Attempted Camping Trip Numero Uno

We attempted a camping trip up the mountain with Jeff, Nicole, and Sydney Cornelius over the 4th of July weekend.  The trip started out great...

Dax highly enjoyed running around the hill, chasing Sydney all over the place yelling "Simmee!  Simmee!"

Robbie enjoyed being manly with his knives. 

Dax was TERRIFIED of Rio the dog for, oh....about three minutes.  Then, he followed Rio around, trying to pet him the rest of the time.  He especially liked to try to capture Rio's tail.

...and bond with Rio by laying on his comfy (and super-clean) bed.  I was super-proud.

Unfortunately, when bedtime came, Dax didn't like the idea of actually going to sleep.  Being in a camper next to mommy and daddy with "Simmee" in the room also was a little too much for him to sort through, and he eventually got taken to the car in the middle of the night to try to get him to calm down.  After watching Toy Story 2 TWICE, and noticing that it was then nearly 5 am....I went back into the camper and told Robbie we needed to go. 

As much fun as we would have had the next day WITH sleep....we figured that a nearly-two-year-old with ZERO sleep, a pregnant mommy with ZERO sleep, and a daddy with only a couple of hours of sleep wouldn't be very good company....even with understanding friends. 

So....we packed up and headed home. 

In true Dax fashion, he continued to talk to us until we were within 5 minutes of our house, at which point he finally closed his eyes and conked out. 

We did enjoy the sunrise, however! 

Hopefully, next time we try camping, we'll have a place for him to hang out and fall asleep all by his little lonesome.  That way, maybe we would enjoy the next day!

Simple, Yet Profound, Tender Mercies

I have a ridiculous amount of things to catch up on (blogging about Summer included), but many will have to wait...at least until I can get this one down.

Yesterday (Sunday) was quite a tender mercy.  First of all, being able to serve in Young Womens is a blessing in and of itself.  I learn so much and am so humbled by those little teenage turds that I sit in awe of them often!

Yesterday I was to teach a lesson on The Importance of Life and Procreation.  Slightly daunting, but not that big of a deal.  When it came time for YW to begin, my great friend Nicole (who was to teach the Mia Maids) approached me with the thought to combine the Laurels and Mia Maids (there was only 1 MM there that day, and though she's the youngest one, she's also more mature than most of the Laurels) and to team-teach.

Sounded good to me!

The gravity of the lesson started to exhibit itself shortly afterward.  Nicole is one of those people who you can't help but love.  She's fabulous at EVERYTHING.  She's beautiful, talented, super-spiritual, nice to everyone, funny, lets me be ridiculous and immature, and a fantastic mother.  Problem is, she's never been blessed with the ability to carry a child.  She currently has a darling three-year-old whom they were able to adopt, but since, have been unlucky in the adoption world, though hoping desperately to add more to their family asap.

So here I am, nearly eight months pregnant, about to teach a bunch of teenage girls that one of their most divine roles in life is to bring children into the world.  With someone who had never done so.

The Spirit was incredibly strong as we were able to share our different, yet so very similar, stories about the importance of motherhood and how these girls are Heavenly Father's greatest creation.  We all cried at some point, but I am certain that those precious daughters of Heavenly Father will not soon forget the lesson that they learned that day.

I hope to not forget.

Hence the post.

On a related note, Nicole and her husband were selected a few hours later by a birth family to adopt a sweet baby girl in just three short weeks.

I am still in awe.