Brian Head Cabin! - July 27-29, 2012

We went with my family for our 3rd annual trip to the cabin in Brian Head. This has become one of my kids favorite summer traditions. It's so much fun and a bit crazy at times living under the same roof with 27 other people. My kids absolutely love co-habituating with their cousins for 3 days. 

Some of the cousins hanging out on the top bunk in the girls headquarters downstairs.

Talen, Ashlyn, Austin, Sadie, Jadyn, Tavin and Calli!

Some of the funnest times are the down times we have to just hang out, laugh and visit.

Jadyn and Calli with their "staches"

 

The weather was beautiful. We spent a lot of time outside. 

We had a ladder ball competition (which Adam and I are the champs of)...just saying.

While the grandkids (all 17 of them ages 18-5) played "Hunger Games" for hours and hours day after day in the woods. It was so funny to watch them sneek around and try to not get caught.

Kassi, Maddie, Sadie and Jaicelyn. 

They got caught and were hanging out waiting for someone to come and save them. But Jadyn made it really hard because she kept "Puppy Guarding"

Terry decided he wanted to join in on the fun. They told him he had to find a stick to use if he wanted to play...he found one.

Oops...Ben sat down and broke the table. Actually it was already broken but it was funnier not letting him know that. 

The kids also spent a lot of time on the swing. 

We played a lot of games. 

We had a lot of  late night games until well after midnight. 

With that many people all under one roof eating that much junk food for three days you can imagine the "smells" at times. Terry hiding from another smelly fellow!

We also had fun doing crafts with the little ones.

and going for walk and seeing the wild life.

 We kept seeing all these prairie dogs everywhere. They were so cute!

We also had a fun competitive game of minute to win it.

Calli pulling tissues out of the box one at a time. 

Gentry rolling marbles trying to get them to stick to a strip of double stick tape. 

Sadie shooting rubber bands at a pyramid of cups.

And Adam trying to get a cookie from his forehead to his mouth with no hands.

We also ate and ate and ate. 

Sadie modeling her walrus look with Whoppers in her upper lip. 

And of course, did a lot of relaxing and resting...

but you have to be careful when sleeping with that many people in a house, you never know whats going to happen. (Terry drew a happy face on Ben's head while we slept)

Another successful time with family at the Cabin...soo fun! Already counting the days until next time!

Thanks mom and dad. 

24th of July!

Our ward was involved in the Ivins 24th day parade again. Members of the ward drove their old classic cars while the youth and primary kids dressed in their 50's and walked with the cars and threw candy. 

 

Soo cute in the 50's wear!

After the parade we went down to the park for a couple hours and cooled off in the water. 

Our ward was in charge of the dunk tank. Calli getting ready to be dunked. 

Sadie going down the slip and slide.

Gentry's turn.

After the park we went to Peterson's for lunch and hung out for a few hours before heading to Veyo with the Losee's.

Of course nothing can ever just go smoothly. 

Hanging out on the side of the road with everyone while Terry fixes his flat tire. 

We finally made it to Veyo where we all had a blast in the pool.

Gentry and Jantzyn off on their own doing their own thing. 

Chicken Fight!

 Tavin and Jake decided we needed a little more adventure so they started throwing everyone else in. 

Calli going flying. 

Sadie's Turn.

Gentry getting launched into the water. 

After we swam for a while we walked down to the picnic area and had dinner.

The grand kids had fun playing in the stream, swinging on the ropes, going across the bridges and...

of course crawdad fishing. What a great day with family.

Echo!

As we have been watching Calli prepare for soccer try-outs with soccer camps, conditioning, weight training  and drills there has always been that little bit of worry about Adam's family heart condition HCM. It is a hereditary condition and has had me a bit anxious.Those athletes you hear about that die right there on the field while playing sports is usually a cause of HCM.  Adam and I talked about it quite a bit. It was just so hard because on one side we wanted to get her checked and make sure everything was fine before we sent her out on that field. But on the other hand it usually doesn't show up until their 20's-30's and we didn't want her to have to worry about it at a time in her life when she's supposed to have little worries. So we knew we had a decision to make.  We decided to mention our concerns to the Dr. (outside of Calli's ear shot) when we took her in for her Sports Physical.  The Dr. said "You would be dumb, to not have her checked"  That's all we needed to hear.  We had an appointment for an Echo set up by the time we left his office.

She went in on July 20th to the heart and lung center at the hospital. Since Adam has had several we told her what to expect. But since she is so young they had to do a pediatric echo which is a lot more detailed and intense. (which also meant more expensive...$980.00 ouch) We knew we were in trouble when we walked in and they told her to pick a DVD to watch during the procedure. The echo lasted about an hour and half.  She was such a trooper.  It cost a lot of time and money for a little peace of mind but it was totally worth it.We received the results within a couple days...100% normal...yeah!! Love you Babe!

Room Re-Do...again!

For the 3rd time in 5 years since we have lived in our home we redecorated Calli's room again.  She came to Adam and I one night and told us that she wanted to switch rooms with Sadie or Gentry.  (Due to some blueprint changes while building, the upstairs rooms turned out bigger than the downstairs rooms and she felt that since she was the oldest she should get one of the bigger rooms.) We agreed. In looking into switching rooms around it became a bigger project than we had anticipated. We would have to move the weight room into Calli's room, Calli's room into Gentry's room and Gentry into the weight room, which we were willing to do but as we started measuring we realized things just went going to fit.  With Gentry still being into toys she needs a lot more space for her barbie house, toy boxes, etc. So we talked about other possibilities. We decided maybe down the road when Gentry has a little less toys we could discuss it again. Calli mentioned that maybe in the meantime if we redecorated her room in brighter colors maybe it would open it up more and make it look bigger. We thought that was a great idea. It would be much cheaper and less of a project also. So we went shopping and came home and had her room redecorated by the end of the day. I love how it turned out. It is so cute and so Calli. It really did brighten and open it up quite a bit.

BEFORE

AFTER

Girls Camp - July 11-14th 2012

Calli and I headed off to girls camp again this year. Each year I get very anxious as it approaches but I am always glad that I went.  It seem each year there is that one thing that sticks out in every one's minds and this year was no different. We had a couple by the names of the Hedlands come and speak to us. It was outstanding. They talked about some of the trials they have had in life and the 5 principals to get through them. They made us laugh, cry and then laugh some more. They were amazing. I love being at camp with Calli, it's so much fun to watch her interact with everyone. 

This years theme was Arise and Shine Forth and each ward picked a nation. We were Jamaica. Look at our cute hats. Our Mia maid advisor Cherina Scott made one of these for each of us. We got so many compliments on them, they were so colorful and darling. 

Calli hanging out with friends back at camp. 

Eating breakfast with a fun, crazy, girls camp hairdo.

"The PODS" 

We were seriously dreading having to sleep in these things but they were such a blessing. We got down poured on everyday we were there. We would have been miserable in tents. Plus, they ended up being really cool. The girls and leaders all really liked having them. 

One of the many rotations.

The Birdcage. 

To celebrate 100 years of girls camp, the stake wanted to see if we could 100 acts of kindness. Each time we "caught" someone doing an act of kindness we wrote their names down and what they did and turned them into the stake. Each time we met they would pull names out and they would have to go into the bird cage.  They would pile as many people in the birdcage as they could and they would receive gummy worms as their reward. The above picture they are submitting to the New Era. 

On the last day Calli was called down to the cage. 

Calli during testimony meeting. It rained during testimony meeting so we were all huddled together under two shade covers. 

  We had a great time. So many great memories made and friendships deepened. 

Dixie College Soccer Camp and 4th of July!

What a fun, crazy, exhausting week. Gentry had summer camp each day this week and the following week as well from 9-12 at the school. She loved it. They played games, ate snacks, went on field trips and of course learned. It was crazy trying to make her schedule work with Calli's soccer schedule for the week but we made it...barely. 

Calli had a week long Dixie College soccer camp with Snow Canyon High school. (Monday 2nd-Friday 6th) She played 8 games in 5 days plus made it to most of the older girls games as well. The coaches encouraged the younger team to go to the older girls games and vice versa so most days we were attending 3-4 games. The games were either played at Dixie College, Dixie High school or Little Valley. By the end of the week we were so sick of being in the car. In between games the Seniors planned some fun activities for them to do to keep them all unified for the week. 

Calli playing in one of the games in Little Valley

Calli and the other freshman at the older girls game sitting on the bench by Jadyn. 

-Monday: We went to the older girls game at 7:00pm and then Calli played at 8:00pm. After the game they all went to Denny's at about 11pm and then to Sarah Henderson's (senior player) home for a big sleepover.  -Tuesday: They woke up to a big breakfast and headed out to more games. She had a game at 9:00am the older girls game at 10:00am and then played in another one at 8:00pm. In between games they went back to Sarah's house for lunch and a movie.  
-Wednesday 4th of July: She played games at 8:00am and 7:00pm. We only made it to one of the older girls today because she was so tired and needed a break. After her last game we met up with family at the park for fireworks (more below).
-Thursday: we made it to all four games 9:00am, 10:00am, 6:00pm and 8:00pm. In between games they went to Sarah's house again for smoothies. They were also supposed to have a sleepover on the football field that night but everyone was so exhausted and/or injured, plus had early games the next morning they decided to reschedule the sleepover for another night so everyone could recoup. 
-Friday: she had a game at 8:30am and then stayed for the older girls game right after. It was such a tiring week but so much fun. She loves the girls on the team and is getting excited and very nervous for try-outs. She will continue going to conditioning each morning at 6:30am until try-outs July 30th. 

Also, on Friday they had a big Peterson cousin sleepover at our house on the trampoline. 

Duke's kids who we don't get to see very often were in town so we made the most of it. The next morning we all went to Ramada (where Susie and Cliff were staying) and let the cousins go swimming...and look what is still there. 

I worked at Ramada for 5 years about 14 years ago.  In 1997 5 of us employees (all front desk personnel) were expecting within months of each other. We got so many comments like "What's in the water" that our boss Paul Harker decided to take a picture and hang in at the front desk with a plague that read "The harvest of 1997. The present and future employees of Ramada." That is Calli and I in the picture in all our loveliness  wearing overalls...14 years later it is still there. They said that it is such a conversation piece that it will never come down. We've suggested over the past few years that maybe we should take an updated one to hang by it. Oh well, at least Calli is guaranteed a job at Ramada if she ever wants it:)

4th of July
We went straight from Calli's game at 7:00pm to the park where we met up with all my family and Amber and Eric. It was nice to sit, relax, snack and visit with family. (That is until Kami and I went on a stalking spree following the Brown Family around (Family from Sister Wives). The cousins always have so much fun together. They took over my phone and had a blast taking pictures of themselves. We were laughing so hard watching them all pose, pile on each other and throw themselves in front the camera just to get in the shot. They took about 80 pictures here's just a handful. 

So Fun. Happy 4th of July 2012!