Grande Finale to the Weekend

So, after Karin left us on Friday, Emily and I sat together and watched A Little Princess. This is one of my favorite movies and has been since I read the book in about the fourth grade. We were only half way through the movie before Emily started crying. I felt a little guilty, but it's such a tender story and I knew everything would end up ok and Emily would just love it, so I didn't turn it off. However, when I tucked her into bed she was still crying and said she never wanted to watch the movie again. Sigh.

But tonight, her Uncle Creed took her out for ice cream for her birthday. I'm sure all of his other nieces and nephews are wondering why she gets treated like a princess. Well, this is how it happened. On July 4th, just a few days after Emily's birthday, we sat in our backyard watching Tom light off fireworks and Emily asked Creed where his birthday present for her was. He replied that if she gave him a birthday present, he would give her a birthday present. That night, after the fireworks were over, I found her sitting at her desk making Creed a book for his birthday (only 4 months late) and so tonight Creed returned the gift exchange and treated her to Baskin & Robbins.

Boy Scout Hike/Girls Week

On Wednesday, the boys left for a hike in the Emigrant Wilderness, they will be gone until Saturday night. I am so happy for my boys and so grateful for Matt being willing to take them hiking. He is very generous to help the Young Men in our ward, 12 in all, have this experience. It is so much work and I think he is such a great man to do this. Here he is talking to them the night before, to make sure they all have their equipment (I've been to the store 4 times and spent $395. on food for them - so at least they won't go hungry), I love watching him work with the youth, he is a natural.

You may wonder why Emily is in the picture....no she didn't get to go with them. Like me, though, she thinks scouts have the most fun of anyone. She has said she can't wait until she is a Cub Scout. I always thought the hikes my brothers went on were much better than Girls Camp. One of these days she and I will have to take a hike together.
Doug getting his attitude on.
The fearless leaders - Stuart Spencer, Matt, Mike Jack, Cliff Schaefer, Leo Lopez.
What can I say?
So since the boys are gone, we get to have a "girls only" week here at home. Lucky for us, Ben was in Texas and so Karin joined us too. Emily loves to paint, sew, color and tape things together.
Karin and I went to see the Harry Potter movie - loved it - and left Emily with Louisa, the most artistic girl I know.
Sunday is Karin's birthday and so we celebrated early with her. What could be better than a tea party?

Karin left today and so tomorrow it will be just Emily and I. We will be baking with her new birthday gift, an Easy Bake Oven. I hadn't even considered buying her one, because somewhere in the back of my mind I remembered how much work it was to make a tiny little cake and how it didn't really taste good. But I've read my sister's blog and seen how much fun she and her daughter have with their oven and I wanted to share the same memories with Emily. Who cares about the work and the small return in baked goods - the time together is worth it. Doesn't she look cute in the apron and hat? Our friend Annie gave them to her for her birthday.

Just So You Know

I think this is worthy of a blog post. The Tour de France began 3 days ago and Matt and I are already enjoying watching much of race everyday. We have our favorites that we have watched for years and we love cheering for them. The leader in the yellow jersey this year is Thor Hushovd AND here I am having my picture taken with him in 2009 when he competed in the Tour of California. I think this is pretty close to celebrity status for me.