frozen legs, sand coats, and donuts

We've gone to the beach a couple different times lately.

The first time when we went, at the Bridlington South Beach, me and Dad spent the entire time playing volleyball with some people from church. That was really fun. It was windy though, so it made it hard to serve the ball right, especially when the wind is blowing against your side. I did a lot of diving in that game.

The other time we went, we went to the same beach, but I instead played with my friend Sam Wilkinson. We built sand fortresses, and had a sand war. Basically, we flung wet sand at each other. Sammy teamed up with me, so I had double the sand flinging power! But all in all, she was really helpful with digging up more ammunition. We also used the shovels to catapult sand bombs at each other. It was really fun. We built our fortresses by a stream of water, so they got flooded in the end. Afterwards, we decided to swim in the sea.

Normally, in the states, when you go to Florida, or Alabama, the sea isn't too cold, or anything. The sea here is FREEZING!!!!! Sam kept calling me a wimp, and I totally was. I was FROZEN when the water got to my hips. It was almost painful! Sam, of course was swimming in it no problem. He, at least, was used to the water.

After finally getting out of the frozen sea, we returned to our forts. Sam's was deeper than mine, as well as flooded with warmer water, so we tried to turn it into a hot tub. We had a bit of trouble, though, as it was already flooded, so there was no way to dig it deeper. We tried, and tried, but eventually, our efforts to drain the jacuzzi just made "sloppy-joe" as Sam called it, water. This water was so filled with sand that if you stuck your hand in, then pulled it back out, it would be COATED with a layer of sand! After playing around with that for a while, we just started making quicksand.

After that, we needed a snack. For a snack, we had a choice of two different treats from the beachside: ice cream (with tons of flavors to choose from-which you could choose two of to have in one cone :) or fresh sugared donuts (HALLELUJAH! THESE ARE HEAVENLY! ;)

If you couldn't tell, I chose the hot donuts. OH MAN. They were BRILLIANT. You could also watch them being made. You could watch the dough get dropped into the fryer, (me and Sam's sound for that was "bloop!") and be tossed in the sugar. It was worth the wait, especially the highly painful wait, because the donuts were too hot to eat!

You could tell we had fun by the thick layer of sand coating our bodies afterwards.

So, my beach trip, filled with fort digging, sand flinging, frozen water, a failed jacuzzi, and some heavenly donuts, was an adventure worth having.

allright!

Hey everbody!

sorry I haven't posted for a while.

the other week, I had the opportunity to attend Especially For Youth (EFY).

for those of you who don't know what that is, I was with you guys until a little before we moved.

EFY is a large activity where the youth of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints ages 14 and older (or if you make the cut-off date like me) get together, have dances, learn the gospel, and enjoy time with other youth from the area. It lasted monday-saturday.

I was able to attend the Leeds (basically, northern England Stakes) EFY, in ENGLAND. It was held at York University, which is in, (you guessed it) York.

It was really cool. We were able to play tons of games, hear loads of speakers, and feel the spirit.

there were two dances there.

one was a learning type dance, where at the beginning we learned how to do two different formal dances: the Foxtrot and the Triple Swing.

how we managed to learn these dances in a mess hall at York University with somewhere around FOUR HUNDRED youth, I will never know. Yes, scarily enough, we had to dance boy-girl.

but, after learning some formal stuff, we had a freestyle period afterwards.

that was crazy, but fun.


the other dance was more formal.

we were dressed up in best dress (shirt, tie, and nice pants for the guys, and a knee length skirt or dress for the girls), and there were more songs for formal dancing.

I decided to be part of the EFY musical program (choir). That was fun. I made some new friends there, and had loads of fun.

we also held a variety show, which is basically a talent show. that was really neat. we had some singers, instrument players, and dancers.

we had classes for two days, in the morning and afternoon. those were neat. you got to choose what class you wanted to go to, and then just go to the room it was being held in. you got to go to four of these a day.

all in all, I grew spiritually, and enjoyed myself during it.

the allright! title, was, (as any of you EFY attenders will know) for the cheer that they do at EFY.

it goes:

allright! allright! allright allright allright HEY!

followed by a clapping pattern, then EFY!

this cheer is triggered whenever anyone says the word allright. (except during devotionals, classes and firesides.)

allright!