Tidings from Philmont

Hey everyone! I survived! Haha. We left for Philmont last last Friday (after gratuitous procrastination by pretty much everyone but my dad in packing), stayed with my aunt and uncle in Gallup for the night, and got to Philmont the next day. Here are some of the highlights of our week in the New Mexican mountains:

-I got to go horseback riding with my group, the Prospectors. (We were all over 21 and single. Nice, huh?) At first, I was pretty nervous. I haven't had a whole lot of experience with horses (try one experience in my entire life so far), so being handed some reigns with a horse attached was not exactly something I'm familiar with. (It went something like, "Ok...what am I supposed to do with this?" as the horse is blocking my vision and backing me into the fence I'm standing in front of.) But, thankfully, I was riding right behind our wrangler, Eric, so I could talk with him to distract myself or have someone competent nearby when I screamed in fear, whichever was most appropriate. (I resisted the urge to do the latter, by the way.) And, really, we just walked in a straight line, so it wasn't like I needed a whole lot of horse-riding skills. My horse, Star, was pretty awesome. Sadly, I didn't get a picture of him (I was a mite occupied with staying on him). This is the only photographic evidence I have of my 2-hour horseback ride.

Pretty awesome watch tan/burn, huh?
(This, my friends, is why we wear sunscreen at higher altitudes even though it feels nice outside.)

Oh yeah, I'm supposed to be giving highlights. Meh, who says highlights are supposed to be brief? This might take a while. Sorry.

-Um...we went to the handicraft lodge a lot. My mom had a few classes to go to and the Prospectors had about 1 activity a day (although 2 of them were hiking--blegh, didn't go on those), so we were pretty much allowed to run free. Sweet. This is what I made:

Yay for branding things!

My favorite color combination! (The aqua and lime green--as evidenced by my pajamas, favorite outfit, etc.) This bag will eventually be used for my crocheting stuff.

This is the back of the bag. The little brown thing is supposed to be a bull with "Philmont" underneath it, but it smudged kind-of weird.

-One day, my fellow Prospectors and I went to an old (mining) ghost town/museum thing. It was a bit odd, but fun. We found some awesome stuff there and some...really weird stuff. As in piles of random rusted metal things. Lots of piles. (As we walked into an old barn full of rusty saws and farm equipment I had to ask, "Is anyone else thinking about all the ways we can get tetanus in here?" Yes, I'm morbid that way.) Lots of pictures of that are in the photo album I put up, but more info on that later.

-Pretty much all the families there were awesome. Of course, when every dad is a stake president or high councilor, that's not too surprising. Pretty much everyone we talked to made me think "Wow, I really liked them." That's always fun.

-The weather was heavenly. Cool during the day and moderately cold at night (freezing when you woke up, but oh well).

-The whole YM General Presidency was there and the new General Primary President (Sis. Wixom) was there. Sis. Wixom is awesome, let me just say. She's so cute! It was cool to be around them and see them as both leaders and normal people.

Well, there's a lot more, too, but I'd rather not bore you all. If you want more details, feel free to call me or something. I love to talk. :) If you want to see more pictures (trust me, there are a lot), you can follow this link to the album I put up on Facebook. (Don't worry, you won't have to sign up for a Facebook account or anything to see it. Or if you do, um...let me know and we'll come up with an alternative.)

So, there's my week at Philmont in a very small nutshell. Hope I haven't bored you all to tears. ;) Oh, and having a bathroom and shower across the hall from my bedroom instead of across a dirt field is glorious. In case you were wondering.