Heber Valley Camp

Girl's camp this year was like going to the Sheraton! No roughing it here. It was really nice though and we all had a great time. The girl's were angles to what I've seen in the past with other girl's camps I've been to and we all slept in the same Yurt (cabin).
I have a limited amount of pictures, Scott's the photo taker in our family so I'm not that quick to realize when there's a "Kodak" moment. If you want to see some more fun pics from camp check this out.

Here's our camp site (if you can call it a camp site)

The inside of our Yurt. It was set out in a circular pattern and it really made it fun to interact with all the girls.

This is the Frog we got to take care of up at camp. The girls loved him so much they almost killed him. His name is Gorf, Oscar, Bubbles, Charlie, and so on. I like Gorf best.



A shot of our girls and some of the leaders preparing lunch. In the background you can see the shape of the Yurts.


Kayla and Dani Rose heading out on the 4th year hike. They are leaving hot showers and flushing toilets to spend 12 hours hiking and sleeping in the mountains up above us.

Some of the free time consisted of doing hair. Straighting hair is one thing I never did a girl's camp.

It was a ton of fun. Coming back to the hum drum of life was kinda sad but as soon as a walked back into work I almost started to cry. I love my Young Women and we really did have a fantastic week!

My resident photographer

This year Scott has really come along with his photography business. In the next couple of months he's hoping to get his own photo web site up and running for folks to view. Every weekend for the past 3-4 months he has had some kind of photo shoot going on. I'm so proud he's following one of his dreams. I just wanted to share just a few of the many, many wonderful pictures he has taken. He has also taken wildlife pics and outdoors pics but I thought I'd throw in people pics instead. Tell me what you think.

Just plain slow

Now for some reason, I don’t know if it’s just the nature of the way the Lord runs this great green earth and everything on it, but I’ve decided that there’s this cycle where your brain is either running on top notch, semi top notch, ok, or just plain slow! Today was one of those instances where my mind and body seemed to start out at “just plain slow”.
Of course there are many ways this slowness can happen. You can say something stupid, laugh at something that’s not really that funny, do something disgusting, or do other embarrassing or other character compromising things.

My "Just plain slow" moment started on my way into work. In the mornings I usually scramble out out of bed, get ready for the day and then dash outside to the car to make it into work around 7:00 am. So, I’m still fairly “new”, as my dad would say, when I arrived at work. I noticed after I had left my parked car that the CEO had arrived at the same time I had and was walking toward me to obviously start a conversation as we began to walk into the building together. Now since this is the CEO of the company you want to come across as smart and as charismatic as possible. This morning I did the complete opposite. I left my home late enough that I had brought my makeup in with me and so I looked pretty pasty and blah, I also wasn’t too happy with the outfit I had chosen to put on for the day so my self-esteem factor was riding pretty low at this point. So of course while I’m talking to Rob I’m very aware of what I must look like and how awful I feel about myself when BAM! there’s the concrete barrier that divides the building from the parking lot.

Rob: “Oh WOW, are you ok?” (A faint chuckle)

(uhm, no idiot, do you really think I’m going to be ok after what I just did)

“Yeah, Yeah, I’m ok."

Rob: “are you sure, you hit that pretty hard?”

(My knee and forehead are starting to throb)

“No, really, I’m ok" (Just get away and leave me alone!)

Rob: “do you want me to help you to your office?”

“No, I’m good,… really, I’m fine!"

(For the LOVE, MAN! Let the agony stop!)

He finally CLUES in and allows me to get to my office on my own and he finally goes on his merry way. I bet the first thing he did when he got to his office was grab one of the executives and say, “Dude (while starting to laugh) you’ll never believe what just happened on my way in from the parking lot!”

I, on the other hand, went straight to the bathroom to nurse not only my forehead and knee but my ego! What a great way to start off my week!

Midnight Drama

In all the 9 years Scott and I have been married he has occasionally entertained me at night. Not the kind of entertainment you automatically assume I’m talking about, no, the kind that wakes you up suddenly from a deep sleep only to find that your husband is re-creating the game he was playing the night before on the XBOX. (What's funny is he doesn't play that often) There are several occasions in the past that I can bring to mind clear as day. These occurrences happen often and most of the time I have to talk him out of his dream. It makes me laugh right out loud.

Last night was one of these very entertaining moments!

Let me set up the scene: It’s about 3:45 am. I wake up to Scott Yelling quite loud and sudden.

“SAM, SAM (our dog)…..get the h@#* out of the bed!....."GET DOWN”….. (Like a Panther, Scott suddenly flings himself violently to the side of the bed and lays low)


"SH*&!!"

“Men, get back and throw the Sparklers! NOW….. Do it NOW……"

"SH!*!!”

Now this is the point where I realize what’s going on. First of all, Scott never says the word SH@* and he never calls out to any “men” on a regular basis. He’s having another recon dream. I quietly lean over and wait for the drama to continue.

“SH*&! If you don’t throw those sparklers now they’re going to kill us. THROW THEM, THROW THEM! …..How can you call yourself a SOLIDER! You’re nothing but a WORTHLESS PIECE OF..”

And this is where I finally have to wake him up.

“Scott, Scott, are you ok?” (I mean come on, he's just moved like a Panther to duck and cover and he's swearing like a sailor)

“Are you awake?”

******SILENCE******

(Then in a soft and muffled voice) “I’m so embarrassed.” then he slowly gets up off the floor.

“Go back to sleep babe. I don't want anyone to kill you and watch out for those sparklers they might really do some damage!” (Now I’m laughing)

“Well, since I’m up I might as well go to the bathroom.”

And that’s it. That's the end of our midnight drama! Scott makes his way slowly to the bathroom and I lay awake for a couple minutes my heart finally slows down and I fall back to sleep.

Good Bye, We'll miss you!

Kelly and Andrew left for Alabama. It's crazy to think how fast the time goes.

It all started when we came back from our annual 4th of July trip to the Oregon coast. Andrew had just received his BA and was finishing up his summer semester. Before they took off for graduate school where Andrew could get his MA and Kelly could finish up nursing school they decided they should make a pit stop in Utah while waiting to be accepted to graduate school. 10 months later, and after working and saving up they are on their way to Alabama. (The second top school in the nation for sports management -Andrew's forte)
We had a ton of great times. I think I'll be the one to miss them the most. It's been rather hard adjusting to a quite home again. Thanks Kel and Andrew for making this one of the best 10 months of our lives! We love you and wish you the best in everything!

You can find out about their cross-country trip @ http://www.andrewkellymarie.blogspot.com/

Love you guys!! We'll miss you!

8 miles

For the last year my dad has been trying to get us to hike to Dry Lake. This was a childhood summer hike he would make and he wanted to share it with us. Finally, the weekend before Kelly and Andrew had to leave we made the plan.

So, Saturday at 9:30 we started our 1000 ft ascent. We had no idea what we were up against and according to my dad this was a 4 mile hike along the ridge line. Mind you, we were just a mile or so outside of Eureka in Juab county so this was pretty rugged, no one in sight kinda of country. We went straight up the first mountain (my calves were bulging and burning at this point) but once we got to the top we were all looking forward to the ridge line. The first picture below shows our half way mark. If you look at the last ridge in the picture, the one with the snow....yeah, that one, that is where dry lake is. Here, at the half way point is when we started to ask how long this hike really was. 10 hours later, and with no water left we made it back and all in one piece.

The day was perfect. Hiking along the ridge line kept us cool. The wind would come up through the canyon, without it I know we would have all succumbed to heatstroke. Not really, but it was a life saver.

Andrew was the Biologist on the hike. He stopped to take some meat out of the middle of some cactus and got a few needles wedged in his thumb. It was quite the "sticky" situation.

The snow was also a blessing. It's not very often you can stop and cool down in snow in 80 degree weather, on a rugged trail, after already hiking 3 miles, and pulling cactus needles from you hand. What a blast!

Mingling with the local folk.
Our destination...Dry Lake. We were pleasantly surprised at how beautiful it was. The picture doesn't do it justice. Before we reached the summit and saw the lake, we were discussing what we were expecting when we got there. True, there were no cascading waterfalls, or beautiful blue lagoons to wade in but it came close though, don't you think?

My dad is a mountain goat in disguise. He would have never stopped if weren't for us and all our lung problems. I mean come on who else needs to stop for air when you know you've got 8 miles ahead of you, it's a piece of cake. My mom was also quite amazing!

Proof that maxi pads really are the most bionic bandage out there. Dad fell on a rock pretty hard on the way back. He has a blood condition that lets him bleed forever. Anyway, having a maxi pad around saved the day. We teased him; "So dad, now you can tell everyone at work that you have worn a maxi pad". (giggle, giggle)



When we got back to the truck it was 8:30 pm. We were all so proud of ourselves. We came home, had a nice hot shower and then had the best sleep ever. Thanks dad for allowing us to test our limits, for allowing us to take in the great beauty of the outdoors, and for making another great memory together!

My Weekend Surprise

Saturday afternoon Scott leaned over and asked if I wanted to go to a laser show at the Clark Planetarium. My sister's and their husbands were planning on hanging out that night at our house and so I said, “Can we invite them to come with us?” Scott commented on how nice it would be to do this alone. (We used to go to laser shows at the Hansen Planetarium. One of our favorites to see was the laser “U2” show. It’s back again and Scott wanted to revisit memory lane.) Again I insisted that we invite my sister’s and their husbands to join us. Scott, the good man that he is, gave in to my request but instead of going to the laser show he suggested dinner. I accepted.
Kristy and Ryan showed up to the house around 6:30. We were all getting ready to leave when I noticed that my brown sandals were missing. Now mind you, I had a white pair of sandals on already. I had just noticed as I was putting on my white sandals that I could not place where my brown sandals were. Even though I wasn't planning on wearing the brown sandals I suddenly started to obsess about the sandals and of there whereabouts. I looked downstairs. I looked under the bed. I looked in the garage. It got to the point where everyone was saying, “come on, let’s go, we’ll look for them when we get back.” I finally got in the car. I couldn't stop talking about where the heck my sandals could be. Scott finally turned to me and said, “Calm down. Just let it go and we’ll find them when we get back. I mean come on, they’re just shoes!” So I did, I let it go. But in my mind I still obsessed.

We ate dinner. We had a really great time. We were there for a while talking when Andrew suggested going to Temple Square to see the flowers. I thought it was a great idea. So we all jumped in our cars and took off for Salt Lake. I was talking the whole way into Salt lake (and still obsessing about my blasted sandals) when Scott turned the car into the Little America hotel parking lot.

“What are we doing here?” I said. “This isn’t Temple Square.”

“I know it isn’t. I know how hard mother’s day can be for you so I decided to take you away for the weekend. Church is taken care of. There are no meetings tomorrow and I made arrangements for Young Women’s. There is nothing to worry about. By the way…..Your flippn’ brown sandals are in your luggage in the trunk. The laser show was my ploy to get you down town but since you wouldn’t have it, Andrew swooped in with the Temple square idea. You have come pretty close to having the little things ruin it for you.” (Man alive was that ever true.)

Oh, my word! What a surprise. Not only had the mystery of the missing brown sandals been solved but Scott was whisking me away from a potential heartache.

It was such a nice and relaxing evening. We finished off our stay at the Little America Hotel with a nice Mother’s Day Brunch the following morning. We waited in line at the hotel for about an hour. It was well worth it though. I had endless amounts of crab legs, chocolate dipped strawberries, yummy salads, and delectable desserts. Scott really knows how to take care of me. He always nails it when it comes to surprises!

My Mom!

My mom is so amazing! She is one of my life hero’s! She is an amazing example of what a mother is and should be. She is loving and accepting and full of life and fun. She is my mentor and friend, my confidant and critic. She has given me what I need to become the mom I have always wanted to be. Because of her I know that I can do anything! Thanks mom, you have truly been a blessing in my life.

I Love you mom!

What's up

So, I've been doing my blog reading and decided that I needed to update mine. I also thought it would probably be ok to post something without pictures. I always feel I need to have a picture included in my posts to give it a personal feel. Since it's been FOREVER LONG since I last posted I thought I would give everyone an update.

So, you all saw my new car Scott surprised me with. It's a 2009 Toyota corolla. Our last corolla we had for almost 10 years. It was a great car. It had been through two massive car accidents, both front and back, both not my fault....the last accident that mashed it in really good came from Scott. Let me put it this way, Scott hit ME from behind and pushed the car into an empty highway. We were lucky, but that's a whole other story for another time. Anyway, the car had been through a lot. Our first trip to Oregon was what really did it in. Ever since that trip there has been something jiggling in the front passenger side, under the hood. You'd get into the car and hear, "Jiggle, Jiggggglllee, jig, jig, jiggle." We took it to seven different car shops and everything checked out like aces. It got to the point where Scott just didn't trust the blue little thing any longer and so he went out on a limb and got me something more reliable. I love it! I really never thought I'd ever own a brand new car.

We were FINALLY approved for adoption in March! It took a whole year for the process. The one clincher...we have family living with us. It took forever to get their background checks back. Now we just wait, try to be proactive; "Hey, do you want to keep your baby after you give birth?", and do everything we can to keep ourselves busy.

My sisters are moving away form me. Kelly and Andrew are going to Alabama for school, they will be living in Tuscaloosa, and Kristy and Ryan are off to Case Western (Cleveland, OH) for dental school . It will be so sad to see them go. They are my bestest friends!

Scott and I have been working out religiously after work. We meet at the rec center in West Jordan and work out for about an hour. We swim, lift weights, and run or bike while we watch Oprah. It's been a lot of fun. We enjoy doing it together and I actually look forward to it.

I can't wait to post all our "before" and "after" pictures from our most recent home DIY's. Scott took this week off to build a custom pantry for me. It's been awesome to see him excel in this, and it's been a lot of fun to make this house our home!

On top of preparing for girls camp, planning youth conference, preparing the yard for summer, planning family events before everyone leaves, getting hooked on "Battle Star Galactica", finding time to make a post, and taking care of Scott, that's about it!

Happy Birthday to ME!

That Wallpaper thang!

We decided to do some more upgrades to the house. Around this time of year, Thanks to "The Man", we get little money back from the goverment. Normally we'd throw it back into some debt but we decided to throw a little toward debt and a lot into upgrades. We feel like we deserve it since we work so dang hard. So we decided to paint three rooms upstairs, put in new carpet, and get all new appliances for the Kitchen. I'm very excited about this. Especially since everything in this house is as old as I am. And since we have family living in our basement for free we decided to use what resources we had and put 'um to work. Our first job, take down the hideous wallpaper in the second bedroom. We were able to get three days of work into 8 short hours with their help. Just include a free lunch, drinks, and endless tunes you can sing to and a lot of great things can happen!

Scott and the STEAMER

Our Wallpaper crew

And with all hard work there was bound to be some skin...suprisingly no butt crack, but it was still funny!

Sisters

After the wallpaper came off we had to scrape off all the glue. Yummy!

There was glue snott flying everywhere.

We have more upgrades coming....I'll keep you posted.

FLOORED

I know, I know, you can all pick yourselves off the floor! I made another post, and in the same month no less!

I was so proud of my Valentine I made for Scott this year that I wanted to share. Of course Scott and I share our love all year round so Valentines is just a fun day for me to show some creativity. I didn't want to go over board (we save that for bigger holidays) so I spent a whopping $5 dollars (for supplies and all) on this great gift. Of course when Scott see's the gift he's like, "Oh, that's cute....ok, see you later" but not before I quickly point out that there's something underneath the snowman (diet Coke) and of course he lights up, takes the diet Coke and candy and leaves the cute little snowman for me to deal with. So if you really think about it, I really do it all for me. It brings satisfaction. It's when I have the kids that this stuff will really be fun!

So, anyway, now that you've brushed yourself off and took the time to read, I hope you all have a nice Valentine's Day!

See Ya!

Finally updating....

Well, It's been a while since I've actually been able to sit down and really do some updating on my blog. I've spent the last four hours trying to figure out how to upload videos, post slide shows and add fun features to this blog of mine. I know it's not nearly as cute as some of yours, i'm just excited I finally did something! Anyway, while I was trying things out I decided to post this video I found. It's from our "Jack Johnson" road trip we took when we were in Washington. Enjoy! p.s. the video is not quite up to speed with the music. I think it was a transfer thing.

Sorry guys!!!

First of all, I'm sorry that it's been over a month since I've updated my blog. I'm the biggest slacker. Second, I'm sorry for not keeping up with the "blogging times"! I mean look at all your cute wallpapers and scrapbook layouts. I wish I had time for all of that but I don't. It's been great to finally catch up on everyone's lives!

I admit it's been a little crazy emotionally around here. We got news that a birth mom wanted to place her baby with us. It was the best news of my whole life. A baby was coming. It's like when you first get the news you're pregnant you hesitate in telling anyone in fear something may go wrong. Things were going great. It was to be a private adoption and we had our attorney waiting to send the birth mom papers (she lives in Memphis, TN - Sorry Edith we didn't make it, we will). We finally felt confident. We had been to the temple. We knew this was it. We started to make plans for work, finances and colors for a room. For some reason I just couldn't make myself walk through the baby section of the stores for fear I would jinx the situation. We finally felt good about making this known to close family and friends. That's when it happened. We told family and the next few days after we told family we didn't hear anything from our case worker. I remember it was a Tuesday night. I was extremely emotional. I knew something wasn't right. The next day we got a call form our case worker informing us that the birth mom had gone with another family. The birth mom had placed two previous children with a family in Springville. When she found out she was pregnant she called them right away and asked them if they would take her third. They declined stating they only wanted the two. In the end, they decided to go ahead and take her third child. So that's the story. When I got the call and everything was explained I wasn't mad at anyone. No one had done anything wrong. But it was hard to go through the heartache. We're good though and know that if we keep plugging along we'll be just fine. So there you have it.

Work is good, Young Women's is fantastic and in a big way a saving grace, and Scott and I are enjoying having Kelly and Andrew living with us.

Last week was Kelly's birthday. We decided it would be fun to go and stay the night in Eureka, UT (this is where both my parents are from and where my grandparents and grandma live) It had snowed pretty good up there and we knew Granny Franny needed us to get up there and get some snow off her roof. When we arrived we were pleasantly surprised with how much there really was. We played a little and enjoyed visiting the grandparents.

Birthday cake for breakfast is truly the breakfast of champions!

Scott's favorite breakfast beverage!

Grandma and Grandpa Sanderson's home....look at the roof.

Grandma and Grandpa.

Dad and Grandpa in the backyard after shoveling.

Granny Franny's roof...Holy icicles Batman!

Dad with Eureka in the background (See Brett, this town does exist!)

Scott being my HERO! You dare devil

Can you spot the fence.

Got to love the snow, especially after the storm and the sun is shining!