Stake Daddy-Daughter Campout

(Written by Michael for our family newspaper we do each month.  I thought it was great and why write about it again for the blog when I could just copy and paste!)

For the second year in a row Kayleigh and I ventured out to a campground in the North Fork area with our Stake Father-daughter campout.  This time Erika and I decided that we’d purchase our own tent, to be used for the first time by Kayleigh and me.  (We have been wanting a tent.)  I left work, not nearly as soon as I had hoped, to hurry home and pack up my stuff.  This year we were joined by our good friends and neighbor Bishop Adam Hawkes and his daughter, Maura.  Kayleigh was extremely excited to have one of her best friends join her in our campout, and even in our tent.  (Our tent is a 6-person tent, so plenty big enough for two adults and two little girls.) 

After finally loading the car, we stopped at KFC for what seems to be the traditional daddy-daughter campout dinner.  Unfortunately, it was about 7:00pm by the time we got to KFC so we decided to just eat in the car on the way up to North Fork.  We arrived to the campsite at around 8:00pm, set up our tent, and enjoyed the company of some other “wardies.”  That evening the stake had a few skits and a brief message by President Reich, 1^st Counselor in the Stake Presidency.  His message was about being prepared and how prepared the prophets of old were.  Kayleigh was actually listening pretty well.  After the quasi fireside, we headed back to our little camping spot.  Most of the “wardies” were heading to bed. 

  Of course Kayleigh and Maura were not tired and wanted to play.  So we stayed up in our tent for a little while longer playing Thomas and Friends UNO and Bear Hunt (a “Guess Who” type game).  We all had a lot of fun!

The next morning came pretty early (as it usually does when camping).  Kayleigh and I woke up at about 7:00am while Adam and Maura slept until about 7:45.  We all changed and headed down to the stake-provided breakfast.  By the time we got there, they were all out of syrup for the pancakes.  So we just ate a dry pancake with sausage patties and Sunny-D.  Unfortunately, Adam remembered on the way up that he needed to be to a sealing of a family in our ward.  So he called his wife and arranged to have her meet him in Eden and then they went to the sealing.  Maura decided to stay with us.  We went on a walk to the creek near the campground and threw rocks in the water.  Then we participated in the stake’s water balloon toss activity.  We tried to catch catapulted water balloons and candy with a blanket.  We caught one water balloon and a little bit of candy.  At that point all the activities were finished and most people had left.  Kayleigh and Maura didn’t want to leave, and I was fine to enjoy the outdoors with them.  We played Frisbee and UNO a few more times that morning. They both helped me take down the tent (as we were the last ones there), and started back by about 12:30. 

It was a great time that I am grateful to have shared with Kayleigh.  I have decided that regardless if there is an organized campout sponsored by the church, I will take my daughter(s) camping every year for some quality daddy-daughter time.

Pioneer Concert

We got the opportunity to go to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Pioneer Day Commemoration Concert.  It was amazing!  We left so grateful we got to go.  My parents and brother came with us.  Thanks to Suzy who watched our kids for the evening. 

Their program was in honor of our armed forces and those who have served our country.  They had 2 guest artists, Brian Stokes Mitchell and another lady.  We especially liked hearing "Who Are the Brave?" and "Hymn to the Fallen".  They are such neat pieces.  

We enjoyed how they spotlighted members of the choir/their family members who have served in our military.  One of the spotlights was on Jill Stephens Shepherd, who's mom is in the choir.  Michael went to high school with her and some might recognize her as Miss Utah from a few years ago.  It was fun to hear her thoughts and experiences about serving our country. 

All in all it was a fun night out and hope we can do it again next year!

Zucchini

Kayleigh was pretty proud of our first zucchini.  I didn't even know we had one this big!  I like to pick them when they are smaller because I think they have better flavor but this one got past me.  So we are on the look-out now for more to be ready.

Yep, it's a mosquito bite

I know what you are thinking, poor Kayleigh, right?  It actually didn't hurt her, just itched a little bit.  She inherited one of my awesome traits, being allergic to mosquitoes.  She got this bite a few weeks ago at my mom's on a Thursday night.  By Friday evening (when this picture was taken) the swelling was getting really bad.  It had started to travel down the bridge of her nose and was getting in the way of her eye site.

I knew it would eventually go away on it's own because this has happened on other parts of her body, but this one kind of worried me with it being by her eyes.  So we decided to take her to the Instacare.  Luckily I made an appointment at the Kids Care and we got right in.  The doctor confirmed that it was a bite and she gave us a prescription for a steroid (Orapred) to help it heal quicker.  After a long 1/2 hr wait at the pharmacy and me about having a heart attack (I mean really, how hard is it to enter my insurance info and get it to work?) we finally left.  I know their computer system because I use the same one every Saturday morning.  I about got my badge and walked behind the counter to fill it myself.  Oh well. 

Initially, I felt as if her swelling was worse the next morning, but it did get better throughout the day.  By Sunday she looked herself again.  This girl has to have repellent on!

Landon's words

I know I did a post a long time ago when Kayleigh was starting to talk and I listed all the words she could say.  Since Landon is finally starting to say some things I thought I should write them down, too.   So here is his growing vocabulary:

Ball
Moon
Star
Car
Popcorn
Dadda
Momma
Kay Kay (this is Kayleigh)
Moo (for a cow)
Bah Bah (bottle)
Go
Elmo
Nana
Go gur (yogurt)
Cracker

The kid is obsessed with the book "Goodnight Moon" right now!  He brings it to me all the time and wants me to read it to him.  Kayleigh loved that book, too.  We've somehow managed to get ourselves 3 copies of that book, guess it's a keeper!

Our happy 4th

 Cute toes

 Yummy fruit

 He climbs on everything!

 Landon's mouth stuffed with a cupcke.

Our 4th of July began with a yummy waffle breakfast at my mom and dad's house.  Then we were off to the Kaysville parade.  Kayleigh has been talking about this parade since it ended last year.  She loved it and couldn't wait for it this year.  I'm sure it's because of the candy.  She kept saying, "I want the parade to be just like last year."

The weather was perfect for the parade.  We even got sprinkled on a little bit.  I love when it isn't blazing hot when I am outside for longer than a few minutes.  We had a perfect parking spot, just down from Main St. thanks to our friends, the Erickson's, and then we weaseled our way into a great spot for the parade on Main St.

Sadly, all the "floats" are just advertising, but the kids don't care.  One of the entries was throwing stuffed animals and we saw two guys get in a fight over it, one was in a head lock.  Now really people, go buy a dumb stuffed animal at the dollar store if you need one so bad.  It's a parade with kids all around for crying out loud! 

After the parade we went with my sis and her family (they were with us at the parade, too) and went to Pace's for some lunch and most importantly, rainbows!  Yummy! 

Then we went back to my parent's house where some kids took naps and then we got out the pool.  I had brought nail polish and all the girls got their nails painted all festive for the holiday.  Web-cammed with my sis-in-law back east.  We celebrated Michael's birthday with my family.  My dad and Michael helped the kids shoot rockets with my dad's rocket launcher.  We had dinner.  We cleaned up, we went to the fireworks at Davis.  Sat in our regular spot in the field at Kaysville Junior, the sprinklers went on, lame!  The kids loved the glow sticks we got them.  All in all, a super fun day. 

I am grateful for our freedom.  I am thankful for our armed forces, who fight for us.  I am grateful for our fore fathers who sacrificed their lives to organize our government and set up this great nation.  I am thankful to Heavenly Father for this choice land and pray that it will stay free.   Happy Independence Day!

Happy 30th Birthday, Michael!

July 2nd was a big day this year for Michael, it was his birthday and he turned 30!  Happy Birthday!!  I wanted to do something special for the big day but I couldn't think of anything that I could do.  Finally 2 days before his birthday I decided I would give him 30 presents.  It was a pretty fun idea and he really liked it.

 I'll admit, it was hard to come up with 30 gifts for a guy though (that aren't too pricey).  As I did it I thought this wouldbe so easy if it was for a girl because for girls there are so many little things they like.  For example: lotion, jewelry, nail polish, lip gloss, etc.  Anyway, with the help of my co-workers I came up with 30.  Ten of them were one dollar bills and about ten more of them were just little things like gum, mints, his favorite candy, socks, hair gel, stuff like that.  Some of the "real" gifts were the movie "Knight and Day", an iTunes gift card, a Minute to Win It game, a night out with me, and a bew BYU shirt.  I wrapped them (with the help of Kayleigh, sometimes not so much help) all individually which took forever, but it was worth it. 

The morning of his birthday he mowed the lawn while I was at work-the typical Saturday morning routine.  Once I got home he opened his presents.  Then he and Kayleigh went to Cherry Hill to mini golf.  This was Kayleigh's first time and they had a really good time.  Kayleigh even had some "assisted" holes in one. 

That evening we went to Olive Garden (we had a gift card there that made the choice for us of where to eat).  Michael's mom and my parents and brother came with us.  It was really fun!  We hadn't eaten there in a long time, I think it's been since before Landon was born. 

After dinner we had Michael's sis and her fam, his mom, and some of our neighbors over for cake.  I made an ice cream cake.  Michael chose the flavors of cake and ice cream, white cake and cookies and cream ice cream.  Cake turned out yummy and just the right amount for everyone.  All in all I think he had a great 30th birthday and here's to another year of fun and good health for the big 30 yr. old!

Random picture post

Cute Kay in her new green tank that Caprice got her in Park City. 

 

 Kay asleep on the couch after a long day.

Cutie Landon just eating some fruit.

No real common theme among these pictures, just some cute ones from the month of June.  

Summer fun

Last week my cousin, BreeAnn, came over with her kids to let everyone play together.  Unfortunately, I only got these 2 pictures.  I got the pool out and our little sprinkler and they had fun outside together.  They also ate a million popsicles, but that's what summer is for, right?  The kids did get bored though and then they came in and played in Kayleigh's room. 

Thanks for coming you guys, we sure enjoyed the distraction and the kids love when we have visitors.