Baby shower day! I spent the whole day baking cakes, making filling and buttercream, and decorating like crazy! But the idea in my head turned into a fairly successful reality. It was awesome to see it come to life and I think Rachel liked it, too. The shower was for Rachel Vander Martin, a very good friend of mine who just had a baby girl named Lucy. It was kind of cool to have the shower after her baby was born because the baby could be passed around to all who came instead of being this mysterious bump on the mother's belly. For some reason, I forgot to take pictures of Rachel and Lucy! Whoops!! I forgot all about the camera after I took pictures of the cake and cupcakes at the very beginning. I'm sure I'll get a chance to get a picture of them again soon.
Cupcake liners with baby feet and ultra-cute baby bottle cupcake toppers:
The cutest stickers to hang from the clothesline:
And something I wasn't even looking for but had a great amount of excitement about: Weekly Menu planner sheets with a magnetic back to stick on the fridge! Every week, I scratch out my own with a pen and paper for all the dinners that week. No longer! For only.60 each, I got menu planner pads that were actally super cute, as well as functional. Amazing!
Finally, the cutest little notebook that will be the perfect gift for a someone I have in mind next week. 
Thank you, Michaels! You have made a loyal customer very happy today!
Then we had to pack up, sadly. And once again, it was drizzling rain. We began loading the charer boat once again one bag at a time. Only there were a couple of carts that did about half the work. On the way down the ramp, we saw some fishermen cutting some halibut. I'd never seen halibut except on a plate with breading on it. So it was quite cool to me!
We had some extra time before the boat took off, so we walked up to the Russian Orthodox church that is in town. You can't go inside, so after snapping a few photos, that was really all there was to do. I don't know much about this specific building, but the religion was brought over when Russian explorers settled all over Alaska, particularly along the southern coastline.
There was also a very cute little resaurant/cafe that we stepped inside to see. The table tops liked like this:
They had a bunch of books that you could pull off the shelf and read and you sipped hot cocoa and ate your sandwich. Very cool little place. The second picture is an example of the way many of the shops along the main street looked. This particular place was where I got my postcards.
And a few final shots of the coastline as we sailed away. 
A final good-bye to Outside Beach:
Rachel Brezenski's family moved out of the ward in December but she flew back for camp. I'm so glad she did, because she is an amazing person. She was in Matthias's Sunday School class. Her older brother, Scotty, was in mine. Both of them are just tremendous and I wish they were still up here!
Then it was off to kayaking!! We also went in two groups for kayaking. In our group was Matthias and I, Virginia Owen (leader), Brandon Wilson, Rachel Brezenski, and Sarah Schwicht. We had a bit of trouble taking off but once we were out a ways we got the hang of it. Man, was it gorgeous! Steep rocky cliffs with trees coming up to the edges of the cliffs, the quaintest looking houses right on the water, fog making everything look mysterious, and otters popping up to look at us up close. We got to get within 10 feet of an otter a few times and we just stared at each other. They are the cutest looking animals until they open their mouth and you see their sharp, ferocious teeth. Yikes.
During the time we were waiting for our turn to kayak, we walked over to a spot where there were some salmon and fished. Nothing was caught, but I definitely improved my form. Which is very important, ok? I also bought a few post cards to send and thought they would be good to include so you could get a feel for what we saw kayaking. 
Once back at camp, we cooked up some incredible Hawaiian haystacks and ate way too much. Then it was time for the testimony meeting. Brandon gave a great talk to start off where he talked about how what the world needs most is righteous mothers and fathers to teach their children between right and wrong. It was very well-executed and I hope the girls were as inspired as I was to work hard at being ready to be a good mom someday. I loved hearing each girl's testimony and I see so much potential in each of them. It made me realize how much my own YW leader's must have cared about me when I was there age. It's so nice to be part of something bigger than yourself and realize there are people rooting for you to make it out on top. I only want the best for these girls and consider myself very lucky to have been able to spend this week with them.
