California and another round of EFY!

Well I have yet another week of efy under my belt. Before I get to that I do want to fill you all in on my trip to California just a few weeks ago.
So I went with some of my Florida girlfriends- Sarah, Laura, Chelise and Chelise's family. We were caravaning down with them and partyin it up at Disneyland with them as well. Saturday I met up with Chelise's family since the other girls were already in St. George for a wedding. So we got to St. George and we ran into some car troubles. Poor Laura and her car. She just took it in that day to get the muffler changed and now she was needing to get the alternator changed. Chelise's dad said we wouldn't have even been able to drive 30 min before the car would die on us. So frustrated that our trip was already being runined we decided that we had to get it fixed and that this was only a minor bump in the road. So Laura and Sarah stayed behind while I continued on to Vegas with Chelise's family. We were sad that we had to leave the other 2 behind but knew that they would catch up with us soon.
So to make a long story short the girls got the car fixed and met us in Anaheim. Monday we went to Disneyland and oh my heck it was SOOO hot! We were just dying and the lines were long and it was just a long day, but oh so much fun! It was so good to be back in Disney with some of the very girls I started there with (even though that was DisneyWolrd where we started...). Tuesday we toured Hollywood which was so fun and went to Malibu beach. Wednesday we went back to Disney and it was a much better day. That night we drove down to my aunt Lani's in San Deigo to spend the rest of our trip. Thursday we practically fried at the beach but definitely got color-mission accomplished! Friday morning we left to head back to Utah. What a LONG day that was...but it was good to spend some time with those girls. We all have so much fun! Here are some pictures from that trip:







Alright now onto my week of efy...what a week it was! It was by probably the most challenging week I have had so far. It was the biggest session of efy. 1,301 participants and 130 counselors! Lots, and lots of people I'm tellin ya! I had 10 girls so not my biggest group. There were only 3 of us counselors, so we were one of the smaller companies that week. My co's were Laura and Grant. Very fun people. I loved working with them! They were definitely my support system this past week. What was my challenge you ask? Well I was given 2 girls who I will leave unnamed. These 2 were cousins and let's just say they did not like to listen to me at all. They would not follow my directions, they would ask inappropriate questions to everyone, and they wouldn't be quiet during our nightly devotionals. My faith was tried many times during the week. It was very hard to have the desire to be there when these 2 made me feel so inadequet and like I shouldn't be there, but I kept pressing on and just concentrated on my other girls while my 2 co's talked to those 2 girls.
As the week went on things did not improve with these girls and as counselors we were concerned for not only them but our other youth as well. I did on the other hand have a very good time with 4 of my other participants. I was able to connect really well with 2 girls and 2 guys. Having the older group (16-18) I found it very easy to connect with them since I am not that much older than them. So I was grateful that I could at least have that.
Friday as we all know was the 4th of July, one of my favorite holidays! I got all decked out with blue star earrings and our blue counselor shirts and my red, white, and blue mickey bracelet! It was a very fun day! On friday nights we have our big banquet and dance. What the youth didn't know was we were suprizing them with the fireworks right after! It was the perfect way to end the week if I do say so myself!
One of my favorite things we did that day though was my engagement! Haha. My co Grant has always wanted to fake propose to one of his girl co's. So we made this big plan for that night when we were taking our group pictures. After we took our picture Grant had all the youth sit down for a big announcement. So they sat and grant began to tell them about our counselor training and how he'd met a girl and then he said my name. All of the youth were in shock and saying "No way!" and "What!!" It was so funny (and hard) to watch them and not start busting out in laughter. So Grant goes on to tell them that we've been dating for 3 months and that we didn't want to tell them because we're not here at efy for that. So then he turns to me and says he has a surprise for me. All of our youth start gasping and going "oh my gosh!" and I'm seeing cameras getting taken out. Grant then says how much he loves me, pulls out a ring, and gets down on one knee. I was so shocked at how well both him and I were pulling this off. Our hands were shaking and I was doing the whole hand to my mouth action. It was great. So he asks me to marry him, I say yes and everyone is cheering. He then stands up and we're holding each others hands and looking into each others eyes and then we both turn to our youth and yell "HAAA!!! Just kidding!!!" 2 of the girls just book it after Grant and start chasing him down this field. It was great! We were laughing so hard I loved it!! Here are some pictures from this past week as well as a little video clip of the proposal!






Ok I'm having trouble with the video...so hopefully I can get that posted soon because it is FUNNY!! Take luck everyone :)