Ward Campout

Last night and today Daryn, Rebekah and I were on Mt Lemon at Camp Zion, enjoying the cool weather! :) The rain was okay most of the time, but sometimes we could have gone without.

Our ward had its annual camp-out, up at the Church owned girls camp, just .7 miles from the Scout Camp. It was cool for me to see a different Girl's Camp, since I'd only ever been to LoMia. Oh man, Phoenix girls, you have it easy! Camp Zion mostly just has platforms for tents, and outhouses. There's a FEW "cabins" and maybe one set of bathrooms with running water, but I think those are reserved for the leaders that come to take care of you. But hey, some YW in the stake just painted all the walls of the outhouses, so at least they're not dark and gloomy!

We got to the campsite later than we would have liked, but overall things were fun. Rebekah had a hard time traversing any ground that wasn't covered in concrete, but she LOVED running around in the mess hall. In fact, she hardly let me hold her while we were in there playing games and enjoying cake and cobblers made in dutch ovens.

Daryn made Regurgitated Pizza for dinner, and then Nasty Cake for dessert. Everyone loved it - and Daryn loves it when people love his food. :) We also taught some friends how to play Fluxx. It's a really fun card game, and if you haven't played it ask me about it the next time I see you. Since Rebekah slept the whole way to the camp, she was up pretty late, but that was okay b/c I just held her in my lap as we sat around the campfire and got to know some of the couples in our ward. One sister told us about her mom - the first person to be baptized in China! We heard some pretty amazing stuff, and would have stayed up later, but it was starting to rain, and while Rebekah had been asleep for a while, I didn't want to go put her down in the tent b/c then I'd have to stay there, so my arms and back were killing me. we finally called it a night around 3, I think.

Breakfast this morning was pancakes. I'm not normally a fan, but I was really hungry, and so was Bekah! Daryn wasn't feeling well (maybe altitude sickness??) at ALL, so I did most of the cleaning and packing up, but I didn't mind - he's always working so hard to take care of me, it was my turn to help him out. :) So he watched Bekah while she climbed up and down the steps of the amphitheater over and over.

I liked the camp out, but I kind of wish they had 1 or 2 more planned activities. The mostly free structured evening was great "Here's board games, enjoy." But I think it would have been cool to play Tug of War, or something as a whole ward the next morning, instead of just having breakfast and everyone scattering to pack up as soon as they could.

Maybe next time.

Goals

Goals to shoot for before summer end: (UPDATED x4!)

DONE - Read a book for enjoyment
WIP - maybe even TWO books!
Buy prints of pictures
send pictures to family members
make 1st Year scrapbook for Rebekah
DONE - Purge School binders of useless papers
DONE - Purge backpack, purse
DONE - File ALL paperwork in "To file" box
DONE - Update blog/facebook with pictures
5/6 DONE - collect pictures from relatives of events I forgot my camera for
Go on 2 or 3 REAL dates with Daryn (no baby!)
WIP - do dishes every day - or at least every other day
WIP - make list of signs to teach Daryn so we can teach Bekah
DONE - beat next chapter of World of Goo
WIP - Get Rebekah on a sleep schedule compatible with my fall school schedule
Find perfect shinguards (like Kati's!)
CANCEL - Find female players for fall soccer season
Clean out/off BOTH desks
DONE - Box unneeded books
DONE - Reorganize bookshelves
DONE - Clean out Rebekah's dresser of too small clothes
DONE - Mark Rebekah's clothes and give to Kati
3/4 DONE - Buy textbooks for school
DONE - Download Video Camera pictures/videos and sort onto computer
Post any "great ones" (videos) on blog
Get computer to play videos so I can look through them!
DONE - Send Pima Transcript to UA

Updates

Look below for pictures and new posts, I'm doing this journal style, so I want events in order. :) Enjoy! There will be more soon.

Accomplishments

These last 2 weeks, Rebekah has really taken the whole walking idea to heart. She is getting better and better, and it's SO cute! I'm also amused by how much she enjoys wearing shoes. She has a pair of pink shoes that she even pulled out of her laundry bin and brought to me to have me put them on her feet.

On Aug 5 Rebekah added another sign to her vocabulary! She's been able to sign "milk" for a long time, and "dog" since probably May. I think she even has her own little versions of "bird" and "dad," but she just now learned "more." It was very cute because we were at a Baby Shower, and they had Eegee's there. Rebekah REALLY wanted more, so I kept signing "more" to her every time I gave her a bite (I've done this before w/o a response). Then suddenly she started signing it back to me! Now she signs it whenever she wants anything food related (she used to sign "milk" for anything food related). I like this because now I know if she really wants to nurse, or she just wants to eat because I'm eating, or because she's hungry. (I know, it doesn't quite make sense, but if you saw her, you'd understand.) For her vocal vocabulary, Rebekah says "Hi" "Bye" "dog" (her first word) and "Da". She's also said "Papa" and "Gigi" but have not repeated them very much - mostly she calls Gigi "dog" because Gigi has a pet cat, and to Rebekah, cats are dogs. :) But, she does recognize that birds are different and makes a "b" sound when looking at Stevie, my mom's bird.

Rebekah is SO cute when you want to play Peek-a-boo. She tries to cover her eyes, but her hands don't always make it there, so she'll have her hands on her cheeks, or the side of her head, or 1/2 way over her eyes, with her fingers spread so she can peek at you. If you're playing by hiding behind an object, Rebekah will get so excited that she'll swing her body back and forth so quickly in and out from behind the object that you can't even say "Peek!" before she's gone and back again.

Rebekah loves to play with her ball, and anything that lights up and makes lots of noise. Lately she's been climbing on everything, to the point that I have to watch her around my computer. She's finding out that if she climbs, she has access to more stuff! (Fun stuff that Mommy plays with - so it's got to be great, right?) She'll even settle for standing on a mostly flat toy that gives her just an inch or two - it's all she needs to reach one extra shelf on the bookcase. (A not baby-proofed shelf... time to rearrange!)

I have a list of other milestones Rebekah has reached, but they're with my scrapbooking stuff in Rebekah's room, where she's sleeping. More later!

Happy Birthday Micaela!

Today my sister Micaela turned fourteen.

!!

She's my baby sister! She's Fourteen! Wow!

I'm glad she's just moved up to Utah, because dances in Phoenix are lame. At least, they were when I went to them. Hopefully Highland is better in the dance atmosphere department.
Sorry it's sideways! I need to get better at this blog thing. Bear with me.

Anyway, Micaela is awesome, and we love her to death. She's a great babysitter, and all her nieces and nephews love her very much. Rebekah is especially fond of Micaela - maybe almost as much as she is fond of her Nana! (And Nana is right there after Mom and Dad.) Micaela is also a talented soccer player, and loves the sport very much - she even voluntarily referees at younger kids games. This year she's starting high school, and the new school's soccer team is WAY too cut-throat, but Mic plans to stick with AYSO, and I'm glad she is. Mic also has great skills on the WaveBoard - a mode of transportation I just can't manage to do well on!

Random fact for you: Micaela has awesome fingernails. I'm totally jealous of them, actually. I love them so much that I even interrupted a very solemn moment to inform her that she has REALLY PRETTY nails. :)

Happy Birthday Micaela! You're awesome!

Thursday - back to Phoenix, help clean Mom's house
Friday - help clean Mom's house
Saturday - shopping! Late Lunch with Mom and sisters. Do genealogy. Unwind watching TV 'til midnight
Sunday - up at 6 with Bekah, back to sleep at 8, up at 10:45, church at 11! Bekah's nap from 2-4, dinner with family at 4, Bekah had upset stomach, play with fire, play Skip Bo, struggle to get Bekah to sleep, multiple times.

Tomorrow - Breakfast with Kat? Visit Jess, Tiff? Lunch with family? HOMEWORK.
Tuesday - GO HOME!

I am so beyond ready to see my hubby again, but I really want to spend time with my mom and sisters. Only, they're at Grandma's house, and while I love to visit with Grandma, too, I don't like to visit AT Grandma's house! It's not child proof, and it makes it very hard to enjoy my visit when I'm constantly keeping Rebekah out of trouble, instead of just letting her play like she wants to. Hopefully we'll get some good time together before the family takes off on Tuesday.