It's Grandma Pam's birthday!!

Today is my wonderful mama's birthday, and since I'm not nearly as nice to her in person as I ought to be, I decided that this happy occasion warranted a blog post about her awesomeness.

 I love my mom so, so much. We've been best friends since the very beginning, as we were the only girls in the household and had to stick together. My mom has a long list of really incredible talents, and I flatter myself in thinking that I've inherited a few of them from her. 

I created a funny little handout for RS recently and congratulated myself on its wittiness, and the whole time I was working on it I thought about my mom and how much it seemed like something she would come up with. She's an amazing writer and all of my confidence in my writing has come from her encouragement. I pester her after every blog I write to ask if she liked it; I respect her opinion a great deal. I also pester her to write more herself (here's her blog: Some Things Matter More Than Others. Maybe if we ALL pester her, she'll write!!).

 My mom and I have been through a lot together, lots of good times and some pretty crummy times and everything in between. One thing we're really good at is having adventures together. We can take something pretty mundane, like dropping by the house that my then-boyfriend Chuck is working/painting at to surprise him, and make it into something really fun, like establishing the P&J Detective Agency to use vague clues to find where the heck the house is at, sometimes staking out the wrong house for a really long time. (We eventually had to give up and call him to ask for the exact address. Oh, and we had to call from a nearby nursing home; it was 2003 and the P&J Detective Agency hadn't cleared enough cases to pay for a cell phone yet....)

I can't write about my mom's talents and passions and hobbies without talking about her true love: her grandchildren. She's up to six with two more on the way (courtesy of Terri and Eden, NOT me). My mom loves Clyde, Will, Bailey, Hazel, Jack, and Isaac sooo much. Nothing brings her as much joy as spending time with any and all of them does. She loves being able to be a part of their lives and watch as they grow and learn and become their own little people. It means so much to me that my boys will always be able to look to Grandma Pam as someone who loves and supports them unconditionally. I love knowing that I can text her a picture of something cute they're doing or call her to brag about some impressive skill they've developed and she'll be just as excited and proud as I am, if not more so :).

Jack has had a rough few weeks as his four incisors were coming through, and he'd frequently cry and fuss and reach for me, only to stay grumpy once he got me. Depending on my reserves of patience at the particular moment, it's been pretty frustrating: he ONLY wants me - won't let anyone else hold him - but still fights and cries and doesn't seem at all happy that I've got him! So I'd roll my eyes and make some comment about that's what being a mom is all about and wait for him to calm down, which he eventually always did.

But I think there's a good parallel there for my relationship with my mama. 

Through all of life's uncertainty and difficulty and good times and hard times, my mom has always loved me unconditionally. And I've thoroughly taken advantage of that :). She's been my safe place to go, where I could be grumpy and horrible and melt down and be sad or scared and know that she would still love me. (Although she did have a rule when I was in high school that she wouldn't talk to me after 9pm. I told you she was smart!!)

My goal is to slowly but surely work at not taking so much out on her, because that probably gets old and tiring and, you know, I'm a grown-up who knows better and, also, you know, she deserves better. She's pretty much the best. Definitely differs a bit from the stereotypical mom, but absolutely the mom that I've needed her to be. I'm particularly grateful for the gospel foundation she provided and the example she sets of putting the Lord first and also for the confidence she's given me as I've become a mother. She's the first one to compliment me as I interact with my sons and that helps me more than she knows.

I could go on and on about my mom, but it's late/early and we have exciting plans tomorrow to celebrate her birthday! So, in conclusion: happy happy birthday Mama! Thanks for being smart and brave and devout and funny and outgoing and loving and forgiving and fun and I LOVE YOU!

r.a.n.d.o.m. j.u.l.y. r.e.c.a.p.

July was random and busy and hot and crazy and fun and here are the parts that have yet to be logged on the blog:

Girls' night at the beginning of the month to celebrate Nicole finding out she's having a girl (hooray!) and also say goodbye to Nycole; their family is now in Seattle and Brandon is officially on the transplant list (hooray!). We ate yummy food (once we finally ironed out how the flip to most efficiently order, sorry for my part in complicating that matter, haha) and chatted and had a great time. AND we got permission to change the TV so that we could see the awesome story that channel 6 did on Brandon that day. Nycole and Brandon and Kathy all did awesome.

Ahh, a happy day: Clyde's beloved Spiderman shirt (that he wore so often I almost resorted to hiding it from him...) finally got passed down to Will - made less traumatic on Clyde as I had found him a new Spiderman shirt at Savers recently.

Will also got a pair of orange shorts in a hand-me-down box that coordinated nicely with Clyde's fave orange shorts, so the boys excitedly dressed to match this day and then (I kid you not) requested pictures. And then they wrestled a lot.

This was also happy: I got to have lunch with one of my best friends from high school, Beka! Ours was a fairly random and hilarious friendship, started in 10th grade biology when Beka noticed my Soap Opera Digest and we discovered a mutual love of Passions. (embarrassing? Possibly.)

 Beka had difficulty with my name at the beginning and always called me 'Jayna', so I called her 'Beeka', and the nicknames stuck (although they're spelled Jāna and Bēka). And then we devised this whole plotline where she was married to Philip Kiriakis from Days of Our Lives (what? we were fifteen, okay??) and I was married to Shawn Brady from Days of Our Lives, which technically made us aunt and niece, even though Philip and Shawn are the same age... so we referred to each other as Bēka Zipfel-Kiriakis and Jāna Braden-Brady. Still with me?

We had such a great time at lunch; we've seen each other a few times over the years but not consistently and we both committed to making that change and keeping in better contact.

Few shots from high school and one from running into each other a couple of months ago (bottom right). I promise that I have never been high, despite what the picture on the left might suggest, haha. Anyways, I just love my Aunt Bēka!!

Uncle Cody watched the boys while Chuck and I had dentist appointments and afterwards we found them over at my old elementary school:

Most of this playground equipment is new and improved since I was a student there, although a few classic pieces remain, like those monkey bars I could never do!!

I was so excited to participate in the Relay for Life in mid-July! My friend Lara is fighting a pretty amazing battle against cancer and kicking butt whilst doing so - she put together a team and a booth for this event and was one of a select few who raised over a thousand dollars by herself!

Relay for Life is sooo neat; it's a fundraiser that benefits the American Cancer Society (although all money raised stays local). Team members spent the whole night (seriously, from 6pm to 8am) walking laps around a track to show support and solidarity for those fighting cancer. It was amazing; cancer survivors wore purple shirts and got to do their own lap as part of the beginning program and it was pretty sobering to watch such a diverse group of people walk by- spanning gender and race and age.

I'm so glad I got to be part of it! Lara named her team 'No One Fights Alone' and the theme for the whole event was Superheros, so naturally I dressed up a bit :). Shelly and her family came too, which was awesome. She and Cameron stayed a few extra hours and ran tons of laps - they're awesome!

That's Lara and her husband Austin in the top left (picture stolen from facebook!). They are such an incredible team - they have faced Lara's cancer together every step of the way. They are so sweet and loving and tender with each other and I love the reminder that gives me to cherish my marriage that same way.

I had to leave at 4:30am to make it home in time for Chuck to leave for work but I'm already planning to stay the whole time next year. And a special shout-out to Dutch Bros. Coffee, who made free drinks (coffee, smoothies, hot chocolate) ALL night long, with all donations going to Relay:

I obviously don't drink coffee, but Dutch Bros. has definitely earned my loyalty if I find myself needing a delicious smoothie or hot chocolate when I'm out and about; they're local and partner with so many great causes. And the workers were really awesome and upbeat despite the late hours and long lines!!

July was our clothing share and swap at church, aka the first RS activity that I was in charge of! Luckily it was pretty much all set; I just had to step in and work with my awesome committee to make it happen :).

Okay, isn't the sweater I'm modeling SO cute? Anyone? It was way too tight (especially randomly on the arms) but I love it. And no one else did... so I opted for that neon green miniskirt over my shorts instead, haha. P.S. I love how even though Sara's face is blurry you can see her distaste for the sweater, haha.

Cute picture of cute boys in a box:

Clyde loves Jack so much. To the point of smothering on occasion... which might be why Jack turns to hitting :).

We finally made it back over to Settler's Park to show Chuck all the fun:

And Grandma Pam too! I love all the instruments, what a fun thing to have in a park!

Funny rock climber/dismounter :).

Randomly ran into my dear friend Emily there, and Will randomly ended up playing for a little bit with her daughter Evie! Sooo cute!!

Chuck and I went to the temple a couple of days later and after we took the picture on the right it occurred to me that we had a scarily similar picture from two years ago:

left, July 2011. right, July 2013. Completely unintentional that I'm wearing the same dress. Scared for July 2015. So happy Chuck shaved four days later!!

Speaking of Emily (and my same dress), she and I had a fun date to our friend Aubrey's wedding at the end of July!

Aubrey looked insanely gorgeous and it was fun to catch up with Emily and Crystal and my favorite Judy :).

And as always, Emily and I had way too much fun together!

My mom spoke in sacrament meeting at her church, so the boys and I trekked over to hear her lovely Pioneer-Day-ish talk.

And in that spirit, Grandma Pam and Clyde and Will walked (and walked and walked) home after church.

Oh, after our fun at Celebration Park I told the  boys they could make their own petroglyphs... well, technically pictographs since they were painted, but whatev:

The boys took this pretty seriously; it was cute to see what homestead-type designs they came up with.

And now we have these lovely rocks lining the path by our front door! top to bottom: Will, Jack, Clyde.

Okay, if you made it through that you deserve some ice cream. I know I do! Farewell July!!

A little staycation with Grandma and Grandpa Izatt

Chuck's parents came to see us for a couple of days last week, hooray!

We fit in some fun around the house in between our other adventures. Grandma helped the boys make pies (blueberry, chocolate, and key lime!!) which they loved. Jack hilariously climbed up to sneak bits of flour into his mouth - whatever, kiddo! Their visit coincided with our purchase of new mattresses for the boys, and it was much more convenient to load them into the back of Dave's truck than to stuff them in the minivan, so we were grateful for that good timing!!

The boys wanted to go swimming, so we trekked over to Ivywild for the awesome slide:

Seriously, most of our time was spent going on the twisty slide (one adult/child at a time) over and over and over again.

Jack LOVED it. (Thanks for capturing all these awesome pictures, Mom and Pops!!)

The next day we ventured out near Melba to check out Celebration Park.

Chuck had been there on a semi-recent Scout campout and promised a good time. I was pretty skeptical (my usual M.O.) but it ended up being way fun.

Our first destination was the Atl-Atl range.

We learned about the history of the weapon and the proper technique of throwing, and then off we went!

It was really fun! And tricky. The little boys had an absolute blast.

Well, except for Jack. He wasn't the biggest fan of staying in his stroller and watching all the action, but since I wasn't the biggest fan of him being a modern atl-atl casualty, in the stroller he remained.

After a picnic lunch, we reconvened with one of the guides, Don, for an incredible tour of some of the petroglyphs that have been discovered on the rocks. From one of the brochures: 

"Petroglyphs are images pecked or abraded on stone. They are sometimes misidentified as pictographs, hieroglyphics, or rock art. Unlike petroglyphs, pictographs are painted images and hieroglyphics can be read like a book."

There's no way to know exactly what the symbols represent, but scholars have pretty educated guesses, and it was so interesting to hear about them.

 

We made a detour to the little museum/gift shop, where Grandma sweetly bought the boys souvenirs - Clyde chose an arrowhead necklace, and Will chose a dreamcatcher necklace. And Pops spent some time with Jack and taught him to say 'Nana' sooo that might be Grandma's new nickname :). Thanks for the gifts Nana!!

Our final destination was a cool old bridge near the entrance to the park; Pops and Nana walked over with the big boys while Chuck and Jack and I met them with the van.

I use the adjective 'cool' when describing the bridge because everyone seemed to think it was. I thought it was terrifying, which is why I stayed in the van and tried not to think about the fact that my children were on it. I may have an issue with old bridges - I don't get the appeal. Shouldn't we be excited about advances in bridge structure and design and not tempt fate by clomping around on old rickety ones??

All too soon our fun visit was over and it was time for Nana and Pops to head home...

after some last minute hugs! (Which I promise Clyde participated in too). Thanks again for coming Dave and Terri; we had a great time!!

Our 4th of July festivities

I sure do love the United States; I count myself very lucky to have been born here and have the freedom to be my strong-willed (Chuck would say stubborn) self and be able to say and believe what I choose. I'm sometimes hard-pressed to find others whose political and religious beliefs both align with mine, and for that reason I'm always especially grateful for the diversity of thought that can exist without fear of censure/judgment/imprisonment. I'm aware (although probably not to the extent that I should be) that this is a luxury that is not available worldwide and I appreciate any opportunity to celebrate our country's freedoms.

 Here's a happy little American boy playing in a [dirty-ish] bucket. Let freedom ring!

 

 Our Independence Day started with the traditional pancake breakfast with our wonderful church family.

 Funny story: I got there early and passed the Bishop as he ran home to get something. I quickly admonished him (very respectfully, I'm sure) for his yellow shirt, so he came back wearing a red shirt, white shorts, and blue shoes (bottom right picture) and made sure to show me. Good job Bishop!

 The Boys Scouts and Cub Scouts used the ward breakfast as a Court of Honor to present some awards. I was happy to step in and reprise my role as Cubmaster for the occasion since Sister Green was out of town.

I oversaw the Cubs doing the flag ceremony and then handed out their Day Camp patches. Chuck helped hand out the Scout Camp patches and merit badges. It was nice to have one last hurrah as a Scouting couple :).

 The Primary kids had a little bike/scooter/wagon parade around the church that culminated in a rousing performance of "My Flag, My Flag", so that was adorable:

 It was my idea to put Clyde's Captain America shield on his bike. I just want that to be clear.

 That afternoon we met some friends for the Middleton Parade; it was pretty sweet. The fire trucks spraying water at the end was probably the highlight!!

More water fun:

 We kept Jack out of the direct water, so instead he poured his water bottle out on himself and his tray. It worked!

 Oh, random story: I figured out that my boys have worn the exact same [matching] shirts for three years in a row:

 top left, 2011. bottom left, 2012. right, 2013. I'm 88% sure Clyde will be able to squeeze his on again next year, wooo!

 The rest of the day was unphotographed, but very fun. We ate lunch and had naps and then met with friends for a BBQ dinner, complete with delicious homemade ice cream because Shelly is amazing. Then we headed back out to Middleton for a pretty amazing fireworks show. Here we are all decked out in glowsticks just before the fireworks started:

Happy birthday, America!

"It's too [dang] hot for a penguin to be just walking around here..."

So I almost had a heart attack the other night. Well, that's not true. I almost wet my pants the other night. Why? Because of this little feller:

 A freaking penguin statue.

Let me set the scene: at about 3am I woke up to the sounds of Jack crying, followed immediately by the sounds of Jack, er, tossing his cookies. Poor baby. Poor me. Poor bedding. I got him cleaned up and his room cleaned up and went to take out his trash -- except that through the front window I saw a weird outline of a weird object in the street. 

(this is the part where I almost wet my pants).

 Now, in general I consider myself fairly brave/tough/hardcore/whatever, but this freaked me out pretty good. I braced myself enough to open the door and venture out a couple steps. At this point I was pretty sure it was a penguin, which provided absolutely no comfort. It possibly freaked me out more - I thought it was maybe some sort of (Billy Madison-related??) message.

 I know it doesn't look that creepy in these pictures, but you all have the benefit of light - picture this bad boy peering at you THROUGH THE DARK. Yeah, that sends some shivers, doesn't it??

 So, I woke up Chuck. I'm not proud of this, especially considering the poor guy's alarm was set to ring in about an hour. But you do what you gotta do, and my poor sweet husband looked out the window, walked outside a couple steps, confirmed it was a penguin, reassured me that we were fine, and then rocked a sick baby back to sleep. So he's clearly the best.

 The next morning I staged a self-intervention and made myself go confront the little guy. Spoiler alert: he was just as creepy up close. I decided his middle-of-the-road placement was less than ideal, so I got hands-on and walked him over to the side of the road (he was HEAVY!). There was some more debris a few feet away, so he must have fallen casualty to a middle-of-the-night move. 

Apparently he was worth a return trip, though, since when I looked out a few hours later he was gone. Good riddance buddy! See you in my nightmares! Please never come back!!

(P.S. here's the Billy Madison scene the post title refers to: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlFcCfcOO7I 

Fair warning, it's Adam Sandler, so, you know, proceed with caution :) )

Super Activity trip to the Oregon Coast

Warning: This post is VERY long. Like 39 pictures plus commentary. Obviously I think it's pretty compelling stuff, BUT don't feel like you have to read the whole thing to maintain our friendship :).

Last week Chuck and I were able to go with the youth (kids 12-17) from our ward to the Oregon Coast, and we had such a great time. I still can't believe how smoothly everything went, especially considering how last-minute a lot of it came together.

Everyone met at the church EARLY on Wednesday morning to start the trip: thirteen youth, ten adults, three small-ish children. We split into the four vehicles and started the [gorgeous, but sooo long] drive to Newport, Oregon. Chuck and I ended up with five super awesome girls in our car: Naomi (the only girl we knew prior to this trip), Kiki, Erin, Abbey, and RayLynn. Words probably can't describe how much I love them all now.

I obviously started out the drive up next to Chuck, but a slightly [very] carsick girlie in our vehicle meant a bit of rearrangement, and I moved to the back row. It was, granted, not the most comfortable spot ever, but it worked :). My favorite thing was how much 'carry-on' luggage the girls brought with them that we had to try not to step on every time we got in and out of the van!

 

We stopped for a tourist/lunch break at Multnomah Falls: here's a group picture of all the Young Men and Young Women who were able to come on the trip: Will, Jarrin, Lee, Naomi, Kiki, Erin, Olivia, RayLynn, Miranda, Abbey, Stefanie, Celeste, and Jared. The whole adventure was planned primarily by Stefanie - she researched where to stay and what to do and her hard work really paid off. She's a superstar!

Multnomah Falls! Sooo pretty. I would have been content to admire it from this perspective, but Chuck insisted we wander up that bridge really really high up there.

So we did. I don't know who took this shot looking down off the bridge (I certainly didn't) but it makes me want to throw up a little just looking at it. I might have an issue with heights.

Abbey was a tad nervous as well, so we held hands and went out on the bridge together... and after squinted-ly checking out the view, I hied myself quickly back to the stability of the trail. Also, the cheeriness of the warning on the 'Stay on the Trail' sign made me laugh.

 

Oh, I did stay out on the bridge long enough for a photo op with my cute husband, along with the Jenks and the Fleshmans.

And then we found a cute picnic area to devour our delicious lunch (BBQ chicken and watermelon and carrots) and our even more delicious dessert (rice krispie treats and chocolate chip cookies sent along with us from the Swallows).

After lunch, we semi-begrudgingly piled back into the cars. Holy moly, that drive is long. How did we keep ourselves entertained for fourteen-ish hours (with stops...so many stops, haha) in a minivan??

Glad you asked: Tennis Shoes Among the Nephites, walkie talkies, a trip journal, snacks, taking lots and lots of pictures, and lots of napping.

The walkie talkies proved invaluable; each car had one and it was so convenient to just radio in when we needed to take a 'fresh air' break (aka Erin was sick) or double check directions or just chat with everyone when we were bored. We established code names for each vehicle prior to leaving Nampa: we were 'Uplander' (aka the model of our minivan, unoriginal, I know). Bishop's minivan was 'Oscar the Grouch's Trash Can' or 'Trash Can' for short. This led to lots of hilarity as they radioed in for bathroom breaks, ie "Trash Can needs to be emptied". The Jenks' minivan started out as 'Silver Bullet' but halfway through the week they had an identity crisis and switched to 'the Governor', complete with British accent. The Nelsons' truck (towing the Scout trailer) was 'Eagle Eye' since they took the lead at the start of the trip. We had so much cheesy fun chiming in on the walkie talkies and using the code names!

The Tennis Shoes audiobooks are a road trip tradition for Super Activity; we listened to the Sacred Quest on the drive out and the Gadiantons and the Silver Sword on the drive home. The girls LOVED them. We turned them off whenever we needed to use the walkie talkies and as soon as the conversation finished, the girls would all pipe up, "Can we turn the story back on now??" And the trip journal was tons of fun; I passed it around as we drove and during the week and the girls jotted down what activities we were doing and their thoughts. I promised to make them each a copy :).

At long last we pulled into our campground, hooray! Camp was set-up super quick; the kids all did awesome and jumped in to get it done. We had hamburgers for dinner and then everyone headed over to the beach to watch the sunset... except Chuck (who volunteered to clean up from dinner) and myself, who opted for a quick pre-bedtime nap since I hadn't slept in the car at all. When everyone came back we met around the campfire for a devotional (that night was my turn) and then bedtime!

Thursday morning we hopped back in the van for the short drive to the Lighthouse; I LOVE this picture of our 'Uplander Girls'.

We spent some time in the visitor's center and learned a lot of the history about the Yaquina Head Lighthouse and information about the sea life in the area...

which came in very handy since our next stop was Quarry Cove, just down the road:

This was one of my favorite parts of the trip. We spent a couple of hours just wandering along the beach area, letting the kids explore and wade in the water.

On the other side of the path there was a neat area that we climbed down into and found sooo many cool creatures: crabs, fish, starfish! (All sealife was safely returned to their water-y homes post-photo op). It was sooo neat to just wander around and see the kids having such a blast.

 After climbing back up to the cars, we headed back to camp (with a funny group pit stop to Walmart. Guess we're not very hardcore campers, haha). We ate lunch and then some of us went over to the beach:

It was sooo pretty! And soooo windy!!

Prior to hearing Bishop's warnings about the cold, cold temperatures of the water and how quickly hypothermia sets in, I had promised a bunch of the kids that I would go all the way in to the ocean. How do I get myself into these things??

Chuck and I ran in together, although he went much further. I pretty much stopped ASAP and let a wave crash me down so I could get the heck out of there faster. I don't think I can properly describe how bone-chillingly cold it was. Also VERY very salty. Like in my nose.

So what's the appropriate follow-up to such an experience? Doing it again, apparently:

Yeah, we ran back in... not really sure why. I think I figured it couldn't be any colder the second time (I was wrong) and I wanted to make sure I got credit (aka more photo ops as proof) and I don't see myself at the ocean again any time soon, soooo, might as well, right?

Chuck and Bishop, courtesy of whichever cute girlie had my camera at that point. These two guys did so much to make this trip possible and fun. Chuck was a superstar with the food prep; everyone for sure took turns and helped but Chuck was a pretty constant presence. And Bishop is just such a great guy. His emphasis for this trip was just facilitating fun experiences and spiritual experiences for the youth - as leaders we said 'Yes' as much as possible. The result was so fantastic; everyone had such a great time. The kids didn't feel hurried or rushed or overscheduled (even though we fit in a ton during our time there) and we had plenty of downtime to just hang out and talk with the youth. And the devotionals presented by the leaders (one each morning, one each evening) were all so relevant and effective at inviting the Spirit.

 After the beach we all headed over to a science learning center that was really neat. We didn't have a lot of time before it closed for the day, but the kids managed to see a lot of the exhibits:

I handed off my camera to the girlies again, and they came back with all sorts of awesome pictures!!

We decided the yellow submarine was a good spot for some official pictures: the top is all 13 youth and the bottom two are all of the adults (plus Keylee).

And here are some unofficial shots too :). I love the bottom middle shot of Sister Fleshman and Sara and Keylee.

Then we headed back to camp. We had some time before dinner so the guys played a weird rock-throwing game called Perg; I guess it's a Scout camp-out fave.

Here's what we learned: Will doesn't understand the concept of 'lobbing', if a rock might be coming your direction you should just be smart and move, Tasha has an amazingly quick guardian angel, and also that Sister Jensen is an amazing seamstress and can nicely repair the hole in the pack-and-play that her son may have caused via his thrown rock :).

And the main takeaway should be that Chuck won the game: good job babe!!

After our spaghetti dinner it was time for s'mores and devotional and bed, yay!

Friday was Sister Jensen's birthday, and her sweet Will came prepared:

We stayed up the night before to decorate her chair and the trees around their tent with crepe paper. We also sneakily had everyone make her birthday cards and we gave those to her first thing that morning.

Oh, one of the fun amusements around camp was a little nerf rocket that Sister Jensen found; the boys had loads of fun flinging it around and mostly getting it stuck in trees. Then they used firewood to try to knock down the rocket and it got stuck, haha.

Our first activity on Friday was heading back to the Lighthouse for a tour of the inside:

Poor Kiki got sick as we were in line, so she and I headed back to the van for some Pepto (for her) and naps (for both of us).

 I sent the camera with the other girls, so they again came back with awesome pictures and stories.

And once we saw the crazy stairs they had to climb, Kiki and I didn't feel so bad about not making the trek up:

Intense right??

 

Most of the group traipsed down to the rocky beach beneath the lighthouse and got to see some seals and birds that looked alarmingly like penguins, but weren't.

 Friday afternoon was devoted to window-shopping/actual shopping in two neighboring towns.

Bishop was lucky enough to have a sleeping granddaughter and phone calls to catch up on, so he was excused from the first excursion. Shopping is not his favorite thing, but the rest of us had fun!!

The stores had a good mix of cute stuff and oddball stuff. Ryan found a cool seashell ring, so I told him to go 're-propose' to Tasha (they just celebrated their 10th anniversary). She was a little confused, but said yes, so that's good!

My favorite sign is the "I laughed so hard ~ Tears ran down my leg" one!

Okay, funny story: Paulina sweetly told me about some cool orange sunglasses she saw for $5, but she couldn't remember what store they were in. It was just about time to meet up, so we told Bishop we'd be riiiight back and started randomly running in and out of stores, haha.

And then we found them! I decided not to buy them, but we had to have a quick picture to commemorate the epic search. And Erin and Kiki had to try some sunglasses on too :).

More downtime around the campfire... and the young men (supervised by Brother Jenks) shaking a tree to get the rocket down... and me giving our hot dog dinner a hearty thumbs up!

Oh man, speaking of dinner, I have to include this picture:

This was our special salad mix that served as lettuce for our hamburgers on Wednesday and then switched to be regular salad as a side to our hot dogs on Friday. Tasha and I gave Bishop such a hard time about it... pretty sure everything is funnier when you're camping, haha.

Our dessert on Friday night was extra special for Sister Jensen's birthday :). Under Chuck's supervision, we made dutch oven cobblers (and I do mean 'we'; I think there were like eight people helping at one point).

And then we lit some candles and sang Happy Birthday! I think Sister Jensen had a really nice day, which makes me happy because she's one of my favorite people and she's had a rough go of it the last few months and she deserved a really wonderful birthday.

The next day we woke up and somehow it was already Saturday and time to head home! Crazy. So we packed up camp and ate some doughnuts and hit the road:

The drive was still loooong, but we had fun. Erin felt better the last half, so I got to sneak back to the front seat. We listened to our book and were excited to drive by the Portland Temple and ate sandwiches out of the Scout trailer in a Rite Aid parking lot in the middle of Oregon, so it was a pretty sweet drive all-around.

Chuck and I had such a great few days with everyone on the trip, and especially with our sweet Uplander girls:

Abbey, RayLynn, Kiki, Erin, and Naomi. 

In fact, the only thing that made me feel better about saying good-bye to them that evening when we rolled in to Nampa was the fact that it meant I could go home and say HELLO to these darling boys:

My babies!!! (Eating the lollipops we brought home for them). Ohh, I missed them. I'm so, so grateful for Grandma Pam and the amazing care she took of my sweet little boys (with help from Uncle Cody!). My boys are kind of high maintenance as far as medicine and such, and it was so nice knowing that my mom had all of that under control so I could focus on the youth and the trip. Thanks again Mama!!

And that was Super Activity! Good times!