Now time to rewind......

Now it is time to tell some things that happened in AUg that I skipped to tell the YW High Adventure story. For Kilo's birthday I tried to be really sweet and bake him a cake....well that didnot go over well at all. The following are pictures of an epic fail that will go down in the history books of family stories for us for sure! 

The cakes cooked awesome and things were looking promising!

M&M's seperated, I feel like the owner of the M&M company must really like the color orange and green. The whole six pound bag seperated by yours truly

The mixing of the frosting to make it black...and the worrying begins. Started out with this tiny tub of frosting

And when I was still trying to make it black and had this huge tub of frosting, I knew I was a dead girl!

I was running out of time til Kilo was going to be off work and had not given myself enough time to let the cakes cool, really not enough time for any of it because I was trying to make it all a surprise. Well Here is the mess that it became because I am no cake decorator and did not plan this out very well.......

I started off feeling like maybe just one side would work out and it would all be ok as long as he only saw the one side

Well once I started having to literally squoosh it back together with both hands to try and get it to work I knew it was a goner

Don't you even worry, I cried.

Needless to say I will be taking cake decorating classes VERY soon, because I really will not be taken down by this stinkin Rubix cube cake!

At one point I felt like the fairies off of Sleeping Beauty when they were trying not to use magic to make the birthday cake, here is a refresher:

Seriously if you watched that and can picture me putting sticks in the cake, literally, and the cake sliding sideways and all, that was my experience that day. It is too bad that my wands were in the shop or else I would have magicked my way out as well.

Thank goodness I have an amazing husband who is not picky, and ate every single bit! I love him!

Day 2: Ape Caves=Absolutely Awesome!!!!

Well here it goes for day 2! We started off the day by cleaning up camp and packing it all out. We were all tired and maybe a little cranky so there are not many smiles in the pictures. 

Packing up in Monica's Van.

Trying to decide if Kaci was going to ride on the top with the lack of space or if we would have to sacrifice Kilo's duffle bag....LOL I think Kaci was about to pull out her dukes

 Alexis and Kaci workinghard to make sure the trailor did not roll away and that none of our stuff got stolen by the bears.

Not sure if Abby is scared, surprised, or yawning.....maybe she is yelling about the bees

The girls' spirit sticks all lined up in a row looking awesome with all the trinkets. Each story or devotional that we had there was a trinket that went with it to go on their sticks to remind them of the things they learned. It was pretty neat to see the girls enjoy them.

 This was maybe the funniest part of the whole adventure and truly showed exactly how true grit these young women are! The first day at camp the YW had built a bathrrom that was seriously really well done! It smelled like pine and everything! Well three days later when it was time to clean it up the smell of pine was definitely gone! They stood around and discussed how this was going down for quite a while.

And the action begins. WHo will take off the toilet seat? Who will hold the bag it will go inside of? Then who will hold the toilet and the bag that it will go inside of? The toilet was make shift froma bucket will a holw cut in the bottom.

Shelby was such a trooper! Got down to business. Sarah looks like she is about to lose it and they have not even taken off the seat!

Savanah must have lost rock paper scissors! She got the bag with the bucket!

These girls look a little too at ease with this whole process.... they must not have had to cover up the hole

Shelby got named "Shelby Poopy Hands" poor girl! She really "mannd up" when it was needed!  Sarah got dibs to shovel dirt into the hole

 Kaci was a great support from the side

 These are Tammy's feelings on the whole situation....yup that is her tongue sticking out.... YUCK!

After we survived all that trauma we had one last devotional at camp before heading out. We talked about keeping the light with ourselves and shining for others. Keeping Christ's light with us for others to see. On our way to the Ape Caves we took a pic of the girls with Mt St Helens. These girls were such troopers!

Added in the leaders! True Grit!! We came we conquered we survived!!!

The leaders were feeling pretty strong to have kept up with the Young Women. So pleased!

My eternal companion was a huge help on the hike!! I am so grateful to be married to the most incredible man I have ever known! He is truly the man of my dreams!

When we got to the Ape caves we decided to eat before heading in. Well for lack of a better place to sit We sat on the side of the road and ate our lunches. We did not care to look for somewhere better.

These girls have great appetites and love food which was great cuz we had plenty!

It was pitch black in the caves. I have never seen anything so amazing! Completely black unless someones light was shining on it. So of course we used this as a learning experience for the girls and talked about how when we sin that takes us further from the light of the Savior but that we can help each other back with our light. The girls did great in the caves.

We gave the girls some glow sticks just for the fun of it. They Loved them almost as much as the leaders :-)

For those of you that have never been to the Ape caves, you literally scale walls and climb up boulders if you start at the bottom. It was so much fun and absolutely incredible. I cannot tell you the things that you experience when you are relying on a sole individual tiny light. It was so great.

I am so grateful fo rthe opportunity to serve with these girls and to see their testimony of the Savior and His gospel grow. It helps mine to grow and strengthen and blesses me daily.

1st Annual Parker's Landing Young Womens High Adventure: Mt St Helens Day 1

On our way up! Kaci looks stoked! LOL

Now there are some smiling excited faces!! I rode with the Beckwith twins, Kaci, Kilo, and Monica

k that Savanah must have gotten bored...... or just wanted to make us all smile! Mission accomplished girl!!  You girls definitely made the drive lots of fun! We all told embarrasing stories and I am pretty sure mine won, these girls will never look at me the same ever again! We had left later then the rest of the crew so it was pretty late when we got there so this is the end of the pics of that night.

            One really neat thing that did happen on the drive up was that we had almost gotten to the campsite but for some reason we could not find the turn off onto the dirt road to get us there. We had some pretty vague directions and just could not figure out where to go. So after the 4th or 5th turn around we decided to stop blindly driving in the dark and stopped to say a prayer. We started driving again and came across a road that we had driven past several times already and decided to drive down it even though it was missing the sign we had been told to look for. I am so grateful my Heavenly Father heard our prayer and took us down that road cuz we would have been lost for quite a while if not.


That night we had a devotional about Faith. Each of the leaders took a turn sharing a story about something that happened to them to help strngthen their faith. It was so incredible to hear people talk about letting their trials or struggles help them to grow rather then breaking them.

This is our boys cooking us breakfast the next morning. Every time it was time to cook Mike would start and somehow Kilo would end up behind the grill and Mike would end up keeping him company talking to him. Kilo loves to grill. Puts him in his element.

Let me explain that Kilo loves to grill, but hates his pic being taken, hence his scowl at me   hee hee

The girls getting their lunches ready for the 12 mile hike. Well we thought it was going to be 12 miles actually ended up being 14... I think. A lot is all I have to say! The girls had no idea what they were getting into. They were still waiting to eat so they look edgy. We were hungry!!!

Abby is ready to go with her lunch....and flip flops?

Girls get out of bed!!! It is time to hike!!! Actually this was Mike's bedding inthe middle of the Kitchen the whole time. I guess he wanted to protect the food LOL Somehow the girls ended up on it more then Mike

BWAHAHAHAHA Monica kept walking up on Tammy and I changing. She ended up protecting Tammy from a couple of interruptions by standing guard. I ADORE these ladies!!!

The "line up" for french braids. Maybe my hair will be long enough next year to join the line up. Do you think the girls would think it was lame to braid one of the leaders hair?

The group looking happy and energized before heading out. ya that did not last long! LOL Before we left Nattie talked about Temples and the importance of making sure we get there. It was a great start to our hike.

Poor Jayde hurt her foot the first night we had arrived. Well she was trying so hard to hike anyway and was such a trooper! We finally decided it was in her best safety and interest to head her back to camp to hang out with Mike. When we got back her foot was even worse then when we left.

The pics do not even show how bad it was. Seriously she was so brave. Hiked 2 miles on a broken toe!

Kilo and I had left the group to take Jayde back to camp. The group had continued on and ended up with a two hour lead by the time we could leave Jayde because Mike and left to get a couple things in town. So we ended up doing a six mile trail run to catch up to the group. They were just finishing up lunch when we got to them. We got to a couple of forks in the road where we were not quite sure which path to take.......

Luckily our Young Women are smart and thought ahead by leaving us some really good signs...can you see what it is?

We were really happy to know they had not forgotten about us and we were headed in the right direction. So we stopped to take a picture of us not dead....or maybe just an excuse for a break.

                           Another fork in the road....which way did they go which way did they go?

That way!!!  Do you see it yet?

Hint: I am pointing at them!

The arrows on the ground! On your mark...get set....GO!!!!!!!

This hike was absolutely incredible and fun!! We live in such a gorgeous part of the country. The Lord will have to take us out kicking and screaming to get us to move anywhere else!  Ever!!

Me walking across the bridge....I mean big huge tree!!!! Across the water

Hey look....it is the group!! We found them!!  Can you see them? Where is Waldo.....I mean Monica

I love my husband and luckily he never reads this blog but that is disgusting! Yes that is sweat. Back sweat AND BUTT!!! Monica's is not butt sweat(or so she kept saying) it was from her camelback

We were almost to the end and decided to take some pics of the gang surviving! We did awesome!!

Just one last major obstacle....the hill!! Man this thing was quite the monster to come across right at the end of 14 miles! During the hike we had a small devotional where Nattie talked about her fear of the hike and how she had relied on the Lord to make it through it. She did amazing!

Apparently I still had a little sass left in me even after 16 miles(Kilo and I had to do 2 extra for Jayde) Or maybe I am just trying to show off the booty lift I am sure that crazy hike had given me.

The girls pretty much ran to the end!! Somehow they mustered up the strength!

Monica doubled back to give high fives to everyone for making! Thanks Monica! Such a spirit booster

The girls went down to the river to wash off and the leaders sponge bathed at camp. I felt like a million bucks after a simple sponge bath. That mountain was nasty dirty! Then we all pooped out around the camp fire

All of us except Kilo. He decided he was bored and that the decaying tree was going to get the affects of his boredom. He chopped it down. Literally. Boys. That is all I have to say

Our devotional around the campfire that night was by Sister Wright and was about testimonies. She did such a great job getting the girls involved and helping them recognize parts of their own testimonies. The spirit was so strong with all of us sharing what we believe. It was fantastic.

Of course we had to play campfire games.The girls loved them! I felt bad for anyone trying to sleep within a twenty mile radius cuz it was defintely NOT quiet!

Ok well that is it for day one......keeping you in suspense for day 2, which actually ended up being my fave! Off to bed!