Blessed with cheesy smiles

I am having an especially difficult time with this lately...you tell your kids to "smile" and you end up with ultra-cheesy pictures - way more than you know what to do with.

I'd love tips on how to get them to SMILE - you know, real smiles. Emma is queen of doing this, as my dad recently realized after he took 100 pictures of her and one or two of them were cute enough to really do anything with. The rest? Fake smiles. We distract them, try to get them talking, tickle each other and do bunny ears. But such things don't get the real smiles to come out. However, sometimes these silly grins are just as fun as the sincere ones, and I treasure these pictures just as much!

So...here's to all the cheesy grins we are blessed with on a daily basis!

Initiation

We made it through our initiation into the ward. One word - Gualala. Camping. Dirt. NOT MY THING. We conveniently missed it last year because my grandparents returned from their mission so we went to Vegas to see them. And boy, we didn't hear the end of that from our friends. It doesn't help that some of our closest friends have been going on this Memorial Day excusion since they were in utero. No excuses this year. It was our time.

The last time we went camping was when we were dating. I hate to be dirty, to smell, and to have brown feet (or nasty shoes). I don't like walking far to bathrooms that are being shared with hundreds of other people. But most of all, I don't like sleeping in a tent in a "bed" that is not my own soft king-size monstrosity. Let me just tell you, everyone kept telling us that "Gualala is NOT camping." And they were (sorta) right.

The Highlights:

*Giant redwood trees everywhere. And even better, the electrical boxes attached to the trees. Oh yeah baby, we had electricity!

*Real bathrooms with flushing toilets! And showers!

*Our friends' site. They brought an entire kitchen (no joke). And we got to eat with them. Folks, we didn't eat boring old camp food. We had Cafe Rio burritos, homemade egg mcmuffins, ribs, and fresh abalone gathered by the brave souls who were willing to sacrifice their body temperatures in that frigid water so we could have a taste.

*Sitting in church among the redwoods. Yes, unconventional. But 2 hour church with no primary for me=happiness.

*It was cold...but we are resourceful people and brought our portable heater. We set it to 70 degrees and it ran almost constantly. We were warm and I never once entered my sleeping bag. Lovely.

*Our blow-up beds. We all had one, and slept (relatively) like kings and queens.

*National Treasure 2. I bought it last week and we watched it in Gualala next to the campfire. Great flick, especially when sitting outside.

I can't say we'll make this a definite tradition like so many others in our ward have. One of my friends is 8 3/4 months pregnant and went this year! And get this - they brought their infant seat "just in case!" Insane! My only real complaint was driving on Hwy 1 up the coast for 22 miles of switchbacks, with sheer cliffs on our side leading down to the ocean. Can you say carsick+terrified? However, there are few things more enjoyable than watching your kids experience something new, i.e. camping. And can I just say how WONDERFUL it was to 1) stop on our way home at In 'n Out for my favorite chocolate shake, and 2)be home last night in my own bed?? Heaven! We had a great weekend!

Here is a layout I made today of our first year at Gualala. See, I'm already talking like we're converted to going every year! The picture of all of us is at Point Arena, up north. There was a totally lame lighthouse there (especially when compared to the beauties on the East Coast) and it was nothing exciting. But, I can honestly say I was colder than I've ever been in my life. That wind chilled my bones. And I've lived in some COLD places. The poor kids almost blew away.And just for kicks, here are a few other pictures.

Check out those feet! She showed me in the car and I gagged. Exactly why I don't like camping! I handed her the baby wipes and she spent a half hour cleaning off her feet. Ahh, the signs of fun...