Baby Shower

Last Thursday, my friend Lindsay threw a baby shower for me and baby Chewie.  (Another friend, Anna, was in on the planning action...but the night of the shower she had a sick kiddo and wasn't able to make it.)

Anyway, I had a great time hanging out with friends, and Chewie got some pretty sweet stuff!

We were laughing about Rachelle's present wrapping job.  The bag she planned on using was too small...and then she couldn't find the tape...except the packing tape.  It was a very funny story!  :)  

A bag of plastic building blocks.

Yay!  Prizes!

Baby clothes from Angie!

Sock monkey things from...I cant remember...good thing it's written down somewhere!

The cutest little owl hat (along with some clothes and socks) from Lucy.  She is an awesome crocheter!  She made the hat herself!

A book called "Mama do you love me" from Julie and Reagan.  (Complete with inscription to Baby Hanzon.)

There were many other fun and thoughtful presents along with these.  I feel so blessed to have such wonderful friends!  

And for our Young Women activity night last night, the leaders threw me a surprise baby shower!  They are so sneaky!  I had NO idea.  We played games and ate cupcakes and I got more fun presents.  I don't have any pictures from it though.  (Another leader took some, I think.  I will have to ask her to share.)

One of the "games" was for the young women to write some advice down for me (and Luke--the soon to be parents).  I was impressed at how insightful and clever some of them were.  

Here is some of the advice they wrote down:

"Don't beat around the bush.  Just tell your kid how it is...  Who cares if they cry?  At least he won't be a sissy."  -Erika

"Have a prerecorded audio of Morgan Freeman saying 'be calm small boy' for every time he cries.  This will grow your child into a legendary man."  -Heather

"Have fun w/ baby and try to make even chores fun." 

"Be patient w/ child, understand they are learning just like you!" -Hailey

"Every time I babysit a cranky baby, there seems to come a time when they are determined to make life miserable...eventually I realized that it helps to pray that they stop being terrible, because Heavenly Father is really good with babies."  -Tess

New Beginnings

A few months ago I got called to be the 2nd counselor in the Young Women's presidency at church.  It has been really fun getting to know the teenage girls (12-18 yrs. old) in the ward...especially the Beehives (ages 12-13) whom I work with directly.

Last night we had our New Beginnings program.  It's mainly for the girls who will be turning 12 this year and joining the Young Women's program, but all the girls and their parents are invited to attend.

I volunteered to be the boss of the invites and decorations.

Here are the invitations I made:

And the room/decorations (that Luke helped me set up):

The theme was "Becoming a Goddess", so that's what I wrote on the front board.  And on the side board-which was covered in kraft paper- we hung a poster with the mutual theme for the year: "Stand ye in Holy Places.." with all the names of the girls written on chalkboard vinyl signs.  Some of them also drew pictures representing how they stand in holy places which were displayed on there as well.

We had a really good turnout and the refreshments were delicious!  (We had fruit pizza and rolos-which represented all of the YW value colors-, and Italian sodas to drink.)

And during Megan's talk (she's the YW President) she shared this video, which I thought was really nice...

I'm glad that everything went well last night, and that it's all over now.  :)  Now I can focus on other things..like trying a new recipe for dinner, watching the NCAA tournament, and crossing my fingers that one of the many brackets I filled out (mostly by guessing and flipping coins) does well this year.

Amazingness. Squared.

I've been seeing this image around the wonderful world wide web (aka Facebook and Pinterest)...

Stolen from here.

...and I've heard the talk that the quote came from was phenomenal...  It was a church CES broadcast entitled "Israel, Israel, God is Calling".

We decided to listen to it tonight.  And it was powerful.  Amazing.  Phenomenal. Awesome.  Direct.

See/hear for yourself!  Click here.

Roses, Football, and Stake Conference

Luke bought me roses.  Just because he's awesome like that.  Aren't they beautiful?

We started watching the BYU vs. Utah football game, but switched over to game-cast only when things got slightly horrible.  This picture sums it all up.  

Image via

 And this weekend is our Stake Conference.

(And for those of you who don't know what I'm talking about...this might help.  You can also learn more here.)

Activity Day Girls Camp

I'm currently an Activity Day leader at church.  Activity Days is a program for girls 8-11 years old.  This week (Tuesday-Friday) we had a day camp for the girls from our stake.  

The camp was put on by a lady named Beverly DeKay.  She has been a cub scout leader for a number of years, and she feels the same effort and energy and time should be spent teaching the girls outdoor skills too.  So she volunteered to run this camp.  This is the second year she has done it.

Here is a list of some of the things the girls did:

Made journals (I was in charge of this activity...)

Learned how to build fires

Knife/whittling skills...hiking sticks

Hiking (only the older girls got to do this...we were going to go on a group hike, but we ran out of time)

Learned about plants...gathered different plants and made plant "potions"

Made first-aid kits

Learned some survival skills

Made bracelets

Made shrinky-dinks

Decorated camp t-shirts

Lashing...made picture frames by lashing sticks together

Water safety

Rafting

Gun safety

Shooting .22s

Tuesday-Thursday we were at Beverly DeKay's house.  

The view from Beverly's house...A.M.A.Z.I.N.G!

There were about 70 girls at camp! 

Sister DeKay teaching us about the local plants.

The weather was kind of cold during camp...but luckily it didn't rain on us.  It was supposed to, but it didn't.

Friday the camp was held at Mirror Lake:

Where the girls got to go rafting...

70 girls in rafts...luckily everything went well with that...  The girls had a wonderful time!

I didn't help with the rafting.  (I didn't want to...)  I wanted to help at the shooting range instead. (Yes, I would rather help girls shoot guns than help them rafting...)

The girls I helped with shooting were REALLY good...and they had never shot a gun before!

Friday afternoon we played some games...

I was in charge of some of the games.  We didn't play nearly as many as we thought we would.  The girls just wanted to play in the water.  So we let them!

Friday night there was a dinner for the girls and their families.  I helped with the dinner preparation.  I cut potatoes and made the beans.

All of those dutch ovens are FULL of potatoes...we did a lot of cutting!

And I made a ton of beans!

Whew!  What a week!  Camp was really fun...but I'm not sad it's over.  :)

Hiking Group

You'll never guess where we went for this weeks hike.

South Fork Falls.

They're so pretty, and so close by that I don't mind that I've been there 3 times in 2 weeks.  (But maybe you mind.  Are you ready for some new scenery?  Well too bad!  You're just going to have to be patient.  HAHA!)

When we got to the trail we were met by this sign:

Things like that are always a bit scary to see...but we stuck together and made a lot of noise and we had a safe and successful hike!  (Plus we had bear spray...just in case...)

I don't think I will ever get tired of this beautiful hike!

Hiking Group

I was asked by the Relief Society Presidency (from church) to be in charge of planning a summer hiking group that included hikes for moms and their kids (of all ages/stroller accessible) and also some hikes that are more challenging (kids welcome, but the trails aren't the stroller friendly kind...)

Relying on the previous summer hike outline, input from friends, some Alaska hiking websites, and a nifty Falcon guide hiking book we have our schedule (for May and June at least...):

Our first "all ages" hike was today.  We went to the river trail at the north fork of Eagle River.

It was a really easy one to start with (only 1 mile round trip).  Where we turned around, there was a huge sand bar in the river and all the kids played there for about an hour.  (Some of them were pretty tired when it was time to finally go back to the cars.)

When we got to the trailhead, we were met by this sign:

The trail wasn't really closed...it was only closed to snow machines.  The big bear sign covers up that part...

Anyways, I guess a brown bear charged a hiker yesterday (thus the bear danger sign).  A few of the moms were concerned, but we went on the hike anyway.  We had a rule that no kids could go in front of the adult leading, and no kids could be behind the last adult in line.

Everyone getting organized at the trailhead

And then we were off.  I was the leader...along with my bear spray (other ladies on the hike had bear spray too), and most of the kids had bells tied to their shoes.  Between that and voices we definitely had the noise factor in our favor...

It is a very nice trail...it's like this the whole way to the river.

The sand bar and river. (Looking East...ish...)

Eagle River (looking West)

Looks like the trail continues on the other side.  But no fording rivers for us today!

Here are some pictures of all the kids playing (there were around 40 of them and 1 puppy) and adults (15 or so) supervising...:

No one fell in the river or got hit by flying rocks, so I count that as a successful trip.

Everyone heading back to the trailhead

It was a beautiful day for a hike!  Here are some other pictures that I took:

It's cool seeing plants and flowers that I have never seen before...this one looks like a feather duster at first, and then it opens up and gets all spiky.  I have no idea what it's called...but it's cool looking!

One kid wanted to drink out of the pipe until I explained giardia to him...

It's so fun having a State Park so close to home.  And not only that--the Chugach State Park is almost the size of New Jersey!  Whoa!

Yay for being outside!  And in such a beautiful place, too!

And after hiking, I saw this young moose on the street behind Walmart chowing down a tree.

As Sisters in... Alaska

Today was women's conference for our stake.

It started out with a workout choice of a 5k or a Zumba class.  I did the 5k.  I walked...I didn't run this one...(I'm trying to be good to my plantar fasciitis plagued foot, so it will be good to me...summer's coming!!)

The 5k started at 7 a.m.  So much for sleeping in!

Elizabeth, Cherie, and Lindsay...my awesome walking buddies!

We went into town along the bike path.  It's a really nice path!

I didn't know this sign was there...there used to be a giant pile of snow in front of it and all we could see was the top wing of the eagle.  It's a whole new world here without the snow!

Lindsay and I thought this was awesome...  Too bad garage sales here don't start before 9, we totally could've stopped along the way!

After the 5k, we ate breakfast at the church and then the conference began.  This year's theme was "Choosing the better part."

We had choices of classes (x3) to attend.  I went to Alaska Recreation, Treasuring the Scriptures, and Growing Vegetables/Fruit In Alaska.  (I wish I could've gone to all the classes offered...but I couldn't.  Sad!)

The first class made me want to leave right then and start exploring!  There's so much to do here!  A lady made a comment during the class that there was a Groupon going on for the musk ox farm in Palmer...And I totally bought it.  (Thanks to the ever-so-handy Groupon app!)   We will take Luke's parents there when they come to visit in July.  I also told my sister about it, and she got one to use in June when she and my parents visit.  (I have a feeling you will be reading a lot about the musk ox farm..so get ready!)

The second class was really good too!  The teacher talked about using your scriptures as a Liahona in our lives...because as it says in Alma 37:44-

"...it is as easy to give heed to the word of Chirst, which will point to you a straight course to eternal bliss, as it was for our fathers to give heed to this compass, which would point unto them a straight course to the promised land."

The third class confirmed that gardening in Alaska isn't for the faint of heart...and if all else fails, plant rhubarb.  It grows really well here, I guess.

After the classes we had lunch.  We have a Maung branch in our stake, and some of the members did dances for us.  And all the women from the branch wore their native costumes during the conference.  It was really cool!

I hope you all had a great day too!

Oh.  And I love this song.  Just thought you should know...