My first Camp activity!

Tonight was our Outdoor Cooking Certification night! We ended up being one of three wards at the South Lake fire pits, and it was a lot of fun for the girls to hang out with the other wards as well---which ended up very helpful for all of us---I showed up with two big bags of coals as the other wards were running out and in need, and they had extra tongs for us! =) We had all the girls make up their own tin foil meals at home, with whatever they wanted in them, ready to be cooked on the fire!....Here are some photos from our cooking adventure!! 

All the dinners seemed to turn out great! And since I hadn't eaten yet (thanks to what ended up being a bad peach in the morning) all the girls dinners smelled so good, I was about to go around taste testing! =)

Our girls hanging out while their dinners cooked 

Our girls with our YW Pres! =)

Mmmm Smores!

The girls eating their yummy smelling dinners!

Some of our girls getting toasted marshmallows delivered to them by our on site fire master! ;)

It was a really fun night! All the girls did great & it was fun to continue to get to know them and the leaders better! I am so relieved that it went so well! =)

Happy Memorial Day!

We had a great weekend full of family and friends! Sunday after church we went over to my parents house to visit with them and hear about their trip back to the Naval Academy, and we were surprised to see that my Aunt CarolAnn, Uncle Mark (Mom's brother), Ali and Chris (cousins) were at the house! =) It was so fun to see them and get so spend some time with everyone! I really wish we would have taken some photos while they were here, it was a lot of fun to see everyone and hang out till almost midnight! =)

Monday we took it easy and BBQ'd with the Money's, flew kites, ate lot's of great food (& cake), watched the Laker game and played with a light up beach ball....and watched some of the Disney fireworks from the back yard! =) It was a gooooood holiday!

The wind was on and off, so it was up and down, and up and down! But it was fun! We are going to try it again at the beach this summer at San O nights! (Its a kite of the Blue Angels)

Some of the BBQ spread & Brody and John hanging out. John is the one my parents went the graduation for at the Naval Academy (hopefully she will post photos soon on her blog, it looked like an amazing thing to be a part of). John will begin his duty by being stationed in San Diego.

Brody and I playing with the flashing light beach ball (that always ended up in the pool)! =)

We are so grateful for all the many men and woman who serve our country everyday! It seems like we all have some personal connection and or know someone who is/has served in a war or serving our country in some way. It is an extremely humbling feeling to know that there are people who would give everything so that we can continue to have everything. And we are so grateful that we have days like these to take some extra time out of our busy day and remember the price of freedom , honor those who fight for it and express our gratitude.

We hope everyone had a fun and safe holiday!! =)

*If you haven't stopped by in awhile we have lot's of new post's below!!

Tide Pools & Shakes

Yesterday was a gorgeous day!! We couldn't help but to spend sometime at the beach. We went down to PCH and had some sandwiches and shakes at Ruby's above Crystal Cove.....and then ended up down at the beach exploring the tide pools! =)

After almost a year I joined the 'Ray-Ban' club with Brody (he got his last 4th of July)

The beautiful view while we ate

It was a really fun day, we spent about 3 hours down at the beach! It was a great start to the 3 day weekend! =)

Summer foods

The other night, I had a brain storm of dinner ideas and ended up planning out about 4 1/2 weeks of dinners. So far tonight's dinner is one of our favorites for summer! And it was really easy! =) BBQ pork sandwich with coleslaw, Sweet potato fries, fruit salad & freezer chilled Root Beer ! MMmmmm....we love summer time foods! 

(I am always looking for dinner ideas, so I just thought I would share a new favorite of ours) =)

Four legged house guest

My parents are out of town this week back at the Navel Academy for a family friends Graduation! At the same time their house was being tented for termite's---so we got to have the family cat, Rory over for a visit.

Of course it took her a bit to get used to her new (temporary) home, but once she did, she was following us around and crawling all over us in the night & puurrrring away!

Needless to say she was not happy with me when we got back to our house, because I was the one who put her in a carrier and then the car! She ended up snubbing me for a bit and only coming out for Brody, and only letting him pet her (which he enjoyed)! =) But by later that night she forgave me (or forgot about the whole car thing all together!) =)

It was fun having her with us, but she is very happy to back home where she can go outside and explore again (she is very much an independent outdoor cat)! =)

Next showing: 12:01am

It keeps striking us as funny, that two people who rarely go to the movies went last night (or early this morning rather) to see Angels&Demons at 12:01am! Brody read the book awhile back and loved it, and we both started listening to it again on our iPods this week. He also read 'Di Vinci Code', and happened to be reading it while we were in Paris/London (it was really neat for him to actually be at the places the book talked about), I think...the year before the movie came out?...and again I listened to it on my iPod =)

It always seems to make the movie better/more interesting if I have read the book (these two at lest) before hand, because the books cover SO much that the movie just can't--so having read the book before hand you understand and catch more in the movie you might have missed otherwise. It's really fun to us. =) We liked the movie, and thought they did a pretty good job taking it from book to movie (but we aren't picky). It sort of had the same feel as Di Vinci Code---just a completely different story line. I know it's not really fair to compare the two movies, but I think I enjoyed Di Vinci Code more (less violent...I had to look away several times last night).

Brody hunting for a seat...

...and this I'm sure is one of several reasons we shouldn't do movies too much, we really can't just sit still, and ended up throwing popcorn and seeing if we could make it into each others mouths (as shown below--I love this photo!!) =)

We had a blast!! I don't think we will do too many midnight movies, but we weren't as tired as I thought we would be---I don't think it hit us until we were about home, at sometime after 3am! It was a good movie! If you are planning on seeing it, I don't think you will be disappointed (but again we aren't picky...and the books are always better anyway, they just can't get it all in)! =)

Happy Mothers Day...

to everyone! Hope everyone had a great day with family & friends!! 

We did---I got to sing in church with the Young Woman & leaders! And in Relief Society we had a big lunch spread (which I was late to, taking care of Camp things) and some really great talks---and then we got to spend the rest of the day/evening with my Mom (and Dad)! =) It was such a fun night we had a great meal, hung out and then watched the finale of The Amazing Race! 

I love Mothers Day---and I am so beyond grateful for my Mom and the great example she is to us, her seminary kids and the young adults in her singles ward (my Dad is the Bishop of the Newport Coast Singles Ward)! Everybody just loves her....how could you not!? =) .....even the family Cat cared enough to get her a card and show some love!! 

(This Cat is crazy and we love her, and we love to play fun jokes with her) =)

Do I hear 50? 55? 60?...

Last night was our Girls Camp fundraiser! We sort of hijacked our pre-existing ward Cinco de Mayo party, once we found out (2 weeks ago) that we needed to do a fundraiser for camp! I sent out e-mails, did sign up sheets and rounded up all my girls and leaders and we had a GREAT auction!! 

Brody was such an amazing help! He was helping me all day--writing up "Thank you" stickers to stick on each treat & so much more......AND he ended up being one of the auctioneers (along with the 1st counselor of the Bishopric)!! It was so much fun, everyone was laughing and out bidding each other!  It was more than I could have asked for---our Young Woman's president and I were only hoping for about $300, we raised over $2,000!!!! We are going to have a great camp! Everyone was SO excited with how it turned out!

Here is our table full of goodies, and two of my young woman guarding it =)

One of the signs I made about 45mins before show time 

The Red Velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting that I made---both my trays went for around $90! I was so excited! (I also made two plates of frosted brownies that did well too) =)

People checkin' out the table for what they want to bid on! 

During the auction (too bad I was not sitting on Brodys side), one of my girls is on the stage "modeling" one of the cakes!

After all was said and done Brody was off playing ball with the young men! =) 

It was SUCH a great night! I am so thankful to all who help & humbled by those who donated so much for these girls! It was a success and it was so much fun to be a part of. Camp is going to be a lot of fun!

Dear Summer,

         We had a taste of your warm sun soaked weather a week or so ago, and loved it! We feel like we have been waiting a long time to have a nice long constant strand of warm sunny days with out the cloudy/"rainy" days getting very randomly in the way! We are itching to get out to the beaches, pools, ballparks & other outdoor things that are just best on a nice warm day, say over 75' (at least)! So please sunny warm weather, come back (and stay) soon!! =)