Camp Week

 This past week was camp week for the girls. CC had girls camp and Elsie had arts and nature camp here in town. That meant that most of the week it was just Merrick and I and since Merrick is NEVER home, I found myself on my own significantly more than usual this week.

I was a driver home from girls camp on Thursday so I got to hear all about the adventures. Their days were filled with fun, crafts, and activities. CC was delighted to discover that she is a really good shot. The stories the girls were the most excited to tell though were about the thunderstorm they had the last full day at camp. It stormed off and on from about 10am. At one point, the thunder was so loud and ear-piercing that they thought their cabin was going to fall down. CC was definitely dirty and exhausted when she got home, but she had a great time.

As for Elsie, she didn't have to brave the thunder and lightening at camp since hers was a day camp and the storm didn't hit here until after she was home. She did have some hot days to battle but those were combatted with a splash pad and water balloons. Otherwise, they did crafts, played games, and Friday they went paddleboarding. She had a blast and the icing on the cake was that she attended with her BFF, Shay.

Like I said, Merrick didn't go to camp, but he filled his days with work and hanging out with friends. Since his girlfriend, Katie, was at girls camp with CC, he spent more time fishing and they had a great outing where he and his two friends caught 13 fish. 

Jeremy also had a busy week. I have not mentioned it here, but he is switching jobs in a couple of weeks. Because of this, he is in this kind of weird spot where he is pulled between two jobs. He is trying to wrap things up at his current firm, and is interviewing people for his paralegal position at his new firm. I think he will be happy once he is settled at the new place and isn't divided any longer.

As for me, I got a book from the library to read, but really didn't have a chance. I spent one whole day at the Goodwill bins with a friend. I spent $47 but came home with 29lbs of amazing treasures. I can't get my family onboard with going to the bins, but they do like the things I come home with. Otherwise, my days were gobbled up with errands and catching up on some work.

Just like that the week was gone. It is nice to have everyone home, but it will be short lived. Merrick is headed to FSY tomorrow. Summer is flying by, but we are making the most of it.

My only pictures of the week came from girls camp. We got a couple before the girls took off and Katie's mom was nice enough to send me one from camp.

Quick Getaway

 This weekend Jeremy and I played hooky from our responsibilities and took a quick, 30ish hour getaway without the kids. We left Friday morning and drove to Bend for the Jimmy Eat World concert. Like I said, it was a quick getaway. We left Friday morning, the concert was Friday night, and we came home after lunch on Saturday. Other than the concert, we didn't have a lot of time to do too much else. We did do a fair bit of walking around both downtown Redmond and Bend and tried a few restaurants, but not much else to report.

The concert itself was fun. Although it's tough to see a band that you grew up with that is only a few years older than you and now they are old men. It did make me feel old, but they can still rock so I will remind myself that age is just a number.

Anyway, it's back to real life now. C.C has girls camp tomorrow and Elsie has a day camp all week. Much to do to get ready so, but those carefree hours were good while they lasted.

Girl Cousin Time

This week was youth conference for our stake. All youth turning 14 this year and up were invited to attend. The first day was local, followed by 2 days on the Warm Springs reservation at Kah-Nee-Ta Resort.

From our family, only Merrick was old enough to go, but Jeremy also needed to go to the part out at Kah-Nee-Ta to be an adult leader. That meant the girls and I were home alone for two days. Much to their extreme pleasure, Ben, Becca, and Lincoln were all attending youth conference as well. That meant that Isabel would be home by herself for three days and it was the perfect excuse for an extended cousin hang out and sleepover.

Since the first day was local and her parents were home that night, the girls didn't get a sleepover the first night but did take advantage of some girl time during the day. Ben was actually home the first day so they decided to spend that time at the Brown's. I am not sure what all they did, but I did hear tales of Mac and Cheese on the trampoline.

The next day, Isabel came over early. CC had planned for them to sleep in the playroom that night and had gotten everything ready for a super deluxe sleepover. When Isabel got here, they spent hours playing, Barbies mostly. After lunch they asked me to take them to the river. They spent the afternoon swimming at the river and having a blast.

When we got home and cleaned up, the girls made personal pizzas and we watched a movie. Emily came by for a little bit and got in on some good girl time. She also helped with the photo shoot. The girls wanted to do some scrapbooking so they used C.C.'s Instax camera to take and print photos for the project. The girls then scrapbooked their hearts out until I finally made them get ready for bed.

The next morning, they were up early to finish scrapbooking before we had to go to fill our assignment to clean the church. The work was short lived though and soon we headed to the West Linn Old Time Parade and then to get Slurpees. The girls mostly spent the rest of the day playing, but C.C. did have a birthday party she went to for a while. We wrapped things up with dinner at Panda Express and just a bit of tv before Becca came to get Isabel.

The girls were pushing hard for another sleepover at the Browns house, but the moms quickly squashed those dreams. We all needed a good night's sleep in our own bed. I am so glad the girls get along so well though and that they have each other. Cousins are the best.

50 and 250

 This past week brought a lot of reasons to celebrate. First and foremost, this week we were able to celebrate my parent's 50th wedding anniversary. We have been looking forward to this day for a long time. Unfortunately, due to my dad's health, we had to scale back from the original plans, but we still made a great day of it.

We gathered for the day at Ben and Becca's house. We swam, played games, ate, did henna tattoos and talked. Brendon came to town and it was wonderful just to spend the day all together. Emily and I also made a video for the celebration with photos and videos from friends. We probably spent 12-14 hours putting it all together. It was definitely a labor of love.

Just the next night we were celebrating again, this time it was the 250th anniversary of the founding of our country. We started the day with a 4th of July parade. We then went in the afternoon to a friend's house for slip and sliding, games, a BBQ and fireworks.

It has been a great week of celebration.