Camping

We ran away camping for the weekend with our best friends, the Buscos. 

 We just went to a local camping ground, but it was great just to get away from the house and relax, and spend the entire day and night with friends. 

 Everyone had a great time playing in the creek, climbing trees, catching frogs and sitting around the campfire.

4th of July

We had a great week.  Mostly we just did a few things here and there, not too much except for the holiday interruption in the middle of the week. 

Our 4th of July was fairly stress free, we did some things around the house.  Jayd went on a very long run.  We ate corn from our garden, and went to the church to watch the fireworks with the rest of the stake.  We made red white and blue ice cream for dessert.  It was vanilla ice cream with strawberries, blueberries and white chocolate chips on top.  Yummy!  We even signed the "Declaration of Independence".  The fireworks were fabulous, we loved seeing some of our favorites, popcorn, buzzing bees, smiley faces, waterfalls, and shimmery and glittery as well as naming a few new ones, dandelion, lilies and starfish.

Day Camp for the Family

We went to Cub Scout Day Camp as a family again this year.  This will be our fifth year at Cub Scout Day Camp.  I led a bear den this year.  Gabe was in my den along with all of my bears (sometimes they get split up).  In addition, I had 5 other amazingly sweet boys.  It was the best den ever!  They were a really great bunch of kids, obedient, excited and happy.  Allie spent the week in the sibling den.  They did a lot with the tiger den and she found herself shepherding several of the little tigers during their activities.  Maddie and Jayd were "red shirts", teenage helpers, although helper is sometimes a loose term in this case.  They helped cut fruit, harnass rock climbers, make survival bracelets, and were all around.  There was plenty of fraternizing to keep them satisfied.  It was another exhausting, yet fun week.

Settling into Summer

This was our first full week of summer.  For the most part, it was a relaxing week as we eased into our standard summer activities.  Monday we just hung out and prepared to send Maddie to girls camp the next day.  She is a YCL this year, and was very excited and a little nervous.  We dropped her off early Tuesday morning. 
Tuesday we went swimming at a friends house.  We are so grateful that we have friends that are willing to let us come swim.  Plus it is just so much more fun to swim with a friend! 
Wednesday we went up to the library to see the summer reading program's kickoff performance.  It was with a couple that does a little play with balloons.  It was very cute and creative.  Plus we signed up for the summer reading program.  Allie and Gabe have been furiously reading ever since! 
On Thursday we went to the beach.  The sun never did come out, but that didn't the kids from playing in the sand, climbing on the rocks and flirting with the water while I huddled under a towel and chatted with my friends. 
Friday was just about the same as Monday.  Maddie returned tired dirty and happy, her camp was a success.
I think it was a good start to our summer.  We have already done several summer standards.  Now I am ready for Cub Scout Day Camp next week.

Camping Fun

Since Jeff, Maddie and Jayd went off to Youth Conference, Allie, Gabe and I decided to have some fun on our own.  We decided to try a little camping on our own.  We headed to a nearby park where Gabe had been for Father's and Sons several times.  I had heard that there was a creek there, and I was hoping to make a few memories.  We found a great camping spot near the creek, and spent most of our time in the creek.  The little kids played, swam, and climbed while I sat in the cool water and read my book.  It was heaven.  In the evening, we roasted hot dogs and marshmellows, and sang songs around the campfire.  It was a quick trip, just one night, but well worth it.  They have decided that we need to go back every year during youth conference!

Moving in and out

 The past week has been a flurry of activity, the culmination of several dominoes falling into place.  It all started with my sister's husband, Chad.  He got a job in Riverside, which meant that my sister would be moving from Long Beach to Riverside, which is still only about an hour away from me (yay!).  But they have at least a month before they will be able to find a place to live.  That meant that she needed a place to store her belongings until then.  So she asked to put everything in our garage.  That meant that I needed to clean out the garage.  It wasn't too bad, but there were about 100 sq ft of hardwood flooring planks that we had been given.  That also meant that I needed to clean out the spare room a little quicker since my sister might be living in it for a while.  It is really bad, but I got to work.  I had some whimpy shelves in there that needed to come out, but I wasn't sure what to do with them.  I didn't want to throw them out, but they were ugly and flimsy.  That meant that I needed a brilliant idea.........I've got it!!  I used the floorboards to turn the flimsy shelves into a bookcase and an armoire for the newly emptied bedroom.  Everyone thought I was crazy, but I started measuring, cutting and glueing and was making some fairly good progress when my parents came to visit.  Since the project had taken over the garage, and the arrival of a whole apartment's belongings was imminent, we got to work.  We converted the shelves, and made a coffee table chest with the remnants, my dad did a lot.  They aren't quite finished yet, but they are very close.  I am very happy with them.  So far, I have only spent about $15 on glue and hinges, but I still need to stain and varnish them.  That is something that I can easily do in the remainder of my garage, since all of my sister's possessions arrived last night.

The Adventures of Allie and Gabe with CTR Hero

This week, the CTR Hero came home from primary with Allie and Gabe.  He comes to inspire good girls and boys to do service to others.  For our CTR Hero service, we donated some food to a local shelter.  We gathered some food, and took it to a local shelter.  It was quite an endeavor since all of the bags broke on the way and cans went spilling and rolling throughout the parking lot!  We gathered them all up, and gingerly delivered them.  It was a great experience to be able to help others.