Sunday, July 24, 2011

Woot.


Seven Peaks with my best friend, and also with Shannon and Jason. It was seriously such a nice day. Nothing to worry about, just enjoying the water and the sun. I seriously LOVE summer days!

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Beehive Camp-Day 3



Bummer..it's over. Camp was SO much fun! There is nothing better than being able to feel up lifted, rejuvenated and be plain goofy!

I loved girls camp and I'm so grateful that I was able to go this year!!

The girls LOVED singing all the Tangled songs

Here's some fun pictures of girls camp that I didn't want to forget!:)














Monday, July 18, 2011

Beehive Camp-Day 2

Day numb-a two was just as great! Brother Lilenquist woke everyone up with the smell of pancakes! How nice is that? He got up early just to make all of us ladies some breakfast!:)


After breakfast we played Big-Booty, Big-Booty! This time, everyone played-including the priesthood leaders! It was soo much fun, and so dang funny!

We had our morning devotional and then had 30 minutes of personal study. It was so nice to just have 30 minutes of just writing in my journal and reading my scriptures. It was so peaceful too.

We then made crafts! one of my VERY favorite things to do!
Our first craft that we did was we had picture frames, and vinyl lettering that said "I believe" with a scripture reference. Each girl got a picture frame and put the lettering on the glass, then they didn't add the backing of the frame. Instead we had them get different color ribbons (bright ones, looked the cutest for the girls) and hot glue it to the top of the frame, so that they could tie a big ribbon, for it to hang. We also had the girls hot glue gun the glass sides to the frame.

The next craft they did was we had them make necklaces out of scrabble pieces! It turned out so cute! That was a simple craft too. All they had to do was get the We Believe square that we printed out, then they cut it to the shape of the scrabble piece. Once they cut it then the glued the paper onto the scrabble piece. Once that was dry, then they sanded the square piece. After that they modge pogde it and let it dry. Once dry, we super glued bales on the back, and added a chain! The girls LOVED this one!




We then had some lunch, and then did some UNITY games!


For the first unity game, we had the girls all stand on a log and had them alphabetically get in order. They had to work together by helping each other get in the right spot. If someone fell off the log, or if any part of there body touched the ground, they had to start over again.

even the priesthood leaders tried it out...


The girls wanted to try this a couple times, so we let them keep doing it! This turned out to be a really fun activity and all we needed was a log!

After the girls got tired of that, we played friendship tag! This was really fun, because I remember playing this when I was younger. Friendship tag is where you link arms with someone, and the person who is it is chasing someone. For the person being chased, they have to link arms with someone within the circle.

Brother Fisher always seemed to be the one in the middle! ha ha!!

It's pretty amazing how much energy these girls have! After we were done playing the unity games they had free time. They didn't want to rest, they wanted to play more games! So, we played more Big Booty, Little Sally Walker and Bust a Move.

We then had the girls come up with skits. I had them get into groups and draw out of a bowl a fairytale. They had 15 minutes to come up with a skit and to make props. (They could use tinfoil, straws, tape, pom pom's etc)

The first group had Tangled-They changed it to "Redneck Rapunzel"

The second group had Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs-They changed it to "Maddie Moo-Who and the one Midget".



and the last group had Cinderella. They kept it as Cinderella!



After skits, it was time to learn how to build a fire and then roast hotdogs for dinner!




We had our devotional after dinner, and we we watched the movie "New Testament" before we had our testimony meeting. It really helped set the mood.
I absolutely love testimony meeting at girls camp. The spirit is always so super strong, and everyone feels so unified with one another. I seriously can't describe in words what a neat experience it is to listen to the girls stand and bare testimony of what they know is true. It's so amazing.

Even though it was midnight by the time testimony meeting ended, we didn't want to go to bed! So, the leaders all went into the basement and played the card game-Wizard until 3:00 am. I don't think I've stayed up that late since I was in high school..maybe college? I can't even remember the last time I stayed up that late! It was a lot of fun! I don't think I've laughed so hard in a long time!

I always talk about how amazing the Beehives are, because they really are but I don't talk about how awesome the women are that I get to serve with.
They are such awesome women. I feel so blessed to be able to spend so much time with them too! Colleen, has become one of my really good friends. She is a lot like me in quite a bit of ways. I know that certain people come into our lives for a reason and I know Colleen is one of those people. This has been a hard year for me, and she completely understands me and always seems to know when I need to talk. She also knows how to have a good time, and be just as goofy as me!

Me, Colleen and Paigey (Paige is Colleen's daughter)

Saturday, July 9, 2011

Beehive Camp-Day 1

I have so many good memories of going to girls camp when I was a young women. I seriously couldn't wait until Beehive Camp!

This year's theme was We Believe-the thirteenth article of faith. This year was just Beehive Camp because all of the older youth go to trek. I honestly can say, it couldn't of been any better. Because I was able to spend more one on one time with each of the girls.
We had such awesome camp directors and girls camp couldn't have gone any better. We really wanted the girls to come closer to Christ as well as be more unified with one another.

Before girls camp we had a fourteen day walk with Christ. Where we would give the girls questions as well as a story that they needed to read every day. All of the leaders did this as well, so by the end of girls camp it would be our fourteenth day. After reading and really pondering the questions, I can honestly say that I became closer to Christ. I seriously love this about young women's.



So, for day one-on Wednesday, we met up at the Lilenquist's home where we had our morning devotional as well as muffins and juice.
We then loaded up the cars and headed to our destination. The Lilenquist family were soooo generous and let us have our girls camp at their family cabin. The cabin was only an hour and a half away from home, so it really wasn't too far at all!
When we got there we showed the girls where they would sleep and let them explore the cabin. Then we went on a five mile hike as a group. The hike was super pretty, and we all ate our packed lunches.
While we were eating our lunches, one of my beehives-Lindsay, was so tired from the hike she couldn't wait to sit down on a nice rock. Unfortunately, when she sat down it ended up not being a rock but a dry cow pie. So, when she sat down, the poop ooozed all over her. It was so sad, but really funny at the same time! Everyone had a good laugh!


After lunch, all of leaders did our welcome skit! Where we did a rap to get all the girls excited for camp!



This is how it went: (My creative friend Colleen came up with it!)

Chorus:(All) Yo Beehives, Listen up, we got somethin' to tell you. We're all here at camp learnin' values and virtue!

Shari: We got Becky & Keira, Denise, Ang, Colleen. There's Tammy, the priesthood & don't forget me!

Chorus

Denise:We're sisters and daughters, united we stand, helping all the people here in Zion's land!

Chorus

Keira: We will work so hard on our Personal Progress, once you get started you know you can't stop this!

Chorus

Becky & Priesthood: You know with every trial and lesson, Heav-en-ly Father's always there with a blessin'!


Chorus

Angie: Now when we fall down, we just need to work harder to be happy and live with our Heavenly Father

Chorus

Colleen: Because much is given, so much is required. No problem, B-dogs' cuz you are inspired!


Tammy: We'll all work together-make the best of each day. Our Father will help us' cuz we'll pray every day!


All: That's why we pray clap, stomp, stomp, clap We pray!
stmp stmp stmp mrch stmp clap clap

We got to pray just to make it to-day!
stmp stmp stmp stmp clap clap stmp stmp mrch stmp


The skit got all the girls excited! And they started acting more goofy like the leaders;)
I loved going on the hike though, because it was great being able to walk along the side of each girl and just to talk them, or joke around with them! I love just having fun with them.

Here's some other cute pics from the hike:





After the hike, we went back to the cabin and went over the 10 commandments of camp. So they knew what the rules were while we were up there.
We then played some games-Big Booty, Little Sally Walker and Ride that Pony! These girls sure know how to have fun! I completely forgot about these games. I haven't played them since I was a young women! I LOVED it! It's so nice to remember what good fun is.
Not long after, we all got in a circle to make our friendship necklaces. This was one of the neatest activities we did at camp. We had all the girls, including the leaders bring 20 pieces of one thing that they loved to do, or something that was there favorite. We went around the circle explaining what we brought and why we brought it. And then each of us put it on our necklaces and we wore the necklaces all throughout camp. I really think this also helped the girls be unified with one another.


We then made our secret sister buckets, so that we could put all of our secret sister stuff in them for the time we were at camp. For secret sister, we had the girls bring something that they liked, so by the end of camp you were to try and guess who your secret sister is. That way, they can get to know each other more. The girls at first were worried that who ever they had might not like what they brought, but at the end they loved having someone guess who they were.


Some girls had dinner prep while the rest played more games (for each meal, Denise would draw names out of a bowl, so the girls couldn't choose who they wanted to do meals with. That way they all had a turn helping with different people and again, being more unified).

After dinner, we had our evening devotional. We had the girls draw a picture of someone they didn't like or of someone who had offended them. I was a little shocked and saddened at how quickly and excited they were to draw someone. Because after we told them to draw that person, they would each get a turn to throw darts at their drawing. They didn't have to if they didn't want to, but they had the opportunity to do that if they wanted to.
Only two girls out of the ten decided they didn't feel comfortable doing that. We had the girls go outside and on the deck we had a bulls eye where they could place their picture. Each girl eagerly got in line and hung up there drawing. Some of the girls missed their picture, so with their last dart that they had they would run up to the picture and start poking holes through it. It really made me feel so sad inside to see so much anger come out of these girls. It made me wonder what really offended them or hurt them so much.
After each of the girls did this, we sat around the camp fire and asked the girls how did it make you feel to be able to draw that person and throw darts at them? The girls answers were this "It felt good" "I loved poking a dart in that person's eye"... After we let them tell us how they felt, we got the bull's eye target, and underneath it was a picture of Christ.
I knew Christ was behind the target, but still seeing holes all through him was so hard to see. The girls faces quickly turned from smiling to being sad, some even cried. Most of them quickly said to us "Well, if we knew he was under there, we wouldn't have done that." We then reminded them that when they are hurting others, or gossiping, or being mean to one another, we are still hurting Christ.
We then let the girls let out there feelings. I can't explain in detail what a neat experience that was for me. They asked for forgiveness with one another, and this alone helped the girls become one with one another. After this, all through out camp they watched out for one another, and made sure everyone was feeling included.


Don't get me wrong, all the girls generally all get a long, but I really think because they are still young and getting used to changes sometimes they just need a gentle reminder to include everyone and to not get in little groups.

After our devotional, we grabbed our can lanterns and went on a night hike. We gathered around one another in a circle and sang Walk Tall Your a Daughter. This is one of my very favorite songs. I love the meaning and the words of the song.
The spirit was so strong, listening to all the girls sing brought tears to my eyes. I am so extremely blessed to be able to be with them.
The girls spirits are all so strong to. Their testimony and the light of Christ shines through each of their eyes. They are all such beautiful girls, and they make me want to be better.

Once we hiked and sang songs, we went back to the cabin and got ready for bed. We then watched Tangled.:)

I sure love my BEEHIVES!

Kjersti's Engaged!




Well, it's finally OFFICIAL. Kjersti and Tyler are engaged and getting married on September 1st! I'm soo super excited for my baby sis. Tyler and Kjersti make a perfect couple!