5-4-3-2-1 Blast Off to the Moon Family Campout!

The Moon Family Camptrip:

Every year we go to Bear Lake with the Moon Family (we are now 42 with two in the oven!) and stay at my sister's cabin. My brother Alden and I were in charge of the camp trip this year. My sister-in-law had a great idea to shoot off rockets made out of 2-liter pop bottles, so I decided to make the entire theme of camp, "Blast off to the Moon Family Campout!" After listening to my plan, Aaron asked if I was trying to create 'Science Camp', but luckily everyone was good sports about it and we had a good time.

We made personal pizzas and smores in pizza box solar ovens. If anyone else gets the brilliant idea to try cooking from the sun's energy, here are a few suggestions: 1) no matter what you do, the pizza is going to be disgusting, but eat it anyways. It's the activity that counts, and 2) chocolate melts much faster that marshmallows. We went swimming and played tennis and several of the guys got up early to go play golf. We had a great time playing 'Do You Love Your Astronaut" (to stay along with the cheesy theme) and making icecream in a bag (again, the whole science thing...). We made "Moon stepping stones" and all the grandkids painted star wishing boxes so they could write down their wishes on a piece of paper and keep them safe. Aaron had to work and joined us late Thursday night (thanks to Alden and Kandice picking him up at the airport). Demarie wished on a star that her daddy would be with us at camp and was so excited when her wish came true! We had a great time all day Friday boating and playing in the water. The water was a little chilly, but the weather was beautiful. Demarie and her cousin Hallie were excited to be Little Mermaids in the sand. Demarie even sang the Little Mermaid for all her aunts, uncles, and cousins. She did a great job! For family home evening, we played, "I survived a Moon Family Game Show" with hostess Star Light (me) and Star Bright (Alden). He was a good sport playing along. We picked a few people in the family to be 'shooting stars' and everyone else threw water balloons at them to shoot the stars down. We then did a group activity where each team had a ladder and a cardboard box and had to get their entire team from one side of the field to the other without touching the ground (Rainbow Relay). I then related each activity to a spiritual message to remind everyone to shoot for the moon! We should be there to support each other with our goals and dreams, even when it may feel like everyone else in the world is trying to shoot you down! Afterall, 42 people behind you is a pretty powerful support system! We had a great time shooting off the family rockets. Everyone was so creative and some of them went really high and far! I say some, because the Princess Power Rocket, created by the Harris Family never made it to the launch pad. After the first rocket was launched into the air, Demarie turned to me with tears in her eyes, hugging her pink rocket tightly, "I don't want my princess rocket to break and fall in the weeds!" I guess next time I will know better than to make a "pretty" rocket! All in all, we had a wonderful time with family. It was so good to see everyone and we are grateful to everyone for pitching in to make it a good time and for putting up with my "Science Camp" adventure!


It's times like this that make me really miss living close to family!

My Little Mermaid

Three weeks ago, Demarie freaked out when I had to dump water on her head during bathtime. Whenever I tried to take a shower with her she screamed like I was torturing her to death. Demarie even freaks out in the rain because it rarely rains in Vegas! Well, 3 weeks ago I took her to her first swimming lesson. The first day, she bawled as I held her hand and walked her into the shallow water. She cried for the first 10 minutes and then started bouncing in the water. I was so proud of her when she immersed her chin in the water all by herself! To celebrate we took her to buy an icecream cone and a beautiful pink Sleeping Beauty swimsuit with the promise that she would do everything her teacher told her. The next day, her teacher dunked her. My baby went under water! Wow! That was a huge step. At the end of three weeks, Demarie is floating on her back like Sleeping Beauty with minimal support from her teacher, going under water by herself without plugging her nose with her hand, and kicking to her teacher with her face in the water. She even took a shower with me without screaming! I am so proud of Demarie for facing her fears and conquering them!!!

Harris Family Reunion!

In June we headed up to Utah to spend an afternoon with Aaron's immediate family, Grandma and Grandpa Harper, aunts, uncles, and cousins. We haven't seen many of them in awhile so it was fun getting re-aquainted! We had lots of good food, played Frisbee football, and celebrated Grandpa Harper's birthday with presents and family games. I volunteered to take all the grandkids on a little hike in the mountains. They were all so excited until Josh, the oldest of the bunch announces, "I don't really like the mountains. There are cougars in the mountains and they jump out and eat little kids." So much for adventure! In place of the hike, they all returned to the lodge and gathered around Grandpa Harris as he shared his own cougar stories. It was good to see family again!

The Perks of Being a Teacher: Mesquite!

One of the perks of being a teacher for the Clark County School District is a free 2-night stay at the Oasis in Mesquite!!!! How lucky are we? We called ahead of time to see if there were any strings attached and the operator said, "No, it's free for teachers. Just make sure you visit our casino while you are here." We went with Steve and Rochelle Hendricks, a fellow teacher in the ward. We left the kids at the grandparents house and drove to Mesquite where we enjoyed two days of sparkling pools (until they announced a 'biohazard' and everyone had to clear the pool immediately), luxurious spa treatment (my first massage ever and I am now addicted), golf (Aaron and Steve enjoyed some male bonding time), go-carts (thanks Aaron for running me over), and the movie "Iron Man." Not to mention the all-you-can eat buffet (Aaron cleared me out of the hotel room for a good hour to dispose of the effects of our feast) and the king size bed where we didn't have to touch each other all night! It was nice to have a little getaway and we really had a good time!