Girlscamp

I went to Girls camp this year as the camp nurse. I haven't been back since I was a 4th year leader when I was 6 months pregnant with Soren.....for 6 years ago. Man it was so fun. I really am made for girls camp. It is strange because the type of "camping" really isn't my cup of tea. I veiw myself as a "real" camper - or more ideally I would like to be backpacking. But getting together with a lot of awesome woman and girls joking, laughing, being goofy and loving each other compensates for the style of "camping". My co-nurse was Cathy Gilman and I LOVED her. She was perfect. She is a labor and delivery nurse and so I assigned her to comfort anyone who needed some TLC and I would do any life saving or procedural interventions. But the best part about Cathy was on the first morning when she walked into the medical tent and said, "Whatcha doing?" "Oh I am writing a song we are going to sing at role call." and she replied without missing a beat, "Okay." She was the best partner EVER! We did these medical song each morning reminding the girls to drink water and eat healthy and do morning excersizes. The girls loved it and we were superstars. It was so much fun. When I would go to the stage I would just raise my arms up in the air like they should be screaming for me and they would just scream and cheer louder. I seriously felt like a superstar. It was strange and fun all at the same time.
The leaders get to camp a day in advance to get ready for camp. I was itching to lash something. My mom was my leader my first year at girls camp and she taught us how to lash water stations, wash stations and the like - something she taught me in normal camping too. I always thought it was so cool to make stuff out of rope and sticks and limbs. And so, coming back to girls camp, I knew I needed to lash something. I didn't know what until I got there. I realized we needed more organization for our medical supplies.

Meet my shelf. It was awesome. For the first few days people would come by just to see the shelf. it was that cool.

Girlfriends

You may think this title is for me. Where I blog about all the girlfriends I have and love. Well, although I should do that, that is not what this title is for. This title is for Soren's girlfriend. That is right, by son has his first girlfriend. He has asked several girls to marry him last year in preschool, but this is his first girlfriend - or so he tells me. Today after church he comes running up to me and whispers, "McKenzie and I are boyfriend and girlfriend.

Quinae, "Oh? How do you know that?"

Soren, "We just decided now in the hall. We both said we would be each others boyfriend and girlfriend."

Not knowing what to say I just said, "Well, congratulations Soren."

McKenzie is our 6yr old neighbor directly behind us. We don't have a fence between us and the kids go over to each others houses freely. She is adorable as all the kids are over there and there is no way he isn't going to fall in love with her and perhaps all her sisters. The first thing I thought was, "Awesome. My son is already in love with the girl next door. His life is going to be filled with drama and heart ache." After getting home from church and thinking more of this I thought we should talk more of the subject.

Quinae, "Soren, did you know the prophet taught us we shouldn't date until we are 16?"

Soren, "Yeah, primary taught me that."

Surprised and doubtful, I decided to investigate this more.

Quinae, "What is dating?" (we have never talked about dating or girlfriends for that matter)

Xander jumps in with, "I know what dating is. Dating is when 2 people go off with each other."

Soren, "Yeah and they go to a movie and eat dinner.

Wow, maybe primary has taught this.

Investigating Soren's knowledge more I ask, "What do boyfriend and girlfriends do?"

Soren, "I don't know. Well, actually I do but it is a secret."

Trying to get some early brain washing in I say, "Actually real boyfriend and girlfriends always tell their mom's everything they do."

And without missing a beat Soren said, "Not this boyfriend."

I laughed out of shock and stress.

15 minutes later Soren shows me a card that has hearts and his name on it. He was trying to spell the word dancing but screwed up and ended up cutting it out. He then announced his intentions.

Soren, "Mom, can I run over and give this to McKenzie?"

Quinae, "What is it?"

Soren, "It is a card for a dance show."

Quinae, "What is a dance show?"

Soren, "A dance show is when she comes over to my house and I dance for her..........and then we eat dinner."

Quinae, "Is that a date" That kind of sounds like a date."

Soren, "No, it is just dancing and dinner."

I promptly called McKenzie's Mom to relay this whole story as Soren gives the card to McKenzie in the backyard.

Alita, "Wow, good luck with that"

Quinae, "Hey, I am calling you for advice!"

I never in a million years thought I would talk about dating with my 5 year old boy.

He really does love girls and beautiful girly things. When I came back form girls camp my fingernails were painted and I was wearing a necklace, but my hair was disheveled and my clothes were dirty. Upon my return, in true awe and appreciation Soren declared, "Mom you're so beautiful!" And then he touched my necklace and stroked my nails.

That evening we went to a friends for a BBQ and there was a pretty woman with painted nails, nice makeup and done up hair. At some point in the evening he picked a perfect rose from the garden, walked up to her and smiled and gave it to her and walked away. She was so amazed by the gesture she couldn't help but talk about it for 10 minutes. Later I was talking to her and Soren came up to me to ask a question. Before he could I said, "Soren, I heard you gave this lady a rose. That was so nice." He embarrassingly smiled and briefly buried his face in my elbow.

He is so cute........and I am totally scared for the future.

Hiking Hiccups

We have been trying to go hiking at least every other week this summer. The boys have loved it and so have I. We go on 2 - 4 mile round trip hikes. Soren hikes like a pro but Xander get tired easier and at times can dawdle.

One hike we hiked up to a lake with poor access. I am always trying to find a 2 mile hike fairly local up to lakes - this is not that easy. I was so excited about this one but the final destination was a little less then picturesque. The only access was this area with a log jam. The boys thought it was great though and wanted to walk out on the logs and eat their lunch. These logs are floating in shallow water. Although I knew they wouldn't die, I was worried about them falling in, getting soaked and freezing the rest of the hike. However, keeping off the logs deemed too hard.

They did great balancing walking on them, which was good because despite repeatedly reminding them of the looming threat of getting wet, they kept going back and forth from land to log. Finally it was time to leave and head back down. I called them to come and they delightfully obliged. Soren got on land like a pro and Xander was right behind him. 12 inches from land, he fell of. HE FELL OFF! Into the lake. It was only 12 inches deep but he fell sideways and totally submerge himself. That is not easy to do. The fear had been realized. I sighed as he screamed in horror at the flash of freezing. I stripped down a screaming Xander slowly taking in his clothing options. This is what we came up with.

Luckily he didn't have his jacket on at the time of the fall and I wrapped Soren's windbreaker on like a skirt. He had to wear his wet shoes and underwear. After giving him a sucker Xander didn't complain much.

Year one of brain washing my kids into loving the great outdoors - check.