Camping Trip

So last weekend, we went camping with a bunch of people from our ward! It actually started out to be a trip that was planned with the Payne family and us. There were some people that wanted to go, and then others wanted to join in, and before we knew it, we had 9 families camping together!!! Griffins (David and Tommy), us, the Paynes, Moores, Buchanons, Kamatas, Colins', and on Friday night, the Trexlers and the Whipples joined us too!

It was soo much fun! Savannah LOVED being outdoors and playing with Tommy, Nicholas, Alex, Kylie, Lucy, Alice, Brayden, and Annie. It was like an extended playgroup!

It was nice to get away from the heat of Tempe AZ. It wasn't as cool as I had thought it would be, but it was still way better than 110 degrees!

I was able to trade vehicles with my sister, who had a Dodge Caravan. We had so much more room! We were able to take our good friend and his son, David and Tommy Griffin.

Here are some of the pictures of our experience!

So just before we left, Savannah and Tommy were playing together, but Savannah had not had her nap yet and it was getting late, so she was grumpy and not happy with sharing her toys with Tommy! Here's a photo I got of her in her little tanttrum!!

Here's Tommy, Savannah and me in the car on the way to Airplane Flats! Those two had fun riding in the same car! What better way to enjoy camping than to have the spouse do the cooking??? Today's specialty: Pancakes, bacon, & Orange Juice.
Jason and Savannah hiked with the rest of the group to the Fish Hatchery. Jason wished he had a carrier for her, because she was so exhausted from the walk, she fell asleep on the way back to camp, and Jason had to carry her in his arms for a good while!

You might be asking, where was I? Silvia and I made a run to Heber for supplies. Once those in our camp found out we were making a run to the nearest town, we started taking orders! Shoelaces, ice, slingshot, and more ice!! What our husbands don't know, is that we snuck in a quick stop to Dairy Queen!!! We figured we were missing out on some fun and wanted to have some fun of our own!! he he he!

Oh, what's this on the ground...........

Mmmmm......not sure what this is.....but it seems a bit tasty....... One of her good friends, Nicholas, was so sweet! He got the soccer ball for Savannah when it went rolling down the hill! I happened to catch a picture of it!!

Savannah LOVED having kids to play Ring Around the Rosy with her! Here she's having a blast with Kylie Moore and Nicholas Payne.

On Saturday morning, a game of Frisbee Golf was gonna happen, and since Silvia and I missed it from the day before, we teamed up to be the only GIRL team to play! (I ditched Jason as my teammate) Love ya Jason!! We had so much fun, it was some hiking, climbing, chatting, and fun! Silvia and I got the most points!!!!Here are all the players: Jason and Justin Trexler, Stacy and Luis (they were good), David and Jeremy, (they were good too), Heidi and Dallin (apparently, they escaped the camera), and then us-Silvia and I.

She had SSOOO much fun, that she fell asleep in the car only after 7 to 10 minutes into the ride home!!! Soon after, her little friend, Tommy fell asleep too!

It was a wonderful trip! Thanks to the Payne family for inviting us to go camping with them, and thanks to all those families that joined us and made it memorable!!

I forgot how much I enjoyed camping, since it'd been a few years since I'd gone. The only times though that I have gone in the past, was with my family over Labor Day weekend. It's become tradition to go to the mountains past Roosevelt Lake over Labor Day weekend. My family has been doing this since 1962! One of my sisters was only 1 month old, when they started the tradition. The only problem is, you need 4x4 to go up the mountain to the campsite, that we call, The Apple Orchard. I've always hitched a ride with family, and since Jason and I have been married, we went up in our own 4x4 Jeep Cherokee one year and it was a BLAST! Makes me want my own 4x4 again! Someday.......

Anyway, so this year, it looks like we will be going up with Jason's mom, Wendy. She is coming down to AZ from UT to go camping with us and will let us use her 4x4 Denali Suburban to go up. We are so excited!

I hope to go camping more often, now that I know of some campsites (that don't require 4x4) up by Payson. Jason's not as excited about camping as me, but give it a few more times and maybe it'll grow on him.....you think?

Funny Kitty pictures

Jason browses websites and has come across this kitty website that is funny. Here are a couple of my favorite ones:

Since I love to ballroom dance, this was pretty funny to me....

I laughed so hard when I saw this one!!!!!

talking and singing

Savannah's been doing a lot more talking now a days......

"Babu" = bubbles, she sees the bottle and says this. She loves to go outside and have me blow bubbles
"Baba" = she just started to say this, for her bottles, but since she hasn't had one in a while......
"na na" = night night. Since I've been better at her nighttime routine, she recognizes when I read a book to her, that it's night night time and will say this and point toward her crib.
Of course, she says the common, "mama", "dadda", and "uh-oh"

She's also decided she likes to sing!!
When there's some music on and it's slow song, or primary songs I play on the CD, she'll start "singing" along with it! It's so cute! Last Sunday, when we were in Buckeye for my great niece's baby blessing, Savannah was singing during the Opening Song-pretty loud too! Everybody around us could hear her.

Quote

No man is exempt from saying silly things; the mischief is to say them deliberately. - Michel de Montaigne

Update

It seems I managed to get through the whole month of July without posting, so I figured I'd better get on in for August, while it's early!!!

Here are some pictures of Savannah since May.....

Here first pigtails on May 2nd. We had a Ward Chili cookoff that night, so I tried out her pigtails for that...She was very patient for me while I was combing and combing and pulling her hair. (She had a hayday sitting on the bathroom sink playing with stuff from the sliding mirror shelf)

Here's PROOF that I do clean my house!!! How else would Savannah pick up the sweeping action of the broom? It was so cute, every time I pulled it out, or she saw the broom, she wanted it to "sweep" and be my big helper!! It was adorable. I tried to get a video of it, but when she sees the camera, she knows there's pics and so she wants to come to the camera! 5.13.09This was a super sweet picture of Savannah with her daddy. It was taken with my new phone (since my other one got stolen). This is one of my favorite pics of my 2 favorite people!!!
5.19.09Here's another pic of Savannah when I did her hair (what little there is of it) in pigtails again. I think her smile here is sweet and candid.
6.1.09For Father's Day, after church, we drove out to my (Mandy's) parents house out in Buckeye. The last 2 miles or so is down a dirt road, that you can't go very fast on-unless of course you've got a 4x4 truck/SUV-so we put her on my lap and let her "drive"!! She LOVED IT!! And cried when we were there and had to get out!!!
6.21.09We were eating out and Savannah thinks EVERYTHING is a game. When we tell her not to do something, she does it and laughs, thinking it's a game. At times, I'll catch her picking her nose-rather she's fishing for some unknown in her nostrils-and tell her to stop, then pull her arm away, then she reaches for her nose and waits for me to "catch" her and she'll giggle!!! At first it was cute, but now I'm over the "cuteness" of it and it bugs me!!!
6.22.09Before we left my parents house, mom gave me an old ice cream maker, and so I wanted to try it out and thought the Griffins could be our guinea pigs!!! We went over there-since there place is bigger than ours-and played Settlers of Catan and had ice cream. It was Savannah's first time having homemade ice cream. The next time we made it (4th of July) we had friends, the Paynes, over and had Root Beer floats and it was YUMMY!!!
6.22.09Our new neighbors invited us to go to the Phx Zoo one morning-EARLY!!! She had passes and is allowed a guest. Since we wanted to get there early before it got too hot, it was decided to meet up at 6:30. YIKES!! That meant that I-me, Mandy-had to get up at the latest, 5:45 am!!! I try at all costs to not get up early, if possible!! Since this was free and I knew Savannah would LOVE the animals, I figured it would be worth it! She did enjoy it, though she wanted to be out of the stroller more than in it! The last thing we did at the zoo was the water park. Savannah liked playing in the water, and is getting braver and braver around it.
7.28.09

So these are some of the pictures of Savannah-though there are LOTS and LOTS more-and I'll find more to add another day.

Jason is still in school at UOP and is still working there too! Whew. He's been busy in the Elder's Quorum too. A few weeks ago, he started doing some Muay Thai. A guy in our ward is teaching it. I went last night and had fun! Though the first time Jason did it, he was sore for a couple of days. This time he's fared better and isn't hurting, hardly at all.

I am working on being a better stay at home mom. I've never been a homemaker. Hated cooking and cleaning and didn't do it until absolutely necessary. I've been working at a system to keep my kitchen cleaner more often and also, keeping up with laundry, and very soon, I'll be getting Savannah to sleep on her own-I hope. That is going to be VERY HARD, because I LOVE to hold her and she cuddles me and snuggles to me, and that is a wonderful feeling. But she's gotten accustomed to me holding her until she falls asleep-she doesn't know how to go to sleep by herself, nor how to soothe herself when she wakes up. We'll see how that goes!! Wish me luck!