Mad Hatters...

A Man's Best Friend...

 This dog worships the ground Tim walks on.  We were taking a late night swim and Tim abandoned his slippers and socks on the deck, the dog couldn't get to Tim so took the next best available.  Tim always jokes that at least the dog is happy to see him when he gets home from work.  He sleeps all day, but when Tim pulls into the driveway after work, this boy comes alive!

 Summer is the best...staying up late together, cuddling on the couch...

and plotting against each other.  It is going way too fast.

Lately...

 "Mom, see who can make the biggest splash."  Needless to say, Dallin had her beat.  Here she is sporting her talent of kneeling on the water.

 Our water was up to 92 degrees last Friday.  We spent a good portion of the day in it, just like bath water.

We hosted a 4th of July party at our house.  I tried to think of everything Robin and Jordan would do to stick to the theme in hosting a fabulous party.  Tim and Josh set fireworks off in our backyard, we had quite the show!  But...I forgot to take pictures!  Bummer!

Both Dallin's team and Carley's team won District Championships this weekend.  They both battle for the State Championship next weekend.  Here Carley is on 2nd base waiting for the signal from her third base coach as when to RUN! 

Special Places...

 These two bonded during YC, whether they want to admit it or not.  We walked through the Sacred Grove together, just the 3 of us.  Then we bumped into our Stake President and the four of us walked together as he taught and shared insights, definitely a highlight for each of us.

 Ready and waiting for the Hill Cumorah Pageant to begin.

Taylor and I enjoyed mingling with the cast and crew.  This family was from Ohio too.

It was a success...

 These just looked so pretty, I had to capture them before they were devoured.

 Taylor was our Youth Conference MC, she did a fabulous job and kept us on schedule.

 Look what Youth Conference does to our 1st Counselor in the Stake Presidency.

 This was the best part....it was the final battle between the Nephites and the Lamanites.  The Nephites tied blue balloons around their ankles, the Lamanites tied gold balloons around their ankles.  Once both balloons were popped, they were "dead".  The kids and I packed panty hose with flour and those were their weapons.  The youth that read the Book of Mormon prior to Youth Conference received a shield as an added protection during this battle.

 This was so fun to watch.  They had a blast.  The popping balloons sounded like canons or gunfire, and then the flying flour looked like smoke, it was a highlight.

 She got a little floured!

 Dallin was the Lamanite Captain, notice he does have a shield!  He was in charge of preparing his team for battle and leading them through it.  The Lamanites did indeed conquer the Nephites in our mock battle.  They had a great day immersed in the Book of Mormon.

You can imagine what the parking lot looked like after 35 lbs. of flour had been battled with.  It rained today, so I am sure there are flour mounds at the Stake Center to remind us of this great battle.

The Preparations...

 After hours and hours of planning and going over and phone calls and emails and purchasing...the day for set-up arrived for Youth Conference 2013.  The numbers kept changing hourly on how many youth we would have.  Would we need that 3rd charter bus to transport everyone to Palmyra???? 

 Would we have enough food?  What about water while we were in New York????  What did we forget???  "Where are the trash bags?"  "Can you please get 8 pounds of ice?"  "Make sure there are an abundance of snacks."

 "We have to have Bugles for the pageant!" 

 "Laurie, you be in charge of setting up the projector and making sure all re-enactments work."  Are you serious?  Me?  But I will have you know after trial and error, I did get it.

 The youth designed our t-shirts...hopefully we would have enough!

 Taylor made the "welcome" sign.

 Breakfast was ready...hopefully we are too...

Bummer for the kids of Stake leaders....they get to help whether they want to or not.  These 2 were invaluable!  So tomorrow I will let you know how it went.

Everyone's Got Talent....