What an AMAZING couple of months!!!!

Sorry for the long time without updateing. We have had extremely busy, but fun couple of months!!!!! We will update with more posts and pictures within the next 2 weeks. PLEASE keep checking back and PLEASE post comments!!! We all love and miss you!!!

On Friday Aug. 7th, we went to an Angels Baseball game. It was the 15th Annual Mormon Night at Angels Stadium. They played against the Texas Rangers. Although the Angels lost (9 to 3) it was still a GREAT night!!!!!

On Saturday morning Aug, 8th Robin and I had to wake up really early so we could get to the All California State YSA Conference by 9 AM. The Conference was held near each of the 7 Temples in California and was attended by 12,000 Young Single Adults. Robin and I went to the Newport Beach location where 1,800 people attended. The day was filled with 4 workshops, a service project (tying 150 quilts), different recreational activities, food and a dance that lasted until 11:30 PM.

On Sunday morning Aug. 9th, we arrived at the Conference early again because our ward and another ward sang during the Sacrament Meeting portion of the Conference. We sang a medley of 3 hymns (Where Can I Turn for Peace/Be Still My Soul/Our Saviors Love) which overwhelmingly brought the spirit to the meeting. We had several speakers including the area 70 and his wife Elder and Sister Dalton whom we have known our entire lives. Our final speaker to end the AMAZING fireside was a broadcast from Elder and Sister Perry.

This Conference was a historic event and was closely watched by the General Authorities of the church to see if it would succeed in all of the goals they set. BOY DID IT SUCCEED!!!! The General Authorities goals included 10,000 YSA attend the conference and 10,000 temple ordinances performed in 3 months. Almost 12,000 YSA attended the conference and 69,612 temple ordinances were performed in the 12 weeks before the conference (thats almost 7 times the amount the goal that was set for). All the temples in California were FLOODED with YSA, and we were told the temple workers were "frazzled" trying to keep up with us. The temple work portion of the Conference was such a success that all the Temples in California will have the 8 PM session Tues-Fri reserved just for the YSA. I hope the temple workers during those session will be just as frazzled as they were for the past 12 weeks.

I KNOW that this Conference will spread country and world wide!!!! We felt so honored to be apart of this life changing event!!! This Conference and 12 weeks leading up to it, was designed to strengthen our personal relationship with Christ, gain a deep testimony for missionary and fellowship work and to make personal life improvements.

A Historic California YSA Conference

On August 8th and 9th, 10,000 YSA's from all over the state of California will gather at each of the 7 temples for a historic state wide conference. They are expecting 1,800 YSA to be at the Newport Beach Temple. Last night we had a Conference kick-off fireside to explain what will happen in the next 12 weeks leading up to the conference and the actual conference. In two weeks, we all will be divided into companionships and be set apart for a 10 week mini mission. We will spend the next 10 weeks focusing on finding, activating and inviting the less-active to this conference. We also be focusing on missionary work. All the YSA state wide are encouraged to do temple ordinances at least 3 times before August 8th.

We have State goals, Ward goals and Personal goals that we will be focusing on also. These goals are designed to improve us physically as well as spiritually. The State goals include: To have 80% of all YSA's attend the Conference. Have 30% of all YSA's bring a friend or a less active to the Conference. Have 10,000 Ordinances performed by August 8th. The Ward Goals include: Identify and visit every less active YSA in the ward. Challenge every less active to attend the Conference. Be Temple Worthy and perform at least 3 ordinances by August 8th.

On Saturday August 8th, we will all gather at the nearest temple (for us it is the Newport Beach Temple) at 5 in the morning to do sessions, sealings, inititories, baptisms and confirmations. After spending several hours in the temple, we will have several workshops to attend. In the afternoon, we will have a service project where we will be making 1,000 quilts (yes even the guys will be doing it too) state wide in 2 1/2 hours. The quilts will be donated to families in need. In the evening, we will have a dance.

On Sunday August 9th, we will gather for a special fireside where we will take the sacrament and have Elder L. Tom Perry as a special speaker. Robin and I are SO EXCITED for this conference. It will be an AMAZING experience!!!!

Its A Jungle Out There

Robin and & I had dates lastnight!!! Our Singles Ward had a girl ask guy dance. The theme of the dance was "It's a jungle out there" and we were asked to dress in a jungle theme.

Before the dance, my date, Ted, and I went miniture golfing with another couple, Becky and Brad. Ted is almost as good as a pro golfer, it was no suprise he won the game.

After miniture golfing, the 4 of us went to dinner at a restaraunt called "The Rainforest Cafe". The restaraunt makes you feel as if you were eating in an actual rainforest.

Then we went to the dance. We all had fun dancing and mingleing with the other Young Single Adults.

Since Robin had to work until 6 and then had to pick up her date, Johnny, who lived 20 miles away, they were only able to go to dinner before the dance.

Ted and I had such a great time at the dance, Ted has asked me out for Friday. I will let you all know about that date later.

busy days

I have been busy for the past 5 days doing fun things. On Friday night, I went to the Newport Beach Temple with my ward. I hadn't been to the temple for MANY months so it felt wonderful to go. The spirit is so peaceful and warm in the temple. The temple brought much comfort and peace into my heart. I am grateful and blessed to have a temple so close. Now that things are settled at home more, I will go there often.

On Saturday night my Young Adult ward had an activity where we played a life-sized Clue game. If you know the board game Clue, the activity was JUST like the game but in a life-size form. We all dressed in formal gowns and the men came in their nicest suits. We had a wonderful dinner where the cultural hall was decorated as if we were in a fine restaurant with candlelight and even name plates. The hosts and hostesses were also dressed up in the characters of the board game (Prof. Plumb, Miss Scarlet, Mrs. Peacock, Mrs. White, Col. Mustard, Mr. Green, ect.) During the dinner a "murder" accrued and we had to solve the crime. We had to figure out who the killer was, what room the murder took place in and what weapon was used. We had 35 minutes to search for clues in the several rooms that were decorated to look like the rooms on the board game (ball room, billiards room, kitchen, library, ect.). In the end it was Mrs. White, with the knife in the billiards room (I got 2 out of the 3 correct (I thought the weapon was the revolver). After the game we went to a members home to watch the movie Clue. It was a FANTASTIC night!!!!!

After church on Sunday, Robin and I went over to our friends house for a birthday dinner (I know our birthday was over a month ago but we had been so busy we hadn't gotten around to doing it) better late then never. Our friend made us lasagna that she made from scratch. It was SOOOOO good (lasagna is Robin's FAVORITE food). It was so nice to spend a few hours with our friend and her 2 daughters, Mackenzie 6 years old and Kiley 4 years old. Mackenzie read to Robin and I all evening from her book Cat in the Hat. It is SO wonderful to see Mackenzie read and begin to love books like Robin and I. Our friend doesn't like to read at all and doesn't enjoy reading to her kids. Robin and I vow to continue to encourage Mackenzies love of reading. Kiley kept drawing us pictures all evening and kept asking us how to spell I Love You Aunt Amber (or Robin) which she wrote on all of the pictures she drew for us. I LOVE those girls!!!!!

On Monday night the Older Single Adults invited the family to a waffle cook-out. They had waffles of every kind you could think of. The only waffles they didn't have, that Jason was really bummed about, was Mickey Mouse shaped waffles. Grandpa had a good, although difficult time at the dinner. He cried a few times when people asked how he was doing. He is kind of upset that he is considered single. Although Grandma is gone, he is still very much a married man. It was nice to see a lot of our church friends at the dinner. All in all it was a very nice evening. G-pa is talking about going to some of their upcoming activities (although he isn't single).

Tuesday night Robin and Jason both had the day off so we went to see a movie, Dad came along too. Bonnie really recommended Enchanted so we saw it. The only place where it was still showing around us (since it comes out on DVD in less then a week) was at Downtown Disney (a shopping strip at Disneyland). After the movie, we wanted to ride the Monorail around Disneyland. We thought that you could ride on it round trip but we ended up having to get off inside Disneyland (bummer). Since we had to get off anyways, we decided to go on a ride. After we rode the ride twice we got back on the Monorail and went out to dinner. It was a nice evening.

Well now that I'm a social butterfly, I have to figure out what to do for the next 2 evenings. Any suggestions????? Oh wait, I'm having Visiting Teachers coming over Thursday night so I need suggestions for Wednesday night.

We haven't updated our blog for awhile so I guess I will do it now. On February 2nd was G-mas one month since she passed away. We went to the cemetary to put more flowers on her grave. When we got there we noticed that the flowers we put there 3 weeks before were still fresh and BEAUTIFUL!!!! Although the weather had a lot to do with the flowers condition, we said G-ma must have been taken care of them and that the flowers must know she loved roses. We ended up putting the flowers we brought on a family friends grave.

On Feb. 8th was a one month anniversary since G-mas funeral. It also happened to be Robin and I's @*th birthday. G-pa said he needed to do something to keep his mind off the date so we all went to Disneyland. Robin, our mom and I got to Disneyland when it opened (9AM). Dad and Louise came about an hour later and G-pa and Jason arrived at 1PM. We had SO MUCH fun. We went on MANY rides and saw several shows. It was the 1st time we all went to Disneyland as a family in A LONG time. My favorite part of the day was G-pas reaction at seeing the fireworks show for the 1st time. He was enthrawled with the fireworks. Now he finally got to see the show that we could hear from out house everynight.

The night after our birthday, a group of our friends from our YSA ward threw Robin and I a birthday party. It was an absolute blast!!!! There were about 50 people there with food, music, games and laughter. They made us a birthday cake and gave us many gift certificates to places. Robin and I were shocked about how many people showed up. It is so wonderful to belong to such a great ward.

For the 3 people who actually read our blog, we have had a busy couple of weeks. Robin and I went on a YSA camp out. There were 5 YSA wards there so there were lots of people, food and games. Robin and I were up until 3 AM playing games with a few of the other campers. One of the games had to be played on a big field so 16 of us squeezed into a mini van and drove to a field in the park we were staying at. It took us 2 hours to play and we didn't get back until 2 AM and then we sat and taked and played Moffia for another hour. On Saterday morning we had a BIG waterfight and other games. We had A LOT of fun!!!!!!!

Last week our family and about 5,000 other LDS people went to the 10th Annual Mormon Night with the Angels (the local pro baseball team). The Angels POUNCED the Detroit Tigers 13-6. The Angels got 6 of their runs in the 1st Inning. After the game, there was a great fireworks show. We all had a lot of fun and the family got to meet alot of the people in our YSA group.

The kittens are doing great!!! They LOVE being together. They keep each other entertained and out of trouble (sometimes)!!!! Ripley LOVES to chase 2 certain balls around the house. She chases thoes 2 balls around for hours. For a while the 2 balls were missing and Ripley was REALLY sad. Ripley wouldn't play or eat much. She would just lay around looking sad. Then last night she found the balls and she has been a little tornado ever since. Cali does everything she can to get Ripley to play with her and as soon as Ripley touches her she starts mewoing like Ripley is killing her. She is SUCH a WHINER!!!! Cali is also fearless. The only thing we have found that she is scared of is the vaccume. She LOVES jumping off high things and she LOVES to play rough and tumble with Ripley. For one so small she sure has a brave and tough spirit.