The Wizard of Oz

It's that time of year again! Missoula Children's

Theatre's Little Red Truck came to town and the girls

got to audition. It is a favorite summertime tradition

we have. They did a fantastic job, as always!

Sydney was one of the munchkins...

& boy, was she ever cute!
Their costumes were the cutest. The lion and
tin man were pretty cute, too.

Summer was a magician and she was on stage

for weird reasons. :0) She was the tornado,

an arm, & she played corn. Yep, corn!

She sat on stage and held up some

corn on the cob. Weird, but cute.

We love Missoula!

Poker Face

We love games around our house.

One of our favorite is SkipBo!

Ty still has to have a partner playing

this one. Unfortunately, he isn't

very good at disguising a good hand.

What would Lady GaGa say about

that Poker Face? :0)

Beauty Makeovers???

Sydney has been begging me to allow

her to give me a beauty makeover. I finally

gave in, assuming it would consist of some make-

up & maybe a cute hairstyle. As you can see,

I was WAY off! Cute, right!?!

I then insisted that she joined me in the

mud mask. After we ere saying how good

it felt, Ty wanted to try (to his dads horror).

Our favorite part is smiling after it

has dried. There is no cooler feeling!
Ty loved to watch it crack in the mirror.
If only I looked this cute covered in mud!

Ty and Summer both have what we refer

to as their 'famous pucker'. This is the

envy of their mother. I want big, luscious

lips like that. Syd has a flat pucker (which

she has been working on). She's still a great

kisser, don't get me wrong! Oh, I better go.

I have some lips to go kiss! :0)

San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park

Friday, we grabbed Grammy and headed to

the San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park.

The weather was beautiful and the animals

were out and about. Can't beat that! Our favorite moment came at the end of the day.
We were walking away from the elephants
when we heard a really load sound (Summer
said it sounded like a motorcycle right behind us).
We turned to see one of the teenage elephants crying
out and a ton of hay came shooting out of it's mouth.
The mother elephant was in a nearby enclosure that
was adjoined. They both started calling to each other
and ran towards one another. When they met up,
the baby pointed at its throat with his trunk (telling
her what just happened). They proceeded to 'talk'
to one another and hug trunks. It was so cute!

My mom and I interpreted the

conversation to be something like,

"Son, I told you to take smaller bites. Now you
know it is wise to listen to your mother!"
It was a priceless moment that we got to
enjoy without another soul around.

As I said, the weather was beautiful. They have
added a ton of water features for the kids to cool
off in. Sydney and Ty had a blast getting cooled off.

Another one of our favorites that day was watching
the zoo keepers feed the cheetahs. It was amazing
how 'housecat-like' they were. They would even
rub up against her legs. She explained that they are
5 years old and she has helped raise them since
birth. We were very jealous of her job,
to say the least! :0)

Ty loved posing for this picture.
Not quite the size of a gorilla, yet!

Syd's getting closure to being that size.

Maybe Summer can get to be that size

if she keeps eating those frozen

lemonades in her hands! :0)

We had a blast. Thanks, Grammy!

Sunny Southern California

We have been taking advantage of my parents

new house. We arrived on Monday and we

have been swimming and getting sunburnt

ever since! Today we hit up San Clemente.

It's always fun to see my kids interact with each other

at the beach...without friends or cousins. Can they

handle being each others playmates? Well,

happily, I say, "Yes!" They had a blast together.

Summer even took them crab hunting under the

pier. So cute!!! I love those stinkers....

even if Summer throws sand on me. :0)

We headed to Becky and Brad's pool to rinse the

sand off afterwards. Of course we hit up Thrifty's

Ice Cream, too. We can never pass up some

Chocolate Malted Crunch

(a.k.a. Quarterback Crunch).

All in all, it makes for some tired kiddos...&

a tired mom, too! Tomorrow we head to the San

Diego Wild Animal Park (our favorite). See ya soon!

Soccer Camp

As I was downloading these pictures, I

realized that I did my kids a disservice!

This is a post about soccer camp, yet I didn't

take one single picture of them actually playing

soccer. As I was taught by my high school soccer

coach, now I must say, "My bad!" :0)

I did manage to have Summer take some pics

of Ty and Syd on Wacky Wednesday. They were

to arrive as silly as possible. Ty opted for bat

face painting....not too bad for 7:15 in the morning!

Syd got to paint her own face as we drove

the 45 minute drive to the camp (She's

an adorable clown, of course). The kids

loved their coaches. They were all young men

from England...which meant they were fun to

listen to. I do love those British accents!!!

We tried to do something fun everyday after

camp. The weather was in the triple digits and

those kids were hot and tired. We did ice cream,

gelato, Bing's shakes, & the new Super Pool in

Cottonwood. We were a little disappointed in it

since there was no actual pool. Ty was too little

to do the Super Slide, which meant he had to

hang out in the over-crowded lazy river &

the kiddy pool (which he insists he is too big

for). :0) Helen was there, so that kept him

happy. They have so much fun together!

Sydney was a good sport and she swam

with them, too. I think it just felt

good to cool off, if nothing else!

Summer sat like a lump on a log with Liz and me

until she spotted her good friends from Girls

Camp. Hannah and Gloria are the cutest. I'm

so glad Summer made such good friends there.

All in all, it was a great week!!!

P.S. Awards they won:

Ty won the Soccer Quiz (he was the

youngest on his team and he still won).

Syd won the Play of the Day certificate (she

has really been working on headers into the

goal...bloody nose and all). She made a header in

one of the games and scored a beautiful goal!

Way to go guys!!!!

Girls Camp 2010

From Tuesday to Saturday Summer and
I were at Girls Camp. I was called as the

Assistant Camp Director and it was a lot

of fun work. On Bishops Night, the Hydes,

the Readers, and the Christiansens came

and joined us (even though the Bishop had

2nd row playoff tickets for the Lakers for game 1

...he sold them instead for $2900 a piece)!!!

Now that is dedication! :0)

My partner in crime was Tandy Taylor and

she is the most adorable woman in the world!

We had a great time working together &

I'm sad it's her last year as Camp Director. :0(

Sorry I didn't have a cuter picture of her.

She is BEAUTIFUL!!!!We had an amazing Bishops Night! We had a

program about the book 'The 100 Dresses' and we

focused on the 3 main dresses we aim for in

our lives on earth (Blessing, Baptism, and Wedding).

It was beautiful. We didn't have many dry eyes.

That's my wedding dress and Syd's baptism dress

on display. I thought it would make my dad happy

to see my wedding dress being used again. $$$ :0)

Camp isn't all spiritaul. It is F.U.N.!!!

We don't 'allow' pranks, but they are

inevitable! One of the leaders had the

bishopric sneak up a pet rabbit that was

placed in the Stake Cabin at midnight. What

a cute bunny he was. We also found a dead snake

coiled up on our rug. That was gross! Tandy's daughter Shea has been an

awesome example to Summer the last

2 years at camp. She has taken Summer

under her wing and made her feel special.

Well, this year, she really made her feel

SPECIAL!

Now that's what Girls

Camp is all about!

Now we are home and EXHAUSTED!

It was fantastic and fun. We look

forward to Camp again next year!!!

As for now, we have a lot of sleep

to catch up on. Nap time! :0)