Girls Camp!

I got to go to part of girls camp this year! Yea! I am in the Young Women's presidency for church and so I went to help out. I have been to so many girls camps as a leader, but this was the first time I was there with Kinsey. Girls camp went great and all the girls had a great time. I love the girls in my ward. They are so wonderful and they really all just love each other. I was so impressed at the way they got along. No fights, no drama, just lots of fun. Girls camp was located on the LDS church ranch (about 45 min. from my house), and the girls stay in cabins. I have always been in a tent at girls camp, so the cabin thing was new to me. But when you live in Florida, and the heat and humidity are so high, air conditioned cabins are a must. Here we are having a nice game of apples to apples in our cabin (above).
We had a nice covered porch to eat our meals on...and good thing that it was covered, as Florida's afternoon rain liked to hit at lunch time.

Kinsey and Savannah Raskey
I was in charge of the "craft" for the whole stake. I helped them make fun colorful chunky bracelets, and it seemed to go over really well. It was fun to see the girls wearing the bracelets throughout camp, and afterwards.
This was a HUGE alligator that wandered into camp one night. Okay, not so huge, but still a gator (never had this problem in Seattle or Utah). The bishop of our ward tried to shoo it away, and it wouldn't budge, so he grabbed it around the mouth and carried it into the woods. We now call him the "alligator wrestler".

Just for the "cuteness" of it!

"We love our Dad"

I almost forgot to blog about Father's day, but it's never too late in the blogging world...Right? Well, John has six huge fans living in this house. He is an amazing Dad, and the best husband ever (I stand by that claim). The kids go into a frenzy when he comes home each night. He is kind of like a celebrity (well, until he tells someone to go to bed, or asks them to do a chore...then he loses that status, but you can't be on top all the time). We had a great Father's day, with lots of "Daddy pampering" (including lots of food, gifts...and uninterrupted nap time). Kinsey even made him one of her yummy cakes. I truly think my kids are going to grow up knowing what a great Dad they had. He spends so much time with them, teaches them things, laughs with them, and has a personal relationship with all of them. Lucky kids for sure. And lucky ME!

GIRLS WEEK-END (Siesta Key Triathlon)

Well, we did it! Our third Triathlon. And to make it even more fun, we decided to make a girls week-end out of it! Five of us headed out to the Gulf Coast of Florida, to the white sands of Siesta Key, to swim, sweat, bike, run, eat, talk, and relax. SO MUCH FUN! Me, Sara Rose, Carrie Helms, Marie Winchester, Tracy Bosch...after we finished the race. Beckie Lowe and Andrea Rediski ,who had to back out at the last minute, were also there in spirit. (Andrea's disabled son had to go into the hospital...and I know how much she wanted to do this race...and how much she trained...so we thought of her the whole time). So...starting from the beginning, Sara picked me up, and we tried to get the bike rack on her car. Since there were only five of us, we figured out a way for us all to drive together. Sara took her back seat out, we fit two bikes standing in that area, and then put three bikes on the rack, and put all our bags in a car topper. Way more fun to drive together.

Okay, we think we figured it out...on to get the other girls.
As we picked up Carrie, we had her husband come and check the rack. He helped us get it a little more secure...and coached us with a few tips. We suddenly realized that we would be putting this bike rack on and off of the car many times by ourselves...and we needed to know how to do it. So thank you to Matt.
We made the 2 hour trip to Siesta Key, and talked the whole way. We found our "packet pick-up/registration spot", though we were skeptical. "Local Coffee and Tea"? Could this really be it? Yes it was. The guy that runs this race also owns this little shop. We picked up our packets, asked a bunch of questions, got him to give us our t-shirts early (everyone else had to wait until the next day), and tried on a bunch of stuff. As we left, we had been labeled "The high Maintenance girls". Well...whatever works. I did find an amazing deal on a Tri-suit, ($150 dollar suit for $25.00) so I was super excited.
Right away we went to check out the race course. Check out this starting line. BEAUTIFUL! So we had to stand in the very water (warm water may I say) that we would be racing in the next morning. Siesta Key is known for it's powder fine white sand and warm water. Notice we are all wearing our "Tri" necklaces. Okay...so you can't really see them, but I made us all matching necklaces. The two pendents say, "Wisdom", and "Strength". I thought was appropriate for this race.

We got settled in our fun condo on the beach, then headed out for a night on the town. We ate at a fun little sidewalk restaurant, and enjoyed the food, the atmosphere, and just talked for hours. So nice to not have to vacate a restaurant because of screaming children or because of the horrifying "kids-mess" made on the floor. Back at the condo we got our stuff all ready for the Triathlon the next morning. Soon we were trying out each other's bikes, testing each other's clip in shoes (trying to find the easiest clips), and having a great time. Usually the night before a race I am so nervous, but this night was so much fun.
We woke up around 4:30 a.m. and we were loading the bikes around 5:15 a.m. Still dark when we got to the race site. Now we have a few butterflies in our stomachs. By the time we got to the transition area, a lot of people were already set up, so we had to just kind of fit in where we could. This race was full of very "serious athletes". A little intimidating for sure.
I loved walking out onto the beach early in the morning. There were still some morning clouds, but it was so beautiful to see this white beach with all the racers getting ready to swim. I had never done a ocean swim before, so this was a whole new experience.

Getting excited...and still a little nervous
The whistle for our wave seemed to come out of nowhere. Not much warning. I almost had to laugh, but instead...I ran into the water. The water was so warm (actually I swim a little faster in cold water...but oh well) and it was a bit difficult to get out past the first small waves, but then I got going. I didn't like the salt water in my mouth...but lake water doesn't taste so great either. I seemed to have three girls surrounding me the whole time and got kicked a lot, but that's okay. I made it through...SHARK FREE!

Okay, this truly is me running out of the water (third person back), but you will just have to take my word for it. It was hard running through the sand to get back to the bikes. The bike was a 13 mile loop and it was so pretty through the small beach streets of Siesta Key. The run was a loop through the woods, and then a killer run down and back on the beach. It was supposed to be 3.2 miles...but it seemed to go on forever. I was so happy to be off the beach, but then we had one more loop through the woods. Arrghhh. I was so happy to see the finish line. We did have cloud cover for the first half of the race and that was nice, but it got quite hot and it was so humid. Saps my energy for sure. Sweat and salt water are not a really fun combination. Can you say STICKY?
Finished and so happy about it. The race was different distances than the other races we have done, so I think I did well (they didn't have our split times so it is hard to judge completely), and finished second among our little group.
We were all so happy that we finished our third race. This race really hurt at times, but it felt so good to be finished.

We all called our hubbies after the race. All five of us were wandering around with cell phones. We missed our cheering sections.

For the rest of the day we hung out at the condo, took wonderful naps, read, and talked and talked. It rained a lot of the afternoon, but that didn't stop the fun for us.

We got to see the most beautiful sunset and enjoy the beach in the evening. We ate dinner at a fun little restaurant right next to the beach on an open patio. We talked and talked way into the night again. I can't believe we never ran out of things to say. We headed back Sunday morning and got to church just in time.

I'm so glad that I got to share this fun week-end with these fun girls. I learned so much from them and got some fun stories as well. We all came home refreshed...and a little sore.

This should be the link to the picture of me coming out of the water. I'm not sure if it will work or not.

http://www.shutterfly.com/progal/slideshow.jsp?auto=0&aid=768a5498cf43b70aefef&idx=150

A fun night away!

This past week-end we went away for a night and had a fun little family get-away. It was Carver's birthday, plus Father's day week-end, and we just felt like having an adventure. We decided to stay at the Disney Allstar Movie Resort. It is very affordable, and though it is one of Disney's "economy" hotels...IT IS SO FUN FOR THE KIDS. We stayed at Pop Century a couple of years ago and loved it, so we figured this would be a hit with the kids. Carver was so excited to do something so fun for his birthday. We just stayed one night, but we got there in the afternoon, played late into the night, and then stayed for most of the next day. The hotel is themed with a bunch of the Disney movies. Our room was close to the "Toy Story" section of the hotel. A giant "Woody", and "Buzz" greeted us as we came out our door. The kids loved playing on all the huge Toy Story "Stuff". Cooper just went crazy and thought it was all about the coolest thing ever. He would just run from one huge "toy" to another and shout words in his unintelligible language. Kennedy and Carver in front of the HUGE "Buzz".
Cooper loved Buzz's shoes. A favorite climbing spot for him.
Look at these fun Giant building blocks. We put the kids up there...they couldn't get down by themselves...so John and I went and had a nice little evening by ourselves. Okay, we didn't really...but we were tempted. Kinsey hanging on the giant Toy Story door. We figure this is the way all doors look to Cooper.

You've gotta love the "Love bug".

Super fun pool. We swam into the night and the hotel even played the movie "Enchanted" on a big screen as we swam. Talk about having the best of both worlds.

We brought Carver's birthday cake to the hotel, and he also received a special birthday button with his name on it from Disney. He loved being "the birthday boy" (A term he has tried to use every day since).

We sure loved our whole experience at this Disney hotel. It was fun to get away with the family, even if it is just 40 minutes away. I love the warm balmy Florida nights and I will keep such fun memories of my kids swimming, laughing and playing late into the night at this hotel. Only at a Disney hotel do you still find young families going strong in the pool at midnight. Love it!

Carver is SIX!

Carver turned six on June 13th. This was a much anticipated day for my boy. He has been charting it on the calendar for months. I can't believe that Carver has grown up so much. It seems like yesterday I was just getting used to "the boy thing". Carver is a great son and we are so proud of him. I thought I would write some of Carver's favorite things at six years old:
-Legos
-his bike
-cold cereal
- rough housing with Dad
-Playing with Cooper
-snacks (because he is ALWAYS HUNGRY...I mean ALWAYS)
-friends
-The movie Transformers
-"Ben Ten"
-Bionicles
-Mcdonalds
-his family
Carver had a fun birthday. He and I had a special date for lunch and we went to Mcdonalds, just the two of us. Then we packed up and headed to a Disney hotel for a night with the whole family. We had such a great and memorable time. I told Carver that I was not going to allow him to turn six because he was getting too grown up. He looked and me and said, "It's okay Mom...I will still kiss you every day". (Where's the tissue)

Cooper's new "ride"

We love to go on bike rides as a family, and we finally found a way to include Cooper. Cooper loves to head around the neighborhood with us now. We have been enjoying our "summertime", where early bedtimes are a thing of the past, so we like to take bike rides in the evenings. We have a great sprawling neighborhood with lots of flat streets and bike paths (well...all of Florida is flat"), so it is fun to ride around. Cooper makes cute little sounds and squeals as he rides and holds tight to his little handlebars.

End of School events

Okay, school has been out for a week (hoorah), but I am just getting around to blogging about a few events. It was such a busy "end of the year", and lots going on in the summer already, so I am just getting around to it. Anyway, Kinsey had many events, and received many awards. One of her awards ceremonies was for being on Honor roll and getting straight A's for the whole year (for three years really). I love this picture of her and her friends. I call it "Smart and Beautiful". I love it that Kinsey has such smart and wonderful friends. All these girls are such great students and they all work so hard for their grades, yet they are so cute and know how to have fun. They are all off to high school next year. Almost all of Kinsey's church friends went to different middle schools, so I am glad that she found such great friends at her school. We are so proud of Kinsey.

Principals list all year

Carver's class did such a cute program at the end of school. They sang all sorts of songs to us, and recited poems. They also published a book and got to read their page to the whole class. Their book was called "In the Sea". I have to say, my Kindergarten boy singing songs to me with his cute little crooked smile, just about melted my heart.

Kennedy also published a book this year (I forgot my camera the day of her "reading"). Her class had a huge Luau to present the books to their parents. In third grade they write and illustrate the whole book themselves, and then they send the books off to a company to have it printed and bound. Pretty cool. She got to read her whole book to the class and parents and it was so fun to hear it. Kennedy also got so many end of the year awards including straight A's for the year, highest AR points for the year (reading points), first place for "good as gold" awards in her class (tokens they earn all year). I am so proud of the helpful and wonderful student that Kennedy is. Her teacher tells me she just couldn't have gotten through the year without Kennedy.