Getting to Atlanta!

elisabeth came to visit!

it was only for like two hours but still...  it was magical.

i don't know why, but it made me immensely happy that we look to be of similar proportions.  maybe i'm still a little scarred by my childhood friends always looking more like my babysitters.  anyways, it was great.

Sunday Monday Tuesday

In case you were wondering, Brady's second time in nursery was not a success. He cried for 45 minutes until one of the nursery leaders brought him to us. I wish they would have brought him sooner but it's my fault for not giving them instructions on it. We're going to be in two different wards the next two Sundays anyways... I have time to strategize before we try again in our ward.

Chris took Brady back to nursery and just hung out in there until it was over. He said all the kids were waving their suns in the air while Brady kept using it to whack things on the ground. We think he thought it was a hockey stick?

We went to a little birthday party celebration for our friends' one year old. It was at two and we were all exhausted. Brady and I got a quick nap after church, Abigail slept on the way home.

As I was cleaning the kitchen Sunday night I found this. All crumpled up. It's kind of a miracle I found it so thank goodness I could RSVP that we won't be in town for it.

Monday... We went to the pool and played outside. It was a true hot summer day. We haven't had too many of those yet.

Wednesday... Abigail woke up at 7:30 or something and came downstairs when she heard my alarm. I told her it wasn't time to wake up yet but that she could do whatever she wanted while she waited. A couple hours later I took this. If been wondering why she was so quiet and was relieved that she wasn't being sneaky or destructive. She didn't wake up again until 11.

And then we quickly ate and headed out to do some shopping with Elle and Jodi. Old navy has such good deals on kid clothes. $.97 for a shirt?  Oh alright.

I also got a number of new shirts for me as well as two dresses. Y'know when all your socks wear out at the same time?  Well that happened to me for real last fall when they all got holes within a week of each other. And that's what this felt like web I realized that all of my short sleeve shirts had holes and stains and were just trashed. Anyways, got new clothes but they're not exactly what I would have picked had I had more time to shop. And Jodi convinced me to get a bunch of things that are pretty out of my comfort zone. We'll see how that turns out.

And I got these capris last fall for $3 and just now it around to cutting them off into shorts. This is the only pair of shorts I own. My comfort zone has been thrown out the window.

But now I have clothes to pack for Atlanta!  Woohoo! 

Honey in charge

While I was at camp, my mother in law watched the kids Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, while my honey was at work. Friday, Christopher took the day off and watched them himself. And then of course on Saturday too since I didn't get home til 1. Here are my thoughts on this in the day and a half that I've been home.

I am so thankful for the combined efforts of Klaudette and Christopher that made it possible for me to go to camp without ever having to worry about my kids.  I knew they were well taken care of and having fun. 

Brady hasn't been feeling well since Tuesday and his appetite has been struggling severely. I'm thankful that Christopher has been an awesome and concerned caretaker for this little guy while I was away. Since I've been home, I can tell that christoper feels a special sense of stewardship over Brady and has felt more comfortable when he can take care of Brady himself instead of me doing it. Like last night when he specifically asked me if he could just put the kids to bed himself (both kids had a hard time going to bed when I put them down Saturday night) while I cleaned up the kitchen (and he actually nudged me on this several times commenting on how cluttered it was when he'd had it spotless for me Saturday night when I came home) and it just made me all happy inside for some reason at this little role reversal since I was so tired I couldn't care less about cleaning the kitchen and could barely get myself off the sofa to say goodnight to the kids. 

Also concerning my honey, since he's been doing everything with the kids by himself while I was gone, he's more comfortable doing it now without any assistance or prompting from me. Saturday after nap and Sunday morning and Sunday afternoon (basically every single time since I've gotten home), I've been so tired and sleeping late and running late getting ready, and my honey has just gone upstairs and gotten both kids ready and dressed and in the car. Even at the little birthday party gathering we went to, I was still chatting and saying goodbye when I looked around and realized that Christopher had already taken the kids to the car and gotten them all buckled. Not like he never did this stuff before but the way he's doing it now is just a little different. And even though this sort of stuff always wears off and whatever, I just want to make sure I remember it, because my honey gets dad of the year award for going above and beyond in a bunch of ways I can't even really write down. 

Oh, and before I forget, pictures my honey took while I was away so I could get some cute texts of our kids. Friday, honey took them to Home Depot, the pool, on a walk after nap, and gave them baths before bed. And somehow in there, he managed to work on the electrical stuff and fix the light in the laundry room!  I'm so excited about this!  Now I can do laundry at night again without being ghetto and using my phone's flashlight app! And I'm so proud of my honey for figuring it all out when that's really out of his element and not his specialty at all. So basically, my honey knocked it out of the park. 

And as a side note, when I came back, Brady reacted as he has before... He was wary of me and didn't want me to touch him or hold him and wouldn't come to me, only extended his hand to carefully push mine away. Luckily we all thought this was hilarious as he just burrowed in closer to his daddy.  I mean, seriously kid... I was gone for less than five days!  I always come back!

The rest of camp

What is my problem?!  I am so terrible at blogging and taking pictures these days. Here's a quick attempt to post something before I fall asleep.

In short, girls camp was AMAZING... Like 100% absolutely insanely incredible.  Words can not express how much fun I had. I soooo hope I get asked again next year. Seriously, it was perfection. The days were long and busy. I was typically up by 5:30 and working in the kitchen by 6. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, we got at least an hour or two of a break. Friday there was zero time for any breaks and I worked in the kitchen for over 14 hours straight. Some nights we didn't finish up until after 10:30 (after dinner we had to clean up and then get started on the following morning's breakfast like French toast casserole or breakfast burritos) and then didn't get to bed until around 1. The craziest thing to me was that our days were so long that we all (I was relieved that it wasn't just me) would think that that morning was yesterday morning because each day seemed the length of two. The other craziest thing was that I had so much energy and nothing really felt like work because it was so fun and I was constantly hanging out and joking around with people. All day long I was running around (I was the official trash person and one of the main dish washers) and up and down stairs (our pantry space and freezers and the huge walk in fridge were all downstairs in the basement) and doing a lot of heavy lifting moving tables and emptying huge trash cans etc and it just didn't even phase me. I could tell that some of the other women were getting tired or burned out more quickly than I was and I was specifically grateful for my heathy and able and youthful body that was able to keep working when others weren't awake yet or had already gone to bed. 

The whole week was so much fun and I made some great friends. Tina and I had tons and tons of fun and were constantly laughing and joking. We went to Colorado city on Thursday to shower at the rec center and it was hilarious. The building was covered in a weird mural that looked like graffiti and since I hadn't brought a towel to camp Tina and I had to get creative sharing what she had. Tina also brought an iPod of music including the Wonder Woman theme song (the girls camp theme was super heroes) and "I need a hero" which we danced to in the kitchen and out of the kitchen and ummm, several other places too. I sincerely hope no one got any of that on video. It was a blast though to let loose and be a little crazy like my friends and I always were at our girls camp. The YCLs even borrowed our aprons and did a skit about Tina and I dancing to Wonder Woman while the girls went through the sandwich line to pack their sack lunches. And I got a "hero holla" for it too which I wasn't expecting since those are anonymously written and submitted by the girls. 

The food was awesome and the French toast casserole recipe I submitted was perfect. Super quick to make, easy to dish, and we made the perfect amount and only had less than a pan left over (which is pretty exact considering we made 20 or 21 pans of it) and everyone was asking for the recipe. And when I was hanging out with the girls friday night while we were all brushing teeth, they were raving about the food and voted the French toast casserole to be their favorite thing of the week tied with the cafe rio pork salads we had that night. 

Fun and memorable things to remember:

the nasty gluten free cream of mushroom soup for the Hawaiian haystacks that all of our gluten free people opted out of except for one and Angie (head cook) herself said looked like a mix of diarrhea and vomit. 

The terribly ineffective triple sink that was made for someone in the four foot range. Our backs all killed from leaning over to wash so many dishes. 

I grilled hamburgers and bacon... And I actually did a good job! It was the only real cooking (where food is altered by heat) I did the entire week. I stayed away from the oven and stove although I did use the microwave to melt some butter. 

I now know the best way to cut romaine and feel confident that when it comes to bell peppers, strawberries, and tomatoes, I am the least wasteful person and get the most from my produce. 

At the end of the week, we realized that no one had space to truck the recycling 45 minutes away to pueblo and had to just throw it all away. Melanie put her arm around me and said "I just want you to know that if they didn't need my truck for anything, I was going to load up all of your beloved recycling and take it to pueblo for you. Because I would really do that." I told her she didn't even need to tell me that because I already knew that she wouldn't hesitate to do that for me if she could. Sadly though, she couldn't. But at least we had managed to recylce our first 48 hours of stuff earlier in the week. 

Sara kept reminding me of Emmy. They're both six feet and have dark, curly hair, and even similar personalities. I really loved that and was super sad that Sara had I leave Thursday afternoon instead of being able to stay until Saturday morning. 

Saturday mornings are always the worst. It's true of stuff like snowbird and the beach, and camp was no exception. It's sad because everyone knows it's done and you're taking down decorations and clearing out the fridge and cleaning everything for the lat time so it looks just as untouched and impersonal as when you arrived. I was thinking about it though and I'm grateful for that... I think it makes it easier to leave. Because all week I was on a high and there was no place I'd rather be, but Saturday morning got me trunky enough to want to get home to my normal life. 

Speaking of normal life, I got home and Abigail cuddled with me and we told each other how much we love each other and within five or so minutes, she was crying because I couldn't understand how she wanted me to tie her fairy princess slippers and I could feel my temper rising. People didn't believe me when I told them girls camp felt fun and easy like a vacation but the thing is, everyone (including myself) forgets how emotionally taxing it is to mother young children. It was a great "break" and I'm obviously rusty and out of practice. Thankfully, my honey was honing his skills while I was away and he's showing me up and steering the boat. I don't know how I'd ever survive without that guy. 

I'm at girls camp!

The camp cooks really do have the most fun.

I went to bed after 1 and woke up at 5. Heather and Tina came at 6:15 and we were on the road by 6:30. We made it to the rye meeting spot a full thirty minutes early. Way before everyone else. We won!  We had so much fun visiting together on the way down. 

Getting to camp was good. I was (and, lets me honest, still am) nervous about being on the cook committee considering my lack of skills or love of cooking. But I've been able to contribute in other ways without a problem. My master organizing skills were awesome when unloading all of the food into the fridges and freezers and pantry space. I'm the official dishes girl. I'm taking care of the system we're using to minimize the amount of space the trash takes up and I even organized recycling and have educated the other cooks on how to recycle. And tonight, I manned the grill flipping and seasoning burgers and I was really good at precisely laying the graham crackers for tomorrow nights chocolate eclair dessert. It's been busy but never hectic. There's always a job if you look for one and take initiative but we're not shouting orders at each other or barking assignments. Our leader is so calm and soft spoken, peaceful and in control. It's been so relaxed and fun. And the food is outstanding. I'm going to gain so much weight this week. 

I really miss my honey. And baby girl and Brady. But I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to be here. It's just really amazing already and I can't wait for the rest of the week.