Bridal Shower and Mini Youth Conference

Top pic: Rylee, Michelle, Ashley, Ginger, Me, Cheryl
Bottom pic: Debbie(Ashley's mom) 

Not all the kids are pictured, some couldn't make it to this part.  The Deacons and younger girls were not included because of the dance part, but they probably should have had them come to everything but that part.  Rick said he was once told by a youth leader, there are young men and then their are Deacons.  Ha!  They do add a bit of crazy at that young age but I bet they would have enjoyed the activities.  

 Barret and Ashley flew in to have Easter and Conference with the families and also to have a bridal shower and do first look/bridals.  Ginger and I headed to Houston around 8:30.  We met up with Michelle, Cheryl, and Rylee at the event.  Ashley is such a low maintenance, quirky, fun girl and we are so excited for Barret.  Some people bring out the best is others and Ashley has done that for Barret.  After the bridal shower we headed to Ashley's home so Michelle go put her hair up for the bridal pictures.  That took a while so we were entertained by Ashley's 16 year old brother Dallin.  He is autistic but very high functioning so many Aspergers.  He was adorable and endearing.  Apparently he is very well liked and has lots of friends. He arranged for his friends to come to his house that night to watch King Kong vs Godzilla with Barret and Ashley because he knows Barret likes movies (he is a film student) and he "thinks Ashley likes movies too). There family were going to join Ginger's family at the Kruzie home for Easter and Conference on Sunday. He was so excited about that.  Then we headed the drive back while Ashley and Barret got ready for the bridal shoot.  I saw some of the pics and they are amazing.  They had a cool water wall in Houston for some and then a park.  She was stunning and Barret always looks dashing in a suit!  

Rick had a busy week prepping for his role in the mini youth conference for our ward.  The kids had Thursday, Friday off so Thursday he headed to the park to kick off the conference with some opening remarks.  Then the kids played a punch of sports, games at the park.  He then took groups to the icee shop for a treat.  That night he headed over to Willards and did a devotional. He did some vignettes from his life and they were tilted, Carpe Diem, Own It, Don't Play With Fire, How to Save a Life, I will have to see if there were more.  The kids seemed to really listen and liked it since it was story form.  Someone said, Bishop, you always have the best stories!  Then the girls spent the night at the Willards and the Boys went to the Sowards home to sleep.  Then they headed over to our house at 8:30 Friday morning where Rick taught them all to make their own omelettes.  There was a lot of prep work on his part to get ready for this event.  He had a lot of camps stoves set up around our house and all the food items were prepared and in bowls for them to use.  They then went bowling and other events and then finished the night off with a dance. The boys and girls went to different homes for another sleep over and not sure what the plans for breakfast are for this morning but then they are all getting back together to watch the first Saturday session of conference together before they disperse to their homes.  

I am now getting ready to watch conference with Blake.  Rick will have to watch what he can from work today. He is at the less busy place so hopefully he can get a good portion of it.  During the middle of the sessions, I need to run and get the ham and the bundt cake for tomorrow. I can make the salad tonight, and will do most of the prep work for dinner before conference starts.  Our plan is to have Easter lunch between the sessions tomorrow.