Little sleep + Smelly teenagers + Loud music + GOOD TIMES =YC 2007

For those of you who don't know what it is, YC stands for "Youth Conference". It's the biggest one of its kind in North America, and it held in Rexall Place...a big venue that seats over 16 000 people here in Edmo. It is crazy, and LONG. It went from Friday night until Sunday night, and involves early mornings too. People come from all over North America, including Leah and her youth group. Leah it was SOOOOO GREAT to see you. AHHH I wish we would have had more time to hang out. :) :) This year we took 200 youth and leaders from our church, so it was a busy weekend. To say things were crazy is almost an understatement!!! There were TONS of Christian bands that showed up: from United (all the way from Hillsong church in Aussie), to Skillet, to Toby Mac, Amanda Falk, Parachute Band, David Crowder band, and a handful more. Let's just say our group danced it up when the music was pumping, hardcore. So much fun.

Kyla and I were assigned 3 girls...and here they are, dancing in all their glory- Lauren, Reinette, and Nadene. We also adopted their friend too, but she's not in this picture.

And yes, with YC comes a beautiful, peaceful, lovely bus ride. Hardly. More like the party continues on the bus. No matter what time of day it is. Sing alongs from the wanna-be backstreet boys at the back of the bus...singing classics like "I want it that way", "It's Not Unusual" (by Tom Jones) and "Stacey's Mom" (ha) Poor Robbie. He leads their small group. I don't know how he does it. I think he can tolerate loud noises much better than I can.

Here I am at one of the concerts in mid-dance. Let's just say, I often lost my age depending on what song came on.

Something really cool happened this weekend though. YC flew down a pastor from Malawi, Africa to talk to us. YC is going to Malawi in August 2008, and we took an offering to raise money for this event. Malawi is at the present time one of the poorest countries in the world with over one million orphans. We were able to pray for the pastor and his country. And this past weekend YC raised over $90, 000 for this event. It was unreal!! I am so excited for the potential of this event in Malawi. They are looking for volunteers if any of you are interested.

Me and my co-pilot for the weekend.

Overall it was a beautiful weekend. The weather was perfect. The speakers were more or less good, and the music was so much fun. Ahhh...the joys of being involved in youth...it means you never have to grow up, or stop playing!

If only Weekends were Longer

I LOVE long weekends- except I promise you this...they are NEVER long enough. Well in my opinion. I think I am looking for life to be one giant long weekend though, so I guess I'm a bit of a dreamer. We did have a good time however, even though it was only for 3 days. Danny and I took off after work on Friday, on a last minute trip to Kelowna, BC. HOLLA! We had cancelled our trip a few days before, because our bro and sis in-law were supposed to join us, but they had to cancel. So we cancelled too, and then last minute we decided to go! I wasn't up for driving through the night so I booked us a room at the wonderful Westin hotel in Calgary. If you bid on this website called priceline.com, you can get some sweet deals on hotels. Our room was supposed to cost $200/night but we got it for less than $100. I'm all for saving money. :) We woke up the next morning to enjoy a swim in their indoor rooftop pool...Danny read the newspaper in the hot tub, while I did laps. ha. Yeah. I don't usually do laps, but I figured I might as well, seeing as we had the pool to ourselves. Then we grabbed some good 'ol Starbucks, and hit the road.

This is me, as I was really excited looking forward to seeing the sunshine in the Okanagan. I'm eager.

However, once we got passed the Banff area we had to wait for a short while, because last week there was a MUDSLIDE that went over the road, and the crew were still cleaning up the mess. That's right people a mudslide!!!! I've never seen one before. There was mud covering the trees and everything. I get impatient though sitting in traffic and waiting. This picture is evidence to that.

After getting through the crazy mud, we finally reached the beauty of the Okanagan. And Sally, seeing as you guys lived there I think, you can vouch for me when I say pictures don't really do it justice. It is just so pretty there, I absolutely LOVE the drive. It's almost magical.

We arrived in Westbank (a town outside of Kelowna) around dinner time. We were staying at Grandma Taylor's for the rest of the weekend, so it was a nice treat to have a delicious meal waiting for us. And the weather was beautiful!!!!!

The next morning we woke up and ate a big breakfast and chatted with G'ma for a bit, and then went to the lake to read for a couple of hours. There were expected thunder showers to come, but they never showed up! The day just got hotter, and hotter. I was in my glory.

From there we went to a used bookstore, and then to walk around town on the board walk and soak up the sun. EVERYONE and their dog was out. It was crazy busy. People were already boating, and swimming.

After a BEAUTIFUL day out in the sun, we went back to Grandma's where she had a huge roast beef dinner waiting for us. The whole shabang. We were so full. Danny had a nap on the couch while I went and read magazines on the patio, and lay down on the swing chair.

This is the view from her patio. I swear she lives in like a Seniors resort. Danny and I walked to Starbucks down the road to grab some delicious drinks (iced tea and such), and to walk off dinner. The view was lovely.

The next morning we said our goodbyes and hit the road.

Stopped at a fruit stand that didn't have any fruit! But it was really cute there.

I read a good chunk of my book on the drive which was idyllic.

This picture below might look like nothing to you, but if you click on it, you will see that we saw a little bear on the side of the road!!!! I was so excited. I have never seen one so close. I wish the camera would have captured it better. So cute, makes you want to cuddle it. Don't worry I didn't try nothin.

The trip ended off on a great note. We saw the end of the rainbow!!!! Both sides!

BEWARE OF THE VERY LARGE POST

I apologize in advance if any of this is boring to you, but as promised...this is the longest blog of your life. It was a very busy weekend....TONS of fun. But VERY busy...and I captured every moment I could. SO let me see-where to start....hmmmm.

FRIDAY. Crazy fun times. Stars of the show? Myself, Danielle, Danny, and Robbie. Robbie picked Danny and I up in his hot new car and drove us to the Kinsmen Park right beside downtown Edmonton. We met Danielle there. Supplies in tact. Marshmallows. Check. Firewood. Check. Chocolate. Check. Kite. Check. Graham Crackers. CHECK!!! Ventured off into the wilderness...well not really...to find a fire pit. Only to find. There weren't any! Only barbeque's. So...we figure that the marshmallows can't tell the difference, so why should we!

Danielle and Robbie talked cameras...while Danny and I took pictures galore. Here are a few...

This is me spinning in the forest. I think it's funny to say I was in the forest. Because I wasn't really. We were like beside a field in the trees.

Give me some smores! First smores of the season in Edmo! So good. Proved to be a little tricky in the bbq, but of course I persevered. And oh was it good.

Here we are standing on Danny's shoulders. Don't get too freaked out. It's an* illusion*.

After that, we climbed on to Robbie's shoulders. Kids don't try this at home.

We were pretty excited, because we had plans to fly a kite, but unfortunately we lost track of time so we couldn't do it. So I wore the kite instead.

So did Robbie.

We left the Kinsmen feeling full of marshmallows and headed to our next destination...downtown Edmonton...to a movie!
The theatre we went to wasn't filled with quite as eager people as we would have thought, so when we got inside it was empty! Leaving us with only one option. Video games.

Danielle and I combated by racing around in our sweet rides...while Danny and Robbie duked it out by shooting each other. Not my first choice. Seriously, Danny looks creepy with a moustache and a gun. Not gonna lie.

Overall, we had SUCH a fun night. It is SO GREAT that summer is finally arriving. I can't even tell you how nice it is to be outside. AHHHHHH

So the next morning I woke up early and met an old friend from high school for coffee, and then Danny and I went to a wedding in Sherwood Park. Really simple, really pretty ceremony.

The highlight of the wedding for both Danny and I was the fact we got to hold baby Lara at 2 weeks old! She is SO CUTE! And has so much hair!!! Danny and her even matched.

From there we walked around Whyte Avenue...did some shopping and hit up Starbucks of course. Soaked up the sun, and

went for dinner, and then headed to my little sister Natalie's dance competition. Here I am at the door waiting to get in to see her dance.

The girls danced it up, and it was good.

After the dance competition we headed to Jillanne's (one of the youth) Sweet 16 Birthday party. Good times on the trampoline (which by the way I was sore up until yesterday...I'm such an old woman) And of course there was a campfire. You can never go wrong with a campfire.

Danny kind of reminds me of a crow or a magpie in this picture. And I look like I'm trying to swat him away.

Nicole and I took I think a million pictures.

Here's the birthday girl!!!

Josh and Eldrin of course needed to see how many marshmallow's they could fit in their mouths. Attractive I know.

Rich and James (missing) and I sang some goodies. And by goodies I mean, good songs.That's what happens when you've had too much pop to drink. I'm sure the neighbors loved it at 12am.

And just when you thought this blog couldn't possibly get any longer. It did. The next morning we went to church and then celebrated Mother's Day on a picnic with my Mom and sisters because my Dad was out of town.

This duck came and started eating our food. It was the strangest thing. He had a bad attitude.

My Mom bet Kyla she couldn't climb the tree, so

of course, she had to prove her wrong. She hadn't thought far enough in advance on how to get down though. She still has yet to see the money. Come to think of it. I think we left her up there.

After our picnic we headed to the Taylor's for a family BBQ . Danny was finally able to give his Mom the mug that he had painted for her! So overall it was a really eventful weekend. I truly enjoyed myself. I hope I can remember next time to blog as I go. Because this just took me forever! AHHH