Girls Camp

I had the opportunity to go up to Girl's Camp this week...and I survived! I was very excited about going and looking forward to the opportunity to spend time with my girls and with my fabulous fellow leaders. But I was very nervous about leaving my kids. I have never left them for more than about 12 hours before. They were excited to be playing at Grandma's all day while Daddy was at work. As Ryan was preparing Pierce for how things were going to go while Mom was at camp, Pierson said, "I'm going to live at Grandma's all day, it will be like I'm Grandma's kid!" Clearly he was not feeling the anxiety of the separation like I was.

Camp was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed it. I was very thankful that is was cut a day shorter than usual though. By the 2nd night I was feeling very anxious for my kids and by the next day I was very ready to come home. I am sure I have never felt so disgusting in my entire life.

I'm not able to post pics of the girls, so here is a favorite of me and some of my fabulous leaders-

Me, April, Kara & Jana - Love you girls!

A few things I'll remember most about camp:

-All 8 leaders sleeping in 1 tent (not because we were unprepared, we had a tiny campsite, and not enough room to set up another tent)
-Therefore, Jana, Kara and I sleeping on 1 air mattress, sideways. At least I was warm!
-Yummy, yummy food! Thanks to Jana A.!
-Killer hike that made my 6:00 A.M walks, (which include a major thigh/butt burning hill) seem like a piece of cake!
-Being drenched in sweat and shivering with cold in the same day
-Spending some quality time with "my girls" (the Mia Maids plus the ones we just lost to Laurels) They were great examples to the younger girls in their attitudes, willingness to help, leadership and especially their beautiful testimonies. I was so happy for the chance to get to know them better and grow closer to them.
-Having fun with the awesome leaders and laughing hysterically about...
-And making complete fools of ourselves in the skit with our "scene change effects", something that I could never adequately describe, only demonstrate. I don't know why the audience wasn't laughing harder, truly it was hilarious! I'm so thankful that at least Bishop Brooks appreciated the humor.
-Rockin' skit by the Stake Priesthood Leaders
-Awesome talk by Pres. Bangerter, seriously love him! He gave such a great message based on "Virtue loveth Virtue"
-Awesome fireside by Bro. Staheli, followed by awesome testimonies from the Bishopric. Love these guys! We are so lucky to have them!

New Beginnings

In February I received a new calling to be the 1st councilor in Young Womens. I am so excited about it and am already loving it! (I had this calling in our old ward and loved it so much, I bawled for a week when they released me.) After the 1st activity I attended I came home telling Ryan how great it was going to be that I already felt so connected to the other leaders! I love them already and feel so lucky to be working with such amazing ladies. We are totally going to rock girls!

So... we jumped right into things with New Beginnings. We had a fabulous night. Everything went great and I was so happy with it. We had the priviledge of having our very own- beautiful, amazingly talented, Lyndsi Houskeeper- come and sing her theme song from her 2009 Music for Youth album, Be Thou An Example. She was, of course, incredible and it was so beautiful. Thank you Lyndsi! I just love you! Check her out at www.lyndsihouskeeper.com

Lyndsi & Melanie - Melanie played the piano and did a beautiful job as well, such beautiful & talented friends I have!

Bro. Massey, Bishop Brooks, Bro. Staheli - seriously love these guys! We are so lucky to have them! We also enjoyed a great talk by Bro. Staheli, and of course, a few witty comments from Bishop! It was great!

Me with my fabulous fellow YW leaders -
Jana, Me, Annica, April, Kara, Jennifer, Tonya - Love you girls!