Church

Last night and this morning, Ben, Zach, and I had our annual Fathers and Son’s Campout with the ward.  We had a GREAT time!  Zach was VERY excited (as usual), and Ben was happy as well.  This was Ben’s first trip.  He was a little nervous because he didn’t know what to expect, but as soon as we got there, he starting running and never stopped until we went to bed!  🙂

We stopped on the way up there and got dinner at Chick Fil-A and then went and picked up some junk food.  We arrived and set up the tent, ate dinner, and then the boys had a blast climbing trees, playing Frisbee, and having fun with their friends that were there.

When it was time to go down to bed (the boys’ favorite part), we pulled out the junk food, ate a bunch, and watched a movie on my laptop.  They really love this because they can relax and I really love this because we can be together!

This morning when we got up, we got ready for breakfast.  Even after all the junk food, the boys were really hungry and ready to eat.  I had to cook breakfast with the bishopric and so as I was cooking, the boys tried to stay out of trouble.  We only had one injury when Ben was trying to help me with the pancakes and hit his arm on the hot griddle.  It burned him pretty bad (as you can see in the picture), but he was very brave and didn’t even cry.  Crazy!  I’m sure he’ll have a wicked scar from that.  He’s OK though.

Overall we had a wonderful time and I really enjoyed spending time with the boys!  We can’t wait to do it again!  We won’t wait until the next Father’s and Son’s Campout.  Maybe we’ll camp out in the back yard when mom and sisters are at Girl’s camp!  🙂

When we were shopping a month or so ago at Jewel, Zach picked up a sheet to color for their annual coloring contest.  He entered and we found out that he WON for his age group!  🙂  What a kick in the pants we thought that was!  Zach is not known for his patience with coloring, but he really put his heart into this!  🙂  As a prize, he won a prize package of a choice of frozen foods, candy and a bunch of other things!  We thought that was pretty funny, but oh well, it’s a grocery store, right?  🙂  He went with Angela and picked out some things, some of which were “grown-up” foods that we need and some for himself.

Tonight, we had a western Ho-Down party at the church for all the adults and had a good time.  Everybody came dressed up in their fun western-wear.  The planners were a little worried that they wouldn’t have enough food, but boy were they wrong!  We had way too much food and there was so much “western-type” food to choose from, you couldn’t eat everything.  We had all kinds of chili recipes, cornbread, rolls, and all kinds of awesome desserts!  There was a karaoke machine there to sing country songs, and they even did some line dancing.

It was fun to get together and have some adult conversation and fun.  We haven’t had as many ward activities as we would like to, and most of them are for the whole family.  It’s nice to get together with just the adults occasionally.

Yeehaw!  🙂

Today was an exciting day for Sarah!  She went tonight to the Priest/Laurel dance (i.e. Mormon Prom) at the Naperville Stake Center.  They had to have tickets and everything.  A group of them got together (6 girls and 1 guy) and had a blast.  Sarah looked stunning in her formal dress and her hair done all up!  🙂  I hate the fact that she is getting so old and that this next year will be her last at home!  🙁

They all met at one of the girl’s homes and went out to TGI Friday’s for dinner.  Angela and I had a date night tonight as well (dinner and a movie) and it just so happened that where we went was right by the place they went for dinner.  Angela and a couple of the women went over to see the kids and took some pictures.

They all had a blast at the dance and enjoyed being with one another. They ate great food, danced a bunch and came home really happy!  🙂

The thing that really kills me (OK, I’m jumping on my soapbox now) is that this dance was meant to be a “prom-like” experience for the kids.  They are supposed to get dates and go.  Instead, true to the form of the weirdness of the kids today, they all go in groups and “hang out” which really bugs me.  Hardly anyone comes with a date.  Gone are the days of dating like it used to be.  If you try to date many people and just have a fun time, you get labeled with derogatory terms.  Also, if you ask someone out, it now means that you are “together” and are not available for anyone else to ask you out.  What a STUPID concept!  The kids today are becoming totally unable to socially interact in a one-on-one situation, texting has replaced face-to-face communication, and people don’t know how to talk anymore.  Not much I can do about it except tell our kids that if they stand up to their principles and make good choices, if they date a lot of people, they won’t get “labeled” because people will know better (at least the ones that matter).

Today, was a pretty busy day!  Angela (with me as her tech crew) started the day off early with a couponing class at the church.  She and a friend/sister in the ward presented a class on how to save money through couponing and it was well received.  They did a great job and will have an encore session later on for those who couldn’t make it.

While she was finishing that up, I took Zachary and we went to the store and picked up the baseboards for the laundry room.  They are now installed and look great!  I can’t believe we didn’t do this much earlier!  The laundry room looked so gross before!

This afternoon, Angela and I went and purchased all the cabinetry for the laundry room from IKEA.  I went on-line and used the virtual kitchen planner to design the room the way we wanted it and then all we had to do was pick up the cabinets and hardware!

I’m really excited to get the cabinets all assembled and hung up!  The kids are especially excited about their lockers they get!  Each of them having their own cabinet space for coats, shoes, gloves, scarves, backpacks, etc. makes them really happy!  And…  it makes mom and dad really happy too (if the kids’ stuff actually finds its way into the lockers)!  🙂

Happy Birthday Kirstyn!  Wow, it is amazing how old our kids are getting!  Kirstyn went to her first Young Women activity yesterday and everyone sang to her!  It was really cute!  On Monday night, we celebrated with a birthday dinner at Sweet Tomatoes!  We ran into a friend of Sarah’s that works there.  HE gave us GREAT service!  🙂   It was very sweet, we thought.  Brittany and Kirstyn kept teasing her about it.  Every time he would come by, he would look Sarah and smile.  When we finished, it turns out I had no cash for a tip, so I ran to the bank while the rest of the family finished up eating.  🙂