Japanese Party

Jason and Kyoko returned from Japan and brought home some goodies.

Also, Kyoko's sister and husband are visiting for a few weeks from Japan.

So, we had a party at Jason & Kyoko's house to celebrate and open a few gifts from Japan.

Cole

Sierra is thrilled with her origami making supplies

And who doesn't love a cute HelloKitty manicure kit?

Lillie loves her HelloKitty kimono.

I have to admit that I practically cried when she put on this cute little outfit.

Summer (and later Sierra) had a cute little outfit just like this when they were about 2.

Would someone just make them stop growing up??  It's making me crazy.

Kyoko's sister is showing everyone a picture of her grand baby.

Glad to see a table full of yummy food for our "cheat meal"

This is one picky kid, but he'll eat sushi.  I don't get it.

Time for cake.  It was a contest to see who would get to blow out the candles.

 Then we thought it would be a good idea to get a picture of the grandkids.

This was the first try.  I think we should have just been happy with the first try...

things just got more and more crazy.

not too bad...

We tried to take a "goofy" picture and this is the best they could do.

I think all together we tried about 20 times.  

Young Women Camp 2014

I LOVE LOVE LOVE Girls Camp

So, exciting to go with my own 2 (3) girls.

I was doubtful that I would be going to girls camp this year 

(because of last year's drama) and because I have been in YW for quite a few years.  I was the secretary and then I got released.  They called me to be the Laurel Advisor.  I was thrilled, but I still thought it was a weird move to stay in Young Womens.  I took it as an opportunity to get to know the girls better by acting like I was one of them!! Which was fine because there were 15 adults at camp and not everyone can be in charge, right?  I left that to the other leaders to duke it out for the chance to make all of the calls, I was just along for the ride.  And it was a great ride...

Here we are at the Church waiting to leave.  And waiting.  And waiting.

First stop:  Cove Fort.  We washed the windows for our service project.  Do you see all of those windows?  yep, our "Service Project" took approximately 4 seconds.  But, it was still fun.  I love Cove Fort.

Lunch at Cove Fort (I think this was my favorite meal of the whole camp)

Next stop:  Freemont Indian State Park.

We camped at Freemont Indian State Park.  It was OK.  If you like rocks, sage brush, dirt, lots of sun, and the sound of I-70 traffic lulling you to sleep at night.

These are some of my fun girls that I got to hang out with (even though we weren't supposed to climb on the rocks!).  (Where were Sierra & Ellie??)

Summer is obsessed with starting fires.  Do you see her camp book out so that she makes sure she is doing it correctly?  This may be the only bit of certification that was done at camp.  Way to go Summer.

Summer and Lexi

And the Bacon.  with a fork.

Shelby was traumatized by the squirrel lurking around her tent.

It peaked when she realized that said squirrel had a bite of her gum...through the wrappers, and through the plastic bag that was sitting on her pillow.  She was convinced that the squirrel peed on her pillow.  I might have taken some raisins from the trails mix, cut them into tiny pieces to make it look like squirrel poop.  (apparently I had too much free time...)

All of the happy campers.  plus a few grumpy ones.

I was in charge of certification.  Shelby and I planned a hike for the level 1 and level 2 girls.

We used the map that the State Park provided.  It was supposed to be 5 miles.

The map was a joke.  We basically ended up walking 2 miles along the freeway, crossed under the freeway, found a shortcut and walked 2 miles back.  It was awful.  We had packed our lunches to eat along the way (part of certification).   But, other leaders determined that the hike was taking too long and we didn't have time to stop and eat.  What??  No time to eat???  We had to get back to camp for horseback riding.

The following day, Brother Olson and I took a smaller group of girls on a hike around the museum.  It was really fun.  Less than 2 miles and we saw tons of rock art.

 Sierra found some rock art near our camp.

Lots and lots of rock art near the museum.

Sierra and Shelby

You know the girls have too much free time when all they can come up with to do is give each other facials and shape their eyebrows.  One of the leaders had a come apart when they found out about it.  oops.  She said, "who in the world is doing that???????"  I calmly said, "My daughter."

So much fun with my girls.  I love them all so much.  Even though camp was chaotic I loved being there and having the opportunity to hang out with these wonderful young women for a few days. So sad that this was Summer and Shelby's last year of YW Camp.  Hopefully I still have a few more years of camping left in me.

Summer, me, Sierra, Shelby

The girls slept most of the way home.  They were tired and hungry.  

We might have stopped at Arby's on the way home for some real food.

Mr. Mailman & Mr. Tomato Man

Rick and I were driving a few days ago and he said, "oh, I forgot to tell you…I met your old mailman."  What.  He said that he had this old man come in and he got talking to him and he discovered that he was the Arctic Circle mailman for years.  He said that often times he would come in and get his lunch and then find out that there was no charge.  My dad wouldn't charge him for his lunch!!  I remember him coming in for years and years.  Always so kind and nice.  I don't remember how we knew that it was his last day delivering mail, but he came to Arctic Circle for lunch on his last day of work.  Dad paid for his lunch on that day, too.  I remember it well.  He always ordered a small hamburger and small order of fries and a water.  He would always eat quickly so he could be back on his way to deliver mail, but he always hollered, "Thank you" and "Goodbye" as he would leave.

I asked Rick how he figured out the connection.  He said that he asked the man where he lived and he said Orem.  He asked what he did for a living and he said he delivered mail in South Orem.  He mentioned that he delivered mail to the businesses down there.  Rick told him that his wife's family had a business down there.  Mr. Mailman asked what business and Rick said, "Arctic Circle."  Mr. Mailman said that he delivered mail to Arctic Circle and to Kent for years.  Rick said "That's the business her family owned.  My wife worked there for 13 years.  Kent is my father-in-law"  He remembered us!!  He said that he loved going in there for all of his years of delivering mail because we were all so nice and friendly.  He continued to stop in every once in a while after he retired, too.

Mr. Mailman's brother was the Tomato man.  They looked just alike, except Mr. Tomato Man had darker hair.  He came in for years, as well.  He lived on a big piece of property on 1200 South in Orem (which is now RC Willey or across the street where the car dealership is, I believe).  After he retired, he just grew a bigger and bigger garden every year.  So, he started selling his garden tomatoes to my dad every summer for Arctic Circle.  He charged $5 per case which was a huge bargain considering that during certain times of the year we paid $30 to $40 for a case of tomatoes.  And everyone knows that garden tomatoes are 10x better than greenhouse tomatoes.  I still think of Mr. Tomato Man every time I plant my tomatoes.  I planted 20 plants this year.  I wonder how many plants Mr. Tomato Man planted.  Mr. Tomato Man brought his grandson in one time and asked us if we could help him.  He was a cute kid, but prone to getting into trouble.  My Dad gave Nate a job.  He worked hard and dad scheduled him enough hours every week that he didn't have time to get into trouble.  He was a likable kid and we all did a good job helping him stay out of trouble, at least during the time he spent working at Arctic Circle.  

*names have been changed in this story so that Rick doesn't lose his job.