memory lane monday

for a long time I've been wanting to go back through old pictures and blog them. maybe jog some memories? although, this particular trip is not bringing back any memories other than of the pictures taken, but maybe in the future they will. ;)

 

this was December, 2006. we had driven the 5 hours down to el paso from our home in clovis. we were newlyweds, married for just 6 monthes here! I don't remember how it came to be, but it came to be that jeff, tom, matt, and I headed up to Ruidoso to snowboard at ski apache.

 starting our day, naïve and happy...

i'm not an avid snowboarder, but that place was awful. all of the lifts had, like 2-3 foot drop-offs and people were falling and crashing left and right. there were ski patrol people everywhere because so many people were getting hurt. the snow was terrible too, either slushy, or icy. not to be totally negative, but you know.

little uncle tom with his braces. he was 17 here, Christian's age. that seems weird to me!

matt and chris (the ace's) went off to catch some fresh powder (everyone loves it when I say that) and jeff and I (the rookies) enjoyed some of the smaller slopes (but still fresh powder;). we laughed and laughed each time we (or anyone else) fell down, and we made the best of an otherwise lame day.

 

it is beautiful there though! it's at 7,000 feet and the views are breathtaking.

 if I remember correctly, I wanted a jacket on and jacket off picture.

 I was just a cute little newlywed after all.

 our harrowing day of snowboarding over, the kids were up to some shenanigans back at home. they decided to take the polar bear plunge. my moms pool is cold in the summer time, so you can imagine a clear el paso winter day.

 after the boys were through, lexi was just getting her running start.

 and into the water she goes! lexi was 10 here and Christian was 8. crazy kids.

one other funny thing, I remember all of us weighing ourselves, I don't know why, comparing maybe? and there wasn't much of a difference between tom, matt, and I, figures. and then jeff said he could airplane matt and I at the same time (maybe that's what brought on the weighing?) and this picture was had.

 

and he did it too! he successfully airplaned over 300 lbs of crazy, newlywed fun. oh the fun a couple of grown-ups have when they come home to mom and dads.

 

ps - i am planning and hoping to pull off an epic road trip next summer.

i am definitely feeling the pull to family and only wish I could do it this year!

 

and that is the very random (i wanted something short) first installment of memory lane monday. or throwback thursday. or flashback Friday. or whatever day suits my fancy. :)

Everything

Sunday was a lovely, quiet day. There was a gorgeous sunset after our evening walk. We stayed outside together to enjoy it.

Matt had planned to be on the scout bike trip the week I was at camp, but he ended up having testing at work that he was in charge of, so he wasn't able to go. He had a crazy busy, but crazy good week. Everything went really well and other than being busy, it was a pretty easy week. It's nice to be happy at work!

Chris was able to help out on the early days. On Monday and Tuesday he drove the girls to Alecia's, since Matt left around 5. He didn't remember to leave their car seats, so one day Matt came all the way home, and on the second day he let them ride free. Oh well. Chris stayed busy crab knocking T, W, and Th, taking neighbors to babysit at the pool M, and mowing Brenna's grandparents lawns F.

From what my sweet friends said, the girls were good. I hope they were. I always wonder how my children behave when I'm not around. I was told, by a certain child of mine, about one indiscretion of another certain child, so I know they aren't perfect, just hopefully not too bad. (:

Lexi is putting her shoulder to the job searching wheel. It's hard as a mom to see something blow up in your child's face. Especially when you had predicted, and not quietly, that this was to happen.  :/

And I love this girls fancy face.

And this girls.

Today was a good summer day. I walk/ran early, we had family cleaning hour - with no tears - practiced piano, earned a library movie, and went to a library program to see Mr. Jon.

Dancing queens loved it. I didn't realize till he got going that we saw him last year too.

Addie was feeling "shy" so she wasn't getting very jiggy with it. She's pretty cute though.

After the library program, we headed straight to see Inside Out. We just went to our small in-town theater, which isn't nearly as nice as the Waldorf theater, but does the job. It was a really cute movie. The girls loved it and were trying to convince me that daddy really should see the movie too so they should go again and take him. (:

I finally took Addie to get her birthday crayons. Auntie Allie sent her some birthday money and she had asked if she could buy herself some crayons. I think I'm pretty good with the crayons in our crayon tower. I make sure they are unbroken and only crayola brand. But they aren't new and I guess that's important to true artists. She still has some more birthday money to spend, so I'm sure we'll be making more trips to Michaels.

We got home to daddy fixing my slow drain. Such a handyman. (;

The girls finally decorated their summer journals. I have lots of scrapbooking stuff that I'm never gonna use, so I let them at it and they were happy. Addie needs writing practice and journaling is a fun way for her to get it. And the little two are never to be left out, so there you go. 

Tonight Chris is camping with Davis'. I'm always happy when he is able to do things that are worthwhile and not with girls. (:

Also, SMC had two confirmed tornados on Saturday. One was on the ground for 30+ minutes and spanned 16 miles. It's amazing that no one was hurt! Saturday brought almost an inch and a half of rain bringing our June total to over 6 inches. Baltimore had its rainiest June on record with over 13 inches! It's been a wonderfully stormy month. 

Home!

Friday morning was busy packing and cleaning the kitchen. We served bagels, cereal, fruit, and oatmeal for breakfast. Super fun kitchen crew!

I was a little intimidated to work with brother G, but he was so easy! It was a lot of work, but these two were super easy to work with. I would totally go back!

There was so much food leftover that we all went "shopping" to pick what we wanted. Then everything that was left came home with me. And there was A LOT left. We had camp hamburgers for dinner last night, camp French toast this morning, camp spaghetti for lunch, and camp potato soup for dinner. I'm not complaining!

Carolee and I had a fun week! From lost garments to creaky beds, what a hoot!

We had everything loaded, wiped, swept, and mopped by 10:30! That's pretty amazing to me! They have a tradition of stopping at chicfila for lunch on the way home, so that was a nice, pretty, and sweet smelling stop for sure. 

By the time everyone had unloaded and gotten picked up and dropped off, it was 2:30, and then Carolee and I got to unload all my food. And then I got to figure out where to put it all. I have 2 hugely full fridges, that's for sure. As I was putting away the last of the food, the garage door opened and Matt brought my babies home. I missed them so much!

We hugged and told eachother about our weeks. Matt told me I smelled "fresh" and Addie said my feet smelled like "Lays potato chips." I must have been camping. 

I showered (Addie was disappointed my feet no longer smelled delicious), napped, and lazed around all that rainy Friday evening. When Chris got off work, we watched greys anatomy, and Lexi went to Meghan's. 

Today was another lazy day. I'm still on camp time, so I didn't get to sleep till after 2. Thankfully though I didn't have to wake up at 6! I slept in till 10, it was amazing!

We went to the library and then to lowes.

We rented Misty and while we were watching it, got the code red call for a tornado warning. I'm pretty casual about the watches, but the warnings, when there's an actual tornado that's been sighted, I take those seriously. So to the basement we went, and I read them the first chapter of Ramona and Beezus. I am loving reading my girls my favorite children's books!

It's still rainy and there's been quite a bit of flooding. We've had the rainiest June on record. Good thing I love rain. (:

Last full day

I had mentioned that I planned to wake up early and go running at camp, and the ycl's said they were going Thursday morning. It was the night after the pranking and i'd only had about 3 hours of sleep, but I knew I'd regret if I didn't go at all. So off we ran! It was gorgeous! We only ran 1 mile, but it was a perfect start to the morning. 

Sarah sent me these pics of my babies. Odd ball. 

Twinning. 

And twinning. 

They had so much fun while I was gone! Total vacation for them! 2 days at darrows, 2 days at ainas, and 1 at Myers. Party every day. 

Brothers B and G ran to Walmart before they took the group picture. I didn't have a matching shirt, so I was fine to stay out of the pic, but they insisted. I'm the big brown blob on the top right. 

They had a big painted twister competition before kangaroo court. Since I had a vested interest in said court, I hung out for the twister challenge. 

Dixie had been put into kangaroo court for yarning the ycl's cabin, since she was the only one who'd gotten caught. And sure enough, they found her g-u-i-l-t-y. They sat her in the middle and were preparing to administer her punishment when we finally cracked and fessed up to being in cahoots with her. Then they made us all go into the middle and they tied us up with yarn. 

Then they went around and broke water balloons on our heads. And then, in a very Lord of the flies kind of way, they let each of the girls throw poppers at our feet. It was silly and fun. 

We had BBQ hamburgers, potato salad, and watermelon for dinner. Then it was time for cleanup, singing, and then testimony meeting. Almost every girl and leader bore testimony and there was such a strong spirit there. The week was such a perfect mix of work, fun, and spiritual highs, it was great. 

After testimony meeting there was another pretty good storm brewing, so we played killer frog, baby please smile (not my fav game) and I taught them do you love your neighbor. I love camp games!

And Dixie made me this precious wood sign. (: when Addie saw it, she said "you aren't the daughter of a king... Oh, yeah."

Silly girl. 

That was another late night talking with Colleen, leisa, Debby, and Carolee. I am blessed to rub shoulders with such wonderful women. 

When we finally went to our cabin, we found this large tree branch had fallen right into the road in front of the ycl's cabin. Glad they kept the girls at the main cabin later than normal!

Stormy night and pranking fun

For Tuesday dinner we made BBQ chicken, salad, and my fated Apple crisp.  And as we ate, we watched the storm roll in. 

It only ended up being 94. It was definitely hot, but it wasn't horrible. I don't know if I was just prepared, or what, but I was good. After dinner, while the girls were singing, our volunteer park ranger, Wanda (she was awesome!) came up and said the storm was 20 minutes away and to be expecting wind gusts up to 70mph. We brought the girls in and ran around shutting shades and windows.

It was a crazy loud and fierce storm! A tree came down just uphill from our camp and there was a live power line down, but the wind only gusted to 34mph. Debby and Emily had driven up that afternoon, so we had a fun half cabin and enjoyed talking until way too late that night b

My kitchen duty started at 7 (or 7:10'ish if you are me). On Wednesday we made pancakes, sausage, oatmeal, fruit, and juice. 

This was our busiest day. After breakfast I started making puppy chow, but due to some confusion on my part, brother brown had to run to the store for more peanut butter. Brother G had all the weeks recipes in a binder, but then in another section of the binder he had the bulk recipes he uses when he cooks for the bigger camps. I had inadvertently switched recipes mid-puppy chow making. So ours had double the peanut butter and chocolate. (:

Biggest batch of puppy chow I've ever made! We threw it all in a garbage bag and brothers brown and Gillingwater played catch with it to coat it all in powdered sugar. Those two are so funny! And they are so in love with their wives. It was very sweet. (:

The puppy chow was rich, but no one complained. And I finally gave the last bit out Friday morning, so it's all good!

We made chimichangas, rice, jalepno poppers, and chili verde for lunch. I personally filled and wrapped over 60 jalepno halves. We were busy! Bro G mixing the chimichanga filling.

Right after lunch I had to get going on the Chinese salad. Chopping cabbage, green onions, and cilantro to make enough salad for at least 100 people takes awhile. I didn't leave the kitchen from 7-after 3. It was crazy busy. As soon as I sat down, leisa came and asked if anyone would be willing to play games so the girls teams would be even. The teenage girl in me came out and I volunteered pretty quick. I wasn't sure if they'd want me on their team, but those girls are so sweet and came and asked if I'd help. Love it! 

We had 4 challenges. First was a blind lead/follow with their legs tied together. Easy. Madison guided her two and I guided my two, and our tower was built before any other team even got close. 

The next challenge was throwing a frisbee through small shapes cut out of a tarp. There was a large hole worth 10 pts, medium hole worth 20, and a small hole worth 30. I threw my first one aimed for the 10 pointer, and like the luckiest lady ev-ah, it went through the 30 pointer. The best part was that it went through one I wasn't aiming for. Yessssss. So we won that challenge too. 

Third was to "shave" a balloon. Killed it. 

Our fourth challenge was to unscramble scripture heros that personify certain character attributes, like persevering unscrambled to "pioneers." 

That was the hardest one, we were stumped for at least 10 minutes. And then, like word scrambles do, it came to me and our team had a clean sweep. Numbah 1! Such sweet girls. (:

Debby put together a couple fun photo collages, so I swiped 'em. Carolee and I had a little shaving cream loving. (:

While I was mixing up the never-ending puppy chow, I was thinking about the wigalow song the girls had been singing, and that Chris had come home from seabase singing. In the song you challenge other groups to show you how they "wigalow." So I came up with the idea to challenge the scouts at scout camp and bike trip to a little wigalow match. Here they are getting ready to bring it. I posted it to fb and also texted to kitty in LP. The boys at scout camp and LP girls took us up on our challenge and sent their wigalows, and we're still hoping to see something from the bike crew. I told Chris he needed to get his boys together too. 

It was a fun and busy day, but one of my favorite moments was this one:

Emily and Bethany set up a prank that Lydia could participate in. They had gotten with the 2nd years to make sure they'd be ok with getting water thrown on them, and then equipped Lydia with a cup full of water for throwing. It was so sweet. Lydia was so happy, she just laughed and laughed. One of my favorite camp moments for sure.

That night, we decided we needed to teach the girls how to prank. I stole the Saran Wrap and duct tape from the kitchen and we got ready for our recon. 

Saran wrapping doors is not as easy as it seems. We started with the 1st years door and then went for the gold in the ycl cabin. Dixie really wanted to go inside and wrap yarn all around, and since I'm never one to shy away from adventure, I went for it! Only we got caught, or Dixie did. Ashely woke up, and after some headlight issues, totally saw Dixie. She dropped her yarn bag and we all ran down the hill laughing. 5 oldish mommas running down a hill in pitch black, I'm sure we were quite a site!

Next we went to the pranksters cabins. We could tell they were still awake, even though the lights were out. So Alecia and I decided to tape and Saran Wrap as best we could. Only, mid wrapping, they came out. And since there wasn't anything else to do, I yelled "boo" at them as soon as they opened the door. It was pretty hilarious. They totally got their payback. (: later that night, or morning, since it was after 1am, we foiled their attempt to sneak into our cabin. Hahaha, not so fast there 4th years!

We were all so hyped up that none of us could sleep for a long time. Pranking is a lot of excitement for the mom crowd. 

Day 2

Last night after dinner and cleanup I stayed with the girls while they sang their fun camp songs. Some I remembered from my own girls camp days, so fun! Most not, but still fun. The youth camp leaders (ycl's) gave the three cooks each a cute apron that they'd signed. 

Carolee and I waited till all the girls had showered before we meandered up for ourselves. Even though the water pressure was next to nothing, it felt so sweet. We turned out the lights at midnight and I slept like a log till 6:30. I took a NyQuil since I was feeling pretty congested and achey, and it was perfect!

This morning we made English muffins, scrambled eggs, and oatmeal for breakfast. Brother G runs a tight kitchen and all cooks/helpers must wear hats and aprons. Hot stuff!

Right after breakfast we got started on cinnamon rolls for snacks.  After all the cleanup and prep work were done, I sat and visited with Carolee and the girls till it was time to make lunch. We had baked potatoes, salad, and chili. After that cleanup and prep I had a little time, so I came down to my cabin to nap. I'm feeling pretty good and am cautiously optimistic that this cold will pass by without too much fuss. 

Today is one of the hottest days we've had so far, and storms are brewing for tonight. All of us have gotten notices like this:

Such exciting weather to have while camping. :/

After a snack of snow cones and cinnamon rolls, I went for a walk around camp. It's beautiful here. I also had an apple crisp mishap. Will told me this would take longer than the 30-40 minutes the cookbook said it would take. After 15 minutes he said, "I smell something burning..." And there was my apple crisp. 

It's always an adventure figuring out new ovens. 

Lexi had a procedure done today to check out her bladder. I tried to talk her into waiting till I got home, but she's a big girl and she did it herself. We had a loopy facetime convo and she's feeling ok. 

Tonight we're bbq'ing chicken and praying the storm will cool us down but not wipe us out. (; fun times at girls camp!