Island Park Scout Camp

Justice wen to Scout Camp this week. They went to Island PArk which is in Idaho. They left early Monday morning (like 4 AM) and got back Saturday afternoon. Long week!
Justice acted as Senior Patrol Leader all week, {he's pretty young to do that but turns out that it was a miscommunication that they thought we requested. Oops!  It made it for a little bit of a stressful week for Justice (extra meetings and in charge of the other scouts for cooking & cleaning up every meal) but his leaders said he did a great job!}
Here's his Troop:

Here's everyone at the lakeside:

Here's some of his duties as a Patrol Leader:

And some kind of Scout War that I'm sure they thought was super cool! Looks like he had a great time! He also earned 8 Merit Badges!!! Way to go, Kid!

UT Trip & Glory's Ears Pierced

Brett took the little girls with him down to Utah for the week. 

They got to quickly see Grandma Karla & Ryler  for a dinner at the park. As well as Grammy & Grandpa for some dessert.

They enjoyed seeing family & the wedding festivities but were super excited to be able to spend time with Cheri & Halle. ;)

It was super hot so they went swimming at the neighbors one day.

 And apparently ate cotton candy for dinner. LOL

Glory had made plans to get her ears pierced while she was in UT. (I kinda had forgot about that plan of hers) Aunt Cheri tried to take her one day but they would let her since Cheri wasn't a legal guardian. So they drowned their sorrows at dinner. ;)

Brett went with them the next day so they could get them done. Glory is so excited about her new ear accessory. And all the girls got matching BFF necklaces. Love these girls!

Brett got to spend some extra time with Shauna & his parents. They even went to a movie together. Good thing it's documented or no one would believe it. (They don't come out for things like that very often!;)

They had a great time!!! It's good to have them back safe!

Liberty & Mom's Productive Week

While everyone else was gone to Scout Camp & UT- Liberty & I were busy!!!!

One night we went to the Discount Movie night. We enjoyed The Legend of Tarzan. We ate a quick dinner & enjoyed a gorgeous double rainbow. Then decided to stay for one more movie- the new Ghostbusters! Afterall, it is the discount night, right? And there is only 2 of us! Fun GNO (Girls Night Out!!)

I also took Liberty to Driver's Ed every day and she did lots of practice driving!!! Plus she worked a few nights as well. This girl's life is BUSY!!!

AND we were also very productive!!! We ended up painting all of her bedroom furniture! We worked on them every day. They turned out awesome!
Here's her Hope Chest:

Her Bookshelf:

Her Bed:

Reveal of her Amazing Finished Bedroom!!!!! Drumroll please........................

Jake & Kenzie

Jake married Kenzie this week. We love Kenzie!!! She's so darling. (We of course love Jake too!) Brett & the girls went down to be there. The rest of us had a crazy week so we couldn't make it down but we're so happy for them!
Here's at the Temple:

Here's Grandma Seamons with some of her grandgirls:

Here's the cake Shauna made them.

Here's Brett & the girls at the Reception.

P.S. Kenzie's mom did theis awesome Flash Mob thing. The girls learned their part of the dance really well. What fun! Congrats Jake & Kenzie! We're so proud of you!

TELL License- Official Driver

We have an official (with a parent in the car) driver!! Liberty passed her test and received her TELL License today. Now we just have to finish 3 more weeks of driver's ed and complete 50 hours behind the wheel. Way to go, Sis!

Tubbs Grandkids

We have fallen in love with the Tubbs grandkids. They had us over one day for a playdate.

We had them over to play one day while they are here visiting. We ate lunch together and played at our house.

And took them all to the "#1 Store" for ice cream. Fun times!

Plus we got to be invited to Aubrey's birthday celebration. Thanks for inviting us! We'll see you next time!

Operation Nagu Con 2016

http://www.naguconmt.com/about-us.html

For the last several months, Liberty has been planning on attending an event here in Helena called Nagu Con with her friends. It's a place for all the anime/fantasy fanatics to gather together and do anime/fantasy stuff!  She has been sooooo excited about it!

Here's some of her friends over the last few months as they have prepared what they would wear when they got there.

Here's a blurb from the local news about the Convention:

The sixth annual Nagu Con is coming to Helena this month, welcoming fans of anime, cosplay, and fantasy fiction.
The event kicks off on Thursday, July 21, and runs through Saturday, July 23, at the Radisson Colonial Hotel.
The fantasy/anime/cosplay convention started out relatively small with about 50 or so people showing up, and by last year, an estimated 500 people participated.
This year’s theme is “NC:2016…Operation Nagu.”
Among the events scheduled for this year are a talent show, cosplay contests, a ramen-eating contest, vendors and artists, and a dance.
Founders Rachal Flewellen and BJ Allen-Prudden wanted to create a new and fun experience for Montana residents, as well as provide a forum for the cosplay (costume play) community.
Flewellen says that Nagu Con aims to provide a safe, fun, and family-friendly experience for all attendees.

A few days before, they sent out the schedule for the weekend. 

Day One: Liberty loves the 10th Doctor from Doctor Who. She was so excited when we found her a blue suit, a brown overcoat and red high tops. She even dyed her hair brown so she could be authentic.  Her friend Shannon dressed up as the Tardis. They joined the Talent show and put on a little skit together. Fun times!

Day Two: She had a big group of friends that dressed up like characters from an anime called Attack on Titan. There's power in a group, I'm told!

That day her friend Shannon participated in the Ramen Eating Contest.I found a photo of her in the contest from the news. You can see the cool leg bands I helped the girls make for their cosplays. They must have taken them off during the day since in the group shot (which I threatened her life to make sure she got) they are NOT wearing them. Teenagers!!!!

Day Three: Another one of her favorite Fandoms is the BBC version of Merlin. We found some awesome pieces for her cosplay. And made her a scarf and some boot warmers that matched these shots of Merlin. Her friend was supposed to come as Arthur but didn't show up that day. Bummer! Although after shopping the vendors for the 1st day, she morphed into some kind of Merlin Cat which I guess dosen't require Arthur to be necessary! LOL

Here's a few pictures of the Convention that she would share with me. She had a blast and is already planning on next year!

Top Left: With Tyler Fife & Tim Earl (from Church) dressed as Team Magma from Pokemon
Top Middle: With friend Kandra that dressed like Arthur with Liberty for a while & with 2 characters from Blue Exorcist
Top Right: Liberty in the Vendor shops trying on a cosplay.
Bottom Left: Liberty with the Twins- Hikaru and Koaru & Tamaki from Ouran High School Host Club
Bottom Middle: Ann wearing cosplay from Five Nights At Freddy's.
Bottom Right: Katelynn as the Glo-Tick Queen at the Dance on Thursday night

Secret Mission: Youth Conference

Youth Conference was this weekend. Liberty was at Nagu Con so she didn't attend on Friday. The kids fourteen and up went to the Lewis & Clark Caverns all day. It sounded like it was a lot of fun and some hard work.  Justice was only able to go for the Saturday Session. It was held down at the Zipperian Ranch where Trek was held last year. Remember Trek here, here, here, here and here. Fun times!!!    Brett & I were asked to go be in charge of a group on Saturday. (Thanks to my good friend KrisL Fife for taking care of my little girls and bringing them down) It was super hot but they did some great service as well as had a lot of fun together. Thanks to all the Stake leaders that put so much work into a fun weekend.

Brett & I were over the Hinckley Group (all of the 12 year olds) They were some fun kids!

 For our group's service project, we hauled tons of wood to the burn pile. They were some hard workers!

Back at the main site and eating lunch, a water fight ensued, Mostly due to Brett's enticing of the 12 year olds against his Senior Seminary Students. LOL Way to go Honey! He also payed Garret (BubbaBob, our Trek son) $5 to dump a bucket of water over President Christensen's head. It was hilarious!!! I got some pretty awesome shots!!I love the closeup because it looks like Pres. Christensen doesn't even care. Garret's face is priceless as he dumps the water on him. So funny!

They also had some other Water Games for the kids to participate in. This is one where they threw wet sponges at each other. Justice is in his Captain America shirt in the middle.

We ended the evening with skits from each age group. Here's Justice in his skit as the Disappearing Leprechaun. LOL

Our group  lip-synced to Frozen! They were awesome!!

Here's a video of them starting out! Love it!

And it wouldn't be a Helena Stake Youth activity without the Christensen Brothers rockin' out! Love these guys! Here's their debute of Press Forward. (That's this years theme)

MSC @ MCS

Victoria & Glory got to attend the Mega Sports Camp held down at Montana City School this week.We heard about it from our neighbors. It's a version of VBS (Vacation Bible School) but the kids get to pick a sport and learn about it with a special coach while they learn about how God loves them.

Brett & I had the chance to go the last day to see them finish up their night. And view a performance from the Cheerleaders.
When we arrived Victoria was still playing Soccer outside. We got to watch her for a bit. She's in the blue vest and her long socks she borrowed from her brother. ;)

Here's Glory's group practicing their cheer moves. She's on the back row. You can only see her ponytail and her black shorts.

And her performance for all the parents. (4th from the right)

Here's their Boom Dynamite Cheer:

At the end of each evening, all the groups got together to hear a Bible story, sing some songs and have a closing prayer. They learned this song this week and danced while all the parents were there. Love their excitement for God!

http://www.hannaford.org/mega-sports-camp/

Memorial Pool with Dad

Dad met us for his lunch break to do a little Summer Swimming. Fun times! It's been super hot this week so it was a perfect day at the Memorial Pool.

We got a little treat at the end. Justice fed the girls like a baby bird. Gross! LOL

Watching Weavers

We are super lucky to have such amazing neighbors. We got to hang with the girls today. We love them!!!

So, Um, Like....

We have started to realize how much our family uses the words "so", "um", and "like". It is CRAZY!!! We couldn't make it through dinner (or even a few minutes without using one of those words if not ALL of them!) We busted up laughing the whole night because of it. It was a little pathetic!
I found this article that is entitled- So, Um, You Like Really Need to Stop Using These Crutch Words
Written by Niti Shah in April of 2014. It was a pretty neat article about how to stop. We might have to do this for a FHE lesson. LOL
It talked about diffenrent kinds of crutch words (aka filler words)
The Extraneous Exclamation
The False Start
The Awkward Ending
The Totally Mostly Useless Adverb
The Overcompensating Adjective
The Diluting Preposition(al Phrase)
Steps-
1) Identify Your Crutch Words
2) Monitor Your Presentations for Crutch Words
3) Practice Your Public Speaking

https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/so-um-you-really-need-to-stop-using-crutch-words#sm.0000gqm53f15nd78rv11l8f35hni4