Sisters Weekend

So I totally forgot to blog about the rest of the weekend I had with my sisters. Oops! Wicked was one of the many things we did but instead of bore you with the details, I think I'll tell you about each of my sisters (plus my amazing BFF, who is practically part of the family).

This is Jennifer. She is my older sister by 11 months. Thats right, she and I are very close in age so we pretty much grew up doing all the same stuff. She is probably the sibling that I get to see the most because she lives the closest. :) Jen and I were the ones who started this whole girls trip because we both really wanted to see Wicked. She works at Roberts Crafts in Provo and is single. So if you know anyone looking, Jen is a great catch! She loves to read, sing and watch old movies and musicals. She is very smart and one of my favorite people in the whole world!

This is Erika, my adopted sister. Erika and I have known each other since birth. My mom always says that she was in the hospital room when Erika was born! Erika and I were inseparable during our youth. In case you were wondering what we were like during that time in our life, I have one word....teenie-bopper. We were the epitome of giggling, boy crazy girls who were obsessed with every known boy band. Awe, who am I kidding, we are still like that, especially when we get together. When she was visiting we morphed right back into our 15 year old selves. I love laughing with Erika! She is also a beautiful singer, dancer and actress, if you know anyone interested (she's single too :) ). She lives in Utah which is so hard for me because I'm used to her being just a couple blocks away!

Lastly, there's Rachel. She is my baby sister and baby of the whole family as a matter of fact. I can't believe how much she has grown! To me, she is still 6 years old. I remember feeding her, changing her diaper and playing with her like she was my own personal dolly. After all, I was 9 when she was born! Rachel just graduated from high school this year. She got her first job, working at a movie theater in Dallas and loves it. In the past couple of years, she has really come out of her shy shell and is started to act more and more like yours truly....scary, I know. She always makes me smile because she cares so much about everyone and wants everyone to be having a good time. Plus she is really excited to have a job and to be able to spend her money on other people since we've all been doing that for her whole life. Its cute. During her trip, we welcomed her into womanhood by giving her a make-over and getting her ears pierced. We had so much fun with our older and much taller dolly!! :)

WICKED!!!!

Last weekend, my sisters and some friends and I went to go see Wicked.

It was AMAZING!!! The singing, acting and effects were awesome! We all felt like teenagers as we waited by the stage door for the actor/actresses to come out. We met the girl who played Elphaba...

...and the guy who played Fiero

If I had the money, I would see that show every night it was in town. And then I'd follow the tour around the country. :)

Girls Camp

Well, Kirk and I just got back from Girls Camp today. We had so much fun but needless to say, we are indeed grateful to be back at home! Trixie was kept company by the McCain's while we were gone. She was so happy to see us when we got home.

Kirk and I were called to work with the 4th years with Sister Rasmussen and Brother Roberts. Bishop Chapman squirmed his way on board too. Here's a brief recap of what happened:

Thursday - We left at the butt-crack of dawn, in the drizzily rain to head up to Blue Ridge Resevoir. We had alot of gear to get to our camp site, but luckily there were 32 girls with us to help load the boat and canoes. Half of us canoed to the designated camp site while the rest of us hiked. When the hikers got around to the other side where the canoers were gonna pick them up, we couldn't find the canoes. We waited for almost 2 hours for them to come. Some of the girls got too anxious and swam over to the other side to start setting up camp. The canoers accidentally went too far. And by too far, I mean they went to the complete end of the resevoir. By the time we all got to the camp site, we were way off schedule so we let the girls have free time swimming and with the canoes.

Friday - Nights are not so fun when you are sleeping in a tent. Well, for me at least. I was up at least every hour, I was cold and completely exhausted. What else I don't like to do in the wilderness is use the 'facilities'. Something always goes wrong. Like this time, my roll of toilet paper slipped out of my hands and went rolling down the mountain side. I felt like an idiot. The girls on the other hand were rockstars! They went repelling off the side of a mountain in the rain. They all did so awesome! By mid afternoon we were on our way back to camp Lomia to meet up with the rest of the stake. That night was skit night. All the wards had awesome skits. I love the feeling of being at camp, and especially sleeping in cabins instead of tents. I got my one and only shower on Friday. It was NICE!

Saturday - Our stake staff did something amazing today. They were directed by the spirit to change our schedule. The theme of the camp was I'm a D.O.L.L. (daughter of liberty and light). We were focusing the whole camp on returning to virtue and had already had some amazing talks. The stake felt that it was important for all the girls to make the commitment to return to virtue. So we spent the morning watching each girl sign her name to the return to virtue flag before we raised it. There are no words to describe the feelings that were felt in that moment.

That afternoon, we had games and day competitions followed by an impromptu water fight. Well, I guess it was planned by the priesthood because they came with huge buckets of water and soaked the girls. They had so much fun! After we were all dry, we had our 4th of July program followed by a brief dance with dessert.

Sunday - Sunday was the most spiritual day at camp. We had sacrament meeting in the sacred grove and a testimony meeting that lasted and hour over time. After that we had bishop time. Our bishop is called of God. He is an inspired man. Our ward is so blessed to have him at the head. The girls too were so blessed to have him at camp all week. Following our Sunday fireside, we had a ward testimony meeting. Definatly my favorite part of camp is hearing the testimonies of the girls. They are so strong. It strengthens me every day to know that there are young women in this world who stand up to the temptations of this day. I'm grateful to know that I'm a part of there lives and hopefully influencing them for good. I truly love each one of them.

By the time Monday came around we all had mixed feelings. On one hand we were excited to get home to our showers and beds. But on the other, we were sad to leave the feeling of camp behind. After many hugs and one last 'way-o' dance from Kirk (you'll have to ask him about that), we hit the road. Hopefully you'll enjoy our memories from camp.