Girls Camp - July 2011

We had Stake Girls Camp for the Young Women in the Stake. The Stake leaders are in charge of this camp. They ask for volunteer leaders to come to camp and supervise a group of girls. The girls are mixed together from other wards, so they can get to know each other.

I volunteered this year to be a camp leader. I also volunteered Matt to come up and be the priesthood during the camp. Before camp started, I was informed who my girls would be in my group. We got together before camp 2 or 3 times. We did this in order to get to know each other, come up with a group name, and to practice our skit.

The girls ended up picking "Funky Monkey Mormon Mafia" for our name.

For our skit, we based it off of the TV Show, America Best Dance Company. All of us performed and at the end of the skit, we got the whole crowd dancing the "Funky Monkey" or as you might know it the "Chicken Dance" done at weddings. We came up with our own "monkey" moves instead of the "chicken" moves.

Here are a couple of pictures from the skit.

The night of the skits, the Bishops and Young Women Leaders could come up and visit. Here is a group photo of all the members from my ward at camp. I had 11 Young Women at camp. It was fun watching them learn new things.

I am so glad that Matt was able to come with me even though he had school during the summer. Here is a picture of us together in our "Funky Monkey Mormon Mafia" shirts. Matt drew on the monkey.

Summer of Hiking

We love being outdoors. This past summer we went hiking with our friends, Laura and Charlie. It is quite funny as we introduce Laura (she grew up in California) to the great outdoors of Utah last year with a couple of small hikes, Ensign Peak and Donut Falls.


This year, we went hiking up to Dog Lake in Big Cottonwood Canyon and the the Brighton Lakes also up Big Cottonwood Canyon. Our last hike was up to Timpanogos Cave. All the hikes were a blast and the mountains were absolutely beautiful. Dog Lake Hike Pictures:

Timpanogos Cave Hike:

Happy Birthday Matt

Matt turned the big 30 on September 19th while I was away in Atlanta, Georgia for a work conference. I was kinda bummed about missing his birthday, so I decided to have a small surprise birthday party for him on Sunday, October 9th.

For his cake I decided to make him a Mad Hatter cake. Lets just say I have never made a cake besides a Betty Crocker cake in a pan and I don't like frosting it, so Matt usually frost its.

First was the baking of the cakes, then freezing them, so they would be easier to frost.

My sister, Kali, the cake expert told me how to make butter cream frosting. So I started with that. Lets just say, she forgot to tell me it is really think and I was suppose to thin it out to get the consistency I wanted. Well, my mom and I finally got the icing to be manageable. So we put the cake together, added some icing, and I added the final touches. See the steps and how it turned out.

Let me know how I did on my first cake....and probably last as it took forever!

 

You can teach and old dog new tricks

Today, I got back from Arizona from a work trip and ask Matt to take me to his parents' house to get some tomatoes before going home.

Well we arrived at the house, Matt's mom (Dianna) wanted to show us something in the shed. Matt's dad (John) had bought two new bikes. Why you may ask, because he is in the 11 year old scouts and they were going on a bike ride and he needed a bike. So since he needed a bike, he bought Matt's mom one too.

Now for some background information:

• Dianna hasn't been on a bike since she was 14 years old and tried stopping the bike by riding it into a house.
• Dianna didn't even test out the bike at the bike shop, but she finally did try sit on it in the backyard once it was at home and out of sight from the neighbors.

After Matt and I were shown the bikes, we decided to take them for a test run. When we got back, I suggested that we go on a bike ride, being unaware of the Ma's background information. While Matt and I went to my parent's house to get my bike and a bike for Matt to ride, Ma was suppose to be practicing on her bike. Well we got back in enough time to find out that Ma and Pa were on there way to the DI to see if they could find Ma a smaller bike. Well Matt and I decided to help Ma remember how to ride a bike.

Check out some of the picture and videos of teaching an old dog new tricks! (Love you, Ma!)

Well once I put the camera away, Ma decided to slam on the breaks and fall off her bike. She scrapped up her knee and hand a little was able to get back on.

So instead of riding the bikes to the trail area, Ma and Pa loaded their bikes in the back of the truck and drove them to the trail. So instead of going for a bike ride, they took their bikes for a ride.

We had fun and hope to be able to go again...once Ma has had some more practice though!

Thanks for the fun Ma and Pa!

250,000 steps in June

So I have been kind of lazy in life. Not trying new things or even challenging myself. I was talking to my best friend Kristin on a couple of different occasions and she told me to make small goals not just big ones like getting a baby and getting Matt a job.

So I decided in June to walk 250,000 steps.

To break it down, 2,000 steps is about 1 mile and essentially by the end of the month this equals out to be 125 miles.

So I needed to walk at least 8,333 steps per day to meet my goal. Some days I walked at least that and more. Some days a lot less.

I took 257510 steps in June!!!

Matt took me for ice cream to celebrate hitting the goal for June and in preparation for our goal for July and August.

Next goal July 1st to September 1st

NO Sweets

NO Soda

250,000 steps per month



7th Honeymoon…or 7th Anniversary…All in how you look at it!

Matt and I went away for our 7th anniversary. I got to book the trip this year as last year was Disneyland. Can’t believe it has already been a year.


Well this year, we stayed a little closer to home. We went to a bed and breakfast up in Woodland, Utah which is near Kamas. We left on Thursday, June 23 after I got off work and returned home on Sunday, June 26th.

We are calling this anniversary the backwards anniversary, because everything that we planned to do went askew.

The Askew Plans

1. We were supposed to go jet skiing on Saturday, but the weather was only 56 degrees.

2. We tried seeing Thor at the Kamas theater, which only has one screen, but we were 30 minutes late.

3. We planned to go hiking on our trip, but all hiking was either washed out or under 5 feet of snow.

4. Tried seeing Green Lantern in Heber City, but it was only showing in 3D, which Matt and I don’t like to watch cause it makes us sick.

5. Tried renting ATVs on Mirror Lake Highway, but it was closed past Mile 28 and we needed to go to Mile 49. We could have gone around Evanston, but that would be a 2 hour drive one way.


So what did we do…. We had a lot of fun anyway.

We attempted as many hikes as possible...

• We found Mill Hollow Reservoir and walked along it, until the trail was washed away. We went on a short hike that the locals love to find it being closed by the forest services.
• We went to Provo Falls twice.
• We went over to Smith and Morehouse Reservoir and found a hike that we were able to go up a mile (supposed to be a 7 mile hike one way) and had to turn around because it was wet and muddy

Other fun…

We played Angry Birds, watched a lot of movies, ate at Mom/Pop places, had a snowball fight, relaxed, walked a lot, and enjoyed being away from work, school, and homework.

Snowball fight on June 24. We propped the camera on top of the car and tried to catch us throwing snowballs at each other. See how well it turned out.

Fun on Mirror Lake Highway...well as far up as we could go. 

Snowpack at mile 28 up Mirror Lake Highway. WOW!

Lilly Lake....We went camping here about 4 years ago with Matt's family. Can't go camping here anytime soon.

This is Lost Lake across the street from Lilly Lake. Currently, I think the name is correct...until the snow melts anyway.

Pictures at Provo Falls. They were really roaring....I got a little scared.

Pictures at Provo Falls.

Pictures at Provo Falls. They were really roaring....I got a little scared.

Pictures at Provo Falls.

This is the front porch of the Bed and Breakfast.

Matt and I are practicing what it will be like when we are older sitting on our porch watching grandkids.

This is the last picture I took at the Bed and Breakfast. This was our view every morning, white sat on the deck eating breakfast.

It was beautiful and relaxing. 

Happy 7th Honeymoon Mattie. I love you more today than yesterday and the day before that and the day before that. Can’t wait for the next 7 years times 7 years times 7 years. You and I were made for each other. Crazy and absolutely happy at the same time!!!!!