Youth Conference 2010

Youth Conference was AMAZING. Words can't even describe how much fun, and how awesome it was. I seriously love the youth.

We were planning on leaving on Thursday night, but Bishop decided it would be a good idea to not go until Friday Morning since there was Flash flood warnings. Which, I completely agree. Flash flooding=SCARY! Luckily, we found out later there was no flooding. But, it's better to be safe then sorry.

So, we woke up bright an early and met up at the Fisher's house for breakfast at 7am. We also made our carpool arrangements.

Our carpool consisted of Steve and I, Tara, Kelsey and Amber. We all had a fun time talking, laughing, making inside jokes, and listening to Brian Regan on our way there. SO MUCH FUN! I seriously love these girls. And of course I love Steve! :)

"Peace out to Wingers" (inside joke)

We finally arrived to Castledale 2 1/2 hours later. Castledale is a super small, quaint town. It's really cute though and everyone knows everyone. We eventually found our park and set up camp. After we set up everything we all loaded up in the cars and made our way to go on a hike.

The hike was fun. SUPER, SUPER hot. There was NOTHING out there. Nothing. Okay, a cactus or two. So, I was sweating like mad, as well as the rest of the group. But, we made it to be fun. We all sang songs and joked around as we walked.

Once we reached the top we had lunch and enjoyed the pretty view. The hike was well worth it.

Once we made it back to our campground, everyone got into their swimsuits and went swimming at the Castledale pool. All the leaders just watched while all the kids had fun. Steve and I wanted to go swimming, but we forgot our suits! dang.

We were probably at the pool a little over an hour, and than it was time to go to the Emory County Fair.

On the way to the fair we saw lots of old cars, and than the guys played a game.

The fair had games, and all the regular fair stuff that you normally see.

There was this one guy though, his name is Freddie Perez who was seriously so funny. He had a whole set up dedicated to guitar hero. Steve calls him the guitar hero guru.. Everything about him was funny stuff. Steve and I got a kick out of it....

We all had dinner at the fair. You could choose between chicken or lamb. I'll take CHICKEN any day. I had a pet lamb, there is NO WAY I"m ever going to eat lamb. YOU just don't eat pets...

Anyway, after dinner we all went back to camp and changed into warmer clothes for the Castledale Pageant. The Pageant didn't start until 9pm, so we played some games while we waited to go. Unfortunately, on our ride to the pageant it started to down pour with rain! bummer. And bummer is right. We all got SOAKED.

But, we still stayed for the pageant, and by the time the pageant started it stopped raining and there was a double rainbow that went right over the pageant stage. It was really pretty.

The pageant was beyond amazing. The spirit was super strong, and it only strengthened my testimony even more. I want to go to the pageant again. I think I would get even more out of it the second time (especially if I'm not shivering! Luckily, Steve and I were able to keep each other warm- a little.)

The pageant didn't get over until a little past 11pm and so I was getting super tired. But once I got out of the wetness I had my second wind. We all played card games and then Tammy and I shared a tent. Tammy is the YW president and I seriously love her to pieces. I've been able to get to know her through our 4 years of being in this ward. I taught Tammy's twin girls when they were 5 and now I'm teaching her other daughter, Katie in Beehives. I seriously love Tammy though. We stayed up until 1:20ish waiting for the kids to go to sleep so we could T.P the tents, but they were NEVER going to sleep. We finally decided we needed our rest and we hit the sack. (I found out the next day they went to bed at 1:30. 10 minutes too late dang it!)

We woke up at 5:30 hearing someone blaring a car horn repeatedly. ARE YOU KIDDING ME CASTLEDALE PEOPLE? Waking us up. Then I went back to sleep because we didn't need to make breakfast until 7. Then I heard the most annoying bird sound of my life. I'm not for shooting animals, or birds or killing anything. But at that moment, my first thought was "where's a gun?" I was soo extremely tired, and the first wake up by the car was not pleasant. By 7 Tammy's alarm went off, and we got up. We found out the boys put a zip tie on our tent zipper so we were locked in. That wasn't the last prank that they pulled either. Tammy and I were finally free from the tent and we went to the bathroom to find shaving cream all over the toilet seats. I swear, next time i do this, I'm bringing tons of things to pull pranks with! They scared poor Marla (1st counselor) with CREEPY, HORRIFIC masks, that look like someone died. Pulled the tent stakes from the girls tent, so they woke up with a tent on top of them. It was all pretty funny, and I thought it was awesome. It was all in good fun.

I so wish me and Tammy would of stayed up a little later....

Notice the shaving cream on the ground by the tent..they put shaving cream by the tents too, so when we walked out we would step in it!

So, that was our morning. Steve said he didn't get any sleep. The first counselor in the bishopric was "sawing logs" Okay am I the ONLY one who has never heard that phrase? I had to ask him what it meant. He said it means he was snoring like crazy.

I had to add this picture, look how cute and funny this is! Steve is chasing Conner around the camp with tent ties.

What a fun morning. After we ate breakfast we went back to the pageant amphitheater and cleaned it (for our service project)

We than had testimony meeting.

It's so amazing that we can go from having such a fun time to having a spiritual high. I love the youth so much, and I'm so grateful that Heavenly Father has given me this opportunity to be with them. The are building me up all the time, and I know it's strengthening my testimony.