JULY - Edwards, Vicks and Girls Camp

Edwards' Family Reunion
We went to Wesley's parent's house for the reunion this year. Here are some pictures:

Cherry Days: In North Ogden they have the Cherry Days Parade and festivities. I loved it! I want to do it every year! We went for a breakfast first, then headed over to a park to play before the parade. At the parade, there were sky divers, floats, a fly over, tons of candy thrown by the floats - we loved it! Side note: while water skiing, Wesley's mom pulled her hamstring really bad. My mother-in-law is the most fit lady, she never stops! She had a goal to hike 100 miles this summer and I believe she was getting close until the hamstring incident. I know she hated it, but with all the moving around during Cherry Days, it was best that she be in a wheel chair instead of limping around all morning. She inspires me. I want to be like her.
Too cool

Swinging from the apricot tree
Ice cream
Family
Swimming
Water slide in the backyard, oh and watermelon...yum!

Wesley's parents
Fourth of July: We had our own little fireworks show. I never grew up with fireworks or anything of that sort. I remember living in California and it was illegal to do your own.

The kids got to each help light the fireworks this time and it made a nervous wreck. Everyone else was all calm and collected so I tried to keep my cool. But when Jake wanted to have a turn, I had a hard time with it. I am that kind of person that thinks of the absolute worst things that can happen...ALL.THE.TIME. It's exhausting really. So this really made me nervous. Of course nothing bad happened and everyone had a great time. After doing our own little show, we put the kids to bed and most of the adults headed over to see the fireworks show at the high school. This middle picture is my favorite - I have gotten a few shots before of Jake and Ella hugging and cute Ella giving this sweet smile to Jake. The two of them are quite the pair - they are like brother and sister. I can see them growing up to be best friends. It was a great 4th of July!

After everyone left, we stayed an extra day to go water skiing. Normally we all take a turn with Wesley's parents and take their boat up to Flaming Gorge. We weren't going to have time this year so we just took a 1/2 day and went to Pineview. We all loved it. Especially the boys, they take after daddy. On our way back we went to eat lunch at The Oaks which has a pretty view of the river.
GIRLS CAMP
This was a very busy visit. I had girls camp (I was the camp director) from July 12-14. Wesley's family had their family reunion 4th of July weekend. We wanted to visit with my family in there as well. Throughout my service as camp director, we found that Wesley had to travel a lot. It was so funny how he had to travel on the days where I had something big happening. Both times I had all the girls over at my house for certification or for cookie dough, he had to go out of town. That was a struggle but we got through it. We found out a month or so before camp that Wesley had a sales conference the same days as girls camp...just our luck again! We had no idea what to do with our kids! My parents were supposed to be traveling that week and Wesley's parents had company that week, so we couldn't fly either parent in to watch the boys. Finally, we decided to drive to Utah for the reunion, then I'd come home the weekend before camp. Then I'd fly back the night we got home from camp since Wes would be traveling I didn't want to leave my parents with the boys for too long. It was a chaotic and crazy week but it turned out alright. We were so grateful my parents canceled their plans to watch the boys - what on earth would we have done?

We had girls camp at YMCA of the Rockies, Snow Mountain Ranch. Girls Camp was the most challenging yet most rewarding calling - I ate, slept, breathed camp for 6 months. I didn't even think that once I got there, I'd be able to have fun. I figured I'd be too busy directing, but I had a blast, and I think the girls did too. They were the most amazing girls to work with. I learned so much from them. They are so much more mature than I ever was at that age. They amaze me. Here are few things we did:
Danced.
And no car was ever empty, each car had girl piled up on girl in every section of each car.

The theme was S.T.A.N.D. : Stand Tall and Never Despair. I had thought of this when I heard a quote from President Thomas S. Monson, while speaking to the young women in a general broadcast. He said, "You be the one to stand for right, even if you stand alone." And for some reason that struck me. I thought about how at that age, peer pressure is all around and how often you have to choose between doing good or being alone. And that's how the theme came about. One of the ladies that helped with camp, Mandi Earl, came up with the cute idea of STANDing in shoes, and the shoes we fill, or the roles we fill. She came up with this super cute t-shirt idea too. It brought everything together so well! See t-shirt below:
Kickball - We had the ball field reserved and as we walked up, a group of boys were there. Their leader told them to get off the field so we could have it. They walked off and sat at the bleachers to watch the girls. They were cheering them on the whole time, it was funny.
Skits and funny faces
Rollerskating - some were much better than others, enter Mike Malm as you can see below. Seriously, how does he do that? There was also ping pong, volleyball, basketball, foosball, horseshoes, minigolf.
Morning devotionals and scripture/journal time.
Crafts - we made blocks and headbands and necklaces
Zipline and Archery

The hike to a waterfall... and only one injury our entire stay! It was a great time!

VICK VISIT

My dad turned 61 and someone made this cool hamburger cake for him, it looked so real!
I'd never been on a motorcycle so I asked my brother Jeremy for a ride. He insisted on me wearing a helmet but didn't have an extra so I borrowed my dad's bike helmet. We went around the block and it was so much fun! Why have I not been on a motorcycle before? And these are his kids on the back of his bike, and no, they didn't get to ride.
Kangaroo Zoo - jump house. We love going there when we visit my parents
OTHER STUFF
Cooper is a stinker most of the time, but we still love him.
And I love when Jake just falls asleep at random times in random places
I thought this was funny - Wesley works with the 12 and 13 year old boys at church and attended scout camp this year. Did I mention that this was a week before the reunion? Yes, everything fell within a few weeks of each other. Anyway, he showed me a picture of his tent - being help up on one side by a bunch of rocks.

GOING PRIVATE

Ya, I guess I'll finally do it - I'm gonna go private! So if you'd like to keep up with us and our updates, leave me a comment with your email.

JUNE

Just lots of random stuff that I can't even remember what was going on - but I want to remember the pictures in years to come, so here they are:
My COoper - with the most gorgeous blue eyes and brown hair

JakeI just love watching babies devour watermelon...I had an activity with the girls before girls camp. Wes was out of town so the boys joined us, luckily it was in my backyard.

Along with being the Girls Camp Director, I am also a teacher in Primary, where the kids go after the sacrament. I teach the kids that are 4 turning 5. There are 2 of us teaching the same age and we combined our classes a few months ago. We have the best time - I am loving teaching this class and sad that the year is coming to an end soon and I won't be teaching them anymore:( We had a primary activity where we went to the temple for a tour of the grounds so my family joined us - here we are in front of the temple
I love this picture - We have underwear on our heads but don't worry, it's a fresh new pack, never used.
Grandma Edwards reading to the boys
Backyard fun in the sprinklers


For the girls camp fundraiser, they decided to sell cookie dough. So one morning, we all split up into different houses and made cookie dough. It only took about 4 hours total. My house had all the oatmeal dough, oatmeal chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin and oatmeal butterscotch. Here are some of the girls and moms that came to my house. It was so much fun!
Sadly, Wesley was out of town again this day, so my boys joined us. Look at these cute gals mixing dough and holding a baby on the other side... so cute!
This is my co-teacher at church for the 4-5 year olds, Beth. She's so much fun, I love working with her. Here she is with her daughter making some cookie dough.
I know you must be thinking that it was ahuge mess, and I agree, it was. The hard part was that Wesley was out of town and we had company coming in the next day...so I had a professional come in and clean that afternoon. I was wiped out from making all that cookie dough so it was a nice break. the poor cleaning lady though, she said she mopped the kitchen floor 5 times, bless her stinkin' heart!

MAY

FATHER/SONS CAMPOUT
Our church has a father/sons campout each year. This year Wes took Jake again and they had a blast. Cooper was just a little too young to take, we were sure that if he went he'd end up in the fire or off playing with bears or something. That kid never stops, so we thought he'd be too much for a campout. He will get to go next year, leaving me all alone that weekend, I just might have to have a girls weekend, any takers?
Oh, and I had met up with some ladies at Costa Vida the evening of the campout for dinner. We were running late due to Cooper's constipation issues so I may have been speeding...just a little. And of course I got pulled over - apparently my little bit of speeding was going 61 in a 45, so I guess the pull over was called for. He asked if I knew how fast I was going and my reply was, "No, my son is constipated and that's all I've been thinking about." I am sure he's never gotten that excuse for speeding, but it was the gosh darn truth. And in case you are wondering if that would be a good excuse to get you out of a ticket, it's not. He still gave me a ticket. Grrr... did I mention that I had just left my house, making my 20 minute drive to the restaurant the longest drive of my life. To make up for it, a lady in front of me at the restaurant was ordering and a little all over the place and turned to me to apologize for being so frazzled. I told her it was okay and that I was feeling the same having just received a ticket. She felt so bad for me. When I went to pay, she said, "Oh no, we are paying for you, you've had such a hard day!" Nearly brought me to tears! She bought me a drink and then had her husband bring out my food to the patio where the ladies were since I was holding Cooper. You have no idea how that made my day! Thank heavens for good people!

Ok, back to the campout - here's some fun pics:Cousins
Ya, this is why moms aren't invited I suppose...


MEMORIAL DAY
We spent part of our Memorial Day weekend at YMCA of the Rockies, Snow Mountain Ranch. One reason we went was so that I could check things out b/c that is where we were holding Girls Camp this year. We had reserved seats to go on a horse wagon ride that took us to a cookout. We'd done it the cookout before and loved it. We opted to not do the horseback ride to the cookout because we figured Cooper wouldn't last that long. The wagon ride was a challenge because you are required to sit the whole time, ya, like Cooper can do that. He hated the whole sitting bit. Jake fell asleep on the way there. The food was awesome, steak, potatoes, so good.

We took the boys the next day to ride the horses. We had a mama horse, super hairy and she was ready to eat I guess because as we pulled the rope for her to come along, she had other ideas. She stopped at nearly every grass patch and chomped away. Yeah, she knew who she was dealing with and who she could pull one over on, and it was us. What a joy!They had a campfire that evening - we went to roast some marshmallows and eat some smores.

We went to the KIVA center that has rollerskating, volleyball, ping pong and basketball. It was fuu-nn!After our mini-hike. We tried hiking up a trail but once walking, most of the trees around us were chopped down because of the pine beetle issue so we had to turn around. So sad -
SWIMMING LESSONS
I put Jake into swim lessons that are given at my gym. He loved them!

RANDOM STUFF IN MAY
Boys making messes, Jake and Ella watching a movie in the play room, Cooper being Cooper, My construction worker cowboy fixing the couch and lego mazes..
Happy Mother's Day!UTAH
My parents helped me fly out with the boys to come visit - we traded their coming to stay with us for us going to stay with them, if that makes any sense. Wes had to travel part of that time, I believe so it was mostly just the boys and I.
Pics below: Leslie & Jake; Lita & Jake Movie Night at Jeremy & Brooke's house. Here's my 3 brothers and then myself with mom, Jen and Gabriella
Grandaddy with Cooper. All the kids love grandaddy, they cling to him when he's around.
We were able to spend Saturday afternoon to go see Wesley's parents. Jake was thrilled to see his cousins, here he is with Zach. He loves Zach, Alex and Karli
This trip we also went to "The Little Chocolatiers" candy shop in SLC. They have a tv show on TLC, and I was curious to try out their chocolate and see the stars themselves. We also went to this yummy cookie shop that our friend owns, Smart Cookie, but sadly, no picture, grrr...
Here's our Sunday afternoon, dog pile on Jeremy. And then Jeremy pulled all the kids aside to tell them a story - it was so cute to see the kids so into his story!

Movie Night - We watched the movie UP. Jeremy has an incredible media room, 1500 sqft... ya, big! It's awesome, he has a projector and it shows on the whole wall, it is awesome! Ashlyn offered to take COoper and he sat there with her for a good 1/2 hour, unheard of! It was nice for me to watch that much of the movie.Sunday afternoon vegetables. Jake went to town, he loves vegetables... as long as dip is involved. It was cute to see Jake and Gabriella hovering over the veggies.

April

Happy Birthday to my Cooper - gosh, he's so cute, sweet, always coming over to give hugs, kisses, he's impossible to get mad at because he's just too cute... we're in trouble!
Jake had such a fun birthday - lunch with mommy, baseball game with daddy, more presents...I love that he is getting older and I can do more things with him that he enjoys! He's a ball of fire, so energetic, was desperately to be big and talks about it all the time - "when I get bigger... I can ride in the front, go to school, etc. etc" It never ends! He is a sports fanatic - you name the sport and he loves to play it, he's all boy, through and through.

Some of Jake's presents from his bday party

Jake has just gotten to the age where he can have play dates and actually play with the friend that has come to play... I love it! He wanted his friend Ian to come over and gosh, they were so stinkin' cute that day! Everything was picture worthy, it was so cute!

Wesley's mom came into town to watch Clint and Kara's kids - so of course, we got to see her! We love it when we get to visit with her!

Coop cleaning and dancing

Like mother like son - Coop cleaning and dancing just like his mama! Not bad for a 17 month old - I could probably get him doing some serious chores around the house... hmm....

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

There's been a lot going on, but mostly this: GIRLS CAMP!

I was just Camp Director for the youth teenage girls at my church, a lot of planning and a lot of fun was had!
Many posts soon to follow!