Snow Trip with the YW

For the last several years, Matt has taken the scouts up to the Palmer cabin for a snow "campout."  Not sure you can really call it that since it's more like a "sleeping-warm-and-snuggly-in-the-cabin-and-playing-in-the-snow" outing.  Anyway.....  The young women were jealous and wanted to do a snow trip too, so I got to accompany Matt up to the cabin for an overnight trip with the YW.  We brought Hayden with since she's still attached. ;)  Matt's parents kept the other four kiddos for us.

We got up there Friday evening and once everyone got settled in and claimed a sleeping spot, they held a devotional and testimony meeting.  I headed off to bed and Matt followed soon after.  Some of the leaders and girls stayed up until 2am!

The next morning, the leaders cooked up breakfast and then we all got ready to play in some snow.  There was just patchy stuff by the cabin so we drove up the mountain a ways.

Oh, I forgot to mention, it was RAINING.  But that didn't stop these girls, they still wanted to play in the snow!  We finally found a good place where they could sled, build snowmen and have snowball fights.

One DeWitt twin building a snowman^, the other throwing a snowball at Sister Brown.

 This was Hayden's first time being in or touching the snow.

 I had fun taking pictures of the girls, but my lens kept getting wet from the rain and fogging up a bit.

Madison Brown

Kennedy McLeod

Afton Jensen

Sis Sorenson - YW pres

Matt catching some air

After Hayden's hands were sufficiently frozen, she & I headed back to warm up in the car with the heater blasting until everyone else was done.

Wearing daddy's big wool socks

We stopped by the cabin so everyone could change into dry clothes and then headed back down to the valley.  This is a picture of all the YW and leaders that came on the trip.  We missed those who couldn't come!

Gavin's 7th birthday + party

Gavin's birthday fell on a Sunday this year so it was pretty low key.  We had planned to have a birthday party so I didn't feel too bad. ;)

He asked for chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast so that's what he got!  We went to church in the afternoon and he got a treat bag from Primary and another treat from his teacher.  We headed over to my parents' house to celebrate both Gavin and Heston's birthdays.  We gave Gavin Pokemon Black 2 for his DS, Pokemon card, Skylanders Giants for the Wii and a Lego Chima set.

I brought lunch to school for him on Monday, since his birthday fell on a weekend.  Gavin chose a Happy Meal from McDonalds, of course!

The following Saturday was Gavin's birthday party!  He wanted an Angry Birds themed party so I went with it!  Nearly every day, I'm thankful for the internet and the wealth of info shared there!  It wasn't hard to find ideas since Angry Birds is so popular these days!

{these guys graced the center of the table}

{fun angry bird & pig balloons, white one wasn't cooperating}

He had five of his little friends from Primary come to his party.  We started off by coloring and making our own party hats.

Joshua Thornes, Carson Carrasco, Gavin, Spencer Palmer, Treyson McLeod, Alec Painter

When everyone was finished, we played pin the tail feathers on the Red Bird.  Brooklyn led this one.

Then, for the MAIN event, we headed outside to play a LIFE SIZE GAME of Angry Birds!!!!  Thankfully this was soon after Christmas and since I ordered a ton of things online, I had a gazillion boxes that worked out perfectly for this!  I found some Pig plushes that we set in the little fortresses and the boys went to town, trying to knock down the boxes with a big red ball.  Once it was completely demolished, they built it up again and again and again!

(pay no attention to the boy in the background picking his nose....)

Next, it was time for the piñata!  We let everyone get a few whacks at it while blindfolded, then Gavin got to beat it open.

Finally, we did cupcakes with ice cream and then Gavin got to open gifts from his friends.  The cupcakes were a lot of work but I was SO happy with the way they turned out!!  And poor Gav, I forgot he doesn't like frosting on his cupcakes and neglected to leave him one unfrosted so he didn't even EAT one!

 Everyone got a little treat bag to take home with an Angry Bird plush, some Angry Birds graham crackers and red & yellow gumballs~

Once everyone had gone home, I got a sweet hug from Gavin and a, "You're the best mom!"  Makes all the stress of party planning worth it!


Gavin's 7 yr interview~
What's your favorite color?  green
What's your favorite toy?  Pokemon cards
What's your favorite breakfast?  Pancakes
What's your favorite dinner?  Stroganoff Sandwich
What's your favorite tv show?  Pokemon
What's your favorite movie?  Wreck-it Ralph
What's your favorite book?  Skippyjon Jones
What's your favorite animal?  Monkey
What's your favorite song?  Never Say Never (Justin Bieber)
What's your favorite game? ??
What's your favorite sport?  Baseball
What's your favorite snack?  Pudding
What's your favorite drink?  Chocolate milk
What's your favorite holiday?  Christmas
Who's your best friend?  Spencer [Palmer]
What do you want to be when you grow up?  Lego designer
What's your favorite candy?  Chocolate


7 year stats:
Weight- 46.2 lbs (24th %ile)
Height- 47.75 in (46 %ile)