youth conference in Durango

Ten hours in a van with these boys and a new mom friend to be Changed By Christ. That's how we began ward youth conference.

Did you see Kacin there in the back? Making a weird face, but at least you can see him there.

We were all desperate to get out of that van. We didn’t make it all the way down to mesa verde because no one was interested in an extra hour in the car but we did stop for a minute to look at the view.


The first day we spent there we got to white water raft down the river. They didn’t want to be in my group on the raft but I’m ok with that because I didn’t want to be with them either. They spent too much time splashing people and I'm just not into cold water fights.

See how wet and cold he is? I know it was worth it--he had a ton of fun.

Later we got to go hiking. It was a short little hike for most of these youth.

These two revolted and wouldn't come with me for the full loop.

But these great people did!

I love all hiking and Colorado showed off her beauty on this one. Glad we got a few strong youth to hike the whole way.

Just lovely.

At the core of youth conference, there were classes focused on the different names of Christ. The purpose of youth conference was to help us be changed by Christ. We had some amazing, powerful speakers and classes. This was a fun class about Jesus Christ as our friend. As part of the object lesson, the teacher had different sibling sets and best friend sets up to answer questions about each other. It was tied beautifully together. But my boys were pretty proud that they won the game part of the lesson. They truly have a special connection with each other.

I got to speak on Christ as the Lamb of God. Well it did not go as I entirely imagined or hoped. But I am glad for the opportunity to ponder and prepare if only for my sake.


I was so very grateful to be surrounded by such amazing people. Especially the women in my ward. They inspire me and strengthen me and help me. 

And even more especially this friend of mine. Somehow we ended up on these statues. Everyone needs a friend like that. 

These two girls have that kind of friendship, too.

Or they were just inspired by their leaders. Ha!

I'm grateful that I could go to this conference. I hope the youth walked away with a greater love and a closer relationship with our Savior and greater strength to face the world.

pieces of May

*May 2021

We were so glad that our cousins were able to visit between moves from London to Nevada.While they were here, we went to a trampoline park with a lot of the cousins.

Brighton stayed with us for a few weeks. I especially loved how he would play piano and fill our house up with beautiful music. And he is just a bright, fun kid. They made mashed potato sculptures one night at dinner.

We went out on quite a few sunset walks in may. Such a pretty time.

Brighton brought one of their dogs over for a visit.

Layla started both swim and dive teams and loved them both, especially dive though.

I took the girls to the Arizona Science center.




We went on a very short daytime hike at the Santan's main entrance when I had to renew my parking pass.

Yes, she's standing there pouting.

Kyler took on the roll of baby carrier to help my back out.

How sweet is this big brother with his little sisters!

Perry spent quite a few Sundays in a mood and so he took my phone to occupy himself. We ended up with all sorts of random church pictures thanks to him.

To celebrate the end of school, we took everyone to Medieval Times. 

For most of us, this was our first time here. And everyone loved it. I was so happy that we found a place that EVERYONE enjoyed. That is so hard to do with our family.

We found ways to keep ourselves entertained before the show.

We also bought my Madsen bike from someone on Facebook. I love that thing. These guys got one of the first rides when we brought it home.

But then we went out on an evening family bike ride almost every night for awhile. Surprise pictures for me from Layla.

On Memorial Day, we had about 4 or 5 families over for bbq and swim. I love filling our pool up with people.

And it was time for baby's first dip in the water.

It was truly just a dip of her feet because she was not a fan of the cool water. Don't worry, a few weeks later she was happy as could be in the water.

 



That wraps up most of May little things that happened.