Youth Conference 2009

Hey everyone. It seems I'm always claiming that we are busy...but we really are. Last weekend was our stake's youth conference. It was a great experience. We were there 3 days and each one represented past, present, or future with various activities and learning opportunities. I've included some of the pictures below.


The first day we had the youth take a pioneer trek and do some old fashioned games. This first photo shows a bunch of the youth in their pioneer clothes playing partner tag. That night we had a dance so they would have an opportunity to socialize.

Day 2 we went down to Payson Lakes where the youth swam and went around the lake in canoes. Later in the afternoon we had 4 guest speakers come and take turns talking about different aspects of their future.

Our stake president came up the last day to talk about their lives in the present. Then we dd various service projects around the camp and cleaned up. Right before leaving, one of the ward groups decided to hike up to the overlook into a canyon and I decided to join them. This last photo is a view from there.

My company had our summer party this week. It's always fun, and, as usual, we had it up at a park up Provo Canyon. Great food, good fun, and we even had a little volleyball action.

This weekend we are headed to Lake Powell with our cousins. We won't be able to post or be online until we get back. We can't wait to take this break and enjoy a little vacation with our extended family. I'll have plenty of pictures to share when we get back.

Will's Deployment

It seems we are always busy this summer. Our garden is starting to produce some vegetables. We have one type of pest attacking our garden. I never new about Squash Bugs before now, but I've put some serious time in researching how to kill them. First, some squash are naturally resistant to the bugs (Butternut squash for instance). The only squash I am growing with problems is the Spaghetti squash. I've probably killed 100 of the little guys by now.

Will and Stephanie had a tough goodbye this week. Will is a reservist in the Marines and he's being deployed to Afghanistan. He's already been to Iraq and back, but he's being sent again. We met up with them at Camp Williams and with Will's mom and siblings to say goodbye. He'll be in San Diego for training approximately 3 months, then home for 10 days...then he's gone for about 9 months overseas. I've included some pictures for everyone.

Here's Will's oldest sister holding little Liberty before it's time to go.

Steph and Will just sitting together as we visited.

Will is a Sergeant in the Marines. He's assigned to an anti-tank light armored unit in the C (Charlie) company. Here's what it looks like. The one they will train in is an older model. The ones in Afghanistan actually have air conditioning.

This was their final goodbye before Will had to get on the bus to head out. It's tough to see loved ones separated like this, but I'm so proud of my brother-in-law. He's a good man.

This weekend Ade and I are headed up to Youth Conference for our Stake. We're taking all of the youth between 14-18 years old up to the camp. The theme for the year is from 1 Timothy 4:12. "Let no man dispise thy youth; but be thou and example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity." We're going to try to have them look to the past for examples and reflect on how they can use those examples to guide their lives moving forward.