Blinding Smile

Today is a day that Emma has been waiting for over two years. Today is the day that Emma had her braces removed. Here she is outside the orthodontist's office.

Here she is after the hardware is gone and we are waiting for a smoothie.

She is so happy and I think that she is absolutely beautiful! (Of course I thought that when she was wearing braces, and before she was wearing braces, and even before she had any teeth.)

With No Adult Supervision

On the last Tuesday of August, Rachel and Emma wanted to go to Thanksgiving Point Gardens. In August, Thanksgiving Point has Two Dollar Tuesdays, which means any venue there (except the movie theater) has the admission price of only two dollars. Whatta deal! Unfortunately, the month of August flew by and we didn't have any Tuesdays available before school started.

Rachel got her driver's license the Friday before.

That means that she can drive a vehicle without an adult sitting by her in the passenger seat.

That means that Rachel suddenly has dreams of her driving down the freeway with the music blasting, wearing impossibly stylish sunglasses and the stylish scarf she has 'round her neck flapping in the wind.

Dream on, Sistah.

Still the girls managed to talk me into letting them take my car after school to Thanksgiving Point to walk around the gardens for awhile. Thanksgiving Point is less than ten minutes away from our house but every road between home and there is under construction. Whenever I drive through the labyrinth of cones and sudden lane changes, I tightly grip the steering wheel and hold my breath. So I had to wonder how a newly licensed driver (my first born in whom I'm particularly fond of) would handle it. With my teeth clenched and my toes gripping the carpet, I looked into the expectant eyes of my only two daughters and said, "Yes." (I couldn't go because I was in charge of the Young Women's activity that night.) I told them to make it home well before the activity and watched them drive away, all while praying fervently for their safety.

Rachel and Emma love to take pictures, but if you have known them for any amount of time, you already knew that. Here are some pictures they took while wandering the gardens.

They not only look good in front of the camera but apparently, they do well behind the camera too. To tell you the truth, I was a tad jealous of them. I love walking around the gardens and it must have been so fun feel so independent and grown up. They both came home in one piece and made it in time for the YW activity that night, which was a picnic with your mom (mmm, sushi!).

Emma chillin' with our buddies the Tuttles.

What a nice day!
I wonder when they will ask me for the car again?

What You Get when you Combine 50+ Girls and a Desert

The last week of June we had our annual girls camp for the girls in our ward. This year we thought we would do something a little extra special and go down to Southern Utah. Have you ever been there? It's beautiful but really, REALLY hot the last week of June. We loaded up the cars, trucks and trailers and headed down to Green River.

 On the way down, we thought we would take a little detour off of I-70 to check out a petroglyph named The Black Dragon. (As an aside, Brad and I took the kids to see it several years ago and we drove back and forth on that stretch of highway five or six times before we could find the turnoff.) We pulled up to a small stand of cottonwoods and had a nice lunch and the girls tried to stay cool by spraying each other off.

On this first stop, we learned a very important lesson; we learned that a full sized truck pulling a fully loaded trailer has no business driving on soft sand.

Luckily, there were plenty of helping hands.

The trailer was unhitched, emptied of all its contents. Then the work began. Girls were sent up the hillside to gather flat rocks to put under the wheels. After a quick prayer, most everyone lined up behind the truck and started the push. (I had to document the whole affair, so I didn't push.)

Half of our party was unaware of what had happened because they drove out in front of the truck. They waited a couple of miles away wondering what had happened to the rest of us. They figured out what had happened when they saw the huge dust cloud billow up into the sky. Everyone behind the truck was now the same earthy red color. We take blending into the enviroment very seriously.

Then we got the trail man(girl) handled and moved it out of the way. (I'll save that story for another post) After that was done, an assembly line was formed and we loaded up the trailer and hitched it back up to the truck. Yay! Keep in mind that it was about 102 degrees while this was happening.
By then, the rest of the party had driven back to see what was going on. Sometimes it is good to get the bad thing out of the way at the beginning of the trip, right? So I get back in my car and it won't start. Are you serious?!  Michelle, our Young Women president fortuneately has a Suburban that is very much like Mary Poppins magical carpet bag- she not only produced a shovel to help dig out the truck but she also had a portable battery that comes in handy when someone's car won't start. We drove back out to the highway. Because the road was so narrow, the cars that came back to see what was going on had to drive for a couple of miles backward. Those women have some skills!

When we got to Green River State Park, we set up camp. The water was extremely high this year so the girls were told to stay away from the river, although someone forgot to tell the mosquitos.

YCLs.

The next day we drove to Moab to raft the Mighty, Mighty Colorado.

Everyone had a great time, even the people on our raft. We had a girl for a river guide and because she was the only female guide, she felt like she had something to prove. She pushed us hard. It also didn't help that 2/3 of the raft had the average weight of 80 pounds. Combine those two things and let's just say it was a little intense.

After rafting, we went to a park in Moab and just hung out and had dinner and waited for things to cool down before we went on our hike. In the evening, we headed out to Corona Arch. Underneath the Arch, we had a short devotional. It was a visual, and spiritual feast!

This was Rachel's first year as a Youth Camp Leader. This means that she was responsible for 6 girls and she was the "mom" for their tent. The theme this year was Winnie the Pooh and each tent was assigned a character. Rachel's tent was Kanga and Roo. She stayed up until 2:00am the night before making cute pockets for them and making a map of the 100 acre Wood. I'm not sure where the I heart JB comes in the Winnie the Pooh story, though. I've read the Winnie the Pooh stories many times and I have not a single recollection of Justin Bieber being in any of the stories.

Emma after several days of roughing it. She forgot her razor.

One of the priesthood leaders brought water balloons and there were many welcome, wet games.

I was soaked by some of my girls. They "lured" me out of the pavillion by saying, "Sister Miller! Theres a --spider--yeah, a spider here that we want you to see!" I thought I would play the good sport and let them douse me. I did manage to dump half a cooler full of water on a couple of them though.

Emma is here in her tent writing some notes to the other girls in the camp.

During free time there were crafts and other things that were organized. I noticed that Emma was missing. I found her in her tent. The poor thing was wiped out.

I never went to girls camp when I was a girl but I can tell you that as an adult leader, I love it.

Youth Conference 2011

On June 10 and 11th, our stake had our annual Youth Conference. It is a get together for the youth ages 14-17 where there are many activities, fun and games. Many times there is an overnight stay somewhere. This year, the activities were close to home so everyone could stay at their own homes.

Friday morning, everyone gathered at our Stake Center and had a hot breakfast. There were about 300 youth in attendance. The activity for the day was modeled after The Amazing Race. All the youth were separated into groups different colored tee shirts and then into smaller groups of four or five. There were 13 stations situated all over the north end of Utah Valley. At each station, the team was required to complete a task before they got the clue to the next location. (The drivers had received a 27 page packet beforehand with a list of the locations, maps, etc..) So let's see, let's just say that there were 320 kids, divided that by 4 and we have 80 cars driving around with people excited and hurrying to the next location and that sounds like scary times, right? Actually, we all were relatively unharmed.

I was assigned to be a driver of four girls I did not previously know. Cute, cute girls. It did make me feel pretty good that Rachel and Emma both wanted me to drive them. I would have thought that they would want me to be as far away from them as possible :)

Here are some of the activities:

Humanitarian project: making baby rattles to send overseas.



I was lucky enough to be at the same stations as Emma's group so I got to see her several times that day.

Another challenge that we did was that each one of the girls were given a laminated card with a number and "Pay It Forward" on the front. We were to perform a random act of kindness for each card and then head to a local restaurant where there were computer's set up to record the service that we did (Pay it Forward). With each act of service, we were to give the recipient the card and challenge them to perform an act of kindness themselves. It think this was my favorite activity.

The most difficult challenge was when we went to the local dinosaur museum and looked for clues hidden in a mural. We had to solve these clues and plug them into a crazy formula like: green clues + grey clues/ blue clues = the combination to open the lock that had the next clue. Good thing there were other teams there, we all helped each other out. Math never was my best subject.

We just pulled over when we saw someone working in her garden and offered to help.

Helping someone load their groceries in the car.

Our last activity before dinner. Yoga. Aaaaah.

After dinner the stake patriarch spoke and a couple of the youth about making good choices, and having integrity. Then we all went home and rested up for the next day.

Saturday morning, everyone went to the mouth of Grove Creek Canyon and went on a hike. Throughout the hike, they had to stop at 13 different stations to pass of The Articles of Faith. The final destination was the park by the Timpanogos Temple. I didn't attend this portion of the activity because I had to pack for a week long trip that we were leaving for the next morning.

After lunch (I think there were over 100 boxes of pizza!) Every grabbed a raked and cleaned up the park. When that was done, there were fun and games.

Rachel trying to master the four legged race.

Emma enjoying the company of her friends.

After the games, we had the treat of listening to Kris Belcher speak to us. She had tumors in her eyes when she was 7 months old and the radiation that cured the cancer disfigured her face. Seven years ago, she developed cancer in her eye from the radiation she had received when she was a baby. Not only did it completely blind her, but it left her without an eye. She is truly an inspiration.

After Sister Belcher spoke, we all headed home. At 8:00 the youth went back to the church for a dance. This is the activity that Rachel and Emma definitely did NOT want me to be present. Which was okay with me.

You may wonder why the number 13 was so prevalent throughout this activity (and no, it wasn't because the tee shirt company had a discount on the number 13). This year's theme for the Youth, is the 13th Article of Faith, which is:

"We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent and in doing good to all men. Indeed we may follow the admonition of Paul--We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, we hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things."

The time, money and logistics involved in this event just proves to me how much The Church values its youth. I am glad to have spent two days in the company of such outstanding people.

L'Artiste

Emma took a 3D art class this year. She's always been artistic. When she was 9, she entered in an art contest where they had to make a picture of a duck for the Duck Stamp for hunting licenses. Emma's depiction of the Hooded Merganser won first place for the state of Utah.

The last day of school this year, she came home with these works of art.

Behold, the minimalist giraffe. This project caused her some amount of stress because she had to use sticks, wire, string and hot glue to make it work. She originally had a bulkier head make from more sticks but it wouldn't hold up. I think the end result turned out great.

I don't know what it is, but it looks really cool. She made it it with wire, nylon stockings, plaster, wood and paint.

Exhibit #3 is the modeled by the lovely Rachel to show the scale. When Caleb first saw it, he said, "Whoa, that is the largest pack of gum in the world."

That Emma, she has skills.

Looking Ahead to the Future

I'm getting old.

An inevitable part that goes along with that is that my children are getting older as well. Along with growing up comes the part of thinking and preparing for the future.

Rachel, Emma and I went to a workshop at BYU last weekend. Foundations is a day-long activity that is hosted by the Multicultural Student Services. It is for 8th through 10th graders and their parents who are interested in learning about ways to prepare for college. Both the girls were slightly wary about giving up a whole Saturday to learn about preparing for college, but when I told them that lunch was provided and that it would be on BYU's campus, they agreed.

One thing the girls didn't realize was that there would be so many different ethnicities there (even though I showed them the flyer that had "Multicultural Student Services" printed on the front). They thought that was a nice surprise.

It is a great program! The kids were separated into the different grades and then broken up into small groups of 8-10. The parents went into an auditorium where a panel of high school counselors and academic advisors answered questions and showed the many different ways to get financial aid and scholarships.

The kids had workshops on how to make goals and prepare for college interspersed with service activities and lots of games.

When we came home that afternoon, Rachel and Emma had a list of goals they wanted to accomplish, and a bunch of new friends. I had a notebook of useful information that will put me in the right direction of finding a way to pay for my girls' education.

This was on the back of Emma's worksheet.

This is the front of the worksheet. I liked how the worksheets were different for each age group.
Some of the things on Em's worksheet that make me smile are:

1. How she wants to always be in good shape but she doesn't like to excercise.
2. How she tells herself to get over it.
3.Her doodle
She has a good head on her shoulders.

Rachel's goal sheet was a little more specific. I'm pretty impressed with it. Rach has always like to plan and map out her life so this excercise was right up her alley.

Pretty good girls, if you ask me. Maybe when they graduate from college, they'll be able to spring for a trip for their beloved parents to an exotic locale.