Rough Day........

DAD died last night.......... can't believe he's gone. We all knew he was so sick and thought we were prepared but I don't think anyone really is. I miss him. Wish I could say goodbye one last time...........love you Dad.

Stake Young Woman Camp 07

We had Stake Young Women's Camp this last week and what a blast! We arrived last Tuesday and were there until Friday morning! Here it is Monday morning and I still think I haven't caught up on the sleep I missed! We had 83 girls registered and about 20 leaders there. Hectic but so fun and lots of wonderful friendships forged and strengthened.

Nadine Edis is our President and Ladene Rempel her first counselor. Carma Hughes her second counselor wasn't able to make it and I serve as the Stake YW secretary. I sure love these ladies, they have been such a wonderful example to me! I even love our meetings (that I have to drive an hour and a half to get to) because I go away feeling spiritually fed, nourished and strengthened. I think the sign of a good friend is that they make you want to be better.........and these two ladies sure do that for me. They are kind, insightful, patient and so friendly! I am too often impatient and dictatorial..........so I am hoping their patience will rub off on me. I think that one of the best parts of this camp was the wonderful visits I could have with the sweet ladies there. Woman talk!!.... it will keep me going for a while!

The different wards were asked to come up with a skit for one of the nights......and the girls were such a hoot! All kinds of ideas....... the girls in green laying on the grass in this picture are a RUG! Vanessa is the coffee table! Don't ask...........Our mess hall...........meal times were pretty noisy and busy........the worst part was that crazy song they sing when they catch you with your elbows on the table! Many girls were running around the cook house because of it!

Always lots of games, here's one of their clapping ones..........

Ladene and I were asked to take all the girls pictures looking like this so we could put them in a pretty shadow box.........so 83 pictures later!!!!! Of course, the hardest one was my own daughter (surprise, surprise) because Vanessa didn't want to take her hat off!

Our nature hike was walking along the beach, problem was some of it we actually had to walk in the water.....it actually ended up being fun! Refreshing and good to be in the water!
Here I am with my only young woman right now.......my sweet Vanessa! Have to admit sure miss my three girls being along.......nice to know Rebecca will be here next year!
I was glad Melodie was able to make it up on Thursday! She has been called to be the Young Woman secretary in our ward.......so she came as a leader! Have to admit, kind of funny to us, not so much to Vanessa!
I am sitting with Carol Jensen and Kailey Pinegar after our hike. Carol was our second in command with Sue Ferguson as our Stake Camp Director. They were so enthused, bubbly and organized! They worked soooo hard. Kailey here is our new young woman president and she did a wonderful job at camp! Really spent some good time with all the girls, so wonderful with our Gina and was our lifeguard for most of the swimming........not only that, she just told us she is pregnant so I think lots of this was done while she was tired!!

Here are some of our young women canoeing.......have to admit, canoeing is one of my most favourites! I just love being on the lake paddling slow (no tipping Brittney and Taryn!!!!) and just enjoying being in the great outdoors.

Makes it all worthwhile for me! Almost as fulfilling as testimony meeting! I feel so blessed that each of my girls stands up every Sunday and recites the Young Woman's theme which says that they are daughters of a Heavenly Father who loves them and they love Him and the values they believe in! I was so thankful for all the wonderful people that put time and love into making this happen. It was a wonderful camp!

Cherries Galore and Fishing Adventures

Rebecca and Mitchell were great helpers.......they pitted cherries for a good hour and a half! It really helped me because I could then concentrate on just canning. Of course, what helped was knowing that for every 7 jars we did a MacDonalds treat might be in the picture! Hey bribing is always good when the result is good!!! So we did 21 jars of cherry pie filling and 7 jars of cherries and still have lots to go!
Here they are with purple hands..........my kitchen is pretty much purple too!
Filling up empty jars is satisfying and a big part of summer!
Couldn't resist taking pictures of our loaded trees!
In 6 years this is probably the best crop of cherries we've had. Sure missed my Mom and Dad today. Dad was here one summer and went to town on my cherry trees, he had picked about 9 buckets before I could stop him!! Thought of my Mom today too and wished she were here, we used to love picking strawberries together and I know she would love to be here picking cherries! Not sure if she would like the tall ladder, lol.........but its so fun to pick fruit that is so plentiful and big!! It took us a long time to pick a little bucket of wild strawberries!!
Had to add these pictures! Don was so excited to take us fishing on Friday! He and Mitchell had went fishing at this spot when they were on their father/son campout and apparently there were tons of fish!
Well today was not our lucky day because there was not one fish to be found!

The kids sure had fun learning to cast from Dad though.........and I'm sure it brought back memories for Don who's Dad was an avid fisherman!!Even our Vanessa had fun......I think!

And then there's me.........I know, I know......boring, but I did carry stuff and I had fun organizing Don's ratty old tacklebox that he inherited from his Dad that we have carried around with us for over 20 years.........glad it finally came in useful!!! lol..........