Faithful & Fabulous

The first weekend of September we had a Relief Society retreat... think of it as an extended Girls' Night Out with a lot of yummy food, a lot of visiting and laughs, some service, games, high adventure, a few gospel messages, and a whole lot of bonding going on between the sisters in our ward. We spent a night at HeberValley Camp where they have bunks and bathrooms (hooray for flush toilets!). Our site had a little cooking pavilion and a few picnic tables.It only lasted for 24 hours or so... some sisters came up just for Friday evening and others just for Saturday morning and afternoon. In total we had 50 sisters come for part or all of our retreat... that is just about half of the ladies in our ward. I loved that so many took the time to come!

Our focus was to help the sisters know how "Faithful & Fabulous" they truly are... we made cute notebooks out of inexpensive composition books to give to each person so they could jot down a few thoughts.  Each person brought their own dinner on Friday night and then we had a wonderful speaker that evening. She talked all about prioritizing and based her talk on one that Susan Tanner gave (first take care of my testimony, next my family, finally my calling). We ate fondue.... in the mountains... and it was wonderful!

Before bed we had a wonderful devotional by Jacque (2nd Counselor) about light and our ability to reflect the light of Christ. Then we departed to our separate cabins (we divided into Later Gators for people that wanted to stay up late, Early Birds for people who wanted to get to bed early, and Monkeys in the Middle for people who just weren't sure... ironically enough the Early Birds stayed up the latest... but got up the earliest. Go figure!) and played games until we couldn't keep our eyes open anymore.

Saturday morning we had Kneader's French toast with caramel syrup and strawberries for breakfast, then a devotional by Jessica (1st Counselor), and a little workshop about being fabulous.... not that I am an expert by any means, but we wanted to look at the basics... we are fabulous because we are daughters of God and because we have a desire to do what is right. Our vision gets obscured for so many reasons and we aren't able to see clearly who we are or what our potential is. We had each person do an acrostic poem with the word FABULOUS--they had to write a word or phrase for each letter of the word that described something positive about them. I think a lot of times we can recognize and verbalize positive traits in others, but it is hard to do that about ourselves. Finally we shared some positive affirmations about ourselves... statements that are positive that we know to be true. I loved that so many people contributed to the discussion.

We made a fun, simple little craft (stuffed pumpkins!) and then after some tidying up we walked down to the Challenge Course which included some team building exercises and a crazy-fun swing.

It was such a wonderful time to build relationships with sisters in our ward... I hope we get to do it again!

**What makes YOU fabulous?

Best Ward Christmas Party Ever

So by disbanding the ward activities committee, our ward was left at having the Elder's Quorum in charge. Of course they are great guys, but they are men. When our bishop's wife heard that they were going to be putting on the ward Christmas breakfast, she volunteered herself and all of our young single adults to throw the party. They involved so many of us in any way that they could, and the result was amazing. I am not taking any credit for any of the amazing things they did, just thought you might like to see what a fun party they threw. They had a Polar Express theme and we all got to go in our PJs.

A week or so before the breakfast they delivered golden tickets to each household.

We had to turn in our tickets at this darling ticket booth. If for some reason we forgot to bring our ticket, we could do a song or a dance to get in.

 One of the hallways was transformed to be the inside of a train.

 Our kids LOVED riding on the train.

One of our ward members made a fabulous conductor and acted the part during the whole party. He punched tickets and spoke with a voice that sounded just like the conductor from the movie.

 Doesn't he look great?

A couple of my friends crafted this beautiful train out of cardboard that was just inside the gym after we got off the train. It had a functioning headlamp and even emitted "smoke" out of the chimney.

 The tables were covered with white butcher paper and then strips of black paper glued on to make them look like train tracks. Genius. I also love these boxes of crayons (wrapped to look like gifts) that were on each table so the children (and adults!) could color on the tables.

 While we were eating breakfast the young men and college boys passed out hot chocolate while they played the song from the movie.

 The conductor got into it and sang along! He was so much fun.

Breakfast was delicious! Many of us helped by signing up to bring a breakfast casserole or fruit. The ward provided pancakes, yummy buttermilk syrup, drinks, and hash browns.

Santa's appearance was brief... there wasn't time for all the kids to sit on his lap (which was okay with me...) but he invited all of us to the back of the gym where there was a "Mrs. Santa's Bake Shop" and we could frost a cookie. Dessert for breakfast? I think so!

My favorite part about our ward Christmas parties is the annual ward talent show. We have a talented ward! So many signed up to play the piano that they had to tell them all no (and have decided to hold a separate piano festival later this year). Our ward has put together a jazz band for the last several years. This year Ryan was invited to pull out his trumpet and join. He figures it had been at least 15 years since he had really played. After a fancy (and pricey) tune-up at the music store, his trumpet was ready to go. He did such a great job! He is standing in the back right corner if you decide to watch the video.





He also got to play in a brass quintet:


Olivia's clogging group performed their number too:


It was such a fun event. It is really neat to see all of the hard work of so many people pay off. I was so glad I wasn't in charge :).

Dear Book Donor...

Although I'm always grateful for anonymous gifts left on my door or in my mailbox, yours made me second guess all of the work we've been doing to plan fun and exciting activities for our ward.

I'm not claiming in any way that I have ANY sort of a CLUE... but maybe next time you could leave a little piece of chocolate to soften the blow...


Thanks for thinking of me.... maybe before the next ward activity you could leave me an anonymous note and let me know just what it is we should be doing differently?

Thanks so much,
Lisa (and the rest of the Activities Committee, who found your gift quite hilarious)

**Ever received a funny anonymous gift?

History Lesson at Camp Floyd

While I was in San Diego for my Dad's birthday celebration, Ryan took the kids to the Camp Floyd Civil War Reenactment. Although it was drizzly and wet, they had a great time.
There weren't too many people there, so they got to pick their activities.

They tried on some uniforms...

Tested out the sleeping quarters...

Learned a little about teamwork...

Held a rifle that was taller than they are...

...and picked up cannonballs. Olivia kept saying "I can do it, I can do it" and indeed, she did it.

Coleman tried picking one up and all he could say was "Heavy!" but was finally successful in lifting it. I love his facial expression in the middle picture.

**Any field trip suggestions (family activities) for more hands on history lessons?