Maxism Summer 2013

We went to IKEA a few days ago and I asked Max if he wanted to go into the play area with Tatum while I shopped to which he replied, "NO WAY!!!  Who KNOWS what's in that ball pit--mac & cheese, a bull shark, talking rainbows...."

And once again, I am left speechless:)

Cassel & Julianna

My nephew just got MARRIED!!!  His actual wedding was in Oklahoma while I was at Girl's Camp so I missed it:(  BUT I did make the reception this past weekend in good ol' Deming, NM!  Always a good time at the Keeler Home!

Cassel & Julianna

GREAT food & GOOD music!  What else do you need???  Check out my boys, they've got the moves like Jagger:)

Max doing "the sprinkler"

Go Ethan!

Tatum and her NM BFF "Ollie"

Tatum was a dancing fool--she danced ALL night (even before it began:)

She even roped Julianna into a dance:)

Girl's Camp 2013!!!

Well, I did it AGAIN!!!  Seriously one of the hardest undertakings EVER!  But it sure feels good at the end of the week knowing that it is DONE and that all was well!

This year I felt like I had more of a clue as to what to do and so I enjoyed the preparations so much more.  We had 38 total girls that went to camp this year.  11 of them were 4th years--which they go to their own high-adventure camp--and 11 of them were YCLs--so they help other wards.  So we had 16 girls with us at our camp.  And over those 16 girls, we had 9 YCLs (there was an abundant supply of YCLs this year:) which meant that we had TONS of help and that we didn't have to be at every class and every hike!  We did do a lot of the activities with the girls but it was really nice sometimes to just hang out at camp with the other leaders.  The girls had a fantastic time bonding together and I had a fantastic time bonding with the other leaders--LOVE these ladies.

On arrival at our campsite, before we set up, the leaders discovered a DEAD snake:)  Oh, this was just TOO good to pass up.  So we buried it a little ways off from camp to use this treasure another time.  Well, Sis. Hunter and I had THE BEST time coming up with ways to prank girls with this thing!  One day, we sent the girls off to class so that we could stay behind and string the snake up to the top of our awning.  So we had some good music playing on our ipod (NOT to be played when girls are around) and there I am on a 10 ft. ladder with a dead snake on a string in my hands when WHO of ALL people should come "visit" our camp...THE STAKE YW PRESIDENCY!!!  I saw them walking up, and I didn't quite know what to do!  Which was worse, the inappropriate music OR the dead snake in my hand!!!  I yelled, "HEATHER!!!  HELP ME!"  So I threw the snake on the string up on top of the awning and Heather ran to turn the music off!  We had a nice little visit and in the middle of the visit the snake FELL OFF the awning and was just dangling there behind our visitors.  So as cool and as calm as can be, I walk over, grab the snake and throw it back up where it finally stayed.  Oh my gosh!!!  Heather and I were just dying and had a good laugh after our visitors left.  Seriously...almost getting caught was WAY more fun than the pranking we did!

So "Norbert" (that's what we named our snake) made an appearance at the girl's "Glow Show" that we had at our camp--all the girls did a fun little song/act/skit with glow sticks.  He fell onto some of the girls during their performance!  Then he dangled there and danced with the other acts.  He also was strung up into one of the porta-potties for a few good screams and then left by a hand-washing station for a few more laughs.  After that, we gave him a proper burial.  RIP Norbert!  Thanks for the laughs!

Here are some of the pics of these cute girlies.  I can't believe how much I just LOVED these girls this year!  I had SOO much fun with them even though there will ALWAYS be drama/crying/throwing up at a camp for girls!

Pre-Camp--All fresh/clean/smelling good!

The 1st Year Initiation 

Cute 2nd Years

2nd Year Hike

1st Year Hike

J-John duty!!!