Young Ambassador Camp

Earlier this year, my friend Liza asked me if I wanted to go to YASE camp with her at BYU, and I was so excited to go. I love the Young Ambassadors! Tyler gave me a ride up to Utah on Sunday after our camping trip in Idaho, and I stayed the night at the Barry's. We had a lot of fun, and after all of the kids went to bed, Emilee, Leah, and I watched Emma. What a great movie!

In the morning, Liza and her mom picked me up, and we headed to BYU! We were both so excited and nervous. The first day wasn't the greatest because it was auditions, and we were both a little nervous about the dancing.... Even though the first day was a little scary, the rest of the week was amazing! We felt the Spirit the whole week, and we had so much fun learning our songs and meeting new people. We had a lot of awesome counselors, too. I feel like YASE changed my life, and I hope I can go again next year! The performance was a lot of fun, and Tyler even came to see it. :)

This is Michael. He was our dance teacher, and he was awesome. I'm not sure who the other kid is, though....

Here were two other counselors.

Liza and I had a blast! We made a lot of friends and discovered our inner dancers! ha ha ;) What a great week.

Cousins Camp

This year I wasn't able to spend as much time as normal at Cousins Camp, but I had a lot of fun seeing my cousins, especially my little bud, Devin. We all had a of lot of fun watching all of the Harry Potter movies to get ready for the grand finale! When Cousins Camp was over, we all went to Island Park to camp for the weekend. Unfortunately, the mosquitos were terrible, but that didn't stop us from having a lot of fun. We especially loved the four-wheelers, and Grandma and I went on quite the adventure. :) It's so nice to see all of the family!

Party with the Barrionuevos

My mom's sister and her family came up to visit us for the weekend. We had a lot of fun spending time with them. :) We decided to go boating at Yellowtail Dam on the fourth of July, and we had a blast. I even faced my fears... And let me tell you, I was not too happy about it.

This is the look of complete terror. It seems to be a reoccurring expression. I think it says "Who on earth is responsible for making me do this!"

After a fun-filled day at Yellowtail, we went to Laurel with the gang from Cousins Camp to watch the firework show. Devin wasn't a huge fan of the loud fireworks. Right before the show started, some people lit up paper lanterns and lifted them into the sky, just like Tangled! I almost died! :)

Girl's Camp

This year I got to go to Girls Camp and be a 3rd Year Junior Leader. Being a Junior Leader is so much more fun that just going. :) I brought my non-member friend Dei along, and we had so much fun being leaders over the 3rd years.

had a great time getting to know some of the girls, and we are excited to see them at Senior next year. This year we decided to have a Virtue Walk that included everyone, not just the 1st years. Instead of playing a role in the Virture Walk, I wanted to walk the girls around so that I could see it all too. It was such an amazing experience and one of the most spiritual experiences of my life. It was so neat to hear the stories of righteous young women in history as well as Sister Taylor's personal experience. Girls Camp is such an amazing place to be and I am already excited for next year. I have to admit, though, I wasn't a huge fan of the mosquitos or the fact that the showers worked about half of the time we were there. :P I even got a spider bite on my ear and it was so swollen. ha ha But we had so much fun doing the skits and I was the star of the night. ;) Everyone dug my monkey footie pajamas.

I love Girls Camp!

Pryor

Dei and I decided to go out to Pryor today and ride horses. Tanner and Natalie came along for the fun, too.

Then we went for a ride in the dune buggy, and got a little crazy. :P

Kaona's Sixteenth Birthday

My friend Kaona turns sixteen tomorrow, so I decided to surprise her. :) I showed up at her house this morning, and let me tell you, she was not excited to see me at seven in the morning! ha ha I had her open the gift I gave her, which including some wicked awesome glasses and a poster of her future husband, Ryan Reynolds.

Then we went to IHOP for some breakfast.

And, of course, we had to go to Laurel's house and show off her stuff. :)

Judd had a fun time playing with our glasses, too.

Heart and Sole Race

Today I ran another 10K at the Heart and Sole Race in Billings. About twenty minutes into it, I saw a sign saying "10K Mile 5", and I realized that I can't run 5 miles in twenty minutes! Turns out I ran the 5K! Just great! ha ha Oh well, I still got a cool shirt. ;)

Here's a picture of Dei and I after the race. She cheered at the finish with the rest of her cheerleading squad.

Poor Eddie

Well, it turns out that Eddie's bone wasn't healing like it should, so he decided to go with surgery. :( I hope he is able to heal quickly and without a lot of pain. You're in our prayers, Eddie!

This is the x-ray they took at the vet clinic. ha ha

Tetom Dam Race

This weekend my mom, dad, Natalie, and I went to Rexburg for the Teton Dam Marathon Race. On the way there, we stopped at only my favorite place ever! The Playmill! We saw Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and I have to admit, the guy who played Joseph was pretty cute. :) We figured out that the Playmill does a camp every summer like the Young Ambassador one I am going to next month, so we thought that would be a lot of fun for me to do next summer. We got to the hotel in Rexburg pretty late so we went to bed pretty soon after we got there, but when we woke up in the morning, I realized that I had forgotten to bring tennis shoes! My mom and dad weren't very happy with me. So my dad, Natalie, and I made a quick stop at Walmart for some shoes while my mom went with her friends to start her race. She ran a half marathon (13.1 miles) without stopping! What a stud! I'm so proud of her! Maybe someday I'll have the guts to do that too. :)

I was only doing a 10K (6.2 miles), but that is still farther than I have ever run! I started off pretty good, but most of it was uphill, so it kind of wore me down. I walked quite a ways up the hill, but I ran the whole way down. I finished at 1 hour and 5 minutes, so about a ten minute mile. I was the 91st person to finish overall, and 7th in my age group, 20 and under. After my race I realized that I had a blister on my heel, and my feet were hurting pretty bad. I've learned my lesson! I've decided that running isn't all that bad, and I've even signed up for the Heart and Sole Race 10K that's going on in Billings this Saturday. :)

Don't I look cute.... :P

Bad Way to Start Off the Summer

Last Friday, the first day of summer vacation, Eddie was dirt bike racing in the South Hills while I was having a party at our house. At about 8, my dad called and said that Eddie had crashed during his race and broken his collar bone. Poor Eddie! We all felt really bad for him, and my mom asked Sister Eisele to come over so she could go to the hospital. Luckily he only broke his collar bone, but his bike got a lot of damage too. Hopefully his bone heals properly!