YW Camp 2019

I was asked to be a nest leader at camp again this year. After having such a good experience last year, I was looking forward to it. But, as it got closer, I got more and more stressed out about it. This year, I was kind of the senior leader since my other next leader was 19. Also, I was called to be the Ward Camp Liason person, which meant that I sat on the camp council and had more assignments to do for that. So, it was kind of a lot to prepare and keep track of. 

Once again, once I made it up to camp--it was fantastic. We all had a great year. It was crazy to be back and see all the fire damage from last year. You can see the burned trees on the mountain:

It's still so amazing how untouched camp was.

The whole group:

Elizabeth's group:

She was with older girls since I was the leader of the girls her age but they try not to group girls with their moms.

Natalie's group:

My group:

We were actually called "houses" this year since it was a Harry Potter theme--Liahona School of Light and Learning. We all picked house colors, a YW value, and an animal to represent our house. My house chose virtue so our color was gold and we picked the lioness as our animal (since power is a definition of virtue too). Elizabeth's house picked divine nature (pegasus) and Natalie's house picked choice and accountability (raven). It was a fun theme.

We had a blast with all the usual camp activities: shooting BB guns, archery, crafts (whittling our own wands), Oasis, etc.

This game of 9-square was super fun, too:

The girls took charge of our skit and did a great job:

Our flag:

Our ward was in charge of one campfire and we decided to play Quidditch. It ended up being super fun! The girls got way into it and were all tired out by the end.

We hiked around Pinecrest Lake again and swam in the lake after:

One of my girls from China teaching me how to write hello in Chinese characters:

We also did a service project sanding and staining the new benches in the campfire area:

For Oasis this year, we talked a lot about the For the Strength of Youth pamphlet. We did this faith walk activity that ended up being really neat. Here is one of the stations:

We had backpacks and we would pick up a rock that reflected how well we were keeping this standard and put it in our backpack--the bigger the rock, the more of a burden it created for us. At the end, we talked about how to lay our burdens at the feet of the Savior.

We had another really powerful testimony meeting. I'm always impressed and inspired by all the girls who aren't even members who get up to share. Elizabeth and Natalie both did and I loved their testimonies.

Even though it was exhausting and we were so glad to get home and shower, it was another great year at camp!

Atkin Reunion/Utah Trip

At the beginning of July, we drove to Jerome for the Atkin reunion with Tom and Lorna. We had some time with Marsha, Tom and Shari and family, and Chris and Regina and family before we all headed up to a church camp in Burley for our reunion on the 4th. It ended up working out really well. It was a big rustic cabin with a good kitchen, a big area downstairs, and sleeping areas upstairs. It was a little noisy at night with people snoring and babies but earplugs the second night helped a ton. :) We didn't sleep that much anyway because we'd have fun staying up talking and playing games. The kids loved exploring around the cabin and being together. 

We played a fun game of wiffle ball together:

Some other highlights were the awesome shirts Randon designed that Jaime ordered this year, a super fun game of Balderdash with kids and adults, smores around the fire while the kids played chaos tag, good food, and great talks. 

We headed back to Chris and Gina's on Saturday and had a little more time together. 

I loved this random picture I found in front of their house:

We had another super fun night playing games and hanging out at the church pavilion. We played baseball, volleyball, and a new game Richard brought called Kubb. We also got to all go to Chris and Regina's ward on Sunday and I loved hearing so many Atkins bear their testimonies. It was a wonderful reunion. I wish I had more pictures!

Joe had a work training in Provo the next week so the boys and I drove him down while the girls went back with Jon and Jaime to their house. We dropped him off at work and then grabbed some dinner until it was time to pick him up and head to his hotel room for the night. We let the kids swim in the pool that night and then went to bed. The next day, the boys and I left for Erda to hang out with Jon and Jaime and kids. We had fun hanging out the next couple of days--we went to see a movie, helped a little bit with their garden and animals, and had a fun day at Stansbury Lake:

Eli loves paddling around by himself in the kids' kayak!

We stayed there for a long time and had a blast.

The kids and I also met up with Matt, Andrew and Ivy for lunch and a movie in Salt Lake. We had a dinner one night with Richard, Toni, Mary and Andrew and kids, too. It was so fun to see so much family. I went to pick up Joe on Thursday night and then we took off for home Friday morning.  We were glad we decided to stick around Utah and have some more time with people. 

Allen Reunion

Soon after school got out, we headed up to Greenwood for the Allen reunion. It was a great week! We went up Friday and had a great first night at the Pizzeria with Chris and Lisa and family. Saturday, we had a pool day.

Sunday, we all went to church for sacrament meeting and then gathered at Mom and Dad's to give Mom the sacrament and have a Come, Follow Me lesson. I loved that and loved hearing the thoughts different grandkids shared. Then we took some pictures out front:

It was hard using the self-timer to get Grandpa in the picture but we did get some:

We missed Melissa, Andrew and Hannah this year.

Then we had fun playing soccer and other sports at the field, followed by dinner, Abby opening her mission call (Charlotte North Carolina, Spanish speaking!) and FHE that night. Nate and Isaac were in charge this year and they decided to talk about prioritizing spiritual things with the rocks and the sand object lesson. Then everyone made their own prayer rocks with messages they wanted to remember. They weren't as enthusiastic as other partnerships but they did a great job! :)

On Monday, we went over to the lake where we met Chris and Lisa and family and Matt and Ivy. We didn't ride on a ski boat this year so we rented some kayaks, paddleboards and jet skis this year and had fun with those:

Catching crawdads, too of course:

Followed up by the annual lunch at Char Pit:

Gotta love that place!

One night we had fun playing around at the practice holes and then saw this beautiful sunset:

We also did a hike up above Lake Tahoe one day that was fun. Joe had to head back to work for a couple days so it was just me and the kids. Unfortunately, the boys were not happy about this hike so it was rough for a while. Their attitudes improved somewhat on the way down, thankfully. I really need to make my kids hike more so they don't complain so much. Natalie turned her ankle on the way down and was in pain for a few days, unfortunately. 

We did get some beautiful pictures at the top, though.

Another day, we went to Northstar and the kids had fun skating, except Natalie who rested her ankle.

On our last day, we decided to try out the ropes course up there. It was SO fun! Definitely worth the money, although it was pricey. Eli had a rough start and was quite nervous about things but he improved a lot by the end. I was impressed with how well the older three kids did trying all the hard courses.

I loved this one of Joe patiently encouraging Eli to go through the tube when he was scared:

Lizzie:

 Natalie and Josh:

I mostly just have video of the courses but they were really fun. We were all pretty tired out after that.

We had another great week and loved getting together for meals, playing games, watching movies, puzzling, playing pool games, and just being together. It was a blast!