Provo Autrey's: 2008 Lakeside 7th Ward Youth Conference

One of the members of our ward has family that still live on the family ranch in Star Valley Wyoming. They graciously hosted us on their ranch this past week. We had 7 girls and 5 boys with 5 leaders for three days of fun and learning.

We got there late Thursday afternoon and the host family had a dance all ready for the youth. While I cooked dinner in the dutch ovens the kids learned some square dance moves and go to know some of the youth from the local ward that had come to enjoy in the festivities. It looks nice and warm in the photos but the temperature was already beginning to drop as the sun set behind the mountains.

Good thing they had a large firepit. As we sat around the fire we listened to a couple from the valley that teach at the local high school and give inspirational talks to you groups. They talked about making friends and working to keep them by showing genuine concern for their needs.

Friday morning we went for hike up a bluff behind the farmhouse. When we got back, Rex, the host had some team building excersizes for the kids to try. One had the kids try to swing across an open space and land on a pallet and then each kid in turn went across. They had to get everyone across and had to help those that had a hard time. It took a while but they accomplished the task. Afterward Rex talked to them about what they had to do to accomplish their goal.

The next game was moving everyone on logs around without crossing the same person twice. I didn't get it. I'll admit it. The kids seemed to have fun with it and eventually had fun just jumping across and trying to stay on the logs. Mandy got kinda bored and took a seat.

In the afternoon we went across the road and played on their private lake. We couldn't swim in it but that was okay because we saw lots of leaches and water snakes. The kids played with the canoes and the floating docks and even the leaders got in the act with an impromptu guitar solo while standing in their boat.

Well, that's when my cameras batteries ran out. Later in the afternoon we went up in the mountains to a zip line and played on that for a couple of hours. While we were up there we saw lightning and heard the thunder and decided to head back. We didn't beat the weather. We got caught by a hail storm and rain for about half and hour. When we got back to the farmhouse we were soaked. Some dry clothes helped and then it was back to cooking for me. After dinner we had a fireside in the barn where it was a little warmer.

Saturday morning we did a service project for the Gomm's by moving some stones that they wanted to use in landscaping and some of the youth cut and raked grass around the lake to make it more accessible to boaters and hikers. After a couple of hours of work we fed the kids and hit the road back to Provo.