Stake Youth Conference Week

 Cali riding her bike.  She likes to wear a baseball cap under her helmet because Sasha does.  If it was up to her, she would be a boy!  

 Jenae is always... I mean always helping her younger brothers and sister.  She is helping Jackson on a two wheeler with training wheels.

 Dusty loves to ride bikes.  He and Vitaliy will ride out of the canal and love every minute of it.

 Here is Vitaliy outside the USCIS after receiving his Certificate of Citizenship.  Sasha received his in the mail a few weeks ago.  We had a fun afternoon getting this.  Then we went out to eat and enjoyed good conversation.  You can learn a lot about each other when you turn the radio off in the car. 

Last week was a quieter week than usual.  It was out Stake’s Stake Youth Conference.  My son Michael was the youth in charge of it and I think he did a pretty good job if I do say so myself.  It stressed him out quite a bit, but he did good! 

Michael, Tyler and Vitaliy all attended.  They started with a BBQ and swim party, the next day an outdoor fun day of games and rock climbing, a dance and ended with a service project of hard work in the hot sun and an evening fireside all of which was incorporated with spiritual enrichment.  What a great few days!  I am so grateful for the youth programs in our Stake that do so much for our kids.  These boys came home happier each day they went…well with the exception of Jason not really enjoying the dance.  Vitaliy absolutely loved the dance.  He has been to a couple of dances but this one took the cake.  One of the girls came up to Tyler and told him, “I just danced with your brother and his accent is dreamy!”  Ugh!!!  I didn’t know girls still talked like that.  Anyway, it was so fun to see their countenances brighten each day!  The more involved with Church and it’s activities Vitaliy gets, the more you can see his heart and spirit soften….I absolutely love it!

The younger kids and I just went about our normal week of trying to keep things picked up.  I did stay home a lot which meant that I spent less money (yeah!) and got caught up on the laundry.  I did a lot of house work too.  It was a good week.

Michael and Tyler are off again this week.  They are staffing at the Timberline Scout Camp in Mt. Pleasant.  Tyler went on Saturday with the group but Michael had to be taken yesterday because he had to stay and finish up with Youth Conference.  So…we drove our little VW Beetle, no problem with that except the last probably two miles was off road.  We drove so slow because I didn’t want to damage my car.  We are so used to big SUV’s and not worrying about those things until we got this Beetle.  Oh, the world of smaller cars.  Gotta love them though…if there isn’t room for them in the car…they can’t go.  Too bad, that means mom has to go all by herself…what a shame!  I only take the 15 passenger when I really need to.

Because Vitaliy was 14 when he was adopted he did not get his United States Citizen Certificate without having to go down to the USCIS office in Sandy.  Did you even know there is a USCIS office in Sandy?!?  I didn’t.  Why in the world were we dealing with and overnighting, etc., all that stuff to the Midwest…really!!!  Anyway, he had to read over the oath and he had to sign saying he would abide by it.  I read it to him and explained the things he didn’t understand.  Then I proceeded to help him spell his middle name as he signed because he didn’t know how.   I thought that was kind of fun.  I got a bit choked up as we read through the oath.  Then I made him pose for a picture outside with his certificate.  He didn’t want to at first then he did.  I said, “don’t you realize what a golden ticket you have in your hand?  Do you know how many people want what you are holding?”  He, as you can see in the picture, happily posed for a picture.

Talk about getting choked up, we had the boy’s baptismal interview last night.  I loved listening to Vitaliys’ answers to the questions.  He is so happy to be getting baptized.  You can see it in his face and you can feel it when he talks about it.  Sasha was a bit silly during his interview but that is typical of him. 

So, not a lot of pictures this week.  Everyone is doing well and enjoying the summer.  The kids are learning more English and I am learning more Russian.  We have had more heart to heart talks lately and even some parent to son talks on serious issues.  It is a fun to watch as the boys are really settling in to our house and our family.  It really feels good!