My 27th Birthday/Fourth of July Weekend!!

My birthday, once again, was celebrated as a birthday weekend!  I can't believe I am now 27!  But, that's ok, last year was the weird b-day for me, turning 26 mad me officially closer to 30 than 20.

On Saturday, July 2nd, my in-laws volunteered to watch the boys in Park City while Cameron and I went to Maxwell's East Coast Eatery, soo good!  Afterward we went to the Outlet Mall for a shopping spree!!  Cameron had me pick out what I wanted for my birthday :)  Everyone was having great deals, up to 50% off of everything!

The next day was Sunday so we all dressed up in our 4th of July best!  (I didn't realize at the time that I had a tiny little fingerprint smudge on my lens.  That's why it's blurry.  Oh and excuse my hair, I didn't realize it was sticking out.)

We took a somewhat better one indoors.  Too bad it's blurry!

The next morning (on my actual birthday) I woke up to a yummy breakfast of Swedish Pancakes made by my lovely husband, Cameron.

Isn't he wonderful?!

Right after we got ready for our 1st ever neighborhood Independence Parade.  (A couple of of my friends put it together.)

All the kids were supposed to decorate some sort of bike or something, but our kids were the only ones who ended up walking.  We didn't have time, but that's ok.  Aren't they adorable in their red, white and blue while holding their flags?

Afterward, the adults threw out candy, gave out snow cones...

(Oh all these wonderful looking pictures were taken by by friend Annie, she took pictures of the whole event.)

and cookies.  The boys were in heaven!

And the adults got to participate in an egg toss.  Cameron and I were 3rd to last to get out.  (We are in the back, I'm in the process of catching the egg.)  Afterward I was talking to one of my friends only to start hearing singing.  I didn't pay much attention to it until someone called my name out, I looked around and found a big group of ppl standing in front of me singing, "Happy Birthday."  It was great!

Afterward we put the boys down for a nap and one of the Young Women from my ward babysat, as a birthday present, so Cameron could take me out to lunch.

After that, we went to our HOA funded neighborhood 4th of July Celebration in the park.  They had a lot of blow up bouncy slides and mazes.  Carnival games, food and fun!

I had to go through too, Connor needed lots of help, not b/c I wanted too ;)

I actually didn't like most of it b/c it was all wet.  There was one big water slide so all the wet kids went through all the regular blow up toys too and got it wet.

Cade got his face painted as a doggy.

Finally after a few hours of fun at the park we went home for cake and presents.  The boys made me wear this party hat.

Cameron got me a yummy cheesecake and sliced fresh strawberries for me!  It was great!

Afterward we and our friends, the Duckworths, joined us for fireworks.  We went to an empty lot and watched the Thanksgiving Point firework show.  There were tons of fireworks going off all over the valley, it was beautiful!!  It sprinkled a bit while we waited, but it was still a lot of fun.

My night ended w/ Connor falling asleep in my lap!  I loved it, like a dream come true.  He hardly sits still long enough for me to cuddle him, let alone to fall asleep.  All Cameron could say was, "Happy Birthday."  And yes, all my wishes did come true :)  Thanks Cameron, boys and Duckworths!  I love you Cameron, you always make my day (weekend) so much fun!  It was a long, long day, but well worth it.

Girl's Camp '11

Last week I had the opportunity to go to girls camp.  It was a lot of fun!  I went up w/ the girls on the school bus (yes that's right school bus, I don't know why I was expecting a charter bus.  I guess b/c whenever I was in the youth and we traveled on buses, which was not often at all, it was a nice charter.  So I was let's just say, a little surprised ;) bright and early in the morning.  It was so much harder for me to leave my family this year, I was not expecting that at all!  I was so excited to go, but for some reason I felt so guilty and sad to leave, I might or might not have shed a few tears when Cameron dropped me off.  It didn't help that I didn't get to see the boys or talk to them the whole first day!!  I could not find anywhere w/ signal, until late that night, after the boys had gone to bed.  I found one single spot, that usually worked for me the rest of camp.  Oh, we got to go to Heber Valley LDS Girls Camp, so it was out in the middle of no where but beautiful!  (The service missionaries that ran the camp told us that it was dedicated as a temple w/o a roof and was sacred grounds.  It is run by the temple committee!  I found this blog that explains all about this amazing camp first hand.)  We did tons of fun activities, which you'll see below.  And I got to stay until late, late, late Thursday night (I didn't get home until 2 in the mornin!)  The girls got home around noon on Friday, so I practically stayed the whole time.

This was sitting outside our cabin door when we arrived.  Our ward girls were the Pirates of Traverse Mountain.  Our stake them was "Coming to your senses."

Our wonderful ward camp leader, Emily, made everything to go along w/ our theme!  She was amazing!  This was the other side of the flag.

To the left you can see what PIRATES stood for.  Isn't the banner adorable?!  I forgot to take pictures of the bunk beds and the outside of the cabin.

For our first night devotional we got to hear from Hilary Weeks and Kris Belcher.  They are 2 amazing women!!  Hilary Week sings the beautiful song, "He Hears Me" and the most beautiful rendition of "I am a Child of God" I've ever heard!  Kris was so funny and uplifting about her life and being blind and how to trust in the Lord.

Hilary has the most beautiful, calming voice!

The next day we hiked to a lake.  The girls got to canoe while the leaders paddle boated.  These were the 2 wonderful ladies that put our ward camp activities together, Carly and Emily.  Seriously amazing ladies, I was happy to get to know them better! 

All of us after being out on the water. 

 

We got to take part in the Challenge Course.  I got to be in charge of a specific course called "Shark Island."  It was a lot of fun, but after I finished I got to do the ropes course, which was tons of fun!

Climbing the pole was nothing compared to...

Walking across the tight rope!! AHH!! I know I was attached to ropes, but still, dang scary!

I had to hold on by these hanging ropes, one after another until I got across to the platform to...

the zip line!  I've done zip lines in the past and it was always a lot of fun, but I was encouraged to go down backwards this time!  It was so hard for me to just fall.  I think I stood up there for at least 5 minutes trying to fall, but couldn't let go! 

Finally I did!  I was so happy that I pushed my self to try something new, it was fun once the shock of falling had passed. 

2 of the YW leaders who came up Tuesday Night, Jamie and Chelsi. These women are amazing!  I'm glad we got to go together. This was during our stake craft activity.  We made beautiful temple blocks!

This was my block.  I decorated it to go along w/ my living room colors.  This was taken after I found it's new home, on my mantle, above the fireplace.

That night we got to roast marshmallows.  But, due to a horrible, cold, thunderstorm rolling in, we had to do it under a covered area, not over the camp fire as intended.

We had a lot of crafts we got to do as a ward.

Thursday we all decided to fix our hair and decorate ourselves alike.  These were all the leaders who attended L-R: Chelsi (the president), Me (Beehive Advisor), Jamie (1st Counselor), Kychelle (Showed up Wed. Night, Secretary), Emily and Carly.

All the girls! Top L-R (Neyely, Oakley, Bryley, Amber R., Alyssa, Amber C., Hanna, Danielle, Katelyn, Rachel, Kristin, Samantha, Brooklyn and Makayla.

Emily made every one of us these cute backpacks to carry everything around in at camp.  The last night the stake yw leaders encouraged us to donate them to the children in an orphanage in India.  I'm pretty sure every single girl and women from the stake gave up their bags.  It was sad to give away, but great to know that these children are going to be so excited. 

That night was also bishopric night, when all the bishops come to camp and we do activities as wards.  Before we split up into wards, they did a Bishops Challenge.  It was Minute to Win It Games, they were split up in 5 groups, each using one of the 5 senses.  Our Bishop (on the left) participated in the sense of smell challenge.  It was called something about Rudolph, and they had to put a ton of Vaseline on the tips of their noses and sling the red ball up to their noses.

Bishop Stroud won!!

Our Bishopric!  Bishop Stroud (he got a nose medal for winning), Brother Pat and Brother Tim.  They were each so excited to participate in games!  This was my favorite game, the animal game, one person was blind folded, spun around and pointed at someone and asked them to make an animal noise or impression of something/someone.  They then had to guess who that person was...this continued until they guessed right.  It was fun!

Later that night we had a wonderful testimony meeting by the campfire followed by a faith walk.  We were the last group out of 14 wards to go though.  We didn't get done until after midnight!  The theme of the faith walk was Lehi's dream, it was amazing.  After we got back, the leaders that had to leave (including myself) packed up and left.  Like I said before, I didn't get home until 2 AM and in bed until after 2:30.  I was so tired the next day, but it was so worth it!  I loved every minute of girls camp and am so grateful for having the opportunity to go.  Our Young Women are all so amazing.  They have such strong testimonies and treat each other w/ such love and respect.  I would totally do it all over again!

The next morning we said good-bye to Papa and Grandma.  Thanks so much for watching the boys!  They loved every minute of it and still ask for ya'll to come over.  Luckily, they won't be too far away, they moved to Park City for the Summer!  We've already gotten to see quite a bit of them :)