Youth Conference

Last Friday and Saturday we went to Youth Conference. We met at Church at 8 AM and divided up 41 kids and a ton of adults. They put all the names of the youth in a bowl and then drew them out for each vehicle that was going. That way the kids were mixed up in hopes they would make new friends. We had 4 kids in our car, 2 boys and 2 girls.

In preparation of the long 3 hour drive to the camp, we made some goodies to eat on the way. We had brownies for the trip there and chocolate chip cookies for the trip home. The kids really enjoyed that. The food for the whole conference was great.

Upon arriving we all ate our sack lunches and put our belongings in the dorms we were going to stay in. The weather was perfect, not to hot and not to cold. After lunch we attended four workshops on several different subjects. One had games to help get the point across, another one had a treasure map, and the others used pictures and stories. Of course they all used the scriptures to teach their subject. I think the teachers all did a great job and I think the kids enjoyed them.

After the workshops we had free time for a few hours. The facilities were great. The kids could swim, play basketball and volleyball, horseshoes, board games, or just enjoy the beautiful setting. We practiced for the talent show that night. We also just talked and visited with one another.

As dinner time approached, several of us volunteered to help in the kitchen. We fed over 55 people and did so in a fairly timely fashion. Clean up went well too with everyone pitching in to make light work. After tables were cleaned up and chairs were set up again we heard from our keynote speaker. As usual, Troy did a fantastic job. The kids love him and can really relate to him. He definitely has a way with kids.

Then it was time for the "main event"…The Talent Show! I was so impressed with the talents of these young people. We had a group of three girls who could sing like angels and harmonized beautifully. They also wrote words to a fun song that they sang just for Troy all about the Trek they went on last year. Others played instruments such as a flute type instrument, mandolin, violin and guitar. One young man juggled and all participated in several cute skits. We shared our feeble talent of singing new words to "If I Had a Hammer." The final act had us rolling in laughter. Three members of the other ward Bishopric performed a "synchronized swimming" routine. It was hilarious. A good time was had by all.

The kids played capture the flag before final call to end the night. Of course nobody settled down completely once we were in the dorms. We had a devotional, sang a nice song and had a closing prayer. Then the talking and singing started. Thankfully that didn't last toooooo long. The singing was beautiful as a small group of girls sang in perfect harmony several hymns. The talkers were on the other side of the dorm room so I got to enjoy the singers. After a while everyone quieted down and went to sleep.

Morning came early as I once again joined the kitchen crew to help prepare breakfast. I was amazed how quickly we were able to feed nearly everybody before they caught up with how many pancakes we had prepared. The last several people had to wait to get the freshest pancakes. With breakfast over we once again all helped with the cleaning. This time we cleaned everything as we packed up our belongings and stowed them in the vehicles and trailer. Then we headed to the fire pit for a beautiful testimony meeting.

Lunch was Subway sandwiches and goodies on the lawn so we wouldn't dirty up the kitchen again. Then we piled into the vehicles and headed home. The kids in our car slept most of the way home so they didn't eat nearly enough cookies!

To finish out the weekend we attended Stake Conference Saturday and Sunday and were truly fed spiritually the whole weekend.

Alena's Baptism

On Saturday we attended Alena's beautiful baptism.

It was wonderful to have the whole family together.
The spirit was so strong.

I loved Kylee's talk on baptism and I loved Sean's talk on the Holy Ghost.

I was thrilled that Alena was able to wear the same dress that Auntie My and Alena's mommy wore on their baptism day.

Sparks Lake

We managed to escape the heat wave last week by spending several days in beautiful Sparks Lake. We go with several choice friends and canoe into our favorite camp site. There are other families that love this site too and have fixed it up over the years. They have built a table with benches for our meals. They also put up shelves between two trees for shelves in our "kitchen" area. There are many nice spots for tents and the best part of all is the site is in a little cove so our water hole is nice and isolated.

The sun was hot and the water was cool so it was easy to keep cool in the heat of the day. With plenty of trees around there was always shade to find, but we did have to move our chairs around throughout the day. It was perfect for some reading as well as wonderful conversations with good friends.

Each couple planned and prepared several meals so we had delicious meals and plenty to eat. This year tended to be a bit of a Mexican theme to our meals as we had breakfast burritos, taco salad, nachos and enchiladas as well as a few more along those lines. We also had an abundance of fresh fruit and melons. Yum!!!

The canoe trip to the site takes about 30 minutes. On our first day we had to make two trips to get all our stuff. Since the canoe does all the work of packing everything in we bring all the comforts of home. My idea of ruffing it is sleeping on a blow up queen size bed. I don’t do well on the ground or in a cot.

Steve wanted to do his part this year to improve the camp. He always picks a nice spot on a little rise for our tent. There is a little path that leads to a gully that has to be crossed to get to our site. Several years ago someone built a nice little bridge to cross the gully. There are some very sharp volcanic rocks on the path to the bridge so Steve wanted to chip away at the sharp points and make the path a little safer. He planned ahead and brought along a chisel, hammer and gloves for the work. He had taken care of most of the rocks and had one more to go. Something happened while he was hammering and the chisel slipped and the hammer hit his thumb pretty bad. He didn’t think too much of it at first until it picked up his hand and blood started pouring out of his glove. He tore it up pretty bad.

One of the men cleaned the wound and bandaged him up real good. Just before dark we decided to change the dressing. When we took it off it was still bleeding. Everyone took a vote and decided he probably needed stitches so we headed off in the canoe to the launch to get our car. Thankfully we had a GPS which lead us directly to the hospital. They stitched him up and sent us on our way. It was nearly midnight by then and our friends said we could stay at their vacation trailer in La Pine rather than try and canoe back to the camp in the dark. What a blessing that was for us.

Steve didn’t mind the injury, because it gave him a good excuse to just sit and read his books for the rest of the time we were there. Since that is what he really wanted to do in the first place he was as happy as a clam.

Other than that little mishap we had a wonderful time. This year we went from Saturday to Wednesday. Next year we hope to be able to stay the whole week up there with good friends and Heavenly Father’s beautiful creations.