Summer Activities:

Week One (May 14-May 22):
    Christene and I arrived in Champaign Illinois on a Friday night.  We spent the whole day flying because we had a couple of layovers, one of which was five hours long.  Shortly after we arrived at our apartment, a couple of guys from the student ward, Dave and Eric, here called us and welcomed us here.  They took us on a tour of the campus.  We were happy to have received such a warm welcome. 
    On Saturday, one of YY's graduate students Qingbo took us shopping for food and then gave us a ride to an end-of-the-semester barbeque. The barbeque was a blast.  There was a variety of food there.  I don't know what most of it is called, but it was good.  We attempted to fish in YY's lake.  It was pretty cool, but we didn't catch or even see any fish.  We also played ping-pong.  I also was able to play on one of my favorite pieces of workout equipment, which I hadn't seen since high school.  It was a bench that is declined on one side.  I think the only purpose for it is to do sit-ups, but I'm not sure.  Anyway, there is a bar to put your feet against and when you lay down on the bench, your head is lower than your knees.  So, it's like doing sit-ups, but you have a lot further to go to sit up.  It is one of my favorite exercises.  Anyway, I did a bunch of those and then was sore for the next few days.  It felt pretty good.
    On the next Friday, we had a ward activity at Homer Lake.  It was a lot of fun.  There was a softball game and a campfire.  We roasted hotdogs, marshmallows, and Starbursts.  I've never heard of roasting Starbursts before, but they weren't bad.  I also enjoyed Dave's country music on the ride up to Homer lake.  I'm not sure that I'll ever be a country fan, but I definitely do like some country songs.
   On Saturday and Sunday there was stake conference.  After the Saturday night session we went and ate frozen custard because it was Adam's birthday.  I really enjoyed both sessions of the stake conference, but I especially liked the Saturday night session.

Week Two (May 23-May 29):
    I went to a YSA conference in Chicago this weekend.  I really enjoyed the trip.  We started out early Saturday and went to the temple.  Then we went to the conference.  We heard a couple of speakers, went to a few workshops, played some soccer, ate, and danced.  The workshops were pretty good.  Good advice was given on how to manage money and how to get more out of scripture study.  However, I did feel like the information presented wasn't completely relevant to my life right now.  Nevertheless, I'll try to remember the good advice just in case I need it in the future.  I don't always like dances, but the one on Saturday night was pretty fun because my friend Dave taught me some dance moves.  Anyway, we stayed at someone's house while we were at the conference and they were really nice.  They offered us lots of food (and it was really good) and comfortable places to sleep and a warm welcome. 
    On Sunday, we went to the cemetery and visited a grave.  Then, we went to church and to a fireside.  The fireside was a success panel.  They brought in three people who were successful in life and had the audience ask questions.  Then on Monday, went went to the temple again and went to an indoor picnic (it was raining) and then went home.  Overall, the weekend was great and the people I carpooled with (Bryna, Sarah, and Dave) were great!  I enjoyed getting to know them better. 

Week Three (May 30-June 5):
    Christene and I moved to another apartment.  It's pretty cool because we have a computer lab, swimming pool, hot tub, game room, and workout room.  I haven't had much time to spend using those facilities yet, but I'm moving in on them really soon. 
    We had a pie eating contest on Wednesday night.  The pie was so good.  There were banana cream, vanilla cream, and chocolate pies.  I ate banana cream pie.  There was whip cream loaded on top of course.  Who would've thought that a mouth full of sugar could taste so good.  Anyway, I lost by a long shot because I was taking my time to eat it at first.
    Then on Thursday, I went shopping for clothes.  I had a blast because I found lots of clothes that I liked that were on sale.  I usually don't take joy in shopping for clothes, but I made an exception.
    We went camping over the weekend.  I tried skipping rocks across the lake that we were camping by, but didn't have much luck.  We took a rowboat out on the lake and paddled around for a while.  Our group had a few boats out on the water, so we threw a frisbee around and would chase after it in our boats.  A couple of people were out in a canoe, which would travel much faster, so it was always a race to get the frisbee before the people in the canoe did.  It was a nice relaxing trip.  We sang some songs around the campfire and looked at some stars.  We also did a few skits.  They were pretty interesting.

Week Four (June 6-June 12):
    On Tuesday we finally went swimming.  We went at night, but the water wasn't too cold.  We were also finally able to get ice cream in Wednesday because somehow somebody made room in our freezer for it.  So yay!  Ice Cream!  We were relying on popsicles for the past week.  It's not that hot here yet, but the rumor is that it'll get hot.  Dave showed up at our house and did our dishes!  It was totally awesome, but completely unexpected.  He also took our garbage out. 
    I just learned of swing dancing lessons that are being taught once a week.  I'm going to try it out.  It'll be fun!!!  I also just discovered that they have a gymnastics team here.  I'm going to see if I can go practice with them if they practice during the summer.  That'd be tons of fun for me especially because I didn't take gymnastics last semester and might not be able to take it this fall.  We'll see what happens.
    On Friday we went to the St. Louis Missouri Temple and did baptisms.  It was a good experience  the temple is pretty nice.  Saturday Christene and I went grocery shopping and cooked some random things that we didn't know how to cook and also some things that we knew how to cook.  The food turned out alright, which is good 'cause we were precooking it for the next day.

Week Five (June 13-June 19):
    Sunday we had some people over for dinner.  Our guests enjoyed the food, and the desert was really good!  We started, but didn't finish, playing Skipbo and went to a musical fireside.  Monday, was my birthday.  It was great!!  One of my friends decorated my office for my birthday!  My roommates also threw me a party.  We went with YY to get ice cream after the presentations on Tuesday.  YY gave some pretty good insight on being successful as far as graduate studies and jobs are concerned.  Bryna, Sarah, and I took a trip to Kansas City, Missouri on Friday and Saturday.  It was a great experience.  We stopped off at the Visitor's Center in Independence and at then went to the Liberty jail. 

Week Six (June 20-June 26):
    We had a watermelon seed spitting contest after institute on Wednesday.  I didn't compete, but it was pretty entertaining.  I found a hula hoop in the institute building.  I like playing with hula hoops.  I also was able to play with Ruth's violin.  It was fun 'cause it has been a while since I've played.  Thursday was the first day of my swing dancing class.  Christene and I enjoyed it.  There's always free swing dancing on Thursday nights too.  That was pretty fun.  On Saturday, I played kickball and was actually doing better at it than I had expected to do.  I usually can't catch anything, but I actually caught a couple of balls.  I moved rocks and pulled weeds as part of a service project, and received lots (about eight) of mosquito bites.

Week Seven (June 27-July 3):
    Swing dancing was pretty fun this week.  Tina and Paul started teaching me the Lindy Hop.  A group of us got together and watched Spiderman I and II on Friday.  Then on Saturday, I went on a treasure hunt.  We didn't quite get to the treasure because we it rained and we were soaked.  Then, I watched some fireworks that night.

Week Eight (July 4-July 10):
    On Sunday, I went to Church, Break the Fast, and then to watch fireworks.  It was a very nice day.  On Friday we went to the St. Louis temple and did baptisms for the dead.  Saturday I sewed some duffle bags and wheelchair bags for a service project.

Week Nine (July 11-July 17):
    Sunday after church we went to a park and walked around.  I actually swung on a swing in a dress.  I tied up the bottom so it wouldn't come up, so it worked.  That was pretty fun.  I like swings.  We ate dinner at the Allen's and then went to the Clarkstreet boys' house and watched videos of them toilet-papering people's  rooms.  It was actually pretty entertaining.  The boys were pretty sneaky and had everything all planned out.  We played capture the flag after the lesson for family home evening.

Week Ten (July 18-July 28):