Summer Fun 2016

So during our High Adventure Trip Allie received her mission Call. We told her she couldnt open it until we got back and all our family could be there so we made her wait till sunday to open it. We had to have Logan go and hide it so she wouldnt be tempted to open it before hand.  She has waited a long time to finally get her call. We are so excited for her. Getting diabetes in March really didnt slow her down much like we thought it would. She has been so great at monitoring it and being diligent, and determined with managing it that the doctor cant believe how fast she has gotten it under control and how well she's doing. It's pretty unheard of to have someone get their diabetes in control that fast and 3 months later be able to submit their papers.  So exstatic for her.
Hope these videos work.

So yep she is going to Louisville Kentucky and she reports to the MTC Aug 17th. Which gave us only 5 weeks to get her ready. I was seriously freaking out. This is fast but we have managed to make it work and honestly it is so much better she is leaving sooner then later. She has had 4 guys now profess their undying love for her and 2 of them have even talked marriage with her. WHAT?? Oh my crud they just keep coming out of the woodwork.  We need to hurry and get her out of here.  First off there will be no one good enough for my baby. 2 she needs to focus on her mission first and not have to deal and worry about this. UGH!!

They are all really nice guys, but we will see what happens in the future between now and then. She is such a beautiful person inside and out and is so strong in the gospel and has such a tremendous testimony it's no wonder all these boys want her as their eternal mate.

We are so excited, but have so many mixed emotions. This is my first baby and my first daughter. I am going to miss her so much. But I know she is going to do many great and wonderous things on her mission and with her life. I am so incredibly proud of her.

Also upon returning from all these camps we decided to have a birthday party for Logan and Malorie since their birthdays were around camp. It's so awesome now to have my last baby in young womens with me. I have had the privleage now to be in young womans with all my daughters and I love every single minute of it. I just love the young womans program and am amazed at how strong these beautiful young women are.
  Here are a few shots of Allie on some of her summer singles ward activities and dates. She has had such a fun time being back here in Utah and being in the singles ward.
 

Random picture of the clouds one day. I thought they looked cool.

So we were able to take the girls and go spend the night up in Jackson Hole Wyoming with my parents and go see the Bar J Wranglers perform. Austin had to work so couldn't be with us.  It was a great time. We have always loved going and seeing them perform and have their chuckwagon dinner. Plus it's kind of special because that's where Steve and I spent our honeymoon.

So we got Allie's endowment out. It was such a special day for our family. I didn't get pictures from the morning, but we were able to take Logan and Malorie and all the kids between Kim and Rich's family and ours and go do baptisims for the dead at the Ogden temple. It being Logan and Malories first time doing baptisims and having all our family in the Temple together was just such a special day and Allie really wanted to have this happen before she left on her mission.

As I watched Logan and Mal be baptised by their dad's and as I watched my son Austin be baptized I just had such an overwhelming emotion go through me. My heart felt like it was going to burst. I couldnt have been more happy and proud of my kids for the decisions they make to stay worthy to go to the temple and the awesome examples they are to me, our family, and all those around them. Just makes a mother's heart strings sing. LOVE LOVE LOVE!

And then the day and my heart just continued to swell as I went as Allies Escort as she received her endowments. It was so special. And she was so beautiful. It's hard to believe I am at this stage of my life already seeing my kids go through the temple and their life's taking on a whole new chapter. :(   So hard to see them grow up and become adults. I just want to keep them little forever.

Such a beautiful woman inside and out.

My baby.. Oh how you've grown.  You have surpassed more then I could have ever hoped for.

Our friend Martin Green who we lived by in Santaquin and who's family we love dearly took a photo of the temple while being there. He has a great eye and is a great photographer.

We were a little slow in getting pictures of Allie with those who attended her mission call opening so we just got a few of those who were left. We will have to do a better job at her farewell.  This is Doc Cronin one of the returned missionaries who has been occupying Allie's summer. LOL

And his family

This is Trevor who grew up in my family's home ward and also a returning missionary who spent some time with Allie this past year.

And this is Justin. Yes another returned missionary who has kept Allie busy this summer. These 2 have spent many a times going to the temple doing baptisims for the dead together. They are good friends.

And this is my other lovely daughter Jessie just posing with mom for a selfie after church.  Man I need more guns and ammo. I have way beautiful daughters.

So now we are getting ready to go on our yearly family Flaming Gorge trip. I am sure we will have lot's of pictures to post. Then the following week we will be having Allie's Farewell and taking her to the MTC. Ugh I dont want to think about that right now. Cant handle it.  So until then.........

High Adventure 2016

So for the first time in this ward's young womens we had the opportunity to take our miamaids and Laurels on a high Adventure.  Our first day consisted of going up to a Ropes Course in Eden where we got to take part in a bunch of different strategic activities.  They all were based on having to work as a team to be able to accomplish them.  It was really fun and hard work as well. It really required you to think out of the box and rely on each other and get up and close and personal with each other. It was a ton of fun. I didnt get any pictures of our second part of the day unfortunatly because it was floating the weber river on tubes. I couldnt bring along the phone so no picts. It was a blast however there were a bit of crazy rapids where alot of our girls fell in and had to try and get back up in their tubes.

There were some girls who were very afraid of this and the ropes course we did earlier, but they were all able to get through the activity and hopefully feel like they accomplished something very hard and scary and felt proud of themselves.  The theme of our High Adventure was We can do Hard Things.



The last day we went on the 11 mile hike up to Lewis Peak. It was a hard hike. 3-4 miles straight up hill. Lots of loose rock and uneven terrain. But we all made it up except a couple leaders and the views were so amazing and I know the girls were proud of themselves for hanging in there and completing it. Afterwards we had Zeppe's smoothies down in the parking lot  which was amazing after how hot and tired we were.

Along the hike each of us leaders took a spot to present a little devotional on being able to accomplish hard things. Mine was being able to physically endure hard things, and Sheri's was being able to mentally do hard things and Carrie's was to spiritually being able to endure hard things. We each had a little treat and quote or saying to go along with it.

More pictures to come when we get the ones that sister Dewberry took on the trip. She was our photographer.

Girl's Camp 2016

Girl's Camp! (Be United)

Well the beginning of Summer consisted of preparation to get ready for girl's camp and High Adventure which took place the end of June and July.





It started out with the laurels going up the day before to their Laurel Light camp with the following day with the Beehives and Miamaids starting out at willard Bay and then going home cleaning up and heading to Sister Harrison's house for dutch oven dinner and song singing, and decorating the May Pole and writing little messages to each other and giving the sweats,  pillowcases, and secret sister gift bags out. Then going to bed for a early rise time by the bugle call playing revelry.

  
Jessie giving the thumbs up for some cockeyed reason.

No idea what I was saying.

Learning camp songs.

I got put in charge of the dutch oven cooking for some reason. It was already so hot outside and then to be working over all the hot coals most of the night I was seriously dripping with sweat. I got so hot i ended up with a bad bloody nose. But the fixins were sure tasty!! Dutch oven chicken, Potatoes, Salad, Rolls and Dutch oven cobblers for dessert.

The Maypole. We ended up running out of time so we didn't get to finish it all the way but what we did ended up pretty good.  We had to restart a couple times because we had issues following the pattern and some people getting confused on which way to go. It took us a while.

I dont think the girls thought we were serious when we said they would be wakened by the bugle blowing!! It was awesome. Reminded me of the good ol days when Jess would wake me up in the mornings singing revelry when I was a teenager.

So the day we were to go to the actual stake camp was also Logan's 12th birthday. Im not to sure she was very thrilled to have it on camp but we tried to make the most of it by getting her a cupcake with a candle and had a birthday banner and had everyone sing to her. Don't think she was thrilled. She hates attention.


The sweats and pillowcases and secret sister gift bags we gave all the girls.

Love these gals.  This was on our hike.

 

So each morning we had a theme to go and wake the girls up. And this day was our super hero day. We even got the bishop to dress up. It was awesome. Not to sure the girls were to thrilled though. LOL

 

The next day was pirate day.

  

So apparently there is this tradition called the Finnies. There is about 8-10 of them and you try to sneak them on a girl throughout the day without them noticing and at the end of the day whoever has the finnies on them has to do something embarrassing in front of everyone.

 

The night the bishopric came up of course they ended up with all the finnies so the bishor had to dance and bust some moves, Brother Griffin had to sing I'm a little tea pot in opera and Brother Dewberry had to sing the abc's as high as he can. Pretty funny.

This was one of our stations at camp where there was a web made of ropes and the goal was to get everyone either over or through it on the otherside without touching the ropes or you had to start over. You could go over as many times as you wanted, but you could only go through the same square twice. It was hard and took alot of strength. Oh also the young women was not able to talk so it was challenging.And they really had to work as a team.

The 1 1/2 mile hike. Once up top we were told to split up and go off by ourselves and sit down and write in our journals and just think and ponder and enjoy God's beautiful creations.

Another one of our stations was the rope swing where you would run and jump and swing over to a platform where you would have to land on it with your feet ir you would have to go back. I think this was one of the girl's favorites. However  was harder then it looked. Alot of the girls did not make it on the platform.

All the girls kept McKenna and Jacie busy braiding all their hair. Even us leaders got them to do our hair too!

Another station was where you partnered up again and you had to walk across these ropes that were 1-2 feet off the ground. You had to use each other and a long stick pole for balance and the further you get the farther the ropes get across.

Our last station was to sand blocks and tie a quilt for children in other countries who are homeless, or dont have anything.

This station was at the camp Chapel where we got to choose our favorite songs and tell why they are our favorite and then sing them.

This station was one of my most spiritual moments. We had all the girls blind folded and put into lines where they would have to hold on to the shoulders of the girl in front of them then us leaders would lead them all around this area and as we did one by one they would be taken by one of the Stake presidency members and taken to what was called the iron rod which was a rope strung all around some trees and that weaved throughout the area and some went off in weird directions. And as they followed it one of the Stake members would come pull one off and tell them to come with them and promised them an easier way or an icecream and when they left the rope and went with them they would take them to an area away from everyone and just leave them there for a while and then one of us leaders would go and get them and tell them to come with us that we would help them get back onto the right path the rod.. And as they got to the end there was Carrie Hansen our young womens president grabbing them and hugging them and telling them they had made it and how proud she was of them to stay on the right path and welcome home.  

I couldn't help but feel that that was what it might look like when we return home to our father in heaven and how he will be greeting us and telling us yay you made it. I am so proud of you. Welcome home.

these are the bracelets the girls made up at camp. They had a faith walk the night before where they had to go to the different stations and learn about their value and have a story or experience that tied into the value and then we would give them a charm to go along with the value. It was pretty cool.

Clare bear and Logan working on their bracelet.

Another station was where they paired off again one would be blind folded and they were across from each other and inbetween them was a field of rocks and mousetraps. They would have to walk across the field and get to their partner without stepping on a rock and they got 3 touches of a rock then they would have to go start all over. Meanwhile us leaders would keep moving the rocks around in their path so their partner would try and tell them where and how to step to avoid stepping on a rock. They really had to work together and listen to their partner.

Another station was pairing up again and having one blind folded  while the other one led them around through this heavily tree'd area then to a tree and the one blind folded would have to feel and smell and get familiar with their tree and then be lead back to the home base where their blind fold was removed and then they would have to go find there tree. All but a couple was able to find their tree. It was pretty impressive and surprised us.

The secret sister bags.

I just love these girls. They were so good with each other and Sara was so good at making sure Malorie was enjoying her first year of camp. she really took good care of her up there.

 

Of course us leaders all had to try the rope swing and every single one of us made it onto the platform with the help of the first that went there to catch us and make sure we stayed on the platform. Probably wasn't the best thing for me to do with me being in my brace, but I'm not one to stand back and watch the others do it without me.

Love these girls.

Girls camp was definitely interesting. Fot the most part I think we all had a good time. There was a bit of drama throughout the days there but that's what you get when your with a bunch of girls. The last night we had a couple girls get sick and throw up in the tent which made for a long night.