Braces Are Off!

A few weeks ago I got my braces off! Yay! At my orthodontist, they give you tokens for being on time, wearing the shirt they give you, etc. When you save up enough, you can turn them in for prizes. I hadn't used any of mine so I had a total of 87 tokens! That was enough for a 30 dollars worth of gift cards from Target. Shopping spree!!! Well, not really... how much can you get with 30 dollars? 2 shirts? hmmm.... But on the plus side, I can finally floss my teeth in less than 30 minutes! Ha! I keep catching myself licking my teeth in the middle of school. Oooo... it's so great!

High School!!!!

Hey everyone! Friday was my FIRST DAY of high school! I was looking through my pictures on the computer and saw these pictures of my friends that went to Disneyland with me. I realized that only three of them were going to the same school as me... and anothers were going to different schools or moving. Ohhhh..... how sad!!! But, I've realized what high school is all about. It's about making new friends. As I was sitting at home today, thinking about how my first day at school went, I realized that I was so terrible! Looking back, I can think of several people in my classes that didn't know anyone and were sitting alone. I could've introduced myself or something!

Other than that school was boring. The teachers were nice.... I guess. Lunch was boring, it was hot outside, and there was a lot of homework. It was a typical school day. Everyone is always saying that high school was the best time of their life. Well, from what I saw the other day, it's pretty boring. But, who knows, things could change once the school year begins.

Kidney Stones

When we were at Girls Camp this past week we got a message saying that my dad wouldn't be coming up for testimony meeting. They didn't say why, but we didn't think it was a big deal. Well, on the way home, my mom called my dad and got some shocking news. My dad had been in the ER that night because of kidney stones. They had just come up so suddenly! I didn't know what to say! He said that he didn't want us to miss our testimony meeting to come see him, so he didn't call. We wouldn't have cared!!! I would've come down in a heart beat. He called Brother Peterson from church and he took him to the hospital. We are so thankful that Bro. Peterson would do that. Well, my dad is doing better now. He's on his meds and off the sugar.... I find it so funny because when my dad said he had to lay off the sugar, this line followed: "It's gonna be a sad life..." HA HA!

Girls Camp!

Here are some of the girls from our ward and Valencia Ward just being silly!!! I was being smushed because of all the girls sitting on me!!! (ouch...)
Us showing off our muscles!!! (Well, at least I am...)
This is all of the 3rd years at camp. You can see me and Kellie (in the green shirt) doing our super hero poses.
That's me!!! You can see my mouth full of braces.... I should be getting them off in about 2 days!
My dad came and gave us a talk on Thursday afternoon. He brought pictures and chocolate!!! YUM! YUM! I loved his talk!

It rained the whole entire week... but we were lucky that it didn't rain during any of our activities. Girls Camp was a BLAST and I think it was my favorite year. But, my favorite part of camp was testimony meeting when all of the girls from our ward (and Valencia Ward... the ward we broke off from) bore their testimonies. It was really spiritual.

A Week In Gilbert

These past few days I've been spending the night at my friend Amy's house in Gilbert. They were kind enough to let me stay. We went to Sunsplash, a local water park, where I went on my first water slide!!! Whoo! At first I rebelled... but eventually they pushed me on and I had a blast. I ended up going three more times. It was a lot of fun but after 3 hours in the hot sun, we were wiped out. We went straight to bed.
The next day we went to their ward party for the Fourth of July. We were in the blazing hot sun for about two hours when we finally decided we would just walk home. I ended up taking a two hour nap after that. The sun was taking away all my energy.
That night Amy's family members came over to celebrate the holiday and they had a big barbecue. There was so much food they probably have enough left overs for a month!
Let me just say that I had sooo much fun there! I hope I can go back soon.

EFY (Especially For Youth)

It's hard to describe this expirience. Last week I had the opportunity to go to Especially for Youth in Flagstaff. It was so much fun to be able to go to a camp that had all LDS kids and councilors. Our councilors were the greatest!!! Their names were Sarah and Dan (we called him "Dan the Lady's Man".... because all the girl councilors LOVED him). They were hilarious and they helped everyone get the most they could out of EFY.
The dances were positively amazing! It was great because all of the kids were actually dancing! I was asked to dance about 6 times every dance (which doesn't normally happen). Everyone was so friendly and made easy conversation.
We were separated into companies (or groups) of about 20- 30 people. They also separated it by age (14-15... 16-18). My group was fantastic!!! I met so many new people and hopefully I'll see them again at future EFY sessions. One person that was an especially great friend was this guy named Brent. He would always put away our trays and push in our chairs. He would also make sure that everyone was included. It was great!
The expirience was also very spiritual. We had several classes everyday on any subject we wanted. The speakers were mostly church writers or seminary teachers. I learned so much and took so many notes.
There is so much more to talk about... but I just don't have the time to write it all down! If you really want a good spiritual and fun expirience I would seriously encourage you to go to EFY for yourself. It will be a life changing expirience for you. I know it was for me.