Girls camp

Last week I had the opportunity to go to girls camp with the young women in our ward. I have to admit I wasn't all that excited for it because camping is really not my thing but it turned out better than I thought. I'm glad I went and I'm grateful for the spiritual experience I was able to have. There is something to be said about staying in the mountains that I feel closer to my Heavenly Father.

One of the highlights of the week for me was the faith walk. I found much symbolism in it and I felt like I got a glimpse of what Wyatt may be watching as he sees his family go through life. We were blindfolded and had to go through a ropes course in the moutains. At the end of the faith walk we as leaders got to greet the girls with a "Welcome Home" and a big hug. I just had to think that is exactly what Wyatt is going to get to do with each of his family members. Such a lucky kid. All in all it was a good week. I was worn out when I got home and it's been nice to just chill at home for a few days. I don't have permission to post the pictures of the girls which I took lots of but I did take a few of the beautiful surroundings that I got to enjoy for a few days. There were also lots of butterflies there which gave me many Wyatt moments. Love that!

Right outside our tent....love the Aspen trees and green, green grass. Oh, so beautiful!

So grateful for this beautiful earth we get to enjoy.

Reunion

Summer for us means reunions. We went to another one last weekend on Derek's side of the family. We went camping at Red Canyon. Such a beautiful campsite by Bryce Canyon. Love the red rock. The kids had loads of fun playing with cousins. So grateful for family. Here are a few pictures from the weekend.

Emily riding bikes with her cousins. They did this a lot!

Haybug posing for me. I didn't put the picture I took of Tyler in because he would not have liked it. But he spent his time playing games with his cousins. Something he LOVES to do.

This was our view outside of our tent in the morning. What a beautiful way to wake up.

Once this post is posted I will be at girls camp with our ward. Yet another camping experience. I have to admit camping is not really something I love. I am learning though that it's a great way to experience the beauties of this earth and all that our loving Heavenly Father has given us. I just wish it wasn't so much work. I need a vacation from all our camping vacations. :)

Swimming

Love this picture of Hayley with her goggles. It makes me laugh. We have done a lot of swimming this summer. It's how we beat the heat. A few weeks ago we had a niece come stay with us for a week We did lots of swimming then. I took a few pictures one evening. The kids always have fun in the water.

Emily and her cousin.

The girls

The Spoken Word

I forgot about these pictures that we took when we went to Cherry Hill. On Sunday we went to the spoken word and heard the Tabernacle Choir broadcast. It was the 4th of July that day and the broadcast was amazing. I love music especially patriotic music. My heart was touched and the spirit was strong. So grateful for opportunities like that. It was really neat.

Kristie and Mitch went with us which made it even more fun. We have such great nieces and nephews.

The temple grounds are always so beautiful. I could have spent all morning taking pictures of all the beautiful flowers but I resisted.

Love this temple. It's the temple Derek and I were married in 14 years ago for time and all eternity. As I've said so many times before I'm so very grateful for the eternity part of that and how Wyatt is sealed to us forever.

I have a facebook account but I don't do much on it other than to wish someone happy birthday. I will sometimes check the status of others and whats happening in their life but I really don't spend much time on it anymore. Well, Sunday I happened to be on it and it was one of those days where I was aching for Wyatt more than most days so I posted this status.

Miss this guy...will the ache ever go away? I don't think so. Not until he is in
my arms again which on most days seems like an eternity. But I will continue on,
hoping for that wonderful day when my arms will not ache anymore and will be
filled with my sweet Wyatt again.

And I got so many sweet and kind comments. It just reinforced to me how many wonderful people there are and what goodness there is in this world. The ache for Wyatt will never leave until that day when he is in my arms again. And I wouldn't want it any other way. Though the ache is beyond hard it continues to show me how much I love him and how much he is truly missed each and every second of the day. So as I said before I will continue on with hope for the day when my arms are filled with my sweet Wyatt. Until then I'm doing my best to enjoy this life and what it has to offer. Though it can be most difficult at times there is much good to be found especially when we look for those simple things to be grateful for.

Butterfly collage

I saw this idea here. Loved it and decided that we would do one for Emily's room. So, we went to DI to find a frame. Found this one for 3 dollars. Emily had a hard time seeing the vision of this frame. But I knew what a little white spray paint could do.

We love how it turned out. It will be a sweet reminder of her little brother as she looks at all the butterflies on her wall.

We made sure we used scraps of paper from Wyatt's birth annoucements. Green, light blue and stripped green and light blue.

4th of July

Here are some pictures taken on the 4th and 5th of July. Hayley was actually requesting that I take some of these pictures so I couldn't turn that down. So, yet again there are a ton of Hayley. I was able to get Tyler to sit for one picture which is a miracle.

We had a fun 4th and 5th of July. We were able to go up north and spend it with family. We had a bar-b-q at my parents house on the evening of the 4th and then did some backyard fireworks. Lots of fun! On the 5th we got together with some dear friends of ours and enjoyed a relaxing morning at the park. After that we were able to spend the rest of the afternoon with Derek's family celebrating his mom and dad's 50th anniversary(forgot the camera..my bad). We went to chuck a rama and to a movie. It's always a treat to spend time with family. It was a fun and eventful weekend and hopefully a memorable one for our kids.

Hayley in the slide at the park.

Met our friends at this park. I LOVED the flags placed in the shape of a star. I took a zillion pictures of the flag. So grateful for our flag and what it represents.

The 4th of July for me would not be the same without cherries. That is what we did every year for the 4th of July we worked in the orchard. As a child I didn't enjoy that. I wanted to go to the parade and fireworks etc. But we always had to pick cherries. Grateful though for the lessons I learned from picking cherries. We did get our 2 oldest up early on the 5th so they could pick a few cherries for us to take home. It made me wish we had an orchard so they could learn the valuable lessons I learned from being raised on one.

She is such a poser sometimes.

Picking raspberries...she loves my parents garden!

Dancing with cousins

She has always had a LOVE for swings. This is one of the greatest swings in my parents backyard. So fun!

The miracle shot...Tyler doesn't usually let me take his picture.

This is a little photo shoot I did with Hayley. Loved the red chair.