Girls Camp 2018

Monday: Stephen helped me pack the car full to the brim with all of the camp food and cooking supplies I had been preparing and collecting over the last few weeks. I took the Avalon and literally every inch but the driver seat was packed to the brim. Everyone arrived at the church around 6:30 am and as we had made no official plans for the process the packing up of the cars was a little bit of mayhem. I came with my car full thinking everything would be put in the trailer we were bringing up, but because it was so well packed the other leaders suggested I could just leave it and make the three hour drive on my own (which made me die a little inside because I wanted to hang with the girls and I didn't even have an audiobook ready). I tried to play it cool but then finally was like, "nope, I planned this whole stupid thing and I don't want to be alone." so I emptied ALL the food into a truck driven by one of the priesthood leaders and made my car completely clear to transport the girls, all of whom had already picked a car. I thought I was doomed to a lonely three hour drive feeling like a loser when Tyli took pity on me and offered to come in my car at the last minute. She is one of the laurels that I only got to know through the planning on Girls Camp so we had the best time visiting and I got to know her a lot better. 

We hadn't driven long when I noticed our little caravan was all pulling over along the side of the freeway. Rylee, one of our almost beehives, was feeling car sick and needed to pull over to try to use the bathroom and settle her stomach. I told her my back seat was completely empty if she wanted to come lay down and try to sleep, so she switched to my car. About ten minutes after switching she told me she was going to throw up and before I was at a spot where we could pull over again she had thrown up in the back seat. So we pulled over, cleaned up the car as best we could (thankfully I had the paper towels for the week) and then went on our way trying to catch up to the rest of the caravan with Rylee feeling much better. We all met up eventually and one of the leaders used her peppermint oil to help the stink from ruining my car, and the rest of the drive was easy peasy. 

We got to our camp site, called Silver Creek, which is a church owned property right outside of Taylor, AZ. We all got to work unloading our stuff and setting up the tent. It was my responsibility to organize the kitchen so I thankfully missed most of the tent set up. We ate our sack lunches and then the girls split into two groups for the shooting instruction. One of the brothers from our ward brought up six of his own guns to teach the girls how to shoot. He let us all do a practice round before we got our own bulls eye to aim at so that we could see exactly how well we were aiming. Some of the girls that I thought would shy away totally took to it and were so interested by the end of the lesson that they were asking about where to find shooting ranges. 

After a hot dog dinner that night we ended the day with a karaoke dance party, where I may or may not have let my true colors show a little too much. After Sister Avery and I got the party started with what I considered to be an amazing rendition of "Torn", the girls took turns singing and dancing with Bishop acting as DJ. I was sick the week before camp so as soon as we got there I already had zero voice. I swear it is my curse that any time I have the opportunity to karaoke like this I am left with no voice to sing with. Since I couldn't contribute to the vocals I took on the role as background dancer for most of the evening and taught the girls moves as well. *When we got back from camp Bishop told my husband that he needs to take me out dancing more, so it wasn't just in my head, I was definitely way too into it. But I had the best time so I'm over it. 

The next morning was repelling! Repelling was one of our camp miracles. We heard early on that the camp we were going to had spots to repel and knew that we wanted to let the girls try it. We had a couple of leads to find someone to lead us on the repel, but nothing was working out. We had already told the girls this would be one of the activities at camp, but we were feeling a little out of options. After a lot of praying, my co director Sister Gustafson thought to reach out to some high school acquaintances who lived in the area. They recommended this man to us who was a member of the church and a firefighter/EMT rescue worker who loves to take youth groups on repels and climbs and often volunteers his time doing so. We seriously couldn't have asked for better help. He brought all of his own equipment and he brought a buddy of his (another trained rescuer) to assist so that we could do two repels at once. It was awesome. 

We had a bunch of girls who were nervous about repelling, but we really encouraged the girls to at least be up to the possibility of trying. I had been chatting with girls about it since we got to camp, and sharing my experience from repelling on a date a couple of years ago. I kept telling them, "Once you get over the edge it is so easy!" 

I watched with the other leaders at the beginning while we waited for some of the harnesses to free up, and the girls really did amazing! So many of them faced their fears and ended up loving it. Girls ended up going three or four times and wanted to try new things like racing their friends down or hanging upside down on the rope. When it was finally my turn, I went feeling pretty confident. Some of the girls behind me in line hadn't gone yet, so I thought I would boost their confidence by showing them how easy it was. Well, it turns out I made a very good object lesson of "pride cometh before the fall". I lost my footing early on and my feet slipped out from under me and I fell. Not terribly, but enough that the men on the ropes had to catch me and there were audible gasps and, "Sister Marsh, Are you ok?!?"-s all around. I always love the call back, "I think shes laughing!" It really wasn't a huge deal, but it was embarrassing and it definitely made some girls way more hesitant to try repelling out. 

That night Bishop set up a projector out by our campsite and we watched the new live action Cinderella with popcorn, licorice, and M&M's. That movie is just so beautiful and it felt a little more magical watching it outside. It ended up fitting right into our theme for the week, and we found ourselves consistently reminding the girls to "have courage and be kind" (always applicable at Girls Camp). 

*One of my favorite Girls Camp moments: We had brought two other options for movie night, Hidden Figures and Soul Surfer, and for whatever reason Bishop was really into the idea of watching Soul Surfer. He mentioned it several times and then he was the one who actually brought the movie with him to camp- so funny. Anyways, as we were planning for camp and talking about movie options as soon as soul surfer was brought up my co director Stefany was like no way, nu uh, not gonna happen. She's really afraid of sharks and she was headed on a beach vacation the week after camp. So then, we get to camp and as previously mentioned Bishop has Soul Surfer and Stefany again insists she will NOT be watching it. In her words, "The girl gets her arm bit off by a shark and then got BACK in the water! What an idiot!!" (I'm a big Bethany Hamilton fan, but that's just too good.)

So as we set up the screen and movie we did a little surprise for Stefany. The girls were still getting ready, but most of the leaders were there so as she was walking up we started Soul Surfer, just to see what she would do. It was too good! At the beginning she was like, "Oh, this music is so relaxing! This is just what I needed to end the day. I feel so relaxed and so good." Then, the narrator began speaking and Stefany saw the ocean and realized what had happened. Maybe that story is one of those you-had-to-be-there/ only-funny-cuz-you're-sleep-deprived kind of things, but I want to remember it always because it makes me laugh. One of the best parts of camp was getting to know the other leaders better. 

On Wednesday we took the girls horseback riding at a camp nearby. It was about half an hour away and when we got there we realized we had forgotten to bring all the girls signed waiver forms so poor Stefany had to drive back and get them. The ranch had lots of horseshoes for the girls to paint (complete with glitter in every color) so the girls hardly noticed the delay. We had brought sack lunches with us so we painted, ate, and played cornhole while we waited. The girls went out on horses in two groups so the whole ordeal took up most of the day. I decided not to go, because I just wasn't that interested and there was another leader who was stoked to go twice. While the groups were out I was able to borrow Jen's phone and call Stephen. I had zero cell reception the whole week and I've never been so homesick in my life. That morning I was in charge of the devotional for the day and it went really well, but to begin I had them sing "I Am A Child of God" and it made me think of Rory. It took me a while to regain my composure because oh my heavens did I miss her. So, it was a huge relief to be able to talk to Stephen and hear that Rory was as happy as I knew she would be with her grandparents. 

That evening was our skit/ variety show. The girls came up with all sorts of fun little ideas or songs to share. We have a lot of talent in our ward! The leaders did the Evolution of Dance and I would say all of our hard work practicing definitely paid off. The bishopric did a sketch involving the new counselor sticking his finger in a pile of poop to taste test it and make sure it was poop and THIS was there prop. That is a pudding cup stuck in a pile of real poop! Now that is dedication. Later, Jen accidentally sat on one of their extra pudding cups and there were poop/pudding jokes galore! After the variety show the girls went snipe hunting and it was only mildly successful because how do you pretend to be a snipe in the desert when there are zero trees to disguise yourself in. I was an exceptionally bad snipe, but I 100% blame it on the setting. If we'd have been in Washington those girls would have lost their minds. 

Thursday morning we got up and got ready to go to the temple. We all got in our dresses early on but didn't want our shoes to get dirty so this was the leader footwear for the morning. Every girl I passed just laughed at me and there were a lot of, "I'm sorry, I just can't take you seriously in your Christmas socks and sandals"-s. 

We went and did baptisms and confirmations at the Snowflake temple. It is such a gorgeous temple and I am so glad we got the opportunity to go. We asked each girl to prepare family names to take since we were out of the district and most girls were able to. I was able to take four family names that Kendall had found and one of the girls did the work for me. I have taken family names for myself before, but I felt unprepared for how moved I was to have someone else helping my family out through their service in the temple. It was a really special trip and I am glad we were able to end our week that way. 

When we got back from the temple it was officially Bishop's job to be in charge for the rest of the day- hallelujah! The girls split into their YCL groups and each team got to make make a decorate a bottle rocket. There were feathers, googly eyes, stickers, and even decorative duct tape. Having been at camp for four days now, all the leaders (myself included) were feeling a little bit done by this point. We used most of our team design time to eat Starburst and lay our heads down on the table, but in the end we did manage to duct tape a can of Diet Coke to the top of our bottle and then decorate it like a somewhat terrifying clown. We then had a bottle rocket competition and our thrown together rocket did surprisingly well. The most satisfying part was when our rocket landed and sprayed the girls with soda. In the end, it was a hot pink chicken named Earl that won it all. What can I say? Earl's are hard to beat. 

That night we hiked together to the top of a little hill overlooking the camp site and set up our chairs for a testimony meeting. It was very cool to see the unity that had grown among the girls throughout the week and to get to hear about camp from their perspectives. Afterwards we had apple spice cake with homemade ice cream made by the bishopric (entirely at camp). It was an incredible week and an absolute joy to be a part of. 

I do have to note that one of the parts about coming home was that Rory was still at her grandparents. While I missed her TERRIBLY, it was so nice to be able to come home and just take care of myself for a little bit. Stephen and I even got to go out on a babysitter free date and words don't really capture how luxurious that felt. We went out to dinner and a movie and even though the movie was not good (Ocean's 8- what a joke) we had the best time together. All in all, it was a great week. 

Tell Me How To Say No To This

In our last episode, My Dad, Jon Wayne, and Stephen worked around the clock for two days straight and still by the time my family left, my house was a complete construction zone. There were tools and grime covering the garage, our main room was covered in ungrouted tiles with patches that still needed to be finished, there was a thick layer of dust (from leveling the floor) throughout my entire house (but especially my kitchen), most of my furniture remained on the back patio, and overall just looking at my house made me want to cry and hide in a hole. It all happened just in time for me to prep for Girls Camp! 

My first step was to make my kitchen usable, seeing as I needed to prepare food for 30 people for the week, so I went about wiping down every surface in my kitchen and after three different cleanings it was finally a (fairly) sanitary place to cook. After that, I crossed my fingers that no one would turn up at my house unexpectedly and see the sheer chaos we were living in. The kitchen was clean, but was soon covered in crockpots, instant pots, and dry good groceries. Our rooms each had furniture displaced by the new floors crammed into them. There was really no place for Rory to play freely, and this girl actually handled it like a champ. It was a small miracle. When we were finally able to safely walk on the tile, I moved her rocking chair out to the front room so that she at least got a little time with her beloved Super Why during the week. 

Costco became our home away from home this week as we collected Girls Camp menu items and enjoyed not being at our house. We seriously made four different trips to Costco in five days, and that didn't include all the in between trips to Walmart and Fry's. It's a lot of work to be in charge of the food for camp! I was either shopping, cooking, or running around like a crazy person trying to find a place to store food ALL WEEK. 

As I look back at this week, I'm amazed at how awesome Rory was through it all. It was like she knew that I just couldn't handle one more thing on my plate, so she just happily went along on a million shopping trips and entertained herself in an unlivable house. The second picture is her watching a show on the iPad because the TV wouldn't work. You can see the TV stand and lamps crammed into our room and there is more furniture on each side of the bed. So we stayed in our little bed island, watched Super Why, and pretended like life was completely fine! With girls camp preparations and Stephen's work schedule picking up, neither of us had one spare minute to spend on the floors, so with no end to our project in sight, we somehow miraculously made it to Friday. 

On Friday, once Stephen was off of work, we drove down to Vegas in the night. We anticipated Rory would sleep the whole way down, but she woke up about two hours into the drive and never went back to sleep. She just sat there, being cute, speaking at us in gibberish every once in a while. She really is the best baby in the whole entire world. I can't remember if Stephen and I listened to something specific on the way down, but just being away from our house and our troubles lifted both of our spirits and it was a wonderful break from reality. We made it to John and Ashleigh's around 1 or 2 in the morning, where we were greeted by an eager Vienna. Rory LOVES Vienna and was in heaven from the minute we stepped into their house. 

We slept in the next morning (hallelujah) and John and Ashleigh made us a delicious breakfast. The girls played around at home for most of the morning until we all headed out to play at the splash pad, which Rory also loved very much, as did Vienna. Lucina, John, and Kenzie made their way up from St George and met us at the park. We all went to dinner at a nice Greek place, where Stephen and I ate quickly before we had to leave for the show. From dinner, John and Lucina would be taking Rory back with them so they could watch her while I was at camp. I tried to focus on the play and my plans for the evening so that I wouldn't fall apart at the idea of leaving my baby for so long. It's hard to be too sad when you know she is going to be in absolute heaven without you.
So, backing up a little bit... John and Ashleigh bought season tickets for the theater this year specifically so they would be able to see Hamilton when it came to town. As season pass ticket holders, they were able to purchase two extra tickets to the show before they went on sale for the general public. I can't remember exactly when, but at one point when I was out of town over the last couple of months I got a text from Stephen asking if I would want to go to Hamilton. Uh, duh! But, it turned out the only day they could get tickets for that Stephen and I were both free was the Saturday before Girls Camp. I told Stephen I didn't know how I could be gone that day when there would be so many last minute things to get done (because let's be real, I was in charge and that's how I roll!) but everyone I asked for advice (aka my sisters) said to just go and make it work and everything would be fine. So we booked the tickets and decided to wait and see whilst tentatively counting down the days for our dreams to come true.
At a planning meeting about a month before the show, I brought up the possibility of me being out of town the weekend before camp. I explained that Rory would be watched by my in laws while I was at camp, but that I needed to bring her to them in order for them to do so. I told them I would be meeting them in Vegas and so I would be unavailable for last minute details on Saturday AND Sunday before we left for camp on Monday. I was so apprehensive, but, of course, every lady was like, "Oh that's no problem at all! Thank you so much for being willing to drive all that way just to come to camp!" and basically just acted like I was a superstar. I simply kept the Hamilton detail to myself and everyone was happy!
Hamilton was incredible. Stephen and I have enjoyed listening to the soundtrack together for the last couple of years, and he would feel like it was important for me to add here that he discovered it first, and so we were both eager to see the show but apprehensive that it couldn't live up to our expectations. Luckily, we were wrong! It is such a unique show and it was a complete thrill to watch it live with all the staging, costumes, and choreography. The show was so good, in fact, that it made up for the rest of the summer when one of us would ask the other, "What happened to all our money?" and they would respond, "Hamilton. We are poor because of Hamilton." 

We slept in on Sunday, had a relaxing kid-free drive home (cue tears from both of us already missing Rory), and got ready, or as ready we could, for the coming week!

May Graduation and Floors

At the end of May, Brad graduated from Dental School at Midwestern and so the family that was able to all came to town. My parents got a couple units at the Worldmark spot in Phoenix and we had a whole week to party together. They arrived on a Sunday, so I scrambled around to find something adequate to feed everybody. Luckily I had just hosted book group so I had some yummy leftovers. The chocolate hummus was a big hit, especially with Rory who kept sneaking into the kitchen to help herself to more. We introduced them to the movie Coco and had a nice time all catching up. 

The next day, Kristy, my mom, and I headed to Arizona Mills Mall to do a little shopping. Kristy rented a race car stroller to contain Declan, which Rory found much more interesting than her own stroller. We spent most of the time trying to keep the kids in said strollers and happy. I always come prepared with bribery candy, and so at one point I told Declan I would give him a piece of candy if he stayed in his seat, but he had to keep it a secret. He asked me for "secret candy" the rest of the day and kept trying to check my pockets and bag for any treats I might be holding back. They did a pretty good job and Declan even helped push Rory around in the stroller a little bit.

While we shopped, the boys golfed (of course) and afterwards we all met up at Cafe Rio for lunch. Rory loves Grandpa and she especially loves him best when he has food, so she was a pretty happy girl. After lunch we headed over to my parents place to swim in their pool. Since it was memorial day, Stephen actually had the day off so he was able to join in on our festivities, which is a rare treat. Rory LOVED the pools of course, and it was fun showing off her skills to my family. The hotel actually has three or four different little pools all right next to each other so Rory would hop in one, swim to the edge, climb out, and hop right into to the other- ALL. DAY. LONG. This girl just cracks me up. 

The next couple days were spent over at Brad and Jules place because very pregnant Jules is supposed to be on a bit of a bed rest, not that that is actually feasible with two kids under three years old. We weren't able to make it out to Glendale every day because of other things I had going on, like mutual, but when we did Rory loved playing with the cousins and trying to copy everything the little boys did. 

I've buried the lede a little bit here because I failed to mention the biggest monster of this week together. A few weeks before everyone got together, I mentioned to Kacey and Jon Wayne that Stephen and I had some projects around the house we were wanting to do and if they were interested in trading baby sitting for help again, we would be too. Fast forward to a few days before everyone was set to arrive and Kacey calls me to confirm that Jon is coming with them to Phoenix this weekend specifically to start on these home projects, so get ready for him. The Nielsens rolled in late Thursday night, crashed at our house, and then Jon literally worked the rest of the time he was there. Stephen went to work on Friday, but came home as quickly as he could to work with him. And my dad, superhero that he is, sacrificed his entire weekend as well. While these guys tore up carpet, leveled floors, made countless home depot trips, mixed mortar, cut tile, etc... Kacey and I took off with the kids, met up with everyone else, and played and swam and ate to our heart's content.  

Jon didn't even make it back to the hotel to crash on Friday night, he just slept at my house so they could work late and start early. While they worked we also completed several more escape rooms, because Earls have priorities. One of them we did was a room where you are separated into two teams and you are each put in the exact same room at the exact same time so that you can see who makes it out first. Brad, Jules, and I beat mom, Kacey and Courtney but it sounds like it was maybe due to a technical difficulty in their room so the world may never know who is, in fact, smarter. 

The men really did work around the clock, only taking breaks to eat. I was especially touched by my dad's hand in it. He is not the "handiest" 'of men and I've rarely seen him take on projects or work like this, but he was so into it and Stephen and Jon Wayne said his help was invaluable. His one condition for working was that, in spite of the summer Arizona heat, the house was to stay a cool 65 degrees, any less and he was walking. When I came home Friday night (and let myself into my bedroom through my window since I couldn't actually walk anywhere in my home) it literally felt like I'd walked into the refrigerated room at Costco. I could not believe my house could even get that cold! 

By the end of the weekend, they were not able to finish the floors or start on some of the other projects we had in mind for the house, but the work they did do was incredible and saved us so much money that I believe our next child will need to be named Jon Wayne David Stephen Marsh. 

My Baby Growing Up in May

In May, we had the chance to watch my friend's four-year-old daughter once or twice a week while she finished her student teaching for her master's degree. Clara is a precocious little thing, and she and Rory have the funniest love/hate relationship. She often said to me, "And that's why I don't like your baby." 

We got to do a lot of fun things with Clara, but the two of them really loved swimming together the best. Clara has a pool at her house and has been taking swimming lessons for a long time, so she swims like a fish. Rory, with her newly purchased floatee, was SO STOKED to have a big kid to follow around the pool and wanted to do everything as soon as Clara did it. I think that Clara is the reason that Rory is so fearless in the water and why she actually has become a pretty decent swimmer; she was just so desperate to play with her! Here are the girls sharing an orange julius after an afternoon at the splash pad. 

I bought Rory a little princess tea set at Ross (vicariously living my childhood dreams through her? maybe.) and she LOVES it. All day long she begs me to fill it up with water again and again. She comes running up to me with a cup (or a plate) and says, "Mo? Mo? Mo?" until I do what she says. I figure with the weather getting warmer it is an excellent way to stay hydrated. 

Like I said, thanks to our play dates with Clara, Rory is complete obsessed with swimming. You can't say "water" or "pool" around her without her running to grab her floatee. Most days she begs me to put her floatee on her just so she can wear it around the house. It is hilarious to watch because she doesn't have great mobility in it so she has a hard time climbing up on the couch and chairs or picking things up from the ground. 

One day I told the girls we would go to the pool and laid out Rory's swimming things while I changed into my swimsuit and put sunscreen on Clara first. As I am lotioning her up Rory comes in with her sun hat on, swimsuit pulled over her neck and sunscreen in hand, obviously all ready to go. I swear, it just does not possibly get cuter than this baby. I love her face in the second picture that so obviously says, "What mom?? I nailed it." 

These days, you'll typically find Rory with multiple headbands around her neck as a necklace, covered in water from her tea set, possibly wearing her floatee, but definitely begging to watch Super Why.

And last, but CERTAINLY not least.... RORY'S HAIR CAN BE PUT INTO PIGTAILS AND I AM NO LONGER LIVING BECAUSE I DIED OF THE CUTENESS OF IT. This first ever pigtail 'do was what Rory rocked to the baptism of a new beehive in our ward. I walked in just SO proud about how seriously darling she looked, and then as I sat there I felt a little silly for making such a big deal about it in my head. But as soon as the program was over and it was time for refreshments, all of my beehives in attendance ran up to me and just gushed about how cute her hair was and how much older the pigtails make her look. So yes, these twelve-year-olds and I think pretty much exactly alike. And also, Rory is the cutest thing that has ever happened to me.