Events of August

Since today is the last day of August, I figured I better get caught on all that's happened. It's been quiet an eventful month!

Girl's Camp: August 12-15

I was quite looking forward to girl's camp this year, just as I always did when I was a young woman! We met up at 5:45am, had a devotional, and hit the road. We went to the Etna/Jackson Hole area to stay in our YW Pres's cabin. We got unpacked and unloaded and got right into it. Without giving a play-by-play of all that happened, I'll reveal some interesting observations and highlights of the trip.

-It is VERY different being a leader than being a young woman. And to be honest, I'm not sure which I like better. I actually kind of felt stuck in the middle. I liked being with the leaders and getting closer to them, but at the same time, I felt more comfortable, and more myself with the girls.

-I've always prided myself on being good with directions and knowing where I am, but when given a compass with coordinates, I was clueless. All of the girls were too, but not anymore!

-Girls can do impressive things when given a bag full of random items. We gave them bags filled with different objects that they had to make articles of "clothing" with to show off on the runway.

-River rafting on the Snake River is very different on different stretches of the river! I know this is a "duh" comment, but I thought going swimming/rafting in the Snake river every year of my life since I was born would not cause any nervousness in me. I was wrong. This stretch was not the same as the stretch in front of my cabin. However, once we got on the river, my nerves dissapated and we had a great time, even despite the arctic temperature of the river.

-Some girls are just happier than others! Or rather, Beehives are more oblivious and generally seem to always be happy!

-There is a LOT of drama that goes on behind the scenes. Sheesh. Perhaps I was being too idealistic in my views, but I was not expecting quite a production of this caliber.

-Don't ever let your YW President tell the girls right before testimony meeting that, "This is supposed to be testimony meeting, and not testi-STORY meeting." They end up feeling "gipped," because no one feels like they can say anything OTHER than their testimony and it ends up being done in 45 minutes. I mean, I know what she is trying to teach them, but for crying out loud, this is the ONE time a year that girls get to really vent and let out all their feelings.

-I like dutch oven cooking. :)

-Sitting around doing crafts with a bunch of girls is fun. I got so into it, the girls dubbed me, "Krafty Krista." They even made me a cute bag displaying that moniker. I'll have to take a picture and post!

Here are just a few pictures from camp:

A long day after being on the river

A very large cowboy boot

Priesthood leaders are fun to have around

Get that fire started or else we're not passing off your certification! :)

The Big Kahuna (Doesn't look near as daunting as it was!)

Going through the Big Kahuna--way blurry!

Some of the girls with their favorite leader. HA

All in all, we had lots of this. :)

Pain and Joy!

August 18th, and 20th

So, my dad has degenerative disc disease. About four years ago he had surgery to have three discs fused. Since then, his back has gotten worse and the time came that he needed to go back "under the knife," if you will. This time, they had to take out all the screws and do-dads from before, and then fuse two more on top, and two more below, meaning seven discs in all fused. Poor man. His surgery went well, but now, almost two weeks later he is still majorly suffering. After the last time he had surgery, he was superman and had an extremely speedy recovery. This time is clearly different, and it's starting to weigh on his spirits a bit. However, he is quite groggy much of the time since they have him doped up on so much pain meds, which by the way, he would absolutely hate if he was at all coherent! Anyway, hopefully he will recover well and be back to himself soon!

Upon returning to his room after surgery, my dad's lips were quite swolen due to the anesthetic. I told him, "Dad, I didn't know you were coming in today for Botox injections!" Still "under the influence," he kept pursing his lips saying he was inpersonating Britney Spears. I don't even know if she's done the Botox thing, but nonetheless, he kept saying it. Ha ha, I hope he doesn't kill me for posting this. :)

Here's my dad with the T-man :)

Get well soon, Dad!

Not two days after my dad's surgery, we were blessed with a new bundle of joy! Jed and Hollie had their 2nd baby on August 20th, at 7:44am. He was TEN pounds even. Oh he is a cute little chunk! I'm so excited for them and for us, cause we love having babies in the family. This is Ashton Jed Fisher:

So precious!

Chunky little baby. So cute!

CapitOl Reef

Ryan and I wanted to get away so we decided to take a quick trip down to CapitOl Reef National Park. I've been going there for years now and I wanted him to partake of its greatness! My first time to CapitOl Reef was for our Senior trip. Oh, the memories! Adie's family has a summer home in Teasdale and that's where we decided to go to celebrate our graduation. In fact, I'll have to post pictures from that first trip. Since then, I've been fortunate enough to travel there many, many times and it holds a very special place in my heart.

For Ryan and I the weather was overcast and rainy most of the time, which was good and bad. Nice, because it was cool. Bad, because we couldn't go down CapitOl Reef Gorge due to the possibility of flash floods. Nevertheless, we went to Fruita, the waterfall, Gooseneck overlook and drove all over seeing the sites. It was relaxing and wonderful to spend time together!

I forgot my camera so I turned to my trusty-though poor quality-cell phone camera and produced these masterpieces:

Isn't this beautiful country?

Notice how red the river is.

At the top of the waterfall. Can you tell I cropped myself into the pic with Ryan? We took pictures of each other in the same spot, but I wanted us together. Ha ha

Some kind of craziness going on.

Ryan at the Gooseneck overlook

The Fremont River. I've never seen it this red!

Serious driving going on.

I'd also like to thank Melissa, who I have been with MANY, MANY times in Capitol Reef, for pointing out my error in spelling it wrong. I mean, seriously...can anyone tell me why it is Capitol and not Capital?!

It's August?

Where has the summer gone? I never got around to blogging about our time at the cabin, but rest assured we had a wonderful time! As always, we swam in the river, rode the four-wheelers all over, went tubing, body floated from the bridge, played bacce, went into town to get ice-cream at Dave's (who has incidentally raised the price from .79 cents to .99 cents! As much as they pack in those cups though, it is WELL worth it!), went to the Ashton City 4th of July parade (which is a pretty awesome parade since they go through town once, then turn around and go back through again! They threw out candy, t-shirts, balloons, toys and even walked around giving out chocolate milk cartons), went to Rexburg to shop at the scrapbook stores, went to Mack's Inn Theater and saw a satirical musical called The Phantom of the Grand Ol' Opry, and of course, I did my fair share of reading (The Twilight series)! It was nice to go for 10 days, but it still didn't seem long enough.

Since then, life has returned to normal, which translates to busyness. Luckily our KSS rehearsals have ceased during the summer, but I'm still working at LDS Hospital, putting in almost sixty hours a week. Young Women's is rather busy as we are coming upon the ever-exciting Girl's Camp next week! I really love the girls in the ward and can't wait to go, but I'll blog more about that when I get back!

Here are a few pics from the cabin:

The whole fam goin' floatin!

Bracken, Dallin, Brookie, Kellee, Tayson & Nicole on the cabin lawn

Ryan-getting reading to go float the river

Beautiful view of the Snake River





Me, Hollie & Cola






Baby Tayson. I love him!





Nicole, me, Hollie & mom enjoying our prime rib dinner





Dallin & Bracken begged Kellee and I to take a midnight dip in the river. We finally agreed after they said they'd give us a foot massage for 40 minutes each!






Bro's Ryan & Weston at the Ashton parade

The watermelon eating contest in town. Weston & Ryan

Go Lexie, Bracken, Dallin and Alisha!