stories

August 9, 2013:  I went shopping with Emily, Jennifer, and a four of their girls.  We left at 8am and got back at 9pm  with a nice late lunch at the cheesecake factory.  Our shopping trip started at the goodwill and then southcenter, nordstrom rack, then Alderwood mall.  It was WAY too successful (found things that I didn't need of course), but a blast.  I have never shopped like that before.  A few hours is the norm, but by the end of the day I was completely exhausted.   A great time though.

My mom watched the kids in the morning, then Brien woke up and I think helped out. They went and rode motorcycles and played with cousins.  When I called to find out where the kids were in the evening, Spencer had Josh and Brien had taken Bella home to give her a late nap.  I get a call from my Dad at 8:30 saying, "Bella's been busy"(he is laughing).  He said he was not going to clean up what she had done because he wanted me to see it for myself.  I got really worried.  They had just gotten home which means Bella must have woken up and quietly got out of bed without waking up Brien.  Probably a child's dream to be able to do whatever you wanted (that made me worried).  She heard my parents get home and that is when she went downstairs with a guilty look and says, "I made a mess."  They said she was super stinky and it finally all made sense once they saw what she was in to.  She had dumped out the costco size full bottle of Parmesan cheese in the bathroom and was making, "sand castles."  At lake Chelan her great uncle taught her how to make sand castles.  I guess she really loved it and wanted to do it at home:)  I have to say I was a little relieved that was all she got in to.  She was quite proud of what she had built, yet felt so guilty at the same time.  Wish they had taken  a picture.  When Bella was saying her prayers this morning she was telling Heavenly Father all about her sand castles.  Children make our lives fun and eventful.

Another moment that has been great was at girls camp.  On the day we had the boys helping rock climb we had a break to eat lunch with all the other people  in camp.  Josh was sitting at a picnic table and noticed there wasn't room for a lady to sit down.  On his own he then says, "here you can have my spot."  he got up and went and sat on some stairs.  I was super happy because he did this on his own without me being there, it was purely him:)