More Pics from Girls Camp

 I got a few more pictures of girls camp (from June) from Savannah.  

FSY

The week after the 4th of July, the kids went to a 5-day church camp called For the Strength of Youth (FSY) on a local college campus.  They got to stay in the dorms, meet new people, eat lots of food, and have a week with spirit-filled devotionals, dances, activities, and hanging out with friends.  I only got some pictures from Savannah and snagged one collage from Owen's Instagram (so his pictures aren't great resolution).  When I asked them what they liked the most, the first thing they said:

Savannah:  Testimony Meeting, then meeting new people and the classes
Weston:  Food, then the counselors
Owen:  Camp Counselors (he wants to be one later), and then the hanging out with friends

They came home on a spiritual high and most importantly with things they wanted to change.  Savannah had already been reading scriptures and taking notes.  She learned about pondering and making scripture study more about quality and not quantity.  I have also been impressed that Savannah wants to read scriptures with me, so we've been reading a chapter together every day.  Owen was inspired to make some changes in his life, and he also came back with the desire to be a camp counselor after his mission.  He came back singing the FSY music and has a play list with church music that he listens to.  Weston came back with a stronger testimony of Jesus Christ, as his friend, someone he wanted to be like, and to be a disciple of.  He also wanted to get better at sharing the gospel with friends and wanted to make more effort to talk to people.  Before FSY, they had the chance to pick a roommate.  Owen roomed with his friend Joshua.  Savannah tried to line up a friend to be her roommate, but it didn't work out.  However, she ended up being roommates with another one of her good friends, so that was a fun surprise for her.  Weston purposefully didn't choose a roommate, because he wanted to make a new friend.  This shows the mentality he has been in and a desire to be more social.  That's pretty big for Weston, who is independent and content to do his own thing.  I like how these camps are changing them for the better.  They had a great week!

June 2025 Misc

 Weston got a haircut in June and looking pretty sharp.  Savannah got contact lenses and worked on getting them in and out this summer before school started. We had a massive crop of apricots this year.  The photo is just a portion of the apricots.  The kids went to a swim party on the last day of school.  

Nathan attended the singles ward in our area this summer and got called as a ward missionary.  He got to perform a baptism and help out the missionaries with some teaching.  Alex and I were gone for Father's Day, but we celebrated a little early with some yummy meals.  We enjoyed watching the NBA Finals of the OKC Thunder vs Indiana Pacers. There were some close games.  I watched game 6 with Nathan that tied up the series 3-3.  We didn't end up watching Game 7, since it was on Sunday.  I tried to watch it from abroad early Monday morning but couldn't get it to stream. I was surprised that the kids didn't watch the game, particularly since it's our team and Nathan and Owen are so into basketball.  They decided to honor their Sabbath Day commitments, so that was impressive.  We were happy that OKC won the championship!

Savannah, Owen, and Weston went to young women and young men's camps towards the end of June. I didn't see very many pictures shared, but here are a few that were sent out.  They all had a great time.  The boys went backpacking.  The girls went to Catalina Island and did some swimming and fun activities there.  The last picture is from a youth conference that Owen and Weston went to another weekend in June.  Camps and conferences were spiritually uplifting as well as fun.  

FSY

Jared, Owen, and Weston spent the first week of July at FSY (For Strength of Youth) Camp.  They got to stay in college dorms for the week.  They loved hanging out with other youth and being spiritually strengthened.  They got to participate in various activities, dances, talent show, and listen to speakers.  Weston entered one of his Lego stop motion videos into the talent show, and his video was a hit!  

They really loved FSY.  It was through the 4th of July, so we didn't even spend that holiday with them.  Owen loved FSY so much that he begged to go to the next week's FSY, but it turns out you're not allowed to go to more than one (even if there was an available spot).  I don't have pictures for Weston, but Jared and Owen had some photos from their groups.  I have one picture of Weston with his counselor and at drop-off. 

Camps

 The week after school got out, Savannah headed to girls camp and Owen and Weston went with the boys to camp.  This was Savannah's first time at girls camp, and she had a great time.  The only complaint was mosquitoes, as she got several bites.  Other than that, she had fun.  They took a bus into the camp area.  They didn't sleep in tents but did have cots.  They went hiking, swimming, polar plunging, and did axe throwing and archery.  She also enjoyed the camp songs and devotionals.  She was even brave enough to share her testimony during testimony time.  The theme was Candyland, so she was in the Starburst group.  

Owen and Weston had fun at their camp as well.  They had one day less of camp than the girls but got to go whitewater rafting.  They enjoyed hiking among the giant trees.  Weston found a spot to catch minnows.  They enjoyed hanging out and doing skits, games, and a devotional.       

Youth Pioneer Trek

For 3 days in July, Alex, Jared, Owen, and I participated in a 5-stake pioneer trek for youth 14-18 years old.  Alex and I were in charge of all the Mas and Pas for this trek.  In January and February, we gave talks at the 5 information nights about our previous experience as Ma and Pa four years ago.  Then we did 4 training sessions (3 in-person and 1 zoom) during May and June.  We trained about 30 couples.  It was an interesting process trying to get the right number of couples to participate.  At first we didn't have enough, so we went through all the alternates.  However, in the last week or so several youth dropped for whatever reason, so then we had too many couples.  We ended up needing 26 couples and one of the couples was dropped the morning of trek.  We felt bad about that.  Each of the 26 families had 7-9 youth in it, so we had over 200 youth participating. It was a big event! 

Alex and I ended up with 5 boys and 4 girls in our family, and they were all strong participants and didn't require extra motivation throughout the trek.  We actually had to try to slow them down most of the time and keep them from running with their handcart.  We had one girl who got sunburned the first day and didn't have a great experience, but she continued to pull the cart and keep going.  Each of the families was assigned a name of Christ to display on their family banner and discuss in one of the devotionals.  We got "Rock", which was fun to talk about building on the solid foundation of Christ.  We had a little R-O-C-K chant along the trail.  I made some rock bracelets for our family that went along with the story of the Brother of Jared in the Book of Mormon. 

There were 4 companies with 6-7 families in each company.  Our family was in the green company.  Owen and Jared were in different companies, so we didn't trek with them, but we saw them at the evening activities back at camp.  We trekked 7 miles the first day, then 13 miles the second day, and 4 miles on the last day.  We had stops along the trail to listen to speakers share about various topics.  

In the evening we did family devotionals, had a nice dinner, and other activities.  We had a motivational speaker on the first night, followed by square dancing.  The 2nd night was free time to hang out and read letters from home.  We got some great food - beef stew, BBQ chicken, salad, bread, apple pie, cookies, oatmeal, pancakes, sausage, hamburgers.  We ate a plain baked potato and a biscuit for lunch on the 2nd day, but otherwise we were fed pretty well.  The last activity of trek was company testimony meetings to let the youth share any experiences they wanted to.   I enjoyed our family devotionals, where we talked about our name of Christ and shared modern-day pioneer stories.  I shared my parents' conversion story and Alex shared how he joined the church.  

The hardest part for me was the foxtails that got stuck in my socks and shoes, not having a chair to sit on, and sleeping on the hard ground with very little cushion.  My back couldn't really take sleeping on or sitting on the ground the whole time.  It was also challenging keeping the youth from running with the carts.  We had a tender mercy with the weather.  At our trek in 2019, the weather was really hot - 95 degrees.  I had prayed and fasted this time for cooler temps.  We had 10-15 degrees cooler this time, which was much more bearable.  I only got one pre-blister that didn't turn into a blister.  My other issue was bloody heels after being told to put on our water shoes for an upcoming crossing while still having to walk at least a 1/4 to 1/2 mile in the water shoes. That was near the end of the 2nd day.

I'm not sure I want to serve as a Ma and Pa again but maybe some other role.  The social and spiritual experience is good, but the physical part is getting more challenging.  The walking wasn't bad, but the aches and pains of sitting and sleeping on the ground was hard.  The heart and mind are willing but the flesh is weak!  Trek is such an interesting experience - so many emotions, unusual things, moments of amazement at the strength of the youth, challenges, the ups and downs.  I love writing letters to our kids, reflecting on their strengths and gifts and things I want to express to them.  That was a spiritual experience for me.  

Jared and Owen had no problems with trek.  They were strong and motivated and got along well with everyone.  They even helped clear brush in the devotional areas along the trail prior to trek, so they got some good manual labor service in before trek even started.  There were very few who volunteered to help with that, but our kids are very dependable and we can always count on them to show up.

We had to find other arrangements for Weston and Savannah.  Savannah stayed with school friends and had a great time.  We had a hard time finding arrangements for Weston.  We eventually decided that he would stay home by himself during most of the day and stay overnight with friends (who both work during the day).  And Kai would stay with Weston (and in our friends' backyard at night).  Weston was thrilled to hang out with our good friends in the evening.  They made steak and Chinese food for him, let him eat ice cream and Oreos, and drink Dr. Pepper.  He watched movies and even hung out during the day on Friday to watch episodes of Ninjago on their Netflix.  He still was a little bit anxious hanging out alone during the day, so we told him to just keep a bat nearby.  He had that bat sitting there when we walked in the door after trek - it was pretty funny looking.  

 

Youth Camps

We had youth camps in June.  Alex, Weston's youth leader, Weston and Owen did a 10-mile prep hike for their backpacking trip at the beginning of camp.  They saw a snake along the trail.  

The third week of June was young women and young men camps.  Alex went with the boys to their camp to Santa Cruz Island, and I spent 4 days with the young women at a camp near Sacramento.  The boys did an extra day backpacking to their camp, hiking 13 miles from Prisoners Harbor to Scorpion Harbor.  They did more hiking during camp, about 26 more miles, along with swimming and kayaking.  They had foxes running around their camp. 

The young women camp started at the Sacramento Temple, followed by pizza and some opening games at the local chapel.  Our camp, Rock-n-water Christian camp, was about 30-45 minutes from the temple.  The camp staff gave us a tour of the camp that first evening.  The camp staff had very high energy - lots of cheering and jumping up and down.  We shared the camp with a couple of other groups, so our mealtimes were mixed with them.  We didn't have to prepare any of the food, but we did have to do some tasks or cheering to get first in line at the meals.  

We had activities during the day and devotionals at night.  Our main activities were whitewater rafting and canyoneering.  I had been rafting before but had not done canyoneering.  I probably won't choose to do canyoneering again, at least not in the same conditions.  We were walking in waist deep freezing water, with some slippery footing.  We also had to scramble up some boulders, and I don't think I'm cut out for climbing like that anymore.  I did do the mini waterfall slide, but the water was so cold!  The rafting was a lot of fun.  I jumped off a cliff at one of the stops.  We had 2 girls fall out of the raft on the last rapid, but they were okay. 

We did a few other activities, like rock painting, some games, and an un-talent show.  Another leader and I had to do a little sock puppet show (pretended like we were rafting).  I liked the testimony meeting on the last night.  I felt inspired to share a short testimony about choosing to do hard things.  We had a superhero theme for the camp, and our tent's superhero was Black Widow.  So we had some decorations on our tent and a cheer associated with that superhero.  I made some little photos with phrases of encouragement on them. 

I didn't sleep much the last night.  We packed the tents up earlier in the day so we wouldn't have to pack in the morning, so we were just sleeping on a tarp.  I could hear a lot of snoring, and at about 3:30am one of the girl's twinkle lights turned on in strobe light mode.  I had to get up and turn it off, and then I had to go to the bathroom.  Tried to go back to sleep, but the birds started chirping at 4:45am and the sun was about to pop up.  So I got up at 5:15am and took a shower, which was hard to get during the day since we shared only 3 showers with 2 other groups.  Left camp early and had a long drive back home on only a few hours sleep.

Savannah stayed with our friends all week.  They had to get her to dance on Wednesday and a dress rehearsal for her dance performance, which included putting on the fake eyelashes.  Other than that, it sounds like they had fun.  

We forgot about arrangements for Kai until the last minute, so we had to use a random person on Rover.com.  We didn't have time to do a meet and greet to see about compatibility, and unfortunately they had 3 other big dogs there that kept surrounding Kai and trying to sniff her bum.  We could tell she didn't like it, but the lady said she'd mostly keep Kai inside.  I didn't have a great feeling about it, but we didn't have any other option for her.  The next day, I listened to a voice message from the lady saying that Kai had escaped and ran off, but they found her at the animal shelter.  They needed our permission to allow release to the lady who wasn't the owner.  Kai is microchipped but doesn't have a tag on her collar.  By the time I called, the lady said it was taken care of (they showed the Rover agreement) and Kai was back at her house.  She said that Kai must have gotten out of the screen door in the kitchen.  Anyway, about a week or so later, I saw what looked like a stray dog wandering around our neighborhood.  I happened to look on our local Facebook page for lost pets, scrolling to see if anyone had lost the dog.  I didn't find that dog, but came across a post about Kai, which detailed a little more about how she was found.  Apparently she almost got hit by a car a couple times, until someone stopped and tried to see if anyone was with her.  Eventually, the lady let Kai get in her car and she took her to the animal shelter.  Kai had her own adventures that week!

More June fun

The first collage just has some random photos - Nathan at CA Adventure, Owen with his FSY counselor, Alex working, and Nathan and Weston doing some planks.  They were pretty good about working out during the summer - weightlifting and core exercises.  

The second collage is some photos from Alex's 3-week business trip.

Nathan went with the Youth Single Adult Ward one weekend to the Newport Beach Temple.

The boys had some fun youth activities / beach days this summer.  Nathan got to hang out with his fellow Senior grad church friends.  One of the Young Men summer activities was kayaking.  It was pretty funny seeing the picture of the guys holding the entire kayak out of the water with Weston in it!  

We did a fun Family Night lesson on David and Goliath.  We talked about the "Goliaths" we fight in our lives, wrote those things on a white board, and then tried to hit them with a nerf gun.  (Amazing that David could hit his target with a rock and slingshot.)  

The collage with the pets:  Kai is good at giving 5's.  Savannah and I baby-sat for 5 hours one evening (we weren't there to watch the dog, but we did get a picture with the easy-going dog).  We watched a 1-year old boy that evening.  He was pretty easy-going too, but he had a hard time going to bed.  Savannah and I ended up singing about 5 or 6 songs to him - the lullabies put him to sleep!  It had been a while since I held a baby or changed a diaper.  

The boys broke the sugar bowl and attempted to put it back together - nice try... but it's not going to hold sugar anymore.  

One of the really fun and memorable things for Nathan, Jared, and Owen this summer was the For the Strength of Youth (FSY) week.  They got to stay in the dorms on a college campus for 5 nights.  During the day, they had devotionals, dances, exercise and music time, testimony meetings, and lots of uplifting spiritual activities.  They loved it!  They came back on a "spiritual high".  They liked their camp counselors and met a lot of new people from various surrounding areas.

All the boys got to go on a camping / hiking / rafting trip for a few days in June (25th-27th).  It was pretty hot where they went, but they survived their hike and kept cool on the rafting trip.  They also did a devotional and testimony meeting one evening, and even Weston shared his thoughts.  It was a good experience for them.    

One of Savannah's bi-annual hip hop performances was the end of June.  She had 2 dress rehearsals the weekends before the performance.  We had to go shopping one day to buy her costume shirt for the performance.  We ended up going to some other stores and smelled just about every scent in the Bath & Body Works store.  It was a fun girls' outing.  The boys were gone the weekend of her performance, so Savannah and I also went out to Chili's after her performance.  We weren't allowed to video during the actual performance, but I got some video during a rehearsal.  They danced to a song from "Encanto", and Savannah definitely knew the dance better than any of the other kids in her group.  She moved up to Hip Hop level 2 after that performance.  

(I'll do another post on things I was working on during the summer.)