Bailey Family

At the beginning of the summer, I made 2 poster calendars. (I've done this in the past) Instead of filling them up with ideas for fun that I might not feel like (or have time for) doing later, I left the blank with just sticky notes filling in the plans or ideas (or sometimes blank in case we thought of something to add later). As we did things, we filled it in. So instead of a plan, it was like a giant scrapbook page. Tonight, I took pictures of our "pages" to print later as actual pages for the scrapbook. (When I catch up with those...maybe this school year??) I tried to fill in every day even if what we did was almost nothing. Sundays are our day of rest, so there wasn't much to put unless I listed what we did at church. :) "Taught Young women" "Priesthood meeting" "Took sacrament to homebound member"....actually, now that I type it, that probably would have been neat to have a record of our service there. Next year. ;) The ki...

I took Beth's place in the house while she was away at Girls Camp, so I think it's only fair that I should also take care  control of the blog post for the week. My first goal in this post is to breathe courage and confidence into the hearts of all Dads out there: Yes, We Can. No, I'm not an Obama fan, but I like the phrase. Yes, we can take 5 kids to a movie , sneak in movie candy, and get them all out alive and smiling! And for the record: NO! I am not a Fommy, I am a Dad! This is what Dads do- we don't need to rename it! We need to recognize it for what it is. I don't babysit- I parent! (Sorry for the overabundance of exclamation points, there. I really did love the movie and hope to buy it. But the idea of a "Fommy" is just plain ridiculous- which I believe was their point.) Yes, we can go to the library, check out books, and not lose anyone! Even though I picked the worst possible time to go there- right when an activity let out. Drat. ...

My 3rd year attending but my 2nd year staying overnight and being there the entire time - so fun, tiring, new, and worth it! Our flag (Young Women designed and made - the YW president finished when the time got tight) Took us forever to set up 2 tents And then we were told we could use leader Adirondacks (like the girls' behind the tents but smaller) I was going to just use the tent until a family of 8-legged creatures decided to move into my tent doorway the first night. So, I took the Adirondacks (which turned out to be a lot of fun anyways.)  And just some beautiful land (Camp Barstow - a BSA camp we were allowed to use for young women camp again this year) My rifle shooting was pretty decent (first time) - all 4 shots very close to each other! Rock climbing...well, you just can't be good at everything! (I couldn't even get my shoes to stay on any peg to get me up a level higher...I got about 2 feet off the ground and after fall...

Here's everything else from the end of the beach trip through today. (Tomorrow I leave for camp and Rob will finish out July's fun with the kids.) So it's the longest post of the entire summer! (But the time felt so short.) We had a cousin over while Rob's sister ran cub scout day camp on Friday. (July 10th) There were indoor tents and outdoor tents that day! We did an outdoor movie (it worked great but the next one is going to wait about 10° cooler!) And we followed that up with a backyard camp out. The next morning (after I crashed on the couch for an hour*) I went to a hike/walk with the young women to prepare for girls camp. *my air mattress had a leak and by the morning I was mostly laying on the ground (still inside the tent). I'm not sure I could endure really roughing it!  (taken through the tent mesh looking in while they slept) The next two weeks have been a little calmer, sort of. (July 13 - July 19) Monday I drive out...