TWINS 10TH BIRTHDAY!

We had to drive Emma and Taylor up to NAU for EFY today so we decided to make a little trip out of it since it was the twins birthday! After we got up there, got lunch, got the girls settled, checked in and said good bye, we headed off to Little America hotel for the night. Jared went to check us in and then quickly ran to our room and hung up our a birthday banner and laid out the boys presents so they were super surprised when we got to our room! They opened their gifts, checked out the room and then wanted to swim for a bit in the hotel pool. After that we went to dinner, they decided on Oreganos! Played with pizza dough balls while we waited to eat, we ate and then they each got their free pazooki! We went back to the hotel and hung out for a while and watched movies, etc. The next morning we headed to the Grand Canyon - sadly Emma has always wanted to go and hasn't been - but we went anyways. The boys loved it! It was hot, but a good time. I was nervous they would slip and fall off and die, luckily they didn't. After we were done seeing the Grand Canyon we headed to get some lunch. Then on the way back home we decided to stop at Bearizona and drive through and see the animals and then walk through and see them. They loved it! We saw bears, Bison, deer, and much much more! We then grabbed some dinner and hit the road for home! The boys had a great double digit birthday!

LAST RECITAL!

Again, I am writing this a year later, but looking back it's hard to imagine this was the last recital Emma will probably ever dance in. We have been watching her dance in official studio recitals since she was 6 years old - not counting dance classes through the city rec program. 10 years of dance! That was  HUGE part of her life and our lives. She always lit up the stage and showed such emotion. She is a BEAUTIFUL dancer! With many, many strengths. Unfortunately, I think her no arch feet held her back a bit - it never looked like she was pointing her feet enough, but it was all she could ever get them to do. Emma, some of my fondest memories of you growing up will be watching you on stage! You make our hearts happy.

GIRLS CAMP!

This year was stake girls camp! It is Emma's first year as a YCL. I was camp director again.  The night before we were supposed to leave for camp we went to go get the tents out of the storage shed at the church and no one could find a key. I mean no one. We even called people in the ward, stake, some random guy in Mesa, people tried to go down there and pick the lock, no one could get in. Finally we had to call a lock smith. It cost $600 to get into that stupid shed. The locksmith couldn't believe the high tech lock put on that storage shed just protecting camping gear - ha ha. Camp was a lot of fun. There were a couple of issues that had to be dealt with and also it was hard for Emma to stand up and do what is right even though she knew it would make a couple of girls mad at her if they found out. It was a stressful situation for everyone involved. The weather was the worst! It was freezing at night and our tent almost blew over. Leaders did not sleep. But in the end, camp was worth it. It always is. Emma was in charge of our ward's lip sync - it was a collaboration of all the good songs from "Greatest Showman". Our ward's was the best! You can never go wrong going to girls camp and getting away from all the stresses at home, electronics and feeling the spirit!