Thursday, June 30, 2011

Girl's Camp 2011

I'm back.
Actually, I got back last Saturday. I've just been procrastinating putting this post together. The point is, I'm back from Girl's Camp!


This year, our theme was Mission Possible. They gave each of the wards a mission calling to a different country. Ours was South Korea! The result of that was eating rice everyday and not being allowed to use forks, only chopsticks. It was so much fun though!


Our camp site.
I consider ourselves privileged to have this campsite. It is far away from all the other camps, so we can be as loud as we want! It's also bigger :)

And of course, none of this would have been possible without our wonderful leaders and bishop!


We decorated his hat.


His lovely wife.
I don't have pictures of all the leaders, but they are so awesome, they don't even need pictures! (Did that make sense? I don't know.) 

I also don't have pictures of all the girls, but they are awesome too!


Taylor
The Bishop's daughter, and one gorgeous girl. Her family considers me their adopted daughter, so I could say that she's my sister too.


Timmi!
 We are the only Laurels in our ward, so we were camp buddies! In this picture, she was conquering her fear of heights. She tried 7 times to get to the top, and she finally did it! She is the most positive person that I have ever met. Her motto is: Smile! :)



Melisha!
If you ever need someone to talk to when you can't sleep due freezing cold temperatures, go to her. She has an endless supply of subjects to talk about! She has some awesome stories about her country, Samoa. She's also very funny.


Sela!
Sela, Sela, Sela. She is so awesome. She's also a great canoe-er! Sela and I paddled around the lake for two hours! Which resulted in a mean farmers tan. She re-sprained her wrist while canoeing, and it was hurting her really bad, but she was so brave! We were also camp buddies. I am so glad that I got to know her, and I'm so excited that she's coming to the high school next year!

We did a lot of fun stuff at camp, but I'm going to summarize a lot of it. But one thing that I do have to tell you about is pretty monumental for me. I had a lot of time on my hands while all of the other girls were on their hikes, so I picked up a hula hoop that someone had gotten from their Secret Sister. 
And I started hula hooping.
For 1 hour and 32 seconds.


While hula hooping, I walked around camp, ate some food, sang songs, and even trimmed my nails. I don't think anybody is going to try and break my record.

Another thing on the fun list was zip lining!
That was one long zip line. Honestly, it wasn't scary at all. The only scary part was getting up on this rickety platform and stepping off into space. After that it was great!


When my parents came up to camp on Friday, they went on the zip line too! I have to admit, I was having a panic attack for them because I didn't know what they would think of it!




They're so cute.

Later that night we had our Stake Activity. I don't think any Stake Activity could top the one we had last year. That one was simply amazing. But this one came pretty close! They called it: A Walk With Christ. They had us carry two large stones in each hand to represent the burdens that we carry. We had to go through different obstacles, but with each obstacle, we had something to help us. That represented Christ helping us along the way.




This one was the one that I liked the best. Even though being blindfolded was pretty scary (I swear, they had us walk right along a cliff at one point.) There were people along the way encouraging you and sometimes guiding you were to go. At one point, we had to stop and wait for someone to come and help us along a rough part. The lady that came to help me immediately enveloped me in a huge hug and said that I probably didn't remember her, but she was the one that helped me into my harness for the zip line. I don't remember her name, but she knows my family somehow. Her hug was so warm and inviting, I didn't want to leave!


Each of the girls had to help each other onto the table until all the girls had gone over the table. This whole time we were still holding our stones.


Then we had to walk up hills and around tires with these things. It's harder than it looks! Holding the stones didn't really help.


This one was called: Lean on Prayer.  You had to lean on your partner while walking on a thin board. The two boards became farther and farther apart as you went along, so it made it harder. But if you really trusted your partner, you could make it all the way.

At the end, we all walked to a meadow and sang I Feel My Savior's Love with my mom accompanying on the guitar. Then we each went and laid our stones, or burdens, at Jesus's feet. It was really amazing and spiritual.


I had so much fun at Girl's Camp and I am so glad that I went! I certainly can't wait till next year :)

Next up, Youth Conference!
That doesn't happen till July, but I'm still excited for it!

Saturday, June 25, 2011

I'm addicted.

I'm officially addicted to So You Think You Can Dance.

And this little video is why!
It is amazing.

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day!

This post is dedicated to my awesome dad.


He is a master photographer! He's taught me everything I know about photography. Here are some of his amazing photos.



 My dad is an amazing man. No matter what he does, he is awesome in my eyes. I can't imagine having any other dad! He puts up with my quirks quite wonderfully, and he always keeps me on my toes! 

Things I learned from my dad:

After saying something wise and inspiring, always put 'that's what I always say' at the end of it.

When giving talks in church, don't make a huge speech about how you got called by the Bishop at the most inconvenient time in your life to give you the news that you're giving a talk. And also don't say that you prepared it last night. No one wants to know.

Don't litter.

You can never have too much junk!

More butter on things is always good.

Use the rule of thirds when taking pictures.

and...

You can make anything out of door jams!

I love you Dad!

Sunday, June 12, 2011

I see red.

I have never seen so much red in my life. Actually, that one time I ate all those cherries, that was a lot of red.  Never mind.

Here's a red flower.




Oh look! Someone in a red dress who just happens to be standing by a cherry tree! What a coincidence. That person is me, by the way. I decided that I needed to document what I wore when I gave my second talk in church. I rather like that dress. It's really comfortable.

I had to talk about my trip to Palmyra. But since that was four years ago, I don't remember much! So I talked about what I remember most clearly, and that is the Sacred Grove. Gosh I love that place!  I was practically rambling when I got up to speak because I forgot half my talk as soon as I saw all the people in the audience. I was completely calm when I was sitting in my seat, but when I took those three steps to the microphone, something changed and I ended up shaking like a leaf. It was quite an experience.

I'm so glad it's over!

I told my dad that we needed some pictures of me on this momentous day, so we went to the cherry tree, and I ate cherries while he took pictures.


We managed to get a couple good pictures of me, but I'll only put one up.


Funny story about the earrings. So I'm putting them on this morning when I think: I wonder if I start shaking when I'm speaking, if my earrings will shake too... that would be pretty distracting.
So I changed my earrings to non-dangly ones and put the dangly ones in my scripture case, which I changed into after my talk. It was actually a good plan, seeing as I was shaking so hard. I probably caused another wave of earthquakes in Japan, it was that bad.

The good thing is, it's over. I hope never to have to speak again. Like that will happen.
I can only dream!

Saturday, June 4, 2011

Hahahahahahahaha...ha

I laugh because it's fun. So I find things to laugh at. Here are some of the few things that I found. 
And when I say few, I mean few. I found TONS of stuff.






My dad set up a black background so we could take some cool pictures of the irises that are blooming outside our front door. I only got like two good ones, but my dad got many! He always does, he's a master.




I started summer dance classes this week. When I looked up 'tired' on Pinterest (the most fabulous site I've ever seen), this is what I got:


Basically.

BUT IT'S SO MUCH FUN!

And when I looked up 'fun' on Pinterest, this is what I got:


Okay... That's kinda random.

IT'S SO MUCH FUN!

I must go practice my tap dancing.