Utah Food Bank

"For I was hungry, and ye gave me meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink..." 

Matthew 25:35

A while back I read reading something on fb and something changed within my heart.Being a mother is no easy role. It's not easy to teach my kids life lessons, school lessons, home lessons, and work lessons. But I need to make certain choices on how I want my kids to walk as adults. 

So I want to teach my kids how to walk with the Lord. How to be honorable. To be honest. Love to learn. Hold a charitable heart. Assume the good and doubt the bad in people. 

But these lessons can't be taught from just talking. I need to put these words into motion. So I looked around how how my kids can help those in need. Most shelters/services/charities have age requirements. But that didn't stop me. I found out on the Utah Food Bank that my kids and I can deliver boxes of food to people. To the people who need it but can't get to the food bank.

We signed up and fell in love with the spirit that this service brings. 

 In the 1 hour it takes to pick up the boxes from the food bank and then deliver I seen my kids (and myself too) attitudes change, energy increase, joy fill our spirits. They were so excited to see if the person was home so they could give all the yummy goodness to them. 

We signed up to do this once a month for the next 6 months. 

I also found out this fact. That the food banks are in need of fresh produce and perishable items. It never accord to me that all the food that drives collect are canned/non perishable foods. So to have a fresh tomatoes or banana I never thought about others not having access to this. 
So I signed up with the Utah Food Bank's program The Green Urban Lunchbox.
This is a group where locals sign up to be drop off stops. Each drop off site collects the produce, weighs it, then takes it to the designated food bank in the area. 

I am the only drop off site in my county. :( It's sad but at least there is 1 now. 

The Bountiful Pantry is my designated food drop off.
This is me after dropping off 108lbs of produce at 8am. I'm super tired but SUPER joyful that people, strangers, are caring about other's so much to drop off produce.

One week I got this at my door. This photo card was attached to a 16lb bag of produce. It's such a wonderful way to honor someone by helping someone else.

My kids have grown so excited about this project. They are always looking in our food bank box to see if there's any donation. They are excited to hand the bags off to the pantry workers. They are excited to go grocery shopping since it means they can pick a few things out for the pantry. I'm so happy we can do this as a family. I'm thankful for the prompting which lead us to finding ways to service others. 

Daddy Daughter Camp Out

Mike, Lily, and Ducati headed up to Camp Woodland for our ward's Daddy Daughter Camp Out. This is their first year attending. Our girls were so excited to go have some alone time with their favorite fella. Me on the other hand- I was bored out of my mind. So I binged watched Limitless until everyone came home.( I missed the noise)

But when everyone came home I heard stories of camp fires, s'mores, climbing trees, walking by a stream, playing games, coloring rocks, hiking under trees, seeing our neighbors, cuddling (smashing) dad on the air mattress, cooking hotdogs, eating pancakes, and so much more. 

They look like friends ♥

Ducati was pretending the camp chair footstool as her TV. She missed her shows! 

They came home to happy and feeling loved. Mike enjoyed his quality time with his daughters. I'm so happy they did this. They are already looking forward to next years camp out. 

Bear Lake

For our one last Hoo-Rah of summer we went to Bear Lake for a few days. 

We haven't been here in a couple of years so everything was all new to us. 

We camped at Bear Lake Hot Springs.

This place is small. Camp neighbors are close to us. Camp fee is cheap. There's only potta-john's. The store is expensive so we tried not to forget anything. The pools are pricey and small. Our reservations got jumbled and we had to move camp sites twice. 

But after all that this is our favorite place to be. 

Because we had to move camp sites twice the staff gave us a 1 day pass to their pools so we took advantage of them after we set up.

 I love my weirdo bunch! ♥

Hand stands in the pool and throwing kids is what my husband does while on vacation.

Yup that's Mike under water holding his breathe. He wanted to break his record of 1 minute 38 seconds.

While camping this was my first time making tin foil meals. I do believe my camp cooking skills have improved over the years. Tonights dinner chili cheese fries. Yummo!!

The next couple of days consisted of camping is sort of a blur. It was so relaxing. Our usual get-aways require us to be on full speed. Drinking energy drinks from morning to late evening. Even giving our kids a Redbull to keep them going. This time we just relaxed. Woke up to birds chirping. Watched sunrises and sunsets. Got sand in our toes. We were just... chill!


A few of Lily and Ducati's fave spots to stand and sit. And yes, they named each spot.

 "Tentee"

 "Cave-y"

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"Stool-ie"

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 "Stump-ie"
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 "Big Tree"

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"Rock-ie"
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But to camp at a lake front place means we went to the lake A LOT!
That's fine with us. We froze a little but that just adds character to our personalities.

Here we are 9am and I'm freezing my cookies off. No amount of leggings, hoodies, blanket, or direct sunlight could warm me up. Brrr!!But our kids.... they didn't feel a thing. They wanted me to splash around in the water with them. Sorry kiddos- No way! I waited until 1pm when the sun was right above us and the water was warm.

Mike totally fell asleep in his chair in the lake. It was so adorable!

This place is absolutely beautiful! Next years goal is the come in the middle of summer when we're sweating at 9am instead. (haha).

But camping with my family lead to some funny moments.

 Our Ducati looking so cool in her shades. She cracks me up!

 Me and my guy. I love him so much!

This owl coming over every night. Our girls just watched him. Mike would get bored and pull out his laser pen. The owl would chase it around the tree branch and it's feathers which just amused everyone more which lead to staring at it longer.

Me wanting to not cook again on our vacation so we headed into town for the most expensive fast food meal we've eaten to date. La Beau's might be famous but they are expensive.

Ducati's invention on how to eat a corn dog without dirtying her hands.

  Mike and Hailey enjoying their expensive burgers.

  My crazy kids. I love this bunch so much!

This trip was not well planned. We forgot towels, spent way more money that we planned, got tons of bug bites, lost a bag of food which had groceries inside, and forgot to pack warm pj's and pants.

But this trip was exactly what we needed to feel centered again. To regain our family unity. To get connected before the school year starts again. We're all so thankful for these peaceful moments we can reflect on later.