Camping at the Hoop Lake!

Haylie's first catch of the day! Mikaela looks pretty pleased.

This is the view from our trailer. Pretty huh?

We couldn't keep Mikaela out of the dirt...

Or out of Jack Sparrow's kennel!

Eric and his girls taking a break from fishing.

Eric, Mikaela, Olivia, Haylie and Kelton showing off their awesome catch! Impressive!

Melanie and baby Jack! (not to be confused with Jack Sparrow the dog!)




Over the week of July 24th we always plan our big camping trip. This year was no exception. We left on Wednesday the 23rd and stayed until the following Monday. It was so much fun and the weather was absolutely wonderful, even with the few patches of gray clouds and thunderstorms. We had a great view of the lake and the girls couldn't get enough of the fishing. They were dragging Eric into the boat or out to the banks every chance they could, and I can honestly say Eric was eating it up! Haylie had the lucky princess pole and she caught a boat load of fish! I didn't do too bad either, but Haylie kept getting upset every time I'd throw them back. She wanted to keep them all and eat them. I love trout just as much as the next girl, but I can only eat so much of it. Mikaela had fun reeling them in on mine or Eric's pole and she loved going for boat rides. On Sunday, our friends the Smith's came up for the day and we enjoyed more fishing (they caught a ton of them!), games, and dinner with them. All in all the camping trip was good for all of us and gave us a much need break to spend time with our girls. Haylie was pretty upset when it was time to go home, and I wasn't quite ready to leave myself, but all good things must come to an end! Can't wait until next year!

John Mayer is Yummy!

Disclaimer***I hijacked these pic's from my sister's blogs since I forgot my camera like an idiot! I'm still waiting to get copies from them so in the meantime I'm helping myself to the ones they've posted. It's totally fair though since I helped take quite a few of them!***

So, my awesome sister Erin got tickets for me and the rest of the sisters to the John Mayer concert. It was totally rockin! We missed the first performer, but got there in plenty of time to see Colbie Caillat. I must admit I've been pretty lukewarm about her, but she was very good in person and I was able to hear something new that hasn't been killed on the radio, so I'm slowly starting to find a new respect for her music.

John, oh John, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways. Wait, that would take too long. Let's just say he was in fine form and his voice was awesome. He played for nearly two hours straight and I still wasn't satisfied. I wouldn't have minded another hour at all. It was a great night, great company, and GREAT music. Thank you tons, Erin!

It's finally over!

Well, I did it! Girl's Camp 2008 is now officially history. Yay! While I must say it was fun and I had a great time at camp it was also completely exhausting. I forgot how much energy these girls have, especially when you consider that their diets consist of mostly sugar and carbs. When are they supposed to crash and burn??? I know I did the minute I walked through the door on Friday. I'm grateful for this calling because I love spending time with the youth, but I'm not going to lie--it's good to know I don't have to think about next year's camping trip for a few months! I'm going to need that long just to recover. ;)

Any good ideas or thoughts for next year's camp would be much appreciated since I'm flying solo! Let me know if you've got any!

Discovery, Build-A-Bear, Water!

A few weeks ago my friend Melanie and I took our kids down to the Gateway in Salt Lake for the day. We started at the Discovery Museum where the kids played for a good hour or so and then headed over to the Build-A-Bear store where Haylie and Mikaela were able to create their own bears. This was something they'd never done before and I was pretty impressed with the whole operation. Haylie chose a pink and white bear and then dressed it in a Sleeping Beauty dress complete with "glass slippers" and tiara. We chose the name "Sleeping Beary". Aptly named wouldn't you say? Mikaela couldn't have cared less what her bear looked like, so long as she got one. She was more excited about going through the motions of washing the bear, and choosing it's outfit. She helped pick out a cute little red and white number with these cute little "ruby slippers". I named it "Miss Priss" since that's kind of what Mikaela reminds me of right now. You get to fill out a birth certificate for the bears and everything. If you haven't tried it yet, you should check it out-fun for boys and girls!

After the bear adventure, we wandered down to the Olympic Plaza where the girls ran in and out of the water. It took some prompting to get Haylie and Olivia to try it out, but Mikaela had no problem running through the water. As always, it was a good time for everyone! Thanks for the great idea, Melanie!

Crystal Not-So-Hot Springs!

Eric, finally enjoying some decent watermelon-not so easy to find!

Mikaela gave our trip Two "buns" up!

Haylie, clowning around in her swimsuit.

The girls contemplating a nap after lunch. Yeah, it didn't happen!

We took the girls to Crystal Hot Springs over the weekend and pulled out the trailer for the first time this year. Normally, we'd have already used it two or three times already, but this summer has been a little crazy putting in a yard, helping family move, getting ready for girls camp, and just generally working a lot! It was a much needed break for all of us and we enjoyed just being with the girls!

So, what's with the title you may ask? Let me put it to you this way: In at least 25 years, what has changed at Crystal Hot Springs? Answer: Absolutely NOTHING! Good grief, that place is just short of a complete hole in the earth! You'd think they could clean it up a little or at least re-tile some of the pools. Not so! I don't think even the indian people who discovered these hot springs would come within a 100feet of these craptastic pools. Guess that doesn't say much about us, huh? Oh well, we're easily entertained, what can I say?

Deck of Fire!

Okay, so we're not even remotely close to being Stadium of Fire, but I sang the theme song enough on the 4th of July to make it worth it!

Eric and I hosted a fun BBQ with our friends and their kids on July 4th full of swimming, trampoline jumping, BBQ, and some spectacular front row seats to the Plain City Fireworks extravaganza. I must say, it's actually pretty darn good. We were also entertained by some pretty lame low-caliber karaoke offered up by Plain City's finest. NOT! Still, it was fun just making fun of them from the comfort of my own deck!

Thanks Glen and Luann, Kelton and Melanie, & Ted and Stacey for a lot of fun and great food. We love you guys! Looking forward to our next get-together!

What Happens In Vegas Ain't Gonna Be Much If You're A Mo!

Last Saturday Eric and I boarded a jet plane and headed off to fabulous Sin City for a weekend of hard liquor, hard gambling and hard knocks! And if you believe that then come see me about some awesome beach front property I've been meaning to sell. Actually, while we did go to Vegas, the liquor and the gambling were not so much. Although we did play a few penny machines (come on, people-it's Vegas! You've got to gamble a little bit!) unfortunately we did not strike the "motherlode"-let's see for penny machines that would be about $500.00 right?



We got this "free" trip given to us after going to listen to one of those lame world travel time share presentations. For those of you who've never had the pleasure let me break it down:
You CANNOT bring children to these events; you have to sit through the most retarded hour-long movie where all the actors look like they've just been administered large doses of laughing gas in order to make us all feel like our lives will never be even remotely close to complete unless we buy into this crap right then and there; the sales agents are so over-the-top cheery that you're almost wishing for their immediate demise or yours (please, dear Lord, have mercy and just take me now!), and to top it all off, once you tell these crazy A people that you've had enough and your final answer is a big fat NO-they make you go through it again not just once with their crazy A manager, but yet again with his crazy A supervisor before you even get to the exit interview! By the time you actually are allowed to leave and collect your trip, you're practically running for the door at lightning speed! Oh and just in case you still haven't heard enough about how wonderful they are-once you cash in your "free" trip, they require you to sit through yet another lame presentation once you reach your destination! These people are seriously sick! Aaauuuggghh! Don't do it, people! Save yourselves! I felt like I needed a shower after all that sickly sweet sugar act they put on! Let's just say they were less than impressed with Eric and I (we totally had attitude the moment we walked through the door and it was more than apparent). I'm fairly sure the woman assigned to try and work us pretty much had us figured out before we'd even finished shaking hands. She may have been smiling at us, but it was easy to see she was thinking, "No Commission here. I'm screwed." She would be dead right!



ANYWAY, Eric and I did have a lot of fun! We rode in a limo, got a couples massage at our hotel (nice!), had a lot of yummy food and we felt like we were walking on the surface of the sun! I think it was 108 in the shade! I was dying! Still, it's a great place to people watch and there's always something worth watching in Vegas!

Memo to me: Next Vegas trip will have to be in the winter! :)