Father and Son Campout and a Girls Night

Our ward hosted a father and son campout on Friday, May 18.  Truman was so excited to go camping with his dad and to get a sleeping bag.  I think Matt was pretty excited about taking his boy camping too.  On Friday they loaded up Matt's mom and dad's truck and headed out to the campground to meet the rest of the men.  It turned out that Truman was the youngest son there.  I know that Matt could have left him behind, but I'm really glad he didn't.

 I took this picture before they left.  Then my camera promptly died.  So I have no pictures of the girls night Audrey and I had.  But I will detail it in a bit.

 The rest of these pictures were taken by Matt on our old camera.  He should really be the one doing this post and I'll see if I can convince him to contribute.  If I can't then I guess the pictures will have to speak for themselves.

Matt here. So I decided it was time to finish this post. I'm sure Diana thought I would never get around to it. The fathers and sons campout was awesome. Truman was the youngest camper by a few months and he did great. There are two pictures of Truman with a banana because that was probably the only fruit to be seen during the campout.

Here are some of our fellow campers, Justin and Michael. Thanks to Justin for sharing his campsite. The area set aside for our ward was relatively small, only 12 campsites. With 50 or more campers we had to get cozy. Luckily we had good neighbors.

One thing that I did hear about is that Truman was a huge fan of all the bags of marshmallows lying around.  Matt made him a perfect s'more.  Truman took one bite and didn't like it, I think because it was gooey and messy.  So he settled for eating marshmallows pretty much straight from the bag.  He had been on a huge marshmallow kick and declared them his "fav-it teet" over and over so I'm not too surprised.

Yes, Truman loves marshmallows. He really liked roasting them and by roasting them I mean patting the marshmallows against the dirt and logs in the fire. He rebuffed all my attempts at imparting fatherly advice on the art of roasting marshmallows, preferring rather to waive the marshmallows around and drag them through the coals until they were covered in dirt, ash, and other particulates. He would then hand me the now coal grey mallows to eat while he munched on the raw ones straight from the bag (he ate at least an entire bag by himself). Good thing chocolate and graham crackers taste good with anything. Gotta love s'mores.

Landon, Darwin, and Connor honing their roasting technique.

Louis and his son Liam, the second youngest camper. Louis gave a great devotional on the priesthood. We held the campout in May to celebrate the anniversary of the restoration of the priesthood. 

Dads and boys around the fire. This is what it's all about.

"I think it needs a little more ash and maybe a few more pine needles. That's how Dad likes it!"

Truman tried his hand, er foot, at soccer. Every time he kicked the ball he yelled "kick!" 

It won't be long before he's showing the older boys how it's done.

Some of the cub scouts took the opportunity to pass off a few of their rank requirements. They also performed an excellent flag ceremony before our devotional.

You can see Truman's little red and black Cars sleeping bag on the ground outside the tent.  He was so excited to get his very own sleeping bag.

Here's our tent. Truman was very eager to go to bed so he could go in the tent and sleep in his new sleeping bag. It took him a little while (at least two hours) to overcome his excitement and actually go to sleep. He must have gotten out of his sleeping bag four or five times before he finally settled down and went to sleep. 


We got up bright and early the next morning. Truman played with some of his friends and some very patient and helpful older boys while I cooked breakfast with the rest of the Bishopric. All in all, it was a great campout. I think we're going to make this an annual event. Audrey keeps asking when I'm taking her camping. I guess I've got some campers. They must get it from their mother. 

While the boys were away Audrey and I had our own special night out.  When she first heard about the campout she was really bummed that she couldn't go.  Audrey loves doing things with her Pops and she was kind of sad that Truman was going to get to go and she wasn't.  So I promised her that we'd have a fun girls night. 

First we went to dinner at Olive Garden--her choice.  We enjoyed a yummy dinner and then went and saw The Pirates! Band of Misfits.  Audrey said she liked it, which is all that really matters.  I wished something better had been out, but that was really the only kid movie in theaters at the time.  After the movie we headed to our favorite frozen yogurt place and enjoyed a delicious dessert.  I let her stay up late that night and she didn't get to bed until almost 11:00.  That girl can really be a night owl if you let her.  The next morning we slept in and then painted our toes.  We had a great weekend together and I loved getting to spend some one-on-one time with my firstborn.  She still keeps saying that she wants to go camping with "just Pops," but I think she had a great time hanging out with just her mom.

When the boys got home we heard that they had a great experience too.  I think the father/son campout might become a yearly tradition, which I think is a great idea!

Mother's Day and 25 Weeks

Mother's Day was a pretty and sunny day.  I got to sleep in a little later than usual and woke up to a delicious breakfast of pancakes, eggs, and bacon.  After we ate Audrey and Truman were so excited to show me my gift.  This year I suggested that instead of cut flowers, which soon die, maybe I could get some planted flowers.  I especially wanted a hanging basket.  My sweet husband and cute kids did not disappoint.

 I love my new basket and it looks great hanging outside my front door.

 We got ready for church and the kids cooperated long enough for a couple of pictures.

 I am 25 weeks pregnant in these pictures.  That was seven weeks ago.

 In addition to the beautiful hanging basket I also got a Mother's Day corsage.  I loved it!  It was bright and cheery and a tradition I think everyone should readopt.

 I took this picture after wearing the corsage all day so it was starting to droop.  But you can still see all the bright, tiny roses and pretty ribbons.

 At preschool Audrey made me this card.  She was so proud of it and was quick to point out that it smelled like perfume.

 Here is the inside.

 She also made me this pretty magnet and even wrote on the back.

 Her preschool teachers gave me this sweet note.

And I found this in Audrey's cubby one day.  I love when they ask the kids questions like these.

May Happenings

I'm so behind that I can't remember how Truman injured himself in these first two pictures.  I do remember that it happened shortly after Audrey had a lesson in Primary about something (that I also can't remember) and was given a little first aid kit by her teacher.  These colored bandages were in it and she was so happy to give the green one to Truman.  Green is his favorite color.

 These were taken on Tuesday, May 8.

 We had some warm weather in May.  Not much, but some.  On Monday, May 14, I let the kids fill up the pool.  They had a great time playing in the sun until the pool was full of grass and dirt.  Truman thought it would be a good idea to grab dirt out of my flowerpots and dump it in the pool.  I scolded him and he stopped.  For days he would randomly come up to me and say, "I didn't mean to put dirt in the pool.  I won't put dirt in the pool anymore!"  We haven't had much opportunity to test his resolve though, as this was the only day so far this summer we've been able to play in the water.

Matt snapped this last picture on Saturday, May 19.  I don't know why, but for some reason Audrey and Truman started running around with their shirts over their faces.  They thought it was pretty hilarious.  I do remember saying that they had better be careful because someone was going to get hurt just seconds before Truman ran smack into the wall and started crying.

Audrey's Preschool Portfolio

At Audrey's preschool parent/teacher conference we were given a portfolio containing some of her work from the year.  We've gotten one at the end of each year and I love looking through them and seeing how much she's grown.

Audrey did very well with rhyming this year.

This was a timed test.  They had 20 (30?) seconds to identify each letter.  If they got it right the teacher would circle it.  She really improved in recognizing her letters and in speed in the five months between tests.

Her teachers put together this little booklet of pictures for her.

There were also some photocopied sheets of pictures that I didn't include here.  They were of field trips and special visitors.

The green thing is a pear.  It was hanging off the page so it didn't get scanned.  I'm surprised that Audrey put pineapple on her page of things she likes to eat.  She doesn't like pineapple and won't eat it.  She must have liked the picture.

I'm not sure what happened with her name here.  Sometimes she'll leave out a letter or misspell her name when she's not really concentrating.

This shows her progress in writing her name throughout the year.  I love the little pictures.

On the right is an example of her tracing.  They also had samples of her cutting out shapes and other little art projects.

I'm not sure how we ended up with this, but I love it.  Throughout the year the teachers will ask the students various questions.  They record the answers and then post them on the walls.  They are often hilarious.  It might be a question about what they saw on a rainy day walk, where they would go if they could go anywhere, or what they want to be when they grow up.  This one was about what they would do if they were a teacher at preschool.

Audrey's answer cracks me up--"Talk to all the kids that are being bad."

My favorite might be Ibai's answer though--"If people were poking, I would say, 'We don't poke here.'"

I love these little keepsakes.