Summer Fun in Charlottesville

After moving, unpacking, girls camp and traveling we are finally enjoying summer in Charlottesville, in our new home. I do not love summer as many people I know do but I do enjoy it way more here then I have anywhere else. It is hot and humid but it is not nearly as bad as places near here. I remember being in Utah and hearing Mark's family talk about how hot it was and thinking it was so nice because it was so dry!

We go back from Utah the 14th of July and when we looked at the calendar we couldn't believe that summer was half over! Mark goes back to school August 12th and Jared starts on the 19th.  Still a good amount of time but so much was already gone.  Mark actually had 6 hours of professional development this week, two 3 hour sessions.  He actually left today for a conference in Philadelphia that his principal had asked him to attend if he was wiling. He will get back Wednesday and was not looking forward to the conference. For him he has just over 2 weeks left! It has been great to have him around and we will just have to make the most of those last 2 weeks.

In the meantime we have had a lot of fun here. We finally got to go to the UVA races and Jared and Lydia were thrilled. It was a really hot day but they had a great time. Mark went ahead and ran the mile himself, which was pretty crazy as he hasn't run in I don't know how many months yet he did it in under 7 minutes! (6:55 I think) Jared and Lydia each ran 2 races (the 100 and 200) and had fun playing on the track. We will plan on going again this Monday which is the last week they do it. Jared was asking me if I could teach him how to "finish strong" so when people were passing him he could run faster. I don't think I had great advice but I hope he can figure it out and have fun, to feel good about himself. I love that this event is hosted each July.

 

Mark ready to go! 

 Lake Trips!
Since we got back we have been to Chris Greene Lake 4 times.  Our new house is just over a mile from it. We went ahead and got a County Lake Pass instead of a city pool pass as we live so close to a lake (the pass gets you into 3 different ones) and we are county not city residents.  City residents pay half the price for a pool pass since its in the city and county residents have the same thing with the lakes. Weird Virginia  County/City things. Jared has been looking forward to playing at the lake formats now because the play structure there is boat so to him its a pirate ship.  They love playing in the water, digging in the sand and "sailing the ship.  We have met up with our friend Laura and her kids at this lake and are meeting at a new lake later this week.  It is really nice to have it so close by.  It makes it really easy and quick. These pictures are trips 1 and 3.

 That is jared in the "window"

 Lakeside with friends. It is a great place to meet up. 

Peach Picking! While Jared and Lydia love the UVA races and look forward to them all year, Mark looks forward to picking peaches. We went one morning and had a great time. It's great having Mark there because he is tall enough to reach the top of the trees and get really big peaches. He had a great time and wants to go back again this coming week. They are so delicious and its a fun thing to go do so I am sure we will make another trip. We picked 18 pounds of peaches this trip and Mark doesn't think its nearly enough. We went over to Chiles in Crozet (about 30 minutes way) and enjoyed a beautiful summer morning out there.  We grabbed some peach donuts on our way out and enjoyed them on the back deck. Next time I think we will get some peach frozen yogurt. 

I love all the peaches on this tree in the background. 

Millions of peaches... Lydia is even wearing a shirt with peaches on it.  She picked it not me but I thought it was a great choice! 

  Hiking.  We stopped over at Preddy Creek the other day. It is about 10 minute from our house and a great little hiking place. There are a few trails and most overlap so you can easily pick how far you want to go. I had only been there once last Fall and Mark hadn't made it over yet so it was nice to go together.  Before it was a good 25 minute drive but now its so close.  We just did a little 1.25 mile hike and Jared and Lydia did great.  There is a little wading hole you can swim in by the creek and we will do that next time. It was a nice change of pace.

 We also made it to the movies.  The theater here is doing 1 dollar summer movies each week and we have been waiting to go.  We met some friends and watched Madagascar 3.  Jared and Lydia loved it. It is cool that the theatre is running them.  They do 2 movies a week for about 9 weeks.  We are on week 7 so we missed a lot but we will go the next 2 weeks. It has been a fun summer so far.

 We have also worked on the house some but it is nice to have that mostly done.  We want plan at least one camping trip before Mark goes back to school and hopefully 2 or 3 trips to Washington DC.  I can't believe Jared is starting Kindergarten so soon!  We stopped by his school last week to drop off a second proof of residency and after we did it Jared asked if we could go get his school supplies so we went ahead and did it. Why wait till it is super crowded?  He is so excited to go! I am still hoping to get preschool up and running. I only have one person signed up for sure and need at least 3 more! It is super stressful. I have no control over it and that is hard really hard.   I am not sure how to reach more people but am going to really try to brainstorm this week in between lake trips and UVA races!

Girls Camp (June 22- 26)

Our friend Liz Player (who Mark actually grew up with in Turlock!) was the camp director this year.  One day at church she asked Mark if he would be willing to go to Girls camp or if he thought I would be willing to go. At first I thought Mark should just go because I figured it was harder to find men who could be there all week but Liz said finding sisters for the whole week was actually harder so if I was willing to do it she would really appreciate it. I thought about it and decided to go. I have never worked with the Young Women and I hadn't been to camp since I was like 17 so I was pretty nervous.
I dutifully went to Orientation and found out that camp was really different from when I attended as a camper.  They have essentially shifted to "shadow leadership" which means that the Youth Camp leaders (YCL's they are 16 - 18 years old) were pretty much in charge.  We were to stand back and observe and step in or pull a YCL aside and give a suggestion when needed.  This made me feel much less nervous about.  They took care of certification, gave assignments and took the girls where they needed to be.  They ate with us and helped us cook and they did great devotionals with the girls each night.  That being said if I was to sum up how camp was to me I would say "boring".  The YCL's were in charge of so much that I felt like I just sort of sat around. It was really hard to not take charge to make sure things were done on time.  But it was good for me to work on not being controlling and letting other people step up.

I ended up being assigned to be a level 1 counselor with April Bean from the 2nd Ward. It was funny that both counselors names were April. I really don't meet that many April's so to be serving with one was kind of funny. She was super kind and helpful. A lot of people seemed to feel bad for me that I would be with the level 1 girls but we had an awesome group of girls.  There were 17 of them and we had lots of YCL's who did a great job. It was really nice to get to know some of the YW.  I did a great job getting rid of spiders at night and trying to not care that the campsite was pretty messy all week.  That was hard for me.  It was always so cluttered in our campsite.  There were about 10 "platform" tents, a fire pit and a large pavilion with 4 picnic tables. One of our tables was taken over for "love Notes" and people always left the supplies out on the table and on the ground, so annoying. We shared the campsite with level 3 and so it was hard to organize cooking stuff and get all 30 girls to put their stuff away.  It would have been super awesome if the campsites had running water but they did not.  We had to cook with dutch ovens a lot which made me really nervous as I am not used to cooking with them at all.  I would say setting up the campsite better the first day would have made me enjoy my week more. I hate clutter.  I was so busy trying to let the YCL's lead that I didn't do it the first day we were there and I should have. It all worked out but was hard.

Camp was held at a BSA campground, called William D Synder about 1 hour and 20 minutes away from Charlottesville.  We got some good rainstorms while we were there so I was so grateful the tents were on platforms.  One day there as a crazy thunderstorm right at the end of free time so a lot of girls were caught walking back from the pool.  I did not swim at all because it was a good 12 minute walk away and just didn't seem worth it to me. It was a pretense set up at camp though. The night before we were to leave it stared raining around midnight and continued all morning.  We had to pack out in the rain which was not fun but we all survived.  The first day of camp it was super hot! It was like 98 degrees with 100% humidity. It was so miserable. In some ways I think it helped the other hot days not feel so bad.

One cool and (not so cool) thing about using this campground was that they have a COPE course.  They have these cool leadership/teamwork activities the campers do one morning. It was not cool because the courses are surround by tall grass and tall grass means tons of ticks! I literally saw ticks crawling on girls and flicked them off. One girl counted 13 ticks on herself! So nasty.  The amount of ticks at camp as one thing that Iw as really worried about. I got some repellant called "Repel" which is 98% Deet and had no problems but boy was I paranoid. The activities we cool and the girls worked well together. The highlight was the "flying Squirrel".  A girl is put int a harness, she is the squirrel.  A group of 8 or so girls stand on one side of the rope with one man serving as anchor.  The "squirrel" in the harness faces one direction while the runners face the other.  The squirrel is attached to a long rope between 2 poles.  When the squirrel is ready the anchor yells "run squirrel run"  The two groups run opposite each other and when they are far enough away the squirrel is flung into the air. It was at least 20 feet up if not more. It was so fun.  All the girls loved it.

I am glad I went to camp. I would not jump at the chance to go again but would definitely go if they asked me.

The 2 April's on our level hike

House Tour

We moved into our new house June 13th.  Unpacking went pretty quick since I could not unpack our kitchen.  It is nice to be here and know we are staying here for the next 5+ years. I unpacked things that we never unpacked when we got here last summer knowing we would be moving very soon. Our new house has lots of storage which is so great. I love having places for everything.  It was good I could unpack quickly because the next week I left for Girls Camp. 

Here are the bedrooms. We have 3 rooms upstairs and 2 downstairs in the basement.  We made one a guest room and the other a storage room.  We put our food storage and some holiday decor in there.  We also put our second fridge there. I love having a second fridge I have always wanted one.  A family in our old ward got a new one and they were giving away their old one for free so we snatched it up. I love it! 

We have a master bath too but it is pretty dinky. It works but it quite small.  We wanted to do a frameless shower door instead of a curtain but there was not enough space.  The thing I miss most about our room is a walk in closet. We have 2 closets so we each get one but I do love walk in closets. Thankfully we have tons of other storage including an attic we have hardly used at all.

Jared went with a pirate/nautical theme.  The pennant banner has anchors on it and he picked out cute pirate bedding.  Mark did a great job installing this ceiling fan and 2 others.

Lydia went back and forth between pink and purple. I was happy when she picked purple. I wasn't sure if we would put her name letters back up but she insisted we put them up.  She picked out some bedding with owls which is cute. I really like the purple and aqua with the gray paint. She actually has 2 closets in her room.  I put her stuff in one and then used the other for all my seasonal decor.  Its great having it organized and easily accessible.

I took this picture right by our front door.  We got all new furniture for this room. I wasn't too concerned about the couches as I just wanted accent chairs they are my favorite. I even thought we could do 2 chairs and one couch but Mark wanted a love seat too which was fine. My favorite part of this room is the mantle. I love it and can't wait to decorate it throughout the year. I searched high and low for a perfect accent chair and am really happy with this one.  I also really like the colors we picked. I really stressed about this gray and thankfully it turned out perfect.

There is an exact same door that leads into the kitchen on the other side.  We also went pretty bold with our kitchen and dining room color. I love how it turned out.

Our kitchen turned out so well! We have a few small things to do like paint retouch, install the crown molding above the cabinets, put the baseboards back, and switch out the outlets. It was such a hassle to get it completed.  We got it painted and Mark did an awesome job on the tile but it took a long time to get the cabinets installed and even longer for the counters to be put in.  Living in a house without a functioning kitchen is no fun. We got our counters measured around June 10th but didn't get them installed until July 15th!  As we sat in the Charlottesville airport on June 30th we got a call saying they were ready to schedule our install. It was super frustrating but now they are in and we love them!  I love how it all turned out. 

From the dining room.

We hung up a white board and put all of our travel magnets on the wall and I love having it there. 

This is from the entry way, what you see from the front door. This faucet was a big deal. I really wanted a nice tall one like this and love how it turned out. 

Here is our basement. Its a great space. I really hope I can do my preschool here. We put our old furniture here (which is still in good shape) and it works great. 

 I love this room!  So much great storage. 

 Our not so exciting spare room. 

I didn't do many outdoor pictures but we got our hammock chairs today and love them! We tried them out at Mark's sister Susan's house last summer and vowed we would get some.  They are awesome. We also tried out our fire pit and will get lots of use out of it.  We are really happy with our new place and can't wait to make lots of memories here.

Heber Valley Camp

As part of the Spencer Family reunion we spent a night at the church's YW camp in Heber.  They have nice cabins/bathrooms and awesome kitchens.  They are full kitchens with running water and everything, just outdoors. We got there on the 03rd in the early afternoon.  We unloaded the cars and set up our beds then did some visiting and went on a little hike to the lake. This camp has a no shorts policy (one you leave your campsite) which caused me a lot of stress the morning we drove down because coming from Virginia I had neglected to pack any pants for Jared and Lydia. I know I recalled reading that you could not wear shorts but for some reason I just registered it as a rule for adults not little kids.  Fortunately there is a Wal-Mart in Heber (10 - 15 minutes away) and we figured that out before we checked in at the camp.  I felt so dumb that I didn't pack any. I blame it on that fact that I had already packed up our whole town home, unpacked everything at our new house, packed and unpacked from Girls camp and packed for this trip.  This has kind of been the summer of packing and I am really over it. So Mark stopped at the store and grabbed some jeans for each kid, crisis averted.
After the hike we had dinner and S'mores at the campfire.

 As things were winding down Jared came over and sat in my lap.  I was rubbing his back when I felt a bump that I had never felt before.  I looked down his shirt and sure enough he had a tick!  I was really surprised and disgusted and kind of irritated truthfully. Ever since living in Virginia I have been vigilant about checking my kids for ticks especially at our new house as there are areas with taller grass and our backyard is basically woods.  None of us has had a single tick here and we get to Utah and Jared gets one.  I whispered to Mark what I found and told him I was going to go ask the camp hosts what they recommended. Mark just held Jared on his lap.  I talked to the camp hosts and they said they take credit cards and swipe away from the head.  We were not comfortable with this idea at all. Mark had recently watched a youtube video about tick removal and he wanted a Q Tip to get it out.  Since we were camping I had not packed any but luckily his sister Susan had one in her car first aid kit.  By now everyone knew what was going on and wanted to see the tick which was less than helpful. Poor Jared. I was trying so hard to comfort Jared who was a total rock star about it and not burst into tears myself.  I sang songs to him and eventually people gave Mark some space. He slowly took the Q Tip and circled around the tick. The idea was that the tick would latch onto the fibers and pull out. At first nothing was happening.  Mark mentioned that on the video the Q Tip was damp. People suggested some essential oils so we went with some tea tree oil which turned out to be the worst thing to use.  Looking back on it Mark and I are really not sure why we didn't just get it wet we had bathrooms and kitchen sinks on site! After about 5 -7 minutes using the Q Tip the tick came out!! I was sitting in front of Jared and Mark flicked it off and it sailed right at me. That totally freaked me out as if I wasn't already freaked out!  I despise ticks and am super paranoid about them.  We were so relieved that the whole tick came out.  As Mark was almost done Jared started crying because the tea tree oil is super concentrated and was burning his skin.  The oil was the worst part about it!  It was such a sad thing.  Jared really did amazingly well.  It was such a relief to be done.  He got a terrible allergic reaction from the oil on skin had a rash all over his upper body.  Luckily someone had some Benadryl and it helped him.  It took 2 whole days for the rash to go away.  I couldn't believe that he ended up getting a tick in Utah when its a big deal out here. I am so grateful I found the tick, check yourselves all the time!!

The next day we had a big pancake breakfast and as we were finishing up the camp hosts/workers (about 75 senior missionary couples) held a 4th of July parade on their ATV's.  They decorated them patriotically and gave out tons of candy.  It was really cute.

One cool part of the camp is that they have a Challenge course.  We got to climb a pole and walk across a tight rope then zip line down.

I had never done anything like it before and never a zip line (except a week prior at girls camp and it wasn't nearly as cool as this) and I loved it.  Jared really wanted to try it out so we got him harnessed (after a major breakdown about not being able to wear the blue helmet because it was an adult size) and he started climbing up. He got about half way then decided he was done so the missionaries let him swing  instead and he loved it. I was proud of him for trying. When Mark asked Lydia if she wanted to try it she said "I will never go up there!" in her cute little voice but once she saw Jared swinging she and Jaselle who is 4 months older than Lydia decided they wanted to swing too. The missionaries were really cute with them. We also did a blindfold walk in the woods as a group.  We were blindfolded, told we could not talk to anyone, and guided to a string tied up between trees.  We had to try to find our way back by just feeling around.  The missionaries came and would whisper to us if we were going the wrong way to help us.  At first when I heard them I wondered if they were just trying to trick me but they were really trying to be helpful.  I ran into a few family members but we all made it back.  It was cool to apply it to life and think about what blindfolds us and what we let distract us. After the challenge course we ate lunch at camp and then went canoeing on the lake.

Canoeing was fun.  Jared and Lydia enjoyed it and it was nice to be out on the water.  You could not swim in the lake because there are leeches (also something I have always been paranoid about) but it was fun to go out. Mark was in charge of steering while I helped paddle. It was really tiring but great. I really have no upper arm strength! I was talking to one of the missionaries before we went out and found out that he actually served his mission in Charlottesville!  So crazy.  It is such a small world.
We headed back to camp and got everything packed up and cleaned.  Nobody really slept well in the cabins as the beds were hard and there were various people in them but we all had a good time.  It was fun to be together and try new things.