Steubenville Youth Conference

Steubenville Youth Conference
Franciscan University of Steubenville
June 19th-21st, 2009

So I am a volunteer for my church's high school youth group throughout the year and each summer they attend the Steubenville Youth Conference at Franciscan University. I had never attended this conference as a teen myself, so the whole experience was new to me. It was a great time to sing a lot of praise and worship songs, have a powerful adoration time, and celebrate with over 2000 other youth from all over the United States. It was a wonderful time away and I encourage all others to give it a chance. Here's a couple of pictures capturing the events...

ALIVE Festival 2009
Canal Fulton, Ohio

Thursday, June 18th, 2009

So my buddy Beth and I won these free tickets to the ALIVE festival this year via Willy's photo scavenger hunt contest on the radio. Anyways, I could only go there on Thursday evening and lucky for us, the rain held out the whole night. We got to see a few cool bands, manned Willy's station's tent and attempted to answer questions, and got some good food to eat. I was saddened that the water slides and other events were closed for the day, but it was a nice time nonetheless. Next year it will be more than an hour away at Atwood Lake...sigh! Here are a couple of pictures:

First-timer

So I decided (with some prompting by my lovely friend Whitney) to start a blog. I didn't think my life was too exciting to read about, but we'll give it a shot. I've decided to creat a blog that documents my traveling adventures. Maybe it'll get to the point where I will just travel somewhere so I can blog about it! (let's hope not though...)

My first entry is all about the trip I spent in Provo and Salt Lake City, Utah with Whitney and her new hubby Aaron.

Tuesday, May 26th, 2009- Sunday, May 31st, 2009

So we cooked some awesome meals almost every night. Salmon, stuffed pasta shells, quesadillas, and so many awesome desserts. Aaron not only helped but cleaned up afterwards too...the perfect man!

Everything was so delicious and I can't wait to be able to cook as well as Whit!

Whit is an awesome artist and I'm forcing her to paint me a pretty geometric print dealing with the stars/constellations. I need to get married so I can have my own personal, one-of-a-kind paiting!

We went on some awesome hikes and were really blessed with pretty much beautiful weather the whole time. I've never experienced seeing snowcapped mountains and the temperature being over 70 degrees (I'm obviously an Alaskan); so it was kind of a reality check for me that that actually exists. I decided that I HAVE to live somewhere that I can see mountains on a daily basis. I think the western U.S. is calling my name!

Some of the hikes we went on were the famous "Y Mountain" at BYU: approximately 1000 feet incline to a large cemented Y on the side of the mountain. Definitely awesome and something I would do weekly as a fabulous work out. We also hiked to Bridal Veil Falls, a beautiful and big waterfall more into the canyon area of Provo. It was very refreshing and picture perfect. Lastly, we hiked to Ensign Peak in Salt Lake City where Brigham Young stood and mapped his perfect city from the lookout point.

As I said, we baked some fabulous desserts and I got Whit and Aaron to try some of my hometown favorites like rhubarb crisp and banana bread. Everything was so scrumptious I know I gained at least 5 pounds eating all that!

The day before I headed out to town, we went to Salt Lake City. We made a pitstop at IKEA (a first-time visit for me...wow!) and then toured around the city, saw the historic Temple Square and surrounding buildings as well as actually went into the great salt lake. Though the salt lake experience was kinda creepy, it was a memorable time. Temple Square was a beautiful place and I'm sad I didn't get to see Whitney and Aaron's big day there last summer.


I had a SUPER trip and can't be more thankful for Aaron and Whitney's supreme hospitality. They fed, entertained, and were more than happy to be around me every waking minute for 5 days. I can't wait to visit again wherever they end up and also to repay them on their must-go trip to Alaska.
Until next time...over and out from Steph's Travel Adventures.

Next stop: Steubenville, Ohio for the Steubenville Youth Conference, June 19th, 2009 to June 21st, 2009.