Campin' in the Country

We just got back from a little campout with Brian's family. Well, I don't know if you want to officially call it a "campout" since we just pitched our tents in his brothers yard and we didn't have a campfire, but oh well, it was fun anyhow! We thought we were going to at least have a campfire, so we brought our marshmallow roasting sticks and our Starbursts. Have any of you tried roasting Starbursts? They are heavenly! Well, we didn't get to roast them...no fire...so we ate them the old-fashioned way...unwrap and pop them in the mouth! Not as fun and not as tasty, but oh well. I think I said "oh well" too many times, so I'll just show some pictures now: Here's Grandma Nut in the tent playing cards with cousin Mallory, Kelsie, cousin Shaeley, Kaycee,and cousin Abby:

This picture is taken from inside the truck looking out at Briana, Kaycee and some cousins riding in the back (I'm usually a paranoid mom, so it took a lot for me to allow the older girls to ride in the back of the truck!):

They live in this tiny town of Virginia, Idaho so apparently gathering eggs from the chickens is normal! Here's Kaycee feeding the little dudes:

Kelsie, Briana, and cousin Abby gathering eggs:

My sister-in-law Bekki and me in the hen house:

and finally, here's a group of us posing with our eggs in the chicken coop, hen house, whatever it is called!:

Don't you just LOVE Idaho?!

Jazz, lyrical, hip-hop, ballet...dance!

Since Briana and Kaycee are participating in a Summer Dance Workshop, I thought I'd throw a few dance pictures on here. These pictures are from their May recital. Yeah, I'm a month late, but as the saying goes, "better late than never", right?! The girls had a great year in dance and since my pictures from the recital were too dark, here's a few picts of the girls in their dance costumes. Briana was Grandmother Willow and Kaycee was a Savage (Indian) in the Pocahontas Ballet. Briana and Kaycee also performed in some jazz, lyrical, and hip-hop numbers. Kelsie was a precious ballerina in a few Dumbo songs and I was a proud mom (Brian was a proud dad who couldn't wait for the final curtain to close! Those dance recitals can go on and on and on...)

Girls Camp...Done and over with...

I spent last week with a bunch of Young Women in the great outdoors...it was a fun and spiritual experience, but boy, is it great to be back home! We had 20 girls and 4 leaders from our ward (about 100 girls in the stake) with a jungle theme..."It's a jungle out there; you've got to be steadfast and immovable..." This year it was stake camp and seriously, it was the most organized Girls Camp I've ever seen!
We did so many fun things (rappelling, game shows {Don't forget the Lyrics}, contests between bishops, tie-dyed socks, archery, skits, etc.) as well as many testimony building activities (devotionals, night hike, missionary moments, trust falls, etc.) I didn't have time to miss my girls back at home! Here's a few picts from the week...yes, that's me with a bandanna on my head...it sure beats having to worry about fixing my hair while camping!

I'm alive...I'm alive...barely...

Hello! It's been a month since I've blogged anything and boy, have I been missing out! It looks like I'm not the only one who has a busy life, but can't it just slow down once in a while?! That'd be nice. You see, in the past, when I had a free moment, that's when I would blog...read yours, post on my own, etc. Well, in the last month, if I had a free moment, I was reading the Stephenie Meyer books (finally!) and, as you know, once you start reading them, nothing else gets done! No housework, no church callings, no blogging, nothing.

Well, I have to say, I'm actually a big fan of Jacob Black. Most of you love Edward Cullen, but I am drawn to Jacob and I don't know why! I guess that I'll have to wait until August to find out if I'm still a Jacob fan...

A few weeks ago, we packed up (jeep and all!) and headed to St. George for a much-needed get-a-way! The weather was perfect and the company was even better! Ben and Nadja were there too and they stayed at my Mom and Pop's house and we stayed at Val and Kory's house. Joel and Kally were a hop, skip and a jump away, but the best part (no offense to the rest of you) was that I was reunited with Keith!

As most of you know, I hadn't seen Keith, my twin brother, my other half, my womb-mate, whatever you want to call it, for 3 1/2 years! He's only in Vegas and I'm only in Idaho, but for whatever reason, he couldn't come to a lot of family things in the last few years and I wasn't able to get to the get-togethers that he was at! Since I'm the older twin (by a good 3 minutes)I demanded he meet me in St. George and he did exactly as I said! (Kinda like the fly-swatter-licking scenario when we were young). It was also Brian's birthday (crap! another thing I need to blog about!) so we had a birthday party in St. George and the twins reunited!....

St. George ("what? No heat stroke?!")

Yes, you read that right, we were in St. George and we didn't die of heat! It was actually a bit rainy and cool while we were there...comfortable! We had so much fun at Val and Kory's house! Our girls are really close to their girls (and Gavin!)and so they just played, played, played! We brought the jeep down so the boys could hit some trails, but I think they were more successful on the golf course! Of course, the sisters and Mom are just fine with hanging out and chatting, but we still found time to play at the Sand Dunes, watch Karissa play ball (she's REALLY good!), throw a birthday party for Brian and Karissa, go out to lunch with Pa, play in Kally's pool, and barbecue! It was so fun to relax and have a ball! (Sorry Val, Nadja, Kally, and Tran, the few picts I have with us in them suck!)