Girls Camp

Girls camp is a week long camp that each stake of our church puts on every summer for all of the girls ages 12-18. I went every year when I was growing up and this year I had the chance to go back and bring my husband with me!

Jeff's mom is the Girls Camp extraordinaire. No seriously. She teaches Sunday School for adults. She isn't in Young Womens. But somehow she is basically in charge of Girls Camp. It is amazing. Anyways, she asked me to give a talk at their camp this year and asked Jeff to teach surf lessons so we were lucky enough to go for the entire week.

This Girls Camp was very different from the one I would go to growing up. There were a lot of little differences but the biggest one was that we were at the BEACH!!! How cool is that? They got these group campsites and all of the girls stayed in huge tents right next to the ocean.

I apologize but this is the only picture I took all week. Oops.

Every day we headed down to the beach. Jeff taught surf lessons and the girls LOVED IT. We all played capture the flag, went kayaking, and swam in the ocean. Every night we ate a delicious dinner and enjoyed some very entertaining and spiritual campfires.

Jeff and I had a great week. Jeff loved getting the inside scoop about what Girls Camp is really like. I loved getting to know the girls and reminiscing on my Girls Camp days. I was wishing the whole week that I was 16 again and having the time of my life with all of my friends. It feels like it was just yesterday that my friends and I were at Girls Camp. Time sure has flown but I am glad that I have opportunities to be a leader and example for those girls now.

Dodger Game

A few weeks ago we got to attend Mormon Night at Dodger Stadium. Even though I might not be the biggest Dodger fan, it was still fun to be at a baseball game! I used to go to A's and Giants games all the time in high school and during summers when I was home from college. It had been a while since the last time I went to a game and it was good to be back (even if it was for the wrong team). We met Jeff's family there and some people from his parent's stake and a fun time was had by all!



PJ and Courtney's Wedding

On Wednesday July 6 we headed up to the Bay Area so that we could attend PJ and Courtney's wedding and all of their festivities. It was a busy weekend but as always, we had the best time ever! I love any chance I get to be reunited with my friends!

On Thursday there was a BBQ for friends of the bride and groom at Hap Magee Park. We had burgers and got to all catch up with each other.

All of the girls at the BBQ.

Right after the BBQ, we headed to the Sellands' for a PJ Party. We all surprised Courtney by getting into our PJs and making her do the same! Jaicy made Courtney a cute shirt that had a picture of PJ and said "my new bedtime buddy." We all lounged on the floor, did each other's hair, made friendship bracelets, talked about PJ, drank root beer floats, and then watched a slideshow that I made for Courtney. It was a great night!

Friday morning we had a bridal shower brunch for Court. Jaicy made THE MOST DELICIOUS BREAKFAST, read us a letter from PJ to Courtney and then Courtney opened her presents. I loved having so much girl time!

This has nothing to do with the wedding, but that afternoon we went swimming at Kim's house. Kim is terrified of lizards of any kind and of course when we got in the pool we found a HUGE lizard/iguana/dinosaur. We had never seen anything like it in California and it could very possibly be a runaway pet. It was hilarious because even after Jeff took it out of the pool, it kept hanging out on the lawn nearby. Kim kept an eye on it the whole time to make sure it didn't attack. We are still wondering what the heck it was!

Saturday July 9th was the big day! Courtney and PJ had been waiting for this day since December and it certainly didn't disappoint! In the morning we went to the Oakland Temple for their sealing. PJ's grandpa was able to seal them and it was beautiful. Afterwards we took pictures at the temple and congratulated the newlyweds.

Jeff, Emily, Dustin, Katie, Kim, Ben and I went to High Tech Burrito to grab a quick lunch then went to help set up for the reception.

Their reception was at the old one room school house on the outskirts of Danville. Most of us hadn't been there since elementary school field trips.

My grandma even found this old picture of Courtney and I at the school house on our field trip in either 2nd or 3rd grade! Little did she know then that her wedding would be right there 15 years later!

The location was so beautiful and the O'Connors and Andersens put together an AMAZING reception with all of the cutest details. We set up all of the pennant flags, flowers, food tables, drink tables, dessert station, kids area, and made sure everything was perfect for when the bride and groom arrived. Everything looked flawless!

 Such a cute idea! A board to post when you met Courtney and PJ.

They even used a school bus as a shuttle to get people to the school house!

They had a beautiful ring ceremony conducted by the singles ward bishop.

 Then the fun began! We ate delicious food, watched them cut the cake and dance for the first time as husband and wife, and then we were on the dance floor for the rest of the night. Exactly how a wedding should be. It was perfect!

 YUM. Domenicos.

They even bought a real bird for this cute bird cage!

I am SO SO SO happy for Courtney and PJ. I am so glad they found each other and decided to get married. It worked out so perfectly and I know they will continue to be a perfect match for the rest of eternity!

4th of July

For the Fourth of July we headed up to Jeff's parent's house for the annual Thompson Fourth of July party. There was swimming. There was delicious food. There was fireworks. Perfect. The Fourth of July is easily my favorite holiday because I love any excuse for these backyards activities.

I made these sugar cookies and some red white and blue cupcakes for the party.

Since we were swimming and eating all day I only got pictures of the fireworks that night.

 Across the street people were shooting off amazing fire works. They must have spent a fortune because it seemed so professional! That was fine with us because we got to see a great show!

 Jeff and I had bought a bunch of fireworks while we were in Arizona and Adam bought even more. The boys had the time of their lives shooting them all off in the street.

 I stuck to the sparklers.

 Even Claire got to try a sparkler! She did so well and I think she enjoyed them! (She definitely didn't enjoy the big ones the boys were shooting off).

After all of our fireworks were gone, we went into the backyard to see what other shows were going on. The Thompson's backyard has a view of all of Santa Clarita and we could see fireworks going off in every direction. It was pretty cool!

We had a great day celebrating the beginning of this country with family and friends! 

Mesa, Arizona

As we drove further south, it got hotter. 100 degrees, I'm ok with. But when we got to Mesa, it was 115 and we could definitely feel a difference. It was hot. Thursday evening we got to David's cool, air conditioned house and settled in for the night.

Since we had a full extra day in Mesa than we had planned to, we called Jeff's friend Becky that he grew up with in Canyon Country. She has four little boys and we were excited to see them and catch up with Becky. We went swimming with them and it was a great afternoon!

That evening Alysse went through the temple. It was a great experience and so exciting for Alysse!

That night we got to see Jeff's friend Matt and his fiance Elyse. It was so fun to see them and we can't wait for their upcoming wedding.

On Saturday, we got up, had breakfast and headed back to the temple. This time we were there for Cody and Alysse's sealing. It was so special and we are so happy for them.

After a few pictures outside the temple, we had had enough of the heat and we all went to lunch. It was fun catching up with Cody, Alysse, the Allen family, Nichelle and Bishop McWhirter. We had a nice Mexican lunch and enjoyed celebrating this joyous occasion.

That afternoon there was yet another US mens soccer game on. We drove into Phoenix with David and some of his friends to a sports pub. It was a fun place to watch the game, but unfortunately they lost.

After the game, we met up with the Allens again for some late night frozen yogurt.

Sunday, Cody's grandma was kind enough to make us all some pancakes before we all headed to church.

Overall, it was such a great weekend and we loved all the time we got to spend with the newlyweds! And on top of being there for their special day, Jeff got to catch up with some friends.

We were sad for our trip to be over, but ready to go home and get back to a regular showering routine.

Slide Rock State Park

Once we left the Grand Canyon, we were headed for Mesa, Arizona. Jeff's friend David that we were staying with wasn't going to be off work until later in the day so we decided to take our time as we drove down.

We stopped in Flagstaff and had a nice lunch. Then we decided to take a minor detour and go to Sedona. The drive to Sedona was so pretty! We drove through a beautiful forest and we noticed lots of cool campgrounds along a river.

Then, just north of Sedona we saw a bunch of people pulling over to the side of the road and getting in swimsuits. It was 100 degrees outside so we were intrigued. We drove a little further to find a sign and parking lot for Slide Rock State Park. There were a lot of cars waiting to pay to get into the parking lot and we didn't want to have to pay. We turned around and found the last parking spot on the side of the road. We still weren't sure what Slide Rock State Park was, but if it included swimming we were fine with that! We put on our swimsuits and hiked down to where all the people were going.

Once we were able to see, we saw this:

There were tons of people swimming in the river and we couldn't wait to go check it out!

Well, the state park really stuck to its name. There were small parts of the river that had formed natural rock slides. There must have been hundreds of people enjoying the natural waterpark, so we joined in on the fun. The water was the perfect temperature and we had a blast sliding around. We would definitely recommend this park to anyone that is going to be in Arizona!

As we drove through Sedona after our refreshing swim, we wished that we had camped there one night instead of spending so much time at the Grand Canyon.