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.

Just look at that smile!

Maddie got her braces off!  Take a look at this gorgeous smile! 

Egads! What happened to the sun?

As many of you might have experienced, we had a solar eclipse in Southern California last week.  It was only a partial eclipse, but it was still exciting.  We learned about it on Saturday, and planned to go see it, but then forgot on Sunday until the eclipse was in progress.  We quickly ran outside and made a pinhole "camera" so that we could see the shadow of the moon over the sun.  Jeff held up a piece of foil with hole punches in it.  The shadow produced was an image of the sun, a crescent moon shaped light.  It was a bit eerie outside.  The light was different, it seemed smoky and dark, but not overcast.  It was very different.  We enjoyed seeing the eclipse.

Gabe's Fathers and Sons

Gabe's birthday was last week.  It fell on one of the busiest days of the week, Saturday!  With all of our activities going on, Father and Sons campout, baseball game, picnics, etc, I fretted over when to have a birthday party.
Finally it struck me....nearly all of his best friends were going to be at the campout.  Why not combine his party with the campout?  I was so thrilled with my idea, that we followed through with it. 

We invited one of Gabe's friends from school to come with us.  Then we invited several boys from the ward over to our house.  We played, had cake and ice cream and opened presents here, then Jeff took a car full of boys to the campout.  They roasted hot dogs for dinner and had their fill of s'mores.  Most of the boys went to sleep with their fathers, but they were back together in the morning to eat breakfast, play football and climb trees.  It was a great birthday party!