Youth Conference 2017

For Youth Conference we rented a cabin near Manti and attended the Manti Pageant, and spent a day at Palisades Reservoir.  We stayed up way too late playing games, did a faith walk, and generally laughed and joked around and had a great time.

I think ward youth conferences are my favorite.

Oh, and what else are you going to do at 1:00am?

Also, we kind of made a big deal out of dancing and being goof balls on the side show while waiting for the Manti Pageant to begin, and of course, our group got called up onto the stage.

A few times.

Kee's first selfie:

A Sunday Picture

A Sunday Picture

A Sunday Picture

Cali Turns 13

On Sunday Cali turned 13.

We are officially a house of teenagers.

No more kids.

This year my baby became a teenager, and my oldest will become an adult.

Life phases.


Cali has been obsessing over the Netfilx show, Stranger Things.  She's watched both seasons about six times through now.  Her entire wardrobe now consists of Stranger Things t-shirts.

So when I saw that one of the actors, Gaten Matarazzo, was going to be at this year's ComicCon, I had no doubt as to what her birthday present would be.

So I bought ComicCon tickets and we'll sign up for her to meet, and get a picture and autograph with him.

Cali's birthday fell on Sunday this year, which was also Kyle LeCheminant's homecoming from his mission, which meant that Makenzie, who I share a brain with, was back at church visiting.

And I miss her.

My girls:

Me, Makenzie Anderson, Crystal Bartlett

And our not so weekly, weekly Sunday picture, also my girls:

They're growing up.

Happy birthday, Cali.

You're going to rock this teenager thing.

Embark: Youth Conference on the Snake River

Youth Conference in our ward is the best,

The. Best.

In 2015 we played with the general mutual theme (Embark in the name of the Lord) and used the expertise that we have in the ward to go run the Snake River in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.  We have two families in our ward that own the equipment and have the knowledge to make this happen.  They held classes for the leaders who would be needed as boat captains, and they made sure to single me out.

I was told that the young women needed to see their leader doing something hard.  They needed to know that they could also do hard things.

And I agreed, though it terrified me.

I remember on my turn captaining down the river, we hit the Snake River Monster, and my little raft was cruising, and I was pulling on my oar with all my might.  It took full body pressure to push that oar and steer that boat.  The last thing I wanted was to slam against the large rock wall and have our raft pinned, or even flipped there.

And I pulled and I steered and suddenly... we were out of it.

And Chris, who had been teaching me to captain and has been doing rafting his whole life, and who had gone before me, stood up in his boat and yelled, "and that's how you do it!"  I could tell, even from across the river, that he was so proud of me, and that meant the world to me.

I was proud of me too.

We did two runs on two days for a total of four runs.  We gave devotionals before, after, and even on the river.

And every night around the fire we would ask the youth to apply the lessons of the river from that day, to their real life.

It was incredible.

On our way through Star Valley we stopped to see the construction site of the new Star Valley Temple.  We were each able to take a dedicated rock from the site, and participated from a presentation from the site missionaries.

This was also the year that we became obsessed with the game Signs, and played it endlessly.

As in, two years later I still know everyone's signs.

Tayler Applies for a Job. Easter Sunday. With a Few Other Pictures.

Yesterday Tayler turned in her fist application for a job.  She's been anxiously waiting for her 14th birthday, because at 14, you can apply at the school district for a janitorial job.  Brynn is currently cleaning the elementary school that's a block away from our house every day after school.  They're always taking on "subs" for when the regulars need to find someone to cover a shift for them.  Brynn started out as a sub and has now become a regular.  Tayler is excited to get the ball rolling and get herself on the sub list (they're used quite often).  So she got her application, filled it out, and got the head janitor at the elementary school to sign off on it.  I drove her down to the distric office so she could turn it in.

She scoffed at me when I told her I wasn't going to go in with her.

"Mom, I'm not an adult."

"But you're applying for a job.  Get on with it."

And she did.

 
She came out of the building on cloud nine, "I did it!"

She certainly had.

Normally Easter is an exciting time for us in that it opens up our first camping trip.  Our first stretch from our winter hibernation.

However, this year we took our first trip out during spring break (post coming), and it wasn't our year to have the kids for Easter, so we relaxed at home.

Casidee and I donned our new Easter dresses, attended church, where I taught, not about the Savior, because I had done that all through the previous month, but about the restoration of the church.  Which I still felt was very apropos as the Savior atoned for our sins, died and was resurected again, and therefore covered all for us.  And in so doing had the right to lay out what He now asks of us in return.

Going with Brad Wilcox's analogy (here), if a parent pays the piano teacher it does nothing to help the parent.  The parent did it so the child could grow and become better.  But because the parent paid the teacher, they now can ask the child to practice.

Our Savior "paid the piano teacher," and He asks us to practice.  Our practice comes in the form of repentance.  And while sometimes it's heartbreakingly hard to repent for the same thing, yet again... I know how hard it is to kneel and know that I need to say the words "I'm sorry" for the same thing time and time again.  "How can I face this prayer again?"

Let's remember Elder Jeffrey R. Holland's quote, "However many chances you think you have missed, however many mistakes you feel you have made … , I testify that you have not traveled beyond the reach of divine love. It is not possible for you to sink lower than the infinite light of Christ’s Atonement shines” (here).

It is by repentance that we practice becoming heavenly.  We practice becoming more like our Father.

And just like a parent can dictate the "when, where, and how" of practice, perhaps saying, every day for an hour after school, so does our Savior.  We are asked to attend church, make and keep sacred covenants, lover our neighbors, read our scriptures, and repent daily... to help us in our practice of learning to become heavenly.

And so we talked about that in Young Women's on Easter.  And I also spoke about this topic for Mikayla's "homecoming."  Perhaps I'll dig out my notes and write it in full here.  I love the topic of the plan of salvation, the plan of happiness.

A couple random pictures from my phone:

When your arm starts to tingle but The Man is fast asleep and you don't want to disturb him, so you settle into the tingles and just enjoy his closeness.

And when you've found that you've dressed the same as your daughters.  With five of them, it's bound to happen on occasion.