Faith Is Like A Little Kernel?

Taylar trying to pop popcorn kernels with cell-phones. Apparently she saw this on You Tube.

It didn't work!

Who knew? I thought YouTube was like the bible, as long as interpreted correctly it should be true...no? Wow, I've been misled.


Michelle gave a devotional on faith but instead of doing the normal seed turns into a plant analogy, we did a kernel turning into popcorn analogy, it fit a little better with the Hollywood/movie theme.
She was so nervous, but she did a great job!

Pop goes the...is that a weasel in the back ground?

Shaunna, Kate aka Weasie, Merisa and Michelle.

Pot-Gut Paradise

These little pot-guts were everywhere! One day Arika and Hailey set a pot-gut trap and caught one, (yes, we later used that very colander to rinse grapes in)!

Sung to the tune of Gangsta's Paradise

As I walk through the valley of the shadow of Aspens,

I take a look at my camp and realize there's nuttin left

Cause I've been leavin my food out all day long

Even my leaders think that my mind is gone

but I aint never crossed a pot-gut that didn't deserve it

Been spending most our lives livin in a pot-gut paradise,

been spendin most our lives livin in a pot-gut paradise.

The Climb

It's interesting that the word limb is found in the word climb because I felt like I was stretched from limb to limb after this climb.













There's always gonna be another mountain,
I'm always gonna wanna make it move.
There's always gonna be an uphill battle,
Sometimes I'm gonna have to lose.

aint about how fast I get there.
aint about what's waiting on the other side,
It's the climb.

My Devotional

I did my devotional on breaking bad habits. I had a director's clapboard pinata. After the devotional was over the girls got to think of a habit that they wanted to break and then take a turn trying to break the pinata.



"A bad habit is easier to break today than tomorrow"


"First we make our habits, then our habits make us"

"Bad habits are like a comfortable bed, easy to get into but hard to get out of"

"Habits are cobwebs at first, cables at last"

Cami Breaking her bad habit.

These are all the jewels Cami got out of the pinata

The girls scavenging for what they wanted.

And The Oscar Go's To...

The bishop wanted to play two truths and a lie, the person who came up with the best lie would get to shave the bishops head. We got to vote for who's lie we thought was the best, we voted for Kate, she got some help from Merisa but together they shaved a "U" and a fauxhawk. He shaved it off the next day.

Kate with her Oscar. Her award was Best actress for her performance in the film. The Other Man, we gave her this award because last year we had a cut-out of an army guy that she affectionately named Ryan and called him her boyfriend, well this year we had 2 Oscar cut-outs, one on each side of the red carpet, once again she became attached to this fleshless man, hence the title of her film.

The girls made up the awards for the leaders. I got the award for the best secret sister. I had Taylar.

The first day I gave her a cute record shaped notebook and a rocker bracelet with some candy, I wrote her a note in the notebook that said, "you rock".

The second day I gave her some old records; Fiddler On The Roof, Annie Get Your Gun, and ET, (her favorite), it came with a picture book inside that had a picture of Micheal Jackson with ET., (She has a slight obsession with Micheal Jackson).

The third day I gave her a book, something about Hollywood's most memorable kisses. It had great pictures of all the classic on screen kisses. I wrote on the inside that I had complete faith that one day she we would make it to the big screen. I also said I hoped her first kiss was as memorable as the ones in the book and if not that hopefully she would get a role kissing someone as beautiful as her current obsession, (Riley from Eclipse).

I'd like to thank the Academy, The First Presidency, oh and all the little people, AKA the beehives.

A few of the other awards:

Taylar: Lifetime Achievement Role, (since it was her last year at camp).
For her role in, Up In The Hair. (because of the birthday hair).

Kaylee: Best supporting actress for her role in, Shut-in Island, (Taylar and her were rarely our of their tent).

Mary: Best special effects in the film, The Gas Station, (she was constantly doing what she called, "serving" gas).

Arika: Best "Non-Supporting" Actress, for her performance in, "under"dog. Because of her underwear being run up the flagpole.

Hailey: Best make-up artist for the film, The Joker" She had more jokes played on her than anyone else and through it all she kept a smile on her face and always, "made-up" with her pranksters.

Cami: Best costume design for the film, The Elves And The Dressmaker. Because of the elf outfits she would make out of leaves.

Testimony Meeting

Arika reading her letter from home.

We had the parents write letters from home to their daughters, we gave them to the girls right before testimony meeting.

Angie arranged a special surprise for us leaders also, she had our husbands send us a letter. I was a mess, with Rick being gone I was particularly emotional. The second I saw the envelope I knew it was from him. When we were in high school he would always do these stupid little drawings on his notes to me, this same drawing continued through basic training letters, AIT letters, Iraq etc. So I knew the second she handed it to me that it was from him and I immediately started bawling.

Taylar was hysterical reading her letter.

Kate reading her letter from home.

Our camp at night.

Ist Years Hike

This was a really, really pretty hike. We saw a huge buck and several deer.

Mary, Chevaus, Cydnee and Cami.

I took a picture of practically every flower I saw, there were tons of wild flowers.

You can barely see the buck back there by the trees but he was huge.

Boa's, Celebutants, and Unga Bunga

Shaunna with her light up boa.

Our girls on skit night. We re-did the book Tacky The Penguin. The girls changed it and made it Tacky the celebutant. They were so cute. It was by far the best skit. Mariah was Tacky and she was HILARIOUS!

The kids that were at camp last year were begging me weeks before camp to do Unga Bunga to everyone who wasn't at camp last year.

Unga Bunga was a practical joke I played on Suzy last year, it was a ritual that was suppose to ward of the bears.

Well they got their wish...

Don't they look cute, and clueless?

Ha ha ha!

Red Rocks

Russ and Nate, the coolest leader he has ever had!

What up?

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  The whole youth conference crew at our campsite.
  

If Your Friends Jumped Off A Cliff Would You Do It Too?

YES!

Russell jumping off a cliff at youth conference.

Youth Conference-Moab June 2010

Repelling

Gemini Bridge

I'm a total nut case!

Shaunna, Merisa and I sewing little bags for the pebbles the kids would collect on the commitment trail.

Wow, have you ever seen anyone so happy to be sewing?

Lunch the first day. We were waiting on another group to be done with the cliff that we wanted to use. While we were waiting we took a walk down the path to try and find the bear that we had spotted on the drive up...no luck!

Tunnel Vision

Nate and Ryan set up these awesome repels for us. All but two of our girls did it, and all of us leaders did it as well. It was actually pretty scary at first but such a blast once you got the nerve up to do it.
They also set up a place for us to rock climb, I didn't make it too far up the cliff before I quit, it was killing my knees.

I think the hike to this spot was about 2-2 1/2 miles. Nate had to carry the ladder the whole way. Nate and Ryan told us that this is a spot that very few people know about or have been to. it is a natural tunnel made by the wind in the side of this mountain. They had to climb to secure a rope near the top so that we wouldn't get rim rocked, and then we had to climb the ladder into the tunnel. It was very, very cool!

Giant Marshmallows

We found these giant marshmallows at the store and the kids had to have them. I had no desire to make a fire in the pit so we used the next best thing, the stove. Did I say, "next best"? I used the BEST option, no work, no smelling like smoke and having to shower, no washing stinky clothes, and I still get to feel like a hero!

I hate marshmallows, I think they are disgusting, I just roasted one for the fun of it.

Who Dat?

Have you ever been bugged when you husband doesn't notice if you get your hair trimmed or if you lose a few pounds. "Well I can top that...

So Suzy posted this on Facebook after our photo shoot and Rick and I were in bed messin' around on the computer, I said to Rick, "look"

He's said, "who is that?"

I said, "are you serious?"

He, said, "yes I have no idea who that is."

I was like, "honey, that's me, form our photo shoot yesterday."

He said, "no way, that doesn't look anything like you!"

I was like, "I know I've got a lot of make-up on but you saw me come home looking like this just YESTERDAY, after the activity!"

He examined it closer and was like well it kinda looks like you a little.

DUH!

Maybe I should start wearing more make-up???

Or maybe my husband is a little less cognizant of me than I thought he was...no that's not it, he's obsessed!