Youth Conference

 Our ward decided to hold Youth Conference in the winter this year.  We went up to the Heber Valley Girls Camp on Friday, February 5th and stayed until the afternoon of Saturday, the 6th.  I did NOT want to go.  At. All.  I whined and complained to David for a whole month before leaving.  I was absolutely certain that I was going to break my neck and die while I was there - or at least get injured pretty badly, leaving David to take care of our five kids alone.  I HATE being cold, and I really value my sleep.  I was pretty bummed about the whole thing.

Luckily for me, Heavenly Father ignored my temper tantrum and blessed me with a wonderful trip!  From the moment I arrived in the parking lot of our church, all the burdens of worry that I'd been carrying were lifted and I had a total blast!  Heber Valley Girls camp is AWE-SOME!!!  We stayed in log cabins - there was one for the boys, one for the girls, and one that we shared for eating, meeting, etc. The cabins had space heaters and bunk beds in them.   We had a fire pit, picnic table, 2 camp chefs (that came with the site) and a pretty nice heated bathroom not too far down the road. It was a super nice setting - I'm thinking about booking a family reunion there someday (either in the winter or the summer).

Here are a few pictures from the Rosewood Ward Youth Conference 2016 (there will be several names that don't matter to you, but our family history should include them so that we can look back at the people in our lives at this time):

These are the four YW leaders that went: Myself, Nancy Maughn (who, by the way, is our girls' new piano teacher.  She's so good - the Marilyn Gee of our town), Lisa Stevens, and Melanie Heiner (our pres).  I already loved them all, but this trip just reinforced how kind, funny, reliable, easy going, and spiritual they are.  They are amazing and I'm lucky to get to serve with and learn from them!

I was in charge of dinner.  It was a little stressful to figure out the logistics of it all - keeping things the right temperature for the hours that we drove and hiked into camp, keeping it simple enough to pack into the woods, but good enough that 50 teens would eat it, etc.  But in the end it all worked out just fine.
In this picture, Klarissa Hughs is in the cream coat and Ellie Lundgreen is the girl in the ponytail.  That's Wyatt dishing up his plate, and a spattering of YM leaders in the background.

Klarissa, Cassie Mertens, Ellie, and Jade Williams.  All of the YW that came (except one) were Mia Maids.  And the one Laurel that did come just barely left the Mia Maids.  The Beehives weren't invited - 14 years old and up only.  Too bad.  It would have been fun to go with Alison.  That's okay though.  It was a weekend with my girls!  

We had a fireside.  Our speaker was amazing!  Many of the girls said that her talk was the highlight of the trip for them.  

That night, we stayed up very late playing games, making up silly dances, telling stories, eating candy, and laughing a whole lot!  Some of our girls were sledding in the dark (you have to wear a headlamp, but you can totally go any time).  They were sledding until about midnight.

We also wrote really nice notes to each other.  It was a great bonding experience for us!  I didn't sleep a wink that night.  I'm serious when I say that!  I never lost consciousness. But instead of going crazy like I would have if I was at home, I just smiled and thought about how great my girls were, how kind they were to each other and how bright their futures are.  This photo is of Jessica Wiedeman and Zoe Mecham.  

In the morning, the YM were in charge of breakfast.  They made a fancy pancake/hashbrowns/sausage breakfast.  It was delicious!  But long before the food was ready, the kids were out sledding again.  They were die-hards!
I was just a second too late on this photo.  Brother Burt (from our bishopric) walked up to Nancy, slapped her in the face with his glove, and challenged her to a sledding duel!  He was totally joking (Nancy is in her 60's, and made it clear that she was going for moral support).  We all got a good laugh.  Brother Burt, on the other hand, was the craziest, most competitive person out there.  I swear, he had a death wish!  The other leader, on the left, is Mark Stryker, the YM pres.

 There are several fields to go sledding in, but since the road are blocked off to traffic, you can use the roads as well.  That's what we did.  We never even went looking for the fields.   It was a big, long, probably quarter mile stretch and it was plenty fast.  This photo is of Bailey Chatelain and Melinda Johnson.

The kids just kept sledding and sledding all day!  They raced.  They rode in every pair combination you could think of.  They had a game where one group of people held hands and sled down the hill like a stagecoach.  Another group, the robbers, tried to knock them off their sleds and break up the stagecoach.  It was pretty wild!  This is Jessica and Jade.  I don't think they fit on that sled. 

 I think that looks like Ellie, but I can't be sure because I don't remember her wearing a coat.  She was in a short sleeved shirt most of the time.  It took all of one run before we started sweating.  And the day was beautifully sunny, so all of us were taking off layers.  I was out there with them for a lot of the time.  I'm old!  And out of shape!  But I had a ball!  

Bailey, Zoe, and Kira Evans.  Several of us brought snowshoes, and the ward rented a few pairs as well.  A group of us went for a long snowshoe hike around a lake.  It was lovely! I wish I'd gotten pictures, but my battery died.  We ate lunch, then started packing up.  We were home around 4:00 that afternoon.  What an adventure!  I can't wait to go again!  And next time, I'm going to be excited about it from the beginning.