A good portion of my life has been spent playing the piano for everyone else's diva moments. Now it's my turn. I invite you to accompany ME through my life's diva and, well, not so diva-like moments. It'll be entertaining. Promise.
I always approach this day with mixed feelings. It is always hard for me to drop my child off in an unfamiliar space for 7 hours leaving her in the care of someone I don't know. On the other hand, I am a creature of routine, and love the fall for that reason (even tho we really are in the middle of summer here temperature-wise...sigh). Luckily, Kaylee was pretty much born to go to school and is always super-excited to go, so that makes it a bit easier to deal with the first day. Still is hard though.
On the Aaron front, he did the cutest thing yesterday. I was cleaning in the dining room and I heard him walking through the kitchen making his "uh" sound. I turn around and he walks up to me with his book open, stops right in front of me, and holds it up for me to read. SO CUTE! The best part was the book was "Are You My Mother?"! He loves that one. I love to read to my kids, and love that they love it.
We took a much-needed couple of days out of town with the kids to the Children's Museum in Houston. It is FABULOUS!! We got to Houston early Monday afternoon, and made a quick stop at Marshalls after I realized I had left Shawn's swim trunks at home. What was supposed to be a quick stop ended up being a way to kill time as we waited for the thunderstorm (yes, those lucky suckers get rain 4 hours away in Houston) to quit, the power to come back on in the store, and the hotel to open for check-in. As always, Kaylee made the most of the time we had to kill....
and Aaron joined in the fun right along with her....
Shawn found the whole scene mildy amusing.....OK, maybe not.....
We got checked into the fancy, schmnansy 4 star hotel where they don't let you lift a finger to wipe the sweat of your forehead, and headed to the pool. It felt SO good - we loved it. Dinner was at the nearby mall, which, may I say, was quite a treat. It was a REAL mall, with a REAL food court, and layer upon layer of stores in so many levels you could (and we did) easily get lost in. The best part was an ice-skating rink right next to the food court. After dinner and walking and Aaron's diaper blowout (a whole nother story of which I will spare you all the gory details - suffice it to say I hadn't packed an extra outfit...) Kaylee and I dropped Aaron and Shawn back at the hotel and headed back to skate for a few hours. It was so fun! Kaylee did amazingly well for her first time skating and kept at it in spite of the falls. We spent Tuesday at the Children's Museum. I would HIGHLY recommend it if you have kids and are ever in the Houston area. We spent 6 hours there and easily could have spent 6 more. They have activitives for kids of all ages. It was so much fun to watch the kids having fun - that was Shawn and I's favorite part about the trip. Here are some highlights...
So, a few weeks ago I decided that I hadn't had enough of the Texas summer heat, and in order to get the full experience, I needed to spend some more time in the great outdoors....as in 5 brutally hot, national-weather-service-issuing-heat-advisories hot days AND nights in the good 'ol Texas countryside. The trip started out somewhat on the sleepy side after spending the day and night before putting together 20 foil dinner meals, shopping for food for 20 for the week (thankfully we only had to do 3 meals on our own), and tying up other odds and ends. Emphasis on the TYING part...here is our trusty YW Pres. the next morning after realizing the ropes to tie down the stuff to the trailer were somewhere packed INSIDE the stuff in the trailer...lucky for her (and us) she has some amazing connections in the friends department - thanks Tynan!
Off we went with our girls, gear, and camp flag in tow - doesn't it look great? (OK Jen - that made up for the ropes... :)
The heat in general was much more bearable than I thought it would be, thanks to a nice, hot breeze that was there pretty much the whole time we were, an air-conditioned lodge where we had most of the meals/classes, and a fabulous pool that had nice cool water. OK, so maybe I wasn't roughing it completely, but I would give props to anyone sleeping in a tent for a week in the middle of a Texas summer.
The girls had a blast. We had 8 girls go from our ward - Bonnie, the triplets (Adriana, Briana, Christiana), Jasmin, Heather, Aynsley, and Victoria. The stake kept them BUSY! As you can see, they loved singing....OK, Bonnie loved singing - the rest of them put up with it.
And then there was Lori who REALLY loved singing...
My bud and supply queen Sarah teachin her class...
Christiana waiting to find out her truth or dare...
the CC 1st ward babes...
some serious and dramatic business about to happen....the zip line!
Sis. Sagers makin jam with some of the gals
our campsite group - 1st ward and Sinton
scripture/devotional time
As sarcastic as I was in the beginning, I really did enjoy my time with these girls and leaders at camp - as always, girls camp is the best part of YW, and I'm so glad I got to go this year! Midnight pranks that will live on in the history of CC Stake forever (thanks to Jen), the best gosh-darn seminary movie EVER made (again thanks to Jen), being fed meals for 5 days that I DIDN'T MAKE or plan or cut up for kids (thanks to Beeville sisters), 8 wonderful YW and 4 more from Sinton who got along and helped the whole week, and more gut busting laughs and tears in one week than normally happen in one year made this week one to remember.
BTW, if you ever do make it up to Camp Karankawa, be sure to watch out for those nasty havalinas...
I always approach this day with mixed feelings. It is always hard for me to drop my child off in an unfamiliar space for 7 hours leaving her in the care of someone I don't know. On the other hand, I am a creature of routine, and love the fall for that reason (even tho we really are in the middle of summer here temperature-wise...sigh). Luckily, Kaylee was pretty much born to go to school and is always super-excited to go, so that makes it a bit easier to deal with the first day. Still is hard though. 
Off we went with our girls, gear, and camp flag in tow - doesn't it look great? (OK Jen - that made up for the ropes... :)
