Ruby's Birthday Party

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Okay, this is so dumb - we went to a fun little birthday party for Ruby at a water fountain park and I didn't even get any shots of the birthday girl! Duh. Well, here's my girls having a good time anyway!

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This is a random picture taken the same day - so I'm squeezing it in here. My friend Wendy is the one who replaced me in young women's. I was so excited because she is such a fun and wonderful person. I felt good leaving the girls in her care! One Wednesday night, she needed someone to take Alisa, her daughter since her husband had something going on. Alisa is good friends with Sarah so it worked out great. These two were being pretty funny on the teeter totter. I'll try to add the video I took later.

Eclipse Opening Night

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My friend Kelly is such a fun person! Check out her house! Every Twilight event is a party at her house. I'm not as huge of a Twilight fan as most - but I'm always up for doing something fun and how could going to a movie with 30+ friends at midnight NOT be fun! When I drove by Kelly's house earlier in the day I had to smile and couldn't wait for a fun girls' night. Actually, the group that goes together each time is growing and a few boys came this time! This was Shalyce, Britlee, Marella and I posing as I arrived. I love Tylin (Kelly's daughter) waving in the background.

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This one's a little blurry - with Michelle, Nancy and Rose. (Nancy and Rose were in the primary presidency with me in my old ward) It was Rose's birthday at midnight! This is Michelle's 2nd time coming with me to the Twilight opening night. She was a lucky duck and actually got to see the movie at 8:00 that night too!! Before the official opening! She and her husband put their names in a lottery at Intel and won sneak peak tickets! So Michelle saw it twice in the same night! She was so polite and didn't rub it in too much or give away anything. (o:

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Tylin and Becky - hat twins - officially welcomed us to the house of Twilight fun!

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Anywhere Sarah and Lizzy are, there's bound to be fun!

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Britlee, a die hard "Team Edward" fan. (O: She's obsessed.

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Whitney came this time too!

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A little group portrait before the show. I love Rose doing the "T" for Twilight. It's so fun to go with Kelly's group. We get reserved seats, so we don't even have to stand in lines. I think our group took up 4-5 rows.

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Nancy and Gemia . . . What a fun night. I really enjoyed the movie - but I really love just hanging out with so many fun friends. Thanks to Kelly for being the best hostess and ticket organizer every time. You sparkle!

Hagg Lake

I've always thought this was such a funny name for such a beautiful lake.

My good buds, Sarah and Lizzy, invited us one Sunday afternoon to join them for a family home evening night at Hagg Lake with their family. How could we resist? It was a beautiful night, we had great food and wonderful company.

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Natalie found a BIG stick. Luckily, this one never made it home, but we found another one in the car the next day. (o:

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Yeah - doesn't that mud look refreshing?

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There might be a nicer family than the Fotheringhams somewhere in the world, but I have yet to meet them! (o: I hope their secrets to raising awesome teenage girls rubs off on us. Although, I can't ever get Lizzy to make a normal face in any pictures! (o:

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Sweet Sarah (o:

I didn't get any pictures of Gilbert* and his amazing frisbee ring tricks. The highlight of the night was when Pres. Fotheringham challenged him to get the frisbee ring around the tongs he was cooking hot dogs with. Gilbert* was a long ways away and came within inches of landing it right on the tongs! Later, Gilbert* went with Angela and Lizzy to throw the frisbee ring at some deer. Not sure what the goal was there, but the ring was lost in the tall weeds. Nevermore, nevermore...

Dream House

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Natalie and Angela came up with these "houses" recently and I thought they were such a cute and creative idea. I love the little art projects they think up! These are houses that they each designed made out of construction paper. Each piece of paper is a place in the house. Then they taped each "room" together to make the house.

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Natalie cute out some lovely ladies and some decor out of a Coldwater Creek catalog. So adorable!

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This house has it all! Even it's own grocery store! I would love to just get what I need for dinner at my own house!

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Angela's house included a beautiful library! I love it!

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I think she is showing me a playground in the house.

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Aren't her little people cute? I just love the things my girls think up. This was all their own idea - I knew they were going nuts with lots of tape (we go through a TON of tape in this house), but I had no idea what they were creating until they were done and presented it to us.

Testing

Summer FINALLY Came!

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We waited a looong time for our summer weather to arrive! And we are living it up now that it's here! We LOVE summer. The heat and sunshine are the best!

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A funny little sprinkler toy we found at Fred Meyer's. The girls loved watching the ball balance on the upward stream of water. I have to admit, I think I enjoyed watching the ball spin around on the water as much as they did. And if we put another ball down the ramp it would pop up and send the ball in the water flying and replace it. I felt like a little kid watching the trick over and over and laughing. I am entertained easily. (o:

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This new park that Kaitlyn introduced us to is the best. This time it was warmer and we came prepared with swimsuits and towels so we could enjoy the fountains and the sand. We met some good friends there and brought Phoenix and Brooklyn with us. What a super fun day!

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Reunited!

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I didn't get very many pictures of this night, not even one of Paige and Sarah together! For FHE, we invited the Binghams over for grilled hot dogs, chicken, impromptu berry picking and a little Guitar Hero. (o:

I've known Melanie and her family for about 8 years! Wow - Sarah and Paige were just bitty. They became fast friends in preschool and have been the best of friends ever since, even despite our move across town. Naturally, when I found out a few months ago that they were moving just a few blocks away, I was thrilled!! Sarah jumped for joy! We are so excited to have them close and decided it would be appropriate to celebrate with a BBQ.

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The kids had a great time picking berries and eating almost every one of them. (o: I like it when kids appreciate a good berry bush! Plus, it kept them very busy and out of trouble so the adults got lots of visiting time.

Our night ended with a fun few rounds of RockBand/Guitar Hero. We laughed at how good Melanie was even though she'd never played before. I guess that can be a natural talent! What a fabulous night - I only wish I had taken more pictures! Hard to believe.

Change of Plans

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Our first official day of summer, after school got out, I made plans for a fun outing. A few weeks earlier I was telling one of my young women buds about Duyck's Peachy Pig Farm in Cornelius. She thought it sounded so fun, so we planned on the first day of the first official week of summer to go on a field trip there with my girls. We put it on the calendar weeks before. On the day of I kept getting hilarious texts from Katie about how excited she was and how she was wearing overalls and needed to braid her hair for the farm trip. She definitely looked like she was ready for a farm field trip when I picked her and Eliza (her little sis - Sarah's friend) up. I LOVE how Kaitlyn is so enthusiastic about everything! She is so fun. We had our picnic lunches packed and were off.

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When we pulled up to the farm we were very sad to see a CLOSED sign. )o: What??? It hadn't even occurred to me to check to see if they would be open.

My heart went out to my enthusiastic farm fan friend sitting next to me. Luckily, all the girls were flexible and were ready for a different adventure. Katie led us to a new park called 53rd Avenue park. Boring name, very cool park! We had our picnic there and enjoyed a lovely afternoon together!

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Everything at this park seemed to be "thinking outside the box". It wasn't your typical playground equipment. Even the 'slide' was wonky! It made me nervouse and Angela freaked out a bit at the top. Once she got the hang of it, though, she loved it. You ride down it stradling the slide. Crazy!

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That afternoon, I had to make a stop at Winco to buy some BBQ supplies for a dinner with our good friends, the Binghams, who just moved to our ward. (Yay!) Katie and Eliza came along for a shopping adventure.

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Eliza and Sarah were having some silly Kodak moments at the store. The cashier was getting a kick out of our entertaining group 'o girls.

On our drive, I noticed a field full of blooming flowers/weeds. It looked so fun to get pictures in. I was in luck because my car full of girls was feeling spontaneous too! We parked across the street and ran into this field 'o flowers. (Am I feeling a little Irish today?) I wish I had my nicer camera, but we still got some cute pictures. So even though our day went completely different than planned, we ended up making some great memories! And Katie looked adorable in her overalls and braids wherever she went!

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Thanks for being such a great sport Katie!! (o: