YW Camp 2015

Confession. I was terrified of YW Camp.

When I got asked in the Bishops office if I would be the YW 2nd Councillor, my thoughts went 27,000 places at once. YW leadership means camping.... among a million other super awesome things.

Camping isn't exactly my forte and doing it with 13 girls was a bit daunting.

Boy was I wrong! 

IT WAS AMAZING!

The 3 days flew by and everyone had a ton of fun! 

First morning seflie, with as many girls as were willing to push their heads in close together.

We camped in Kananaskis country! At a beautiful campground called Catarack Creek. The landscape was breathtaking... it was the landscape or the 10 km hike..

Some of the girls durning one of our pit stops to Catarack Falls.

It was NOT a lay-za-fair walk in the woods. It was a HIKE. And the girls all did so fantastic. A couple of our girls got discouraged but with the positive vibes everyone was giving off, it was great.

Made it!!! We are just missing a couple girls here. One who didnt make the hike and another who got a bit lost with our YW President.. don't worry- we found them :) Or Brother Cummings found them...

The first day hike was a total hit with 6 of our girls. So much so, the next morning they headed out on a another 11km hike with Brother Cummings up a mountain near the campsite. The rest of the 7 girls and exhausted YW leaders crafted, did camp certification and some creek tubing.

We camped for 3 days, 2 nights, and I think I speak for everyone when I say the evening firesides were so fun and a total highlight. The songs, games and special message from the Bishop were perfect.

After we broke camp the last day- we spent the day tubing and jumping into FREEZING water. Ok... not we... the girls.. and Brother Cummings.

We took the long was home so we could see this beautiful view.

Most of us- minus Brother Cummings- taking the picture. YW was fantastic because of our amazing YW camp director and her husband. (Dana and Kenny) Thank you from the bottom of our hearts!

PS- my old YW leaders if you are reading this... I thought you were great YW leaders back then, and I loved you. NOW I love you even more and respect you 1,000 times more :) I know I wasn't exactly the easiest Beehive.

Ward Family.

The little army of humans I made, finally, finally FINALLY got better!!

YAY!

Just in time for Ward Camp!

Grandma and Grandpa took the three older kids out to camp in the trailer and Remy and I just drove out in the morning :)

Also the Saskatoon Berries were out of this world. They were all over the campsite, and the kids (and Grandpa) spent both days picking and eating to their hearts content.

Remy was still quite fussy but she finally started playing. We were walking to the fireside with her 2 cups she was pouring water in between them, and she tripped and fell and the whole cup of water spilt right in her eyes. It was hilarious, she didn't even cry UNTIL she saw she lost all her water! Luckily Angie was right there and saved the day by giving Remy some of her water. Thanks Angie :)

At the fireside Chris told the kids a "scary" story about the white gorilla, Sis Berine Colten played a few games and sang some songs and the kids thought it was great. They were all inthralled and I was so glad we stayed for a while- we did end up leaving early. Remy was FREEZING after dumping all that water on herself :)

Saturday I took zero pictures, but we had a pancake breakfast and then the kids played games, and just had a great time playing outside with friends while adults visited and ate chocolate.

We have lived in this ward for 4 years- its a great ward. Just excellent. Sunday morning, I took this picture of Barker for Justin to show him his snazzy new tie. Isn't he DARLING?!?!

And then this happened. Remy had gotten a mosquito right above her eyebrow at ward camp- and then Sunday morning as I was getting the kids ready she fell headfirst into the corner of my shower. In the exact same spot as her mosquito bite. She looked deformed for 3 days. Like half zombie. I felt so bad, poor kid.

We got home from church and after a busy weekend at Ward Camp Barker zonked right out at naptime. In his fireman costume.

And then Sunday evening we tried our hand at making some Saskatoon tarts with some of the glorious berries from camp! They turned out fantastic. The girls LOVED them. Barker, well he had ice cream.

Mom

Barker after his nap, came meandering into the kitchen and says

"Mommy lets just make muffins. So I can eat a warm muffin."

So I stopped cleaning and made him some muffins.

This is what I love about being a Mom :)

Snapshots of sickness

A few pictures from the week of sickness. Justin was up north for this week of sickness and I held the sinking ship up all by my lonesome.

We lived.

By the skin of our teeth.

The girls working together. Teamwork.

I took this picture of Barker on the first morning he woke up not screaming in pain. Relief.

Remy hates wearing shoes, so we got her these new sparkle shoes, and she loves them :)

Remy had a horrible week...

But by the end of the week, the middle 2 kids were feeling much better. Remy was still so sick, but we managed to squeak in a bike ride and the girls got to visit the Library.

We limped across the finish line

So we left beautiful Utah Saturday Afternoon. Before we left we met up 

with Meagan and Kevin and Jana and Drew to play at the Children's Museum for the morning.

It was a total hit. The morning flew by- and the parents were ready to go, way before the kids were.

I loved watching Remy play with one of attendants at the Grocery store, and all of the little ones LOVED the water center. There was so much to play with including the Dogs house on "Barkers way".

So we made it half way Saturday and things started going down hill. Remy cried lots that night and both Barker and Remy got a fever and were super grumpy. Annaliesse was also over the top grumpy, but we thought she was just teething, meaning, we thought she was getting a molar. She kept saying her jaw hurt and she wouldn't eat anything. This had been going on for a couple days, but were so busy having a fun time and she seemed to eat a little bit, we had been chalking it up to traveling and to much fun. So by Sunday morning, it wasn't exactly going fantastic.

The trip home wasn't horrible, but it wasn't a walk in the park either. I drove most of the way Sunday while Justin played with the grumpy little humans in the back. We kept them drugged up with Tylonal and Advil so they were as comfortable as possible.

So we get home Sunday night and one of us thought to look in Barkers mouth. And well ..... we saw his poor mouth covered in white pus pockets all over. All three little ones had it. Off to the hospital as their fever was getting worse, and we were in a general form meltdown.

Four hours later, after a 9 hour drive home, the kids had Gingivostomatitis. No treatment, just wait it out.  The below picture is blurry but this is just a few of the soars that covered Remy's and Barkers mouth.

Anyways. Our trip was phenomenal but the ending was not a walk in the park. But a week later we managed to remerge into the world of living humans.

Last Day

Happy Birthday Mackenzie!

(Tammy and Eric (Jens Brother) Parkers Daughter)

Friday we headed to the Splash Pad to celebrate Mackenzie's 7th Birthday!

I love these pictures of Remy and Thomas. It was way cute to watch :)

The kids and Justin had such a fun morning. They had a water fight almost the ENTIRE TIME. Tammy brought these super awesome water guns and they were so fun! A big thanks to Justin who made the kids day :)

The boys were posing for a picture and right after Cayliegh ran up and shot them all with a water gun, and so the water fight continued!

A few breaks for nourishment was needed obviously, but other then that the kids were busy.

After the little ones played to exhaustion, Justin and I left to do a bit more shopping (Joanns) and Jen was nice enough to keep the girls. We did a bit of shopping then met everyone at Tammys, so the kids could ride.

Thanks for having us over Tammy and sorry I lost Zander, Jen. It was good fun.
We met Tammy's pet Chicken, Justin even rode! Jens girls had spent most of the week before at the barn, and they were doing fantastic.

Remy hast been around horses since Aunt Lindsay left, and riding lessons were over. And at first she was NOT impressed, but after a while we finally got her on, with Mommy.

This was Daddies third time on a horse. He did great... don't you think :)

Thanks for the great day Tammy and Jen!

So because Justin was able to come join us for 5 days, we had to head back so he could be home for work Monday, instead of leaving Utah on the next Wednesday. We decided to leave Saturday afternoon and drive halfway, so Friday evening we packed the van and picked up a few groceries to keep us going :)