YOUNG WOMEN'S CAMP

Theme: "Know Your Heart"

So I was one of those big babies that didn't want to go to Young Women's camp. Reason's why? Legitimate? YES! I'm old, I have pain in my right hip when I lay down, I have to go to the bathroom at least 3 times at night. I'm afraid to walk to the bathroom even with a flashlight all by myself. {BIG SIGN POSTED, BEWARE OF BEARS}! And I snore (although at camp I was told that I do not snore, yeah! Maybe loosing 100 pounds will do that to you)! Anyway I had a really bad attitude about going. I knew I was going to be okay in the day time, I love being with the leaders and the girls, but I dreaded night time. The first night there we were unprepared for how cold it can get. I shivered half the night. Finally Kim got up at 5:00 am to leave to go to work. She was our go-for girl back and forth several times an hour and 1/2 each way. She walked down to the bathroom with me. She threw her blanket on Vanessa who was on the ground rolled up into a ball. Vanessa was very grateful! Kim stayed only the first night, but came up every night to bring things to us. The second night I took a couple of Tylenol Pm's just to take the rough edges off the night. It was warmer and lucky me, I slept the whole night! I haven't done that for several years! I was hoping our third and last night would be the same, but it rained and left us all soggy and cold. The night was cold, but bearable and I only had to walk down to the bathroom once that night, I went by myself..saying, "I can do this, I can do this)! Any of the leaders would have gone with me, but I didn't want to disturb them. Come to find out Kaylin, our camp director didn't sleep very well any of those nights so she was pretty exhausted by the end of camp. We were very proud of ourselves for sticking it out. The girls never complained and I was very proud of them. I had a blast with the leaders and Young Women. I would do it again ....... only this time with a warmer sleeping bag, extra blankets and a really good sleeping pill ..... any suggestions?

Kaylin (camp director) Vanessa (assistant)

Laura (YW President)

Samantha, Vanessa and me

Myself and Kim (our wonderful go-for girl) Kaylin had so many fun activities for the girls and leaders
Kaylin and Vanessa did a fantastic job! Our Priesthood leaders for camp

We had wonderful devotionals by the Youth leaders and Young Women leaders. We had mail buckets hanging up so the girls and leaders could put love notes into each others boxes. We had secret sisters, thank you Laura for all my great gifts. We made beautiful journals and we also made a book about camp that kept our notes, devotionals, and pictures. We had fun making necklaces etc. The girls hiked, zip lined into the lake, canoed and had water fights. Laura our trusty YW pres. fished.....some of the girls learned to love that too! It was a fun and very spiritual time and even with all of us (including the Bishopric) cramped into one tent during the rain storm and testimony meeting it was awesome. I love being in Young Womens, I love my girls!

OPEN HOUSE FOR JOHN

AUGUST 9TH 2009

John wasn't about to have an open house. I had a hard time convincing him that it would be fun. It took a lot of badgering before he finally consented. He was glad we did it for him. He enjoyed visiting with all our old and new friends. Thank you Shannon, Nicole and Soupie for all your help with the kids and food preparations. Thank you Mike and Brandt for visiting and helping with the guests. Thank you Larry for taking the pictures. The Open House went perfect.

Opening gifts from children before the Open House, Cole loved Papa's cards

John and I enjoyed our company so much!

These were the only pictures I took, I haven't looked at Larry's yet, I look forward to putting them into my scrapbook

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SAVANNAH

Savy will be 5 years old!

We had fun putting together an early Birthday Party for Savannah. We only had one day we could do it and that was on the Saturday before Papa John's Open House. Shannon, Larry, Dresden, Logan, Brandt, Soupie, Carlee and Tayler were there. Nicole's sister, Jenna came up from the Y and even her boyfriend showed up. Savannah got a lot of presents from her cousin's and others, even Collin and Sydney left her a present (they were vacationing with their Grandpa Bob and Grandma Jo in Arizona) We had cupcakes, balloons and a park to play in. Savannah looked so cute and we all had fun watching her open her gifts. We will be thinking about you on the 23rd.........lots of love to you, our little Cali girl.

Aunt Jenna, Nicole, Cole and Savy

Aunt Soupie, with baby Creed, Tayler, Uncle Brandt and Michael

Uncle Larry, Aunt Shannon, Dresden and Logan

Grandpa Bill (just got out of the Hospital), Grandma Ellen & Savy

THE CALI STRONGS ARE IN TOWN!

FAMILY GATHERINGS

We were so excited that our cute kids from California could come up for a few days. They had to cram in a lot of things with this short vacation, but I think they had fun doing it. They got to see Grandpa Bill and Grandma Ellen, we had our family spaghetti dinner, Nicole's sister, Jenna came up from the Y. We pulled off an early Birthday Party for Savannah, an Open House for Papa John etc, etc. Natalie and Jay couldn't be here because they had sceduled a cruise for their anniversay, we're glad they had a lot of fun on their cruise, but we still missed them. Thank you Shannon and Brandt for spending time with your little brother.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY COLLIN

Collin turned 8 years old on August 5th. Happy Birthday our cute grandson! Family and friends were invited to a swimming party in Draper, but because of the stormy weather they had to cancel the swimming. The kids didn't care, they packed up and went to the Rudels and still had a lot of fun. Natalie and Jay went to a lot of work for this party, so they felt a little bad that it didn't turn out quite like they wanted. Uncle Brandt, Carlee, Tayler, Aunt Shannon, Dresden and Logan were all at the party. Aunt Soupie had to work and Papa John was headed for Ephraim to pick up Grandpa Bill for an emergency operation. We are glad that all went well for Grandpa Bill. Thank you for inviting us to your party, we had fun. I am very proud of Collin, he is
growning into such a wonderful young boy.

Family & Friends

Opening Presents

An awesome shadow box of the piece of wood Collin broke with is bare hands

(his dad made the shadow box)

The kids had to eat their cake with their new goggles

Happy Birthday to you..........

42 YEARS AS A WEEKEND WARRIOR

Quietly he rides off into the sunset! Forty two years of once, twice and sometimes three weekends a month John would quietly and uncomplaining go to guard and serve his country. John doesn't like a lot of fan fair so Friday night he said, "oh by the way the guard is going to have some kind of ceremony for my retirement tomorrow morning at 7:00". I looked at him bewildered. He continued, "and I told them I would bring my wife." I asked him why didn't he tell me sooner so I could tell the kids and he said it was because he didn't want to bother making them get up too early on a Saturday morning to go to it. Well I couldn't do anything about Mike, he's in California and Brandt took his family camping. But I called Natalie and Shannon and we went to the ceremony, we were so glad we did! There were so many wonderful comments about John and how well he served, he was also given several awards. He spoke for a few moments and talked about his journey to this point. I loved how he mentioned his two sons who were also a part of the Army National guard at one time. Natalie and Shannon said, "hey we worked here too!" I guess you could say the Strong family left a mark at the Army National Guard Armory.

WE ARE VERY PROUD OF HIM!

ARMY "STRONG"

Hey Papa John, lets go fishing this weekend!