the best teacher we never had

Today I joined close to a couple thousand family members, friends, and former students of Robyn Ward to say an unexpected goodbye. She was a kindergarten teacher for the past 17 years at the boys school, and it was apparent by the standing-room-only in the large concert hall that she was loved by so many. Robyn passed away last Sunday "unexpectedly from a pulmonary embolism." She is the teacher I wanted so bad for Jake this year, but because of Will's crazy school schedule, I had to put Jake into another class (though I am excited about his teacher this year too).

I got to know Robyn through a mutual friend who invited me along last year to do digital scrapbooking, which for me meant showing up with a computer and then basically just chatting the rest of the evening away, or working on my blog. Robyn was so creative and so fun, and was such a neat person to know. This past time we got together to scrapbook (end of April I think), she was so excited to show us the scrapbook she made for her daughter, Lainey, who was soon graduating. It was the coolest book about all the years Laniey has played soccer, including photos and newspaper articles, culminating with the school team winning the girls soccer state 3-A championship in the fall. Robyn also made Lainey a quilt with all the soccer shirts she's had since she was a little girl, and it was a masterpiece!

What I remember most about that night, though, was the help and advice she gave me about Will and his adhd, because both her son and daughter had adhd, and to talk it over with a parent who had been through it was so helpful. I expressed my concern for Will and this coming school year, and she suddenly lit up and had several great suggestions on how to help Will. She spent most of her time that night talking to me, not bothered that she wasn't getting much scrapbooking done, and I will forever be grateful for her genuine care and concern.

One of the speakers at the memorial today read one of Robyn's favorite quotes, by John Wesley:

Do all the good you can,

By all the means you can,

In all the ways you can,

In all the places you can,

At all the times you can,

To all the people you can,

As long as ever you can.

Thank you, Robyn, for "all the good" you have done for so many people--you were the best teacher we never had!!

girl's camp 2009

It takes me so long to get to these bigger events posts because in part, it takes me a while to wrap my brain around it all. When I take close to 500 pictures, I took most of them because I wanted to remember them; thus, when I'm doing this blog, I'm trying to get the pictures that will most help me remember the activity--girl's camp in this instance--without putting all 500 pictures up. Although, I could because I do have a story with almost every picture, but I tried to keep pictures to a minimum.

Day 1
We had almost every girl there from our ward! Lexi had a good excuse though--spraining her ankle the night before in a softball game.

Shelly, our camp director, with Natalie, our honorary camp director--ready for b*o*o*t (building on our testimonies) camp!

Girl's camp was just our ward this year, and we went to Altamont Campground in American Fork Canyon. So, we live less than 20 minutes away from the mouth of this canyon, and I don't ever remember going up here in the past, but I will again--you can see in the pictures throughout this post that the canyon is BEAUTIFUL!

We each decorated our own water bottles to have on hand during the week, and in keeping with the "boot camp" theme, everyone was divided into a branch of the military--army, navy, air force, or marines--complete with dog tags and all.

This is what Shelly posted in the bathroom for some light bathroom reading--she thought of everything!

First things first--setting up our tent for the leaders.

Then it was off to the games! Keri and I put together an obstacle course in the parking lot. The girls had a great time, but it was Emily, in photo 1, who kept me laughing--she was bound and determined to beat her younger sister's time, and kept trying different strategies time after time, to no avail!

These are a couple pictures of the buck that came roaming through our camp on a daily, and nightly, basis. Can you see him in the second picture (Charlie took this picture)? Click on the picture to enlarge it if you can't spot him.

There was no electricity up there, so when evening was settling in we used the big campfire pit and all the lanterns for our light.

Day 2

Charlie had forgotten her cell phone, and her cute little Ronnie had been quite sick, so I went down the mountain and back home with her first thing in the morning. We made it back just in time for the morning hike.

And I thought the view from our campground was beautiful, which it was, but then we hiked up the mountain and it was breathtaking!! There were plenty of streams and waterfalls around.

Our destination was a plateau just below the backside of Timpanogos. The view was stunning!!

We found plenty of beautiful flowers on our hike. However, it was hot and we were hungry, so we weren't too sad to leave our "easy" hike to go back for lunch and some relaxation.

There were plenty of activities planned for the girls. There were all kinds of crafts or just lounging around in a chair.

Day 2 was a Wednesday, the day that Morgan and Brinley's sister, Madison, was getting her mission call. They found a phone that got a signal in one part of the parking lot, and they tried sharing the earpiece to hear Madison open her call to........Rochester, NY!! Congrats Madison--you will be an awesome missionary!

Not far from our camp was a stream that the girls loved to go play in. Aren't these the cutest little beehives?! They sure are posers!

Day 3

We were up and at 'em early in the morning preparing breakfast (I was with the Air Force group). Mmmm, I can just smell the bacon, sausage, eggs, hashbrowns, etc. now. I love serving in young women's with all these amazing women!!

After breakfast, Julie arrived as our "official camp photographer" with her super sweet new camera and lens. That meant I was pretty much off the hook for taking a ton of pictures the rest of the time, although I did get a few, but most of the rest of these pictures were taken by her. Julie was up at youth conference back in June, and I was telling her how fun it was just to be there to take pictures, so we concocted(sp?) this idea to have her come to girl's camp as our photographer and it worked!

First thing Thursday morning after breakfast was our silent time (usually it was at the end of the day) to read scriptures, write in our journals, and to pray. Julie got some amazing pictures that morning.

There was more free time later that day, and Danielle decided to wash anyone's hair who wanted her to. There were plenty of girl's lined up for this one!

Morgan was the master bracelet maker--everyone wanted to learn how to make them. Photo 2 is a picture of Hailey making a bracelet for me. Thank you Hailey!!

After many of the bracelets were made and fingernails were painted, pictures were in order.

Morgan, Hailey, and Amanda also found time to do some watercolor paintings! What can't these girls do?!?!

That afternoon our bishop came up to camp, and we got into a game of Burn Ball in the parking lot. It was a ton of fun, until I rounded third and stepped on a piece of wood which sent me flying!!

I can't say enough about how great the food was!! Michelle was in charge of the food and she was amazing! Danielle cut out the cute fruit bowls out of the watermelons.

Dutch oven was our dinner the last night we were there--ribs, chicken, and cheesy potatoes!! Yum-0!!

After testimony meeting around the campfire, we put the campfire to real use and made s'mores. Then we had fun just roasting the marshmellows to see how big they could puff up to, or how long they could sag. Cheap entertainment!!

The girl's made the most of their last night there, either in their tents, playing night games, or playing cards by lantern light. I'm pretty sure, though, that we as leaders stayed up even later than them just talking and laughing in our own tents!!

Day 4

And then it was time for the final group shot before we loaded up to head for home. What a blast we had.

And then we had to unload at the church! It was an amazing week, and even though these pictures only catch a small glimpse of it, I'm so glad I was able to be a part of it.