Spring Fling MADNESS!

So our Young Women's Spring Fling is finally done! There was so much stress involved with getting this activity off the ground and I am glad it all worked out and it is now over. Believe me, I was so ready to throw in the towel and do something different this year but Jessica wouldn't let me.

We ran into building scheduling conflicts - made worse with the closing of our Stake Center for renovations which just made our building unattainable. Not to mention the various Stake activities that were popping up everywhere.

We went with the Luau theme this year. The menu: pulled pork, rice, salad, chop suey and fresh fruit. It was delicious! Angie even provided fresh pineapple from Hawaii!

We had the regular fundraising activities; the dinner, cake auction, silent auction and bake sale. We wanted to add a little entertainment as well so we had the girls learn a Polynesian dance to perform for everyone. They did great and had a fun time at it!

There were some cake auction highlights too.

At one point we had someone on their cell phone bidding for a friend who had to work - it was for a very desired chocolate cake with Reese's Peanut Butter cups on it.

Then the bidding was on for an Apple Crumble cake made by Brian Barker..to be made fresh when wanted served up with vanilla ice cream. Chris started bidding and Aaron kept countering. As they were reaching $75, I was about to have a heart attack! Once it went over $100, I looked at him with such pleading eyes and asked him to please stop bidding....got some laughs on that one. At $105, Chris yells at Aaron, "Are you serious?" And Aaron just said,"It's good cake!" At that point Aaron suggested that they split it and that we will share the cake when it is made. PHEW! Hey, I know it was for a good cause - but don't overstress the pregnant lady!

A big thanks goes out to everyone who supported the young women. We raised enough for all of them to attend Wilderness camp this year!

Mutual Ice Skating

Tonight we spent my birthday having a blast ice skating with the young men and women. We took everyone up to the University of Utah rink. Some may think I was a little crazy for skating while pregnant - but I love to skate and didn't want to sit this fun activity out! That is one thing about me - just hate to be left out. (Just ask Chris, he'll tell you!)

This here is a picture of some of the leaders.

This is our awesome Bishop! (He didn't skate though...party pooper!)

(Don't let this picture fool you - Liz had a good time and wasn't on her phone all night.)

My girls just LOVE to skate! They were so excited to be able to come with us on this activity. They both have only skated a few times in their lives, but they picked it up so fast.

Once Christianna and I took a couple trips around together, she had enough confidence to just go at it alone!

I think this was taken right after I had fallen on mybackside.

It wasn't my fault - entirely! I was skating in the direction we were supposed to be going and I had my camera out taking some pictures of the youth. Well, these 3 younger kids came from the wrong direction and totally cut me off! I tried to stop, but instead fell. Hey - it was the first and ONLY time I fell too. My little camera totally broke. As I was looking at it, a couple YW came up and told me that that little group of kids went off the ice chatting with themselves and said "You totally made that old lady fall!"

NICE!!! AND HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!! Do you think 32 is "old?"

Anyway - they came up and apologized to me later on about the old lady comment. I am still bugged that my camera broke.

Here I am with Liz and Jessica - the most wonderful counselor EVER!!!

I may be explaing to Jazzen that his head gear isn't appropriate and that he should put it back on the ice....

....what do you think?

Looking at these pictures totally made me cackle - LOUDLY.

Chris getting ready for his big move...

...ooops!!!!!

Isn't it great that he can laugh at himself??? (That's why I didn't feel too bad laughing too.)

I just had to include this picture of Christianna's backside. In learning to skate without me, she fell a few times. She just got a little wet :-)

Here are a few of our fearless leaders. Peter, Sylvia and Nelson.

Not sure what really happened here - when I went to investigate, the story sounded a little fishy.

And thus ends another fantastic activity with our youth!

Hiking up the mountain

Our combined youth activity this month was to hike up to Ensign Point Peak. It was a pretty good hike.

Ensign Peak is a prominent hill on the northern edge of the Salt Lake Valley. On July 26, 1847, two days after arriving in the Salt Lake Valley, Brigham Young and seven other pioneer leaders climbed the hill to survey the valley. From its summit they laid out in their minds the city they intended to build.

Once we reached the top, we had a little devotional and testimony meeting with the youth.

As we were wrapping things up, the clouds started to gather above us.

We weren't fast enough...it really started to come down as we were descending. It was actually quite refreshing. I think we are ready for our Pioneer Trek coming up next month.