Baking Beauties and Beasts!

Today I kicked off my first kids cooking camp of the summer: Baking Beauties and Beasts.  It was so much fun teaching the kids about recipes, doing some crafts, and cooking tasty treats with them.  I am lucky enough to have a sous chef in the house, my oldest son, who is going to be my assistant during the kids camps.  I LOVE teaching people about my passion: food. It went really well and I am very excited about tomorrow.  In fact, about half an hour after class ended, I got contacted by a mom who's child had such a great time, she wanted to know if her brother could join in on the fun for the remainder of the camp. Certainly!!!

Don't we all look professional?!

Love the aprons. Love the hats. Love the kids. Love the food.

Sifting ingredients IS fun!

Helping hands. Happy chefs.

We are His Hands

"A story is told that during the bombing of a city in World War II, a large statue of Jesus Christ was severely damaged. When the townspeople found the statue among the rubble, they mourned because it had been a beloved symbol of their faith and of God’s presence in their lives.

Experts were able to repair most of the statue, but its hands had been damaged so severely that they could not be restored. Some suggested that they hire a sculptor to make new hands, but others wanted to leave it as it was—a permanent reminder of the tragedy of war. Ultimately, the statue remained without hands. However, the people of the city added on the base of the statue of Jesus Christ a sign with these words: “You are my hands.”

...As we emulate His perfect example, our hands can become His hands; our eyes, His eyes; our heart, His heart."

-- Dieter F. Uchdorf, April 2010, Apostle in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints

The Good Shepherd.  The Advocate.

My Best Friend.

Boating

Boating! Exhaustion! Sunburn/tan! Family Memories! Utah Lake! 73 degree water!

Breakfast burritos. Mmmm.

Making breakfast, then we cleaned up and headed to the Marina.

The old grapes in the nostrils trick.

On the boat. Even Cricket took a dip in the lake.

Ryan's parents had a boat when he was growing up, so the man knows what he is doing.

SImon was the hands down champion of the boogie board.  He got up easily, stayed on forever, and loved to wave a lasso like a cowboy. 

It was difficult to get all four of us on, but certainly worth it for this picture.

Happy 4th of July

Today there will be fireworks and pancake breakfasts. Many proud Americans will fly Old Glory. Many veterans will reminisce about their personal contributions to this great country. Many families will be filled with pride over the service of their loved ones, and mourn the loss of their fellow countrymen, brave enough that when push came to shove, they sacrificed all to help the United States of America. On this special day, I want to say thank you to all contributing citizens: Thank you to the teachers, the service men and women, the politicians, the PTA/PTO. Thank you to everyone that still believes that America is good and beautiful and has a special part to play and holds a special place in Gods heart.  I love this country, and I love the song "Proud to be an American," because I am.

Thanks to Betsy Ross, the gal who designed and made the first American flag.

"Proud To Be An American"

If tomorrow all the things were gone I'd worked for all my life,
And I had to start again with just my children and my wife.
I'd thank my lucky stars to be living here today,
‘Cause the flag still stands for freedom and they can't take that away.

And I'm proud to be an American where at least I know I'm free.
And I won't forget the men who died, who gave that right to me.
And I'd gladly stand up next to you and defend her still today.
‘Cause there ain't no doubt I love this land God bless the U.S.A.

From the lakes of Minnesota, to the hills of Tennessee,
across the plains of Texas, from sea to shining sea,

From Detroit down to Houston and New York to LA,
Well, there's pride in every American heart,
and it's time to stand and say:

I'm proud to be an American where at least I know I'm free.
And I won't forget the men who died, who gave that right to me.
And I'd gladly stand up next to you and defend her still today.
‘Cause there ain't no doubt I love this land God bless the U.S.A.

Our church congregation always has a 4th of July pancake breakfast. Calvin helped with the flag ceremony, and Preston read a little bit about the history of the American flag.

Yes, there was both orange juice and chocolate milk.  You are probably wondering why the table looks so good.  I was in charge of the table decorations: blue table cloths, blue streamers, white and red striped gauze stuff, and red and blue star glitter.  That's how to get it done.

We went camping for the 4th.  That's our tent, and the view was panoramically incredible.

Campfire. Lots of bugs.

Piled into the tent.  We took Cricket with us, and she clearly loves to camp.

Thunderstorm

There's nothing quite as lovely as a heavy rain shower on a hot summer's day. Growing up in Tucson, Arizona, I was lucky enough to experience a wonderful monsoon season.  It's a heavy downpour on a hot summer's day. In Tucson, it was accompanied by rolling thunder and bright, electrifying lightening. Thank you Bountiful, Utah for giving me a a happy reminder of my childhood. Long live summer rainstorms!

For the beauty of the earth.

5 Hours

I know that when you attend a theme park, and don't have passes for the season, then your goal is try and squeeze every last drop of fun out of the experience before heading home.  You try to get there as soon as the park opens, and then wait for security to evict you when the sky is dark.  Too bad if your kids are tired or cranky or don't want to be there anymore.  You paid for the entire day there, and the entire day is what you are going to get.  This year, we decided to get season passes for our family (as a Christmas gift - to maximize the wow factor) which means that when we are tired, we go home. When we are hungry, we'll leave. It has been lovely to attend Lagoon for just a few hours on any given day.  We hit Lagoona Beach today, and several rides, which meant a 5 hour stint at Lagoon today. It might not sound incredibly impressive, but by golly, I felt like I took one for "Team Mom" today.  Any amount of time spent at a theme park can be draining to the adult who's trying to make sure that little people don't get sun burnt, lost, or ditched by siblings. None of that stuff happened today, at least not to Team Smith. So that's a victory.

Annie's friend also has a season pass, so we brought her along. What fun!

Look at all those muscles!

It is so funny to me that this particular smoking section is located in such a wonderful, shaded area.  Owen and Calvin didn't want to do the white roller coaster (well Owen is simply too short) so we waited for the dare-devils Simon, Annie and her friend.

Happy Family

It doesn't take much to make kids happy: love, food, honesty, kindness, cookies, and a golden Labrador. We all had such a wonderful time with Cricket.

Happy Cricket.

Happy dog walkers. I think she went on like 5 walks today!

Tonight some pals and our families gathered together and played at Mueller Park Canyon.  It was such a  blast!