Surprise....

... it's a baby shower for our dear Mia Maid Advisor!!!! Michelle is due in June, with her first child, and a few of us Young Women Leaders wanted to help the YW shower her with bed time stories. So we threw her a surprise baby shower.

We wanted to make sure her new baby would have plenty of bedtime stories!

Book Basket

 Hanging up tissue paper flowers!
(Thanks to a few of our YW for your help hanging them)  

Michelle's comfy corner!

Cute diaper cake that Jeanna made!

My oldest son checking out the food (my boys and husband came to help me set up)! Erica hooked us up with a fondue feast, veggies, and chex mix. Jeanna made her families amazing punch!

Flower power!

The moment of surprise! She really had no idea - way to keep it a surprise everyone!

Taking it all in!

Oh Erica and your silliness! I love working with women like this who like to be silly with the girls! Her and her sister had the girls making tissue paper diapers that they had to wear the entire evening in hopes of not breaking them.

 Some of the girls showing their tp diapers at the end of the shower

A lovely picture of Michelle and Jeanna (she made the diaper cake and the yummy punch)

The mom-to-be! 

We had so much fun showering Michelle with lovely treasures for her little girl who will be here in a month or so. 


Happy Showering to you,

AS I WATCHED HIM STUGGLE UP THAT HILL

Well, I survived! 25+ miles of walking, pulling, pushing, and getting very dirty!!!! All the time, planning, and hard work paid off in large dividends this past week as 148 youth from our stake, about 50 members of our young single adult ward, and some 140+ support staff felt the spirit of our Pioneer Ancestors and the sweet testimony that Heavenly Father lives and that His son Jesus Christ lives!

I was so impressed with the wonderful vignettes that portrayed some very tender moments in our LDS history (the Sweetwater Crossing to save the stranded Martin Willie Handcart company, the mustering of our men into the United States Army to become members of the Mormon Battalion, the farewell to our YSA as they went off to establish a settlement, Brigham Young declaring that "this is the place" - to name a few).

I was impressed with those who were asked to speak at key times along the trail. The sweet message by dear Sister Carrie Smith before all the women pulled and pushed those handcarts up a steep incline touched me deeply. In fact the woman's pull was a part that changed me! To know that our female LDS ancestors had to pull the handcarts across the plains and mountains brought me great strength during that difficult time.

In reflection of that moment, I am brought to tears each time I think of my experience pushing until I literally did not think I could any longer. When I reached that moment of pure exhaustion, the young men from our family took over. I can't help but relate that tender moment of rescue to the great sacrifice of our Savior!!!! I can see Jesus walking to the Garden of Gethsemane where he prayed mightily for me and you.

I can see him crying in the garden from the pain of the burden and I am so saddened that I have added to that burden. I can see Jesus on trail, being mocked and ridiculed. I can see him carrying the large wooden cross through the streets of Jerusalem and then I see him struggling up the Hill to the place of his death. I am in AWE by the rescue He performed for me!

I have a greater appreciation for those who sacrificed so much to ensure that we could benefit from practicing our religion as we choose. I have greater appreciation for my own ancestors, who were not LDS, but who also worked hard and sacrificed to make a better life for those who would follow. My testimony has grown significantly and I am so grateful for the opportunity I have had with my involvement in the Pioneer Handcart Trek. Indeed our Savior called to those around him to "Come Follow Me" and I will do my best each day to do just that! I am a follower and a believer!

To see some pictures from this past week please check out our photographers images (the slide show is rather quick so I just click on the box that shows the images).

May we always strive to make our trek of life an amazing experience!

Happy Trekking, Megan

Dancing Fever

Last night at our Stake Trek Activity we all learned some new "pioneer" dances that we will perform at the hoedown that we will have up on the trail in August. I was so happy to see the youth enjoying themselves and really participating. Most of us wore our pioneer clothing and I have to say seeing almost everybody in their period costumes helped me to get real excited for the trek!

There was one point in the evening when one of the "dance instructor" got up on stage to announce that there will now be a demonstration of our next dance. To those in attendance this was the BIG SURPRISE. A group of us women, had prepared an "Evolution of Dance" of sorts and instead of showing them the next dance we performed our dance. It was received with applause and laughter! I think some of the youth were surprised to see their leaders doing some of the dances that are popular today - like the Soldja Boy!

After watching the video I am so happy with how well it turned out. We learned it rather quickly and for some in our group this was their first time dancing to certain types of music. I personally had so much fun putting the music and dance together and working as a group to fine tune it! It made me realize how much I miss being with a dance studio, where you can create and perform regularly!

Youth Harvest Party

We had a blast at the Youth Harvest Party on Tuesday night! We gathered in the Tew's backyard, which was all decked out for the festivities. Seriously, my pictures do not do it justice. I really need to take a photography class!

Hanging from this tree are witches hats (about 20 of them) and skeltons! 

Each table had a candelabra and lighted pumpkins.

 
The spooky cemetery....


... more pictures of the cemetery!

One of the 12 booths - this one is Gunning for Ghosts (you use squirt guns to be the first to knock off the ping pong ball head off the ghost)!

"Donuts on a rope" in the set up phase. These two ladies, Jill and Melissa,  are phenomenal - they worked the booth the whole night and their hands were covered in donut glaze! You are awesome!

A donut race in progress!

I love this young woman! Kara is beautiful and very talented! The party was in her back yard and she put together a pretty awesome music mix for us! Her and I danced a few songs together!

Another booth - "A Slice of Pie" the youth enjoyed the pie eating contest!

Marie you are dynamite!

Silly girls, thanks for the Bubble Chewing Contests!

Cruella Deville, aka Joanna Tew, was a gracious hostess! THANK YOU!

"Fear Factor" was a very popular booth. Not many people wanted to eat the sardines, pigs feet, pickled eggplant, etc... They just wanted to wait to see if someone else would!

The Stephensen's make a wonderful Frankenstein and the Bride of Frankenstein. 

Love ya Jill!

Roller Skating!

Last night was our opening social for our youth (young men and young women ages 12-18). I look forward to this activity every year, and am so glad that I was able to go! I am happy to report I did not fall (no repeats of last year). 

The kids wanted a disco night and boy am I glad that they did because the music was AWESOME!!!!

I will post some pictures once I get them!

I know, I know....

...you've been wondering where your little orange peanut has been!

Busy - that's for sure!!!

Let's see:

July 25-26 - I enjoyed an overnight High Adventure activity with the young women. We were at Granite Arches Indoor Climbing Facility and it was a blast!

July 26 - Youth dance at the Cannery (we had the dance in the parking lot). It was so much fun and I wish I would have brought my camera!!!! You know I was dancing and having a great time!


July 27 - Big D created a fun game that is played with a ton of cups set up on two sides of a table. There is one player on each end and they take turns bouncing the ball across to the other side in hopes of making it in one of the cups. If you make it in the cup, you get to remove that from the table. The first one with no cups (their cups are opposite them, in front of the other player) on the table wins! Very fun!

July 28, July 30, and August 1 - Big D participated in the Kid Olympics hosted by my friends 2 oldest children! I was very impressed with how organized they were! So professional and fun!


Aug 1 - We hosted the Elders Quorum party at our house (guess that's what happens when your husband is the Elders Quorum President). Those that came had a fun time playing Outburst, boxing each other on the Wii, bowling, and laughing, hard!

Random picture of Little C! Isn't he cute! He's holding a magnifying glass to his face!

Soooo cute!

The Henry's getting ready to box each other!

Aug 2 - Went to a baby shower for a friend! She is so beautiful and so wonderful at pregnancy. Maybe she can be my surrogate?

Aug 3 - I was asked to be a zip code supervisor for the protect marriage campaign - Proposition 8 (protectmarriage.com). That is going to keep me real busy until November!!!!

Aug 4 - The boys and I left for our family vacation to beautiful, and cold, Fort Bragg, CA. After a 4 hour drive we arrived at our cute little cottage!

Aug 5 - All aboard!!!! Little C was very excited to be on the Skunk Train! We took a 4 hour ride into the Redwood Forest. Wow those are some big trees! Big D kept asking what state we were in. We explained several times that we were still in CA just in a different city. He's so use to our vacations out of the country (to warm destinations) and our own city being so dang hot that he couldn't believe there was some where so cold in CA. We also enjoyed a fun game of UNO.

Aug 6 - We searched the tide pools at MacKerricher State Park, watched Carson climb a tall rock (I 'bout had a heart attack), skipped rocks into the ocean, drove to Mendocino, saw the Point Cabrillo Lighthouse, ate dinner at a yummy restaurant in Fort Bragg, and watched movies in bed!

This is a small eel that Little C found!

Aug 7 - Drove home. It was a fun vacation, but seriously, anyone have any ideas on how to get a small 2 1/2 year old to stop screaming!!!!! He does this all day long and I am running out of ideas!!!!!!

Well - that's what I've been up to, can't wait to check out everyone's blogs and see what you've been doing.

Leave me a comment and let me know what your favorite summer memory has been!