September 2020

 Random Happenings of September:

Lydia held a tea party for her animals.

We made hand pies with our apples.  So delicious!

I got a special phone call from Jacob for my birthday.

My birthday wish was to head up Mt. Charleston and enjoy the cooler weather.

Gorgeous sunrise on my morning walk.

Lydia drew our family on the back patio.

Girls Camp

Our stake rotates between stake and ward Girls Camp.  This year was a ward camp year.  We headed to Camp Hinckley in the San Bernadino Mountains.  We left on Tuesday morning and I had a few girls in my car.  I was driving Rich's car so that he would have room for all the kids back home.  The engine started to over heat around Baker.... but it was fine when we turned off the AC. The girls needed to stop for a potty break so we pulled over in Baker.  The car seemed back to normal.  However, just a few miles outside of Baker the car wasn't picking up speed.  I decided to pull over and the car just died.  There was smoke coming from under the hood and it started to leak fluid.  We said a little prayer and called Melissa Belt to let her know what was going on.  They did some shuffling around and came back to get us.  We were in the desert waiting for about 1 1/2 hours.  It was hot but the girls had good attitudes.  I told them that now we had a good story and camp hadn't even started yet!

We finally made it to camp and our late arrival only threw the schedule off just a little bit.  The leaders got this awesome cabin!  We loved having a kitchen, bathrooms, and beds.  It was my kind of girls camp!

We had over 40 girls from our ward at camp.

We had a lot of fun leaders.

Our theme for the year was: It's Better to Look Up.  It was based on a talk given by Elder Carl B. Cook in 2011.  (One of our girls free handed this poster!  Amazing!)

During the week the girls made arrows to hang around the sign saying "It's better to..."  It was fun to see what they came up with.

We had so many great activites.  Wednesday morning we went on a fun hike to a heart rock.  The group in front got a little lost because the trail was unclear but we found our way to the rest of the group.  Because we went the long way we were able to walk along the creek and see a rattle snake.

We also participated in a Lifeboat activity which got everyone a little emotional but I think bonded our group overall.  We really were able to see how much the girls cared for one another and how they felt about themselves. 

We also had a great fireside, had a movie night (we watched UP), had a hilarious skit night, and some great rotations during the day.  I was in charge of crafts so I didn't get to go to all of them.  I had fun with the girls doing craft though!

We had a picturesque little pond near our cabin.

I don't even know how it began but we had a group of girls who came to hang out with us in our cabin every day.  We had so much fun with them playing silly games.

It was really nice for our entire bishopric to be at camp for part of the week. 

I wish I had more pictures that I had taken... but we asked the girls to give up their phones for the week so I thought it was only fair to keep mine put away as well. 

It was such a great week to get to know the girls in our ward better.  They really are amazing.  I am lucky to work with them and the other leaders.

Lydia really wanted to go with me (she is a girl after all!)  I hope I am able to go with her when she is finally old enough to go.

Daily Sunshine

Lydia loves to make this funny little face.  So after I took her picture doing it she insisted that I make the face too and she grabbed my phone to take a picture.  This little girl is my cute little buddy every day!

Daily Sunshine

Lydia and I rarely match so when I realized we were matching for church we had to document it!

My birthday

Rich always finds a way to make my birthday extra special.  This year I woke up to waffles topped with whipped cream and berries.

In the evening, while Rich made dinner, I took William to his tennis lesson.

After a delicious dinner cooked by Rich and the boys we had some pie.  This peach pie was a birthday miracle!  Rich called around everywhere and no one had fresh peach pies!  But when Rich went to pick up the strawberry pie from Marie Callendar's they told him, "You're lucky to get this since we won't be having it much longer.  We're getting ready to sell our peach pies."  Rich couldn't believe it!  So he quickly changed his order and came home with this great surprise.

Rich's other birthday surprise was a trip for just the two of us up to the Resort at Mount Charleston.  It was nice to get away even just for one night!

There were all these adorable baby ducks wandering the grounds!

We had a great time exploring the grounds that night--it was already chilly up there!

The next morning after breakfast we went exploring a little more and found this fun swing with a great view.

It was another great birthday!

Girls Camp

For as many years as I've served in Young Women I have never, ever gone to girl's camp!  I've always been pregnant or nursing... but this year I had no excuse!  I was a little nervous to be in a tent with a bunch of women I didn't know but it ended up being a great week!

I loved spending time with the 2nd year girls... especially the ones from our ward.  They are the best.

(Audrey Gadeski, Ellie Belt, Pam Worthen, Abby Davis)

We did a lot of fun activities like Zip Lining.  The girls were pretty sure it was going to take a lot of convincing to do it too and were surprised that I went so willingly!  

(Alexis Abney and Payton Sinquefield)

I also joined the 2nd year girls on a hike.  It was longer and hotter than we all expected!

We also had fun climbing the rock wall.

(Abby Davis and Pam Worthen)

And we had the greatest girls camp crafts.

Some of my very favorite girls!

We even had paintball and archery.

There was even a little bit of downtime for volleyball...

... and hair and nails.

Watching the girls get out of their comfort zones is my very favorite.

There were all sorts of great carvings up at camp.  There was a giant beehive... so we just had to get a picture of our ward Beehives there.  (These are just the Beehives in our ward!  Can you believe it??  They are all amazing girls!)

The thing I was most nervous about was spending a week with women I didn't know.  It ended up being the very best part of camp!  I enjoyed getting to know these amazing ladies from our stake!

I'm a little sad that next year will be just ward camp... I'm excited for stake camp again!