Trip to Ogden

We love temple open houses. Since Seth had just taken off a week of work for me to go to girls' camp, I took the girls down to Ogden with the help of my mom and (later) my sister. The day before our tour, we visited the dinosaur park in Ogden.

Miriam and Analee playing with dinosaurs and volcanoes.

Rebekah, Analee and Miriam looking at the robot dinosaurs. I was sure they would scare the living daylights out of one of my children, but none of them were remotely concerned with the roaring, blinking dinos. In fact, Winnie now has to insert a baby dinosaur into "Old McDonald" every time we sing it. (The baby dinosaur says a very meek "roar," in case you were wondering.)

Feeding fish and ducks in the pond.

Brushing sand away from "dinosaur bones."

Cute girls.

Analee inside the dinosaur skull.

Gwen going down the slide.

Feeding sand to the saddled dino.

Winnie with the dinosaur mask she colored in the education building.

Rebekah making a beaded bracelet.

Winnie and Grandma putting together a puzzle.

The animal Ana created.

Analee offering water to a parched dino; Miriam screaming in terror.

Grandma offering Winnie as a dino snack.

After a rough night in the hotel (Ana and Miriam fought over who had more covers; Rebekah threw up before she fell asleep; Andrea got next-to-no sleep for those and other reasons) and picking up Aunt Jessica from the shuttle (she had to work the day before), we went to the temple for our 9 a.m. tour and took pictures afterward.

Analee, Rebekah, Winnie and Miriam in front of the fountain. Whereas it had been hotter than hot the day before at the dino park, it was much cooler that morning, and it actually rained on us later. (I just realized that Miriam is wearing the same dress Analee wore to our last temple open house.)

The girls and I in front of the Ogden Temple.

Winnie went from this:

to this in about 30 seconds when I pulled her off the flower beds because she grabbed handfuls of dirt and threw them on the sidewalk. 

Aunt Jessica with the girls.

The girls with Grandma and Aunt Jessica.

At the open house, I saw a fellow BHS Class of 2000 graduate, as well as two of my Scott cousins and their mom. It's a small world.

After the requisite post-temple-tour pics, we took the girls to the Treehouse Museum (which we visited back in 2010, but the girls were more than happy to spend time there again).

Rebekah riding her stallion.

Analee and her puppet show.

 Miriam playing with knights and horses. Everywhere we went in the museum--the medieval corner, the doll room, the farm area--she found little figurines and played with them.

Winnie got stuck in the royal dress-up box.

There she is!

Analee writing her name on the chalkboard of the schoolhouse. She's very disappointed that she won't get to learn cursive until after Christmas this year.

After a quick visit with my cousin in Perry, we drove home just in time to unpack and repack for our first trip to archery camp (to be featured in the next blog post).

To see more pictures from our trip, start here.

ARTitorium

I love taking my girls to museums, but even more than that, I love letting them experience fun, new things on the cheap. Idaho Falls has a new interactive art museum, and during the grand opening, tickets were only $1 each. Grandma Scott (and later Grandpa Scott) met us there on the first day and helped herd the girls through it.

Analee, Grandma Scott and Gwendolen in the kaleidescope  screen.

Gwendolen, Rebekah, Miriam and Analee enjoying the green screen.

Miriam with her props and costumes in front of the green screen.

Analee in "The Scream."

Rebekah catching Winnie at the bottom of the slide.

Rebekah making a stop motion movie while Winnie, Miriam and Analee watch (and Grandma talks on the phone).

And my kids are so doggone cute, they ended up in the paper:

 

Library parties

I know I go on and on about our local library, but they've worked hard to earn that praise. Our children's department is the best. Case in point: Awesome August Parties.

Twice a day every Wednesday in August, the children's department hosts themed parties. Families are welcome to sign up for as many as they'd like. Seth took the girls to the Pete the Cat party while I was at girls' camp. The week after, we got gussied up and went to the superhero party.

It started with a story:

Kim the librarian (dressed as Super Smartypants) reading while Analee (dressed as Snow Girl) and Gwendolen (dressed as Super Princess) listen.

Andrea (dressed as Lioness) keeps Winnie occupied during the story.

... then we posed for pictures:

Miriam (dressed as Batman) and Analee soaring over buildings.

Rebekah (who chose not to dress up) with Analee and Gwendolen.

... and made masks:

Miriam sporting two masks.

Analee's new snow mask.

... and took it all in.

An overexposed shot of Winnie and Seth (dressed as the Dread Pirate Roberts/Batman/?).

We missed the third party because we were camping (post to come), but we got to go to the Harry Potter party the fourth week. This time, we all dressed up.

Analee as Hermione.

Seth as Crabbe/Goyle.

Rebekah as Harry.

Miriam as Luna (with her spectrespecs and party dress).

Andrea as Tonks (with the nastiest pink hair glue ever).

Winnie as the cutest house elf you've ever seen.

We played games, made wands and were sorted into houses. Then we got to pose with the greatest guy to love/hate:

And so we give thanks to the greatest children's department librarians ever for hosting the greatest parties on the planet.

Ana-ism #27

During our latest camping trip, it rained buckets and made camp a boggy mess. Seth revved the truck's engine to get us through the muddy mess and exclaimed:

Seth: We're gonna plow through this puppy!
Ana: (In shock and horror) What puppy?!

Girls' camp

Before I ever turned 12, I looked forward to girls' camp: a week in nature with my best friends and awesome leaders. I have a lot of fond memories of my girls' camp experiences, and as an adult, I'd hoped to be one of the awesome leaders that helped girls find a love of nature and their father in heaven.

The summer before I got married, I got to be an assistant camp director. But living in student wards and then having babies kept me away from the girls' camping scene for years.

Until the start of this year when I was called to be a stake assistant camp director. (Oh, and my mom was the stake camp director. It was a blast working with her. :-))

I'm going to go ahead and admit this (although anyone who has ever been a camp director knows it already) ... being a camp director in any capacity it a lot of work. I had meetings to attend, a slide show to create, booklets to make, T-shirts to design and order, and a week of absence from the home to prepare for. Seth, being the awesome husband and father he is, said he'd happily take off a whole week of work to stay at home with the girls while I went to Darby, so at least I didn't have to stress over that while I was away.

Last week during the first of many rainstorms we experienced, we had the Youth Camp Leaders haul their stuff over to our shop so they could throw it in the back of several pickups and get it covered with tarps before we drove up to Driggs for lunch and then to Darby. We got a whole day with the YCLs before the ward camp directors and the younger girls joined us. It was fun to learn their names and a little about their personalities.

Talking to the YCLs about Christlike attributes.

Then, for four more days, we got to spend time with many girls and leaders from our eight wards.

Overall (in my mind, at least), girls' camp was a success. Was the weather perfect? No. Did everyone stay dry the entire time? No. Did everyone make it out of camp without any homesickness or physical ailment? No.

But despite the continual rain and other minor hiccups, I feel like we experienced a week of little miracles:

As the wards arrived with their girls, it stopped raining long enough for everyone to unload and set up tents.

A ward rolls in with their decorated trailer.

Tuesday evening as I ate dinner with one of the wards, a small explosion in their camp startled me. The lighter they kept tied to the propane stove (so they wouldn't lose it) got too close and blew up. Everyone was seated at the picnic tables at the time, so the small fireball and lighter shrapnel didn't cause anyone harm.

Even though the rain kept us from having our special stake night in the amphitheater, the lodge proved to be a wonderful venue as well. For our stake night, we asked seven men to prepare themselves to be Book of Mormon prophets. They all had assignments; they had to come in costume and speak as though they were Ammon, Mormon, etc. The stage, curtains, spotlight and seating turned out to be perfect. In fact, if we had tried having it in the amphitheater, I don't know if we would have had enough seating.

The umbrella-ed and poncho-ed group inside the lodge during our flagless flag ceremony (you're not supposed to fly the flag when it's raining) preceding stake night.

Despite some of the later-leaving hikes got rained on, everyone made it back safely to camp. We had seven groups go on four different hikes (due to group size restrictions, we had to split the groups up), and even though those going to Tablerock got back around dinner time, they made it in time for skit night.

A group of girls' campers on the Pole Canyon hike.

Thursday we experienced beautiful weather, for the most part. The girls and leaders were able to play volleyball, do archery and negotiate the low ropes course.

 

While the girls enjoyed the meadow, I stayed in the lodge and crocheted mats for homeless people to sleep on. We made them from cut up grocery sacks. I had to learn to crochet to participate.

Thursday evening as I joined my home ward for dinner, the heavens opened and rain poured down. We were gathered together for prayer when the loudest boom of thunder I've EVER heard echoed through the canyon. The ward camp director quickly instructed a girl to pray for the food and our safety. The next crash of thunder was a little quieter and more distant, and it even quit raining in time for us to gather around the campfire for our testimony meeting.

Friday morning, we once again had clear skies while everyone took down their tents, loaded their trailers and pulled out of camp.

Flag ceremony Friday morning before everyone ate breakfast and took down their camps.

I had the back of the pickup all loaded, tarped and tied down, and then a girl said I had her sleeping bag's stuff sack in the back. She was right. I found it after untying a tie-down and pulling up the tarp.

In the words of Alma, "... all things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it. ..." I know I felt that at camp, and I hope the other leaders and girls felt that as well. If so, we did something right. Here's to many more years of girls' camp.

 

 One of the many cute bunnies we saw while at camp.

Miri-ism #28

As Andrea was posting a picture of her and the girls with R2D2 to Facebook:

Miri: Don't tell anyone that Darth Vader is Luke's dad. I don't want anyone to know.

Sorry to let the cat out of the bag.

Gwenism #2

During dinner, Gwen wanted another cup of juice, but Seth was busy dishing up food for the other girls. When he finally responded to her request, she exclaimed:

Gwen: Hallelujah!

Remember, folks ... she's 22 months old.