B.O.O.T Camp at Lake Lyman

Well, I just recently returned from another successful girls camp. Every year our Stake goes to Lake Lyman for girls camp. It's a gorgeous area and we were lucky enough to have great weather the entire time. However, this year was a little different from all the other camps I've gone to. First of all, this was my first time going to camp as a Stake Leader. It was a little different being a leader at the Stake level, but still lots of fun. It's been a blast getting to know the girls and leaders throughout the Stake and I still was able to hang out with my ward at night.I was also able to have my little sister go with me this year. My parents were out of town, so she was with me for the week. She had a really good time and I was impressed with how well she got along with everyone in my ward. (Thanks to everyone who made her feel at home)

Our theme for the year was B.O.O.T. Camp (Building Our Own Testimonies) Hence the camo. I was in charge of the craft for the entire Stake which gave me more gray hairs than I'd wish to have. We decided to make the gift something that the girls would actually like to have and hang on to for years to come. So we came up with the idea of magnet boards. They were really fun and easy to make and the girls loved them. The hardest part was finding and ordering all of the materials, finding people to cut the wood and tin, and keep it all within the budget I was given. Talk about stress. Anyway, I think they look really cute. Not only was the craft a big hit, but the entire length of girls camp was too. I had so many leaders and young women tell me how much they enjoyed this year, and I had several tell me it's the best camp they've ever been too. We had some pretty miraculous stories and events take place that changed many lives. It was neat to see girls come up one way and leave totally changed, having been touched by the spirit. I have such a strong testimony of the importance of girls camp and the effect it has on the testimonies of the youth. It is such a rewarding feeling to know that we were able to touch lives and hopefully influence our girls for the better. Now, if we can just do the same thing next year!

New Family Pictures

Just recently my Sister and her family came out from Ohio to visit for a few weeks. We don't get to see them all that often, and I just had a brother come home from his mission, so my Mom figured it would be a great time to update the family pictures. I thought I'd share these with you since there are so many of you who know my family.

The entire family. Including little Keegan who is on the way

Bennett, Annecy, and Elden

Just the two of us

Meet Big Blue.

Well, we did it. We went and bought ourselves a truck. We've actually had it for a few weeks now and since so many people were giving me a hard time about it I decided I'd better post a couple of pictures. She's a real beauty and it's been nice to have a truck that will be able to haul our trailer up large hills faster than 35 mph. I think Chad is excited about it, however it's not exactly what he wanted. He was pretty specific in some of the features that he wanted to have, but we weren't able to find quite what he wanted in the area. So he had to settle a little bit, which actually made it very hard for him to buy this truck. We spent a few days thinking about it and we weren't too sure that we were really sold on it. Once the dealership finally got to the price range we were looking at, we spent a good 2-3 hours debating on if it's what we really wanted and if we should get it.









All in all I think Chad's happy. I know I am!!! I'm always wanting to go for a ride and have to beg Chad to let me take it for a spin. I'm sure he'd like to keep it all to himself if he could, but he's been really good about sharing it with me. Chad's family has always named their trucks and for some reason I've been put in charge of naming our new one. I don't know if we've settled on Big Blue yet. We usually refer to our vehicles and toys as girls, and Big Blue sounds a little too masculine. So, I was thinking we should go with Babe (after Paul Bunions big blue ox), or Crystal (as in crystal blue), or Sally (which deals with a song that Chad and I like). Any suggestions??

Flaming Gorge Family Vacation

It has been a tradition in Chad's family (for many years now) to go to Flaming Gorge every summer. Unfortunately, we weren't able to make it last year and were both really bummed out about it. So this year we were determined to go. And we are sure glad we did!!! Most of the time not everyone can make it up for the same week and it's usually a hit and miss with everyone's schedules, but for some reason we were there together this time. (Except for Jodi and Mike. We missed ya!)
For those of you who don't know, Chad's family is really big into water skiing. And I mean really big into it. I don't think I can fully explain the passion that they all have for the sport. Luckily for them, most of us who have married into the family have either come in with the same passion, or have developed a love of it as well. So we spend a lot of the vacation time skiing the reservoir. The best time and water to ski is in the early morning. So we usually wake up early and hit the water. Unfortunately for me, I've done most of my skiing in the"bathtub" water of Lake Mead, Nevada. Needless to say, I've become a little spoiled. I'm not a big fan of Utah's colder water temperatures, so I have a tendency to avoid jumping into 70 degree water at 7:30 in the morning. I've done it before, but opted out this year. So I did my skiing in the afternoon with all the boat chop. It wasn't very pretty, but lots of fun.
After the morning skiing we would go back to camp, grab some breakfast, make some lunches, and head to the beach. During the day it's harder to go skiing with so much boat traffic, so we would usually go for rides on the tube, swim, or build sand castles. In the afternoon, just like clockwork, storms would roll in so we would usually come back early and hang out before dinner. After eating and cleaning up we would either head out to go fishing, catch crawdads, or go for a quick ride on the motorcycle. It seems like most of our vacations we are keeping busy doing so many different things. It was nice to get away from work and life and just relax on the lake doing nothing.

4th of July Family Reunion

Every 4th of July Chad and I head to my Grandpa's cabin near Cedar City for an extended family reunion. I love going and spending time with family up in the mountains away from the world!!And I was particularly excited about going this year. Some of my cousins that I hadn't seen in quite awhile were able to make it this year and I was really anxious to see them and catch up with everyone. Unfortunately not everyone was able to make it. I suppose that happens as families get bigger and start spreading out. (We missed all of you and hope to see you next time around) In spite of missing over half of our total family members we had a good size group and tons of fun.

For those of you who are not familiar with our family rituals let me fill you in on what we like to do at the cabin. First of all we love playing games. Games, games ,and more games. Usually you can find a small group of people huddled around a table in some obscure part of the cabin playing some type of game. (9 times out of 10 that game is Make-a-Million)

Playing Make-a-Million. Chad and I slaughtered my Dad and Grandpa.

My Mom, cousin Kathy, and Aunt Teresa doing a puzzle.

My cousin Clayton and my brother Kurtis playing bumper pool out on the deck.

The board game Trains.

More Make-a-Million.

Like I said......we love playing games!! Second thing we like doing is to just sit around and talk. Chad always gives me a hard time about the noise level that we are able to produce. The problem is you get one group talking while a group right next to them is carrying on another conversation. As you can imagine it gets a little noisy with all of these little groups trying to compete with each other. That's why a bunch of us choose to escape from the constant gibber jabber and go riding in the mountains.

My brother Kenneth with his little girl.


My nephew Elden waiting to go for a ride GQ style.


My cousin Connie and her little girl. (Spoiler Alert: Connie has blonde hair now!)


My sister-in-law Alyna with my niece.

Last but not least we love taking naps. You have to realize that we are usually up into the early hours of the morning so we try to catch up on the Z's when and where we can. (Unfortunately, I didn't catch a shot of Jeff.)



When we're not busy playing games, talking, or catching up with a quick nap you can find some of us: playing with the kids, cleaning the fish that were caught that morning, changing the occasional tire, or just sitting around.

Me with some of the kids on the "Flintstones" car.


My Dad cleaning the latest catch.


My nephew Bennett checking out the latest catch.


We had two flat tires this trip. One on my Uncle Gale's van and the other on our four-wheeler. Bummer!!!


Aunt Teresa and Aunt Vicki

Big Blue vs. Little Red

VS.Well, here it is.....Chad's ideal truck. We've been toying with the idea of upgrading our little Toyota pick-up to something a bit more beasty. With all of the hauling that we've been doing with "little red" it's about time to retire her. Yesterday Chad got a call from his aunt telling him of some great deals that she had found on GMC trucks that were taking place this weekend. So he did some research and we spent about 2-3 hours haggling over prices with the dealership. Actually, they did most of the haggling as Chad was set with his ideal price for his ideal truck. It was hilarious that Chad seemed to know more about their trucks than they did. He would ask a question about a certain feature or option and the sales guy would stare at him for a good minute before responding with "Uh, I'm not sure" or "I'll have to check on that". Needless to say we had a good laugh over the offer we gave them and the offer they came back with. Just in case any of you are wondering we are JUST LOOKING for now. Although knowing Chad, if he finds a good deal we could have a new truck within the week. (Fingers crossed.....I would like one sooner than later)