Last night we had our first official young women activity night. We were kind of scrambling to put something together at our presidency meeting on Tuesday...we had gotten a lot of good ideas from the girls the week before of things they wanted to do, but hadn't had a chance to plan anything out.  We had decided we wanted each of the girls to fill out a kind of get to know you form so we could find out a little about each of the girls.  So Stacey made up a cute paper to have them fill out. Bonnie talked to them about our up coming YWIE and how it was going to be a talent show.  She had each of them sign up for what they wanted to do for the show.  I think the girls were excited about it...they are such cute funny girls...not afraid to show their talents!
Then Stacey had them do a activity that I think was really inspired.  She put a piece of paper on the back of each of the girls that said at the top "what the yw think of me".  Then she had the girls write on each others papers something  they liked about that person. It seemed like it meant a lot to some of the girls...maybe don't get a lot of  affirmations at home...

Then we did this cute thing I saw on pinterest...can I just say once again how much I love pinterest..un-ending ideas for YW.  Anyway,  it looked like this...

We had the girls sit in a circle and had them talk about each one of the ideas.  They really opened up when we started talking about school and the things they face every day.  It breaks my heart to hear how the kids at school talk to each other and the language they use.  It's like Satan has sent a flood of evil to drown them and take away their sweet innocence....  They want to be good though and are strong and amazing girls.  They want to stand up for what they believe in...even when they are surrounded with ugliness, they are trying to do what is right.
We talked about all the things on the list and the girls had a lot of comments and thoughts about each one...I think it did them good to just get to vent a little.
We walked around with the girls to some of the homes of the girls that don't come out with one of these 7-up things and a cute calendar  of what we were going to be doing in YW for the next little while. 
I felt like it was a good night...the girls are getting to know us and we are learning a lot more about each of them. 
As I watched Bonnie and Stacey with the girls, I was struck with the thought and sweet confirmation that this was why I was inspired to choose these amazing ladies to be with these girls.  They are both so good with them.  They can really talk to them and get through to them and have them want to open up to them.  They both are willing  and ready to do all we can to help these girls through these few crucial years in their lives...it's such a turning point for some...they will either embrace the gospel and come closer to Christ or they may get caught up in all the temptations swirling around them and fall away.  I know these two special women were  supposed to be here right now...to help and influence the girls to choose the better way..

26 years ago, this  beautiful, sweet, kind hearted, funny (that really doesn't do her justice...she is HILARIOUS and makes me laugh every day!) , creative, compassionate, optimistic, loving, honest and very real soul joined our family. How grateful I am to be able to call this amazing young woman my

daughter and my friend.

 Well here it is!  The chickens happy little home is finished!  I just love it and I think they do too!

Kelley did such a nice job, but then I wouldn't expect any different...he doesn't ever do anything half way....or small.

The chickens seemed kind of puzzled at first and didn't want to go inside the little house.  So Kelley would put food in a trail going up the little ramp into the house, and then food inside the house.  After a few days, they started going inside.

I'll have to do a picture of the inside...it's really cute.  4 nests  full of fluff and some long boards for them to roost on. Its pretty delux...with lights and a heater that turns on when it gets down below 40 degrees...thank you Rick!

 It's funny how they just know what to do...every night about sun down, they all march up the little ramp and go inside the house to sleep.  When you peek in the window, they are all lined up in a row on the roost snoozing. 

We were starting to wonder if they were ever going to give us any eggs.  Kelley's friend  who also has chickens told him that if you put some of those plastic colored Easter eggs in their nests, then they will get the idea that they should be laying eggs.  So we put some plastic eggs in their nests. They were getting into the nests...we could tell they had been resting there cause there were feathers and it was all smashed down....but no eggs. 

Then just last week, Kelley went out to check on them and there was an egg down in the chicken run.  It was a cute little brown egg!  HA!

 

 Oh man, we were so excited!  You'd think they had laid a golden egg!  I'm not sure what they were thinking laying it out there in the dirt...but the next day there were two little eggs in the nest!  WooHooo!  They have laid eggs every day since then.  It's so fun to go out there and find them sitting nicely in the fluff.  Like little treasures!   We had scrambled eggs the other day and tonight I made yellow squash fried in eggs.  That's my favorite!  I hope they will all get busy and give us enough eggs so we can share with our good neighbors....they have been so nice to bring over food they were going to throw away for the chickens.  Yesterday, Ken S. brought over about 5 bags of old bread from the wonder bread  store his daughter works at....oh boy the chickens were loving that!

I'm sure glad Kelley would let me get these chickens and so grateful that he would spend his summer building this coop for them to live in.   Hope he knows how much it means to me to be able to re-live this sweet memory of my childhood. It's been pretty awesome to watch it go from a life long dream to the reality of throwing feed out to the clucking hens and finding cute little brown eggs in their nest each day.  Kelley jokes that they are the most expensive eggs ever when he compares them to what he spent on building the coop...but to me they are priceless! 

 

 Kate had a few weeks before her new job was starting so she was able to come spend a few days with us.  We just had the best time!  I enjoyed every minute with her!

She helped me get a bunch of canning done...having her there made it fun!  She cranked up the music and turned the drudgery of canning into a dance party.

 Did a bunch of salsa....which was much needed!  I think this is the first year we have ever ran out of salsa!

 Oh and I found this fabulous canner at Costco!  It holds a lot of bottles!  My old one has about had it.,,,so I bought it!  Oh wow!  I could do about a whole batch in just that one canner!

 We went up to Park City one day and shopped a bit..it was beautiful up there...leaves are already starting to turn.

Oh and while we were driving, she called all the people who had signed up to bring food to the luau to remind them.  That saved me a ton of work!

I didn't get enough peaches off our tree to do some serious bottling, so we drove up to Brigham one day and got a few boxes of peaches.

(note to self...don't ever buy sun crest peaches!  They had a big sign out front that said these were perfect for canning and baking with...they looked beautiful and tasted very good, so I bought them.

We came home and put them in the boiling water to get the skins off.  Nope.  They were not ripe!  So we decided to let them sit a few days.  When I went back to give them another try, they didn't look so good...kind of bruised and icky looking.  So I new I better get them done now or they would go to waste.  I got them into the boiling water again, hoping the peels would come off now they were riper.  Nope.  I still had to practically peel each one.  Then the pit wouldn't come out either!  Oh man I was so frustrated, I wanted to just throw them in the garbage.  I got about two dozen quarts bottled, then made a batch of jam with all the pieces I had massacred trying to get them off the pit.

.

 

Kelley trying to eat the whole peach...he helped us get them peeled...he is a peach...(a good peach.)

 

 

Kate picked the rest of the peaches off our little tree and we bottled them.  Now that's what peaches are supposed to be...They were really lovely. The skins just slip right off and the pit doesn't stick!  Plus they taste like heaven.

This poor little tree made as many peaches as it could hold...the branches were all weighed down and Kelley had to prop them up to keep them from breaking. 

Hopefully next year it will make enough so I don't have to buy any at all!

I was glad Kate was able to have some time to visit with her friends while she was here.  I know she has wanted to do that for a long time.  When she comes home on Friday night and has to go back again on Sunday, there is never time much time, so I  think this was a real treat for her.  We also got to have a good visit with grampa before she left.

While we were making dinner together the night Brian and Holli came over, it just felt so good to have her there.  My heart sure longs for more times like this ...not going anywhere or doing anything special...just doing everyday things...with those you love.

We had such a nice evening with Brian, Holli and Nash.  Kate had been wanting to see them and their new baby so they planned a get together thursday night.  We had  dinner on the patio and just enjoyed visiting with Holli and Brian.  They are such a great couple and now as new parents, they are even cuter! 

Thoroughly enjoyed holding and playing with their cute little guy, Nash.  He looks so much like Bri!

Love these guys!

Well  there you go...another Luau come and gone and hopefully enjoyed by all.

I think Kelley has it down to a science now and doesn't get the least bit ruffled.

I love that about him! 

Things really went off without a hitch...everyone pitched in and helped and that just made it fun!

Seriously, everyone is just so great!  Andreasons were asked to head up decor and details and that took a load off of me.  Karen and Jo Ann helped out with the decorations too.  Friday afternoon, Brian, Rick and Kelley set up the tents  then when they got done,  Dave M., Taylor and Mark S, and Rick helped get all the meat ready. 

this is quite a process. 

Kelley and I had gone to Costco earlier in the day and bought large amounts of pork shoulder and  chicken thighs. Then we came home and got them in coolers with ice.  So when were ready to prepare them, they open the packages of pork,...(these are huge roasts) and wash them and make big slices in them.  Then they put coarse  salt all over them and then the liquid smoke.  ( oh and before they start that, they make big sheets of foil by fixing two sheets together...then they double that and it's ready to put a big chunk of meat on it)  then they wrap it up in the foil and put it back in the cooler till morning.  The chicken just needs to have the packages cut open and the chicken dumped into a cooler that we add the terryaki marinade to.  The hard part about this is that the chicken is still partially frozen so after opening several bags, your hands go numb.  Taylor got the job this time and was a good sport about it.

Friday night Andreasons also brought over the tiki hut  ( so cute!) and their huge barbecue grill.  That really makes it nice so we don't have to borrow so many grills from the neighbors.

Saturday morning...Kelley was up and getting the fire going around 4:30.  Rick was right there to help him and really was just the biggest help all day long. (ps, he cleaned out the fire pit a few days before the luau which is about the crappiest job ever!)

Around 8, the High Priests showed up with the tables and chairs.  There was a bunch that came to help, so they had the job done in a jiffy.

Around 4, Vickie, Jo Ann, Karen and Charity came over to get the table covers on and decorations  put up.  They really went all out and made it really cute!

Jeremy H came over and set up a photo booth which was awesome!!!   He had some cute Hawaiian back grounds and different props they could wear.  That was really a hit!  How great of him to share his talent and equipment with us for the night! 

David C. came over earlier and set up an awesome sound system too.  When he started playing music, it really sounded great.  It worked out just perfect for the entertainment.

I was in charge of the rice again this year.  I do not cook rice very well....in fact I stink at it.  Last year, KC made all the rice with Hatsumi's fancy  Japanese rice cooker and it turned out perfect.  This year KC was gone on a hiking trip with his buddies over the weekend, so I was on my own. 

When I was at Costco, I had noticed this rice cooker that looked a lot like Hatsumi's fancy one.  I thought I might as well give it a try. 

I started cooking the rice at about 11:00, cause I had to make a lot!  Karen brought over her two  big roaster pans to keep it in and that was a life saver.    So I go to make the first batch and was following the directions perfectly.  It said to put in a cup of rice, then fill the pan to the fill line for however many cups you had used.  It seemed like not enough  water, but then I figured I better do what it said.  Oh this was after rinsing the rice several times.  I had never done that before either until Hatsumi told KC that that was very important.  So I thought I would start out small, ( this rice cooker holds 20 cups of rice!)  so I put in 5 cups of rice, then filled it up to line number 5  After a while, the beeper went off and it said it was done.  I opened the lid and it was kind of crunchy and dry.  Oh NO!!!!I can't make rice!  Even with a rice cooker!   So I went to the trouble shooting section of the instructions and it said if it was too dry, to add more water and turn it on again.  So I did...the next time I looked it was better, so I added even more and turned it on again.  This time it came out perfect.  I was just like why doesn't this dumb thing work though.  So I started looking through all the little papers that came with the cooker.  On one little paper, it said 'The cup that comes with the rice cooker only measures 3/4 of a cup, so you should always use this cup or just measure 3/4 of a cup of rice. 

I had used my own measuring cup.  HA!  So next batch I used the cup that came with the cooker and the rice turned out perfect!  Man I always have to learn the hard way!  So anyway, I was cooking rice all day and just finished up the last batch when people started coming.

p.s. now the rice cooker is my new best friend!

OK, so this was funny.  Deslie brought over these two cool kayaks to put the ice and bottled waters in... so clever!.  Kelley had to try it out.

The Elders were in charge of cooking the chicken on the huge grill so they showed up about 5.  That is a really big hot job.  Sure appreciate the good guys that worked on that! 

Carol and Brian were asked to man the Tiki hut and spent their night making smoothies for everyone...another huge job!  They did a great job and everyone loved it!

Brother Barcarsy came early to set things up for the entertainment.  There were about a dozen  cute dancers that were part of his group.  They used the downstairs rooms to dress and get ready for the show,.

We had a wonderful turn out.  I think more people than we ever had before. It was good to have some friends who have moved from the ward years ago come...they are life long friends no matter where they live.   People were all great to bring their food they had signed up for so there was plenty.   By the time the entertainment people had eaten though, most everything was gone, so that worked out really good.

Brother Barcarsy sang and played the guitar while we ate, then brought in the dancers later.  He has a beautiful voice and really put on a neat show.

Everyone was so great to stick around and clean everything up!

Gina and Stacey, and Brenda came in and did all the dishes. such sweet friends!!!

After everyone left, Kelley and I came in and collapsed in the big green chair.  Tired, but happy everything went so well. It amazes me what Kelley is able to get done in that one day. He doesn't ever look at it as a burden though...just as a fun time.  I also love that about him. 

 Couldn't have asked for a better night!

 We went up fishing last saturday and believe it or not, we actually caught  some fish! 

 We fished a few places without any luck, then I suggested a spot where we had caught before and went over there. We started catching right away...and they were pretty big ones too!