EFY by Janelle

EFY was absolutely incredible. Those are the only words that can describe it. All the lessons were amazing and I got so much from them and the spirit was so strong, and all the other things like the dances and pizza night and games night were extremely awesome. 

Probably my favorite things were the dances, games night, and the morningsides. The morningsides (taught by my dad) were super spiritual and I just loved them, and the dances were so fun and everyone was having a party. 

I loved games night because it was super competitive and so I had a ton of energy so that was just great. I was also in the variety show with my friend (we sang and she played the ukulele to the song “Count On Me”). 

I was also in the musical program, which was super fun and spiritual except we had to practice during free time. Musical Program is basically like choir for a week. We had a fireside for it on Thursday, and that was amazing. It had videos and songs and such.  

Testimony meeting was great except everyone was crying a ton sooo…I think that sums that up. I got so close to my company over the week and I miss them so much! Seriously, EFY was pure amazingness and I want to go back soon. Can’t wait for next year!

SLC, Ogden, Idaho!!

Friday 21: The kids wanted to make the most of their last day with their cousins and so I ended up leaving much later than I had anticipated. The kids went swimming over at the pool with Shane and Alicia and Mom and I did our exercise swim in her pool. Then Shane and Alicia treated all of us to Shaved Ice at Holukia Shave Ice. It was really yummy!

It took me a while to get everything packed up and put away in the car and so I didn't get out the door until 3:45. I figured it would still be too early for rush hour, but the traffic was terrible! I am not sure if it was due to rush hour traffic or do to backups from a couple of accidents on the way -- or both -- but it was stop and go most of the way there and so that was frustrating. Instead of an hour, it took us over and hour and a half.

Rick had left St. George with Janelle and Brea at 7:15 this morning and so they arrived in Ogden by 1:30. He took a nap and then went to the Ogden Temple.  He had just gotten back when I arrived. Grandma Jensen works in the temple on Thursdays and Fridays and arrived home just before we did. She had prepared a lovely meal with potato salad, broccoli salad, green salad, and cucumber sandwiches.  She also had cooked some gluten free brownies for everyone, which were delicious!

Saturday 22: Grandma Jensen fixed a yummy breakfast of gluten free pancakes and fruit shakes and Gerilyn came over and did all of the girls' hair in fancy hairstyles. Janika finished her BYU Provo Session this morning. She drove to Salt Lake and picked up a friend who was an efy counselor with her on her Georgia Session and they drove up together.  He took her out to lunch and then they drove back to SLC with the kids. She dropped him off and then went to my mom's for a nap before heading back to St. George with the kids. Rick and I went out to lunch with Grandma Jensen at Sizzler and enjoyed a nice meal and company.

Sunday 23: Sunday we went to sacrament meeting in Ogden, and then ate lunch and drove to Rexburg Idaho. We checked into our hotel, called AmericInn, and let Janelle, and her friend Brea, explore the hotel while we took a nap. The four of us ate dinner and then let the girls hang out in the hotel room while Rick and I went to the university so that he could do his Fireside for the counselors. He did a great job!

We walked around and visited with several of the counselors and stayed for the Mingle later that night. They had all different kinds of floats -- root beer floats, Fresca floats, Guava juice and Sherbert raspberry ice cream floats (which were awesome), and so on. They even had mint chocolate chip and chocolate milk! Rick and I helped to serve up all of the floats for the counselors (and ate a couple ourselves) and then headed back to check on the girls!

Timpanogos Cave

The kids and I went with Grandpa Westra and Shane and Alicia and their kids to Timpanogos Cave today.  We started our hike around 8:30 and made it back down around 12:30. We were told that it would be around 3 hours round trip and so we must have been slow!

The paved trail is 1 1/2 miles and quite steep in places.  The cave is at 6730 feet elevation. The tour was neat and interesting and took about an hour.  I was glad that we went early because it was getting hot by the time we were hiking down.

Temperatures in the cave average 45 degrees and so we were glad that we brought jackets. I remember going to Timpanogos Cave as a kid, but I haven't been there in many years. I think the kids enjoyed it. I think Janelle would have liked it -- Jared too. I am not so sure about Janika since she doesn't like to hike!

Red Robin

Wednesday 19: Today I went out to lunch at Red Robin with my mom and my sister, Jen, and my sister-in-law, Amy. Kim, Alicia, and Danielle had conflicts and weren't able to come. It was fun to eat and gab!! Thanks Mom!!

S'mores

Alicia planned for yummy S'mores in Grandma's backyard along with a photo-shoot. She had all sorts of fun treats to make them with besides just your usual chocolate, marshmallow, and graham crackers. My personal favorite where the peanut butter cups! She even had gluten free cookies for Jenna (which didn't hold up very well as you can tell in the picture, ha ha!) She is a photographer and these first four pictures are a sample of some of her work:

Of course I couldn't resist snapping a couple pictures too...

Days of '47 Float Preview

We took the kids to see the float preview at the South Town Expo in Salt Lake. The floats were pretty amazing! We don't see floats like that in our small home-town parades in St. George. I would have wanted to spend more time examining each one, but the kids were not as patient and wanted to rush through the exhibit!

 

Tuesday Zumba, Swimming, and Cousins!

Tuesday 18: This morning Alicia and I went to Jen's Zumba Class. It was fun and she did a great job teaching the class!

Afterwards I did an exercise swim with my mom in her exercise pool.  Mom invited the siblings over and so Jen came with Keaton, Cooper, and Colton and Derek and Danielle came with their three cute girls. We all ate lunch at Mom's and then headed to the pool for swimming. The kids enjoyed swimming with their cousins and the adults enjoyed swimming and visiting!

Josh doesn't get in to swimming much and preferred to stay back and read Harry Potter or play with race tracks.