All Clean

I recently added "activity days" to my list of callings -- we plan activities for 8-11 year old girls twice a month. The first activity of the month we all meet together, but the second one we break off into two groups. I get to do the younger girls, which is good because a few of those older girls were LOUD. I am also the girls camp assistant leader for this year, and the leader is also one of the other activity day leaders. I hope she doesn't get sick of me. We are trying to do some "beach" theme, to go along with the yearly theme of "Embarking in the service of God" -- and we're not getting condos (drats!), so if you have any ideas of beachy things we can do pass them along!

Charity Lighten is our stake young women's president, and she runs a website with lots of good recipes. She was doing a giveaway on instagram one day for a 3-day juice cleanse, which I happened to win. I wanted to do it right at the start of the new year, but the owners of the place were opening up a new store, and I kind of got lost in the shuffle. But I finally got my prize:

For three days I drank those 18 bottles of juice -- and nothing else. It was awesome! I think I could do that everyday. The best part was just knowing that I didn't put a single bad thing in my body. It's been a little bit of a challenge, but doing the cleanse has helped me to avoid sugar and cheese (my biggest downfall) since.

The Stephens invited us to go out to dinner at Pizza Pie Cafe with them, and then go see Woods Cross High perform "Mary Poppins." It was such a fun night, and the girls got to spend it with their friends. But the best part is they are also vegetarians, but Kellie is lucky enough to have a disdain for cheese. She's not vegan, just never liked cheese. She fits in the same category as my brothers who don't like chocolate. So, we go to this pizza place and I always have to put in a special order for a veggie pizza, then it dawned on me that Kellie would have to order one without cheese. So I asked her if that's what she got, thinking I might be able to snag a piece. Her husband actually had the last piece, but he was generous to let me have it. And I am so thankful he did, because it was delicious! And now I knew I could possibly give up cheese. This was the Saturday right before I started my cleanse. So, during my cleanse I was able to think about all the things I could still have, but just leave the cheese off. And that's what I have done. I've had a grilled cheese sandwich - with no cheese, and I found a vegan lasagna recipe that wasn't too bad. I still don't want to give up my eggplant lasagna, but we'll see if I can't tweak that one as well.

On the last day of my cleanse we got to take Sophie to an Oakcrest Camp Kickoff. It's a special girls camp for 7th graders only. Chloe chose not to go last year, but Sophie is much more social and really excited about it. We went and got her signed up for it, and our YW stake president just happened to be there, so I went and told her how great the cleanse was going. She suggested to me that I save the bottles (which I had), and then just copy the ingredients list to make my own at home. I thought that was smart, so I still have those 18 bottles laying around. I may have to make this a regular thing.

I had signed Sophie and I up to go see "Swan Lake" at the Capitol Theater, but I did a terrible job of planning. I kept ending up on streets that were one-way when I needed to turn the other way. It took me way longer to get there than I had planned, so we missed it. I felt bad, but Sophie seemed OK about it. But then when we got home she let Brandon know how upset she was. Then a few days later someone had tickets to "The Crucible" at Pioneer Theater -- just happened to be 3 of them -- so I took both girls to go see that. I planned way ahead, and even though parking at the U is a giant pain, we were still able to get there in plenty of time. And that play was soooo good. I loved the play when we read it in my 11th grade english class, but this was much more real. If I had to choose between "The Crucible" and "Swan Lake" I'm so glad I got to see "The Crucible!"

We squoze in another trip to Salt Lake to go to RootsTech. Last year just Chloe and I went, but this year Sophie accompanied us. They obviously don't love family history as much as I do, but when they put Studio C and David Archuleta on the program my girls are happy to come long. We didn't get to meet Studio C or David, because they cut the line off before we got there, so the only picture I got was outside the Salt Palace.

Lark moved in with us for a while. I guess California isn't as awesome as we are, so she came running back to us. The girls are in heaven having her stay with us while she looks for a place of her own. I think it will be hard for them when she moves out, but at least she'll live closer to us than she ever has before.

Last Saturday we got the privilege of cleaning the church again. It was a rare Saturday when we didn't have much to do, so Brandon decided we should have another family party. Chloe actually was in charge this time, but she wanted to do something not in line with our expectations for a family party, so she wasn't that excited. She still came up with an activity, but I did the treat.

Today was free day at the zoo. I thought we would venture out. We've been so spoiled with our weather this winter, and even though today was over 50° it wasn't that nice out. We didn't stay a real long time, but we got to see some elephants, lions, sea lions, a couple monkeys, polar bear, grizzly bears, a maybe a few others.