FSY California Edition!

    Guest Blogger Beau (Robyn)   

 

    I had the opportunity to go to FSY in California last week. TBH I did not wanna go and I was not at all excited. I only picked California because it wasn't in Utah, and I would have the chance to go surfing at the end of FSY. I drove the whole 12ish hours to Santa Barbra and the next day dad helped me check in. 

    Once I met my roommate tho, I knew it was gonna be a decent week (I did not want to admit this at the time tho) Everyday we had a morning devotional with just our group, and an evening reflection period. This made it really easy for me to know all the girls names. 

(Round the circle, Maddy, Quin, Beau, Eliza, Emma, Ashley, Taleya, Maddy, Grace)

  Enter: boys. They were honestly hilarious! Any moment around them was never a dull one. Starting day one they would all simultaneously start singing bohemian rhapsody. Even when the counselors went up to them and literally said 'SHUT UP' they would just switch to I am a child of God, equally loud. This was at any moment too. They probably sang the first half of that song 15 times. (That was also due to the fact that they couldn't quite remember the lyrics so they just kept singing the mama part) Other songs they sang included: Another one bites the dust, and I think some by panic at the disco. 

(Dallin, Jacob)

(Jeremy)

    

(Jeremy, Dallin, Guillermo, Aaron)

    Our group was the loudest by a long shot. The first day we met the boys they were chanting their counselors name like he was a celebrity. And by the end of the week, everyone knew who he was because we made sure that he was chosen for every possible thing. We would just start chanting GUILLERMO!!! GUILLERMO!!! (ge-yair-mo) 

   Day 3 was games day. And we had to make a banner that related to our company name as well as a chant or little skit. Our name was Go and Do, but others included things like 'Energy of Heart', 'Those who Hearken' etc. 

    We decided that, obviously, we had to include Guillermo somehow because he was basically the mascot of  FSY. So we ended up having him be on the banner standing next to Nephi. 

    I should probably mention that I had been doodling off and on throughout the week, and basically everyone thought I was Da Vinci because I could draw basically anything in a span of 5 minutes. So, naturally, they had me draw Guillermo. 

(Fun Fact, I was standing next to Connor, and he was sticking his butt way into my business)

    And of course we won. Like how could we not? Our chant was also the boys singing Let it Go (and Do) as loud as they possibly could. At the end of the week, we were even nominated to perform our skit for the whole camp.

    Earlier I mentioned that I could draw anything in the span of 5 minutes... and my company began to realize that this was actually in fact INSANELY COOL. So I started 'tattooing' anyone and everyone who wanted anything. By the end of FSY, most of the people in our company had at least 1 tattoo, if not multiple. And the girls even started an instagram account for my art, and a couple random people DMed me and asked for their portrait done. And some of them even paid me. Y'all I made bank at FSY. 

(Jacob)

(Emma)

(Jeremy)

    There was also another Instagram account that grew very very popular. We had many classes during the days while we were there, and ngl some of them were a little hard to focus and even stay awake through. Not to dis on any of the instructors or anything, but after like 4 classes, everyone was pretty drowsy. So somebody started a page called FSY_sleeps. And basically if you caught anyone sleeping ANYWHERE, you took a picture and sent it to FSY_sleeps and in less than an hour, there would be a post with your picture in it. 

(Maddy)

(Eliza)

    Connor was a pro at this. At being photographed while he was sleeping that is. He made it on the page 5 times last he checked.

    All in all, FSY was stupidly fun. I didn't think it would be, but by the second day I found myself absoluetly loving everyone around me and not wanting to leave. It just makes me so sad that all my friends live in California because I can't see them hardly at all. Here's just a couple more group photos that I love with all my heart <3

(Awkward Family Photo) (We also won this)

(Maddy, Ty, Beau, Jonah, Layne *log*)

(Highest row: Jake, Jonah, Aaron, Taleya, Quin, Shauney

Inbetween row: Layne, Beau, Maddy, Jeremy, Ashely

Middle row: Trenton, Connor, Belle, Eliza, Ashley, Maddy, Julie, Grace, America

Floor: Stephanie, Guillermo)

(Food there: SO GOOD. 6 different meal options everyday, ice cream whenever you wanted it)

    Lol I forgot to mention that the guys made so many memes with lds "Pick up lines" so enjoy these little treasures.

Timpanogos Caves

(June 16th, 2022)

There are some cool places in Utah that we don't visit often. Timp caves costs money, so that one doesn't happen very often. In fact, last time we hiked it was over a decade ago. The girls looked a bit smaller then. And Pearl wasn't a thing yet. 

I only got to take Pearl and Ives on the hike, but it was really fun to go up the trail and remember the places we had been before. And I was much less nervous this time around. They have put up some new barriers and my kids are old enough, I don't feel like I need to have them hugging the mountain at all times so they don't plummet to their deaths.

We had an early schedule time, so we drove out there and got hiking right away. We even wore matching earrings. Zippers all around.

I got pictures of the girls under this arch last time. Crazy how time flies.

There were several of these bars on the ground. I think they are new. And by new, they put them in sometime in the last ten years or so. 

Someone told me this is the June pose. June, do you pose like this??

Ivory looks like she's roaring, but she's just yawning. Hiking straight up is hard work.

Pearl took a lot of pictures along the way. That is kind of her thing. She likes to document all the flowers. These purple ones are pretty.

This is not a good picture of this, but someone put a tiny stick under this large rock to make it look like the little twig is holding up all that weight. That's pretty funny actually, but this picture doesn't do it justice. 

There's a section where dog prints pop up on the trail and then lead into the rock wall. So ghost dog came down for a quick stroll and then melded back into the stone. He was so dead and cold, he left icy footprints. (They didn't tell us this, I just made this up)

At one point a little chipmunk came frolicking along the path. He ran up to the next marker, as if showing us the way, then sat on a rock and posed. Okay, I'll take your picture cutie although I'm sure you get plenty of photo ops.

Speaking of markers, they are numbers along the trail. They are not spaced evenly. You might see 3 and 4 very close and then not find 5 for a while. We started a competition to see who could touch them first. At one point, we passed a ranger and rounded a corner. I saw a number up ahead, so I sprinted away to get to it first. Running is not allowed on the trail, so the ranger yelled after me, "No running!" and then it was followed by, "Where is your parent?" Hahahaha. 

We saw a mountain sheep along the trail too. I don't think there are many of those sighted. So go us!

I forgot about the Last Chance restrooms towards the top. But reading back from the last time we went, it was funny to see what the girls thought about it. This is from the other blog post:

My personal favorite moment from the trip was listening to the dialogue coming from the bathroom at the top of the mountain. Since it is at the top, there is no plumbing; just the hole in the ground. Robyn finished up, looked down and asked, "Where's my pee?" I explained the situation and moments later when June used the rest room, I heard, "Where's my pee?"

It really is quite a steep hike. You can see how far up we are and of course, the sign told us the final elevation. Based on local elevation, I think we climbed over 2000 feet. 

They give everyone an hour an a half to climb to the top. I didn't realize that and we got there in 45 minutes. Over achievers I guess. We even went all the way to the back to touch the shiny rock. Some lady told us it doesn't count unless you touch it. 

I was worried we would have to sit around for a long time waiting for our turn, but they got us in with an earlier group. Here we are at the entrance.

Yep, more cave pictures. This cave seemed darker to me. We spent a long time trying to get a selfie that you could actually see. These aren't too bad.

This picture is a bit better.

There was a lot of cave popcorn, as they call it, but there were also a lot of formations that looked like weird coral, or maybe potato roots growing down through the ground. They were pretty neat.

That area had better light, so we tried again.

There is one place where the stalactite is getting pretty close to the stalagmite. It is still growing and they measured the rate. They said to come back in about 150 years to see them meet up to form a column. I'll make sure to put it on the calendar.

It was a fun little tour. It spit us out on the other side. I think I'm most impressed to realize that when people were first finding these caves, they only had candles to light the way. I don't think I could do it. I don't think of myself as claustrophobic, but caves makes me feel squirmy sometimes. It was nice to be back out in the open.

Then just the hike back down the mountain. 

Pearl and I almost got a selfie without Ivory, but she caught us and butted her way in. We weren't sneaky enough.

I really liked this picture that Pearl took. I love sun flares.

And that wraps up the hike. But don't forget we also get a treat on hike day. Daisy, who missed the hiking part, is always up for some cooking. She helped me make mousse. It was actually really good practice for a Bake Off we had the next week. (Stay tuned) Here she is folding in cream.

And the finished product was darn tasty. But I think almost anything would be if you sprinkled a symphony bar on top.