Philmont;Youth Conf.

Double Post.

Philmont

We left for Cimarron, New Mexico at 5 in the morning on Thursday, drove 10-12 hours to Denver, Colorado. We stayed there for the night, and while the family went to a sight seeing ghost town me and Leah decided to be poopers and stay at the hotel all day and relax by the pool:):) We stayed the night again and left early in the morning for New Mexico. We arrived in the pouring rain which we thought we left behind in Iowa. After checking in and relaxing we had the opening cermonies where we sang corny songs and met up with our groups. I met a girl, Katelyn Youngblood who lives in Tennesee. We hit it off pretty good and ended spending most of the rest of the week together.

Sunday Services were the same as usual but just with a lot of different people. I learned Saturday night that the kids in my group (we were called the broncos, kids from 14-18) would be doing the cope course. I am DEATHLY afraid of heights and I was not happy. As much as I'd like to tell you everything I did the whole week piece by piece you'd get bored. So I'll just tell ya the big stuff. We played a LOT of get to know you games all week, and we had a lot of fun together:) I made a lot of friends I'll be keeping in contact with for a long time!!Monday Afternoon we went to the Cope Course but only did Low Cope thank goodness:) That night was FHE and there was a talent show. Mommy and Julia did a duet with Beauty and the Beast. They did pretty good considering they had to play it on the piano.

Tuesday after meeting with the group was basically a family day. We went up to Tous, New Mexico and went to the Pueblos. After I got tired of looking at them, I begged to go to the MODERN Tous where there was lots of shopping:):):):):) I bought a baseball shirt and once I got home and washed it....it shrunk:(

Wednesday we went on a hike and it started raining again. We got SOAKED! But it was really fun:) We went about 4 miles into the mountains, and the 4 miles out. We went a little faster on the way home as lightening seemed to get closer and closer. Wednesday night was the barbeque and they had western dancing. It was amazingly fun:) Before the dance me and Katelyn got our faces painted. She got superman and I got batman! After the dance the broncos went to the Trading Post (The Philmont shop) to get icecream and we all hung out and talked for a couple hours.

Thursday was the day I'd been so nervous for all week. You have to understand I won't even go on a ferris wheel..I will cry. So when I heard we would be doing zipline at the course that day I wasn't too excited. Everyone was cheering for me, and I knew if I didn't do it I'd be really upset with myself later and regret not doing it. So I strapped up and climbed up the pole. Mind you this pole had TINY TINY little handles coming out to hold onto. Then you get up on the platform...and its WOBBLING! I cried climbing the whole way up, and instead of being brave and Jumping off the platform into the zipline...I calmly sat down on the edge of the platform and after awhile I finally inched my way off. Not gonna lie after I started going it was fun...so why can't that just have stairs leading up:):) Thursday night was the dance and closing ceremonies. Every group had a skit, and ours was a fireworks show. It was pretty funny. I about peed myself. After that was the dance, and we all had a great time:)

Friday was our drive to Omaha...which was very long. We stayed the night there and met up with Grandma and Grandpa. The next day we went to the Omaha Zoo.

PHEW. Vacation #1 done.

But I still had Youth Conf. 2 days away!!!!

Youth Conference

It started on Wednesday. We got there and did mixer games and said hi to everyone. Then we went back to our host homes. Mine was my house..lucky me:) I didn't have to pack! That night was the casual dance, and I'm proud to say I won the hoola hoop contest:) lol. Guess all that hoola hooping in gym class finally paid off.

Thursday-Service Project, which was weeding. I think my dad chose that just cause he knows how much I hate it. But weeding with your friends is surprisngly not as bad as out at the garden. After the service project we did road shows. (Skits). That was AMAZINGLY fun! There was a dummy that had a bunch of props and we had to pick one and then our skit was based off of that item. We picked the microphone and what do you know, the skit was based off of American Idol. Our group worked extremely well and we came up with I think was a pretty good short skit. We had to make up new words to a primary song and we chose Popcorn Popping. I wish I could remember the words that we came up with but I can't. I was Paula, KJ was Randy, and David was Simon. We had Jordan Holtzer up first and he rapped the revised popcorn popping song with some break dancing. Then little bright tracy came out and sang a REALLY out there, bad style of "I am like a star" Then the winner of the show was a girl named Monica who sang I am a Child of God. She forgot the words to the song a little bit, but she sang it beautifully:) It was really fun. Some other groups like Abigails and Elizas did the Ellen DeGeneres Show. Abigail was Ellen and they were talking about Mormons and the guest had about 10 kids with her. (Hence Mormons and big familes) haha. That night we had a barbeque out at Jones Park and the group I was in played soccer for awhile. That may have been one of the times I've sweated the most. Then we played big boooty for awhile.

Friday we had workshops all day. The morning workshops included:

My dad-He played some of the movie "Truth and Conviction"
President Talbot the Mission President-Q&A about missions

Stake Patriarch-Q&A about Patriarachal Blessings

Lunch

Brother&Sister Meyers-Sexual Purity, 10 reasons to stay a Virgin

Brother Davenport-All about disasters, Floods, Fires, Peril

President Johnson-Anything we wanted to talk about, our group came up with how to strengthen our minds against satan, How to better the homelife, and how to have a closer relationship with God, and Jesus.

That night was the Formal dance and the last night.

Saturday was the Testimony Meeting, and its not really something I can express other than it was really amazing. Also, Me, Abigail, Katie, Polly, Joe, Trevor, Ben and Jacob sang "Steadfast and Immovable"

We said our goodbyes:( and made plans to hang this Thursday.

PHEW! You probably didn't read all that and I don't blame ya! Girls Gamp is next week so expect a full update on that as well when I get back:):):)