April overview in pictures...

I am so behind and I have current things i want to blog about... so i am doing a quick post with lots of pictures... i love pictures! The weekend of April 9th was youth conference. It was lots of fun. Friday night we had an accapella group come sing. They do a musical fireside. They were great. Then the kids put on a carnival out in the parking lot. I was amazed at how much work the youth committee did for this event. They really did like 90% of the work. I can't say the whole committee did, but a handful of them worked so hard! They will be amazing leaders some day.

Mitchell and some friends hanging out at the carnival.

Saturday morning we had a light breakfast and a big service project. The kids wanted to do something for Haiti, so we made quilts and cleaned shoes. Brother Simister in our stake went to Haiti after the earthquake, so he spoke to the kids and showed some slides from his trip.

Mitchell, Dillan and Collin quilting!

Karen Adams and I...

President Worthen giving some instructions...

Saturday night, our stake joined 4 other stake for a big formal dance for the youth. It was incredible. The Red Rock Stake was in charge and they did such an amazing job! The dance was at an airplane hanger out at the North Las Vegas Airport. The decorations were beautiful! And the kids had so much fun! The danced all night! John and I got to be chaperons. It was one of those activities you wanted to chaperon because I wanted to see all the kids dressed up!
They looked so good. On Sunday morning we had a testimony meeting to wrap up youth conference. It was so good. The youth are so amazing! I will miss hearing their testimonies.

I already posted a little bit about our trip to Idaho Falls , but I didn't post many pictures... so here they are...

On April 17th we went up to Idaho to see John's mom. We drove up on Saturday, spent some time with Grandma and then drove 30 miles north to Hamer ID to stay at Barbara's house. Barbara is John's older sister. We spent Sunday at Grandma's. My brother Mark lives in Pocotello so his family drove up on Sunday to spend a couple hours with us while grandma took a nap. We went down to the falls and played around... It was so nice of them to come see us! The kids were cute and the boys loved throwing stuff in the river!

Mark, Trevor and Brad

Trevor

Carly

Katherine and Taylor

Mitchell tossing a log in the water

Tanner thinking about life...

John and I...

Barbara and Dave live out in the country... they farm hay and raise cows. And Uncle Dave teaches history at one of the high schools in Idaho Falls. We had such a good time staying at their house. We played some badminton, played some cards and ate good food! Thanks Barb!

Adam chillin' on his bike...

Stephanie and Uncle Dave watching the game...

An intense game of Badminton

Barb and Grandma

Uncle Dave teaches history. And he has a HUGE fascination with World War 2. He has 2 rooms full of WWII memorabilia. This is Tanner looking at a whole case of actual Nazi knifes.

He has actual military uniforms.

John checking out some Japanese rifles. He has several of them. The ones from the beginning of the war were so well made. They were heavy wood with lots of detail and then he has some that we made near the end of the war and they were light and cheap... very interesting... they were running out of money.

In the case of one of the Japanese guns Dave bought, it had a letter that the soldier was writing to his girlfriend back home. It had a picture of her and everything. It was pretty cool.

He had some Jewish concentration camp jackets.

We all had a great lesson about WWII. I wish Dave was my teacher in High School...
I might have learned something!

On Monday I drove back down to Salt Lake... I dropped Mitchell off at the airport. We didn't want him missing too much school. And then I drove to Provo to get Ashley. She is done with her first year of college!! Yahoo. We got her all checked out of the dorms and then we drove back to Idaho Falls so she could see Grandma. We spent all day Tuesday helping Grandma clean out her garage and spare room. I love this picture of Ashley talking to Grandma!

Our Nephew Kurtis came over for dinner one night... he is going to BYU Idaho.
It was fun to see him.
Ashley, Stephanie, Kurtis and Shelley

We learned a new card game called scum... it was pretty fun!

Tanner wanted to see cows and horses! So Adam took him
out to the farm and taught him a little about farm life...

We drove home on Wednesday.

April flew by! I will do my best to blog better in May!!

I will miss...

my wonderful calling and these amazing ladies.


But it was time. I felt it and the Lord felt it and he let the Stake Presidency know it was time for a change. Thursday night we had a stake leadership meeting and when it was over, President Worthen came in and let us know that we were getting released on Sunday during stake conference. I think it was quite a surprise for my counselors, but i had a feeling it was coming before girls camp. I couldn't seem to get excited about camp this year and I was having a really hard time making decisions about it... I believe that was Heavenly Father preparing me for the release. I now know that I wasn't suppose to make some of those decisions and plans. I love how church callings work. Heavenly Father is definitely in charge.

I had amazing counselors and secretaries to work with. I could not have done it without them. They were so supportive and worked so hard. We got along great! We missed Barb when she moved and i wasn't sure how someone else would fit in... But Lisa was amazing. She jumped right in and got along great with us. I know it wasn't easy for her to be the new one.

Here are a few things that I learned and loved over the last 3 years...

Learned to listen to the Spirit
Loved my presidency. I hardly knew them 3 years ago. Now they feel like sisters.
Loved my ward yw leaders. They worked so hard!
Loved the YW! All of them.
Learned that my stake presidency are men called from God. I learned so much from them.
Tried to learn how to balance family and church.
Learned how to work with 2 different YM presidencies and high counselors. They are amazing men. I appreciate all they did for me. I know I made them crazy at times.
Learned that Girls Camp is one of the most important weeks of a yw's life.
Learned that youth can lead if you let them.
Learned that it's hard to let go and let youth lead.
Learned that I need to delegate better.
Learned that Barb was a great organizer.
Learned that Nathell could cook anything.
Learned that Heather could make anything look pretty.
Learned that Lisa has an amazing voice.
Learned that you can have a productive presidency meeting at Jamm's for breakfast.

It's been an amazing 3 years! Time flew by. I love the YW program and know that change lives and is an inspired program. I will miss this calling, but look forward to what comes next in my life...

listening...

I am sitting at my mother in laws computer listening to John, Tanner and Grandma play the game "up-words". It is her favorite game and she is playing with her favorite son... happiness is. She reminded him that she has the instructions in the box in case he tries to cheat like last time... haha. John won when they played at our house, but she claims he cheated... that won't happen this time! Grandma isn't feeling well. We just found out last week that she has stage 4 pancreatic cancer. Big bummer. We decided we better come visit her while she is still feeling pretty good. The boys were happy to miss a few days of school : )

We were shocked when we walked in last night and saw her. We had just seen her at our house in January and she has changed quite a bit since then. So sad. We are grateful for the Plan of Salvation! What peace and comfort that brings to us at times like this. I am sure Grandpa Barnes is anxiously waiting for for! But we're not sure we are ready for her to join him...

I am so behind on my blogging... I need to write about out recent company, youth conference and Mitchell's volleyball, Ashley coming home... it will have to wait. All my pictures are on my home computer...

The game is getting intense... they just got the dictionary out! My brother Mark and his family are on their way up to see us... they only live 40 minutes from here. I love both sides of my family!!

Easter

Easter Sunday was wonderful! We loved watching General Conference! It was so inspiring. I love having Easter on Conference Sunday. The talks about the Savior and his life were amazing.

We had a nice treat... my 2 sisters are in town for their spring break. So, Scott and Jenn came over and we had a nice big Easter dinner and a little egg hunt. Afton was a little small for the hunt and the others were too big for it! oh well. They all had fun. I didn't get any pictures of the adults... oops. Here are a few shots from the day...

Afton got a new toy... not sure who enjoyed it more??

We dyed some eggs...

Afton trying to eat an egg with the shell still on it... yuck!

We finally pealed it for her...

Her first hunt!

Andrew trying to hold on to his stash...

Mitchell....

All the kids... its always fun to hang out with the cousins!

Spring Break 2010

We had a great spring break last week. On Saturday we went up to a friends cabin in Brian Head, UT. The snow was so deep! It was amazing! We went sledding, played in the snow and just relaxed! The satellite was broken and was secretly happy about that. No nickelodeon, espn... just quiet. We did watch a few movies... that was fun.

When the ski slopes closed at 4:30 we went sledding down the ski hill. Each time we went a little further... but what you go down, you must walk up... that is until we got smart. We went all the way down to the chair lift and the thought of walking all the way back made me very tired. So, I suggested that John and Mitch go back and get both cars and come pick up Tanner and I and leave one car at the bottom. SO the next time we went down, we drove up. It was a BLAST! The end of the hill is really steep. I screamed the whole way down dragging my feet to slow me down. We all laughed so hard we were crying. It was great. The only bad part, is that Ashley wasn't there!

Tanner headed down...

Mitchell passing me...

John cruising...

We went farther than you can see in the picture! The boys are hiking back up...
we definitely got our exercise!

On Monday we went skiing and snowboarding. We had hoped to get Tanner into a snowboarding class, but they were all full. So, we rented him a snow board and Mitch tried to teach him. But it didn't go so well. So, after an hour and lots of tears, I took him back in and traded the snowboard for ski's. We only had a few tears and after the second run, he was a pro. He didn't want to learn to turn, just stop. So, he snowplowed straight down every run. But he was happy and that is all that mattered. We will work on technique next time : )
Here is Mitchell snowboarding... he did great for only his 2nd time.

John and I on the chair... the sun was shinning and it wasn't crowded. It was wonderful... we had learned one hard lesson... don't use 7 year old sunscreen. We got SO sunburned. John had a bottle in his suitcase and I said it would still be good... but we got fried. oops... we did a little research and everything says to get new sunscreen every year. Time to clean out the closet.

Yes, that is the roof!

John and Tanner wrestling as Mitchell slept...

I attempted a puzzle... that is as far as I got...

Tanner and Mitch played a lot of pool...

On Tuesday John headed back home and the boys and I headed North. We stayed with my parents in Lehi. We had fun hanging with Ashley, cousins and Grandma and Grandpa. Tanner got very sick on Wednesday. He got the stomach flu. No fun! Poor little guy.

I got to go to the YW open house training in Salt Lake. It was amazing!
I feel motivated to get through this busy YW season!

Thursday we went up to Uncle Todd's house. It's always fun hanging with them. The kids are so cute!!! Angela and Shawn joined us! So fun to see them.
The girls LOVE their cousin Ashley! And Ashley LOVES them. Last time we were there, Ashley took the girls to the store and bought them a treat, so cute little Charity came and asked me for the keys and some money... i asked her why and she said so the girls could go bond!
So cute!

Charity is taking a clogging class... she was showing us some moves!

Mitchell jamming...

Grandpa teaching Grandma how to use her new camera.

Ashley playing with little Justin.

We wish we'd had more time to visit more friends... next time. I can't believe the semester is almost over... Ashley will be home in less than 3 weeks. We are so excited! I miss my little girl.