Summer Training Camp

You always hear about summer training camps for baseball, and this afternoon we held our own training camp in our living room. Jake LOVES his bat and ball, which was a gift given to him right after he was born, and he's finally getting some good use out of it! Joseph got right in there and helped him swing the bat. So...if you can't tell...it looks like Jake is probably going to be growing up a sports fan, especially if his dad has any say in it! I love watching these two together!

We're back!

Every time other people go on vacation I always think to myself, "Look, I know you have access to the internet, just blog during the trip it so I don't have to wait to hear about it until you get back!" Turns out people just get so busy during the vacation that they don't have time to write a blog about it. Ok, you're forgiven, as long as you forgive me for the two week blogging hiatus.

We had a FABULOUS time in Michigan! We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We were able to see some good friends and be together with everyone on my side of the family minus my brother Matt who is on a church mission in Argentina. Jake had the time of his life while he got to play with all his aunts and uncles and his cousin Issac. For the most part we just enjoyed each other's company, played some guitar hero world tour on the wii, watched movies, went shopping, ate at some nice restaurants, and played some crazy games, but there were also some fun mini-trips as well!

My brother Jonathan and his wife, Abby, and their son Isaac just moved back to Ann Arbor from a summer internship in Omaha. We helped them move into their new home, and after we were done we sent the babies back with Grandma and Grandpa while Jonathan, Abby, Joseph, and I all spent the night there then woke up early to go to Cedar Point the next morning! For those of you who don't know, Cedar Point is the "i-chi" of roller-coaster parks! You seriously have not ridden roller coasters until you have been to this park...it's insane. Anyway, we were so excited to go to Cedar Point, but we happened to choose the busiest day of the year to go! The weather was absolutely perfect, which of course made it so that everyone and their dog was at the park. Each ride had at least an hour wait, sometimes two, so we spent a lot of our time standing in lines. But it was still fun, and we plan on going back sometime this fall when school is in session for the high schoolers and we can avoid huge lines!

This is our "get me out of this line" picture...

We rode some fun water rides also...I don't think I've ever been more soaked in my life!

After we came back from Cedar Point, everyone drove up to the UP (Upper Peninsula) and we went to Pictured Rocks. It's a national park on Lake Superior that is absolutely breathtaking. We rented a pontoon and went all over the shore of pictures rocks looking at the beautiful scenery.

This rock is called "Indian Chief" because it kind of looks like the profile of a person at the end...and I guess that person must have been an Indian chief... What do you think?

While we were there we saw a bald eagle on one of the trees! It looked like it was sitting on a nest. This is one of the few times that I have seen one in the wild.

When we got to this arch, my brother and sister thought it would be awesome to go swimming to that sand bar. Let me tell you a little something about Lake Superior. It doesn't matter what time of the year it is, it is always FREEZING!! It took them about ten minutes to get up the courage to do it, but finally they jumped in!! My brother and sister are CRAZY!! Here is a little video for your enjoyment:

They made it!!

Anyway, we had a wonderful time being with my family and making all these fun memories. On a random sidenote, Jake is now obsessed with driving...anything! Anytime he can get the chance he wants to "drive." Watch out, world, Jake is coming!!

Thanks, Mom and Dad, for the wonderful vacation! I'm sorry to those of you who I didn't get a chance to see, I'll be up again in a few months and we'll get together then. It's amazing how fast two weeks fly by!

On the road again!

I failed to mention this in a post, but Joseph finished his first year of dental school! He can now clean people's teeth. Yes, useless as far as his profession goes (he won't actually be cleaning people's teeth), but at least it is a start. Now that he has a small six-week summer reprieve, we took advantage of the opportunity to take the 8 hour trip up to visit my family in Michigan!

Jake more than adores his grandparents. He is in heaven, which, in his definition means endless running in circles around the house, sugar cereal for breakfast, and more toys that light up and make noise than I could possibly mention in this blog post. Joseph and I are also having a blast. Yesterday, we went up to the lake and took the jet-ski around. The thing that we have enjoyed the most may be the fact that when we come to Michigan it's like we get free baby-sitting. Everyone else loves on Jake so much and wants to play with him so it's a chance for Joseph and I to enjoy some time to ourselves. We've only been here two days and have already gotten some great naps!

Jake has gotten his favorite Uncle Trenton to read him lots of good stories. He loves a good book!

Jake has also been playing the piano with his grandpa. He loves anything that makes noise!

We're going to be spending two weeks here in Michigan. Lots of fun times ahead!

The reader

Jake absolutely loves to read. It's good to finally get use out of all of the books that we have on his shelf. Don't get me wrong, he still enjoys pulling them all off and leaving a big mess for me to clean up later, but at least now he will pull them all off, find a few that he likes, then pull himself and those books onto the rocking chair and read to himself.

The other day Joseph had just given him a bath and he didn't want to be bothered with clothes, so we let him romp around in his diaper for a while. A few minutes later Joseph said, "Angela, come look at this," and this is what we saw:

Ever since I bought this glider rocking chair from someone in the ward, it has been his new favorite spot. Little cutie!!

And, yes, he's still drooling like crazy. All that shiny stuff on his chest is his saliva...unfortunately that's not so cute.

Fun with cousins

Recently we had a surprise visit from some of our favorite people. Uncle Christopher and Aunt Eliza (Joseph's twin brother and his wife) and Aunt Abby (my brother's wife who also happens to be Eliza's sister) were in town because their grandpa was in the hospital unexpectedly. Although they were here under circumstances that were less than desirable, we did take advantage of the fact that they were here and enjoyed a little visit from them. Jake especially enjoyed playing with his cousin Isaac. As you may recall, Isaac is my brother's son that is 6 months younger than Jake, but they are the same size. They enjoyed spending some bathtime together:



Isaac chased Jake around (Jake was a little nervous about this crawling action at first)


Then Jake got on the ground and joined in the fun


Jake is teaching Isaac the joys of calling people on the phone. Isaac will learn soon.

Thanks for visiting us, guys! We love you all and can't wait until we can see you again for longer and under better circumstances.

I'm back...and alive!!

WHEW!!! It's hard to believe, but after months of planning, working, and sweating, girls camp is finally over! It really was an amazing experience. I don't want to bore you with all the details, but let me just tell you a few things:

1. It rained every single day. Hard. As in, wondering if we need to get out of our cabins/tents and into the storm shelters hard. Luckily, no one was hurt and there were only a few tents that were flooded.

2. When I went to girls camp, our stake young women's leader (the lady who was in charge of the young women's program for the area) was also the one who was front and center during girls camp. She was the one that told everyone what to do, where to go, when to do it, etc. That stake camp director was mostly there to help her do the things that she needed to do. That isn't the way that it is here. The stake camp director (me) was in charge of EVERYTHING! I was a little taken aback by how much I really would be in charge of things. Baptism by fire. Totally stressful. But I did it! Big thanks to all those who helped with the craziness that came along with me being in charge!! It'll be better next year, I promise...

3. The girls that came to the camp are absolutely amazing. I cannot tell you how incredible they are. I've said this before, but as you'll read in my previous post, I really thought that maybe the reason that I was put in charge of girls camp was so I could be an example to these girls. Turns out, that's not the way it went at all. They were the examples to me. Truly, I cannot say enough about the incredible young women in our stake. They are lights to the world.

4. This may be a little indulgent, but I just wanted to tell Kelli Ford (if she reads this blog) how much I thought about her at girls camp. She was my leader/example/wonderful friend while I was a girl at camp, and I often thought "How in the world did she do this??" She was the most energetic, fun-loving, spiritual giant, and by the end my week at camp I kept thinking "How did she keep her energy up?" What were your secrets? I need to know for next year (that is, if they keep me around).

And so, these are a few of my experiences at camp. The following are a few pictures of what we did. First is skit night. The theme for Girls Camp was "Walk in the Light" and our skit was a spoof of "These boots are made for walkin'" We changed some of the words to make them more applicable to the theme and just had a blast. We threw in a few Beyonce dance moves too. It was pretty awesome, if I do say so myself.

Example of how amazing these girls are: Instead of complaining about the horrible rain that kept us from going on our hike on time, the girls started doing the limbo instead. In their ponchos. It was beyond awesome.

When it wasn't raining it was SUPER hot, so we kept a lot of popsicles and fudgsicles on hand. Here are a couple of the silly girls.

All in all, it was an incredible experience. I am so grateful to all of the people who held me up when I didn't think that I could go on. I'm grateful to the Lord for giving me this incredible opportunity. I came to love these girls. They are wonderful. I loved it. And after crashing for two days straight, I finally feel like I can get out of bed and be a wife and mother again. Because, really, that is my favorite job of all.

Some thoughts on Girls Camp

I have been a very busy woman lately. Some of you may know that I have been called to be the Stake Girls Camp Director. For those who have no idea what the heck that means, basically I was asked by our church leader to be in charge of the annual girls camp that takes place during the summer. The girls are ages 12-17, and there are about 10 LDS churches in the area that involve their girls in this particular camp. I was asked about 8 months ago to be in charge, and we have been planning and coordinating from the very beginning, and now it's finally almost here. Girls Camp starts on Monday!

I've had a good time planning everything and getting it all together with the rest of my committee, although it has been very stressful at times, too. This week especially has been devoted to getting things ready. Joseph said that now he knows how I feel with him gone all day because I've been so busy with getting things ready for Girls Camp that I haven't been around much. Not much fun, is it sweetheart...sorry, it will all be over next week.

Although I am super excited for everything, I am also a little bit (ok, very) nervous. Here's the deal: I am 24 years old (almost 25...yikes!), which is not much older than many of these girls that are going to be at camp. In fact, I feel like it was just last year that I was going to camp myself. How am I supposed to be a responsible adult when all who know me know how very irresponsible I actually am? How will these girls listen to me when I am barely a few years their senior?

As camp gets closer and closer, I am starting to realize that maybe responsibility doesn't mean being older. Maybe the reason that I am in this calling is not to be "in charge" and have people follow my every order. I'm certainly not the most administratively organized person around so that definitely is not the reason (unless I am supposed to learn that skill...hmmm...)Maybe the reason that I am in this calling is just to be an example to the young women. Maybe that's what responsibility is...just being an example. I am certainly not one to say that I am a perfect example of anything, but I really have tried to be the best that I can be, and of course, fall short far too many times. Maybe I am in this calling to help the girls see that there are people who have been right where they are, and who understand the things they are going through, maybe all too well.

What I do know is that as I have organized this week-long camp for the girls, I have felt a special spirit about it. I hope that as I go to camp next week and carry out all the things that I have been planning for 8 months that the girls will have a wonderful experience and that they will more fully realize their Heavenly Father's love for each of them. After all, this certainly isn't about me. It's about each of the girls individually. I hope it all works out!!