The Rest of July 2013

If I'm ever going to get this blog caught up I'm going to just have to do some giant picture dump posts to summarize July and August, so here we go...

When we got back from our epic road trip we jumped right into swimming lessons. I took all 3 kids every day, for 2 weeks, by myself, at the height of 1st trimester yuckiness. (Giving myself a big pat on the back for that one ;)

Getting them ready, in the car, to their lessons, dried off, changed, bathed and dressed again, wiped my tired pregnant self out! So that was pretty much my big accomplishment each day for those 2 weeks, and not much else got done :)

The kids did amazing though and absolutely LOVED taking lessons.

By the end of the 2 weeks both girls were swimming independently across the whole pool and Teya could even jump off the diving board in the deep end. 

Yay for swim lessons!

Another big fun adventure in July was getting to go to Girls Camp for a week as our ward Girls Camp director.

The awesome Geneva ward girls (minus the YCL's) getting ready to head out to camp!

We camped at Wesley Woods conference center on Lake Michigan in Wisconsin. It was a gorgeous setting with great facilities.

Me and our Young Women's president, Nikki, stayed the whole week, and our other counselor Julie got to come up twice to help out. Love these ladies!

I especially loved spending time with and getting to know the amazing young women. Being around their energetic little personalities was such a high for me!

Aren't they adorable? Seriously!

 Our whole ward on Bishop's night

 Had to do a silly pic too ;)

 One of the highlights of Girls Camp was having my sister Naomi, who is in the same stake as us, come up and dance the hula with me for all the girls. I haven't danced in YEARS but being up there with my sister gave me confidence and we ended up having an awesome time!

Someone took this picture of me while I was dancing and I thought it looked pretty legit ;) So fun getting back to my dancing roots!

That night I was also able to give a fireside talk to all the girls about Self Esteem and the confidence that comes from knowing we are daughters of God. It was such an uplifting and spiritual experience and afterwards so many girls came up to me with tears in their eyes, hugging me and thanking me, saying I spoke the exact words and messages they needed to hear. I know Heavenly Father helped me and guided me as I prepared that talk and I just felt so grateful that I was able to share the message He wanted them to hear. 

Being at camp was one of the most wonderful experiences of my summer. I am so grateful to Taber for supporting me in being there and holding down the fort while I was gone. 

He wasn't able to take the whole week off work so a couple of my friends watched the kids during the day, then Taber would pick them up after work and do the single Dad thing during the dinner and the nighttime routine.  

 The kids had a blast with daddy, S'mores one night...

And a super fun outing to a kids carnival place on the day he took off work.  Pretty sure they didn't miss me at all!

 And finally at the end of July the kids had the cutest little Pioneer activity with the Primary to celebrate Pioneer Day. I was babysitting Brooklyn and Lily that weekend so the girls got to bring their cousins which made it extra fun.

They dressed in Pioneer clothes...

 Played Pioneer games...

Did the stick pull...

Made Homemade butter and ate it on biscuits...

And even did a mini "Pioneer Trek" pulling their wagons while they sang primary songs.

 It was an awesome activity and a great way to end a very fun and very month!

Next up...August!!