We had our Youth Conference this last week and I feel like it was  a great success.  Thanks to much planning and arranging by Bonnie and Stacey, it was a fun and spiritual three days.

Oh boy, this was on the way up to Reid Ranch.  I was glad Kelley could go for a day.  We got a carload of not quiet kids.

This ranch is by Fruitland...a ways past Strawberry so it took about two hours to get there.  Yup, two hours of this,,,

 When we got there the staff showed us where we would be staying, then gave us a little orientation about the things we would do there.  The people that ran the place were really nice and very accomodating.  They took good care of us and were there to help us out with anything we needed.

 Ultimate Frisbee

 Our Youth Leader were great.  They had planned and carried out different  trust and self esteem activities.

 They had a lot of fun in the pool.

 It was Jaroms' birthday on Monday and the chef there made this special treat for him and had us all sing to him.  This chef was really sweet.  He made sure the kids with special diet needs were taken care of.

I didn't have my camera with me so I didn't get any pictures of a couple fun things we did...They have a lake where you can do paddle boats or canoeing.  Kelley and I took a paddle boat cause most of the kids wanted canoes. It was really fun and I was glad we chose that because the canoes pretty much all tipped over. ( and I sure  didn't want to be swimming in the lake...it was full of moss and leaches!)

Horseback riding was quite an adventure too.  First they had us get all rigged up with helmets and life jackets???  I guess they were afraid of us falling off, ( and after riding, I can understand their fears!)

They stood us all in a line, then the guy in charge of the horses looked at each of us and picked a horse that he thought would be a good match for us.  I was the last one to be assigned a horse and the horse he gave me was named Agustus Mckay.  He helped me get up on the horse, then told me I would go last because my horse was a biter.  I was a little concerned. 

They put me at the end of the line of horses and told me to wait till all the other horses had gone ahead, then for me to follow them. Agusta didn't want to go last.  He just took off and started pushing through the other horses.  I tried to hold him back but he wasn't having it.  There was another guy riding a horse on the side of us that came along and got Agusta back in line. We went along pretty well until we went up a hill into some trees.  The horse wanted to go off the path into the trees.  I was trying to turn him with the reigns like they showed us, but he wanted to go the other direction.  The guy was yelling at me to pull back on the reigns and I was pulling back like crazy, but it didn't seem to phase Agusta.  He went right up and bit one of the other horses on the bottom.  Then when the other horse turned around  and went after my horse, they both started rearing up.  I was pretty much over horseback riding at this point...it was scary!  Then my horse took off through the trees, (not on the path) and about knocked me off cause he was so close to the trees.  The guy on the side came to my rescue and got in front of my horse so it had to stop.  We still had a pretty steep rocky hill to go down and I was pretty sure my horse was going to take off again, but the guy on the side stayed pretty close by us and we made it down.  Wow, I was so glad that ride was over! Agustus and I are NOT friends. ( I did go riding the next day though and got a horse named Mr. Darcy (which Heather was dying to get...when she heard there was a horse named Mr. Darcy, that's all she could talk about...she drifts off into Pride and Prejudice world quite often) and he went so slow, the guy kept telling me to kick him to make him go!  Ha!  I guess they thought this would be a nice change from Agustus)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Later that night we walked up the path to the sunrise hike trail.  We wanted to check it out to see how it was going to work out for what we had planned. It was sure pretty up there. We hiked clear to the top, but decided it would be too hard for some of the girls (Heather had a hard time coming down...she kind of psychs herself out and freezes up)  so we found a nice flat place to stop about half way up where we could all sit down together for the testimony meeting.

 

 The family home evening we had planned for monday night went pretty well.  Stacey and I had seen this thing on pinterest where all the young men wrote positive words on a poster paper describing the person while she held it...then she turned it around and looked at it and it was pretty cool to see the way she reacted.  So we suggested it at one of our meetings to our youth leaders.  They thought it sounded pretty cool, so we revised it a little and did sticky notes with positive statements about the person. I think everyone liked the activity...it was good for some of these kids who have some self esteem issues.

 We did s'mores around the fire, then the kids just spontaneously started doing some impromptu skits up on the stage.  Some of them are pretty good and could come up with some clever scenerios.

 Tuesday we tried the archery.  I was really a spaz at first but the guy teaching us was super patient and I finally got the hang of it.  (but not before I landed an arrow so far up in the tree that the guy said they would just give that one up for lost.  He said that was a first!   Ha!)

 Tuesday afternoon we did the communication-trust games.  The youth leaders we had put in charge did a good job with them and it was a fun unifying experience.

 This one was really good, but hard.  The kids were supposed to get over a rope Kelley had strung around three trees without touching it or speaking.  They started out  with all the strong ones going over first, then found themselves in a pickle so they started over.  This time they sent one strong one over and kept the others on the inside of the rope so they could help the others up and over.  McKenzi kind of dropped and I was afraid she was hurt, but she was a good sport about it.  Then Alicia was about over when the branch she was holding on to broke off and she fell to the ground.  She landed pretty hard and hurt her ankle but didn't complain about it at all.  She's a tough girl!  I think some good bonding went on during this  activity cause they really had to depend on each other.

 We went to set up the signs we had brought for the sunrise hike along the path and was met by the guy who takes care of the horses. We had put one of the signs in the ground and he told us we would have to take that out right now! He said they would be upsetting to the horses.  So we asked if we could come back early in the morning and put them along the path right before our hike, then take them down right after.  I think he must have been mad because he hadn't been told about this happening before so he just threw his hands in the air and walked away saying he wasn't going to argue with us.  We were just standing there with our mouths open like what just happened?  We had cleared this with the guy in charge of the place but I guess he hadn't said anything to the other people.

Stacey went to talk to him later and he apolagized and said we could put the signs up.  We decided to not push it and just had the kids along the path hold the signs Stacey had made.  We felt bad though cause Kelley and Rick had worked hard on those wood arrows. 

We had planned on doing dutch oven desserts for after the fireside and I was in charge of them...well Kelley was supposed to be in charge but since he went home, it was up to me.  I was cool with making the peach cobbler and cherry chocolate cake, but I had no clue about how to do the bricquets.  We were googling it and trying to figure it out when Alicia said "I know how to do it"  I didn't doubt that one bit...she has had a lot of experience  camping with her mom and dad.  So while we were working out the sunrise hike Alicia got the coals going.  By the time I got back, they were ready to put on the dutch ovens.  She  wasn't so fussy about counting all the bricquets, she just put more on the top than on the bottom and said she would  stay with them till they were done.

About this time, our guest speaker arrived (whew!  we were afraid he wasn't going to be able to find it and werent able to get a hold of him cause we didn't have phone service...he had gotten a little lost, but had eventually found it)   This was Stacey's good friend's brother.  He is a seminary teacher and does EFY type programs.  He was exellent and really got through to the kids.  He was really a neat guy and how nice is that to drive for two hours to speak to a group of kids.

 Darrell Robinson

 The next morning we woke up at 5:00 to get started on our sunrise hike by 5:30.  ( I was actually awake most of the night so getting up was kind of a relief.)  We drove the kids down the road a ways to a starting point, then told them it was to be silent from then on.  Bonnie and I talked to them  about choices they would make in their lives and staying on the right path, then we sent them each off individually with words of love and encouragment.  (kind of signifying leaving the pre-existance to come to earth)  As they headed up the trail, they were tempted by other youth leaders that were placed along the way to go off the path, to take a shortcut or to stop and rest.  There were also youth leaders along the way that had good encouraging words to help them along.  It was a pretty powerful analogy and I think it touched a lot of the kids.  When they all got to the top, there was a beautiful picture of Christ and the song "Come unto Christ" playing.  Everyone sat quietly and listened, then Jordan shared some thoughts about the 7 day walk with Christ and bore his testimony.  He is a great kid and a good example to the others. Then we started  the testimony meeting.  The sun was just coming up over the mountain and it was pretty amazing.   We were all in awe as we watched the brilliant colors fill the sky. The spirit was so strong there as the kids and leaders poured out their hearts about what they had felt the past three days.

 After, some of the kids wanted to finish the hike to the top of the mountain.  I thought I better go with them cause I had been there before.  I was glad Jake came to youth conference.  He's out of young mens and has already got his mission call so he was also a great example for all the young men.  He's been through a lot and has come out on top.  I sure like that kid.

 These guys had to find the highest rock and go out on the edge of it just to make me crazy...it was really freaking me out...the drop off would have been death.

 We came back and had breakfast, then cleaned out our cabins and got ready to go.  The bishop had told us to stop in Heber and get the kids lunch on the way home, but it was only about 9:00 so we stayed a little while longer, then headed for home.  Stacey's car, Haymonds and our car rode along together and all stopped at the Dairy Keen for lunch.  I wasn't hungry so I just got a shake (Wayne was raving about how good they were...and he was right!)  Well after we had got back in the car and driven a little ways, my stomach started churning...then it started really hurting bad...like I wanted to double over hurting.  There must have been something in the shake that did not want to be in my stomach.  The kids were all carrying on and singing and laughing so they were oblivious so me trying to bend over and still drive the car.  We picked up their gear at Bonnies, then I took them home and man that was a close call.  I made a bee-line for the bathroom and just barely made it!

All in all, it was a really great youth conference. We had a few incidents but over all I was just really proud of the kids and the way they behaved.  After listening to Emily and Griffen talk in church today, (excellent talks!) I felt like they had had  some experiences there that had really helped them to grow and strengthen their testimonies...and that's really what it's all about. 

 Love these amazing ladies!