Youth Conference

I have had the most amazing weekend!  The last few days have been awesome.  We had a massive 7 stake youth conference in our area.  There were approximately 1,400 youth that attended a three day EFY style conference.  I was able to attend all the events on Thursday.  It started with a welcome from our Stake President (because our stake was hosting this event) and our Area Seventy, Elder Risenmay; followed by Brad Wilcox.  Awesome.  Then the youth broke into groups to rotate through three other classes presented by Chad Kirby, a popular EFY speaker; a member of our Stake Presidency, Ryan Harbertson; and a local attorney with an amazing story of overcoming adversity, Trent Kunz.  The classes were excellent.  We had dinner before having a variety/talent show.  It was amazing.  Let me just say we have some youth with amazing talents.  There is actually a YouTube video of the entire show but it is about an hour long so you've really got to be dedicated to watch it!
We were hosting youth in our home because some of the youth came from hours away.  We had four great girls sleeping in our downstairs.  We got home late Thursday night but they were up and ready to go to a service project by 7:30 am.  I wasn't able to attend Friday at all.  I just dropped the girls off and picked them up late Friday night after a day full of service, classes, flash mobs, outdoor activities and a dance.   I saw pictures and I know the energy in the gym when I picked my girls up was awesome.  I love being around the youth because of their energy and vibrancy.  Yes, I feel old just saying that!
Saturday morning the youth were able to rotate through 6 Book of Mormon "vignettes".  These were productions of various stories from the Book of Mormon such as Lehi's dream of the Tree of Life, the People of Ammon who bury their swords, Abinidi and so forth.  I didn't attend any of the vignettes but I help on the People of Ammon one for a couple of months before switching to the finale vignette which was the Stripling Warriors.  I wish there was a YouTube video of that because it was so so great.  There was a voice over of Helaman describing his warriors almost verbatim from the scriptures while a spotlight traveled from group to group.  We had a small group of mothers with young children, a small group of fathers "laying down their weapons of war" and a group of warriors that ended with a dynamic display as if they were training for battle.  The capstone of this came when we sang Army of Helaman and 80 missionaries from our mission filled in the stage.  We sang the EFY medley and there were a few other musical numbers which were just fantastic including this one (starting at 3:27) which ended totally improv with Brad Wilcox, Helaman and Moroni joining the young men followed by all the missionaries coming back out on stage again.  I actually missed this one because I was in the dance room helping the children from earlier get out of their costumes!  So sad!
We went to dinner after this feast of spirituality while the stage was set up for.... NASHVILLE TRIBUTE BAND!!  It was so much fun being there for that.  Roy was actually able to attend with me for all of the stuff on Saturday.  We sat back and enjoyed the music.  If you go to NTB's FB page there are a few pictures of our event.  It was a great way to end a fantastic conference.  I feel so fortunate to have been a part of this event in even the small way I was.

When K gets sleepy...

This girl will sleep anywhere when she decides to.  Of course, when she doesn't want to sleep....watch out!

Walk to the Temple

Yesterday was kind of a big deal.  I walked with the young men and young women in our ward to the temple.  We didn't actually start at our church building because that would have been too far/too long.  We met at our church building at 6 a.m. for breakfast and a quick devotional.  Then we carpooled across the river to a Home Depot parking lot.  Everyone got out and started walking.  Approximately 9 hours/6 stops/26 miles later here we are!

Roy and the kids met us at the last stop for lunch.  D walked the last mile with me while Roy and the girls drove the last mile to the temple.  He put the girls in the stroller and walked to meet us.  It was pretty awesome.  The temple president addressed the youth in the visitor's center.  He showed a video, Only a Stonecutter, which is an amazing story of John Rowe Moyle.

I was pretty sore by the time we were done.  Everyone was kind of limping around, especially after sitting in the visitor's center for half an hour.
My feet didn't feel too bad this morning until I put my sandals on for church!  I have a quarter sized spot on my big toe where the skin rubbed off.  I think I'll take my shoes off for my lesson today.  Luckily I can walk with almost no limping!

Camera-jacked

Every once in a while I will upload my pictures to the computer and find such treasures as these:

A veritable trove of award-winning photography right here.

I'm trying

In an effort to be the fun mom we went to another swim party today!  I know, right? Two days in a row of fun activities.  And two days in a row of sun?  Inconceivable!  This time we were at a local pond with a little playground a not-so-sandy beach.  Usually the county brings in large loads of fresh sand each summer.  Either we were there before the sand came this year or there isn't money in the budget to make the beach sandy.  The kids had fun anyway.

When I got too hot we headed back home for some shade.  The kids swam in our little pool which was actually quite warm from the sun.  They also jumped on the tramp with the sprinkler under it.  I'm telling you 86* is a heat wave for these little North-Westerners!
 And what day would be complete without a bit of half-naked tramp wrestling?!

D's last day of school

We made it all the way through first grade!  It's been a great year full of projects, surprises, growth and fun.  I'm so glad for all the experiences D has had this year in school.
Today has been a pretty good day for all of us.  The girls got to play with friends virtually all morning long.  Then when D got home we headed to a swimming party at one of his classmate's home.  Not just any classmate but his good friend, Ella-bella.  (His first grade crush.  Cute.)  There were a bunch of kids and moms there.  The kids LOVED it.  They had a great time.  They swam and ate Cheetos, got the face painted and played with friends.  I'm so glad we went.

A at the beginning of the party. She fell asleep on the way there.

A at the end of the party.  Livin' the good life!

D's 1st grade crush.  Such a sweet girl.  She was giving her toys to people at the party just 'cuz she wanted to.

It's a clown cat clown-cat!

"What about me? Take my picture too!"

We've added to our household

Roy and I have been shopping around for living room furniture for some time.  I am no photographer but you'll have to take my word that this room is super comfortable - even if a bit sparse still.

Before (sans train tracks usually)

After (SO COMFORTABLE!)

We've also been wanting to do something in the backyard for the kids.  I am still pushing for a platform/swingset/playhouse over the sandbox.  But in the meantime we went shopping for this:

We didn't tell the kids what we were shopping for.  We told them IT would be super cool and they would love IT.  D kept talk out loud, "I wonder what IT is?  What could IT be?  Does this store have IT?"  It took us 5 stores before we found IT but IT was worth it!  The kids have had a great time so far and we look forward to many more hours of jumping/wrestling/fighinglaughing.

Simple pleasures

Chocolate covered donut with sprinkles.  Oh yea.

Our first foray into the world that is Chuck E. Cheese birthday parties.

Fishing at "Get Outdoors" Day at our local park.  Each kid got a fish which we then ate for dinner.  Awesome!

Turning 30 lbs of cut strawberries into 3.25 gallons of strawberry jam and plenty of strawberry shortcake. Yum!

Crafting!  The small flower vase is a teacher gift for D's 1st grade teacher.  It is dry erase markers in a vase with  Hersey Kisses.  The flower pot in the entry way makes me smile everytime I think about it!  I love it!  My friend gave me the light up flowers in the pot and I painted the pot to be cute and have our house number.  I LOVE IT!

Turning 30!

Today is my birthday!  I have officially embarked upon the journey known as "30's".  "20's" was a good ride.  Lots of changes, learning and growing.  I still don't feel much older than a young co-ed but apparently I am.
I celebrated by being treated to a movie by my neighbor and friend, Jenn and her mom.  It was awesome getting out and going to a movie theater.  Plus the theater was awesome.  It was a Cinetopia which is apparently a step above regular movie theaters.  We saw Snow White and the Huntsman.  I liked it.  It was way too intense and scary for kids but not so much that I left feeling jumpy or creepy.  Good amount of action with a very mild hint at romance.
Tonight, Roy took me out to Red Robin where I got my free birthday burger.  Love Red Robin (yummmm).  I also went through 3 freckled lemonades.  Seriously, what is it that makes their lemonade so much better than other lemonades?
We finished with dinner but didn't want to go home yet because if I get a babysitter, I am NOT putting my kids to bed.  (Turned out we should have saved our money.  The babysitter had put the kids to bed like I asked but no one was asleep.)  So Roy and I went to Home Depot to brainstorm and look at swingsets.  We want to build one over our sandbox.  When we left the Depot we went to Roy's office so we could use his computer to brainstorm some more.
When we got home my friend Tyce and her family was here dropping off a balloon and some birthday cake.  We chatted for a bit before going in to re-introduce our kids to their beds for the night.  A had taken a big nap and gotten up about 5pm.  Bad for bedtime.  She was being so ridiculously sweet thought that it was hard to be upset.  She wanted me to read her a book then she started reading me books.  She read a book that is the song "If You're Happy and You Know it Clap Your Hands".  So cute to hear her sing:
"If you happy and know clap hands,
if you happy and know face will show happy clap hands"
Then she started reading me a dinosaur book.  She kept saying, "You listen, me talk.  Me talk, you listen."  whenever I would make sounds or try to read the page.  Adorable.  I could just eat her up.
It was a happy birthday spent with friends and family.  I'm lucky to have so many great people in my life.  I'm looking forward to the next 10 years journey with happy anticipation.