Summer school

Is this post about an official summer school? 


No. 


Unless you count life, in which case I'm DEFINITELY enrolled. I've learned so much this summer already! Stuff about me, my husband, my girls...I could go on, but I'll just tell you some of the best things I've learned so far.

THING 1: Camping with family is FUN

I have these incredible family members who do cool things--like camping--all the time. But when it comes to my family having fun like this I get the butterflies like you wouldn't believe. Why? I don't know. Maybe it's because I love camping, but the thought of camping and being responsible for two little people under the age of 2 is...well, it is what it is. 

Our ward campout was in June. I was talking to my next door neighbor-friend, Amber. 

She was going to go.

She was taking her three children. 

They LOVE camping as a family.

Dumbstruck, I asked her how she did it. How to keep them warm, feed them, protect them? She made it all sound so...possible. And enjoyable!

We packed in a whirlwind. The traffic getting to the campsite made me moody...I was trying to write it all off before we even got there. But I wasn't going to let myself ruin this! So I bit my tongue, and kept going.

The scariest part was Lily + fire pit, but she did okay when we warned her about what was hot and what she shouldn't touch. 

The hardest part was getting Lily to fall asleep between Rich and I. What kid wants to fall asleep when they're having an ADVENTURE!? I think I told stories until midnight. (That's an exaggeration, but I don't care.)

The coolest part was simply knowing that we were camping. As a family. And I was having a good time.

THING 2: When you water stuff, it actually grows

Remember these?

Now they look like THIS!

 And even though neither gal has pants on, they both have bows in their hair. That counts for something.

THING 3: Awesome 4th of July parties get wet (in Utah)

 These are all pictures of the party-goers, AFTER we ran back inside to avoid drowning in the torrential rainstorm. It wasn't raining when we went out, but two minutes later, it was raining. :)

 

 The rain didn't dampen our spirits, however, because we were glad it was helping put fires out. 

THING 4: How to make some pretty cool things 

 My mommy taught me how to stain wood. I have fallen in love with the simplicity and pure awesomeness of it all...and I think I will stain many things before I die. :)

 I looked up some fantastic tutorial sites (which you can find links to on my Pinterest because I'm too lazy to find them right now) for origami flowers. Why? Because I'm making the boutonnieres and corsages for a friend's wedding. Oh darn...guess I forgot to take pictures of the corsages. I'm sure you'll see them soon enough. 

THING 5: Potty-training isn't as scary as I thought

Lily had been showing us the signs for weeks, but I just didn't want to get around to it. I'm very good at coming up with excuses to delay doing important/hard things. I finally made myself do this...and it worked! 

Yesterday marked the first day with absolutely no accidents. Today is exactly one week from the day we started. 

Has it been hard? Yes. Day 2 was a living nightmare. But Rich gave me the emotional support to get through it. And my marvelous mother and mother-in-law didn't mind my potty-training daughter running around their houses on those days when I just couldn't stand the apartment anymore. :D

Lily has spent almost the entire week naked. In fact, I've had to start bribing her to put clothes on. I guess Ruth wanted to be like her big sister, because she's been naked, too. Or maybe it's just really hot these days. 

THING 6: Babies' faces are super fun to play with when they aren't yet big enough to either stop you or care