Summer So Far

I'm not even going to try and turn this into a polished, well-thought out post.  Instead, I'll present you with the smorgasbord of summer happenings prior to this year's epic road trip out west...

• CAMP

A couple of weeks into summer vacation, the girls had the opportunity to go to Girl's Camp -- which our stake, this year, rebranded into a "Young Women's Retreat."  While Grace may have thought this was the weirdest thing ever, I quite like the change of emphasis, personally.   

This was Sophie's first year of eligibility, and I know she was super excited to join in the fun.  With secret sister gifts and guaranteed time to be with friends, there was a lot for the girls to look forward to.  Grace and Gianna deciding to wear pajamas/costumes a good chunk of the time was just a little lagniappe.

 They insisted on a photo shoot before I dropped them off at Camp.

When I picked them up 3 days later, it was plain to see that they had all enjoyed their time.  Sophie had apparently earned the nickname "Pixie Stick" over the course of her stay thanks to the copious amounts of pixie sticks she consumed while there and Grace thrilled me to my core when she proclaimed that the speaker who gave their main devotional was really, really good and she really got something out of it.  {Hank Smith was their speaker -- apparently he's a fairly well-known CES/youth speaker that I had never heard of before now.}  

While the girls were at their retreat, Ethan was participating in his own Stake Priest Encampment trip that is in its 20th year running.  They finished up on the Saturday as well and actually joined the Young Women that last day to participate in Hank Smith's devotional, too.  Ethan echoed Grace and Sophie's sentiments that he was really awesome and worthy of the hype. ;)

Unfortunately, all those pixie sticks (and I imagine late nights and lack of sleep) caught up with the girls when they came home that Saturday morning and the after crash was B.R.U.T.A.L.   Particularly, with the Pixie Stick herself.  Hahaha.  However, after a mid-afternoon crash of a nap, things tamed down a bit and we were able to get on with life.

• RETREAT

I believe I mentioned a couple of posts back that I had scheduled a 3-day solitary retreat for MYSELF at the beginning of the summer.  Well, prior to the kids leaving for camp, I skedaddled about an hour away for what promised to be a lovely and needed break from responsibility and stress.  My mom was so kind to come up and stay with the kids while I was away so that Scott wouldn't have to take anymore time off (with his 2-week road trip vacation coming up on the horizon) and the kids were more than happy to have Granny here in place of mom.  Hahaha.  :)

The irony was that almost the whole time I was away, I was trying to figure out a way for everyone to come up and join me because it was so lovely where I was staying and it would have been so much fun.  Haha.  In the end, I came home a little earlier than planned on the last day, because I was just ready to be with people again.  My main take aways from this little adventure were that: * I don't actually LKE being alone all that much; * I do like being able to sleep in; * I love having a beautiful view of nature (the house I was staying in had a view of the lake in the distance); * I don't like navigating by myself in unfamiliar territory; and * I really don't like eating by myself.  And there you have it!  Life lessons learned.  ;)

While I may not like eating all by myself, I really loved keeping this creme brûlée all to myself.  :)

• FRIENDS

Summer has been flying by so far, but we've managed to make time for fun with friends in the flight.  ;)  A trip to the bowling alley on its discount day was the perfect venue to meet up with several other families for a nice, cool, indoor activity on a hot summer day.  I'm pretty sure the arcade right by our lanes were a bigger draw than the bowling for most of my little ones, but being with friends was really all that mattered.  Bowling was just a nice excuse.  Hahaha.

 That's a lot of kids.  Hahaha.

And that pretty much sums up the month of June!  Get ready for lots and lots of road trip coverage...