Girls Camp!

I love the outdoors, so when the Bishop called me to be the camp director I think I surprised him with a clap, a bounce and a squeal. I was so excited. This year our family made crazy plans to be gone the 2 weeks before camp. And with only 1 day of prep before we left I was a little worried. I know I made our YW pres (and BFF) nervous. BUT it was a FABULOUS camp. There was not one fight, or a major injury. We ate well, played hard and even felt the spirit once or twice. The theme was 'There's no place like home' from the wizard of oz. Each ward had to choose a character. We chose the main character Dorothy. I think in an earlier post I posted our cute ruby slippers....I was so excited for everyone to wear their lovely ruby red slippers. We wore them to our first devotional and I thought my feet were going to spontaneously com bust! The sun was attracted to the glitter and heated them up so fast and so hot. Those who used enormous amounts of glue and glitter (Aleyce..) got sores because there was no give.... or maybe it wasn't just the enormous amount of glue, socks would have helped. :) needless to say, we didn't wear them again. When I got home I realized I had not taken hardly any pictures. I have no photographic proof of the toilet papering, the weather rock makeover, monkey hostages, munchkin stealing, the bright red moon on one of our mid night 'hikes', the Stake Camp Directors "skit"(what is an umbilicus?), the angry presWitch of the East (north? 33rd? whatever) and so much more so here are a few random pics from our 'WICKED' fun girls camp.

So here we have Amy moaning right after her ever so graceful tumble down the hill, giving her a spectacular bruise. (What is that crazy Asian doing in the background? Seriously!)100 yards or more of zip line. We waited 2 days to go on this thing. It was quite the contraption. But it was worth the wait. Down the road was this enormous swing at least two stories high with two swings that could fit at least 4 maybe 6 people. It creaked just like you would hear in a horror movie. Above: Red Hot Chicks of the 28th ward. We definitely had the most spirit:) Funny side note, even though we were the ward to pull off ALMOST all the pranks (We did not string the bra up on the flag pole!) We were given the bag of lollipops award for being the sweetest ward in camp (he he he).

I know I already posted pics of the rock wall where I beat the lighter quicker BYU fan Alisa to the top (twice), so instead of putting those pictures on again I thought I would put some of our cute girls and leaders up. Below (l-r) McKenzie, Emily, and her mom Aleyce and far below Brianna. They were all so brave and strong! Good job girls!

Okay, Okay, so I am not as humble as I think I am. Here it is again, the ute kickin the cougs little tail up the wall. I had to post it twice sine I beat her twice:) Yup! Eat you heart out BYU fans this is what November 22nd is going to look like, start you whining now......

We were so lucky to have a concert while at camp (I love a fantastic outdoor setting for live music) and I will be the first to admit, I was so NOT into this idea when it was presented. A band at rough out girls camp? what are they thinking? So strange? BUT I ate my words, and it was a pretty good time. Kambree even got the cute guitar/bongo player's number....

The skits, you either love em or hate em. I really wanted every girl to feel included and for the skit to be entertaining and fun. Our girls did a great job putting this one together. (BTW, this post is mostly for the girls enjoyment I know some videos are just too long).

So on to planning next years camp. No stake to do it for me, so I can vacation and then just show up. No other ward to play pranks on. Hmm? Any ideas? Suggestions?

Beam Me Up Scottie!

WARNING!

The following post contains graphic photographs that may scare and/or traumatize. Read at your own risk.

"Jay, I don't feel so good. I think I need to go to the Dr." was all that Sara could squeak out of her tight sore throat. "Are you sure? why don't you go lay down?" replied Jay "No I think my nose is starting to swell?" As she turned her face to Jay his big eyes grew even wider. "Uuhh yes, you better go right now."

So here is a chronology of my distorted face. I know it is SERIOUSLY UGLY, but I need to document this crazy thing. It came on within a 12 hour period but took a good week to go away. At first Doctors thought it was a sinus infection, but when it got bigger they decided it was just some strange tissue infection.(That they made obvious they didn't want, by standing against the far wall of the examination room:() So after a shot of antibiotics and a 2 week oral prescription with no improvement, they put me on IV antibiotics, dosed a couple times a day and a double dose of another two week oral prescription. So have a looky at this crazy thing....I looked like a character from Star Trek

The above picture is NOT one of me. It is of a real Klingon (Star Trek) I wonder what match they would come up with at one of the "which famous person do you look like" site....?
I sent a pic to Emily and Dad on their phones. Emily said the pics looked like I had morphed them on the computer. You know those programs that contort your face in a million strange ways. I have seen them on different blogs and thought "so funny!" I wish these pics were computer generated!
I also had strep throat, but once the meds kicked in and killed the body aches, fever and chills I felt a lot better. My nose was really hot and my skin was so stretched, hot and damaged that eventually it sloughed off (gross!)
The hardest part was watching Jay and the girls looking trying to see the real Sara. Everyone first reaction was wide eyes and a big Ooohh. Except for sweet Jacob, no wide eyes, no closer looks, just jabbers, loves and kisses. What a sweet boy. I am so grateful for modern medicine and the power of priesthood blessings. Even if they can tell me how I got this or what it was, I am so glad its gone and that there was NO damage done!

And Dad, just so you don't worry, My face is back to normal! Here's a pic so you don't have to worry anymore.

Here's the Ark, now where's the rain?

Wahoo! It is finished! We only started the weekend of May 20.... And as much as I complained about the whole thing I absolutely love it. I feel like the house now has a dinning room. I love that I can walk on it barefoot and that Jacob can crawl on it without getting splinters. (This post is for Jay so he knows how much I appreciate all his hard work...;) AND as a request from Josie) When we were in the middle of building a neighbor came by and told Jay he could "hardly tell it was Trex, usually you can spot that fake stuff from miles away" he said. Jay was irritated for the next three weeks. Jay had so carefully picked out this wood with the help of a friend in our ward who has a wood importing business. So to have someone call your Brazilian hardwood (ipe, cherry walnut, yeah, I really don't know what it is other than special to Jay) But to have the neighbor call his wood fake, recycled plastic trex was devastating...


Here are some after pics, I think the white plastic table screams elegance....

We copied the pergola at mom and dads house, because we liked it so much. We still need ideas on how to make the railing above the bench meet code. I fear a kid standing on the bench and tumbling over down into the window well....Any ideas?
This break Jay actually went shopping with me a few times and one of the time he went, we found a bunch of vines on sale so we have to Jasmine vines going up the back that smell heavenly and a wisteria growing up the front. We later went to a nursery to look at plants and saw the same size jasmine for $165 INSANE! we were so proud of our $12 purchases.
Our house doesn't have a dining room or hardwood floors and now I have both. Good Job Jay! None of the pics I took have the cute planter box he made to go in the corner, but that just means now you can come see it in person to see the final look with the planter...:)

Yes, it has been too long since my last post Sorry Deeda :( but I have some really good excuses. I wasn't blogging, but I was still taking pictures as if I were so now my biggest problem is how do I catch up? Should I start with where I left off ? When Jay decided to build a deck in a weekend that turned into 3 months? (Excuse 1, any extra, well all time went to working in some form on the ark, eerrrr, I mean deck, that I now absolutely love!)

Or maybe I should go with the most recent and work back and start with how my face, mainly my nose tripled it's size with in 12 hours.

I know it is AWFUL!... AND this isn't even the worst of it. (Excuse 2, I find being deathly(well, almost deathly) ill to be the most legit of excuses.)

Or maybe just start somewhere between and just start downloading the pictures and posting as the load...... Like this one of girls camp with me victorious over BYU Alisa on the rock wall, GO UTES!!

Or maybe I should start with how I met Jay.....My true prince charming........

....That might be going a little too far back.....

I guess in the end it doesn't matter what I post, I have a lot of ground to cover. Kinda like a 1/2 marathon of blogging....speaking of which......Tara? do you have pics you want to email me? do you have my email address?? I will post it on my side bar just in case :)