Catch-up post #3

Part of the reason why I've not been blogging is we have entered into a SUPER busy time of year for stake youth activities.  It seriously amazes me how much we have going on all at once - but it's also wonderful too.  I adore my calling and I'm trying to savor every moment - even when it exhausts me - because I know it won't be mine forever.

Steve, Gary and Meg setting up before the crowds arrived

We have multi-stake activities throughout the year with three other nearby stakes.  Ours is a "Best of EFY." We have two CES speakers come to town and it's an incredible event.  We average around 450-500 youth and we start with a one hour session for the Deacons and Beehives.  Then we take a break and we feed the speakers and other stake leaders a nice lunch.  

The stake YM and YW presidences were talking about the lunch tables and how we should decorate and during our meeting, I mentioned we could get some pansies to use as centerpieces.  Well, the stake YM presidency didn't love the idea of a pansy on the table so the president offered to make a NW themed table for us.  Well, here is what he came up with:

Darling Rebecca helped set the tables and assemble the centerpieces which was a whole lot of fishing gear.  We laughed a lot when we saw what our stake YM president had come up with for the tables but I loved that the women didn't have to come up with the table decor and it really was a great conversation starter.

Our stake YM president is a great cook and he brings his BBQ up to the church and he made the most incredible salmon and roasted red potatoes.  I made Caesar salad and then an awesome dessert that I found online: chocolate chip lava cookies.  The thing I loved about this recipe is that it was quick (one hour max start to finish), easy, delicious, and very guy-friendly.  I highly recommend you make these sometime.

The lovely ladies I serve with:  Meesa, Meg and Christi

After the lunch, the 14-18 year old youth begin to arrive.  They listened to the first speaker and then we fed all 450+ of them a dinner of pizza, veggies and cookies.  After dinner, they listened to the second speaker and then we host a dance.  I was sick all day with a bad cold so everyone let me take it easy and I got to hang out in coat check most of the night.  

We had a great time and we leaders went home exhausted but it was totally worth it.  We were sad to find out that CES will no longer send us speakers so we have to come up with a new activity for next year (our stake has been doing this for years!) I'm sure we'll figure something out but I'm disappointed that the kids around here who can't afford to go to EFY will no longer be able to hear speakers of that caliber without having to travel or pay a lot of money.