Melissa and Rachel went to a Teri-stake dance at Seaside on the beach.  Jessica and I went to wedding reception, then picked up Brian from max station as he was returning from Montana where he visited his dad and the two of them toured Yellowstone, and did a quick visit with Jennifer in Rexburg. 

Sunday in Sacrament meeting Jessica was called up from the congregation to share her testimony of camp.  She did a wonderful job telling of all the things that she has learned from camp the last 7 years.  After that the Stake president put a new bishopric and we heard testimonies from the old and the new.  A very nice meeting. 

Now that camp is over, and Brian is on his sabbatical, summer vacation can now begin! The weather is being freaky – we’ll have a sunny day here and there, but  today it is raining again.  A very wet year we’ve been having.  We started by working in the yard Monday morning.  The girls ripped out the bushes by the stop sign.  I trimmed the roses.  We will work a few days in the yard each week. For FHE we planned out  (kind of) what we want to do this summer.  We’ll do day trips. Brian will also take each girl on a short motorcycle trip.   Before the reunion in August we will head down and stop in San Jose/San Francisco area and do stuff.  After Reunion do the southern California stuff- mostly theme parks.  We’ll see how it all turns out. 

Spring Break March 23-27

Spring Break feels like a long time ago! It was busy, relaxing, and fun! We took the free time to get things done. We scheduled lots of appointments while the kids were free: Melissa ortho, Ann dentist (new crown- half my nose went numb. It was soooo weird! The dentist says he must have hit a nerve with the Novocaine). Jessica and Melissa had their long and awaited eye appointments and got new contacts. I was cheap and didn't opt to have the opti-map (not covered by insurance), so they were freaked when they had to have their eyes dilated for the first time ever. Kevin jumped when he saw Jessica's pupils so big that you couldn't see any color of her eye. They wore sunglasses, and Jessica couldn't drive, but they were happy to be able to see again with their new prescriptions! Melissa got 2 wisdom and 2 baby teeth pulled and 2 TADs (screws in her jawbone and gum below her teeth line for braces) put in on Friday. So she laid around, took pain killers, ate ice cream and pudding, and watched videos on my bed. The girls used the free time to organize their rooms. We hauled 5 big garbage bags of clothes to the DI truck! Many other bags filled the garbage. Kevin and Jessica were told to bring home their Winter Percussion instruments so they could practice over the week. Big instruments!

On the fun side: Kevin took a 3 day motorcycle class. He was 1 point away from getting his license which totally bummed him. I think he did pretty good for never have ridden before, and never has done shifting gears before. He now takes Brian's bike around the loop and up to the church for practice. He is scheduled for a mini class retest thingy on April 25th.

Jessica spent time with her friend Charlotte watching almost two days straight of The Jane Austin BBC DVDs that I had bought for myself at Costco. Of course I had big plans of all the things I was going to get done during spring break (like cleaning and sewing my melodrama costume), but how could I resist sitting and watching with them when I was home?! They almost made it through all 22+ hours (didn't get to Pride and Prejudice or Northanger Abbey).

Rachel had 4 friends over on Friday to play and have fun from 1-11pm. They played at the park, climbed trees at the school, jumped on the trampoline, made individual pizzas, decorated cakes, played games, and watched Horton Hears a Who. I am so thankful for these good friends of Rachel's. I was worried as she began middle school - she has several good Friends, but there are no LDS girls her age in our ward. I had been praying for someone to move into our ward, and was saddened that when our ward boundaries changed it didn't answer my prayer. But Rachel has been drawn to Makenna, Hanna, Makell, and Emma. They are members of the neighboring ward who also go to Meadow Park. Rachel knew some of them in Elementary school, and had partnered up with them at her day at girls camp last summer. What a comfort it is for me to have them all be buddies. They take turns hosting get togethers, have so much fun together, and hang out together at school. This is just another reminder to me that prayers aren't always answered the way we want them to, but are answered.

A young sister the ward, Jenni, that I have been able to get to know better by working with her in the Melodrama (Miss Sahara Hartburn) has a makeup business and asked if she could make over of Jessica, Melissa, & Rachel and take pictures to put on her business blog(dollcosmetics.blogspot.com). Of course the girls said yes, so they spent a morning getting made up and photos taken. They looked very beautiful! (We haven't gotten copies of Rachel's pictures yet)

Thursday was the only non appointment day (except Kevin who was off motorcycle classing), so with a little persuasion we got Brian to take the day off work and go with us girls to Seaside. This was the highlight of my week. I was soo homesick for the ocean. Boy do I miss SLO and being a short distance from the coast! This crummy sleeting, snowy, rainy, weird weather had really been getting to me. It was great to walk the beach and relax. I had clam chowder, and window shopped as the Brian and the girls road around town in a bicycle built for 4. That trip made my week. After that I felt rejuvenated and ready to get back to our normal routine. When I thanked Brian for taking us to the beach his answer was something that I think sums it up very well: "I can't even remember what I did at work yesterday, but I'm sure I'll remember at day at Seaside with my family."

A note for Jennifer in the sand: