Kirtland Youth Conference 2009

We are now departing our Kirtland Youth Conference 2009 Adventure. Brian is driving. All three kids are exhausted and crashed out in the back seat. It was a fantastic success. The youth group had an amazing time. The friendships were deepened. The history was rich. The spirit of the Lord was strong. I suppose Brian and I are exhausted too. We were the support crew. When we originally started registration, a contract was made on the charter buses for the kids based on years past totals of about 120 youth. We collected registrations. Then more came in, and more and more. We had a total of 161 kids registered as we approached the date and almost all of them checked in on the day of departure. Our budget didn’t allow for excess hotel rooms to that degree and we couldn’t cut in the chaperone department, so we had to brutally slash our support crew. We got ourselves down to 4 support people for the entire group of over 190 people. Brian and I decided (wisely) to take the truck instead of the tiny little Honda Accord. It proved to be a very good choice. We were able to transport coolers, tables, grills, massive amounts of Costco groceries and ice anywhere, anytime without being held up waiting for the three buses and the kids to finish their activities. We were free to go ahead and set up meals, pick up catered food and stay late to let the grills cool before they were loaded up. My original expectation was that I was going to go see the sights in Kirtland just like the kids were. Then I realized I had better shift my expectations into reality so that I wasn’t sorely disappointed when I didn’t get to attend a single tour. And that is how I left for the trip. Truly thinking I wouldn’t get to do anything but attend the evening sacrament meeting in the Kirtland Temple because all the meals would be over for the day and it was late enough that my kids would be back at the hotel with Brian. To my pleasant surprise, I was able to do all the tours except a few houses at historic downtown Kirtland because Maddie was tantruming and disturbing the other people in our tour group and the Morley Farm. Not bad for a support crew member. What I still cannot believe is that we fed 200 people for three days out of a cooler and three tour buses. CRAZY!! I couldn’t even imagine how we would have done that before this trip. I have also thought a million times over the last six months, “I don’t WANT to know how to do this!” The people that develop the skills to plan for group meals in that manner will inevitably ALWAYS get stuck planning, ordering, shopping and ultimately serving in the kitchen and cleaning up after every meal and miss ALL the fun stuff. I’d rather just appreciate the people who know how to do that wonderful work. I’m happy to help them execute the pre-made plans, just not create them. All three of our kids were near angels. Maddie only really had one real rough patch when we were well beyond her nap anyway and she was tired and hot and demanding some grapes. Jacob was the hit of the trip. The last day I put him in a cute little red shirt that says “Babe Magnet” because it was so true. All the cute 14-18 year old girls swooned over his cute little toothless grin and ready smile. Ben made a great new friend, Kara, that he wants to come babysit. When we were at the Whitmore store, Brian and I were tag teaming squirmy Jacob and whiney Maddie Mae. Ben was sort of left to fend for himself and Kara stepped in and took him under her wing. What a great girl. The rest of the trip he was constantly asking if Kara was coming to this place or that place or where she was right now. All the kids also enjoyed playing with Marina who is one of our favorite babysitters we have used. She loves our kids and they adore her. Today we toured the Johnson Farm and used the chapel within walking distance for our festivities to serve breakfast, lunch and pack a sack lunch dinner. I can attest to the fact that we have some very loving, dedicated adult leaders in our ward. My friend, Tashia, was a work horse. She never rested once for three days. We missed our cohorts Heidi and Carol though. It’s rotten to break up our team like that, but Heidi had some lame excuse like she was having a baby any day now and wasn’t really feeling it. Carol had to multitask and be YW President and group “Mom” so she was too swamped to hang out and laugh with us while we sliced bagels, muffins, watermelons, lettuce, tomatoes and whatever else we chopped in our three day marathon. The kids have traveled very well so far. Ben wanted to help out wherever he could, including setting up and taking down chairs and tables. Maddie loved trying out the toys in the nursery classrooms in each of the chapels. Probably the highlight for both of them was the swimming pool at our hotel, which they got to use twice on Friday—once in the afternoon while I was making a food run, and once in the evening before bed. Overall, it was a fantastic trip. While it isn’t always true, I do believe if we both show and tell our kids what is expected of them, they will surprise us with their ability to meet or exceed our expectations. What a blessing we received this weekend that our children were so great. I think God was on our side, saw the sacrifices we were willing to make and helped us and them by picking up some of the slack or sending others to be our angles so we could serve and create and incredible experience for everyone involved. Many thanks are in order to those who organized, planned and executed an amazing, spiritual, testimony building youth conference where we could feel the spirit of Christ and grow closer to him and renew our efforts to become more like him. I am very grateful for the chance I had to learn through service this weekend and to spend time with my cute little family while teaching them a lesson in service and sacrifice too. I think our parents can be proud of the people we turned out to be, at least in that respect. They deserve credit for teaching by example. Just glad we learned something from it.