Young Womens Girls' Camp 2012 - "Light the Torch"

I had the great opportunity to go with our Young Women to girls' camp again this year. Planning for girls' camp is always such a HUGE task, but when I see the fruits of our labors, I always feel like all the hard work was worth it.

This year, the Stake theme was "Light the Torch" based on the 2012 Mutual theme "Arise and shine forth that thy light may be a standard for the nations." (Doctrine and Covenants 115:5) and the scripture Matthew 5:16, "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." Our focus was on strentthening testimonies through good works and service.

Each ward chose a country to represent and also to provide some type of service for. Our ward's country was Germany. I loved learning about Germany, particularly about the great faith that the saints in Germany had, even through their many war-torn years. And for our service, we contatced a ward in Germany and sent them a package with letters, pictures and a variety of church items. And through a tender mercy of the Lord, a package back from them arrived in the mail the night before we left for camp...What an answer to prayers! The girls were SO excited to read their letters from their new pen pals and couldn't wait to write them back again. And I really enjoyed the yummy German chocolate they sent in our package!

I got to serve with some amazing Young Women leaders again this year. For three of them, it was their first time going to camp with our young women. By the end of the week (or probably even before that--like when we got there), all the leaders were exhausted. But I think they all had a good time, and like me, were glad they went. Here's some pictures of the amazing leaders I served with.

We had a lot of fun with our German theme. We made mini pretzels out of clay for our trading pins. And we handed out pretzels and played the human pretzel game at the Stake Mix 'n Mingle. Here's a pictures of a few of our girls wearing their German hats and suspenders.

On Wednesday, our ward went on an early morning hike. I didn't like getting up so early, but the hike was fun and beautiful. Here's a picture of the sunrise shining through the trees on some of our girls and also a group picture (minus the YW President who was taking the picture).

The girls (and leaders) loved playing the team-building games on the confidence course.

The girls loved it when the leaders were willing to join in the activities. Here's a picture of me getting ready to fall backwards into their hands in the Trust Fall. I also let them guide me blindfolded on the Stump Walk.

I love this picture. I think it is a great illustration of our theme, "Light the Torch."

While the girls and other leaders were out hiking, I set up a little "spa" for them to come back to and soak their feet. They loved it.

No girls' camp would be complete without lots of fun crafts.

Here's group picture taken after our ward did our flag ceremony presentation on Germany. We did our presentation at the Stake Morningside. We had to get up at 5:15 am that morning (sigh) after being up until after midnight for singing trees (double sigh). It was a great morningside, but needless to say, everyone was pretty grumpy later that day.

I wish I could have got more pictures at the waterfront, but my camera battery was dying on the last day of camp. But here's couple pictures of our girls canoing. Some of us leaders joined the girls in the canoes later for games. I had a great time chasing other canoes around the lake trying to pop the ballons tied to them.

Here's a picture of all our girls after their skit. We did a twist on the story "Little Red Riding Hood" where Sister Red, Sister Riding, and Sister Hood help convert the Big Bad Wolf.

It was an exhausting week, but I am so glad I got to go. I love being able to spend so much time with these girls that I love. And I especially love seeing them grow so much spiritually while they are there. Girls' Camp is a great way for the girls to get the "spiritual booster shot" that they so desperately need during their teenage years.

4 Years Together

Last week Ross and I celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary. It was on a Wednesday, so it was harder to do too much. But we still had a good time. We dropped Leah off with her Grandma Leslie and then went out to dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. We've wanted to go there for a while, but it is always so busy that we haven't bothered. However, going on a Wednesday evening was a good idea because we waited for a minute or less to be seated.

The food was good. We both took half our dinner home to finish later. And I of course got the Dulce de Leche Cheesecake, which I enjoyed over the course of the next several days.

The week before, we did get to spend two nights without Leah. So that was like a pre-anniversary treat. We dropped Leah off at my parents' house, went to a Bees baseball game, and then left the next morning to take the young women in our ward to their camp kick-off overnighter.

Our June has been crazy and full so far. We've done enough things to fill a whole month and it's only half over. There were even some things we didn't do. Plus, we still have a lot left for the rest of the month.

So far this month we :

• Went with the young women on their camp kick-off overnighter
• Had Ross's mom over for dinner
• Had dentist appointments - we even took Leah for her firsts dentist "experience"
• Attended a funeral for a family friend, Cheryl Edvalson
• Celebrated our anniversary
• Went to a dance recital
• Went camping at Heber Valley Girls Camp for our Tucker family reunion
• Went to a birthday party
• Tried to have an Elder's Quorum BBQ (it had to be postponed because of weather)
• Had dinner with the Millers
• Prepared like crazy for girls camp
• Plus we also had all our usual Young Women and Elders Quorum meetings and responsibilities

I wish I had gotten more pictures from our adventures, especially from our family reunion. Oh well, I guess. I did get a few pictures from the dance recital Leah and I went to. Some of the dancers included my two sisters, my niece, my cousin and three of Lesley's nieces. Leah loved watching the girls dance on the stage. Her and Kynee even danced danced with them in their seats. But by the end, both of them were done sitting for so long and just wanted to run around.

Here's a picture of my sisters and my cousin performing their trio dance. They did a great job!

Here's my niece, Megan. Isn't she a doll!?! This was her first year of dance lessons. She had a lot of fun and also did a great job!

Here's to hoping that we survive the rest of our busy June!

Leah Turns 2!

Wow! Where did the time go? Our little girl just turned 2! And it was such a fun event! I think I like celebrating a little one's second birthday even better than their first one. This year, Leah understood a little more what birthdays are all about, so she was SO excited for her birthday to come. We hyped her up for it all through the month of May. Although, she still hadn't caught onto the present thing yet. Whenever anyone would ask her what she wanted for her birthday, she would say "Candles!" and then "Treats!" She didn't quite understand that presents could be so much greater than that. But I'm pretty sure that she gets it now.

The celebration started the Monday before her birthday when we went to the Miller's for a BBQ dinner. As it turned out, none of the Millers were going to be in town for Leah's birthday, so they surprised us by throwing a little party for her at the BBQ complete with presents and Elmo cupcakes (obviously they know what our little girl likes). They even invited Leah's Grandma Leslie to come join in the fun. They gave her lots of great gifts including several cute summer outfits and pajamas which she really needed. Here's a couple pictures of her opening the gifts.

Here are some of our wonderful Miller family members that were there for the little party. These guys are so great! We love them so much!!!

Leah loved getting clothes! She couldn't wait to try on her new shoes. And she tried to put a new pair of shorts over the ones she was already wearing.

Leah loves these girls--Madi, Makenzi and Morgan. And they adore her too! (They belong to Ross's cousin, Brad.)

Can't forget the candles! She blew them out before we even got done singing.

The frosting was messy, but Leah and the kids loved eating them.

Leah was so happy when her actual birthday arrived. I had put up some balloons, streamers and a "Happy Birthday" sign for her to see when she came down in the morning. She loved them. Later we went to the library (one of her favorite places to go) and then to the store, where they gave her a balloon because she was wearing her "Birthday Girl" ribbon. Here's a few pictures of her hamming it up for the camera.

For dinner, we invited a couple from our ward (Frank and Penny Brown) who have a little boy Leah's age to join us at a local pizza place. Parker is only a couple weeks younger than Leah and they are good buddies. Parker slept through most of dinner, but when he woke up Leah loved playing with him and his Woody doll.

After that, we took them over to the Provo Beach Resort to play on the toddler playground. They had a ball! They went down the slide a countless number of times. It took Parker a little longer to get brave enough to go down, but once he figured it out, he was hooked. (I wish the netting hadn't shown up in this picture. It was so cute to see them checking out the slide together.

Leah couldn't wait to ride the carousel. She went nuts anytime she saw it! She was a little unsure when she actually got on it the first time, but then she just wanted to ride it over and over again and cried when we wouldn't let her. It's too bad it cost money every time she rode it, otherwise she would have been able to ride it all night.

Leah and Parker also loved the arcade dance game. They didn't actually play it, but they seemed to think they were. They played on it every chance they got! Here's a little video of them "dancing" together.

The day after her birthday was Saturday and we had invited our families and the Browns to join us for a BBQ lunch and party at a local park. That morning I decorated Leah's cake. She LOVES Kermit and the other Muppets. So I wanted to make her a Kermit cake. She loved it. And it turned out even better than I had hoped it would.

 I love this picture. She likes to help unload the dishwasher and thinks she needs to wear my apron to do it because that's what I wear when I do the dishes.

 As luck would have it, the morning of her party a storm rolled in. The wind was strong and cold with rain imminent. So about a half hour before the party was supposed to start, we quickly straightened up our little town home and told everyone to come there instead. I was glad I hadn't taken down her birthday decorations yet. It was a crowed fit, but turned out to be just fine and was much better than sitting out in the cold trying not to let our plates of food blow away. Here's some pictures of us all crowed into our little town house.

When it was time to open presents, Leah was excited at first. But then she just wanted to sit on her Grandpa's lap. He had to keep sending her back to open more presents. But Parker wanted to be right there where all the action was.

Money from Great Grandma and Grandpa Putnam. I was so glad that they could be here to celebrate with us. I love them SOOO much!

She loved it when we sang happy birthday to her and just wanted to blow out the candles. I had to keep pulling the cake away from her until the song was over. And of course Parker was right there to help her blow them out.

After the party she got to go shopping with Aunt MoMo and picked out a baby doll and stroller which she has pushed all over the house every day since. Since Lyndsee, Jason and Kynee were going to spend the night with us, we took the girls over to the park after dinner and let them run the rest of their energy off. By then the weather was a little better and they had a blast playing on the playground.

I took Leah to the doctor today for her check-up. She now weighs in at 22 lbs. 4 oz. and is 33 1/2 inches tall. We were surprised at how much she had grown in the past 6 months. She gained about three pounds and three inches during that time. She is a little chatter box lately. She can string several words together and speaks more in sentences now. She loves to count and can sing most of the ABC song with some help. She can remember people's names with amazing skill, yet can't figure out colors (we sometimes joke that she's colorblind). We love our little girl and we are so excited that we could celebrate this special time with her. We're so glad you had such a happy birthday, Leah Ru! Here's to another great year with you!