Life is Beautiful

Motherhood, Sewing, Family

camping

~ Etc.

We went camping for one night with our friends and their two kids.  Everyone was telling me how brave I was for going camping at 8 months pregnant, and I thought, what’s the big deal?  It won’t be so bad… but once we got there, WHAT WAS I THINKING? was what I was thinking throughout the trip.  Our group made quiet the pair with our friend having a leg boot and limping his every step while I’m on the side wobbling around with my giant belly.  

the farthest Achilles got in the water.  this boy hates getting wet!
I love eavesdropping on their conversations, little kids talk about the cutest things.

We had a ton of fun but it did take us a full day to recover. We decided that camping’s not worth it unless you go for at least 2 days with all the packing, setting up, planning and the time you put into it.  So I can’t wait to go camping a lot next Summer, especially with our little son!

Family camping.

~ Etc.

Last Friday morning, we went to go see the much anticipated movie, Brave.  It was really good, and the girls loved it too.  Then when we got in the car, we surprised the girls and told them that we were going camping, like right now!  Their response wasn’t as exciting as we expected(just like when we surprised them with a puppy last Christmas), but we think it’s because they’re still too little and it’s just too much for them to take at once.  That better be it or else it’s always going to be so anti-climatic when we surprise them!  But once it sank in, they did get really excited since they’ve been asking us to go camping for the last month or so.  
We had originally planned to go for one night but it was so much fun, we ended up staying for two nights.  And even after two nights of camping, the girls didn’t want to go home(they said they wanted to stay forever!), and Achilles absolutely loved it too, so I think it’s safe to say this won’t be the last camping we’ll do this summer.

indoor camping.

~ Etc.

one of our favorite things to do when it’s cold outside
 is to have an indoor camping.
we turn on the fireplace, take out our tent and sleeping bags 
and roast marshmallows by the fire.

we roasted the jumbo size marshmallows which is a fun idea
but it just takes too long!  we are not that patient when it comes to
roasting our marshmallows to that perfect, crispy brown. 🙂

girl’s camp part two

~ Etc.

day two/last day of camping with my girlfriends
(see day one post here.)
the hike was pretty intense.  many times the trail was only a few feet wide
and they had long chains on the side for you to hold on to.
on our drive back home.
the song girls just wanna have fun came on which called for side ponytails and dancing. 🙂

i love girlfriends.  i don’t think i can be a happy person without them.  i ache for their presence and get withdrawls if i don’t see them for a long time.  do i sound needy or what! 😀  my girlfriends are the people i admire, respect, and love dearly and they’re more like sisters to me.  they each have qualities i look up to and i think they’re just the bomb!  not to mention they’re my true friends, which are hard to find.
friends come and go but true friends will always stay next to you no matter what.  true friends aren’t jealous of your success or happiness but they genuinely rejoice with you along the way.  and cry with you through the difficult times.  true friends are honest with you and will tell you things they know you don’t want to hear but they tell you what you need to hear.  true friends don’t tear each other down just to be hurtful, or to make themselves feel better but give constructive criticism instead.  true friends aren’t afraid to be themselves because they know their friends will accept them just the way they are.  true friends give back just as much as they receive, emotionally, over time.  true friends you keep for the rest of your life.
i’m so, so grateful i have so many true friends in my life.  here’s to friendships! 🙂

girl’s camp part one.

~ Etc.

my girlfriends and i went camping at the zions national park for our girls’ trip.
have you ever heard of girls taking a girls’ trip to go camping?  us neither!
but somebody’s gotta be the first to do it and we had such a blast, i want to go again!
right when we got to the campsite, what’s the first thing we did?  EAT of course!
after we got our bodies fueled up, we went on a hike. 
we treaded water 90% of the time, and the water was FREEZING.
and there was a man right in front of us in his….um….undies? 
and my friend becky said to us, “hurry, sarah and janie!  go right behind that man
so i can take a picture! ”  so we tried to catch up to him and apparently janie was
a little too excited at the idea and went off running and tripped on a rock
and fell into the cold, freezing water.
see janie’s little feet on the right corner? 
my FAVORITE moment of the trip right here. 😉
and we conquered.
i think the girls were a little worried about me in the beginning of the hike
because if there was a big step to do down or something, not one, not two,
but three girls would be below me, reaching out their hands to help me get down
 or when the water was a little rough they thought i’d “get drifted away by the water”
and when one of my friends becky almost tripped before i grabbed her
and saved her life from the endless depths of the sea(you’re welcome) she said,
“whoa! who would’ve thought sarah would help me?” hahaha.
but to their surprise(and me too), they said i had stamina and i was
one of the ones leading everybody else in the end!
and i found my new favorite hobby: hiking.  i love it!