Many new things!

A week after Youth conf. our family went camping with some friends. That was tons of fun.

On the 10th was our Stake Lagoon day. If any of you don't know what Lagoon is it is an amusment park. There is a new ride called Wicked, and boy is it WICKED! You start out by going from slow to fast in like 2 seconds, then you are shot up straight in the air so all you see is the sky for a minute, then you go over the top and go straight down till you almost hit the ground. Every time i went on it i was amazed at the smooth speed. Sweet! Here is a film, it's not mine but you get the point. P.S. thanks Ashley for teaching me how to work it. It is a lot faster than it looks. Anyway, that was a way fun day, and very tireing. My friends and I stayed from opening to closing, about 11 hours of non-stop fun and addrenaline.

Just this last week I went to girls camp. Momma went with me and that was fun. It was stake camp and our theme was "I will be your light in the wilderness" (1 nephi 17:13), and our ward theme was S.W.A.T (Spiritually Walk And Talk). We had the funnest leaders who planned so much fun things. they even named a star SWAT for us which i thought was pretty much awsome! I met new friends, swam in the river, did polar bear (jumping into the freezing water up to your neck and reciting the YW theme) which is always fun, and lost all sense of hygene. The first thing I did when I got home was shower and take a nap. I never thought i would miss my bed sooo much. After sleeping on a huge root/mound, I really appreciated my 55 year old foam bed. :)

I also got a hair cut a week before girls camp. I have never had my hair cut by anyone but my mom till now. I also haven't had my hair cut short since 4th grade! So this was a HUGE thing form me. I love being able to blow dry and staighten my hair in just over 15 minutes! i'm used to an hour! Here is a before and after picture. Oh, yeah, Erin got her hair cut too.

This isn't the best picture to show my short hair, but it's the only one I have so far.

Well, Logan and Ashley are coming to visit for a week and I CANT WAIT. I try not to think about it too much, because it gives me very violent, sabertooth, killer, butterflies in my stomach. That is how excited I am. I haven't seen them forever. That is the worst part about being the youngest, everyone you love gets married to people who you love, then they leave to make you miss them more than anything. I'm tearing up thinking about it. Man, I'm pathetic!

Speaking of brothers, HAPPY BIRTHDAY LANDON!! I hope you had the best day, because you so deserve it. You are one of the best brothers a girl could ever ask for. Thanks for all you do for me. I love your genuine kindness, and your support in all I do. I miss you and Erica like crazy. I'm counting down the days till Christmas!

Mom is still in the process of writing a post. So look for that soon. :)

Busy are we!

I'm back. I took a little summer break away from my blog. Thanks to Amber for keeping Pattio's place alive. But now it's time to get back on the circuit and catch up on everyones' lives again. Wow, Summer came and went like a whirlwind. It started out with Erin and I taking a little trip to washington D.C. We left June 6th for 6 days. We went with her History group from high school and got to hear the Best History teacher every show us the sights and teach us the history of the actual sites and the inside scoop on all the monuments. I loved it! Erin and I had a blast being there together. I felt so patriotic. My favorite place was gettisburg. It was a very powerful feeling of deep appreciation and a realization of the miracle of that war. I learned so much and actually being there to hear and see how it all went down was an experience I'll never forget. When we came home we squoze a camp trip with the family and a few friends into june.

July was filled with girls camp for a week but a month of preperation. I wasn't the camp director, thank heavens, but I did have to teach 85 girls how to square dance. oh yea, it was stake girls camp. They had so much fun and wanted to keep dancing into the night. Then we had logan and ashley come for a week where we got to just play. We went camping for a couple days and floated the rapids at lava hot springs. Ashley took a few seuveniers home with her on her legs from the rocks, and may I say the river got a piece of ashley. But all in all we had so much fun with them. Why can't Ohio be closer.

August was family month. We hit the Rencher reunion and celebrated jay and Louis's 60th anniv. in Island Park. Then we left from there to Walla walla Wash. for the Mike Harker reunion. It was fun seeing so many family members all crammed into one week. So I was curious as to how big our families were getting so I did some calculating and found out that there are 86 in the Rencher bunch and 143 in the Harker clan. That is some "multiplying and replenishing" right there in two families.

So, what will september bring? So far a quiet house with Erin gone to USU and Tanner gone to BYUI. And jars and jars of canning. Who's sick of canning? Lucky Amber is still home and LOVES all that stuff. Can you sense the sarcasm just dripping off the page. Will she be able to survive being the last chick in the nest? We shall see!!!!wooahahaha! tchow for now

The substitute

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I'm getting really tired of the 3 posts on my mother's blog, so I decided to take charge and put a new one on.

On the 19th my mom and I (amber jo) went to youth conference. She is the first counselor in the Young Women presidency, so she was able to come with us. That was really fun to have her there. Some people my age hate it when their parents hang out with them, but I like it. Anyway, we left in the morning and drove to East Canyon. Some of our leaders and the 1st couselour in the bishopbric are anti camping, so we got to stay in these sweet yurts. You are probably wondering what in the world is a yurt. Well, it is kind of like a teepee, but instead of a cone shape, it is a cylinder with a cone on top. they were held up by criss-crossing wooden slat fencing things, with canvas-ish tarp things covering them and a clear plastic hole in the top to see the stars. There was a bunck bed and a couch and little gas heater inside. They were like Indian hotels. They were set up on these cute decks and were right on the edge of East Canyon Lake, and suprisingly clean and new. Here are some pictures, just click on the empty boxes and it shows you. Mom accidently forgot her camera. (can you tell i'm new at this, if anyone knows how to put on pictures from the internet let me know).

After we unpacked all our stuff into our yurts we went boating on the lake. We have a really small ward (only 9 youth, boys and girls combined) so we had 2 boats, boys in one and girls in the other. I went on the tube for a bit (which was a huge break through because i'm terrified of water. All you Rencher's know, because you have seen me at family reunions. :) We did that for like 6 hours, stoping only for lunch and dinner.

We spent the rest of the day hiding from the sun because of our sunburns, playing different games, talking, and just haveing a great time. The girl's yurt was up until 3-ish in the morning playing Pit, talking, and laughing till we burst. Believe it or not our YW president was the one who kept us rialed up. (she is the best president in the WORLD!!) It was way fun. Good times, good times.

It wasn't until we woke up the next day that we found out the yurts weren't at all sound proof. So, all the boys in their yurt about 15 yards away, heard us all night! Oops, sorry bishop. :)

That day we went on a hike on the actuall trail that the pioneers when on, it was called Big Mountain. If you ever want to find a fun relaxing hike that is it. It wasn't way steep and only about 5 miles. The weather was beautiful also. Thank you mother nature!

We then went home, got cleaned up, when to chuck-a-rama (an all you can eat buffet in town) then crashed at home.

*Highlights*
1.I got a sweet tan
2. I conquered my fear of water
3. I made some way fun memories
4. It gave me something to write about on this post

Mom might want to say more and she might want to put on pictures so this might not be the end of Youth Conference. (The key word here is "might"!!)