Camp memories

Next week is girls camp and our theme is "Happily ever after." In preparation for camp the girls were asked to write down, blog, or text three times a week what they makes them happy. I have been doing it, I am just a few days behind, but I can catch up fast.

Last night we were doing some last minute preparations for camp and I talked to the girls about how much fun I had at camp. One of the counselors in the YW presidency talked to the girls about spiritually preparing for camp. I remember feeling the spirit very strongly at good 'ol camp Shalom. I also told the girls about all the inside jokes my friends and I had. Here are a few and I know there are just 2 or 3 gals who will get this, but here goes--

*"Any one want some Christmas candy?"
*"So what you're saying is I'm fat"
*Which lead to the three fat girls
*The snorting game
*Gadgets
*Papa Joe
*Don't go down to the biffy in the middle of the night...we lost Anne Lott there just last week
*Choice and Accountability and orange, every year
*Tacos, tacos, and more tacos
*Sisters
*Waterfront
*The leaches in the waterfront lake
*Getting lost on a hike, but only if Ann was the leader
*The buses

I know there are lots more and I can go on and on, but I won't. Have a happy day!

Fun at BYU

Last week we all heading up to my dad's office with all the grandkids. We had to go out side to see the mirrored walls and Ethan thought it was so cool. Here he is admiring himself in the "mirror."

Here are all the noisy, wild kids. (No, they were really okay, at least I think so.)

Mmm BYU ice cream

After visiting Grandpa, we headed to the creamery on 9th for some ice cream. Ethan wanted green ice cream, luckily mint chocolate chip was a choice.

This is a childs scoop!
Ethan and all the girls smiling for the camera. I'm not sure what Isabel was doing, I hope she wasn't trying to get out of the picture. But you can see her hand and the soccer ball on her shirt.

From the left, Jyllian, Meg, Ethan, Mattison, Jasmine, and Isabel's shirt and hand.

Happy Pioneer Day!

Yesterday Ethan and I went to the This is the Place Heritage Park with my family. We had a lot of fun, despite the heat, learning all about pioneer life.

One house was full of chores for the kids to do. Here is Ethan watering the garden. Did you know that the youngest member of the family had to empty the chamber pot in the morning? From our group, that would have been Ethan or Jyllian.
Here are Dominique, Meg, Ethan, and Mattison carding (I think that's how it's spelled) the wool before it's spun into yarn.
We stopped by the Andrus house and were told that for $1 we could leave our kids there and they could spend the night in one of the beds upstairs. Ethan thought that was such a great idea, he picked his bed right away.
We saw all the farm animals and while the peacock shaking and crowing scared Ethan a bit, he thought petting the baby goat was so cool. I sure hope he thinks the baby calves at our family reunion are just as cool.
After a long day in the sun, we adults rested while we watched the kids run crazy wild through the play ground playing in mini pioneer houses.

Fun memories of ME!

Have you seen this little tag going around on blogs? I left a comment on one, so now I've got to do #2 on the list.So let's play:
1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!
2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments.

It's ALIVE!

Okay, maybe it's just working. After almost a year in our house Mike and my dad have found the sprinkler system we knew we had but has been hidden (it hasn't been used for so long that the sprinkler heads had sunk into the grass, hidden from view). Then they fixed it and now it works, somewhat. I haven't seen the finished product, but Mike told me that "we're in business!" He says there is still a little tweaking that needs to be done, but soon I won't have to water my whole lawn by hand, just the 2/3 of our huge backyard that doesn't have a sprinkler system. Whoever put in our sprinkler system must have gotten lazy and decided to quit! I'd love to meet that guy and ask him come finish the job, pro bono.

Ethan and Mike's tie

This morning, Ethan woke up a lot earlier than he usually does, especially on Sundays. I usually have to wake him up at 8 and he was up and at 'em at 6:45! Needless to say, he was there, in the room, with Mike when Mike was getting dressed and ready for church. Ethan likes to help and always helps Mike pick out what tie to wear to church. Today, Ethan wanted to wear a tie too and her is the end result

He wanted to wear it to church so we let him. He got a lot of comments on it and doesn't it look great?

I love the 50's!

I miss going to the drive-in's, where are they anyway? I loved going to the Galaxie diner, even at Prom, and I am excited for the new diner down the street from me to open so I can go get fries and a shake. My dream car is an old 'stang. Elvis was, until he got fat, so hot!! I love the sound of his voice. My favorite dance I went to in high school was MORP when it was the Grease theme. When I went to the single's ward and went to the harvest ball, the BEST date ever was when I wore my grandpa's letter sweater from college and so did my date, thanks Brett. Happy Days is seriously the best, who doesn't love the Fonze? So it shouldn't be a surprise that....

You Belong in 1952

You're fun loving, romantic, and more than a little innocent. See you at the drive in!

What Year Do You Belong In?

Stinky duck

Ethan loves the bath, always has, and especially loves the toys he gets to play with only in the bath tub. He got a duck from Wal Mart, one that is like 97 cents or something like that, I tell ya it's the best bath toy ever. Anyway, he discovered the other day that if he pushes the bottom of it up against his bare chest it makes a "pwtt" noise. He thought it was so funny he started calling it stinky duck. He laughs and laughs which in turn makes me and Mike laugh, he such a contageous laugh. Last night when he got in the bath, he asked for stinky duck.

He really, really thinks it funny! (It is and if I ever get it on video, I'll have to post that!)

Attention golfers (or a golfer's wife)

This week Mike was given a $25 gift card to Uinta Golf. We aren't golfers at all but if anyone else is, we will sell it to them for $20! Any takers? First one to comment gets it. There are locations in Sugarhouse, Sandy, Riverdale, and Orem.

My favorite cookie recipe

Don't these look yummy?

Well, they are and I just had one to prove it. I've had this recipe for a few years now, thanks to Dana and her magazine with lots of fun recipes, also thanks to Jackie Ruckwardt for submitting this recipe. It's so good, I thought I'd share it with you all.

Jumbo Chocolate Chip Cookies (only I've adjusted it a bit so that's what I'll give you all.)

1 cup butter or margarine, softened

1 cup sugar

1 cup packed brown sugar

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

2-2/3 cup flaked coconut

1 package of milk chocolate chips

In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugars. Add eggs, on at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt; gradually add to the creamed mixture. Stir in the coconut and chocolate chips. Place by spoonfulls on baking sheet. Bake at 350 for 12-18 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove to wire racks to cool. And ENJOY!

I made these the other day and they disappear so fast. They freeze well too. When you take them out of the freezer and they thaw, they taste just like they were fresh (some things don't taste the same after being frozen). I hope you all enjoy these as much as I do.

I may go have another one right now....

Good day, bad day

Today started out pretty good. Ethan and I read books for an hour! (Off and on a little, but it was an hour before he decided he'd rather watch "Madagascar" before we take it back to the library in a few hours. When he decided to watch a show, I thought, "Great, I can relax and finish laundry, read a book, blog, whatever." Little did I know, my toilet had other plans. It decided to overflow-a lot-when I needed to take care of some business. There was about half an inch of water, nothing too nasty, on my floor. I grabbed every towel I could and threw them on the floor. I then had to get more from my linen closet and mop all the water up. I then decided I better mop my floor with lots of lysol, just in case. It was so frustrating. And here's the pile of towels I need to go wash now!

Yup, I threw them in the tub so now I think I need to scrub that too.

Anyone have any diet DP and a BIG chocolate bar?

4th of July!

We had a fabulous 4th of July. Mike had the whole weekend off, rare at our house. We went to see "Kung Fu Panda" and then went to my parents' house to visit with family who came in town to see Hannah Montana. Janae was gracious enough to leave Jyllian behind and she and Ethan had lots of fun playing together. Mom and Dad bought some cool fireworks for the grandkids. I think Mike may have had more fun than Ethan and Jyllian though, what do you think?

Of course what would the 4th be without sparklers?
The last 2 years, Ethan has been afraid of the fireworks, but this year he had a lot of fun and even held his own sparkler.
There were, however, a few fireworks that were loud, not really though, but he would run behind the light post and hide from the noise, he'd still look around the corner though. What a funny kid.

The music gets me in the mood

Anyone, besides Donovan, love my new music? Everytime I turn on my blog, I get in the mood to go to Lake Powell and ski and see this

Pertty isn't it? I found this picture on Mom and Dad's computer and I think it's pretty cool!

Ethan Picaso

The other day, I pulled out the water colors and Ethan painted, yes for the first time. He did a great job too. He didn't get paint all over himself or my "really nice" kitchen table.

Of course when he knew I was taking pictures he had to say "cheese!"
When he was all done, here is what the paints looked like.
Oops, but thank goodness for Walmart! These bad boys were only 92 cents (or something really cheap like that)!