Oh the Places She'll Go!

Well, our Holly has spread her wings and flown away.  She moved to Corvalis, Oregon on a new life adventure.  She's looking for a job and will be attending Linn-Benton Community College this fall.  Before she left, she gave me an actual real hug, the first one in years.  I can't explain how happy it made me.  I'm excited to see all the places she will go in life.  

This is her new place 

We stopped by on our way home from
Washington and took her to lunch.

While in Washington...

Hoop Camp Las Vegas and Centralia

While I was at girl's camp, the boys headed to Vegas for a Hoop Camp.  The next weekend, we drove to Washington for our first Hoop Camp in Centralia.  All of Ben's family showed up to help out and it was a lot of fun!  

Conflict resolution.  These guys could teach
us all a lesson in forgiveness.  

This is what we do it for...the smiles!

America the Beautiful

We hosted my side of the family for the 4th this year.  The day was spent cleaning, watching the hot dog eating contest, making festive dishes and Ben smoked a lot of meat.  Once everyone arrived we ate the yummy food, played Kubb, launched Rockets, took a walk out on the jetty to enjoy our beautiful America and of course blew things up!  So grateful to live in the land of the free!

Young Women Camp

Well, I survived another year of young women camp!  It was a privilege and honor to be able to spend time with the beautiful young women and leaders.  We had fun, we felt the spirit, we grew our testimonies of Christ and of the temple, we grew closer together and had minimal drama. 

Every night the girls received a "pillow gift."

1.  Handkerchief with the Saratoga Springs temple on the front.  I'm hoping this will be used during the Hosanna Shout when our temple is dedicated on August 13th.

2.  Utah temple passport book.  I hope that as the girls are vacationing around Utah, they will stop at the temples nearby and take a picture that they can add to their temple passport book.  

3.  Framed picture of the theme, "There's no Place Like Home."  I would love for the girls to display this in their bedroom as a reminder that there is no place like the temple, and no place like their heavenly home.

They also received a temple envelope for their sacred temple clothing when they receive their endowment.  The Relief Society sewing group helped make these for us.  We had a "blue stone" experience with the fabric. I hope they will keep these in their drawer until the time comes when they will be able to use them.  

These are some of the things we did at camp:

We visited 4 temples on the way to camp.

For our service activity we washed windows on cars at the temple.  We had a few fun comments from temple patrons..."you are going straight to heaven", and "you are angels."  

We did dinner and a movie the first night, where we watched the Wizard of Oz, so that they would be able to understand the theme.

We had pool time, twice.  Valley View Camp had a nice heated pool.

We sang camp songs.  Our camp theme song was, "I Love to See the Temple."

We enjoyed delicious meals and treats.

We had special alone time where the girls were able to read the letters from their parents.

We participated in a challenge course.

We made our own temple recommend holders and some made bracelets.

We had lots of small animal friends, including snakes around our pavilion.  

We created and performed skits.

We did a beautiful sunrise hike.  Nobody really wanted to go, but I think many were glad that we did!

We rode paddle boards and played on a big floating mat at the Pineview reservoir where we also skipped rocks and had some races.

We had many special devotionals and spent time talking about their next step on the covenant path...the endowment. Each leader shared a special experience they had in the temple.

We ministered to each other through our secret sister activity.

We culminated the week with a special testimony meeting where the spirit was strong and where Madi Rouse announced that she has decided to be baptized!  it was a successful, special week.  I'm relieved that it is over, but excited to do it again next year! 

17!

T turned 17 while I was at camp.

I heard they celebrated at Golden Corral,
and all ate way to much and felt awful.