Camp Hobe

 Our kids had the fun and amazing opportunity to attend Camp Hobe again this year. They went last year for the first time. Last year the older four all went to Kids Week because they were within the age limits, but this year the age range changed so Daphne and Baron went to Kids Week together, Magnus went to Day Camp again (you have to be 6 years old to sleepover at Kids Week, so he will get to do that next year), and Jonah and Laylah were able to go to Teen Week. Oh my goodness, they all had just as much fun as they did last year. 

If you don't remember, Camp Hobe, is a camp for kids with cancer (either currently or in remission) and their siblings. It is a place for them to get away and be with other kids who completely understand the craziness that is cancer and the life that it brings along with it. They have so many special things that they do, but they are also there to just have FUN and be kids. The most incredible people volunteer their time to be counselors, CIT's, med shack volunteers, lifeguards, and cooks. Most, if not all of them, have had cancer touch their lives either by having had cancer as children themselves, or having a sibling with cancer. The medical professionals who take time off of work to come run the med shack and distribute meds (because kids who are currently battling cancer can attend with doctor permission as long as they are between chemo treatments) are often cancer unit nurses and doctors. It is just a one of a kind place. I have never felt the way I feel when I am there anywhere else. Everyone just GETS it. 

Daphne and Baron were the first to go and attend Kids Week. I took them a week after school got out bright and early on a Saturday morning. As soon as we pulled up and unloaded their stuff there was a counselor waiting and ready to get them laughing. 

I think she was telling them a hilarious joke here.

 Check-in is quite the ordeal, but they make it as smooth as possible.

 There is a facebook page for Camp Hobe and they update it all week with photos and happenings while the kids are gone. I screen shot this photo of Baron getting ready to ride the zipline.

After 5 days away it was time for them to come home and I went to the closing campfire to watch their last skit and check them out for another year.

 The theme this year was Hobelympics for the Olympic summer games, of course. Daphne's group was the sparkly seahorses from spain, or some crazy name like that.

 This is Baron's group. They were the German something-or-others. 

This is the very end when they sing the Camp Hobe song. It makes me cry every time. It's about holding memories close to you, especially the memories of people you love because they might not be there next year.

Daphne and her counselors

 Baron and his counselors

 They had such a fun week and can't wait to go back next year. Especially Daphne, because she will get to join Laylah and Jonah at Teen Week. And Magnus will get to join Bear at Kids Week!

 Magnus went to Day Camp two days in a row. Here he is with Ty, another little boy in our neighborhood who had cancer, but is also in remission.

 It must have been a great first day! His cute teddy there has a t-shirt on that says, 'Cancer Sucks'. Yes it does!

Here he is on the second day with his counselors and his whole group.

 On the way home the second day, proudly wearing his medals around his neck. He had so much fun and keeps saying, "And next year I will get to sleep over!"

Finally it was Teen Week and Laylah and Jonah got to have their turn. That is Zoey on the right, she is Ty's older sister (the one in the photo up there next to Mag)

 They were so excited for teen week because the teens have a lot more freedom in choosing their activities. They also get to learn to scuba dive and they get a hypnotist show!

Bye mom!

After a week without my big kids I went to pick them up and literally could not get laylah to leave. She just wanted me to follow her around and take photo after photo of her with her new friends and all of her amazing counselors. 

 She has a huge crush on that boy on the right.

Jonah just loved his counselors as well.

This is Smelliot. Elliot, really. He is everyone's FAVORITE and all the kids were so jealous that Jonah got him as a counselor.

 

JOnah made a new friend, Brendan. They were buddies in their cabin.

The older kids also do some way cooler crafts than the younger kids.

 These are Laylah's and below are Jonah's.

 So that was it for Camp Hobe this year. The kids could not love it more and they will be sad when they can't attend any more. The rule is that they can go for 3 years after the cancer kid finishes treatment, so next year is the last year they can attend barring any unforeseen circumstances. Laylah and jonah are already talking about wanting to be counselors there when they are older, and I think that would be just awesome. 

thank you, Camp Hobe, we love you!

Last Day of School!

 School's been out now for nearly a month! What?! It's flown by! We had an incredible last day of school full the the brim of celebrations. It also happened to be National Donut Day, so that was pretty cool, too ;)

 These cute kid on their last day of school! Laylah actually skipped out on the last day and went to breakfast with friends instead. Quick crazy story-- I got an email from the principal of her junior high a few weeks before school got out. They had found out about the threat of a shooting planned for the last day of school by a former student. They obviously caught the kid who was planning it, but they put high security measures into place for the remainder of the year such as metal detectors at the entrance, more officers on campus, and no backpacks for the rest of the year. It was pretty scary. But, we decided not to have her go on the last day just because it still made me a bit nervous. So that's why she skipped out. But the other kids went and they always have the most fun award's/last day of school assembly. 

Jonah got a Safety Patrol Award as well as a special award from his teacher (that I forgot to take a photo of)

And Baron got the Reader of the Year Award as well as the Clove Award. The Clove Award is very prestigious and only one child per grade receives it. It is an all around award for academics, attitude, and general achievement. I was so dang proud of my Bear. He received a gift card that went along with it, too!

 Daphne got the Reader of the Year Award last year, so even though her teacher said she is definitely the best reader, she felt like she should give it to another child this year. But I thought Daphne definitely deserved it! This is Daphne with Mrs. Van Beekum.

 Cute Bear and Mrs. Maughan.

I had already taken a photo of Jonah with his teacher at his promotion, hence no picture of Jonah with Ms. Peck.

After the fun awards assembly Laylah, Magnus, and I went and picked up donuts for an after school treat.

 Mag was pretty tired after our fun morning!

One of Jonah's friends' mom's sent me this cute photo of these fun friends after school on the last day. I'm really happy that most of them are going to the same jr. high together, but a few of them will be going to the other one across town (the one that we are SUPPOSED to go to)

After school got out we decided to fore-go our traditional homemade treat lunch for Leatherby's with 50 of our closest friends! Haha. Seriously, though. There were soooo many kids there. Basically our whole neighborhood came and it was a blast. We had two of these super long table set-ups with about 25 people at each table.

After a crazy and chaotic lunch/ice cream at Leatherby's we went swimming at the Smith's house who just got a new pool.  The kids had a blast and the mom's talked about our summer plans.

Afterwards, Andy and I got takeout for dinner and then we headed over tot eh Heath's house for s'mores and games. There was a huge soccer game of kids vs adults and it was hilarious. It was such a great night with friends.

So, as you can see it was a terrific last day of school with accompanying festivities. 

 

 I cannot say enough how much I just love this neighborhood, my friends, their kids who are my kid's friends, the schools, and this city. I love my life here in Murray so, so much!

Summer Lovin'

We have been so busy over here loving on summer that I haven't even thought about my blog. But it's time for a little update, even though we are usually dog tired from play, play, playing all day long.

Exhibit A:

Ha! (Don't worry, I asked permission. You have to do that as your kids gets older, so I've learned ;)

So far, since summer has gotten out, all 5 kids have been to Camp Hobe (a camp for cancer kids and their siblings), Laylah has been to dance camp, and Daphne and Jonah have started summer soccer practices. Magnus and Baron just like to play, play, play, and we will be signing up Baron for tackle football next month, and then he'll start practice as well. I still have 'sign up Magnus for swimming lessons' on my to-do list. I just haven't yet gotten around to it. 

So far we have been swimming, gone to the movies, done lots of de-junking (with LOTS more to do! Why is that always the case?!), packed, unpacked, done laundry, and packed again. I'll be doing more of that tonight as we send Jonah off to his first ever Boy Scout camp. He'll be gone for a week and I will miss him! He just got home Friday afternoon from a week away at cancer camp. I feel like all summer long, each weekend, I will be packing up one kid or another for some camp or another. Or, packing our family up for a trip. We leave for Lake Powell in a week and I am SO excited! We all are. We adore Lake Powell. 

I can hardly believe it is July next week and that summer will be half over. It's flying by and I am not ready to go back to school yet. So we are definitely making the most of the time that we have!

Until next time!

May Tid Bits

 Oh wow, even though this is just a Tid Bits post, May was SO busy and so many things went on and looking through all of this makes me tired all over again. But, it was a great month with lots of fun and exciting things (all of the big things of which I have already posted about) and I also decided that maybe I take too many photos. I don't like leaving stuff out though, so here we go!

Magnus is obsessed with his two blankies. He was chilly one morning and we wrapped him up snug as a bug.

 My sister Rachel blessed her newest baby (#6!!) and I couldn't stop kissing him. He didn't love that so much.

 Doug was tired, haha.

And these three nephews of mine were so cute huddled around this phone playing games. Also, don't take pictures in church, it's naughty.

I have been trying SO hard to eat healthy. This is one of my favorites.Avocado toast with a fried egg on top.

And of course, Go Grey in May for Brain Cancer Awareness Month. I organized our Mighty Magnus and In Loving Memory of Lisa team for the brain cancer run on Memorial Day.

I went on a fun field trip to Butterfield Farms with Baron. We learned so many things about a real working farm.

Learned to lasso a cow.

Saw lots of farm animals.

And there was this tiny replica of a fire truck! It was SO cute!

We had to leave the field trip a little early to head to the airport to see our Aunt Terra who came home from her mission! She was such a wonderful missionary, and I loved reading her weekly letters, but I am really glad she is home. We missed her!

 The WHOLE huge Collette fam.

Jonah got some new glasses. I love them. They fit him so well.

My little Daphne girl finished reading the Book of Mormon. I am so proud of her and as a reward I am going to take her on a little trip to the Manti Pageant this month. There she will learn all about Joseph Smith and the translation of the Book of Mormon. I am really excited. 

I always hang my bra up on the back of my door. Somehow Sadie got stuck on it and tried to walk out of my room and couldn't. The kids called me up to look at her and we were all laughing so hard!

Just lounging around while mom shops at our favorite store. 

Hazards of training for a half marathon. Sometimes I get bloody toes.

Laylah was so great to earn over $100 by selling cookies to neighbors and family so she could help pay for Oakcrest girl's camp. I was really proud of her!

Just another date night in our favorite store! Haha.

Mother's Day! It is always such a wonderful day. Andy is the best and always helps the kids get me a wonderful gift and nice cards. Plus they make me their awesome homemade gifts that I love and that war my heart. I mean, I wouldn't say no to diamonds, but this is second best ;) They always make me yummy breakfast and let me rest all day. Church was wonderful and we got super yummy sugar cookies in relief society and little chocolates from the primary kids. We went to Andy's parent's ward because Terra did her Homecoming report that day. We had dinner with his family and then went and saw my mom. I love both mine and Andy's moms as well as our grandmothers so much. We are so lucky to have such amazing mother's and examples in our lives!

I love being a mom to these amazing little children that I love so much!

We came home from visiting our mothers to a decapitated pigeon on our front lawn. Yuck. 

 Andy was able to take Magnus to use his gift from his birthday for Leatherby's. Magnus was so excited to get chicken fingers and ice cream :)

Another amazing healthy post-workout meal. I LOVE salmon. 

Baron was VIP in his class near the middle of the month and it about killed me to do this poster when school was almost out. I was checked out mentally for the rest of the year! But we got it done. He brought something every day to tell all about him. This poster, a ME bag of things he loves, his favorite treat, his favorite book, and one more thing I can't remember. It was a successful VIP week for Bear. 

 Awww, love my cuddly Sadie girl.

 I got my final grades in mid-May and found that I had gotten a 4.0! Exciting, especially since it was my last semester and I am officially graduated from SLCC and have my Associate's Degree! So exciting. I think I'll get my diploma in the mail in a few months.

I was able tot take Daphne to this fun Activity Days Mother/daughter date down-town to the tabernacle. We learned SO much! It was really a very interesting and fun activity.

In the MOTAB women's changing room.

This is the music room. Did you know the MOTAB has about 1 million pieces of music in that room?! Crazy. 

This is the Men's MOTAB changing room.

I thought this was so hysterical. In the men's changing room they have to write down what they are supposed to wear that day, along with a dummy model showing them what to wear. And the guy giving our tour said even after all that, they will STILL get men dressed in the wrong thing!

 After our tabernacle tour we were able to go listen to the bell choir practice. It was amazing and beautiful.

Cute Mag got to go to his girlfriend Braylie's birthday party to the zoo. These are most of the kids in his preschool class and they are all so darling. 

 I helped out at Daphne's zoo field trip. It was hot and I have gone on this field trip with various kids over the last 4 years. It is not may fave, but I love spending time with my Daphne girl.

 We were even on the news!

 I just love our neighborhood full of kids. They are all such good friends and always include everyone. I love it. I love these kids.

I had an awesome girl's day out right when I needed it. We went paddleboaring (my first time!) and we had SO much fun. Oh goodness, I loved it. We also went to lunch afterwards at an incredible burger place and oh my goodness, it was SO delish.

Date night on my man's motorcycle. I love it. Sometimes we don't wear helmets. Don't be dumb like us. 

This cutie is growing up so much. She was called and set apart to be the Beehive President of her class. I am so proud of her. 

I've slowly been going back blonde. While I loved my melt, I just love my hair when it is really blonde. I'll be going more and more blonde in the future. 

Bear had his last soccer game and since he didn't try out for the comp team again, he will be having a break for awhile. He had such a great year and a great coach (Coach Keltsey) who gave him a cute little goody bag as a goodbye. He got the Best Defender Award.

Since I had graduated from SLCC, my mom took me to lunch to celebrate and to get me a graduation gift. We went to Macaroni Grill and I chose new running shoes. They are SO nice and I love them! I always forget to get a photo with my mom because I am always running my mouth the whole time (do you do that when you have your mom's undivided attention?!) and forget. But I snapped this photo of her in her darling little convertible as she drove away. My mom is so giving and fun and I love her.

Daphne's last game of the season also happened. She did awesome. She tried out for comp again and made the black team this year. This will be the first year she hasn't played up an age division and will be with girl's her own age. She is going to be awesome.

 Jai Dee has been her coach for the last 3 years, but she is moving to another soccer club which is part of the reason why Daphne didn't try out for the older age group. We will miss her. She has been amazing and Daphne has blossomed under her tutelage.

This was a common scene at 8 o'clock at night. Dinner time. May was so crazy and we generally don't eat until 7 or so anyway, but in May it seemed like we were finally eating after such busy days around 8 PM. Phew! I'm glad we are back to an earlier schedule now!

 Magnus had his final field trip with preschool to the farm where we looked at all of the animals, went on a train ride, and had a picnic lunch by the playground. There were tons of baby animals and it was a lot of fun. Especially because I am friends with all of his preschool friend's moms, haha. It was a fun day.

 Jonah is turning TWELVE in a month and has already been earning merit badges! Crazy. We were able to go to his first Court of Honor and I was pinned by him with some of the things he had earned and presented with some of his achievements.

 Baron had about 20 field trips at the end of the year. Asher's mom sent me this one that she chaperoned at the Planetarium.

Green smoothie. Yum.

 This is the conference I went to after my half-marathon I ran with my friends. It was a genetic counseling camp. I learned so much and got so much good information for when I apply to the program in a year and a half. I am super excited. It really got me excited for my future.

And I just had to document the beautiful day that it was later after that horrible half marathon weather. So silly. This was right after the camp ended and i was walking to trax to go home after such a long day. This is when I noticed my foot hurting SO badly.

 And this is Andy and I in the car. I was taking him to the airport for his first week of training at his NEW JOB! He had interviewed with this company for a few weeks and a few days before this they had offered him the job. They are based in California, but he will be a regional sales manager for our area and he works from home. It has been great so far and I pray it will be great for him and that he loves it.

 My foot pain had calmed down a bit, so I decided to run the Monday after my race in my awesome new shoes from my mom. Unfortunately, I was in immense pain halfway through my 5 mile run and I walk/ran the last 2 miles home. It was awful.

Another yummy snack idea.

Lovin' my blonder hair!

Laylah showing off her dance skills.

Laylah had her end-of-year monster choir concert and it was SO much fun. She had a rap solo, a dance part, and because she is the vice-president of her class, a speaking part. It was very entertaining and fun.

 Grandma Claudia and Papa Bry

 Laylah and Liberty. I took these cuties out for ice cream afterwards.

Bear had his first pack meeting since turning 8 years old, and poor kid doesn't even have a scout shirt yet! I still need to get him one. None the less, they still won the trophy that night for best dressed, thanks to his two buddies up there. 

Magnus had his last day of preschool before graduation at Miss Karen's house!

With Andy gone and my foot killing me and not able to tolerate standing for long, my house quickly turned into this huge mess you see before you.

Thankful for good friends who bring me treats though!

 The kid's elementary school had their end of year reading awards and all of my kids got awards. So proud! Jonah is below in blue.

Baron had the most points for his entire grade.

 And my cute little Daphne had the second to most points in the entire school. Go Daph!

I finally went and saw my foot doc and was told to wear this:

 Stupid! I hate this dumb boot. But it does make my foot feel better. 

Jonah had his end-of-year soccer party. He had such a great team and coach this year, Coach David. We will miss most of these boys as not many of them tried out again. Jonah tried out for several different clubs this year and ultimately chose to go with Murray Max again. He made the orange team and we are proud of him.

 The kid's school had it's annual Fun Run. I had my boot so I couldn't run, but I walked a mile with Magnus.

 Jonah and all his buddies ran it super fast.

Daph and Bear raced in together and were neck and neck! Daphne won.

 Kids and friends and cousins.

Love my kiddos!

 After the Fun Run was Magnus' preschool graduation, so I just checked all of the kids out of school so they could attend and cheer him on since Andy was out of town, Grandma and Grandpa Collette were out of town, and Grandma Claudia was at work. He needed a cheering section! After his graduation we went to get lunch, donuts, and went to the park along with some other kids from his preschool.  We had a little scary experience when a cute little girl from M's preschool class fell off of the monkey bars and broke her arm as well as dislocated her elbow. She ended up needing surgery that night for a pin. I felt terrible for her. But we went and saw her the next day to take her some treats and she seemed to be in good spirits. 

Also, Daphne and Jonah participated in a little soccer tournament and I forgot to take photos. It was a 4 on 4 and they assigned you a team. It was a fun experience for them. I think :)

Andy and I have the greatest friends and we had some fun date nights in May. One was Frisbee golf at the park and sushi afterwards, followed by a movie at Julie and Trent's house. The boys accidentally threw a Frisbee in the canal and got in to try and find it. They didn't find theirs, but they found another one! It had a phone number on it, so we texted the guy and left his Frisbee at the park for him to find. Good deed for the day ;)

Magnus lost his first tooth and had his first visit from the tooth fairy! This is the earliest I think that I have had a child lose a tooth. More proof that my kids are growing up :(

 On the last day of May (same day as Jonah's Promotion), I practically lived at the school that day. Baron had a power point presentation on Nebulae and he did such a great job! It was very fun to watch him. He is so smart and knowledgeable.

 An hour later on that same day Daphne had a pioneer fair. They had to work in assigned partnerships and dress as pioneers and share what they had learned about them. She was so cute with her own power point presentation and did a great job explaining the things they had studied about pioneers.

Daphne and her partner.

So that was our crazy, busy May! Along with all of the other huge events I have blogged about that happened in May. It was a good one, but I was glad when it was over and summer break could start, woo hoo!