One of my favourite things to do with my kids every year is to attend Youth Leadership Conference.It’s a yearly conference put on by our church for youth ages 14-18 at the University of Waterloo. I volunteer as a “house leader”, meaning I’m in charge of 8-10 girls. Each “house” is paired up with another girl house and 2 boy houses. This makes up a “branch”. Josh was in my branch this year so it was fun to be with him. We were often paired with Zandra’s branch, so I loved being able to see her here and there.Zach (and Rachael – she is leaving for France in 2 weeks to be an au paire so the two are joined at the hip right now!!) seemed to be around a lot too so I got to see them frequently too!It’s completely exhausting with a go-go-go schedule. It’s 4 days long and it includes 4 key note speakers, 6 workshops, 1 sports afternoon, 1 service project, morning and night devotionals with your house and branch, 1 talent show, 1 opening dance, 1 formal dance, and 1 testimony meeting. There’s tons of walking to different events where the kids (600 in total) pair up to walk with each other to get to know each other.This doesn’t include all meal times, and of course staying up late to talk to your amazing roommate (I totally lucked out with an amazing kindred spirit!!).

At the end, I am completely exhausted.

But also so recharged and energized. This year felt particularly good and I noted my kids came out of it changed.

I feel so blessed that they get to attend this each year. At the end of each keynote, we all sing a song called “EFY Medley” which usually has me bawling and with goosebumps, and confirmation that this is the place for my teens. This part is my fave part when all the boys stand and I happened to have the perfect view of my boys this time: Here are some highlights:

Josh volunteered in one workshop and won top answer for Family feud:Zandra helped out my roommate’s son, who has some special needs, take some notes:Sports day was fun for some, despite being rained out:Meet our friend Alex ; we told him he’d debut on the blog with this picture! Can you tell they all got rained on?! :The first dance is always a hit. Had to try to capture Josh in a conga line:And the service project is always an amazing experience (Zandra wasn’t in my group unfortunately, but the boys were):The boys in the branch always find a fun way to ask the girls in the branch to the dance. This is Josh’s group (my group) asking:And of course, the formal dance:

My group (Josh’s too):

And the most beautiful kids:

With dates:

I got more with these two since they are more permanent dates 🙂

My little squad (best house leaders!):

I loved my roommate’s son:

At the dance:

These two won an award for best couple (they got soaked in the rain):

At the end of the conference, everyone wants the farewell pics:

Meet Grace. She was in my house two years ago and I have a thing for her. Love this girl!:

We have these same pics of these two 4 years in a row (I should pull them out to do a side by side to see how much they’ve grown!)

I take my kids home in the car with me (they come to conference in a bus, but by the end, the bus is less appealing!) It’s one of my favourite drive homes ever as we debrief over everything we learned, share our COWS (crush of the week; mine was definitely my roommate’s son), share funny stories and life changing inspirational moments. It’s awesome.

My kids rock. Just saying.

There’s nothing greater than being surrounded by 600 youth – and 150 adult leaders who take time out of their busy lives to volunteer – as they try to become better people through learning, service, inspiration and fun.