Youth Conference

Youth Conference was awesome this year. We went to Camp Timberlane near Price, which is where we went for Girls Camp last year, so that was fun for memories. The theme was "Spiritual Survivor". Basically we learned a bunch of different physical survivor skills that ultimately corresponded with spiritual survivor skills. We were broken up into like 8 tribes with about 12-15 people in each tribe. On the first day we did rotations where we learned a bunch of different skills that we would then do as a competition the next day. As part of the competition the next day we had some of the youth come and convince us that some people in their tribe were seriously injured on the hike they went on and they needed us to come and help. So off we went. As it turned out some people did have some serious conditions and it wasn't until we reached the end of what seemed like a 20 mile hike, that I found out that one of the people who had had problems was one of my YW. She has asthma and had had an attack and didn't have her inhaler, and had gotten heat exhaustion. She had originally not even wanted to come to Youth Conference so I was feeling terrible that this had happened. I had been praying that she would be given some kind of experience that would strengthen her testimony. And then it hit me that this was possibly it. Her dad has not been active in the church for many years and I don't think she'd ever had a priesthood blessing in her entire life. So I asked her if she'd like one and she refused. To make a long story short, she made it down the mountain but still felt terrible and sick. She rested in the Stake cabin for a couple hours. In the meantime our bishop and his 2nd counselor had come up to join us for the evening. I went and talked to her again and asked her again if she'd like a blessing and told her that the bishop and Jake were here and could do it since I was afraid that maybe she hadn't felt comfortable earlier because she didn't know any of the male leaders very well. With tears running down her cheeks she said yes. So they gave her a blessing and within a half hour or so she was up walking around feeling fine. What an amazing priesthood miracle it was! We then had the usual final night testimony meeting. The spirit was so unbelievably strong. It lasted probably about 3 hours because there were so many youth that got up. The whole experience of Youth Conference was actually very physically exhausting. The energy level for everyone almost the entire time was not very high because we were so physically drained from all of the activities and being out in the sun. But it's that draining of physical energy that can sometimes bring us that much closer to the spirit. The whole thing was an amazing experience that I won't ever forget.

Aisha giving me a piggyback

We also did a rotation of team-building exercises. Heidi Hinckley (one of the YW Presidents in another ward who had just gotten called and I happened to know her because her husband works with Matthew) and I were in charge of one called "Helium Stick". The object of the game is for the group to lower the stick to the ground with the stick resting on the top of their fingers. The trick is, everyones fingers have to be touching the stick at ALL times. If someones fingers aren't touching they have to start over. Easier said than done! It is possible, but it is very hard and you have to be working together very harmoniously as a team in order to accomplish it. We only had one group do it. The others didn't even come close. The reason it's called Helium Stick is because the stick actually seems to float. The reason for this is because people are so concentrated on keeping their fingers touching the stick that they're ultimately pushing UP on it. It was funny to see peoples reactions as they watched it go up instead of getting it to lower to the ground. (One more side note: The tall guy in the back on the left side is one of the YM leaders in our ward. He just moved in a few months ago and just got called into YM. We figured out while on our hike that we graduated from the same high school only a year apart, we had about 20 or so of the same friends, but somehow never knew each other. He'd always looked so familiar to me and now I know why!)

The beautiful view from the hike. As you can see in this particular part, there were no trails. We pretty much walked straight up the side of that mountain. It was a little scary at times.

We had quite a bit of free time as a ward and the girls made good use of it....giving makeovers to the boys. The boys were good sports about it and it was really fun.

Cute little Tyler. He had plenty of hair to work with.

Justin

Here's Dallas holding "Antlers". When we went to this campsite the year before for Girls Camp there were these HUGE bugs that flew around all over the place. They had very long antennas that were probably 1 1/2 times the size of their bodies. Well, last year at Girls Camp Dani accidentally referred to the antennas as antlers! So for the rest of the time that's what we called those bugs and by the end we had actually learned to like them and even considered them our mascot. :) We were all excited to see "Antlers" at Youth Conference but for some reason they were very scarce this year and they were very tiny. It was funny to see how widespread the nickname Antlers became. It seemed like everyone was calling them that. Dallas bonded very well with these bugs and even got them to do this weird bobble-head thing. It was hilarious!

Dallas and Justin. Love the double sunglasses, Dallas.

The girls tp'd the boys tent the first night, so the boys reciprocated the second night.

PM2 Rocks!!!

Lovin' Summer...

O.k. I've had many people harass me about updating my blog, but I've hardly had a spare minute to actually do it. We've just been so busy having fun this summer that I haven't had the time. And the fact that we've been so busy doing so many things....it means that there are soooo many things to blog about. I'll have to leave out a lot, but here are some highlights:

We've been to the park a few different times this summer, but here's one of my favorite pics from one of our trips. This is Logan and one of his best little friends, Jake. They have so much fun together.

We've lived in Lehi for 4 years now and this is the first year we've participated in any of the events of "Lehi Pioneer Days". We went to a magic show, the outdoor movie, and the kids parade. They were all pretty fun. They were offering free popcorn at the movie thing and the kids had a blast going back and forth getting more and more popcorn. September got really excited when she spotted the boy she likes during one of her popcorn trips.

Best friends, Logan & Tate.

Peyton LOVES popcorn but we used to only give her tiny little pieces because we were worried about her choking on the kernels. But there was no keeping her away from the popcorn at the movie night because it was all over the place. She scarfed down a TON.....and lived. Whatever. I guess she can have popcorn now.

The crew watching the parade. Tate and Logan were more interested in finding rocks than they were in the parade.

Tate with his rock collection. That's a boy for ya!

Logan showing off all the candy he got from the parade. That was one part of the parade that did keep the boys attention.

For the 4th of July we joined a few of our friends and their kids over at Merrill's. We did a BBQ and let the kids run around in their swimsuits in the little pool and on the tramp while the food was cooking. Then we set off our own HUGE box of fireworks that Spencer provided. And last but not least, we enjoyed the "real" fireworks that they shot off at Thanksgiving Point. It is a much better view from our backyard (Kalun & Kristi live about 1 1/2 miles southwest of us) but it is still a good enough view. They seemed to last forever this year and were awesome as usual.

This was Peyton's first Independence Day and first taste of fireworks. She was kind of indifferent.

We bought an above-ground firepit to put on our fun new patio. We got a lot of use out of it this summer and have enjoyed making s'mores and more on many occasions. We even had the YW over for an activity and made s'mores, banana boats, and roasted starbursts. If you've never roasted starbursts, you've gotta try it! If anyone gets a hankerin for s'mores or anything else roasted over a fire but don't want to go up the canyon.....give us a call. We're always up for it!

Sabrina would kill me if she knew I posted this, but it was too tempting. She and Natalie came straight from swimming and because she still had her swimsuit on under her clothes and it was still wet, it soaked through and made it look like she peed her pants.

Kalun & Kristi's niece, Kyli, got to come and visit for a week this summer. We've known her since she was a baby and she's practically a niece to us as well. Kalun & Kristi had custody of her for a while after her mom passed away, but then her idiot of a dad decided that he wanted her to come live with him in California and after a very long court battle, she ended up with her dad. It was a huge surprise that they were going to let her come out and visit. Kalun and Kristi tried to pack all sorts of things into the short time they had with her. One of the days we went to Cherry Hill up in Farmington which was actually one of my favorite things we did all summer (no pics though), and we went to the Childrens Discovery Garden over at Thanksgiving Point. It was so much fun having her here and we all miss her so much!

September and Kya LOVED seeing their friend again. They still can't stop talking about how much fun it was to have her here.

We had a "farewell dinner"for Kyli at one of our favorite places, Pier 49. We used to always go there when Kyli lived here, so it just felt like the old days. It was hard to say goodbye!

O.k. this is going to have to do it for now because it's getting very late. I'll post more tomorrow, or next month, whenever I get a chance.

Girls Camp!!!

It's been a very busy past couple weeks since Girls Camp, but I finally have time to write and post pictures. I had such a blast! Because of a mix-up with our site last year (at our stake owned property) we were able to get reservations at the Heber Valley Girls Camp, thanks to a little help from the First Presidency. We stayed at the Eliza R. Snow campground. It is so beautiful up there. When President Hinckley dedicated it he said it was a "temple on the mountain", and it really is. Gorgeous doesn't even begin to describe it. There are senior missionaries that serve up there doing all sorts of things, and I would absolutely LOVE to serve a mission up there some day. The cabins are great. They have 8 bunks, so each cabin sleeps up to 16. We had 11 girls in ours (8 1st years and 3 YCL's) and then there were 2 other adult leaders. The Stake leaders were absolutely inspired to do things the way they did this year splitting up the girls by age instead of by wards. I was not happy with this decision at first, but I tried to be supportive. But by the middle of the first day I KNEW it was for the best. Everyone quickly bonded with the girls in their cabin and we as leaders all got to know so many girls we'd never known before....and it was fun getting to know some of the other leaders. I was a little nervous about being over a cabin of 1st years, but it was great. Gotta love the 1st years! I loved them all, but there was one in particular that I just fell in love with that I could just gobble up! Her name is Harmoni and she's a cute little Tongan girl. We pretty much adopted her into our ward. It was funny to see how many ward shots she showed up in! I also loved the other two leaders in my cabin and really clicked with one of them right off the bat. (Love ya Tabitha! Miss ya!!) The food was wonderful, and the ability to have a shower was great. I only ended up having one, but I could've had more...there just wasn't time, we were too busy having fun. And last but not least, the spirit was just amazing up there! I've always felt the spirit so stronly at Girls Camp, but this one topped them all. It was just incredible! It'll be hard to sum up all the wonderful experiences and good times, but here goes:

Monday: We got to go canoeing. It was my first time and it was a lot of fun. A few of the girls fell in....one of them was a girl in my ward. She actually fell in twice.

Here's Tenisha's boat after they fell in and had to drag it to the side.

The highlight of the day was having Moave Pryor (sp?) come and speak to us that night. She is the woman who plays the mother of the love interest in "The Testaments". She's a convert and has been a member for about 10 years, joining when she was 40. Through her amazing storytelling, she took us on her journey of seeking for "the true church". She literally spent her entire life looking for the gospel. She had researched probably close to 40 other churches, but when she found the LDS church she knew she had found what she was looking for. She was supposed to speak and then we were going to watch The Testaments after. Lights out was supposed to be at 10.....well, she didn't even finish speaking until about 9:30. Nobody even noticed how long she'd been speaking because she just sucked us all in with her amazing story. When she finally finished, they decided to go ahead and do the movie even though it was so late. But when they went to start it it wouldn't work. They tried and tried for about 20 minutes and nothing was working. Finally they had someone pray and within about 30 seconds of the prayer ending, they got it to work. I don't think there was a dry eye in the place! I've seen the movie before, but somehow seeing it up there and especially right after Sis. Pryor had finished telling her story, it just made it that much better. Needless to say we didn't end up getting to bed until about midnight....but I didn't mind.

Me and Sis. Pryor - look how excited and giddy I look!

Tuesday: For a craft we made little journals which I am very proud to say that I actually wrote in mine. I'm terrible at writing in my journal even though I really try, so I was very proud. I now have all of my camp memories from this year written down. Plus, I guess I have this whole post in my blog. I guess that's really what blogging is right? So I guess I do write in a journal!

I love this picture.....notice Sister Shumway poking out of the top of my shoulder. She looks like she's the little angel on my shoulder...and she is! Hmmm....who should I photoshop in as the devil on the other side? ;)

Anyway, the highlight of this day was participating in a ropes course. O.k. I actually didn't get to "participate". I actually got trained the day before to be a facilitator (the person in charge) of one of the events. Marye Eby and I were a team. It was a lot of fun. There were a couple rotations where we didn't have a group so we got to walk around and see what the other groups were doing. One of the stations had a big rope that you attached to a harness that you put around your waist and then they pull you up really high (like a gazillion feet or so) and then YOU are the one that releases the rope holding you up there and once you let go you swing back and forth and back and forth. Some of the girls were being chicken and I was telling them, "Oh, you have to do it. I wish I could do it." So I was talking all tough and then they said that they had enough time that I could do it if I wanted to. Suddenly my big-time talking was a little more tough than I was. But I did it!! It was terrifying and wonderful. I have it all on video. The experience was incredible! It helped solidify my new favorite motto: "I can do hard things."

Don't I look so calm, cool, and collected?! LOL :)

Kaya at the challenge course activity that I was in charge of.

Here's Harmoni taking her turn trying to figure out the challenge course station I was at.

For free time in Christie's cabin (who was next to ours) they had a "Spa Night". They had everything you could think of, complete with hot towels (that were heated in a crock pot)! They did a makeover on Christie and ooh-la-la her mohawk and heavy makeup was hot!

Christie sporting her new look!

This is Kaya, one of the 1st years in Christie's cabin that I fell in love with thanks to her sharing a name with my daughter. She is tiny, but don't let her size fool ya....she's one feisty girl, as you can see here in this picture.

One of the girls gave Tabitha a pedicure, but she had forgotten to wear flip-flops to get back to our cabin, so she stepped on top of her shoes and tied them around her feet. Now that's creative!

Wednesday: Our cabin finally won the on-time trophy this day! It took having all of us take our breakfast up to the amphitheater and eating up there, but we did it! We obtained the trophy....with the girl affectionately named "Clarice Jade Heber" (Dani named her :) ). The first time the award was given out Sister Shumway mentioned that she was immodest and needed to be properly clothed. The first cabin dressed her, the second winners added to it, the third ones redressed her, and then we got it and redressed her. Our outfit was the best and stuck the rest of the time!

Me & Marye Eby, one of the other leaders in my cabin. :)

Our cabin with Clarice! Go Cabin 2C!! :)

We had a lot of free time this day so we spent most of it together as a ward working on our skit that we were supposed to do that night. Other wards had been working on theirs for weeks, even months, and we had only started BRAINSTORMING ideas 6 days before leaving! I thought we were going to make fools of ourselves. But with all the free time we had to practice and last minute ideas we had, it actually turned out all right. We used an olympic theme (since the olympics are happening in a little over a month) and Allie was our final runner in the torch relay who was supposed to get the torch (which stood for the light of Christ) "to the end". We used the benches in the amphitheater to our advantage. Natalie was the person who handed the torch off to Allie at the back/top of the amphitheater and she explained to her as she pointed down the row in between the benches that this was the path she was supposed to take....down the straight and narrow...and a little to the right (this is where the fire pit was where she was taking the torch). Along the way we had distractions. Dani played a drunk girl who tried to get Allie to come to a party. Tenisha tried to tell her about a "short-cut"....that led her through the benches. And then Natalie and Shanna played missionaries who gave her a map (a BOM) that would help lead her in the RIGHT direction. Then at the very end Christie and I jumped out and yelled "DISTRACTION"....to which Allie ignored us and made it to the end.....to the fire pit where we had Sister Shumway in on it and had her there to greet her and give her a hug. So there you have it.....our cheesy, but pretty cute....all things considered....skit! It was hard doing it with such few people, but we pulled it off and only had to have one person play two characters.

Our ward, minus Tenisha, after our skit.

That night we did our "snipe hunt". It turned out to be a snipe hunt gone awry! It started out innocently enough. The 1st year girls were being told all sorts of things by the older girls that we as leaders had to carefully sort out for them....."wipe toothpaste under your eyes, it'll ATTRACT them"..."wipe toothpaste under your eyes, it'll REPEL them", etc... In the end, all of the girls in our cabin did indeed wipe toothpaste under their eyes, complaining that it was making their eyes burn! They all gathered outside the Stake's cabin. When they came out they gave a brief explanation about how it was going to work and we were off. The girls started out a little nervous and scared, and as soon as the Stake leaders started "catching" the snipes, they started getting a little more nervous....but excited. Some were claiming that they saw their "brown eyes" while others were claming that they saw their "glowing red eyes". Oh dear! :) Everything was going all right.....until they had a Bishop from one of the wards decide that he was going to jump out of the woods and scare everyone. It was all planned ahead of time, but when he didn't jump out when he was supposed to.....somehow the whole incident turned into people screaming that there was a bear. Long story short, some of the girls (including Allie and Natalie) were freaking out and bawling their eyes out. They were scared to death. When they found out that the whole thing was fake....the snipes, the bear, etc......their emotions changed from fear to anger! At one point Allie was saying that she was never coming to camp again! In the end the Stake had to have a little pow-wow in their cabin with all of the girls that were scared, to apologize and pray with them to make sure that they were all right. Let's just say that next year there are going to be a few changes to the snipe hunt....IF there's a snipe hunt!

Dani, Natalie, Harmoni, and Allie preparing for the snipe hunt. Don't you love the toothpaste under the eyes???

Thursday: We were supposed to wake up, eat breakfast, have flag ceremony, and go on our hike. Well, Allie woke up feeling extremely sick to her stomach. She was shaking so badly that she couldn't even drink the 7-up we'd gotten her to help settle her stomach. She asked for a priesthood blessing. In it she was told that she would be able to go on the hike. Long story short....within an hour of her blessing she was completely fine and getting ready for the hike. She was ultimately one of the most "cheerful" hikers. It was just one of many priesthood blessing miracles that we had that week! Another miracle happened on the hike....which was basically the fact that Christie was able to go on it. She has some herniated discs in her back among other things, and was unsure she'd even be able to make it to camp. I told her that if she came she'd be blessed just like I was the year before. I was 7 1/2 months pregnant during camp last year. I had already had a HORRIBLE pregnancy. I was on the drug Zofran all the way up to the end of the pregnancy. But Matthew had given me a blessing before I left and told me that I'd be fine.....and I was. I felt amazing while I was up there! So anyway, I told Christie she'd be fine, but the day before leaving she could hardly walk. So she asked her husband for a blessing and in it he said she'd be just fine and would be able to participate in all the activities. Well, she was and she did, and this included the hike. And not only did she go on the hike, but she was actually chosen as the hike leader and as hike leader she had to make a big choice mid-hike. I won't go into all the details, but she felt strongly about the decision she had made and despite the grumblings of some leaders, we listened to her and in the end we all realized that it had turned out to be a very inspired choice. What an amazing experience it was, and what an amazing experience to be at the top of the mountain we had climbed with two people who should not have been there had it not been for the Lord's hand. I don't think most people in the group knew much about either Christie's or Allie's situations so I'm sure that this experience wasn't as big of a deal to them, but it was to me.

Me on the hike. I look a little tired!

That afternoon the bishopric, Fredia, Debbie, Nicole, and Alicia came up. It was soooo good to see them! We had an amazing fireside that night where President Gurney spoke and was amazing as usual. Then we did "singing trees" where each ward took turns singing a song that they had picked out months earlier. We had chosen Jenny Phillips "I Will Never Move". It went really well and the spirit was so strong. After we went to the area our ward had been assigned to for our testimony meeting, we sang it again and I just started bawling halfway through and could hardly get through the song. Dani was just hugging me. The words of the song spoke so deeply to my heart in that moment. We then had a beautiful testimony meeting. The spirit was there so strongly. I, as usual, didn't say near everything that I wanted to.....but I got an "opportunity" to speak the following Sunday and have a little bit more time to prepare some of the stuff that I had originally wanted to say. Craziness kind of ensued later that night of which details I will not go into because it will just frustrate me. :) But then Christie and I stayed up til about 2 am just talking about all sorts of things. It was so much fun! I love my late night talks with Christie. She is such an amazing person and friend and I was so grateful that she was able to come to camp. When I was originally looking for a Camp Director I thought of her because she had joked with me a few weeks earlier that she would love to go. It's been kind of hard finding anyone who WANTS to go to camp, let alone be ABLE to.....so the fact that she had already told me she had wanted to, helped set things in motion. I felt good about calling her but I felt a little guilty because I felt like I had called her more because of her desire to come more than the fact that I felt inspired. But at the time I decided that hey, sometimes the desire to come is a good enough reason. By the end of Girls Camp I KNEW that whether I realized it months earlier or not, it HAD been an inspired decision. Whether it was for the girls or for her, it was the right choice. Oops, I just got rambling.....and this whole post is getting very long. I better move along....

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this pic! I was trying to get a cute picture of Jake & Debbie and Nicole came along and popped into the picture doing one of her silly faces. It made me laugh so hard!

Here's our cute little ward later that night after our testimony meeting.

Friday: Not much to tell here.....we woke up, ate breakfast, cleaned out the cabins and waited for the buses. Arriving at the church was bittersweet. I was so excited to be home and see my family, but I didn't want this wonderful adventure I'd just been on to end. The girls in my ward wanted me to take them out for ice-cream so I told them I'd go home and get my car and come back and pick them up. But when I got home and saw my family, I started bawling and decided that I just couldn't leave them. So I had to go back and disappoint them by telling them we weren't going. It was an awesome week, but it was good to be home!!! :)

Every year I've been to Girls Camp has only gotten better and better, and this year was no exception. My testimony of Girls Camp and my testimony in general was strengthened so much. It was sad to be away from my family, but it was worth it for the spirit I brought back to our home. I love my calling (most days!) and I just hope I'm in YW's for at least one more year so that I can go to Girls Camp at least one more time! I LOVE GIRLS CAMP!!! So rise and shine and give God his glory, glory......... ;) Gotta love camp songs!

Happy Independence Day!

have a LOT of blogging to catch up on, which I'll do when I get more than 10 minutes free. But I've been waiting for the 4th of July so that I could post this cool flag picture I took about a month ago. I might as well ad some pics I took of the kids this morning in their "patriotic-wear". The only one wanting to participate in picture taking was Ember though, so they didn't exactly turn out the greatest. Oh well! Happy Independence Day everyone! I love this holiday!!