Girls Camp and Elk Ridge City Celebration

Before we moved I was helping with camp in our old ward and because it was a year for ward camp my in-laws were nice enough to let us use the Wales house for it.  When I found out we were moving I absolutely insisted that I still come to camp. Luckily the leaders were nice enough to let me do it! 

One of the girls brought me this on the first day.  Her mom and my friend had found it.  Always a good way to start Girls Camp!

 Once we got there we rearranged a few things and got everyone set up. It was amazing to see that they all fit!

 Doug was home taking care of the kids and I kept getting awesome texts like this.  Man did I miss those guys!

Girls Camp is not complete without a flag ceremony

 And selfies of the girls on the leader's phones!

 More texts from Doug. The eyes on this little boy! They kill me!!!

 Girls Camp is not complete without crafts either!! We made these awesome lanterns with the YW symbol on them

 And had a cake decorating contest.

 More selfies!

 We did baptisms for the dead in the Manti Temple when we were there and went to the Manti pageant.  The last day we were there we went to Palisade State Park.  It was a pretty good time and the water felt so good!

 After Palisades we headed home.  It was fun to have one last hurrah with these girls but also hard to say goodbye one last time!!

It was good to be home though and to be welcomed by these crazies.

 Yesterday consisted of riding bikes (for some reason I can't get enough of him in his helmet) and

 we went to check out a new park up Hobble Creek Canyon with a little reservoir.  It was fun but very crowded!

 Last night we went to our City Celebration parade.  It was so fun!! I was helping to direct traffic so my kids got to be walkers and bikers in it.  My girls are in the very front holding the Mayor's banner.

 Last night they had a movie in the park and showed Paddington.  It was fun but we were all tired by the end!

 Today we hit up the booths and got some fun jewelry

 and got faces painted! So far it's been fun living here and it was fun to celebrate with the city!

My Birthday/Vernal Trip

Here's a random snapchat I got from my sister the other day.  Snaps from her are the best. 

Also, this is where naughty kids go in our house.

My birthday was last week and it was a great day!! The day before my college roommates Lauren and Erin (who both have June birthdays as well) came over with their kids to have lunch and swim.  It was so fun and of course we didn't get any pictures.

My actual birthday was a good day and and I got spoiled rotten.

Doug got me a heart rate monitor watch which I've been wanting for awhile.  I was impressed that it knew my birthday!

So did Google!

We packed up for Vernal and this guy enjoyed some peanut butter while we made our lunches.

We stopped in Helper to get a picture of the world's biggest coal miner.

Then we finally made it to Vernal with the pink dinosaur (who's eyes move!)

and scary T-Rex

We also drove by the temple which was beautiful.

The girls thought it was fun that there were dinosaurs on their street signs too.

The night we got there we went to the Heritage Museum.  We were pretty impressed with the dolls that represented all the first ladies in their inaugural gowns.

Jackie Kennedy and Lady Bird Johnson.

It was a pretty cool museum! Then we wento McConkie Ranch to see some petroglyphs.

They were pretty cool too!

We grabbed some dinner at the 7-11 Ranch Restaurant (not in an actual 7-11 we learned, thankfully) and then waited for Jeff and lexie to come so we could go swim with them. The next morning we hiked to Moonshine Arch which was awesome.

Then we went to the Natural History Museum in Vernal and enjoyed the Dinosaur Gardens

After that we went to the Quarry which my kids were not super impressed with. Lame kids. 

After that we drove to Fantasy Canyon which was like a super mini version of Goblin Valley.  It was so hot and we were almost out of gas so we were a little grumpy but it was a pretty cool place.  We'd love to go back in January when it's 50 degrees.

Luckily we made it to a gas station and made it home without any incident. It was a fun trip and the girls have already been asking when we can go back. Thanks for the good times Vernal!