Trip to Yosemite

We went to Yosemite National Park last week. (Pictures courtesy of Edna)

The favorite activities (most preferred first) were
1. Throwing rocks in the river
2. Climbing on rocks
3. Seeing waterfalls
4. Drinking hot chocolate
5. Riding on the park bus
6. Looking at wildlife
7. Riding in the car
...
99. Sleeping
100. Hiking

We received many smiles and few scowls from other hikers at the park as our girls were collapsed, crying on the trail, begging us to carry them for part of the 1000ft paved "hike" up to Bridal Veil Falls. Wills were exerted, and character was built.

We eventually made it up the path as some sort of disjointed family slinky - with parents periodically hiking in place and children eventually running to catch up. I don't know that I could say I "enjoyed" the hikes, but I did not necessarily dislike them either. But it did end in the only picture with all four of us in it.

Although I can't claim to understand the pattern of not wanting to hike because there were other times when they were skipping and running down the trails. If it was cold (and it was chilly in the morning), Camy definitely wanted to be carried.

For other hikes we traveled like this:

Here are the girls in a "cave" we found while climbing rocks:

We also stopped by the Ahwahnee Hotel to warm up. The girls spent most of their time on the warming bench in the fireplace trying to blow out the fire.

We did see deer, squirels, stellar jays, crows, and ducks. No bears. I would be hibernating by then if I were a bear.

The girls were very excited to see the rainbows in the water falls. They also enjoyed throwing rocks whenever the occasion arose.

Women in Business Conference

This last weekend I went to Utah for BYU's first annual Women in Business Conference. I've been working with a few other women (and an extremely supportive crew at BYU) to organize this event for about a year and a half. It was fantastic and exceeded our expectations. I absolutely enjoyed it!

The event was filled to capacity- 250 women, including many great friends that I haven't seen in years. Getting the chance to reconnect with these women was the highlight of the conference for me. I found it inspiring to see a large and varied group women who are smart, hardworking, focused on the gospel, and happy. Though many of us are often criticized for pursuing careers and many have not had the ideal major life events (thus leading our pursuit of career), this didn't really come out. The focus was on the good we can do and how we can support each other.

I meet Whitney Johnson (author of my favorite blog)- she is just as wonderful in person as she is in her blog.

I also spent time with my family. I'm realizing both that I am more like my family than anyone else, and that I also like my family more than anyone else. They/we are hilariously fun.

And with the weekend theme of strong, smart, good women, I spent Sunday with my Grandma. She is 93, but still active and sharp. She was just as lucky as I am in finding a great husband who supported all of her crazy schemes. He supported her decision to go to graduate school in Boston when they had 3 young kids (in the 50's); he never pushed her to join the church that he loved (though she eventually did); and he cared for her through all of her health problems. With her, too, I saw more of myself in her than I have before.

Then I came home to my little girls and my husband. Despite the tantrums, dirty laundry, dirty dishes, and other household work, I am so glad to be home with my family....but excited for next year's conference!

Halloween

Grana made the outfits, Edna made the shoes. Camy was a little unsure at first, but once the idea of candy was conveyed, she warmed up quickly.

Watershed moment

Something happened this week for the first time. Macy was sitting on the couch at night... and fell asleep. There was no kicking, screaming, negotiating, song-singing, feet dragging, sister poking, food begging, false potty alarms, running away, hiding, pajama removing, body limping, distracting, begging. She just put her head down. She was feeling tired, and went to sleep. This made me realize that I just might win this game. They are starting to wear down...

Poaching pictures

Edna takes the pictures and I post them. That used to be how it worked. But I have been MIA in the blog. So here are a few picutres that I was able to grab from the camera.

Here are the girls reading a book with Tibu.

This is how the girls looked after the Pioneer Breakfast on Saturday. They did not want to eat, but they did enjoy playing in the dirt.

Here are two pictures of Camy. Even on a bad hair day, pretty cute kid.

Pictures

I finally started organizing the thousands of pictures from the last year (we haven't slowed in picture taking, just in sharing them). Here are a few. Macy dresses and accessorizes by herself, which may be obvious from the pictures.
And a few of Camy- this girl is non-stop energy.

Other Stuff

Johnny and I went to Mexico last month with Tibu. It was a great trip. We went on two dives a day for 3 of the days, and all of the dives were great. We saw dolphins in the wild for the first time- both from the boat and from the water. I didn't take enough great pictures to justify a separate post, but here are a few of the ruins we saw (I need to take more pictures!). We went to 3 sets of ruins- I'll have to look up the names. All amazing. I debated changing my name to John for the trip so we could be John, John, and John, but I went with "Not John" a few times.



The highlight this week is new dolls and furniture from Grana. I figured that since we can't use the bottom three shelves of our book shelves anyhow, we may as well turn them into townhouses.



And here is one of my favorite recent Cam pictures. They still love finding airplanes.

Fun night- pillow fight with Dad, wearing "dance suits" and the typical crazy hair.

Father's Day

I put together a collage of John and the girls for our Father's day cards. I love these!

The first twin bed

This is for Liz! I finished one of the many projects I've been working on- a bed for the girls' room. It is not fine woodworking, but it is functional, and I think it is the look I am going for. It probably took a total of 10 hours over 2 weeks (which was every spare minute I had). I still want to paint the walls, but we are debating how long we will stay in this house- a few months? a few years? We all like living here, so maybe I should just go for it!

Reading the sign

For MLK day we took the girls on their first hike/trail run. I taught Macy to read the sign on the Huckleberry Trail- she reinterpreted the Huckleberry marker to mean "No grapes"- resulting in "No bike, no horse, no doggie, no grapes." Sorry it is sideways.

Hugs at the Beach

I stole this from Kate's blog- I love it!

And I'm borrowing this from Charlie & AM