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.