Lagoon!!

Today I took my girls to Lagoon with Shane and Alicia's family. It was a blast! The last time I went to Lagoon was when Janelle was a baby -- about 14 years ago! We had so much fun and the cousins had a great time together. Rella didn't like the big roller-coasters and so she hung out with her mom on many of the spinny rides (which Shane and I can't do since we easily get motion sickness) and the rest of us went on the roller-coasters!

Jenna was quite adventurous and went on most of the roller-coasters and big rides! She LOVED Wicked!! So did I! Jenna was in line for Cannibal but then got scared and so Shane took her out of the line. It was pretty darn terrifying so I think she made the right choice! Once was enough for me!

Hokulia Shaved Ice

Pioneer Day!

The girls and I headed up to Salt Lake for the week so that we could spend time with Shane and Alicia's family who were here from California. My mom hosted a party tonight for whoever could come! She ordered a bunch of Papa Murphy's pizzas and we had pizza and cookies and visited and did fireworks! The kids all wanted to hold Integrity (Courtney and Seth's baby)!

Janelle EFY (Written By Janelle)

 EFY was seriously awesome. This year I went to a stay at home session in Logan with Brea Bulkley. We stayed with Janika and Brandon during the week.  Brea came up Sunday and we played some games with Janika and Brandon and got ready for the rest of the week. Some of my favorite things at EFY this year were the dances and classes, but everything was really good.

Monday: On Monday we got our shirts and bags and stuff and met our counselors. Our counselor’s name was Bria and we had a group of about 11 or twelve. After going through the rules and things, we met the other counselors. We were in a trio, and our company name was "Be One." The other counselor’s name was Caitlin and the guy counselor was Jonathan. We went to the family home evening lesson which was really good. After that we had games and stuff and made goals for the week. That is about everything for Monday.

Tuesday: On Tuesday we met with the group and had the devotional, and then had gospel study time with our companies. Oh, and gospel study time is probably one of my favorite things too. It is a good time to just read the scriptures and feel the spirit and ponder about what you learned. After that we had the morning side, and the classes, which were also really good. During lunch we had musical program practice, which was good except there wasn’t enough music so it was really hard to see and sight-read. Then we had more classes, and had free time. After dinner we had the dance, which was awesome, as usual. EFY dances are the best. They actually had one direction there performing live (and by that I mean the counselors in wigs) but they were a big hit. Tuesday was great.

Wednesday: Today was good too. After all the morning stuff with our companies and scripture study and stuff we had the morning side and the classes, which were really great Wednesday. During lunch part of my company auditioned for the variety show with a little 80’s dance that we had planned. Brea also auditioned with a whole bunch of dairy puns. She is very good at puns, but I really hate them. They hurt me inside, but in a good way. Anyway, both groups made it into the variety show! As for the rest of the day, we had games night, which was fun except it was really hot and tiring. Then we did R&R and all the other closing stuff and went back.

Thursday: Thursday is spiritual day, one of my all-time favorite days. It was really great. We had all of the opening stuff and the morning side and Young Mens and Young Womens. It was really good. We talked about the Family: A Proclamation to the World and had a great lesson. Then we had the variety show preparation and variety show, which was awesome. There were a lot of great acts and it was really good, and our company act and Brea’s went well too. After that we had the Musical Program practice and the show. It was really great and the songs were really pretty. I love the musical program. After that was over we had our fireside lesson and the medley, which are always one of my favorite parts of EFY. The spirit is so strong and you can really feel Christ’s joy. Then we had our testimony meeting and went home. It was a great day.

Friday: Friday was our last day of EFY. It started off normal with all the opening exercises and stuff, and we also had a whole taking it home activity. The whole day was about taking it home and sharing the gospel and stuff. We played a bunch of games that had to do with missionary work and being guided by the spirit and stuff like that. After all that stuff we had the dance which was awesome. EFY dances are the best dances of all time. 

 After the dance we sang the EFY medley as a session one last time and then went with our companies for reviewing and sharing our goals. We all got to keep a little portion of our company flag. Then we walked back to the church building, said our goodbyes to everyone, and went back to Janika’s to start packing our stuff. Surprisingly I didn’t cry at all for like the whole week. It was sad to leave everyone though. That night we went to the Heaely’s house and stayed the night there. That was my whole week! EFY was seriously amazing! It was so fun and spiritual and I’m so glad I got to go!

Our 80's Variety Show Act

Musical Theater Camp!!

Jenna and her friend, Anna, signed up for the St. George Musical Theater camp this year and really enjoyed it!  We got to go see their show today and it was so cute! They performed six numbers -- all songs that starred "orphans" and then had a script about orphans that tied it all together. Jenna auditioned for a solo and was able to have a nice solo part in "Journey to the Past."
Pictured: Anna Ence, Jenna Jensen, Parlee Stout

4th Grade Playgroup Roller Rink

Allison, Amy and I were in charge of the fourth grade playgroup today and decided to rent out the Veyo Roller Rink! It was fun, but hot! Apparently they don't have AC, not a small swamp cooler in the back and so we were all sweating! I brought Jenna and Anna straight from their musical theater camp and so they were a little late, but still had plenty of time to skate! Here is a fun picture of Jenna jumping!

 

Jaiden's Leadership Training

(Written by Jaiden) For student council we get to go to the Dixie State University Junior leadership training. It was two and a half days long and there are schools from all over Utah that go to it. This was my second year going. It was super fun!

On the first day all the schools met in one big room and they gave us our shirts and announced the theme and stuff. After that we played some games with the whole group. The games included various types of tag and a couple of other games. After that we went to the institute for breakout sessions. We learned about how to include people, perceptive, and much more.

After that we went to dinner and we had hamburgers. After dinner our school stayed in the lobby for a bit and then we left for Tuacahn.  We saw Prince of Egypt and it was amazing! The next day started early. First we got to the school and ate breakfast. After breakfast we went to the food bank for our service project.

Our service project was taking all of the food, sorting it, and making sure that it wasn't expired. When we finished that, we got to color on boxes. (It makes it more fun and happy for the kids.) Then, we got lunch at the Red Rock Cafe. It is like a ton of mini restaurants all in one room. I got the Mexican food. It was kind of like Costa Vita. Later we were learning about advertising and then we made posters. Shailynn, Emily, and I made a poster together and it turned out awesome!

Father's Day Flee Day One

We had our Father's Day Flee this weekend in Logan. Rick went up North early in order to teach EFY in SLC and Logan. Jenna had swimming lessons and also Musical Theater Camp this week. I was planning on picking up Josh Friday morning from Scout camp (a day early) on our way to Logan for Father's Day Flee. I was really stressed about it because it had rained a ton at scout camp and the news had warnings of flash floods and videos of the highway with a river running down it: http://www.stgeorgeutah.com/news/archive/2018/07/12/jmr-thunderstorms-cause-flooding-between-parowan-and-brian-head-more-rain-forecast/#.W0dwathKiAwcause-flooding-between-parowan-and-brian-head-more-rain-forecast

But as it turns out one of the Scout Leaders was coming home late Thursday night and was able to bring Josh and another boy home. They assured me that the roads were clear by this time but they didn't leave until 10:30 at night and so I was still really nervous and couldn't sleep until he was safely home. 

Friday morning Jase and Jared and Josh headed to Ogden to pick up Rick and I headed up with the girls a few hours later. We arrived in Logan in time for dinner. Janika had prepared delicious Cafe Rio Pork Salad for everyone. The theme this year was "Good Things To Come." We stayed at Reeder Hall on campus at USU. We had the whole building to ourselves. The dorms had a big room for meeting together, a game room with a ping pong table, a music room with a piano, and plenty of running around room outside. It was quite ideal for our purpose! Rick had gotten permission for the kids to use sidewalk chalk on the sidewalks outside of the dorms. He divided the kids into teams and they each were instructed to draw  what they thought was good things to come. They also played water games with buckets and home-made sponges that they put together using zip ties and cut up sponges.