My nephew, Justin, is leaving for North Carolina to serve a two-year mission for the Church. I took the family and we spent Sunday in Lethbridge to say farewell and to take a few pictures. I'm sure he'll do well there. I served my mission nearby in Mississippi back in 1988, so it brings back memories. I'll post a few pictures soon. -- Update -- The pictures are posted in my gallery. We also took our family picture while we were there.

Note to readers: This is copied from the journal I kept during camp. If you did well on it, you got a prize. April actually won first place! She did very well.

DAY 1 OF IMPEESA - AUGUST 14, 2006

The first incident happened within the first half hour that we started building our fort. A boy in my patrol, Dallen, got hit in the head with a log that fell over. It wasn't that bad because soon after, he was participating again.

When our patrol was called over to decide on our name, there were 10 of us: 2 girls and 8 boys. We had to pick sticks to find out who was going to be transferred to another group since we had the largest patrol. It happened to be a boy and the other girl, Christy. I was left as the only girl... but this has happened before in other situations...

The experience was physically, emotionally, and spiritually challenging. I came out of it being both exhausted and renewed. Being my first time on this, and even with all of the training we had previously, it was not something you could entirely say you were prepared for. Most everyone that had reservations about attending were glad they came.

As soon as we had arrived at the site and unpacked, we were given our family assignments. Our family consisted of 3 boys, and 4 girls. There was Mike, Andy, Cameron, Erin, Jennifer, Julie, and Mary Lou. All of the youth were between 14 and 18. The boys in our family were all slight of build. Mary Lou was our adult child. Bishops and youth leaders from each ward were asked to participate as children so that they could better relate with the experience that the youth had.

My favourite color is green. It is the best color ever! I like it because it reminds me of summer. That is my favourite season. My whole room is green! Green also reminds me of camping.
GREEN!!!
I LOVE GREEN!

Our stake is holding a pioneer trek for the youth in August. Victoria and I were called to participate as one of 8 Ma's and Pa's. Our responsibility will be to lead a family of youth through the event. The youth are aged 14 to 18 and we'll know who they are at the time of the event.

The purpose of today's training was to familiarize ourselves with the terrain and experience some of what the youth will experience. Since the event is still pending, I'll refrain from offering too much information that may minimize the experience for youth that will be attending. I'll write more about it after the event which will run August 4th to the 7th.

Read on for more.