ReJoyce!!: Blessings Catch Up Time!! May 22

Today's Blessing: Finally Some "Free" Time!!

Wow! My life has been TOTALLY crazy lately! Summer has begun and the start of summer is always really busy for me, especially for the past three years when I was called to be the Stake Young Women's Secretary.

Laurel Light Camp is always the first week after school gets out for the summer, so for one to two weeks before camp begins, my "free" time is very occupied with Light Camp stuff.

I still like to put together a summer activity (I should call it "Challenge") for our family, so that keeps me a bit busy planning and preparing for it too.

And to top it off this year, I offered to do an eight-week summer story hour for the Fine Arts Center here in Brigham City. So I have been busy planning and putting together a "Story Time Safari" of the program.

Ya, my life has been swimming. But it's all so good and I love doing it all so that makes it all worth it, right? My husband might disagree on that point.

Anyway, I have still been taking pictures every day of at least one blessing I witnessed that day (I've discovered my days are filled with many blessings - sometimes too many to count!!)...so how about a slideshow!!

Ready...
Set...
GO...
THURSDAY, MAY 22, 2014 - An Evening Splurge :)
Part of serving in the Stake Young Women is helping with seminary graduation...and here I thought my attending seminary graduation days were over! It's just a different attendance now...while the program was going on, Sister Dunaway and I set up tables, cut cake, and prepared water to drink. We got done just in time too! As we filled the last cup of water, they said the closing prayer! Whew!

Everything went well, but I came home feeling tired and blue...definitely conditions for ice cream and popcorn! For some reason, that sweet, creamy goodness just makes me feel better. Even though it was late, Scott and I still enjoyed a little evening splurge!

Now that's an ice cream sundae!! :)

FRIDAY, MAY 23, 2014 - A Short Little Getaway
Scott's nephew, Ryan Dean, has finally found the love of his life and his wedding day couldn't have been planned at a better time!! This is Scott's long weekend off work so we decided to take a short vacation!!

We headed out a little late in the morning, enjoyed a quick little stop in Evanston, took another quick stop at Flaming Gorge, (we arrived 20 minutes too late though - the Visitors Center closed at 3:30 pm. Guess they're still on summer hours) and then arrived at America's Best Value Inn in Vernal around 5:00.

At the Historic Train Depot in Evanston

Flaming Gorge

It's been years since we've been to Vernal - maybe 25+. We took an evening walk and somehow nothing looked familiar!!

This picture was actually taken on Sunday, May 25 but I had to show off our "spacious room"!!
When Scott first opened the door he said, "I don't think we'll be able to fit all our stuff inside!" Ha, ha

SATURDAY, MAY 24, 2014 - A New Eternal Family! :)

Ryan Dean and his new wife Tauni

SUNDAY, MAY 25, 2014 - MAKING NEW FRIENDS
As we neared Morgan on our way home from Vernal today, I randomly said to Scott, "Should I text Caleb and see if he went home for the weekend?" Scott said, "If you want to." And long story made short, we got to meet two very nice people and make some new friends. I sure hope Jessica doesn't mind. I totally see a lot of Caleb's Dad in Caleb.

MONDAY, MAY 26, 2014 - The Ogden/Weber River Parkways

This afternoon, Scott and I loaded our bikes and a bucket of flowers in the back of "Jack" and headed off to visit a few cemeteries and then enjoy a "little" bike ride. We made sure to stop at the cemeteries first and then somehow that "little" bike ride turned into almost 23 miles! But it was great!!

We rode the Ogden River Parkway first which took us all the way up to Riverdale City. Then we turned around and headed back and rode the Weber River Parkway which took us all the way up to the mouth of Ogden Canyon just across from Rainbow Gardens - that's where the trail officially starts!

I love the parkway trails!! It is beautiful scenery (most of the time) and the connected trail is a nice easy ride. What a blessing!! It's so neat when a city provides such nice amenities that are free to enjoy!!

TUESDAY, MAY 27, 2014 - My Epson Printer!
Thank heaven for computers and printers!! This little baby was indeed my friend tonight! I got the Laurel Light Camp song book finished and printed...Hooray!! It even printed it all in a booklet format, putting all the pages in the right order! Now that's sweet! :)

WEDNESDAY, MAY 28, 2014 - Digital Pictures!!
How did we ever live without digital cameras?! Tonight I managed to fit in a little "digital designing" (after visiting teaching!!) as I created game cards for my family's summer activity this year.

We're playing Clue again this year...it was our family activity the summer of 2007 and was one of my favorite ones! But this year we have quite a few more suspects with the addition of married kids and some new family friends. I love it! :)

Shh...no peeking until June 1st!!

THURSDAY, MAY 29, 2014 - Awesome Helpers!!
Woohoo!! It's finished! After work today I headed to the church and spent two hours photocopying the Laurel Light Camp songbook and then tonight we had a camp meeting with all the helping adults. Following the meeting we all worked together and compiled the songbook. Many hands DO make light work! :)

Like always, we have a couple of great "Camp Parents"! And one word describes our cooks - AWESOME!!

Camp Parents Brother & Sister Richardson

Camp Parents Brother & Sister Bott

Camp Cooks!! Sister Hunsaker, Sister Herbert, and Sister Bennion

FRIDAY, MAY 30, 2014 - Family Search for Dummies!!
Caleb Wilkinson joined us for dinner tonight. We introduced him to our Family's Summer Activity...that's right, he is now one of the Clue suspects!

Then after dinner he taught me a new way of doing genealogy! Talk about amazing! Instead of working out through your family line, you work backwards...it's hard to explain, but I now have my own family names to take to the temple! I'm soooo excited! And we found them in a matter of minutes! How come more people don't know about this?! You gotta credit this techno smart generation to know how to do things better and easier!

SATURDAY, MAY 31, 2014 - SOME ONE-ON-ONE TIME WITH LILY!!
I don't get to spend a lot of time with Jason and Anna and their newest little addition, Lily. They have a lot going on and live too far away to come visiting daily or even weekly.

Well...today they took advantage of our upcoming "Summer Kick-Off" FHE (which is tomorrow) and they came a day early so I could have a little one-on-one grandma time with Lily. How awesome is that, right?!

Lily is still just a tiny little thing but she is definitely getting bigger than when she first arrived in this world. She even has some rolls on those cute little legs of hers!