Girls Camp!!! (church camp for teenage girls)

I think Girls Camp is in my blood. It's something I was born to love. My parents are big time supporters of it, my Dad has been to Girls Camp as a Priesthood leader at least 20 times I think, and my Mom has been at least 10 times(sorry if that's an underestimate mom!). The last few years she has told me so many amazing stories of great spiritual experiences and even miracles that have happened at camp, and I've always thought in the back of my head that someday I'd probably go.

So I've been working with the Young Women in my ward for the past few months, and I got to go to camp for a day and a night! Eric's mom came and stayed with the girls, thanks again Mary! And I had the BEST TIME EVER.

Here's a bunch of my girls at the lake where we went canoeing. I wish I had a picture of me and Shelby in our Polynesian War Canoe, we were attacking everybody, so fun. We still need to get Tia and Talyr since they're the only ones who escaped us, twice!

Then we found a log and had a great time playing on it.
Back at our Hawaiian decorated cabin, I made Shelby take a picture with me. Too bad you can't really see us.
We also had one of the CRAZIEST games of catch phrase I've ever played in, and an amazing program put on by the stake about Temples, it just reminded me so much of when I was a teenager and I couldn't wait to meet a wonderful guy and get married in the temple. The Spirit was strong and it was refreshing to just be with a bunch of girls and cry together and soak up the good feelings. I know that our temples are the House of God on earth and that we can have the greatest blessings God offers us by being worthy to enter the temple! I know the girls could all feel it too and I could just feel my love for all of them growing throughout the day! What a great day. Oh and a bear came into camp that night and everyone was freaked out, exciting!

Yay hooray for Girls Camp!! I was really glad to come home though, and glad I wasn't there for the whole time, I missed my babies too much!

Sister!!

So my sisters and I have had a piece missing for the last year and half, but now we're complete again. Katrina is home from her mission to Russia!!! I have missed her so much and can't wait to see her. Now we just need Donny to come home, but then Derek and Jonathan will leave... what a crazy and exciting time for my family.

Grand Old Flag

We love the fourth of July!!! Here are the highlights of our holiday.

1. I made/bought some super cute decorations. I used to have ZERO decorations for this, one of my favorite holidays. Now I have 5!

2. We went to see the balloons in Provo- Awesome.

The girls were just as excited as I hoped they'd be!
We were late but we still had tons of fun watching the balloons go higher and dancing to the fun music they had playing!
Katelyn watching excitedly as a balloon came back toward the crowd
3. Whitney tried sparklers and fireworks after Kate went to bed! It was so funny to let her stay up later than Katelyn, who was deathly afraid of fireworks last year.
watching a little fountain firework
4. We went to the parade in Provo! The girls definitely liked the bands the best, and Whitney really liked the flag-twirling girls. Katelyn also liked the old cars, which we kept comparing to CARS characters- "look, there's a Sarge!" "it's another Doc!" She would get so excited!
Us at the parade. Eric's family came down to watch it with us- we love seeing them so much in the summer!
5. Later on the afternoon of the 4th, Eric was taking apart our deck (he's rebuilding it) and we girls played in our swimming pool. Katelyn wanted to put on her own swim suit, and she came down looking like this:
with her strap all weird and her Elmo potty seat on! She's so skinny! It was hilarious.

6. Then we enjoyed my favorite fruit and an Independence Day classic, watermelon.
7. I also had a great experience at church on the 5th, with singing the national anthem for the opening song, which always leaves me a little choked up, and saying the opening prayer for sacrament meeting right after. I was on the stand, and we all stood to sing the song, and so there I am totally crying through most of the second and third verses in front of everyone! It's okay I love this country and I am so grateful for the sacrifices that so many have made to keep it safe and I pray that we can keep it strong and continue to elect and support good leaders and stand up for what is right so that I can continue to be proud to be an American!

These next two weren't the 4th of July, we just went boating with Eric's family this weekend. Aren't they adorable?? Whitney continues to be our little daredevil, not afraid of the water or the boat at ALL, and Katelyn continues to conquer her fears, we are proud of her.

I love July!!