Girls Camp for Hallee

Hallee had her first year of girls camp.  They went to Heber and stayed in cabins.  She left Thursday afternoon and got home Saturday. It was short and sweet and perfect for her first year. Hallee got really nervous that morning.  Keith helped her get calmed down and they said a prayer and she said that helped her feel better. I was so sad that I was at work and couldn't drop her off. 

When they got up there they unpacked and set up their cabins and then went to the lake. Hallee had fun going on a paddle boat and kayak with Kinsley.  They brought water guns and squirted each other and Hallee really liked that. 

After the lake they took showers and had dinner.  Hallee said she was feeling homesick and had a good cry in the shower.

After dinner they had a devotional.

And then made smores. Hallee said she loved the campfires and devotionals every night. 

The next day they went on a long hike to a ropes course.  Hallee hated the hike. She said it was steep, hot and really long!

Hallee was nervous about the ropes course, but felt more confident after doing the ropes course on the cruise.  When she climbed up the tall ladder to start, she realized that it was a lot scarier than the one on the cruise.

She said she panicked at the top and didn't want to go, but she did it anyway. She said she knew she didn't want to go back down that ladder so she went for it.

She said she was scared the whole time.

At the end of the ropes course there was a zipline.  Hallee has always wanted to do a zipline, but was scared.  She loved the zipline and was so happy to be back on the ground! Hallee said all of the leaders made a fuss over her and how proud they were for doing it.

Hallee liked playing games and doing different activities with the girls. 

Hallee liked making bracelets and dream catchers.  She said she liked hanging out in the cabin with the other girls and painting nails and braiding hair.

On Friday they did an axe throwing activity.

Hallee really liked that.

Hallee said the last night there some girls got in an argument and were upset and that made Hallee feel really homesick and cry.  Erin took great care of her and helped her feel better.  

Through out camp their wrote things that Jesus loves on the mirror and took a picture on the last day. As you can tell I got a lot more information from Hallee than Wyatt about camp, ha! Also the YW leaders took a lot more pictures.  I'm so glad they did.  Hallee was so happy to be home on Saturday, but so glad she went.  She had a great time and loved getting to know all the girls better. 

YM Camp for Wyatt

Wyatt was not looking forward to camp.  None of the activities sounded fun to him, in fact they all scared him. He was a great sport about not complaining and just going.  Alex called Keith and told him that one of the boys cast their line and the fish hook got stuck in Wyatt's back.  He said Wyatt was a trooper and doing well and that he would keep an eye on him.  He sent this picture and it made me want to talk to him so bad.  Kids need their mom when they are hurt! Wyatt said it was super painful to get it out, but once it was out it was fine and didn't bother him. I was surprised at how well it healed, he just had a tiny scar when he got home.

Wyatt was really nervous about the white water rafting.  He said he got really nervous and didn't want to do it, but he knew he had to so he just did it. You can see him in the middle there.  I think this was better than he was expecting, but it still wasn't his favorite. 

The next thing he wasn't a fan of was rock climbing.  He did it though and he also did the zip line which he said he hated. Poor guy.  I'm so proud of him for pushing through it and doing so many hard things.

I wish Jonah would have gone with him.  Camp was in July right after the cruise and Jonah felt like he needed to work and earn money.  Jonah was fine to miss it, but I wish my boys could have gone together. Wyatt won't admit it, but I think he had some fun. We heard from a lot of the leaders how much they enjoyed getting to know Wyatt and how funny he is.  He definitely pushed himself for this one and we are so proud of him. 

July Happenings

Hallee loved having Trinity over a few times. 

I started my job at UVU on July 8th.  I was terrified to have a job after being out of the workforce for almost 20 years. It went really well and I really like my job.  I was worried that I wouldn't be able to learn and remember new things, my mind is not what it used to be. I have been able to learn and understand what I need to. I've made some mistakes, but overall I feel like I'm getting the hang of it. 

The best part of my job is I really like the people I work with, unfortunately they have all left. Tyler and Dena were the ones that interviewed and hired me.  Tyler left right after I started. Dena applied for Tyler's job, but she didn't get it so she was mad and started looking for other jobs.  Karrie, got Tyler's job and I really like her so I'm glad she will still be there.  Jenny trained me, she is the afternoon receptionist so I worked with her while I trained, but after that we just overlapped for an hour each day. I really like her.  She is so sweet and did a great job explaining things and teaching me. She helped me feel at ease and calmed my nerves.  Dena was great too, she is so fun to talk to and knew the answers to every question I had.  I was sad that she left a week ago.  She came into visit yesterday and took this picture. Linus works a few hours a day and he is still there for now, but I won't be surprised if he leaves soon too. It's hard to see them leave, hopefully they will replace them with good people.  My schedule is every day from 8AM-1PM. I will work more hours while we are short staffed. It has been hard to work this summer while the kids were home and I was missing out on stuff.  They started school this week and that has helped.  I am up with them in the morning and get to see them off before I go to work. Then I'm home when they get home.  I'm very grateful for this job and that I'm happy there. I don't dread going to work.  I don't love the commitment of working every day, but I'm happy with my job.  Dena said both her and Tyler liked me the best and they interviewed a lot of candidates. She said that usually they hire students, but they both felt like they should hire me. It is a blessing to have a job, the job market is getting harder and harder.  They have had a ton of applicants for Jenny's job. We keep hoping and praying that Keith will find a job soon!

Caitlyn has been working hard on getting her CNA this summer. She had a month of online learning and then a week of in-person classes. The classes were very long days!  She got up early and made her lunch the first day and it got harder and harder to get up early.  Keith offered to make her lunch every night.  She was very happy about that!

After that she had to do two 12-hour clinical days.  She did those last weekend. She went to a nursing home and followed CNA's around.  The nurses weren't very happy to have the students there and didn't know they were coming so that was frustrating for her.  She loved working with the residents.  She is such a natural nurturer. Now she needs to take her test and then she will be a licensed CNA.  I'm so proud of Caitlyn for working so hard for this. It has been overwhelming to do while she is working full time, but she got it done!

I went to dinner with Pam, Shelley, Natasha and Hailey before Pam left town. It's always fun to talk and laugh with them.

Jonah went boating with friends a few times.

I loved seeing the video and pictures.  He is really good at wake surfing.

Hallee has loved hanging out with Tessa this summer. No matter how long they are together it's never long enough.

They girls had fun putting beads and braids in Lindy's hair. 

Hallee has been making lots of bracelets.  When I get home from work she likes to show me all the bracelets she made while I was gone. 

Hallee has had fun playing on the slip and slide at Tessa's. 

Hallee went over there during Wyatt's party.

I'm so glad the girls got a lot of time together this summer.

Tiff and Paul had us over for July 24th.  They fed us a great dinner and then we had fun playing games. Wyatt and Rockwell taught us a new game. Tiff and Paul have fed us so many meals since Keith lost his job. They have brought meals over multiple times and fed us at their house multiple times. It is so thoughtful and very much appreciated!

My lips have gotten swollen on and off this month.  It started out with just one lip getting swollen at a time and it would go down over night.  A couple of weeks ago I could feel both of my lips getting swollen and when I woke up in the morning both of my lips were huge.  It was very uncomfortable and very embarrassing. I am the receptionist at work so I'm the first person they see when they walk in the door. I told people I was having some sort of allergic reaction when I noticed them staring. One girl said, "Oh, I thought you just had a bad lip job." We had a huge staff event that day so I met some people that I messaged with, but hadn't met in person.  These two ladies came in and introduced themselves and then said, "It's nice to see your face." They looked at me and looked alarmed when they saw my face, Ha! They were really nice about it, but it was embarrassing. I had to work at BYU that night too. The swelling was starting to go down, but when I walked into work they all gasped in unison and asked what happened.  I was so happy when I woke up the next morning and most of the swelling was gone.  I have also been getting hives on my head, neck and back. They come and go. They start out small and then grow pretty big and then slowly go down and go away.  I can't figure out what would be causing this.  My best guess is stress.  I think starting my job and learning all of these new things has really stressed me out.  You add in the stress of Keith being out of work and worrying and being sad about my mom and it is a lot of stress.  

Jonah and Wyatt stared at my giant lips in horror.  Jonah couldn't believe I was going into work like that! By that night I think they were less worried when they could see that the swelling was going down. At dinner Jonah made this face and said, "guys, who am I?"  Ha, Jonah is always good for a laugh. 

Birthday Boy

Wyatt decided to do a swimming party at Katie's for his birthday.  We told him he could invite as many people as we could fit in the car.  They all met at our house on his birthday and he opened his presents and then we drove up to Katie's. 

He invited Charlie, Rockwell, Oliver, Dallin and Boston.  Eddie was at FSY so he couldn't come. 

When we got to Katie's the pool cover had a bunch of water on top of it.  Ben came down and looked at it and realized the pool cover was broken on one side and we needed to get all the water off before we could open it. The boys jumped right in and helped get the water off.  They are all such nice, good boys.

They had a great time swimming.  We bought some snacks, drinks and popsicles and they just swam and ate.

They had fun doing tricks off the diving board.

I had fun visiting with Katie while they swam.

They swam for a few hours and then we took them home.  I planned it in-between lunch and dinner so we wouldn't have to feed them a meal. It also worked great to go right after I got home from work.

Wyatt loves Gemma.  He always gives her so much attention and she loves it. Wyatt has always been an animal lover.

Rockwell came over after the party.  Wyatt wanted pizza for dinner.

Wyatt was very excited to open his presents after dinner.

I was just as excited, I knew he was going to love it and be so surprised.  He has wanted airpods for a long time, but knew they cost too much so he wasn't expecting them. Amazon had an amazing deal on them and Mel gave us some money for Wyatt and Hallee's birthday (she told us that she got a surprise bonus at the end of the school year and she thinks it was meant for Wyatt and Hallee's birthday, that was so generous and meant so much to me) so we decided to splurge and get him some.  

I think Rockwell was wondering how long Wyatt was going to sit there in shock. I think he did this for a good two minutes.

The shock turned to excitement and he just sat there and soaked it in for a bit.

It was so fun to see him so happy. 

I always stress when they don't have a lot of presents to open, but I knew that this one present would be more exciting to Wyatt than anything else.  He agreed and said, he would pick that over anything else.

Rockwell gave Wyatt a catapult so they each put an air pod in and worked on that. They had  fun doing that and playing video games. Wyatt was thrilled to spend his birthday with Rockwell.

Later that night when Caitlyn got home from work she gave Wyatt her present.

He has wanted this sweatshirt for a while and was thrilled that Caitlyn gave it to him. I forgot to take a picture, but we had his family dinner on Sunday. He chose cream cheese chicken for that. 

We went to grandma and grandpa's to celebrate July and August birthdays. I think Wyatt had a great birthday!