Girls' Camp and Summer Randomness

So after a few years of leaving my kids at home to go to girls' camps, this year Annie finally go to go with me!  It was a lot of fun and a memorable experience for both Annie and I.  Annie has been camping many times with our family, so camping wasn't a big deal to her.  She had a lot of fun with all the awesome girls in our ward. although I did have to remind her a few times that at camp I am her YW leader and not her mother- meaning I don't clean up after her or get her food or set up her tent for her, etc.

Our stake theme was "Keep calm and stand in holy places" and our ward theme was "Keep calm and learn." Our girls decided to put a nerdy twist on the theme and dress up with suspenders, nerdy glasses and pocket protectors. 

They put on an awesome skit that was set to the tune "Part of your world" but had the message of "Part of His World" where part of the girls were investigators singing their questions about the gospel and the other part were missionaries answering their questions and hoping they will all become "Part of His World."

At the end of camp Annie's award was "Mud Slingin', wasabi burnin' ginger hair camp beauty."  The mud slinging was from the beach day we had at Jordanelle and she and her friend Lauren got into a mud fight on the shore.  Unfortunately I didn't have my camera to record the ruckus.  But luckily the mud slinging too place next to a big ole' lake they could clean off it!  The "wasabi burning" refers to the 3 mile hike we went opn were our hike leader had wasabi almonds as a snack.  Not everyone would try them but Annie- true to her mother's form- isn't afraid to try new food so she had some.  She didn't mind the heat from the wasabi in her mouth but her eye sure didn't like it.  She had been having trouble with her contacts while on the hike and after she ate the almonds she didn't realize that the wasabi residue was on her fingers still when she went to rub her eye.  Poor girl had an angry wasabi red mark on her eye where she touched it for the rest of camp.  Then of course the "ginger hair camp beauty" refers to her beautiful red hair.

My camp award was a bit more scandalous and not nearly as glamourous.  (I can't imagine why not- see above photo!) I was awarded the "Cat/ cow twerkin', car pep talkin' kick boxer" award.  The young women were talking about a new dance all the "youngsters" :) are doing called "Twerking."  After showing it to me I decided I couldn't do it and still hold my temple recommend;)  so they taught me a milder version that involved arching my back like in the yoga move- "Cat/cow."  The "car pep talkin'" part is because when I was driving back to camp after Jordanelle with a carload of girls I was afraid my car wasn't going to make it up the steep canyon roads back to camp.  So I turned off the A/C and kept encouraging my car out loud.  Then the kick boxing part was because I was showing the girls my sweet kick boxing moves.  Yeah- they were pretty impressed and decided they wouldn't want to ever meet me in a dark alley!
Here is one last picture from camp. 

I thought all their suspenders made their bums look extra nice so we got a rear view picture of all the girls.  After looking at the picture I had decided that I need to teach Annie the art of the "hip pop" for pictures!

And speaking of "hip popping" here is a picture of Finn, Suzie & I doing hip pops in our Sunday afternoon aprons.  I was making cookies one Sunday and Suz decided she wanted to wear hers also.  And Finn- never one to be left out on any domestic goodness- pulled out the one he made in Home Ec last year and suddenly we were the "Apron Triplets" and needed a picture.
If you have ever seen the movie "17 Again" then you have heard the sentiment that Finn feels a lot these days- he is hungry all the time!
Here he is enjoying some hot wings he walked over to get from Little Caesar's one summer afternoon. 

Yesterday we were at a family reunion with my mom's side of the family.  We always eat really well, in my opinion, but apparently not in Finn's!  When he found out we were eating every meal with that side of the family Finn was a little discouraged.  When I asked him why he said, "When we have dinner with your family, I never feel completely full because they never have red meat.  It is always white meat."  Finn is a dyed in the wool red meat lover and he is right-  that side of the family doesn't eat a lot of red meat.  Could explain their smaller waistlines and long lives but that seems to be a trade -off Finn is willing to make in the name of filling his 14 year old bottomless pit!
One last summer-boredness inspired picture. 

My kids recently discovered that they could play roller derby with their roller-ball chairs (which everyone except Suzie has in their rooms) on the kitchen/living room wood floors.  It was a short lived though because once Dad got home and saw what they were doing he put a stop to it before the walls and cabinets got too damaged.  Man! Dad stops all Finn's good ideas- like the one he and his friend had last year to put the trampoline next to the shed and jump from the shed roof onto the trampoline!