A Camping We Will Go!

This weekend we went camping for the first time with Emmy. Shaun has been wanting to take her for a while now, but I keep telling him she's too little. Our ward had a camp out on Mt. Lemon at Camp Zion so we decided to try it. To my surprise she did really well! She had a lot of fun and really enjoyed being in the outdoors. She loved the tent and called it her "camping". We had a really good time and look forward to doing it more . . . but not until next summer because it was COLD! This was the view from our campsite. It was so beautiful at night! A little sad though because you can still see a lot of damage from the fire a few years back.

Emmy relaxing in a hammock. She did fall out of it and ended up with a little scratch on her head!

Emmy and Daddy roasting marshmallow's . . . YUMMY!

Emmy helping clean up the campsite. See how helpful she is sweeping the dirt!

I took this picture from the car as we were driving home. I was surprised at how green and pretty the mountain was. Who says Arizona's not green! :)

Peanut butter & Cheese??

It's not what you think I just decided to put the pictures into one post!

Emmy has been really into peanut butter lately. When we make her sandwiches she likes to "help". By this I mean that she gets her own spoon and digs into the jar of peanut butter! She loves it!



Funny story, the other day we were at Costco and I bought a big bag of cheese. For some strange reason, Emmy decided that the cheese bag was her "baby"! She held it and talked to it and made it feel better when it was hurt or cried (yes the bag of cheese did get hurt and it cried a lot!) The cashier ladies at Costco got a big laugh when Emmy wouldn't let go of her "baby" so they could scan it. They ended up using the hand scanner on it while Emmy told the cheese "It's OK baby!" She really is a funny kid. She held it in her car seat and then still wanted to play with it when we got to Grandma's house. She even put it down for a nap! While we were driving home, Emmy didn't see me put it in the car and said to me "Oh, dang it, we forgot my cheese!" I'm so grateful that she has such a vivid imagination, it's lots of entertainment for us!

Look at me!

This week Emmy and I started the Little Movers and Shakers class through the parks and rec again. I have been taking her to this class since she was 6 months old. We both really enjoy it and I really feel like it has helped her be social and friendly. She asked me about her teacher Miss Gigi all summer long so she was finally glad to see her. Normally on the first week of the class she is a little timid and clingy, but not this time! She had a gret time running around and to my surprise whe walked the ENTIRE balance beam by HERSELF! I was so proud of her. Last spring she did a couple of steps, but then would want to hold my hand. She did it several times on her own and you could see her confidence growing. I'm just so glad that she didn't get my balance! My little girl is growing so fast! Yeah for Emmy!!!

Our little Shutterbug!

Today Emmy was watching Sesame Street and Elmo's World was all about camera's and taking pictures. She came running over to me asking me to have "Emmy's camera". I usually give her a disposable camera to play with, but today I gave her our little point and shoot camera and turned her loose. She took pictures for hours of everything that she could think of. It was really funny to watch her learn to use the camera and even turn it different directions. At one point she had me holding things up for her and she would pose them before taking the shot. When I reviewed her pictures I was surprised that some of them were pretty good for a 2 year old. Emmy took 237 pictures! She had a lot of fun and learned something new. Thanks Elmo!

All of the pictures in the slide show were taken by Emmy without any help.

Rain Glorious Rain!

The other night I was sitting on the porch watching the rain come down and I noticed the color of the grass. It was a beautiful deep green color! It hadn't really hit me until then that we had gotten so much rain lately that it really affected the plants that are in our yard. This color doesn't happen very much in the desert, so you have to enjoy it while you can. We could water a ton and wouldn't get this effect. It's amazing what the rain can do for the plants. Now, I just have to water to try to keep them green as long as I can. I sure am grateful for the rain!