Camping at Blue Lake

So the last time I went camping was with Ed right before we got married and then before that it had been years back with my grandparents. Well we decided it was time to go again. Mom and dad headed up Thursday morning and got a spot and then Friday we went up along with Melaney and Simon. Sooo much fun! It was a little hard with the boys, but they did pretty well. The first night mom made burritos, not your typical camping food but very good, and we roasted marshmallows by the fire. We put the boys down, waylon in one bed with Mel and Mason in another with us. They were pretty tiered by the end of the day so they went down pretty quick, then mom and dad went in to play cards while the four of us stayed out by the fire and talked. A little before we heard people talking about seeing a bear but we didn't think much of it. So we're talking, laughing have a great time and all of the sudden Simon says "oh wow a bear" I thought he was kidding, we turned our flash lights on and it was RIGHT BEHIND US, I'm talking like 3 feet from where we were sitting, so simon starts making these crazy noises and chasing the bear away! I immediately covered my eyes like some sort of small child and then realized that's not going to do anything for me, so then I just run for the trailer leaving part of my family and dear friend behind. Ha ha! Oh bear, so I was pretty freaked out. Everyone made it alive and came in and we played some 21 with mom and dad and went to bed. Well, the bear seriously ruined my sleep for the night, every five seconds I could have sworn the bear was going to come in and eat me right out of the trailer, at one point Mel got up to use the bathroom and I panicked, woke up Ed asking him "what's that?????" So I didn't sleep much that night :-) The sun finally came up after what seemed like a never ending night and we rolled out of bed at about 6:30. It was pretty cold but kind of nice after all the heat we've here at home. We had breakfast, mom made some ham and eggs and hash browns even and then they packed up their things and headed back home. We didn't know what to do with ourselves with nothing that had to be done, so we took naps and then went for a really awesome quad/gator ride. That was quite the adventure and the boys loved it! After we got back Ed and Simon wanted to go fishing, it was hailing and windy but stopped for a minute so they went down and thought they'd be back in an hour or two, they showed up 20 minutes later due to massive hail and freezingness! Mel and I whipped up some hamburgers and zucchini of course and we just hung out, had way too many 'smore and marshmallows and played cards. I had the funniest experience of my entire life that night thanks to Simon and slept like a baby :-) We packed up Sunday morning and got home around noon, after unpacking (camping is a lot of work) I had a long shower calling my name, it's amazing how wonderful a shower feels after a few days without one! It was a great time, I don't know how soon I'd do it again but it was fun and someday I'd like to do it again, maybe when the boys aren't in diapers...

It doesn't look that bad, but it wasn't pretty

Here's Simon conquering this drop off and not destroying the gator :-) We were all very nervous. Before he even tried he went up and down it twice in his quad and then they moved a few rocks around to try and make it not so bad and then he told Ed to stand there and catch the gator if it tips, not really sure the logic there but it worked out and was quite intense...

Summer Fun

I can't believe that the end of August is already here, where did summer go? We only made it to the lake a handful of times, but they were always fun times :-) I also got Ed to go bowling with me and some friends. We've also had a few nights of volley ball with people from church and some crazy sleepovers with my friend Melaney, so here are a few pics of our summer...

Simon's bowling moves

Melaney and I at Baldwin Beach

Nap time at Sandharbor

This would be a sleepover and very late at night :-)

Yard sale!

A few weekends ago we decided to do a yard sale. Wow, how much work they are! Between us, simon, mom and dad, and the smithens we had a TON of stuff. We started setting up thursday night then friday my friend Melaney came over and helped me make signs and finish getting it ready. We also had the bright idea of baking cupcakes, we baked a few boxes up of cupcakes but ended up just giving one away and eating a good portion of them ourselves :-) It was quite late on Friday night, we just through together the most random bbq ever, at one point there was pizza on the grill along with moose burgers, squash and steak- It worked! Then we got up nice and early saturday morning and let the yard selling begin. We got rid a lot of stuff, there were a few interesting people that came by, one guy came back and fourth 4 different times and I think spent most of the day talking to us. Then another family who didn't speak any english came and bought pretty much everything ed and I had to sell, baby stuff and video games, they said they were taking it all down to Mexico to give out down there. It was fun to do, a long day but a good time and the best part is we got rid of a lot of what was of no use to us :-)

Ry Turns 1

My adorable little nephew, Rylan, turned one back in July. I just love that little boy, I don't see him enough, but I made it up with the kids to his party and it was so fun. I just love any time when we can get the boys together, they always have a good time. They played in the pool, all 3 naked as could be and loving life. Then Mason helped Ry open all of his presents and all the ones that he liked he stashed in a pile behind grandma. Then cake time, and like all little one year olds he dug in with both hands was a happy little man! Happy Birthday Ry auntie loves you!

Garden, Flowers and Fences

My mom and I planted our garden back in may and we have some serious vegetables! It's so exciting to see and to go out and pick them and cook them up. The zucchini has really taken over, we've had zucchini almost every night, I've done just about everything that I can think of with it, except for stuffing it, that'll be later this week! Also I put some pictures of my flowers up, they are so pretty, I only have a couple of beds but I enjoy them very much. And I've been meaning to put pics up of our new fence that Ed put up to close off an area for the kids to play in, it turned out really nice.

Yummy Zucchini

Lettuce from the garden

The new fence that Ed built to close off the area between our house and garage

Back of the garden, fruits and beans

My pretty bougainvillea tree

Flowers :-)

Mason in our corn field :-)

Lake Tahoe

Last night we finally made it up to the lake! It was nice, a little cold but the water was actually warm! Waylon went right in and loved it, I don't think Mason even touched it haha. It was fun though, and mom and dad and Jeremy, Steph, Melaney and Simon all came too. Afterwards we hit up Lake Tahoe Pizza Co as always. It was a nice summer night!

WDW Conference 2010

Last weekend was the Women Discipling Women Conference down in LA. 5 women from our church were able to go so we headed out early Friday morning to get down there to register by 5:30. It was such a fun trip down, got to spend time with some of them I don't get to talk to nearly enough and it's always fun spending time with my momma :-) I think between car and home sick I wasn't feeling 100% about half way through but everyone took great care of me and I was better in no time. We got there, checked in, freshened up and then we were at it. The speakers were Martha Peace and Elyse Fitzpatrick, really talented women in both their writing and speaking ability, a true God given talent. To our surprise there was about 1,400 women attending, and I think about 1000 were staying at the hotel with us :-) It was soooo amazing though, that first night being with all those women who love the Lord like I do and being able to sing and worship with them was just and awesome experience, I felt as if I could cry tears of joy during that first song we sang, it was amazing. The next morning started off bright and early, breakfast was at 7:30 and our first session at 8am. Elyse spoke that morning on the difference between what she called "The Glory Story" vs. "The Way of the Cross" and she was so right on. So many people just want to hear what makes them feel good and want to be given a certain number of steps to live their life but that's not what it's about and it was pretty fun to hear. Martha spoke again and then we went up to our room for lunch and then the next to "seminars," they were all different depending on what we each chose. My first one was on "Rest For Tired Moms: Moms with young Children" it was really good, Barbara Scroggins spoke on discipline and the proper way to do that and just gave a lot of excellent advice on how to discipline your children using God's word. She also had a lot of ideas on ways to train you kids to have their own quiet time and really to simply obey and love according to God's laws, so I've been really excited about that and have already been working on really my attitude towards my kids and how I deal with situations and boy does it make a difference when I stop and ask God to help me instead of being quick to anger and yell, I've already seen a change in the way that Mason responds to me and he's already starting to say "obey" when I say that he needs to obey momma, he has no idea what it means, but he know that he needs to obey :-) Then I had another class on biblical counseling and how to go about counseling someone, all using God's word and prayer, so that was a good one too. It was funny though, the title of the course was called "The means of biblical change" and I wasn't thinking that it was going to have anything to do with counseling and after looking through the notes I was feeling a little disappointed because I really didn't picture myself ever counseling anyone any time soon but afterwards I just thought that it's so amazing how God works because I've been talking with a friend who doesn't know the Lord and has dealt with so much in her young life and when were talking the other day before this class I felt like I had so much I wanted to share with her about the work of God but felt really ill-equipped to do so and I immediately thought of her as I walked out of that class, so anyway, it's fun to see how God works. Then we had our last session, a part two to Elye's first session and it was a wonderful way to end and day filled with learning more of what God has for us as women. Afterwards we walked across the street and we all had dinner together at PF Changs and that was nice, to reflect on our day together. We were back in our rooms early, me and my mom and Tricia were in one room and Diane and Kathy were in another, well my mom had given us these sweet little bags of a note book and a snack and she wrapped them up using a bandana. I don't think she ever intended on us wearing them, but she forgot who she was with... I put mine on and got she and tricia to wear theirs. It was pretty hilarious, you probably had to be there be we had a really fun time. We were all already in our pajamas but we got on the elevator with our bandanas and pj's and went down to diane and kathy's room, they thought it was great and we even got them to put theirs on too! It was really funny, luckily on our way down we didn't see anyone but on the way back up the elevator stopped and on got one of the hotel maids, let's just say I'm pretty sure she was somehow afraid of three cackling women in their pj's with their bandanas, she literally ran off the elevator when it got to our floor, we just looked at each other and started cracking up! We spent the rest of the evening talking and getting to know tricia better, they've been coming to our church for a few months now but I've never really had the chance to sit and talk to her so that was very nice. The next morning we got up early again and checked out and headed over to Grace church. It's always a joy to be there, and I was able to meet up with my Emily and Scout!! So that was exciting! I also saw a few of our other friends that are down there so that was nice too! After a little catching up with Emily and a few good bye tears (I miss her so much) we loaded up and were heading home. By the grace of God we made it home safely! I came home to a clean house, happy kids and dinner cooking, what better way to end such a fabulous weekend!

Us at breakfast

Waiting for it to start

Some of the women there

Us after a long day of lessons

You would be scared too if you ran into us :-)

Diane and Kathy being troupers!

Us at Grace

Kathy is braiding my hair here on the way home :-)