I guess I'll start with the sickness. I know I've blogged before about how there was this big sickness that went around and how I was lucky enough to avoid it... well, apparently I didn't have enough luck to get me through the whole summer without it. About 2 weeks after the sickness had died down, I thought I was in the clear, until I woke up early one morning and couldn't stop throwing up. My, that was fun. Anyways, it was a total pain in the butt and I was so mad because I had convinced myself that there was no way I would get sick- I was boycotting it! But apparently my immune system had other plans.
The week after I recovered, Aspen Grove celebrated Christmas in July! It was so fun. For family night, we went Christmas caroling around camp and then we went ice blocking. It was my first time ice blocking, and I am sad to report that I was not able to make it down the hill either of the times that I tried it. I only got halfway. But the way I see it, two halves equal one whole, so it's as successful of a venture as I could have anticipated. We also put up Christmas decorations in our lobby, including a Christmas tree and twinkle lights. The concluding event to end the festivities was our Pajama Christmas party! We started out by having the Polar Express read to us, and then we took the train that we use for Frontier Night, and it was our honorary Polar Express for the evening! It transported us from our dorm to the Dining Hall, where cheesecake and fun music awaited us. We took "family pictures" and had a White Elephant gift exchange. It was so much fun! Here are a few pictures:
Becca and I in our PJs and pigtails! :)
this was one of the gifts in the gift exchange- it was a date kit, complete with a date planner, a couple of self help dating books, a fake engagement ring and breathmints (in case the date went well!)
me and my roomies! karen, heidi and stephanie! :)
....So that was Christmas in July. It was soo much fun!
Other fun events: my good friend Jimmy had a brick oven pizza party at his house in Kaysville, and a bunch of us Aspen Grovers went and made pizza! It was way fun, and it was nice just to get away for a bit. Here are some pictures from that!
We also celebrated National Dance Day up here at Aspen Grove! I don't remember the date exactly, but basically a bunch of the staff learned a dance and performed it at our opening show. So You Think You Can Dance posted some YouTube videos teaching the dance, and then we taught it to each other. I learned the dance, but I didn't end up performing it- I opted to video record it instead. But it was really fun, especially learning the dance, and now we always do it at the dances that we have every Thursday night!
....and now, for the big blog event! Drumroll, please...
ELDER HOLLAND CAME TO ASPEN GROVE AND I TOTALLY TALKED TO HIM!! :)
Yeah.
It was pretty legit. It was actually quite incredible. He ended up staying the whole week with his family for a little family reunion. On Sunday he gave a fireside and it was absolutely mind blowing. He's just as passionate and powerful in person as he is in General Conference. He basically talked about God's love for us and how important it is for us to know how much He loves us, and for us to love Him back. It was really cool because the staff choir that I direct up here got to sing at the fireside! We sang Beautiful Savior, the Sally deFord arrangement, and it went really well! The coolest part of the fireside was just that it was so personalized. He mentioned being up here at Aspen Grove, here in the summer of 2010. It was just incredible. Here's a quote that I remember: "We are under obligation to embrace and declare that God loves us." And here's a creeper pic that I took at the fireside:
What was particularly neat was that he came in the store a couple of times throughout the week and I got to talk to him! I was upset because he kept going to the store when I wasn't working, but FINALLY he came when I was working and I about peed my pants. He was so friendly and jovial, and even if he wasn't "Elder Holland" he probably would have been one of my favorite people of the week. He called everybody sweetheart and he was just so sweet. He came in after playing tennis, all sweaty and exercise-y and I asked him if he had won the game. He said, "Yes, but I think they let me win. I'm pretty sure I heard snickering from the other side of the court." Then on the last day of camp he came in wearing a suit and tie, and I told him that I liked his tie. He replied, "Well I like you, so I guess it's 50/50!" Totally. Made. My. Week. :)
It was just incredible, seeing a general authority, an apostle no less, in that kind of setting, with his family and stuff. And seriously? If I was going to pick an apostle that I'd want to meet, it would be him. Hands down. It was surreal and amazing and I was just so grateful to be able to meet him!
Anyways, I think that's about the best recap I can do at the moment. Summer's finally winding down, and I have to admit that I'm more than ready for school to start back up in the fall. I can't wait to move into my new apartment and to meet my new ward and especially to be back in classes and learning again! I'm such a nerd, but I really do love going to my classes. Plus, just being on campus is just so great. There's this awesome feeling about campus, it's hard to define, but I just know that I love it. Oh! And good news, Psych and Lie to Me have both started up again, and I couldn't be more excited. I LOVE those shows! They're so awesome. :)
Looks like that's it for now. But now that I have my new computer, I plan on blogging much more regularly, which is a relief because I totally missed this!
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