Bio-Girl's Weekend Trip

For Mother's Day this year we gave my mom a "Bio-Girl's Weekend" trip.  Really, dad helped pitch in some $ to make it possible but getting all of us biological daughters in the same state at the same time was quite a miracle.  With Laura living in Yakima for the summer it made it much easier to have Leah fly in and all meet.

This is the brochure I made and then we all gave it to mom for Mother's Day.

The cabin location was just beautiful!!  Actually the cabin itself was amazing!  It was so clean and the architecture was amazing!  Leah did sacrifice her hand for a couple of wasp stings.

One day we headed back out to the White Salmon river to go rafting together.  We all felt very adventurous!

Mom and I hopped off the raft before it went down Husum Falls.  Everyone else was much more brave -- actually mom is really brave too but I think didn't want me to feel like a wimp for getting out of the raft.

THEY MADE IT!!!

Another day we hiked to Duncan Creek Falls.  This was an awesome hike that we did going directly out of our cabin.  It took us a bit to find the trail head but the hike was beautiful and buggy!

 

The evenings were spent looking through Grandma Howe's jewelry and eating yummy food.  Emily and Laura were super awesome in preparing ALL the food ahead of time.  I had been running non-stop from event-to-event and so I appreciated this gift of time and talent so much!

Check out our twinner shirts mom gave us all!!

GIRL POWER!!!

We loved walking around the town of Stevenson and eating lunch at a delicious restaurant.  We went to Skamania Lodge and shared a bowl of salmon chowder on mom and dad's honor as they shared one years before on an anniversary trip.


This trip was just what we all needed.  I can't remember the last time we went somewhere together without kids and just enjoyed being with each other.  I feel blessed to call each of these ladies my friend, sister, or mother!!

Treasure the Truth - YW High Adventure Trip

Our ward has had a tradition of taking the YW on a high adventure trip every couple of years.  There are always some challenges with making this happen with the other events in the summer but we have found it to be so rewarding and important for ward unity.  I love that our YW leaders get to be involved as well since our girl's camp is run by the stake.

This year the YW president put me in charge of organizing our high adventure.  One of the issues we have is trying to keep it really cheap since we are theoretically only allowed to fundraiser for one event.  By planning far in advance we were able to get good deals on each thing we did on our trip.

First stop...Lake Chelan Slidewaters Waterpark....

For  most of the girls this was the first time they had been to this waterpark.  We all had a blast!

Alysee loved spending time with her friends.

That night we drove from Lake Chelan to Leavenworth to our camping location called Thousand Trails, Leavenworth.  After setting up camp and having a delicious dinner, Kristen Farmer, one of the YW leaders gave a wonderful fireside on "Treasuring the Truth."  

A few YW sang the song "Treasure the Truth" at the fireside.

The next morning we all loaded up and drove to Lake Wenatchee State Park to do a small hike to Hidden Lake.

What a great group of YW!!!

It was a SUPER easy hike.

 When we got back to our campsite we had free time for the next four hours.  The girls LOVED this time -- the campground has tons of stuff to do...miniature golf, tennis, crafts, a lodge with a TV and foosball, volleyball, etc...

We rented one cabin that four adults stayed in.  The main reason for spending the extra money on the cabin was because we had a full size refrigerator, oven, and stove to do all the food preparations.  We had one couple that were totally in charge of preparing the food.  Not only was it delicious but it was awesome to come back from an activity and have a meal all ready.  

Our tents were set up directly across from the cabin.

Friday night we drove into Leavenworth to watch the outdoor theater production of "The Sound of Music."  We have a super talented group of young women right now that love music and drama so this was really special.  

The play was fabulous!!!!

Saturday morning we woke up and packed up camp and headed to go rock climbing and wander around Leavenworth.

I was really appreciative of Birch driving up Friday night after work so he could make this possible for the girls.  Birch has instructed probably every youth in our ward on rock climbing at one point of their youth years.

For many girls this was a first time experience!

Alysee did amazing!

The afternoon went by quickly with the girls spending some time walking around Leavenworth.

We all came home exhausted but happy!  I love the theme we had for the High Adventure Trip!!  It was wonderful to ponder about where my treasures lay.