June 8th

Today I slept great until 2:30am. After that I was doomed. I really wanted to get up and go walking, but our talk about using the "buddy" system because of bears got me freaked out. Today I had to lead a group of about 25 on a 3 mile hike. I had to carry a walkie talkie with me just in case we had any problems. We actually had two leaders who couldn't finish the hike so we had to radio into the missionaries that work there and they had to come pick them up on their 4-wheelers. We also have to wear red bracelets like they give you at the hospital when you have surgery. We have to wear them so if they find up they know what camp we belong to. Every week they have approximately 2,700 people camp here. There is 8,100 acres and the place is huge. I went on the hike twice yesterday just so I would know where to go. However, today that didn't help me. I took them the wrong way, but we eventually made it. The stake nominated me to lead the hike and the paper map they gave me was completely wrong and only included half of the trails. It was a lot of fun. We went about 3 1/2 miles and I wasn't tired or sore. Probably because of P90X.

June 7th Girls Camp at Heber Valley

I am so far behind on my blog and need to get it all written down since more and more just keeps happening. I went to girls camp at Heber Valley June 7-11th and had so much fun. I haven't been away from my kids overnight for over 5 years. So as you can imagine....I REALLY NEEDED THIS. I didn't change a diaper for 5 days or had kids hanging on my legs crying. It was a break that I needed to appreciate what I had waiting for me at home. This was my type of camping...sleeping in cabins, running water and showers. We had 14 girls and 4 leaders. Since only 16 could sleep in one cabin, Lacy and I slept in the cabin next door with girls from another ward in our stake. Their leaders were grateful because they had 22 girls and only 2 leaders. So it really worked out perfect. Lacy and I were going to trade cabins with our other leaders on Wednesday, but we decided against it since the other girls from the 28th ward were already used to us. Okay it is going to get a little sappy, but I did really good writing in a notebook everyday at camp. Since this also serves as my journal, I am going to type it up in here. Today I left for girls camp at Heber Valley. Last year my mom went and said if I ever got the chance I had to go. I have been so excited for the break. I realize this sounds so selfish, but I can only think of twice I've ever been without my kids in the past 9 almost 10 years. The first time was when Kaymin was 1 1/2 and Blake and I went on the Pioneer Trek for 3 days. The second time was when Deilen and Kameni were under 1 year old and my mom watched them for us while Blake surprised me with an overnighter for our 10 year anniversary. That was 5 years ago. Noe here I am, thanks to my mom, Blake and my mother-in-law for watching our kids, so I can be here the whole week. At Heber Valley we stay in cabins with bunkbeds (another reason I am SO excited). I was really nervous before leaving because other leaders came up 3 weeks ago and there was 3 feet of snow. I hate being cold so I was freaking out and packed LOTS of winter clothes. However, the snow is gone today. It has been very warm and we spent an hour on the lake and many got sunburnt. I was smart and used sunscreen. When we first arrived one of the stake leaders assigned me and another leader to lead the girls in a 3 mile hike. To make a long story short, at the hike meeting the map they gave us to follow was incomplete and wrong. We've tried to do the hike twice now and have hiked all over, but we still are not sure where to take the girls in the morning. It will be very interesting. My knees hurt, maybe it is because I have hiked all over today or maybe from the paddle boats on the lake. I'm not sure. Right now were are suppose to have scripture study and write in our journals. When I opened up this notebook I found a letter Blake had written for me. It made my whole week. It was the best letter and made me cry. I can't believe he wrote it. Now I feel horrible that I didn't leave anything for him but an instruction sheet. He is a great husband and it means the world to me to have him write that letter. I just wish my cell phone got coverage up here so I could call to say "I love you!"

Kangaroo Zoo

I took the kids to Kangaroo Zoo the week after school got out. I originally wanted to go for Gerrit's birthday, but I couldn't pull Kaymin out of school because of the end of year testing. Kangaroo Zoo is a huge bounce center place and the kids had SO much fun there. Gerrit is so much to take anywhere because he has no fear. Well, I take that back, when he warms up to where we are he has no fear. My mom came with me and he wouldn't let her put him down. He freaked out and once he saw that the other kids were having fun, he didn't want anything to do with us. Kaymin was wonderful and helped in on all of the big ones, since those are the ones that he preferred going on. It was a really fun place.

New Tile

Blake has been so busy as well as my dad repairing our bathroom. My dad put in a new floor and fixed our vanity and Blake tile and grouted our bathroom. It looks SO good. I am so excited for it. This was Blake's first tiling job and he did a wonderful job. I am so proud of him. Once the floor was done, and I love it by the way, we decided our blue counter top wouldn't look good in there so we ordered a new counter top for our vanity. Once it came in my dad came over and replaced it. Now all we need is our skin for our vanity (our other one was all moldy), touch up paint or maybe repaint the whole thing, and paint and caulk the baseboards. By the way, the bathroom pictures are ones that Kaymin took. I didn't even know she did until I put them on the computer.

Cleaning the Temple

On June 3rd I was lucky enough to go and clean the temple from 8:45-midnight. WOW! That was such a wonderful experience. No wonder the temples are so clean. They clean every nook and cranny and had all of us volunteers there every night to help out. I am excited to do that again. But boy, did they work us hard. No sitting down and taking a rest. And it was really weird to be in a jumpsuit while being in there too!

Last Day of School and Father and Sons

May 28th was Kaymin's last day of school. She was so excited, but sad to leave her friends at the same time. She will especially miss her teacher. She loves her so much. I always let her take a camera the last day of school and she took these pictures. Then she has pictures to scrapbook during the summer.

That night was the Father and Son campout. Since Kaymin was little she has gone with Blake when he has gone. A friend of ours talked Blake into it so he went and wanted to take Deilen. However, Kaymin begged to go since she has gone in the past and Blake let her. Kameni was going to go too until Blake started to leave. She was crying so hard because she wanted me to come. I don't know if she is such a mama's girl that she didn't want to leave me or if was the whole camping idea. In my older age I don't want to camp anymore. It is too much work and I would rather have running water and a bed. So Kameni and Gerrit stayed home with me. We stayed up and watched a chick flick with treats. Blake took out the middle seats of the van and they folded the others down and slept in there. Luckily they did because it rained and they were nice and dry. AND...they didn't have to set up a tent when they got home to air dry it.

Kameni Turns 5

I am SO behind. I feel like I just can't find time to do anything anymore and I finally plop into bed around midnight and get up at 6am to do it all over again. So now that I have a few minutes (I should be cleaning), I am going to hurry and do what I can. On May 27th, Kameni turned 5. I let my kids have a birthday party at 5, 8, and 12. I couldn't talk her into inviting two friends and going somewhere, she wanted a party with all of her friends. She wanted a swim party, but we are not going to put up the pool this year because of Gerrit. He is a climber and I can see him climbing into the pool and the thought makes me sick. I would rather not have to worry about that for the next several months and take the kids swimming instead. Kameni decided to have a carnival party, but she had to have real, live goldfish. At the school's carnival this year they had a booth that if you threw a ping pong ball into a cup of water you got a goldfish. Kameni decided that is what she wanted to do and give each of her friends a goldfish. She invited: Lily, Rylee, Olivia, Dylan, Preston, Daxton, Kaziah, Deilen, Coplin, and Maddie. Kaymin wanted to be there so I had the big kids (Kaymin, Richard, Madison, and Taylor) run the games for me. My mom came and helped and so did my dad. However, my dad wanted to work on my bathroom and I gladly let him. He worked so hard. Then Kameni wanted a bug cake with real bugs. I talked her into having fake bugs and she wasn't happy about that. The kids loved getting the goldfish. I bought 30 the day before since we had back to back things all day that day and I only needed 18. Twelve died by the time the party started so I had exactly the right amount of fish that I needed. Kameni wouldn't leave them alone and loved them so much. A couple of them she "accidentally" pulled their fins off because she was petting them. Anyhow, the party was a success and I am so glad that it is over. A few of the booths we did besides the ball toss for the goldfish were: fishing pond, bean bag toss, and Kaymin did the face and eventually body painting. Kameni was spoiled and received so many wonderful presents.