Friday, June 20, 2014

Don't know what is going on here but

I love this face.  Maybe he's missing

his buddies Evan and Max.

These boys are having a great time at the beach.

I got back at camp around 9 and the morning chores had already been done.  Darn!  Sorry I missed them.

LeeAnn, Kilee, and Sister Curtis doing chores.

 We went up to break camp and then we were called back for the awards ceremony.  1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th years got certificates and so did the YCL's or Youth Camp Leaders.  

 Heaven taking down the Service Tree.

Awards Ceremony

 Kilee, Alice, LeeAnn and Heaven at the

awards ceremony.

Do they look bored?

After the awards ceremony they announced that there would be more activities.  I don't know about everyone else but our group just wants to go home.  We are tired and want our comforts of modern-day life restored.  The activities today consist of shooting, puppet making as a service project.  These puppets will be sent to wards in Africa.  The puppets are characters from the scriptures.

The other activity was games. 

After these activities were completed and lunch was over we were called back to the ramada again.  This time it was for water games.

That's Kelly in the blue shirt.

She loved the water activities.

We finally got to break camp and get ready to go home.

Alice and Kelly

 We appreciated Brother Curtis even more

as we began to disassemble the tents.

We finally figured out after reading the directions several times

that the poles do not come out of their sleeves on this tent,

they only collapse.

Finally the tent is down!

Now to get it into the bag!

Let the games begin.  Julie Wilhelm had brought

water guns for our ward, big ones for the leaders and

small ones for the young women.

Amy(Sister Reynolds) is an expert when it comes to shooting a real gun and

a water gun is no different.

I guess I should call Amy, Sister Reynolds.

Her husband Cope teaches fire arms safety.

Kilee's in trouble because she dumped a bucket of water on

Sister Reynolds.

Before leaving we had a chore assigned to us by the stake.  Ours was quite easy.  We had to clean around the flagpole.  After we were done we loaded up and headed for the church to unload some of our equipment.  I took Kilee Hunsaker home but LeeAnn refused to come.  I guess they had had a little tiff and she didn't want to ride with Kilee.

I go home and crash and veg out in front of the TV.  I found an old Glenn Ford, Maria Schell movie on.  The name of the movie was Cimarron.  My mother was a big Glenn Ford fan so I saw this movie in my childhood.  In fact, part of it was filmed in Mexico and we were in Mexico at the time at a bull fight in Nogales.  Glenn Ford and Maria Schell were special guests at the bull fight and it was the highlight of my mother's day because she actually hated the bull fight.  I hated it too.  I felt so sorry for the bull.  

James fixed me dinner and then he did the dishes.  I read to him from Edenbrooke.  I took this picture of the sunset before going to bed around 9pm.

Thursday, June 19, 2014

 Happy Birthday to our beautiful
daughter-in-law Tricia!

Let Your Light

So Shine Before Men, That

They May See Your

Good Works, And Glorify

Your Father

Which Is In Heaven.

-Matthew 5:16

The theme for this year's camp is "See the Light, He is the Light."  Each day there is a morning devotional and the YCL's handed out card with quotations or scriptures about light.  The above one was today's handout.  The girls could clip these on a necklace they were given with a clip on it.  I loved this aspect of camp.

Everyone was just finishing up breakfast when I arrived back at camp.  These was an unfortunate incident with a mouse.  One of the stake leaders, Linda Pearce, squished the mouse with her foot which was very upsetting to many girls including some of ours, and our assistant camp director Amy Reynolds.  Our girls were assigned to clean the eating area after breakfast.

Hope sweeping and Kelly trying to get out of the picture.

Kyah was a good worker.

Next the girls broke up into groups for certification classes.  Amy, Diana, and I attended Julie's class on clouds and trees and vegetation.  Julie also taught compassing and water purification.  She is really an asset at camp.  She was also the hike leader for the stake as well as our ward camp director.  She works for the forest service and loves the outdoors so she is a great resource person.

I especially loved the tree boring class where she bored into the tree to count the rings to determine the age of the tree.  The girls loved it too.

Julie counting the rings of the tree she bored.

Amy, Diana and I had to leave class a little early for kitchen duty.  The cooks, Sister Crandell and Sister Jackson had left on a hike and were late getting back.  Our job was to cook the noodles for the macaroni and cheese but we couldn't find them.  We told Sister Crookston, a counselor in the YW's stake presidency and finally after about ten minutes she found them in a box hidden away under the counter.  We already had several large pots boiling water on the stove.

Diana stiffing the pot.

At one point while adding the noodles to the water I spilled noodles all over the floor.  Also, the pilot light had gone out on the oven and there were several people trying to light the pilot so we could cook the garlic bread but no one was successful.  Somehow we managed to get those noodles cooked and our kitchen leaders made it back from hike and lunch for 150 people was brought about.  We had macaroni and cheese, ham, salad, bread, and fresh fruit.  Sister Crandell was so grateful that we had started without her.  

Back in our camp Julie and some of the other girls took Hope's stuffed bear and hung him from a tree.  We had a memorial service for Teddy and Jordyn even played taps on the harmonica.

 Teddy handing from the tree.

Hope was a good sport.

Jordyn playing taps and Julie

bowing her head.

Rescuing Teddy.

Alice during journal and scripture study.

Heaven

Amy, Kilee, and Diana taking a break.

Enjoying some down time.

LeeAnn painting Kelly's nails.

We were assigned to help with dinner.  I was proud of how most of our girls responded and came to help.  Dinner was green chili chicken burros that were absolutely delicious.  It was bishop's night but since our bishop is working out of town Brother Wilhelm and Sandra came.  They had dinner with us and then afterwards we gathered at camp for our testimony meeting. Afterward Sister Wilhelm handed out cookies.  It was a nice evening.  I was tired again when I went home.  I was surprised to find James had come home so I was not alone.

Earlier in the day James attended Aaron and Kari's sealing.  Gail and all of his kids were there and so were Darrel, Trina, and Jared.

 

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

 Happy Birthday Miss Ruby!

5 yr. old cutie.

Up at 5am.  I overslept!  I scramble to get ready, bake the cinnamon rolls and get to the church by 6am.  I am there by 6:10.  Most of the girls are already there.  I guess Maddie isn't coming.  She is still in Payson.  Her cousin Kyah is especially disappointed.  
I went back home to get some ice and met the rest of our group up at the camp. Before the girls go on their hike we raise the flags over camp.   

 Brother Curtis stayed to set up our two tents.  Diana and I try to help.

We can't have fires but we wanted some light so we strung solar lights in our firepit.

 Diana Curtis, Amy Reynolds, and Shelly Applegate.

This is the stake's fire.

 

 I want James to make us some of these benches.

Our girls: 

Jordyn and Shelly Applegate who were both YCL's.

Kelly Reynolds, Hope and Heaven Lootans,

Alice Wilhelm, Kilee and LeeAnn Hunsaker 

and Kyah Westbrook.

We are missing Maddie Carroll, Trenda Wilhelm

and Coty Iannoli.

This is our service tree.  Whenever someone sees someone else perform an act of service they write it on a paper flashlight and hand it on the tree.  At the end of camp this tree was full of flashlights.

These three girls, Heaven, Hope, and Kelly, along with Kyah Westbrook gathered pinecones.  Julie Wilhelm, our camp leader gave them the idea of dumping pinecones in the entrance of people's tents while they were sleeping.  

 Kelly and Hope

 Here is their stash.

Our first meal here at camp was delicious.  Thanks to LaShell Crandell and Victoria Jackson and all their helpers.  For lunch today we had taco salad, fruit and cinnamon rolls.  The girls were especially hungry after their hike.  After lunch I had a nice visit with Heidi Hastings who is the stake young women's first counselor over the Mia Maids.  She and her husband who is a doctor along with their family are moving to Frisco, Texas.  She seems a little sad to go but feels like it is what the Lord wants them to do.  

This afternoon the girls divided into groups and rotated to different activities.  There was first aid, archery, games, and journal and scriptures.  Here are some pictures of our girls at archery.

 

That's Hope in the foreground.

Kelly was the best shot.

I think she got two bullseyes.

Kelly, LeeAnn, and Kilee

This was one of the games.  Someone walks on the

poles and those with the strings try to balance her.

For dinner we had grilled pineapple, rice and teriyaki chicken.  Afterwards we had kitchen cleanup.  I helped and then headed home.  Sister Boone, the stake YW's secretary used a laser pointer and talked about the stars and constellations.  I guess she was excellent.

I'm glad I went home.  I stopped a cow elk from attacking one of the trees James planted.  I took a whirlpool bath and went to bed.  My feet really hurt.  

 Kim and Brian in San Diego

Joe, Brian, Kim, Chelsea, and Michael

Sheri and Ian's family at Disneyland

 

 

 

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

I urge the husbands and fathers of this Church to be the kind of a man your wife would not want to be without.  I urge the sisters of this Church to be patient, loving, and understanding with their husbands.  Those who enter into marriage should be full prepared to establish their marriage as the first priority in their lives."

-Pres. James E. Faust

 This is a picture of the cheesecake

that Audrey made me.  Delicious!

When I asked James how his pour went he said "perfect."  Now that doesn't happen too often.  Here are some pictures:

 Finished product.  James had to do all the cutting himself

after being up all night on the pour.  He's going to sleep like a baby tonight.

I made two trips in to town today after being their yesterday.  Diana needed me to run off a picture of Kyah Westbrook and I had to go into town to get photo paper because I forgot it yesterday.  The picture is for a photo board Diana is making for camp with pictures of all the girls.  Here is Kyah's picture.

Kyah won't be 12 until August but the stake allowed her to go to camp.  

I couldn't make my Verizon wifi device work.  I called their technical support and he couldn't help either so I went back in to the Verizon store in Show Low.  The girl took the battery out and put it back in and it worked.  She said sometimes they "go to sleep."  Why couldn't the tech on the phone have told me this and saved me a trip into town?

This afternoon I went visiting teaching to Linda Diewald and then to Rosa Westbrook.  Rosie Lauritzen my partner joined me at Rosa's.  I had a cute handout but I forgot to take a picture of it.  Rosa had a dachsund named Spikey.  He laid on the floor by us and Rosie rubbed his tummy.  You could tell he was thrilled.  

I came home and watched "Signed, Sealed, and Delivered" then went to bed.  I have to be at the church tomorrow morning at 6am for girls camp.