Action Packed and Sleep Deprived!!

Kiley is in Project I.D.E.A.L. at school (advanced language and reading program). The Jr High students have the opportunity to participate in a unique field trip and I was lucky enough to be chosen as a chaperon. I LOVE being able to do things like this with my kids and was pretty excited about it!!
Thursday Night
We loaded up on a charter bus and pulled out of the school parking lot at around 10pm to head to San Diego, California. The kids were able to talk, listen to Ipods etc till about midnight then the bus lights were turned out and it was QUIET. I really wish I could say I slept but I'm pretty sure that was an illusion, Kiley curled up in a ball and was out (one benefit to being small and young)! We got to the pier at 4 am, and then loaded a 65ft fishing boat for an oceanography experience. It was dark and cold but the kids were wide eyed and bushy tailed. They cast a special fishing net and then pulled it in to see what they caught and surprisingly there was quite a variety of sea life. The guide taught about each creature (very fascinating) except for the Round Sting Rays. They went back in the ocean to prevent any one from being stung, the rest of the creatures went in feel tanks for the kids to watch and touch. They also caught some plankton (spelling?) and were able to look at it under a microscope! We saw a bunch of sea lions, dolphins, and a variety of birds. It was awesome and nobody puked!! When we got back to the pier we piled back on the bus and headed to Denny's for breakfast. I had my doubts of how successful breakfast would be at a restaurant when 45 people walked through the door at the same time. Thankfully I was pleasantly surprised. They definitely have it down to a science. We all had our orders taken, were served, paid and were out of there in a little over an hour, it was so impressive!!! The next stop was the San Diego Zoo, and it was a beautiful, perfect day for it!! I really wish I had, had a pedometer on. We walked and walked and walked. We covered the whole zoo and some parts twice!! Some of the highlights were the polar bears, panda bears, my personal favorite was the orangutans (especially the baby) and the gorillas. The kids were so well behaved and we all just had a great time hanging out together. After the zoo we went back to the pier for dinner. They had a kid friendly buffet dinner on the pier followed by a bon fire on the beach. We got to make smores and listen to shark tales. I can not say enough positive things about the tour company. They were awesome, fun, organized and very efficient.We also LOVED our bus driver, anyone who can flip a U-ey in a charter bus, on a hill in San Diego is my hero! When we got to the hotel that night the adults were dismissed to go to our rooms and were off duty the rest of the night. They gave the kids their room assignments and explained the rules and off they went. As exhausted as we all were you would think we would have been out in five minutes, but NO!! We stayed up till almost midnight talking and the next morning I find out Kiley's room did the same thing!!

Saturday morning we were up early, got ready and loaded on the bus to head to McDonalds for breakfast. After breakfast our first stop was La Jolla beach to look at the seals and then on to Scripps Aquarium. It was so fascinating watching and reading about all the different fish, sea animals, and sea life. Outside was a beautiful man made tide pool with all kinds of creatures to touch and see. It was a beautiful day!! Following the aquarium we rode the bus to Sea Port Village where we sat on the pier and had lunch and even did some quick shopping!! I love that place, good food too!! Our final stop was the U.S.S. Midway, which is totally fascinating and mind boggling! It is a retired air craft carrier and it is huge and magnificent. We were given headsets and were able to have an audio tour of the whole ship. I think my favorite was the flight deck where they had dozens of different air crafts to see and sit in. I have always been so fascinated by this stuff! The kids all seemed to really enjoy the weekend as well. My only complaint was how fast it went and that we didn't have longer to stay at each place!! I really would have thought that we wore the kids out and they would all be crashed out on the way home. That was NOT the case! We played Ocean Idol on the way home, which was stinking hilarious. The kids were split into groups and had to write a song about something they saw or did over the weekend. They were so good and creative! We stopped in Yuma for dinner, we could choose between Panda Express, In and Out or Del Taco, good stuff! We feel so blessed to have our kids attend a school that has such amazing teachers, programs, and an AWESOME principal!

This bear was hilarious!!

While the parents are away the kids will play!!

First of all I want to preface this post by saying, that as a parent it makes my heart soooo happy to see our girls love each other and be such good friends! (Don't get me wrong they have their occasional disagreements but mostly they are great friends.) I love to check on them at night and find them snuggled up in the same bed together, or watching Kiley helping her sister with her homework or when they have friends over rather than locking each other out they are all laughing and having a blast together!! I hope they stay this close and can depend on each other forever! That is the true parent payday!!!

A few weeks ago Eric and I went out for a quick dinner date and left the kids home together as usual. When we came home everything was as it should be. Later that night, Kiley said mom Mal and I took some pictures with your camera will you upload them for us? I didn't think anything of this, they take silly pictures all the time. When I finally got around to looking at the pictures I just about died laughing. I had got the Halloween costume bins down out of the attic and they had a hay day making up outrageous outfits and just being their silly, obnoxious selves!!!

I have really STUNK at the journal keeping latlely!!

For the run of it!!

I had been taught the concept of setting goals as a child but never really GOT it until after Eric and I were married. The man is GOAL oriented and most of the time I really love that about him. I love that our kids are learning it and the importance of always having goals and striving to reach them. I get tickled pink to walk in to our daughters room and see pages of goals and reminders tacked up by her bed! At times it has been so easy for me to set a goal and achieve it and other times not so much but I guess as long as we are always trying it still counts for something!!!
With the kids being back in school, camp being over and me finally feeling more like myself it is time to focus again. I have for sometime wanted to train to run a half marathon or something of the like, and as if to read my mind a friend posted a request for runners for a relay team on her face book. After a couple calls and some research I eagerly agreed to be a member of her team and am sooooo excited to have a goal and a purpose to work toward.
We are going to be running the Ragnar Del Sol Relay, which is a 202 mile race running from Prescott to Mesa. We run as a team each girl running 3 separate legs of the race. It is going to be one LOOOONg, sweaty, exhausting running party!! I will probably be posting updates of my/our progress and FEARS as we go along but I am so looking forward to the process.

Back to School 2009

Wow!! How did this happen? I am pretty sure we just got out of school like last week and it is already time to start the madness all over again!! This year is another HUGE milestone year for our family. Last year our baby started kindergarten and our oldest graduated from 8th grade. This year our oldest starts HIGH SCHOOL (ahhh!) and seminary.
Keaton is in 1st, Malerie is in 5th, and Kiley in 7th. Dang we are getting old! It does come with it's advantages I guess. The freedom we have now from our kids independence it pretty darn good. They all love school, they are excellent about doing their homework and work really hard to get good grades. They wake up and get ready almost always with no problem with little help from us, and they like to make their own lunches. Not so bad!! This year Keaton gets to come home the same time as the girls which works out really well. They all walk to and from together!!
I've had a harder time sending Braydon to high school then I did sending Keaton to kindergarten. I feel like we are feeding him to the wolves. He has had such a shelterd pleasant life up till now and I am afraid reality it gonna come a knockin real soon! We feel so blessed that he had the opportunity at the beginning of summer to meet an awesome group of kids that he will be in seminary/school. They all hit it off right from the beginning and have hung out all summer long. They are such good kids from amazing families and I truly believe that they will all be a great strength to each other over these next few challenging years! We are so thrilled that he is excited about school and seminary and pray that it lasts!!
Thursday before school started we got a call from the P.I. teacher. She said they had been reviewing the AIMS test scores and Kiley had excelled in all the areas. Based on her score they offered her a place in the advanced language and reading class. She was so excited to get the opportunity and we are so proud of her!!
I am thankful for good schools and good teachers and am looking forward to another good year!!!



Braydon somehow thinks now that he is in high school he is exempt from having to do our annual back to school photo shoot. It kind of worked for him considering he had to be at seminary by 6am! But mark my words I am going to get a picture!!

2009 Peoria Stake Girls Camp

July 10-14th

I'm not sure where to even start with all my different thoughts on this subject? This was my fourth year as Stake Camp Director and it was very different then my first 3 for many reasons. It was a struggle to get motivated about all the work that was ahead and I had to work a little harder for ideas and inspiration. I was really worried how things would turn out with all the MANY changes that have taken place in our Stake etc. and then at the same time totally comforted, I knew I was doing what I was suppose to and Heavenly Father would have my back!! Regardless of the struggles I have always 100% enjoyed working with and for the girls and other YW leaders in our Stake so it is always WORTH IT!! With the Trek and many other activities that were competeing for our time this year it was easier to simplify and just focus on the important stuff and also I finally did a little better with the delegating!! It is amazing for lack of a better word, the personal growth I have experienced over the past 4 years. I am not the same person I was when I first received this calling. I have learned so much from the girls, other women, my mistakes, my successes, overcoming challenges, from going way out of my comfort zone and so on!!! I am so thankful that each year my testimony and love of my savior grew and continues to grow stronger and stronger.
It was Kiley's first year at camp and I was able to share that with her (sort of). I was so busy with who knows what and she was so busy being a little social butterfly, we barely saw each other. It is a little surreal. My personal memories of camp are so clear, as if they were yesterday so it doesn't seem possible that my first daughter is already here! She loved it and I am so proud of her. She had the best attitude and made sure she had fun no matter who she was with or what she was doing.She made many new friends and hopefully her testimony grew as well. I hope she always cherishes these memories, and I won't be the least bit surprised if she ends up being camp director herself someday!!! I really would have thought that by the time camp was over I would just feel this overwhelming feeling of being done. That was so not the case!! I still love it every bit as much as I did the first year probably even more. Unfortunately it was time to pass the torch. I was released a few weeks after we got back. It was a mix of emotions to say the least. I am thankful and looking forward to the opportunity to serve in my own ward again but am going to miss the blessings of serving as camp director. They aren't getting rid of me that easy though. One way or another I will be back and I will admit when I really think about it the idea of being able to just have fun and enjoy it again is very appealing!! I love, love, love the new camp director that was called she will do an AMAZING job, no doubt about it so that eazes the pain a little! I look forward to many more years at camp and eventually being up there with both our girls. Causing trouble and having a blast!!!

Peoria Stake Trek 2009

I am really behind and now out of order on my blogging but I can't not blog about what an amazing experience the trek was!

First of all I have to say how thankful I am to belong to a church that goes to GREAT efforts to provide enriching activities for it's youth and how THANKFUL I am to be so blessed to participate in these activities! I am thankful for all the money, time, effort, planning, prayer, and hard work that goes into making these activities successful. I am thankful to our pioneer ancestors and for the extraordinary sacrifices that they made on our behalf. I get so emotional thinking about all of the hardships that they endured and cannot fathom how truly difficult it was. But we have TRULY reaped the rewards of their efforts!!

We were so happy that Braydon turned 14 just days before the Trek and was able to go. More importantly we are so proud of him for willingly choosing to go and going with a positive, and excited attitude. There is no doubt he got everything out of it you could by doing so!!

Eric and I had such an AMAZING experience 4 years ago when we were able to go as a Ma & Pa. We were hoping to have the chance to do it again but understand that others also need the opportunity!! We were asked to be on the back up food committee with our good friends, Dave and Lisa Stubbs, Ryan and Kalyn Taylor, and Trent and Sherri Dutry. We were responsible for cooking for all the adults that were there as support, we figured about 100 people give or take 50!!! As daunting as it was we had a blast. We were up cooking at 5 am and went to bed somewhere around 11pm every night! But when your with friends it's more fun then work! The bonus was we got to sleep in our comfy warm trailers, take showers, mostly wear normal clothes, eat as much as we wanted and not have to walk 16 miles pulling a hand cart! Let me tell you, we fed them good. Steaks and baked potatoes, BBQ chicken, pulled pork sandwiches, REALLY good stuff!!

It is also so fun being up there with so many awesome people and getting to know everyone better outside of our usual Sunday environment. We have an outstanding Stake and new Stake Presidency and we are thankful for that too!!

The Trekkers after being dropped off by the buses at the starting point get assigned their Trek Ma & Pa and family, which is a mixture of boys and girls age 14-18 with a big brother and a big sister per each family (usually a young single adult). The Ma and Pa's introduce themselves in some corny, embarrassing way. Then the families play get to know you games. Braydon was in the Crump family which he was thrilled about because they are one of his friends parents! His older cousin Dallas was the big brother. I'm not really sure how the Crump's got so lucky as to have not one but two Perkins!!! The Ma and Pa's get to do a "shake down" looking for any contraband ie. phones, food, deodorant, makeup etc. Then the real fun begins!! Building the handcarts and loading all the "stuff". This is no small feat getting equipment and belongings for 16 people in one tiny handcart. Once everyone is loaded and lined up they are on their way. They walk for roughly 12-14 miles up and down hills and all over. They don't stop to eat till they get to the first camp which was around 1 or 2 in the morning. It's exhausting. At one point the first night they do what is called "a women pull". When the pioneers were making the trek out west, a lot of the men were pulled away from their families to go help with the war. So they simulate something similar. The boy and men get pulled away from there trek families. They are not allowed to talk or help the women pull or push in any way. Just WATCH. It is heart breaking and empowering at the same time to watch these girls struggle and find the strength to pull these heavy hancarts up this huge hill. I cannot keep from crying anytime I think about it. It is a truly humbling experience. Again I just cannot imagine what it was like for these women to continue on without their husbands and sons at their side For MONTHS! They are my heros. Braydon had a good experience and gained a new appreciation for these girls!

The next morning after they were so rudely woken up at 5am by an Indian invasion. They broke camp and finished the next couple miles to the final camp. Saturday was filled with "team building" games and activities, like hair washing and plowing. We snuck over and watched for a while. It was awesome watching these kids dressed up like pioneers, working together, playing together and STRENGTHENING their testimonies TOGETHER!! There was a hoe down and a fireside to end the day. GOOD times! Sunday was absolutely beautiful. There is nothing like having church in the peace and beauty of nature, the spirit is so strong! It was just an amazing day.
Monday morning when the kids had trekked back out to the top where they had started, we had a BIG bbq lunch waiting for them. They were stinky, dirty, tired, hungry, but had an experience they will hopefully never forget. We can all walk away a little more thankful and appreciative of our ancestors. Thankful for our families and the gospel in our lives! We are looking forward to the next one in four years. Hopefully Braydon, Kiley and Malerie will all be there!!

Trent and Eric-DOUBLE trouble!!

Dave and Lisa did an outstanding job organizing this committee

2 of the best looking pioneers I have EVER seen!!

Braydon, Jade, Michelle, Kamrey, Lincoln, Jaci

Riley and Braydon

One good looking Pioneer family!!

The Crump Family