Young Women's Camp 2022

 I was lucky enough to get to go to Girl's camp this year. 
Back in January I was asked to serve as the camp craft leader. While I wasn't sure what to expect and a lot of hard work went into it, I can say with total confidence that it was so great and I can't wait for next year. 

I had forgotten how wonderful camp is. The girls in our stake are wonderful, amazing girls and I felt so blessed to be around them. My first morning there I was a little out of my element, but once I got used to the noise and loud atmosphere I started to enjoy myself. 

The girls were constantly cheering for each other, singing songs and chatting. It was loud but it was loving and uplifting. I loved it. 

As the stake camp craft leader, I was assigned to come up with a big craft that all the girls would do during a certain time period but also smaller crafts for them to do during their free time. 
I brought lots of embroidery thread and beads for bracelets and hair wraps. I brought  a little cactus craft and markers and pens for sketching. Girls were constantly making friendship bracelets and it was so cute to see. 

However, the big craft that took all my time was a paint by number picture of Christ. 
As far as I could tell, the girls loved it and I was so relieved. 

I had premixed many of the colors to get the right shade and then I had all the colors in paint pot strips for easy access. I made 180 of them and up until the night before girls camp, I was still gathering picture frames to put them in once the girls finished. It was so much work but it turned out great and I'm so happy. 

I was spiritually uplifted at  camp and since there was no phone signal there, I was able to disconnect from the world and reconnect with the spirit. 

Next year Bailey gets to go and I can't wait to see how much she loves it. Girl's camp is a special place and I'm grateful I was able to go and be reminded of that!

Arizona Family Trip- Part 1

We just got home from a quick trip to Arizona. We drove over and stopped in Albuquerque, New Mexico for the night.  

We stopped for dinner at a Mexican restaurant and Tanner enjoyed a burrito as big as him.  

The next morning we explored "Petroglyph National Monument". It was pretty cool. 
We started by getting the kids their Junior Ranger booklets so they could  work on them while we hiked.

  

Tanner insisted on posing like this. 

We really enjoyed finding the petroglyph everywhere along our hike. 

 

 

They were everywhere and we had a good time trying to figure out what they could mean. 

 

Tanner is such a great big brother, he happily carries Benson whenever Benson asks. 
It's so cute and I'm always grateful for him and his willingness to care for his siblings. He's such a great kid. 

These kids were troopers. It got hot as the day wore on and although they were tired, they pushed through and we finished the hike.

 

After our hike, we went back to the visitor's center so the kids could get their Junior ranger badges. They love collecting these and they make for good souvenirs. 

After finishing up at the Petroglyph National Park we drove some more and crossed into Arizona. We stopped at a gift shop to get some cactus candy and the kids loved this huge cave. We climbed and explored and stretched our legs. 

 

The "Tee Pee Trading Post" was a fun little shop and the kids all picked our a small gift. 

 

Tucker picked out an arrowhead necklace for his souvenir. 

Benson picked out this little pan flute. He was kind enough to only play it softly in the car. 

We also found some delicious Native American Tacos along the way. 
They were amazing and tasted so good! We also got some flatbread and the kids gobbled it up. 

We drove on until we arrived in Flagstaff, Arizona. 
Flagstaff was beautiful and nice and cool. We checked into a hotel, grabbed some pizza for dinner and had a quiet night at the hotel. 

We got up early the next morning and ate breakfast, then we drove down to Sedona to explore. 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After our reptile encounter, we left Sedona and drove north to Williams, Arizona. Williams is known as "The Gateway to the Grand Canyon" and it was a cute little town along the original Route 66.

We checked in and the kids immediately wanted to go swimming so I took them swimming while Dad found a place for us to eat. 

We ended up just walking across the street to a cute little diner. We were all pretty hungry and the diner food was yummy!

These two enjoyed their massive burgers and then we went back to our hotel to get some sleep before exploring the Grand Canyon the next day. 

We woke up early and started the quick drive to the Grand Canyon. 

We arrived around 7 am and the view was beautiful. 
The Grand Canyon really is majestic and we were all in awe of the beautiful world we get to live in.