This past weekend Dale and I were able to participate in our Stake Youth Conference along with the girls.
Youth Conference was titled, Moroni's Quest. We spent the 3 days and reenacted stories from the Book of Mormon in chronological order.All the wards were in charge of a reenactment and there were some that were done by multiple kids in the Stake. They prerecorded all the speaking parts and music so the kids just had to get up and perform and not have to memorize their lines, it was their voice in the recording though.
We didn't stay in wards though, we stayed in tribes and Dale and I were tribe leaders. Our tribe was
The Smithling Warriors aka the Jimmerites.There were many creative tribe names.
It started off at the Stake Center and they did the story of Lehi's family and the slaying of Laban.
We then headed off to a ranch that was owned by someone in our Stake about 50 miles west of us.
Some of our Tribe at the the church
Our lime green head bands were easy to spot
View from our tent when we arrived at the ranch
These guys were on the ranch. They pretty much got out of your way when you came by.
The longhorn that is in front is expecting
Our tribe at the first reenactment
Day 2
Our tribe flag
Brittney and Marti
Brittney was in the "With all your Mights" tribe
Dale, directing our Ward's reenactment
He looks so official
This is our Ward's reenactment, King Noah and Abinadi
Makenzie is dancing for King Noah in this scene and Brittney is fanning him.
Marti and Makenzie
Makenzie's tribe was the "Anti-Fight-Contrites aka no fights"
We are still smiling
Dale the Nephite Warrior
Dale the serious warrior
Makenzie the Lamanite warrior
Smile Brittney
Helaman and the Stripling Warriors Battle
Makenzie and friends in battle
Dale is dead
We knelt down instead of laying down due to all the cow pies
Our Tribe
The Jimmerites
The Jimmerites camp site
Root beer float time
After the root beer floats we headed back to the reenactment place.
They did the story of Samuel the Lamanite and there was Samuel on the wall preaching and the kids all threw paper bombs at him. It was fun. We then proceeded to another spot where the kids were all spread out and blind folded.
All the youth were blind folded while they listened to booming thunder
It was dark while the youth listened to the storm.
They had them take off their blind folds and out of the trees with fog came a person all in white. It was a reenactment of Christ coming to visit. They man chosen to depict Christ was in a shining white robe and had a spot light on him. He came through the crowd and shook hands while the song, This is the Christ" was playing. You can't even put into words the feelings people had. After he departed we went back into our tribe camp site and had a testimony meeting. One of our youth commented, that even though it wasn't really Christ, they still wanted to touch him and another one said it made them want to be with him. It was a very spiritual experience for the youth and the adults.
After the testimony meeting we looked up to a clear sky.
The kids laid on a blanket and star gazed
Some of our tribe star gazing
Jimmerite headband
Day 3
Breaking camp before breakfast and the final battles
Brittney lines up on the Nephite side for the flour battle
The flour bombs are made by putting flour into nylons and tyeing hem closed.
When you get hit with one they leave flour marks. You can pick them up and use them over and over
I got into the action
Brittney
Makenzie
She's getting excited to go home and shower
After the flour battle we had another battle between the Nephites and Lamanites where Moroni was the last Nephite alive and he buried the plates. they then had Moroni coming back to give the plates to Joseph Smith.
It was a great learning experience for the youth and hopefully they had fun participating in it.
When we got home, we were hot and dirty. It was in the 90's this weekend and there was no running water at this ranch, they brought in port-a-potties and had coolers of water set up every where for drinking, but that was it! The girls and I decided to knock a layer of dirt off by jumping into the pool with our clothes on.
When we got home we jumped in the pool with our clothes on.
I kind of cheated, I took my jean shorts off and put my running shorts on
And the braces are off, even 4 months earlier than expected!!
Makenzie went in on April 20th to have them removed. She had to have some gum trimmed with a laser so we waited for it to heal before we took a picture.
Dale was wondering why they didn't move Makenzie from JV track up to Varsity track. I told him she probably wasn't throwing far enough to move to Varsity. Dale always thought she did and he was proved right when I pulled up the results from the JV and Varsity district track meets. Makenzie would have placed 4th in shot put and 3rd in discus up on Varsity. Varsity 1st through 3rd place goes on to Regionals. Makenzie could have gone to Regionals in discus with her throw. Oh well, we have Youth Conference this weekend(that's when Regionals are) and in Makenzie's words, "I don't have to practice this week". It is really hot this week also. Yes, they spelled Makenzie's name wrong.
89 Degrees and Windy, but a great day for Makenzie!!
Makenzie had another successful District Track Meet, this time at the High School JV level!! She has always done well in shotput at district meets, but this year she added discus to her accomplishments. She won first in both shotput, with a throw of 32'10", and discus, with a throw of 97'4", which is a personal best. We are so happy for her. She works really hard at these sports and is very easy to coach. Her coach actually told us once that he wished all of the kids were as easy to work with as Makenzie.
Congratulations! Hard work pays off!
The throw that got her into the finals, actually all of her first three throws were the farther than anyone else's by 4 feet and would have got her into the finals
I'm in the finals!!
Here best throw...32 '10"
She's been stuck on that measurement, but it still wins
The smile says it all... Personal Best plus the win!
Being congratulated by her competitors
Someone else is happy also
A Happy Mom
A Happy Dad
A happy Coach Hammond
We will get a picture of her and her medals when she gets them. In Jr High they awarded them at the track meet. Not sure how they do it in high school.
