A Day in the Life...

 In June Taryn went to a "Be the Best You" camp.  It is a weeklong camp held for teenage girls whose parents were willing to fork out a fortune.   Totally worth it.  They stayed in a hotel and went to Thanksgiving Point everyday (the camp venue, through the Barbara Barrington Jones Foundation).  They did service opportunities everyday; some included helping kids with disabilities, visiting and singing to ladies and gents in nursing  homes, making blankets for kids at Primary Children's Hospital, and more. They had motivational speakers daily and talked a lot about their value, their talents, their ability to serve others, and to "be their best" selves. It is LDS gospel based but girls of all faiths were able to attend. They were put into small groups and chaperoned by young single adult women who became these girls' best role model and confidants.  Taryn was nervous about going but made lifelong friends and tells everyone about it, saying they should s...

When Oma was here this week the girls had an Olympic Day and competed in several events, none of which I could decipher from the pictures.  Haha.  But they looked like they were having fun.  I'm guessing that Micah chose to observe and cheer, as she is in none of the pictures actually doing anything.  I'm not surprised. She's a great sideline observer.  Afterward, the girls made themselves medals from stamps and art stuff.  Fun times! And yes, in case you're wondering... they either wear the same outfits every day of the week or they are in swimsuits.  And yes, they only shower once a week (Sunday mornings).  And nope, we must not care.  School is going to hit us like a brick wall.

I've been trying to go on walks every night.  Usually I have to take three rascals with me.  Sometimes it takes 45 minutes to walk one mile.  Once we walked the sidewalk alongside a busy road and came to sprinkler that was getting the sidewalk wet.  Micah ran through it, Copper bravely (it took her counting to ten to get going) ran through it, and Dakota stared it down and took a few steps.  When she realized it was getting her wet she stopped and screamed bloody murder.  Seriously, she froze and just screamed.  I told her to COME ON and get over it but she still just stood there screaming- in the middle of what she believed to be the worst sprinkler rain in the world.  Finally I went and took her hand. She was dripping wet. All of this could have been avoided had she just ran through the sprinkler like normal five year olds do.  This is why it takes almost an hour to go a mile.  Heaven help us.   One walk a few nights ago...

Last weekend I painted this purple wall in the twins' room.  Today we finished painting, hung shelves, and loaded them up with all their crap.  I think it's a hit.  I hate the cords hanging down but oh well...    I also painted Copper's room today and we organized her desk and hung a shelf for all of her crap.  Let's just count the minutes until she messes it up again.  Can we all say, "Pack Rat"?? * crooked picture... not crooked shelf...

And just like that, the littles can ride 2-wheel bikes.  It took about two minutes for them to balance and overnight to start and stop on their own.  Yipee!

Summer... The girls have had more water fun this year alone than probably all their years combined.  We've swam in our pool, the city pools, splash pads, and rivers.  Too much fun! A week or so ago we went to "dripping rock" in Spanish Fork.  About half a mile up the trail we climbed down about 12 feet to the river and waded through it.  Micah was happy when we started and happy to head back to the van.  First she was sure that a "bear or eagle bird" would come and eat her; when I finally convinced her otherwise and we got down to the water, she cried and cried because it was cold, slimy, and she saw a spider.  The other girls LOVED it.  I thought for sure Kota Lee would fall into tears too, especially when she fell down in the river, but she laughed, laughed, and surprised all of us.  Thanks to Shandee and Amber for the company!

Tim and I hadn't dated too long when he suggested we pray to see if we ought to continue the relationship and get married sooner than later.  We planned it for a night after we took ourselves out to eat and headed back to his house.  It was super quiet and he said a great prayer; I can't remember one word of it but I'm pretty sure it was a good one.  When I opened my eyes and looked at him, he was crying!  Obviously tears of joy.  He said, "Wow, did you feel that?" "Nope." "You didn't?  You don't feel that?" "No..." But he did!  The Spirit was overwhelming to him.  At first I thought something was wrong with me but then felt reassured that I already knew I was supposed to marry Tim.  He must have been the one who needed some answers.  I'm glad he got them!  We married a couple of months later.  Best decision we ever had and were ever led to. We spent the Saturday before our anniversary heading from one templ...