Tuesday, July 2, 2019

June 2019

It's finally June! The long sunny days of Summer are just around the corner and we can't wait. 
Charlotte was the only one in the piano recital this year. She did a lovely job.  
The last day of school finally arrived! Here are the 1st/Last day pictures from this year. I think Dallin wins this year for the most changed. 

 Carmen graduated 8th grade and won many ribbons for having straight A's all year! That's a huge accomplishment. 
 I couldn't resist doing this side by side of her graduating from Preschool and then from Middle School. She's so adorable! 

She took a lot of pictures with her friends and we were lucky to snap the quick of us with her. 






I can't remember why I took this picture, but Duck Donuts is always a special treat! Perhaps this was the first day of summer. 

After months and months of planning, YW camp finally came around. With only 5 weeks before camp, I got a phone call letting me know we could no longer come to the camp we were planning on using. I was in Target shopping when I answered the phone. It was all I could do to keep it together long enough to check out and make it to my car, where I broke down crying. I called David and then I called Missy, who is my assistant director. We quickly went to work trying to find a new camp that had an opening for our week and was large enough for our group. After many many phones calls and a few visits, we found a decent place. Once we found a spot, we were back to the drawing board of planning camp. This site was entirely different and our program needed to be revamped completely. 
The week before camp, we went down to visit the camp ground and we pre-hiked some trails we wanted to send the girls on. Carmen came along with me, as well as Missy's daughters. 


And then the first day of camp arrived. Here I am arriving and the only one there. Let's get this party started! 
 My YCL's soon showed up and we went to work setting up the camp sites, sorting shirts and lanyards, and organizing all the food. 
 My niece Peyton is never far from me. She was like my shadow all week. 
 Seems like hair braiding is always taking place at camp. Carmen and Klarissa braided hair and made bracelets.  
 And Aliza and Elenor were making crafts. 
 We have an amazing leader who is also a Zumba instructor and the girls just love doing Zumba. But my favorite part is watching my DAD do it!! He's come to camp every year that I've been the director and helped in many ways. I love having him there with me. And the girls all love him too! 
 We made Aspen one of Aliza's YCL's this year. This was Aliza's first year at camp and her and Aspen are best buddies from cheer. I was so glad Aliza had someone like Aspen to be her friend and mentor. 
 Carmen with her awesome 3rd year girls. 

And a wild game of volleyball. 

On the last day of camp Missy and I were trying to snap a selfie of the two of us showing we had survived the week. Next thing we knew the 4th year girls came running up behind us to photo bomb our picture. It was pretty funny! 

 Meanwhile, these 3 were at DISNEY WORLD!!! They were living it up while the other 3 of us were roughing it out in the woods. They had an amazing time doing whatever they wanted to do!



And I'm pretty sure they each ended up with their own beds! 





Once camp was over I felt like I could be a fun mom again. The kids filled up these little pools, leftover from camp, and put on these face masks and relaxed in the sun. One day we might have a real pool. In the meantime, they were happy with these baby pools. 


We went with some friends on a tour of the post office. I actually found it very interesting to learn how the mail is sorted. We even found the exact spot that our mail goes. And then were able to help sort a few items. 



This a fun night at Grandpa Teerlink house, where everyone still gathers on Sunday nights for ice cream. This night we had a large crowd! 

And Carmen and I took a trip over the Willy's in Waynesboro with Koda to get a little ice cream treat. Koda even got his own cup of ice cream with a dog treat on top. He adored it!

May 2019

I didn't realize how busy this month was until I was adding all the pictures here. May started with a girls trip for me to Utah for the BYU Women's Conference. There I met up with some old friends from Mountain House and we had a great reunion!! I may have enjoyed visiting with them more than the actual conference...  I also briefly saw my friend, Emily Crane.  We served together in a primary presidency years ago. 
 Danelle, Me, Amanda, Melinda and Brandi - friends from our California days. 




After the conference had ended we spent a day visiting Temple Square. I had never been to the Beehive House, so we checked that out and it was actually pretty neat. This was where the original church offices were. 
 I also ran into Sister Rylee Franklin from my home ward who is serving on Temple Square. 

Carmen had to come up with a project that she could make and then sell in a school market. She challenged herself and decided to make these cool mesh wreaths. She made a patriotic one and then a UVA one. They each went up for auction and sold for $40 a piece.  She went one to make several more to sell and was able to earn a little extra spending money. I asked her to make one for me, but it hasn't happened yet.... hopefully she's not expecting me to pay her $40. 



Another busy Saturday was spent having a Pre-camp meeting. The girls all made their own lanyards to hold their schedules and then they each tie dyed a shirt according to their level color. It was kind of a big undertaking! But I love this kind of stuff. 
Carmen and her group of friends all decided to go to the 8th grade dinner/dance together. They all got together at friends Lucy's house to get ready. 


We then went to Boar's Head to take some cute pictures. 
Sequoyah, Natalie, Jasmine, Carmen, Klarisa and Lucy










I stole this one off of Carmen's phone from the actual dance. They are a great group of kids! I cannot believe I'll have a high schooler in the Fall!!

 Koda adores Carmen and loves to play with her, especially outside
 This was Carmen's final middle school Jazz Band concert. She is really going to miss Mr. Melton and his class. She has made some of her besets friends in band. 

David spoiled me with this breakfast on bed for Mother's Day.

And the kids all happily posed for a few quick Mother's Day pictures before church. 


And I got to spend another luxurious two day with my favorite nephew Lane the hospital. While you never get much sleep there, it was nice to get a lot of camp planning done. 


With David going back to school, he had made the sandwiches every morning for the kids lunches. This day he had to leave super early one morning, and when I got up, without fail, the sandwiches had already been made! I love that he did this. I'll miss when he stops making those sandwiches. 
 Charlotte continues to learn ukulele at school. 
 David went on a boys fishing trip, I don't know all the details of the trip, except for a riotous trip to Walmart late at night when everyone was tired and feeling a little punchy. 
  
My favorite little boy

 In other camp preparations... how much toilet paper can 120 girls so through in a week? I don't really know, but I'm hoping these two boxes can cover it. 

To end the month, I got to attend a UVA women's football clinic. I was really looking forward to this and it was so much fun! I went with my mom and sister and a friend from my ward. The day before we got to take a tour of the football locker rooms, weight rooms, media room, go out on the field and got some cool swag. 





Then the next day was the clinic. We ran football drills and learned the basic about football. All the coaches are in our ward, so it was fun to see this side of their lives. 


My dad has been doing a lot of work remodeling the Poppinga's kitchen and finally my mom got to meet Kelly Poppinga. She also won that cool autographed helmet! 




 Then we got take pictures with Bronco and the Belk Bowl trophy. This was such a fun night!! I hope they do it again next year. 

 My poor mom broke her foot just a few days before, but she still loved hanging out and watching everyone.