A Week On The Water

Well it was another successful Lake Powell trip. No one was taken to the hospital, no midnight rainstorms, and almost no fights. However there were a few meltdowns by the younger ones. However they mostly happened at night as their parents were rubbing aloe on the sunburns. It was pretty sad listening to all of there cries. This year we went on a lot more boat rides then I remember in the past. We went and swam in the cave, jumped off cliffs, some went hiking, others stayed in the boat and got a tan! It was a pretty great time. Here are the pictures that were taken during the boat rides!
We found this neat little cave. We all got our life jackets on jumped overboard and swam into the cave. It was fun cause we told the little kids that bats lived in there. Who knows maybe they did! After the cave adventure we climbed up on the rock and jumped off and attempted to catch the football. Some succeeded others did not. When the big kids got tired of that they went to find a bigger rock. It was scary watching them especially when Taige decided to not follow through. I thought he was going to die!

Here are Ashton and Bailey looking for seashells, or as Ashton put it SeaChells. Brooke and I were making dinner when we heard this scream. We knew in an instant that it was Ashton. We look out the window and sure enough she is laying upside down in sticker bush. However I was later informed by Ashton herself that she saved her seachells. She didn't lose a one!
More boat ride pictures! I wasn't lying when I said we spent a lot of time in the boat!
Here is my dad wake surfing. It looks really hard. I was going to try it. But after trying to learn to solemn ski. My body had had it. It was tired so I opted for wake boarding instead. Since I already knew how to do that!
Here is a arch that my dad took us too! We went up the most AMAZING canyon. It was simply beautiful. Here is the front of the cave and then the back of the cave. We dropped off some people and they hiked to up to it. Once we got around to the other side I about had heart failure fearing that one of the kids would not stop and just go off the other side. Luckily no one did!

Well I hope this gives you a taste of why I love Lake Powell so much. It is truly my happiest place on earth. The only thing I hate about it is coming home and cleaning up! Seriously no fun so much laundry and stuff to put away and things to catch up on! Oh well I guess that is the price you pay to have fun!

CHANGED MY LIFE

Ok so I know that I just posted something. However I saw this picture on one of my coco's facebook page and just had to add it. This is my first experience with EFY. This picture is of the whole group on Games Night! I loved this group with all of my heart. These youth were simply amazing and they taught me so much about love, and what it truly means to come unto Christ. As I watched the Spirit take hold of the hearts it was AMAZING. One of the boys named Taylor I thought he was going to be this tough little 14 year old when I first met him but when I saw him on Thursday night and I heard him bare his Testimony that Heavenly Father is there oh it sure did this "mom" proud. I also had two girls who didn't know if Heavenly Father was real but by the end of the week they did and most importantly they knew that he loved them and that they were he is daughters. It was so AMAZING to see these changes take place. It was an experience that will forever stay with me. One that has truly changed my life for the better! I LOVE EFY!!

PS If you are wondering why all of the girls have CRAZY hair it is because Melissa (one of my coco's) decided to do crazy hair night so I went with it and had my girls do my hair and boy was it crazy. If you can't see it take a closer look!

LAKE POWELL OR BUST!

Well it has been about 3 years since I have last visited my Heaven on Earth! In just a few more days I will be there again. I am so excited. I will take plenty of pictures and share them when I get home. We have been going to Lake Powell ever since I was just a little girl. I love it so much. We first started going with my dad's family. Now that the family is larger than life, we are content to go with a group of close friends. We normally stay over in Slick Rock Canyon were we spend our days soaking up the sun, wake boarding, and playing some mad games of Hand and Foot! I will be thinking of those who are at home reading this blog and wishing that they could be with us! No worries I will make a run on the wake board just for you guys! That is if I can get up it has been a LONG TIME!

WEEK 2 OF EFY!

Ok here are the pictures that I promised! This week was a lot harder than last week, but I learned so much from it. One of the things that Heavenly Father taught me was that none of His children are alike. He also showed me that each of His children must have a desire to change. Well I think I will run down the week day by day so that you will now what goes on in the life of an EFY counselor!! Hold on tight cause it is CRAZY!
SUNDAY NIGHT: We get to our session check in and then we have a fireside with the session director. After that we meet with our B.C. groups and then it is off to find your co-counselors(my favorite part)! We then go back to our rooms hang our door tags and then it is off to bed. You want as much rest as you can get!
MONDAY: This is the day when the youth come!! YAY. Well the counselors have a meeting then it is off to check-in. This is fun because as counselors you get to see all of the youth who come in. Plus you get to see some of them with their parents. After check-in it is off to meet your counselor! During this portion of the program I get to tell them what I expect of them and they in return get to tell me what they expect of me! I also go over some rules such as the "BIG FIVE"! After all that business is out of the way we go and meet our company. We all get to know each other and then it is off to Orientation, Dinner, FHE Lesson, FHE Games, then Goal Setting. By the time this is all done it is 9:00 and time for Head-Count, Devotional, and then Lights-OUT!
TUESDAY: As a counselor I am up by like 5:30 am so that I can be to a 6:30 am meeting! The youth just have to be ready by seven so that we can have the participant devotional(meaning the youth give the devotional), then its off to breakfast and Gospel Study. After Gospel Study we go to the Session Director Morning side and then it is off to classes, lunch, and more classes. After the last class the youth get free-time (for some counselors this means NAP TIME)! After free-time it is off to Dinner and then to a DANCE!! After the dance it is time for head-count, devotional, and lights out!
WEDNESDAY: This day is the same as Tuesday up until Dinner. BECAUSE after dinner it is time for GAMES and the CHEER OFF!! After games/cheer-off we all head back to our rooms with much anticipation of the pizza that is going to come! WEDNESDAY NIGHT is PIZZA NIGHT. This is when real "GIRL BONDING" takes place. It is a lot of fun. However you can't have PIZZA until head-count and devotional are done. So on this night they are very helpful!!
THURSDAY: This is probably one of my favorite days of the entire week.This is what is known as the Young Womens/Mens activity. Meaning we separate the girls from the boys and they each go off and learn about the Gospel. The youth have to dress up this day and the SPIRIT is just so strong. After the activity it is off to LUNCH and then to the VARIETY SHOW. In 2006 David Archuletta was at EFY and he performed at the Variety Show. I heard it was pretty much amazing. After the variety show it is FREE TIME and then off to dinner. After dinner it is off to a fireside with the session director and then off to TESTIMONY MEETING. I LOVE this part because this is when you really see a SPIRITUAL change in these fine YOUTH of ZION. After testimony meeting it is off to bed but not before devotional!!
FRIDAY: This day starts out the same as any other day with devotional/breakfast/Gospel Study. However after Gospel Study the youth get a DATING MESSAGE from the session director. However at times I think it is more for the counselors! After the dating message the youth learn how to take what they have learned home with them . Then it is off to FSOY! You are all wondering what is FSOY! Well it is For the Strength of You! This is where some of the counselors are assigned to teach the youth how to live the principles that are taught in the FSOY pamphlet! After FSOY it is off to lunch and then to the SERVICE project. This year they are knitting hats it is alot of fun. After service they now have free time which is also used to go and get ready for the banquet/pictures/and the DANCE! After the Dance they show a slide show of the week everyone cries we then sing the EFY melody and everyone cries some more and then it is time to say good-bye so that everyone can get ready to go home the following morning!
Well I hope that this didn't bore you all too much. I love EFY so much I have had so much fun and it seriously makes me so sad that I am not there now. But JD comes home tomorrow and I guess that it is important that I am there. REMEMBER THE CHURCH IS TRUE!

TEN PERCENT

Well being an EFY counselor you learn alot of things. One of things that I have been made most aware of is that 10% of co-counselors at EFY get married. Well after this last week I have to admit that, that statistic tells the TRUTH! My co-counselor Marc and I fell madly in love and he asked me to marry him Friday night before the banquet. The youth were eating it up. 16-18 year old girls just love all that romance and stuff! We are planning on an October wedding. Hope all of you can make it!
Ok so that is a total lie! While Mark is a good guy I don't think I could marry him. It was just a funny joke. No worries this girl is still single and will be for quite some time! Hope you all have a great day. Oh ya week 2 EFY pictures will be posted this week! Plus I will post pictures from the AIRPORT! Only TWO MORE DAYS YAY!!

SEEING IT THROUGH

CONGRATS TO DJ AND CHRISTINE CUGLIETTA I have taken a vote (ok mostly with myself) and I have realized that this going to be the BEST SUMMER EVER! Between going to Ohio, EFY, JD coming home (in THREE DAYS), NEW YORK (in August), to top it off DJ & CHRISTINE were SEALED in the Mesa Temple today. I woke up early skipped my EFY business meeting I got on a plane flew to AZ Angie and Nap picked me up took me to the Temple the picked me up again and then dropped me off at the AIRPORT. It was one QUICK trip but it was WAY MORE THAN WORTH IT TO BE THERE. I have been able to see this family through. I was there for both of their BAPTISMS. I added some pictures for a quick trip done memory lane! I LOVE THIS GOSPEL. It shows us how ETERNAL FAMILIES can be a REALITY. SIMPLY AMAZING. I LOVE IT SO MUCH.
Christine's Baptism. August 19th, 2006
DJ's baptism. June 2nd, 2007

EFY SESSION 1A

Well I have been out of touch of the blogger world for this last week. To be honest it was quite hard not having a computer to check the blogs to see how everyone was doing. To I have had one of the best weeks of my life. I am an EFY counselor. It was probably the most rewarding job that I have ever had. I get paid to teach kids about the GOSPEL. Simply AMAZING. I started out last Sunday night meeting with our Session Director Brother Anderson he was great. Then we went on to meet our Co-Counselors. I had three Co's. Melissa (she had ten girls), David, & Matt (they each had eight boys). We will now include my eight girls so that gives us a total of 34 youth that we were in charge of. Those kids we are all so amazing I learned so much from them. I loved them all so much. They started out at the beginning of the week with questions. But by the end there Testimonies of the Gospel were ROCK SOLID.
I will see you all next week for I am off for another busy week of EFY!
PS I really need to figure out this collage thing. I don't know why it doubles up on some of my pictures oh well ENJOY!