Friday, June 15, 2012
5 year old ANXIETY....is this normal?
So it started about 2 weeks before school got out when suddenly Seth just didnt want to go to preschool which he has loved for 2 years now! He would cry and fight it, and even his teacher said he would be really sad the first little while, say that his stomach hurts (which I think is nervous anxiety cause it happened every day) and get really upset when the class got too loud. He started to get really weird about playing with friends like he would not go to other people's houses and in social situations he would cling to us instead of running around with the other kids. Primary became a weekly nightmare of cries and more anxiety about being in primary alone especially if it got loud in there. There was no reasoning with him at this point, no bribing. He truly seemed terrified. So of course I start over analyzing and freaking out that there is something really wrong with him. Did something traumatic happen to him? Were we spending so much time with youth conference and Dittobug that he was being neglected and this was his way of reaching out for help and comfort? He kind of has always been upset by loud noises like fireworks or babies crying real loud (which was a problem when Jaq was born) but other than that he didnt really have any signs of austism or anything like that and actually aside from these couple of weeks he is very social a totally normal kid. So one Sunday after the battle (which by the way if we can get him to stay at school or primary he totally calms down and is just fine within a couple of minutes....its just the separation part), we are subbing in nursery and Cordelle spends an hour looking it up on his ipad (I know, probably shouldnt have been doing that in church but....). Turns out it seems pretty normal especially if some big changes are happening at home like having a baby (although I still dont buy this as a reason for his sudden change in behavior because Seth is way stoked about EVERY aspect of the baby coming.) But it gave some great advice about not trying to reason with them, but restoring confidence in their ability to handle these situations. It said not to bribe them or linger around because then it shows that you are worried about them and their ability to cope in a situation they may not feel comfortable in. And granted you know its a safe environment like primary or preschool, its important for them to develop their own coping mechanisms and realize that just because you are being separated for a time doesnt mean they will leave you permanently. Anyways there was a lot of good information (if anyone wants the website let me know and I'll have to ask Cordelle where it was) but it all helped me feel a little better but the problem didnt go away immediately. When we were at home there was this constant concern about where I was all day long. If I put him in the shower he would make me tell him where I was going to be when he was in the shower. If I went downstairs he would yell for me and make me tell him where I was going to be after I went downstairs etc. It was kind of annoying but I understood there was a deeper issue there and I had to try to once again instill in him the confidence that I would never leave him. So one night after getting drilled with him about exactly where I would be once I left his room I asked him why do you feel like you have to ask me where I am going when I leave you for bed? And he said, well I just dont know if your going to go downstairs or outside or something and I wont know and I have to look for you. And i remembered a couple of times this had happened where he got out of bed and Cordelle and I were out in the yard talking about the grass or something and he freaked cause he couldnt find us, or downstairs watching a movie. Anyways so valid points, but still why the over concern? I remember once trying to really validate his concern and not just brush it aside so I told him, "Seth I think we need to make a rule. I get nervous when you go outside without asking and I dont know where you are, so I think that it is only fair that if I go somewhere like outside to water the garden, that I tell you where I am going before I leave so you always know where I am." He was so excited by this rule. Like I had finally understood his concern and I really tried to do that everytime I would go to another level of the house or outside and I really think it helped prove to him that I took his concern seriously and wanted him to know that he could trust me to do this for him. I was praying about it quite a bit one weekend, when I found myself at a yard sale and thinking that I should find something tangible that would help him remember that he was okay and that we would never leave him. I ended up finding this little leather pouch with a snap on it and all these hooks inside for keys. They were also selling little polished rocks with hooks on them meant I'm sure for necklaces but I got two not really knowing what I was going to say or what I was going to do with them to try to solve the problem. I told him I had a surprise for him and all day he was excited to see what I had for him. It told him it would help him not be so nervous about where we were all the time. So that night I gave the pouch to him. I wanted to make up some cool Indian story or something (cause thats what the pouch looked like) about a boy being afraid but then found these magic rocks and wasnt....but the story just wasn't coming. So I found myself telling him that Heavenly Father loved him SO much and when we decided to have kids we had to promise Heavenly Father that we would take care of him. And once he came to our family we realized that we loved him so much too! And so each of these rocks that were inside this case represented mom and dad. And they were to remind him that we would ALWAYS take care of him and make sure he was safe. And that even though sometimes as he grows up he has to go places alone like to school and primary, we were in charge of keeping him safe and loving him because he as one of Heavenly Fathers children and we promised Him we would take care of you. Anyways it was simple but turned out much better than the fake Indian story I was going to make up. He slept with it that night and we even saw it tucked away in his sunday shirt pocket at church the next day. It was small and cool and I think he liked carrying it around and when asked what each rock stood for he could tell us it was for him to remember mom and dad would always take care of him. I cant say that the problem went away immediately but it was a big turn around for us. I made a conscious effort to get him comfortable with playing with friends again and going other places, to instill confidence in him and not to linger in places he might not feel comfortable but that he should. We still have our 5 minutes before bed where we talk about whatever he wants (usually its starwars or kid stuff like fireworks or airplanes) but every once in awhile I'll sneak in my questions too just to make sure there is no outside influences like bullying or something serious that he's worried about. So that makes me feel a little bit better. But really it may have been a stage or something weird but I think he is slowly outgrowing it and hopefully it wont be an issue once kindergarten comes in September. I'm just so grateful for prayer and the knowledge that God knows our children. And sometimes we dont know how to help them, but He does.
Sunday, June 10, 2012
Youth conference-opoly
Since our theme for youth conference was centered around the temple with the slogan "Get Ready, Get Set, GO!" and because we were staying at the Park Place apartments in Ephraim we decided to run with the whole monopoly backbone which gave me this great idea for our opening kick off. I put myself in charge of this little game where I created an entire monopoly board game. Each "Enoch property" was a poster board, and then I made a huge dice, and icons I scrounged up all over and painted silver. We had the bishops of each ward play and participate in little challenges in order to roll. Overall I thought the whole game was a huge success! But I'll tell you, that board took me HOURS upon HOURS to put together!
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| And then of course I made Cordelle dress up like Mr. Monopoly and host the game which he was SO nervous to do but did a fantastic job at! |
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| These were some thank you's with 100 Grands in them for a ward that missed the kick off game to go up early to the temple |
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| Some of our other designed pieces for youth conference...the agenda, updates, schedule, name tags, maps, housing arrangements, rules, packing lists and challenge cards. |
An in depth analysis of Youth Conference (WARNING: long, journal like entry)
I have felt impressed to write down the experiences I’ve had with youth conference and the general feelings I have over the whole thing looking back.
Last August, I was in charge of planning a high school reunion. With no money, very little help initially, and many insecurities this was very stressful and overwhelming for me. I concluded once it was over, that I was best suited “helping” or serving on a committee but leading or being in charge of a large activity such as this was simply not something I had been given the talents or ability to do. I prayed a lot about this, and had to try to develop faith that God would help me over come what to me seemed like a huge task to accomplish alone. Although relieved when it was over, I felt neither better for doing it nor like I had developed the talent that people need to accomplish putting on a large event. It was not a positive experience for me.
So it was with these insecurities and anxiety that less than two months later Cordelle and I were called to be in charge of Stake youth conference. Here is what i wrote in my journal about first two days after being called.
September 28, 2011
Today we met with the Stake President and BOTH his counselors. You know its trouble when all three of them are there. To be honest I wasn’t worried in the least, cause I was certain the calling was for Cordelle. But when they called us both to be Stake youth conference coordinators a couple of things went through my mind. First, is this a joke? I had just 2 months before pulled off a 10 year reunion for high school which to most people would’nt be a big deal, but I worried and stressed and tried to overcome insecurities and a weakness of caring too much about what people think of me or things I do. I soon realized what my most dreaded calling would be....organizing any type of event. I even remember thinking I would hate to have to organize girls camp or youth conference at a ward level. Naturally Stake Conference was going to be worse. I was sick to my stomach. I had heard so many stories about RS presidents feeling overwhelmed getting called etc. Odd as it may to be to some people. This was my calling that I knew would be hard for me.
The stake President then went into great detail about the process we were called and how it took many names and a lot of prayer to finally feel good about our name. I don’t think I realized then, but I really grew to appreciate the fact that he told this to us, because it later gave me strength to know I really was not just selected at random but God wanted US to do it. It was that simple. He would help us. I energetically told them I would accept the call, but I was still very nervous about it. Matter of fact, I went home and cried. Feeling just a bit overwhelmed.
To think about everything was just too overwhelming at first, but strangely through it all, it was a great testimony to me that God knew who I was. Only he would know that this calling would be so difficult for me and one that would help me grow the most. No one but He (and Cordelle) could have known that this was one of very few calling that would leave me smack bottom humbled with a complete need for God’s direction.
Cordelle and I decided that we would meet once a week on Thursday nights at 9:00 and talk about youth conference. We opened with a prayer and bounced ideas off each other and helped each other when one another was feeling overwhelmed or frustrated. I found this entry in my journal after our first meeting together.
September 29, 2011
After much thought, I tried to remember when I was planning my reunion and what I could learn from it. One of the lessons I learned was that when i was making progress or at least working on things, I felt better or more in control. So Cordelle and I set up a time for a weekly meeting where for one hour we would talk about youth conference, gear up for our next meeting or give each other assignments.
Tonight was our first meeting. And as overwhelmed as I was, I was SO grateful to not be doing this alone. I had Cordelle, who had experience in bishopbric meetings and making action lists and making things happen. He helped me realize there were differences between my reunion planning and this. First we had a budget, we weren’t starting from $0 hoping to get money through ticket sales. Second, I wasn’t doing it alone. Cordelle was called with me and he was fully invested in it as well and would help obviously every step of the way. And lastly, we were called by God. This was his youth conference and it will all work out and we just have to listen and be in tune to making it happen like He would have it work out.
I felt better about things after this meeting.
Now even though that meeting and some similiar to it left me feeling energized and full of faith and confidence that Heavenly Father would help lead this, all our Thursday night meetings were not quite so faith building. I remember times we would stay up late, frustrated and disagreeing. I would think something was important and Cordelle wouldn’t see the need. We would struggle how we were going to get an entire stake through the temple and juggle a schedule that combined wards but didnt have individual kids spread out all over SanPete county. There were more problems that came up than we could find solutions to, and there were many Thursday evenings we went to bed having discussed but solved nothing, feeling frustrated and wondering how this would ever work.
We knew however, we needed to start working with the youth immediately. So we started once a month meetings and I’ll tell you nothing scared me more. There was nothing more awkard and terrifying for me than being in a room of youth committee leaders, knowing they were to be involved in Youth Conference but still realizing it was us that would have to pull off their wishes. Then it didn’t help that our first meeting was filled with very little feed back or responses and a lot of silence. And once we did get them talking they couldn’t agree on anything. Here’s an entry from that meeting.
October 8, 2011
So we’re a little stressed come 5pm (an hour before our meeting starts). Pres. Lovell calls us back letting us know that he will conduct the meeting and then introduce us. So we pretty much scrap our whole agenda of getting to know the kids, telling them their responsibilities, and then going into location options. We really have to have options of locations for them. I am now very grateful for all the effort and research I looked into so many places. I just have to organize all my notes about each one. Because most of them we can’t get into because our group is so large, others are things we really don’t want to do but would obviously if thats what the kids wanted. I was hard, knowing the youth could change everything just by their opinion and we would really have to be prepared for anything. I don’t know, our first option really was still Snow College but we were totally willing to make anything work.
So the meeting started and it was rough. With quick introductions everything was pretty much turned right over to us, so basically we were kind of conducting the meeting (which for some reason I was under the impression from talking to President Lovell we wouldnt be). So me, having strange issues with silence in large groups, just started talking and trying to lead the discussion somewhere. I was nervous and looking back I really should have just let them hash things out more, but NO ONE was talking. Once we got the ball rolling, things started to flow. But there was a problem, there were 2 kids that were so gung-ho about going to Snow (yipee) even though they had just gone there the year before. But there were another 2 kids that REALLY wanted to go camping. One girl in particular and she was convincing. She was a great leader but was definitely making things difficult to not go the camping route. Which I guess really wasn’t difficult because if thats what they wanted to do, we would do it. I just remember thinking in the middle of the meeting. We are NEVER going to come to a conclusion these two sides are dead set on their minds.
I remember kicking cordelle in the middle of the whole thing wanting him to speak up and take control of the way the discussion was going but he just sat back and let me frantically lead the discussion because like I mentioned I couldnt stop talking for fear of those awkward silences. Maybe I should read a book on leading a discussion.
We had to eventually change directions and talk about the theme. Thank heavens! This went much better and somehow the discussion turned towards temple. We had a boy (Bruce Crenkshaws son) tell of an experience where him and his family were in Africa talking with a man who had saved his whole life to go to the temple and he asked them how close they were to a temple. And they told him it was an hour a way. And amazed he looked at them and said, “you must go every day.” The boy started crying and it was powerful. It totally invited the spirit. And soon everyone was on board with basing our theme around the temple. We decided to let them go home and pray about a theme tagline with a scripture or quote to back it up and then come prepare next time with it to share. That went much smoother than the location discussion.
But here is was again...the debate between the campers and the non-campers. Even President Lovell chimed in and started to say things like, “okay if you want to base your theme around the temple, then where should we go?” Making it quite obvious but still they wouldn’t budge. So finally the same kid that made the temple comment said, we’re going to be here all night lets just vote on it. And so we did and by only a difference of a few votes, Snow College won. The meeting was over. Some people were probably frustrated but at least that portion was out of the way.
I left feeling very relieved. And totally in awe of everything at the same time. Was it awkard and stressful at time during the meeting, yes. But was it strangely also led by the spirit? I think so. Somehow we ended up where we wanted to be, but 30 minutes before then, I never thought it would happen. Its amazing to see people who have been in leadership positions in youth, they really know how to react to the youth well, be commanding and not intimidated. I’ll have to remember that.
So they had decided on a temple based theme and even though the rest of that meeting was crazy, there was a strong spirit in there and I KNEW without a doubt the focus of our youth conference was definitely supposed to be on the Temple.
Through out the coming months our youth came up with our Theme, “Get Ready, Get Set GO!” with an accompanying quote of President Monson about coming to the house of the Lord, where we can find rest for the weary and comfort to the soul. We eventually found some off campus housing at a place called the Park Place apartments for a pretty good price. I remember Cordelle mentioning to me in the car one day “wouldnt that be cool if we could take Park Place and the Go from our theme and tie it into the whole Monopoly theme? I remember thinking that would be clever but to tricky and complicated to pull off. Little by little though things started falling into that line and we were surprised ourselves to see the monopoly/temple thing kind of come together so smoothly that even now, we know it was not just our ideas.
It started with the challenge cards I guess. We felt strongly that we needed to start preparing the youth before conference for the temple. I think it was the youth that suggested we have some sort of competition. And so came the challenge cards. Cordelle being the graphic designer that he is knew one way this youth conference was going to be different was, it was going to LOOK cool. ( I usually would roll my eyes, but in retrospect he did do an amazing job branding, designing and organizing all the agendas, sigs and packets that I think gave everything the feel and look we were hoping for). So he created the challenge card looking like a small monopoly board but having questions and challenges about the temple, discovering newfamilysearch.org, becoming familiar with temple standards found in the new FSOY pamphlet etc. It was from the challenge card that we finally dove in and accepted the fun idea of using the monopoly theme along side of the temple.
Now I wish I would have continued keeping a journal like I did at the beginning but there are some very special experiences that i will never forget and some life lessons that I hope I can always draw from as we planned and prepared for youth conference.
As one might assume, there was much prayer that went into youth conference but I’ll tell you, the times I prayed for things like “please help us to figure out what to do with youth conference” nothing really happened; no progress was made. But when I took specific parts of youth conference, with specific questions to the Lord, ideas and inspiration would ALWAYS come as long as I was working at it. Let me give some examples. I knew we needed to have some sort of kick off but as much as I racked my brain, I could not figure out what needed to happen. I discussed with the youth committee the idea of having them introduce the theme in a spiritual way but I wanted to do something fun as well without distracting for the spirit. One day I was exercising and the idea came so strongly to do a fireside before youth conference where the youth taught the youth. One youth would talk on getting ready to go to the temple, one on staying set with the temple as their goal, and another on actually going to the temple. It was so clear that this was the answer to spiritually kick off the importance of the temple so at our next meeting the youth committee all volunteered to fulfill all the needs for the spiritual kick off the Sunday before. Amazing to me. Weeks passed and still I was having no luck in how to kick off the youth conference on Thursday. We tried to get ideas from the youth and from past YC leaders, but nothing felt right and in line with our theme. I was frustrated and finally decided to start praying specifically about the kick off and to guide me to an idea or something to go off of for this kick off. Then one day I was running when the idea struck me if we were going to do a monopoly themed youth conference, then why not create a monopoly game to play. And that was it. I couldn’t come up with anything more but I had an idea I knew I could build on. I was so grateful for this and i knew as insignificant as it seemed, God knew my immediate concern and he helped lead me to an idea. What was fascinating to me was that details would not come until I sat down and worked and worked on this game. Little by little as I put forth my effort, more and more ideas would come to me and I knew then that both the more spiritual and the entertainment sides of youth conference could be led by the spirit to create an uplifting environment for the youth.
When the adult leaders were called from each ward we didn’t know any of them and yet we assigned each of them a task or to be in charge of an activity the youth had decided they wanted to do. Even this action, unbeknownst to us at the time, i truly believe was directed the Spirit. We were at first apprehensive. The couple over the hike said they weren’t really into hiking, the woman over the food told us on numerous occasions how she had no idea how to even begin planning food for that many people and was not comfortable with it. The couple over the temple was pretty overwhelmed thinking they needed to collect 750 names for the kids to do baptisms and had had more experience doing food for large groups of people. One couple for the games didnt seem happy with their assignment and we were left with another activity without a leader. And although we thought more than once to switch things around, Cordelle reminded me that just as this calling was hard for me, sometimes for people to grow they needed to step outside their comfort zone and be pushed a little. And to this day, I know they each were called to where they were supposed to be. Each rose to the occasion and went far above and beyond anything I thought they would do with their portion of youth conference. It could not have gone better.
As time grew on hiccups came up like the movie which we could’nt get rights for so we ended up putting together some fun youtube clips followed by some powerful mormon messages that I think went over well. And things just started to fall into place.
The last month before youth conference was an extrememly busy time for us. Cordelle’s work took he and I to Carlsbad for a week and our wedding invitation buisness was at its busiest part of the year. I remember Cordelle looking just beat every night trying to finish printing things for youth conference, finalize all the last minute plans on top of his regular job, his work conference, 3-4 wedding invitation orders a day and his new calling in the young mens. It was around this same time that I had been miraculously blessed with peace and comfort in regards to youth conference and our roles switched a little. I was able to to comfort him and reassure him that things were going to work out. I felt a great confidence that we would accomplish all we would need to with the assuraty that we had done our best. I just felt peace and no anxiety (which was HUGE for me, with the event we’d been planning coming up so soon.) I attribute this to a few things. First, I started to memorize the Living Christ as part of our stake’s goal this year and as I did so, it helped me recognize and rid myself of negative, doubting, or discouraging thoughts that I knew Satan would use to make me feel hopeless and defeated about youth conference. When I started to receive thoughts that I wasn’t capable of this calling, or that things would be a disorganized mess I repeated in my mind the parts I had memorized and those negative thoughts disappeared. I tried to focus more on my own personal testimony and ultimately what I really wanted to get out of youth conference, and that grew and grew until I, more than anything just wanted the youth or even one youth to grow an appreciation of the temple. That was a big moment for me. Despite all our planning and details....I grew to a point where I only wanted that assurance for one youth....and then it all would be worth it. And although there were probably many, by the tender mercies of the Lord I was able to come to the knowledge of one such youth that had an this experience at the temple.
Not even a year ago, a mother in our stake was killed in a car accident and her daughter was attending the temple with her ward at youth conference. During their little chapel session before doing baptisms a member of the temple presidency came down and asked if he could speak with them. He spoke gently about when we come to the temple we can become close with those who have gone from this life. He told of how proud they are when they see us being worthy and doing this great important work. With the passing of her mother this young girl sat in the front row with tears on her cheeks and a message she knew was meant for her and this ward. The couple in charge of baptisms at the temple later asked the temple patrons if this was common for the members of the temple presidency to come down to the baptistry and the temple patron said, the only time they come down is if they are requested by their bishop to. So this couple took the Bishop aside and commented to him how cool she thought it was that he had asked a member of the temple presidency to come down and speak to his ward about what he did. The Bishop then told her, he never spoke or requested anyone to come and speak. Surely God knew that girl and that ward, and through a special prompting led the member of the temple presidency to offer a tender mercy to her from the Lord. Hearing of that experience made all 9 months of planning and worrying worth it. I believe all in that room will never forget that experience.
I saw a father come down from Enoch to walk the temple grounds with his son who was not worthy to get a temple recommend so he wouldnt be alone while the rest of his ward were in doing baptisms. I was touched by that.
I overheard a kid tell his leader at a meal, that the coolest part of youth conference even with all the other fun activities was attending the temple. Another youth who was baptized only a week prior got to attend the temple and was amazed by the whole experience as well. There is no doubt in my mind that despite all the other great activities, it was the temple that made all the difference.
Cordelle and I loved working on this together. He was organized and knew how to relate important information, I was a little OCD and wanted to see progress every day since we were called. He was rational when I was overwhelmed and I’d like to say that I was optimistic when he needed that assurance too. It was an amazing opportunity to meet once a week and discuss something that was important to both of us, a call from God. We later mentioned to each other what an impact that would have on different aspects of our lives if we would meet once a week to report and discuss things like our children, our marriage, our own personal testimonies and worthiness. I hope that is something we really do do, because progress happened when we met and talked and that was invaluable to me.
I learned that there is no greater motivator than faith and no greater defeater than doubt. When I had no idea how things were going to pan out but pressed on, working one little wrinkle out at a time, things progressed; I progressed. When I worried and doubted and sat and pouted instead of working on the problem, things were stagnant and nothing got done. I learned that there will be things in our lives that are too overwhelming to try and solve or have peace about by looking at the whole picture, but if we can break it down into achievable pieces that we can handle right now, or a part of the big picture that we can pray about and work towards right now, then slowly those little pieces will amount to something great and that big picture wont seem as overwhelming.
I met some amazing people through all of this and saw just how precious and invaluable people who serve with all their might have. It has made me very aware of the importance of supporting others in their callings and doing our best with the parts we are called to to help the church grow and progress overall. I know people have talents that can bless the church and when they use them or discover them through serving in callings we all benefit from theml
I NEVER thought I’d say this, but I am so grateful we accepted this call and did the best we could have done with it. I felt many times that God knew me and my concerns and knew the concerns of the youth of this stake. I knew from that first meeting where President Brough told me the process of finding us to issue the call that God knew this was calling was for me. I hope I will never forget the lessons I’ve learned on faith, work and acting on the promptings of the Holy Ghost. I am truly grateful for callings that stretch us and make us more than we could be on our own.
Last August, I was in charge of planning a high school reunion. With no money, very little help initially, and many insecurities this was very stressful and overwhelming for me. I concluded once it was over, that I was best suited “helping” or serving on a committee but leading or being in charge of a large activity such as this was simply not something I had been given the talents or ability to do. I prayed a lot about this, and had to try to develop faith that God would help me over come what to me seemed like a huge task to accomplish alone. Although relieved when it was over, I felt neither better for doing it nor like I had developed the talent that people need to accomplish putting on a large event. It was not a positive experience for me.
So it was with these insecurities and anxiety that less than two months later Cordelle and I were called to be in charge of Stake youth conference. Here is what i wrote in my journal about first two days after being called.
September 28, 2011
Today we met with the Stake President and BOTH his counselors. You know its trouble when all three of them are there. To be honest I wasn’t worried in the least, cause I was certain the calling was for Cordelle. But when they called us both to be Stake youth conference coordinators a couple of things went through my mind. First, is this a joke? I had just 2 months before pulled off a 10 year reunion for high school which to most people would’nt be a big deal, but I worried and stressed and tried to overcome insecurities and a weakness of caring too much about what people think of me or things I do. I soon realized what my most dreaded calling would be....organizing any type of event. I even remember thinking I would hate to have to organize girls camp or youth conference at a ward level. Naturally Stake Conference was going to be worse. I was sick to my stomach. I had heard so many stories about RS presidents feeling overwhelmed getting called etc. Odd as it may to be to some people. This was my calling that I knew would be hard for me.
The stake President then went into great detail about the process we were called and how it took many names and a lot of prayer to finally feel good about our name. I don’t think I realized then, but I really grew to appreciate the fact that he told this to us, because it later gave me strength to know I really was not just selected at random but God wanted US to do it. It was that simple. He would help us. I energetically told them I would accept the call, but I was still very nervous about it. Matter of fact, I went home and cried. Feeling just a bit overwhelmed.
To think about everything was just too overwhelming at first, but strangely through it all, it was a great testimony to me that God knew who I was. Only he would know that this calling would be so difficult for me and one that would help me grow the most. No one but He (and Cordelle) could have known that this was one of very few calling that would leave me smack bottom humbled with a complete need for God’s direction.
Cordelle and I decided that we would meet once a week on Thursday nights at 9:00 and talk about youth conference. We opened with a prayer and bounced ideas off each other and helped each other when one another was feeling overwhelmed or frustrated. I found this entry in my journal after our first meeting together.
September 29, 2011
After much thought, I tried to remember when I was planning my reunion and what I could learn from it. One of the lessons I learned was that when i was making progress or at least working on things, I felt better or more in control. So Cordelle and I set up a time for a weekly meeting where for one hour we would talk about youth conference, gear up for our next meeting or give each other assignments.
Tonight was our first meeting. And as overwhelmed as I was, I was SO grateful to not be doing this alone. I had Cordelle, who had experience in bishopbric meetings and making action lists and making things happen. He helped me realize there were differences between my reunion planning and this. First we had a budget, we weren’t starting from $0 hoping to get money through ticket sales. Second, I wasn’t doing it alone. Cordelle was called with me and he was fully invested in it as well and would help obviously every step of the way. And lastly, we were called by God. This was his youth conference and it will all work out and we just have to listen and be in tune to making it happen like He would have it work out.
I felt better about things after this meeting.
Now even though that meeting and some similiar to it left me feeling energized and full of faith and confidence that Heavenly Father would help lead this, all our Thursday night meetings were not quite so faith building. I remember times we would stay up late, frustrated and disagreeing. I would think something was important and Cordelle wouldn’t see the need. We would struggle how we were going to get an entire stake through the temple and juggle a schedule that combined wards but didnt have individual kids spread out all over SanPete county. There were more problems that came up than we could find solutions to, and there were many Thursday evenings we went to bed having discussed but solved nothing, feeling frustrated and wondering how this would ever work.
We knew however, we needed to start working with the youth immediately. So we started once a month meetings and I’ll tell you nothing scared me more. There was nothing more awkard and terrifying for me than being in a room of youth committee leaders, knowing they were to be involved in Youth Conference but still realizing it was us that would have to pull off their wishes. Then it didn’t help that our first meeting was filled with very little feed back or responses and a lot of silence. And once we did get them talking they couldn’t agree on anything. Here’s an entry from that meeting.
October 8, 2011
So we’re a little stressed come 5pm (an hour before our meeting starts). Pres. Lovell calls us back letting us know that he will conduct the meeting and then introduce us. So we pretty much scrap our whole agenda of getting to know the kids, telling them their responsibilities, and then going into location options. We really have to have options of locations for them. I am now very grateful for all the effort and research I looked into so many places. I just have to organize all my notes about each one. Because most of them we can’t get into because our group is so large, others are things we really don’t want to do but would obviously if thats what the kids wanted. I was hard, knowing the youth could change everything just by their opinion and we would really have to be prepared for anything. I don’t know, our first option really was still Snow College but we were totally willing to make anything work.
So the meeting started and it was rough. With quick introductions everything was pretty much turned right over to us, so basically we were kind of conducting the meeting (which for some reason I was under the impression from talking to President Lovell we wouldnt be). So me, having strange issues with silence in large groups, just started talking and trying to lead the discussion somewhere. I was nervous and looking back I really should have just let them hash things out more, but NO ONE was talking. Once we got the ball rolling, things started to flow. But there was a problem, there were 2 kids that were so gung-ho about going to Snow (yipee) even though they had just gone there the year before. But there were another 2 kids that REALLY wanted to go camping. One girl in particular and she was convincing. She was a great leader but was definitely making things difficult to not go the camping route. Which I guess really wasn’t difficult because if thats what they wanted to do, we would do it. I just remember thinking in the middle of the meeting. We are NEVER going to come to a conclusion these two sides are dead set on their minds.
I remember kicking cordelle in the middle of the whole thing wanting him to speak up and take control of the way the discussion was going but he just sat back and let me frantically lead the discussion because like I mentioned I couldnt stop talking for fear of those awkward silences. Maybe I should read a book on leading a discussion.
We had to eventually change directions and talk about the theme. Thank heavens! This went much better and somehow the discussion turned towards temple. We had a boy (Bruce Crenkshaws son) tell of an experience where him and his family were in Africa talking with a man who had saved his whole life to go to the temple and he asked them how close they were to a temple. And they told him it was an hour a way. And amazed he looked at them and said, “you must go every day.” The boy started crying and it was powerful. It totally invited the spirit. And soon everyone was on board with basing our theme around the temple. We decided to let them go home and pray about a theme tagline with a scripture or quote to back it up and then come prepare next time with it to share. That went much smoother than the location discussion.
But here is was again...the debate between the campers and the non-campers. Even President Lovell chimed in and started to say things like, “okay if you want to base your theme around the temple, then where should we go?” Making it quite obvious but still they wouldn’t budge. So finally the same kid that made the temple comment said, we’re going to be here all night lets just vote on it. And so we did and by only a difference of a few votes, Snow College won. The meeting was over. Some people were probably frustrated but at least that portion was out of the way.
I left feeling very relieved. And totally in awe of everything at the same time. Was it awkard and stressful at time during the meeting, yes. But was it strangely also led by the spirit? I think so. Somehow we ended up where we wanted to be, but 30 minutes before then, I never thought it would happen. Its amazing to see people who have been in leadership positions in youth, they really know how to react to the youth well, be commanding and not intimidated. I’ll have to remember that.
So they had decided on a temple based theme and even though the rest of that meeting was crazy, there was a strong spirit in there and I KNEW without a doubt the focus of our youth conference was definitely supposed to be on the Temple.
Through out the coming months our youth came up with our Theme, “Get Ready, Get Set GO!” with an accompanying quote of President Monson about coming to the house of the Lord, where we can find rest for the weary and comfort to the soul. We eventually found some off campus housing at a place called the Park Place apartments for a pretty good price. I remember Cordelle mentioning to me in the car one day “wouldnt that be cool if we could take Park Place and the Go from our theme and tie it into the whole Monopoly theme? I remember thinking that would be clever but to tricky and complicated to pull off. Little by little though things started falling into that line and we were surprised ourselves to see the monopoly/temple thing kind of come together so smoothly that even now, we know it was not just our ideas.
It started with the challenge cards I guess. We felt strongly that we needed to start preparing the youth before conference for the temple. I think it was the youth that suggested we have some sort of competition. And so came the challenge cards. Cordelle being the graphic designer that he is knew one way this youth conference was going to be different was, it was going to LOOK cool. ( I usually would roll my eyes, but in retrospect he did do an amazing job branding, designing and organizing all the agendas, sigs and packets that I think gave everything the feel and look we were hoping for). So he created the challenge card looking like a small monopoly board but having questions and challenges about the temple, discovering newfamilysearch.org, becoming familiar with temple standards found in the new FSOY pamphlet etc. It was from the challenge card that we finally dove in and accepted the fun idea of using the monopoly theme along side of the temple.
Now I wish I would have continued keeping a journal like I did at the beginning but there are some very special experiences that i will never forget and some life lessons that I hope I can always draw from as we planned and prepared for youth conference.
As one might assume, there was much prayer that went into youth conference but I’ll tell you, the times I prayed for things like “please help us to figure out what to do with youth conference” nothing really happened; no progress was made. But when I took specific parts of youth conference, with specific questions to the Lord, ideas and inspiration would ALWAYS come as long as I was working at it. Let me give some examples. I knew we needed to have some sort of kick off but as much as I racked my brain, I could not figure out what needed to happen. I discussed with the youth committee the idea of having them introduce the theme in a spiritual way but I wanted to do something fun as well without distracting for the spirit. One day I was exercising and the idea came so strongly to do a fireside before youth conference where the youth taught the youth. One youth would talk on getting ready to go to the temple, one on staying set with the temple as their goal, and another on actually going to the temple. It was so clear that this was the answer to spiritually kick off the importance of the temple so at our next meeting the youth committee all volunteered to fulfill all the needs for the spiritual kick off the Sunday before. Amazing to me. Weeks passed and still I was having no luck in how to kick off the youth conference on Thursday. We tried to get ideas from the youth and from past YC leaders, but nothing felt right and in line with our theme. I was frustrated and finally decided to start praying specifically about the kick off and to guide me to an idea or something to go off of for this kick off. Then one day I was running when the idea struck me if we were going to do a monopoly themed youth conference, then why not create a monopoly game to play. And that was it. I couldn’t come up with anything more but I had an idea I knew I could build on. I was so grateful for this and i knew as insignificant as it seemed, God knew my immediate concern and he helped lead me to an idea. What was fascinating to me was that details would not come until I sat down and worked and worked on this game. Little by little as I put forth my effort, more and more ideas would come to me and I knew then that both the more spiritual and the entertainment sides of youth conference could be led by the spirit to create an uplifting environment for the youth.
When the adult leaders were called from each ward we didn’t know any of them and yet we assigned each of them a task or to be in charge of an activity the youth had decided they wanted to do. Even this action, unbeknownst to us at the time, i truly believe was directed the Spirit. We were at first apprehensive. The couple over the hike said they weren’t really into hiking, the woman over the food told us on numerous occasions how she had no idea how to even begin planning food for that many people and was not comfortable with it. The couple over the temple was pretty overwhelmed thinking they needed to collect 750 names for the kids to do baptisms and had had more experience doing food for large groups of people. One couple for the games didnt seem happy with their assignment and we were left with another activity without a leader. And although we thought more than once to switch things around, Cordelle reminded me that just as this calling was hard for me, sometimes for people to grow they needed to step outside their comfort zone and be pushed a little. And to this day, I know they each were called to where they were supposed to be. Each rose to the occasion and went far above and beyond anything I thought they would do with their portion of youth conference. It could not have gone better.
As time grew on hiccups came up like the movie which we could’nt get rights for so we ended up putting together some fun youtube clips followed by some powerful mormon messages that I think went over well. And things just started to fall into place.
The last month before youth conference was an extrememly busy time for us. Cordelle’s work took he and I to Carlsbad for a week and our wedding invitation buisness was at its busiest part of the year. I remember Cordelle looking just beat every night trying to finish printing things for youth conference, finalize all the last minute plans on top of his regular job, his work conference, 3-4 wedding invitation orders a day and his new calling in the young mens. It was around this same time that I had been miraculously blessed with peace and comfort in regards to youth conference and our roles switched a little. I was able to to comfort him and reassure him that things were going to work out. I felt a great confidence that we would accomplish all we would need to with the assuraty that we had done our best. I just felt peace and no anxiety (which was HUGE for me, with the event we’d been planning coming up so soon.) I attribute this to a few things. First, I started to memorize the Living Christ as part of our stake’s goal this year and as I did so, it helped me recognize and rid myself of negative, doubting, or discouraging thoughts that I knew Satan would use to make me feel hopeless and defeated about youth conference. When I started to receive thoughts that I wasn’t capable of this calling, or that things would be a disorganized mess I repeated in my mind the parts I had memorized and those negative thoughts disappeared. I tried to focus more on my own personal testimony and ultimately what I really wanted to get out of youth conference, and that grew and grew until I, more than anything just wanted the youth or even one youth to grow an appreciation of the temple. That was a big moment for me. Despite all our planning and details....I grew to a point where I only wanted that assurance for one youth....and then it all would be worth it. And although there were probably many, by the tender mercies of the Lord I was able to come to the knowledge of one such youth that had an this experience at the temple.
Not even a year ago, a mother in our stake was killed in a car accident and her daughter was attending the temple with her ward at youth conference. During their little chapel session before doing baptisms a member of the temple presidency came down and asked if he could speak with them. He spoke gently about when we come to the temple we can become close with those who have gone from this life. He told of how proud they are when they see us being worthy and doing this great important work. With the passing of her mother this young girl sat in the front row with tears on her cheeks and a message she knew was meant for her and this ward. The couple in charge of baptisms at the temple later asked the temple patrons if this was common for the members of the temple presidency to come down to the baptistry and the temple patron said, the only time they come down is if they are requested by their bishop to. So this couple took the Bishop aside and commented to him how cool she thought it was that he had asked a member of the temple presidency to come down and speak to his ward about what he did. The Bishop then told her, he never spoke or requested anyone to come and speak. Surely God knew that girl and that ward, and through a special prompting led the member of the temple presidency to offer a tender mercy to her from the Lord. Hearing of that experience made all 9 months of planning and worrying worth it. I believe all in that room will never forget that experience.
I saw a father come down from Enoch to walk the temple grounds with his son who was not worthy to get a temple recommend so he wouldnt be alone while the rest of his ward were in doing baptisms. I was touched by that.
I overheard a kid tell his leader at a meal, that the coolest part of youth conference even with all the other fun activities was attending the temple. Another youth who was baptized only a week prior got to attend the temple and was amazed by the whole experience as well. There is no doubt in my mind that despite all the other great activities, it was the temple that made all the difference.
Cordelle and I loved working on this together. He was organized and knew how to relate important information, I was a little OCD and wanted to see progress every day since we were called. He was rational when I was overwhelmed and I’d like to say that I was optimistic when he needed that assurance too. It was an amazing opportunity to meet once a week and discuss something that was important to both of us, a call from God. We later mentioned to each other what an impact that would have on different aspects of our lives if we would meet once a week to report and discuss things like our children, our marriage, our own personal testimonies and worthiness. I hope that is something we really do do, because progress happened when we met and talked and that was invaluable to me.
I learned that there is no greater motivator than faith and no greater defeater than doubt. When I had no idea how things were going to pan out but pressed on, working one little wrinkle out at a time, things progressed; I progressed. When I worried and doubted and sat and pouted instead of working on the problem, things were stagnant and nothing got done. I learned that there will be things in our lives that are too overwhelming to try and solve or have peace about by looking at the whole picture, but if we can break it down into achievable pieces that we can handle right now, or a part of the big picture that we can pray about and work towards right now, then slowly those little pieces will amount to something great and that big picture wont seem as overwhelming.
I met some amazing people through all of this and saw just how precious and invaluable people who serve with all their might have. It has made me very aware of the importance of supporting others in their callings and doing our best with the parts we are called to to help the church grow and progress overall. I know people have talents that can bless the church and when they use them or discover them through serving in callings we all benefit from theml
I NEVER thought I’d say this, but I am so grateful we accepted this call and did the best we could have done with it. I felt many times that God knew me and my concerns and knew the concerns of the youth of this stake. I knew from that first meeting where President Brough told me the process of finding us to issue the call that God knew this was calling was for me. I hope I will never forget the lessons I’ve learned on faith, work and acting on the promptings of the Holy Ghost. I am truly grateful for callings that stretch us and make us more than we could be on our own.
Saturday, June 2, 2012
Annual Leavitt Group Conference at the La Costa
This years Leavitt Group Conference took us to Carlsbad Calfornia where we stayed at the La Costa Resort and Spa. The 7 hour drive down there wasn't even bad for a prego lady and I didnt even have to stop to pee any more than anyone else did. The resort was of course incredible, with like 5 different pools, hammocks outside of your rooms, restaurants and shops to visit. It was fancy! Of course it was more of a vacation for me and not so much for Cordelle. He was once again super busy and the couple hours he did have "off" was usually spent trying to catch up on Dittobug stuff, so I felt bad. He was pretty stressed the whole trip so that was a bummer but there were some high lights as well. We celebrated our 9 year anniversary on May 30th, so that was fun to already being somewhere exciting and without the kiddos. One afternoon we were able to drive down and do some sealings in the San Diego Temple which was cool since we've never been there before (no pics). And then Thursday night they switched things up a bit this year and had an evening open for insurance carriers to meet with co-owners (blah, blah, blah) which basically meant we (Cordelle and his co-workers) had the night off! So we went out to this fun Italian restaurant and then to the beach where it was pretty cold, but the boys dove in and we sat back and laughed at how dumb they were. All in all it was successful and the kids did great with Neal and Brittlyn at home. Although I dont mind staying in these nice places, hanging out by the pool all day, Cordelle still wishes he did'nt have to go every year cause its a full day and night of work for 4 days where the day doesn't end at 5:00. Sad.
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| Cordelle and I, Ryan and Melanie, Mike and Holly and LeeAnn (she usually tags around with us at least one evening cause we're the cool kids) |
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| I normally do not post pictures of how huge I feel while pregnant but we are at the beach and someone insisted on taking one of us so....well there you have it. |
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| There was this great breakfast restaurant just a mile away called the Broken Yolk Cafe. I got the same delicious french toast both mornings I went there and was tickled with the glass my chocolate milk came in so I snapped a pic of it. |
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| The resort at night. My camera truly is well its a camera on my phone so these pictures aren't the greatest and I'm never really good at taking the good ones anyways like at the pool or of our rooms. Oh well. |
Sunday, May 20, 2012
Mothers Day / Summer Job Chart
So for Mothers Day Cordelle got me a cricut which I was super excited about and went to work immediately making my kids a summer Job Chart. I know my kids will always be tortured by job charts. I cant help it....I think its more for me than for them. And thus far I have found out that it only works on one my kids. Jaquelle is so unmotivated by it, its all I can do to help her every morning to do most her jobs. Oh well. But their end reward is going to the aquatic center and they both want it bad so hopefully if I can keep them moving towards it, once they get closer they will be a little more motivated. The Charts with their names on them were behavior charts or obedience charts and then of course if they got all their morning or Afternoon or Evening jobs done, they could move a space on their behavior chart too. There is one daily job that changes each day and then regular jobs like bedrooms, reading, and after meal jobs they do everyday. I think it works well when I'm up and ready to enforce it. If nothing else, it was good practice with the new cricut!
Saturday, May 5, 2012
Its play time
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| Sometimes the princesses and the star wars characters do get along. On this day they all were lined up taking turns getting their picture taken on our piano bench. Seth had my phone and was taking pictures of one princess and one Star Wars guy together. Pretty entertaining. |
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| Cordelle is an awesome dad. Before General Conference he printed off this packet for the kids to color and play with during conference. And my kids LOVE to color and draw. They color and draw all day long. We have a sweet neighbor that visited us a few days before conference and told the kids he'd bring them something to color with for conference. He showed up with this huge pack of markers and little clip boards and I'll tell you, my kids did not move from their markers and conference packets the whole first session! |
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| This is what a bunch of stay at home moms do when they get all their kids together in the middle of the day. You have no idea how complicated this actually was. We hooked as many small bikes and wagons and kids together as we could and made ourselves a little train. Only one injury: Jaq fell off a bike and got drug 6 inches. But otherwise an afternoon success! |
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| Dancing. And of course she demands a picture any time she decides to. |
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| My kids go through fazes about what their favorite "treat" place is. Its Maggie Moos for a month, then snow cones, but on this night it was Arctic Circle. I hate this restaurant and their ice cream. But Cordelle loves it and its SUPER cheap so we end up there a lot. This night I just brought a long the camera and Jaq was being photogenic so I thought I'd snap a few. |
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| Jaq playing photographer. And no that is not a real scar on Seth's eye. I have a certain red/brown eye liner that if the kids ever come across they insist I put a scar over Seth's eye so he can be Anakin and two cheek dots on Jaq so she can be Queen Amadala like they were at halloween. |
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| One day Jaquelle was downstairs watching Beauty and the Beast and Cordelle went down and watched the end of it with her. During the credits he asked her if she wanted to dance with him like the Beast and Belle and so of course she did and LOVED it! So then in this picture she had remembered dancing with her dad and went downstairs put on her Belle dress up and came up reminding Cordelle of their dance and asking him to dance again. So this time I got the camera. So cute. |
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| Big Bear playing the piano. Thats right, our large stuffed animal bear is very originally named "Big Bear," |
These three pictures just make me laugh. She really is my little sour patch kid!
There are a couple of other funny things my kids do that I want to remember. For instance, we get a lot of packages for our wedding invitation business, so my kids see the UPS guy almost on a daily basis and he is like a celebrity to them. So much in fact that I'll often go downstairs and see my kids taping up boxes with a big U-P-S written on the top. They'll distinguish different doors where they will drop off the packages, knock and wait for someone to answer. Usually the boxes are filled with toys or left over invitations. But they love playing this game and I think its hilarious.
And then, one day I went down stairs and both Seth and Jaq were re-enacting as many disney shows as they could. I think I tried to video them, but I cant ever get blogger to update my videos well, so I'll just describe it. They got out a blanket and sang as much of Aladdin as they could remember. They acted out parts of the Little Mermaid, Belle and Beast Dancing, Ryder and Rapunzel scenes...I was actually quite impressed with how much of the movie lines they remembered. I love that Seth is on board with stuff like this. I think its sweet that Jaq is the princess and that he isn't too cool to play the prince or the princess counter part yet. There is nothing better than seeing your kids use their imaginations and playing something together....without fighting, or whining...:)
Friday, May 4, 2012
EASTER to the camping degree
Here it is again! Every year. Its Easter and you'll find out on the desert a campin! So this year we went back to "Falling Rock." Sounds like a cool camp spot right? Really its just a place just off a high way somewhere in between Green River and Hanksville in the San Rafael Swell (in the middle of no where) where there is a big rock that looks like its falling so my great aunt affectionally calls it "Falling Rock."
This year really was incredibly nice! Let see who was there? Tallie and Jim got there Friday morning, Neal and Britt got there Thursday night, Scott and my parents of course were there. Krista's family could not make it this year, which was really weird and made our family seem really small. And then of course Brett and Mark couldnt come because of work and illness. Anyways much of how Easter goes, depends on the weather (remember last year?) So I'll give a quick recap. The night we got there was so warm and the moon was so bright that even though it was dark and close to 9pm, we had to problem setting up our tent. We roped Scott into helping us set up camp and he willingly agreed because he had to tell us all about his new girlfriend, Breanne. He is so twitterpated it was cute. This is his first real girlfriend. (Ha! Real?!) So excited for him.
Anyways that night turned out to be a little different than the hours before. When we went to bed it started getting breezy, by 1AM I could have sworn we were going to be lifted up and carried off like the house on The wizard of Oz. It woke Cordelle and I up multiple times scaring the crap out of us. Wind in a tent is Loud! Luckily the kids were zombies through the whole thing.
The next day we did Easter baskets in a cool morning and spent the afternoon driving to our old camp spot "Snoopy" (again affectionally named after a rock in the shape of Snoopy the dog off of Charlie Brown.) We can't camp there anymore because of lame new BLM regulations but we ate lunch there and climbed the ultimate sand hill that brings back so many memories of my childhood. It takes a fit person about 20 minutes to climb to the top of it. But even me with my pregnant belly (and Tallie pushing me up the entire way) made it in about 30 min! So fun! It was hard watching Neal and Tallie running down it at full speed like we used to when we were kids. There's even a part at the top that is really steep that you can jump off a sort of ledge and get some serious air into the sand. It was fun. Cordelle stayed behind with Jaq and Gaven, and I took Seth with me. He did great! At the top is a huge rock cliff that we would hike when we were little and I took Seth with me and it scared me to death having him there with me. I don't know how my mom did it with all us kids. I think I have some pictures of this little 4-5ft ledge we walk on to get to the adjacent mountain, with a HUGE drop off to the side. We did a little rock climbing which was very humbling for me, because for the first time in my life I had to have my little brother pull me up a a crevace in a rock cause my belly got stuck and my stomach didnt have the muscle power to pull myself up. Probably should'nt be doing stuff that intense while pregnant anyways :) Theres this little nitch in the side of another enormous cliff that we spent a lot of time when we were little we called "Echo" (thats right because you can hear your echo like 4-5 times because of all the surrounding cliffs and mountains. So I really wanted to show Seth. Unfortunately it was so windy, we could barely stand (which does not make for a good combination for an unbalanced, over protective pregnant woman an a 5 year old boy! Besides the wind made for a zero echo effect. Bummer. But still stoked to do the little climb after probably 9 or 10 years! Actually we figured the last time we were here was when Cordelle and I were engaged. We even hid a little treasure under a tree that we tried to find but had no success with. :(
ANYWAYS....we spent the rest of the day at Dead Horse Point and driving around before heading back for dinner. It was a good day to be driving cause it really was pretty cold still.
The next day was perfect. We had decided earlier that no matter what anyone else had done, we would travel Friday but chill on Saturday and chill we did! It was the perfect weather day and we stayed at camp playing games and eating our brains out! We made a scavenger hunt for the kids using the GPS on my phone. Their prize was Chipmunks Chipwrecked, which they were extactic for! They got to watch it in Grannies trailer and we got a non kid interupted game of Settlers in with Scott. We finished the day making a perfect dutch oven meat and potatoes dinner and had Grandma and Grandpa Durrant eat with us. (My dad left for the day to work at the temple, and Neal and Britt went with my mom on a day long hike....that ended up being a REALLY long hike cause they didnt get back till 9:30!)
Sunday we woke up went to the usual sunday easter meeting, had lunch with the extended family and packed up and went home. It was weird not having Krista and her family there but overall, I thought we had a fantastic easter outing once again! Here's pics from the weekend! (Of course)
This year really was incredibly nice! Let see who was there? Tallie and Jim got there Friday morning, Neal and Britt got there Thursday night, Scott and my parents of course were there. Krista's family could not make it this year, which was really weird and made our family seem really small. And then of course Brett and Mark couldnt come because of work and illness. Anyways much of how Easter goes, depends on the weather (remember last year?) So I'll give a quick recap. The night we got there was so warm and the moon was so bright that even though it was dark and close to 9pm, we had to problem setting up our tent. We roped Scott into helping us set up camp and he willingly agreed because he had to tell us all about his new girlfriend, Breanne. He is so twitterpated it was cute. This is his first real girlfriend. (Ha! Real?!) So excited for him.
Anyways that night turned out to be a little different than the hours before. When we went to bed it started getting breezy, by 1AM I could have sworn we were going to be lifted up and carried off like the house on The wizard of Oz. It woke Cordelle and I up multiple times scaring the crap out of us. Wind in a tent is Loud! Luckily the kids were zombies through the whole thing.
The next day we did Easter baskets in a cool morning and spent the afternoon driving to our old camp spot "Snoopy" (again affectionally named after a rock in the shape of Snoopy the dog off of Charlie Brown.) We can't camp there anymore because of lame new BLM regulations but we ate lunch there and climbed the ultimate sand hill that brings back so many memories of my childhood. It takes a fit person about 20 minutes to climb to the top of it. But even me with my pregnant belly (and Tallie pushing me up the entire way) made it in about 30 min! So fun! It was hard watching Neal and Tallie running down it at full speed like we used to when we were kids. There's even a part at the top that is really steep that you can jump off a sort of ledge and get some serious air into the sand. It was fun. Cordelle stayed behind with Jaq and Gaven, and I took Seth with me. He did great! At the top is a huge rock cliff that we would hike when we were little and I took Seth with me and it scared me to death having him there with me. I don't know how my mom did it with all us kids. I think I have some pictures of this little 4-5ft ledge we walk on to get to the adjacent mountain, with a HUGE drop off to the side. We did a little rock climbing which was very humbling for me, because for the first time in my life I had to have my little brother pull me up a a crevace in a rock cause my belly got stuck and my stomach didnt have the muscle power to pull myself up. Probably should'nt be doing stuff that intense while pregnant anyways :) Theres this little nitch in the side of another enormous cliff that we spent a lot of time when we were little we called "Echo" (thats right because you can hear your echo like 4-5 times because of all the surrounding cliffs and mountains. So I really wanted to show Seth. Unfortunately it was so windy, we could barely stand (which does not make for a good combination for an unbalanced, over protective pregnant woman an a 5 year old boy! Besides the wind made for a zero echo effect. Bummer. But still stoked to do the little climb after probably 9 or 10 years! Actually we figured the last time we were here was when Cordelle and I were engaged. We even hid a little treasure under a tree that we tried to find but had no success with. :(
ANYWAYS....we spent the rest of the day at Dead Horse Point and driving around before heading back for dinner. It was a good day to be driving cause it really was pretty cold still.
The next day was perfect. We had decided earlier that no matter what anyone else had done, we would travel Friday but chill on Saturday and chill we did! It was the perfect weather day and we stayed at camp playing games and eating our brains out! We made a scavenger hunt for the kids using the GPS on my phone. Their prize was Chipmunks Chipwrecked, which they were extactic for! They got to watch it in Grannies trailer and we got a non kid interupted game of Settlers in with Scott. We finished the day making a perfect dutch oven meat and potatoes dinner and had Grandma and Grandpa Durrant eat with us. (My dad left for the day to work at the temple, and Neal and Britt went with my mom on a day long hike....that ended up being a REALLY long hike cause they didnt get back till 9:30!)
Sunday we woke up went to the usual sunday easter meeting, had lunch with the extended family and packed up and went home. It was weird not having Krista and her family there but overall, I thought we had a fantastic easter outing once again! Here's pics from the weekend! (Of course)
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| only 3 kids this year at the easter basket trail head! (Gaven, Jaquelle, and Seth) |
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| Easter baskets |
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| Everyone from the family that was there: Tallie, Jim and Gaven. Neal and Brittlyn. Our family. Scott (taking the pic) and Grandpa and Grannie Annie |
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| At snoopy on the sand hill. Its kind of hard to see but right in the middle of the pic are the cars. |
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| Grannie on the hill! She is awesome! |
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| The ledge that we as kids ran up and down over and over again...which I bravely took Seth on all way up. |
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| Recovering after the sand hill climb....(I tried to get Neal to turn around) |
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| Tallie and Jim |
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| Heres a good picture of the cliff. |
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| And here's ECHO! Our little cove where normally we can hear our echo 4-5 times! The ledge is probably hundreds of feet high and its super steep to get down there. |
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| Windy Wendy...:) |
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| Helping Brittlyn. This is what it looked like when I was climbing through the crack too, (I just didnt have my camera out to take it of me...) |
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| I pulled down Seth most of the sand hill and then videoed people running down (Note: This is like 1/10 of the way down) |
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| Dead Horse Point |
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| Of course there is a Easter Egg hunt...and boy did they score! |
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| The end of of the scavenger hunt Cordelle made for the kids....x marks the spot. |
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