5 mile hike/walk

Most of you know that I got called to be the 1st Counselor in our ward's Young Women's and it's already awesome and I just started.

The President is Nancie Matthews (from Hermiston) who just happens to be a cousin of mine... in a long drawn out way. Her husband Mitch is from Pasco, and knew my brother Andy in the branch, well his Aunt is Phyllis who is Dave's step aunt and so there ya go. Kinda rad huh? Well we discovered we know a lot of the same people and so it's super cool.

Anyways for Young Women's yesterday (Wednesday) we planned a 5 mile hike so that the girls could sign off there hike for girls camp. I'm not going to girls camp but since I am a leader in charge of the Wednesday stuff I went, it was awesome. Seriously any excuse to hang out with these fun girls and get to know them better I jump at.

This picture is Nancie and Ashlyn one of my Mia Maids. They are great friends. Nancie was the 1st counselor before she got moved up.

This is Kaitlin, Hannah and Sabrina. Sabrina is the 2nd counselor over Beehives and she is awesome. She is from Rexsburg and they've been in the ward since September. They have a little boy named Gray, he is adorable and a very pleasant baby.

This is a paved trail and so it wasn't really a hike but more like a walk. Since to me hikes are considered up hill and dirty. But it's a great trail and I plan on going back with my bike and trailer to go on a ride. We only went 3/4 of the way and if you go all the way you get to a lake and so I wouldn't mind checking it out. We left at 9 ish from the church and than we started walking. We stopped around 11:30 or so and sat down and ate our lunch. We were back around 12:30 or so. It was great. I did get teased a bit about snakes but than again, I did tell the girls in my van all about my fear. When they spotted one on the trail I just rang up to hang out with Sabrina since she is also afraid of snakes. Since most of these girls have grown up in Cheney they are all pretty out doorsy, most live in houses with a lot of land and so this was small potatoes to them.

This picture is of a waterfall...

Here's most of the group posing for a picture... a great group!

Here's Taylor and Hannah wadding in the water... this was probably the only piece of water that was sanitary enough along the trail to go in, most of it was merky and filled with who knows what slime.

These sisters are new. The two on the outside are Jamie and Jessica Kumar and they are so sweet. They always have something nice to say. Jamie is my mia maid.. and Jessica is a Laurel. They are so pretty I asked Jamie where they are from and there mom is from India or something like that!

Here's some of the Laurel's, Malia, Amy and Kaitlin... and Lexi who is visiting Taylor... such cute girls. Malia is the Laurel President and she is awesome... she is so nice to all the girls especially the younger ones!

On the walk back. We ended up getting separated and so this group came last because they stayed with Sabrina while she fed baby Gray! Hannah in the plaid shorts was my walking buddy, she is super sweet and I can't wait for her to be a Mia Maid, she's got a couple years though!

Me and Hannah spotted some birds on the way back... this is a bright green and black bird we think a finch, it was cool I haven't ever seen one of those outside...

And this was a very big robin... and that's basically all the wildlife we encountered besides some swamp frogs and the garter snake they saw and I ran away from.

I'm excited for my new calling and getting to know these girls. They have in a way made me feel more like I belong here in Cheney and more like home. When I leave town I make sure I am home Wednesdays and Sundays (or try to be) so I can see them, they are great girls and I hope that they can learn from me. This is such a hard time in there life and I know they will all get through it just fine!