Camp Grandma

The kids had another great week at Camp Grandma! Each summer, we bring the kids to Rhode Island for a fun filled week with my mom serving as camp director. it's official- they have t-shirts to prove it!

She provides crafts like necklace making, hat decorating and decoupaging vases.


She also fills the days with activities like Native American Dancing, kickball games, scavenger hunts, makeovers etc. Add a few field trips to the penny candy store, fire station, the beach, a PawSox game, my sister's pool and the local ice cream shop and my kids are in heaven.



This year they even added a service project and did a car wash to raise money for Hasbro Children's Hospital. It is wonderful for my kids to have this time with their cousins and grandparents, and Mike and I took advantage of it and slipped away to New York City for the weekend to see "Wicked" on Broadway. It is such a great production, and one that I will see over and over again if given the chance! We had a beautiful hotel room on Times Square and we had a wonderful few days of sightseeing.



I drove home to Rhode Island Sunday night because Mike was staying another week in NYC for a sales conference. The kids and I spent a few more days having fun with Grandma and flew home Weds. night. The kids were great on the flight and I even got a little nap when Julia fell asleep. Great friends picked us up at the airport at midnight, and we were happy to be in our own beds by 1 am. It was another successful Camp Grandma- thanks Mom!

Philmont

We had a great week at the Boy Scouts LDS Leadership Conference. It was held at the Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico, just southwest of Raton. We spent a week living in a tent city with the kids, and I never thought I would love it as much as I did!

This conference is so well organized. Every day we would eat breakfast with the kids, and then drop them off at their morning activities. Mike attended BSA leadership classes with some of the members of the General Young Men's presidency and other BSA leaders, and I was able to go on tours, take classes, do handicrafts etc. We picked up our children up for lunch and spent an hour of family time together before returning them to their groups for afternoon activities. They loved their activities, which included things like pony rides, archery, rifle shooting, tomahawk throwing, making homemade ice cream, hiking and outdoor games.



We'd pick them up in time for dinner, spend the evening at one of the wonderful family events they had going on (western dancing, movie night, skits etc) and tuck in some worn out kiddos each evening.



It was just a blessing for our family to have this kind of week. Being outdoors brings out such a feeling of gratitude for the wonders of nature and for our Father in Heaven who provided us with such a beautiful earth! It brought out these feelings in our kids too, and led to wonderful spiritual discussions that I will cherish. While we were having these experiences at base camp, Autumn was having a mini-adventure of her own, taking part in a 6 day mountain trek through the backwoods. She hiked 30 miles with a 30 pound pack, without showering or having any conveniences from home. She weathered pretty severe electrical storms that would blow through the mountains each afternoon. They also took "Leave No Trace" to a whole new level- recquiring the kids to drink the juice out of a can of chicken after they opened it, and to eat any food that was dropped on the ground. Autumn proved that she can do hard things, and we are so proud of her for going with such a great attitude, and coming home with an even better one.




I hope that our boys will have similiar experiences at some point in their life! All in all, we are just grateful to have been able to participate in this training conference. It was one of the best vacations we have ever had!

Simplifying

Okay, I'm blogging. It will not be fancy. It will not be pretty. But it will be a written record of the activities that are so much a part of who we are today, but that will be forgotten tomorrow if not recorded. I've been waiting until I have all the right equipment, the amount of time and the creative juices flowing to make my blog eye catching and amusing. But I'm pushing those dreams aside for now with the hopes that once I start blogging regularly, that will all fall into place!

So, here we are, two weeks into summer break. The kids had a marvelous adventure with their Dad last week in Colorado. They camped, hiked, got lost and scared their mother to death, and had a terrific time with their cousins. On the way home they stopped at Royal Gorge and Mike, Sean and Kyle rode the World's Largest SkyCoaster. We got a kick out of the fact that Rebekah had to sign a waiver to go on a burro ride, but they didn't have a waiver for the SkyCoaster!

This week we have Sean and Kyle at Scout camp, although we got a call last night that Kyle is running a fever so he might be home today. Autumn is in Portland, OR for EFY (Especially for Youth, a church program for youth ages 14-18) We have my brother in law Brad, his wife Shanna and Adam, Andrew and Sam, the three youngest of their nine kids here for the next few weeks while Brad does some remodeling work on the house. He is putting in a second bathroom upstairs, between the girls bedrooms. We took out Autumn's closet and a linen closet to make space for it. We are hoping to have time to get new countertops in the kitchen as well, but we'll see how that goes.

Today we are heading to storytime at Barnes and Noble, then to a dollar movie and then to Kids Kastle park to let the kids play. It has been great having the kids play with their cousins all day. Having seven kids under 10 isn't all that hard- they really do keep each other entertained!

Now see, that wasn't that hard. I can do this more often. I think I can.....I think I can......I think I can.....

I am not going to say that I am going to post more often, because that would put too much pressure on me :) .  What I will say is that I have set a goal to use my time on the computer more productively, and I set another "complementary" goal of journaling more.  So between those two goals we will see what happens.  I need more records of what goes on in this family of ours.  The hours are flying by and weeks turn into years too quickly!

Burying out from under the rubble

Even though my house looks like a landfill, it is so good to be home! We flew in from Providence yesterday morning. We flew US Airways for the first time and they were on time for every leg of our trip, which these days is almost unheard of. Their flight attendants were so kind, bringing my kids extra snacks, blankets, etc...it was just a great trip all around. We got home at 11, ate lunch and decided to try to make a 1:30 sacrament meeting. Which meant a lot of digging through suitcases to find Sunday clothes. Unfortunately those suitcases were still in the hallway! So now it is an obstacle course until I get it all cleaned up today. My trip was a little nutty but still good. We drove to Palmyra with my parents, and my sister and her two kids. Mike's parents flew in to be with us for the pageant as well and it was great to see them. At one point Hunter, my three year old, looked at me and said 'Oh, I get it, I have TWO grandmas and TWO grandpas." Finally seeing them together I guess put it all together for him. During the scene where Christ descends Hunter also randomly yelled " I didn't know Jesus could come here!" It was very cute. After the pageant we got a hotel in New York and the next day we took the kids up to Niagara Falls. I walked the older kids over to Canada and Mike took the younger ones on a boat ride to see the falls up close. I figured while we were close (it took about an hour and a half from Palmyra) we might as well let the kids see this amazing feat of nature! We got back to RI on Thursday and even after driving all night, my mom threw quite an event with her "Camp Grandma". With all the grandkids decked out in matching shirts (embroidered by my friend Melanie), she leads them like a seasoned camp director through activities like crafts, water games, sock wars, grave rubbings at the cemetery, a trip to the candy store and making homemade soft pretzels in the shape of their initials. It's enough to make a mom feel guilty. I told Emily (age 9) that someday I was going to do camp grandma for her kids someday and she said "Well, are you going to be nicer than you are now? Because you make me go to bed and Grandma asks me if I want ice cream at 10 o'clock at night!" So apparently I have some work to do at becoming NICER before I become a grandmother. The good news is that I invited a family over for a barbecue tonight, so I have no choice but to get everything unpacked, clean the house and get the grocery shopping done so we have food to eat when they get here! Sometimes having a deadline is a good thing. Heather

Funny

Funny

Apparently I'm chatty today. Mike has been gone this week so I have to share my funny story with you. I was helping the kids pack tonight, and putting snacks in their backpacks. We made banana bread to use them up before we leave tomorrow, and I made some mini muffins for them. Kyle asked if I could make some blueberry muffins too. I said "Sure, I'll make some mini ones tonight" He said, " I would rather have the bigger ones" I told him no, that they would be too messy on the plane and we would get crumbs everywhere. He looked at me funny and said "Mom, have you forgotten that all six of us THREW UP on a plane?- I'm sure they are not going to care about a few crumbs!" For some reason, this has had me giggling for the past ten minutes. Maybe it is a nervous giggle- surely, lightning (food poisoning) can not strike twice right? Anyways, off to make full size blueberry muffins! I can't argue with that boys logic! Heather