Youth Conference 2016

Youth Conference came again and I loved it just as I did last year.  After months of planning and coordinating you get to see all your hard work pay off as you watch all the youth have fun and spiritually grow over the course of three days.

I was in charge of the All Camp Activity again this year along with two awesome youth leaders.  We had weekly planning meetings the two months prior to conference as we pulled together our ideas and resources for our "Armor of God" activity.  I've never considered myself an activity planner so it feels like a stretch for me to be overseeing an event for 100+ youth that lasts for an hour and a half, and yet somehow we pulled it off (with a lot of help from Heavenly Father, I have no doubt).

Here are some photos that show some of our prep work for the activity as well some of our Youth Conference happenings.

 ^^Gathering up "armor" from all sorts of generous people.

 ^^I have lots of random photos on my phone like this, taken at the dollar to ask our stake YW presidency if we needed glow sticks for the dance.  

 ^^My overloaded car all ready to drive the 2.5 hours to Youth Conference

 ^^The kiddos were good sports about it all.

 ^^It will take too long to explain this inside joke, but sufficeth to say that I receive lots of hilarious texts like this throughout the week.

 ^^Youth taking part in the awesome service project of re-staining cabins at a local kids camp.

 ^^Coordinating six stations during my All Camp Activity, making sure that everyone went to the right places.  Thankfully it all worked out!
^^The dance on the beach was definitely a highlight.  I dusted off my high school dance skills and jumped in for a bit.  

The whole Youth Conference experience was made a little more complicated this year because I am still nursing Ford and can only be away from him for a couple hours at a time.  Thankfully my saintly mother agreed to come along for the ride so I could multitask my Youth Conference responsibilities with nursing Ford.  I stayed close by with her and the kids and traveled back and forth to the conference.

My mom did SO much and was seriously the unsung hero of the week.  I so appreciate her clothing, feeding, napping and entertaining my children. Eleanor LOVES her Grandma so Eleanor was more than happy to spend her days without me :)

 ^^Eleanor outside the place we stayed when we first arrived.  She had just thrown up in the car only minutes before arriving at our destination so that's why she is pants-less here...

 ^^My mom helped me bring the kids so I could hang out with them and the youth at the same time on the beach. 

 ^^Eleanor on the swings during the Youth Conference BBQ.

 ^^Those cheeks!

And another behind the scenes hero was Aaron who stayed home and worked to support our family by day and painted our front room by night.  He's the greatest.

It was a crazy, wonderful week and I came home exhausted but I'm so grateful I got to be apart of it all. Our stake does so much to lift and inspire our youth through their tough teenage years.  I'm proud to be apart of a program where so many adults sacrifice their time and talents to ensure that these youth grow firm testimonies of Jesus Christ.  I was just recently released from my stake calling but I'm so happy to still be in our ward YW's.  I'm very much looking forward to attending future Youth Conferences!