Trek

Brady and I had the opportunity to be a ma and pa for our stake's trek this year. We spent many a Sunday in meeting helping us to prepare spiritually to go on trek. I even read Fire of the Covenant and Brady read tons of historical books on the pioneers.
Although we felt spiritually prepared to go, we were a little lacking in temporal preparation. We had no idea what was going on. We found out, each day, just like our kids did. I guess pioneer parents were the same way, they just had to encourage their kids to keep going and not complain even if they themselves weren't sure of what was in store each day.
The first day was interesting. We had a really good family. They were excited and very eager to make it to Salt Lake. :) They had pushed 3 miles, when we got to Brigham's arrow. They looked at the landmark, and then we were told to turn around and hike back those same 3 miles. Talk about grumbling! I have to admit, I did a little complaining myself. This was not part of the 6 miles/day they told us about. (We ended up hiking 18miles that day!) We got a baby (sack of rice) too. They had real pioneer names on them. Luckily Brady had read about our baby and knew that he would make it to Salt lake, so we didn't have to bury it along the way. There were trail sides along the way also. They had people act out pioneer stories, and sometimes we had treats that went along with it. We had one son that doesn't walk.... I had Brady take the rest of the family and my son and I walked at the very back of EVERYONE for the whole day. Every once in a while I would run to catch up with the rest of my family to make sure they were doing good. My son and I ended up having to catch a ride on the medical 4-wheeler at the very end.... they didn't want to wait for us anymore. It's hard to walk that slow....we never would have made it to salt lake in the olden days.
We got back to camp late, so late that my family ate and then asked if they could go to bed. It's not often that kids ask to go to bed, so we of course said OK. Before they went to bed, I had them grab their buckets and sit in a circle. It was too dark to read scriptures (and I forgot my flashlight) but I told them about a scripture that helped me on my mission, in D&C where we are promised that the Lord will be on our right hand and on our left and that His angels will be round us to bear us up.... I promised them angels to help them if they did their part and asked Heavenly Father for help, and then I had them go around and tell me what their favorite part of that day was. For some it was hard, but I reminded them that it was the journey that was important. I then told them that we would have the same family meeting the next night so they should try to think during the day about what would make them happy. We were blessed with a really good group!
The second day we really did only hike the 6 miles. We had the women's pull, which wasn't as hard as I expected. My girls were awesome. We sang Jesus wants me for a sunbeam, and every time we said sunbeam, we pushed really hard. The girls thought it was fun. Our boys were at the top cheering for us. It was nice to have them take over for us though. We also had cholera hill. We received a letter after lunch telling us who in our party was sick with cholera (bloody diarrhea and vomit) Those who were sick had to just walk to the top of the hill, while the others were left to push the handcart by themselves. Brady and I were both sick, so that left 3 kids to do it. They did awesome! Our handcart tipped, knocking off all of our water and supplies, and we made it to camp around 2, so pioneer games commenced. This helped every one's spirits. There was tug-of-war and water balloons (totally a pioneer game) and they filled up socks with flour and played dodge ball. There was a fireside that night, I got to sing, and Brady got invited to have man steaks with Chad Zito, Kith Mitchell, and Colby Dabb. I wouldn't mind if he hung out with those guys!
The third day was the last one. We had lots of trail side stops and the kids were itching to get to the finish line. There was an awesome one where we were sitting on a grassy field and over a hill came Colby Dabb, dressed like captain Moroni. He spoke like Captain Moroni and had the attention of everyone. It was awesome. Then, finally the trail boss (Kirk Douglass) let our family go first. (We set too fast of a pace, so we weren't allowed to be first the other 2 days). Our boys ran to the finish. They made really good time. :) The girls and I speed walked behind. We let the crazy boys just go!
I bore my testimony the next day at church. What I realized is that there was a lot of complaining. It just occurred to me that the pioneers probably didn't want to have to make all the stops that they did, but still they did it. I mean, who really wants to have their baby die, or have someone get sick, or have to cross a river.... they all wanted to get to Salt Lake too. They had to take care of those in their family though, and sometimes that delays the journey. I remember reading that Brigham Young had to remind them to quit complaining a few times along the trail. And I also remember reading about the valley boys, boys that were called to help and were very eager to get to salt lake. Most of the boys in my group were valley boys. Strong in testimony and eager to push forward to salt lake.
Brady and I had a good experience. It was fun and I look forward to seeing my kids again at the trek reunion next month. Hopefully I can get some pictures to add to this post. I am very grateful for the pioneers and I am very grateful that I didn't have to cross the plains. I would have done it, but it sure would have been hard. I'm truly grateful for their examples of faith and perseverance.

Whitney Reservoir Trip

In July we had the chance to go camping with our neighbors, the Swenson's up at Whitney Reservoir. We didn't plan it, we just happened to be going camping the same weekend and when we asked where they were going and they said the Uintah's we asked if we could tag along. I'm glad we did. It was beautiful!
We got there, set up camp, then went fishing. The kids loved it. Here is the fish Isabel caught.... well, Steve caught it and handed Isabel the pole :)
Ben absolutely LOVED fishing. When anyone caught a fish, he would hold it and throw it back in the water. We didn't keep anything that we caught. Ben only had one casualty.... the poor fish got thrown into a rock and died....

The mosquitos were horrible. Brady went back to the truck and came back all decked out in his repellent gear! :) I eventually begged some repellent off of some other fisherpeople that were there. (Ours was back at the trailer, about 20min away)
Ben loved having Ryan there. He would just lead him wherever he wanted him to go.... and Ryan would go :)

Here is Isabel 'fishing' with her dad.
And here is Ben fishing with his dad. Ben is just getting ready to throw the line out into the water. He swings it like a baseball bat :)
Ben was entranced with anything to do with fish. Here he is waiting eagerly so he can throw the fish back.

Our cute kiddos! This is how they posed when I told them I wanted a picture of them at the lake. Silly kids!

The next day, we took a break from riding 4-wheelers and Isabel tried to catch something.....

Ben tried too.... can you guess what it was????

Yep, cute little butterflies! They were everywhere.
Isabel wanted to be cute and wear my helmet and glasses! (The glasses didn't really help keep bugs out.... When we got back to the trailer, I had to pull bugs out of my eyes...disgusting!) Isabel looks so cute....
Her pretending to drive it! I don't think she could, but Ben has watched very closely so I have no doubt that he could drive it. Hence the reason the keys are kept away from him! We only had one incident where I was driving and screamed a little, and it freaked Ben out! He started hysterically screaming.... I had to go back down the mountain so he would calm down. I only screamed because we were going through a huge mud patch and I lost all traction.... Nothing big :) He eventually calmed down and all was ok! The scenery was gorgeous...... There were trails everywhere and not too many people!

Steve took our picture up there. I think it turned out ok for everyone having helmet hair :)We are all looking at the camera, that's a bonus!
When we got back to camp, we had a visitor. A nice moose came and camped out for half of the day. He was huge. He was about 30ft from our trailer, just laying down, resting. The kids liked to check on him, and were sad to see him walk off.
Here are Ben, Steve and Ryan fishing again. Ben loves Steve. In fact Steve is giving him rides around the cul-de-sac on his 4 wheeler right now. Ben is in heaven.
Here is Steve's catch of the day! What a fisherman!
Here are the kids with Brady. This only happened once or twice, they usually rode with me, and Brady would ride on his dirt bike. I loved having the kids on the back. Isabel would sing, 'whenever I hear the song of a bird, or look at the blue blue sky, whenever I feel the rain on my face or the wind as it rushes by. Whenever I touch a velvet rose or walk by a lilac field, I'm glad that I live in this beautiful world, Heavenly Father created for me!" It's comforting as a mom to know that your kids know that Heavenly Father loves them because He created everything for them!

Fart Gel

The afternoons get pretty hot to ride bikes, so we have been trying a few new things to keep the kids busy indoors. They love homemade playdough! They also love homemade fart gel! It's made with borax, water, elmers glue and food coloring. Pretty easy :)

Here is Isabel saying "fart".....
They laughed for a good 30min! And for my kids, 30min of entertainment, that is awesome :)
Great inexpensive way to have cooler fun this summer!

Ben's Frog

One day when I was at work, Krystle and Kandi took my kids to the South Ogden fair. Ben won a game, and as a prize got a frog. Ben took that frog with him everywhere. It would sit by him on the floor (in his bowl of course) when he would watch tv, and it would be on the table with him when he was eating. He liked to blow in the bowl, tap the side, and shake it to make him swim. With all of this love, I was amazed that he lasted as long as he did....
3 whole days! Amazing, I know. Back to pet worms!

This one's for you , mom!

Step #1 - fuel (well I guess this is really step #2 cause Brady chained the birdhouse to his truck and pulled it out of the ground.... didn't get a picture of that!)

Step #2 - Light it
Step#3 - watch it burn and be gone forever! :)

Step #4 - go get spinach out of the garden while it burns in the background! (the kids thought this was awesome!)

We seem to be good at destroying things at our house, so we decided to destroy something you wanted gone anyways! So, there you have it! No more birdhouse out front!

Party on the 4th!

For the past few years Kandi and Nick have had a party at their house on the 4th of July. This year just me and the kids went. It was a blast! Here is Ben playing in the sprinklers!

Isabel loves soaping up and going down the giant slip and slide!

Here is Nick going on the slip and slide. He and his friend were pretty tricky :)

And Ben loves all things water, so he also enjoyed the slip and slide!

Grandma Tracie had her huge water slide there. This is right before Ben went down.


Isabel preferred a different type of slide this year. She like sliding into the toddler pool! It was a great time! Thanks for inviting us Nick and Kandi!

Happy Birthday Brady!

Isabel was very excited for her dad's birthday this year. Brady told me that he wanted 'something to blow up' (fireworks) for his birthday, so that is what we got him. Well, the kids weren't ok with dad not having any presents to open up, so they got him a few other things. Before the presents though, Isabel gave Brady the card that she made him. She made a watermelon (although not in a true shape of a watermelon) and cut it up into tiny pieces. She told Brady it was a puzzle for him, and he had to put it together before he could open his presents. Brady said it was the hardest puzzle he has ever done :)

Isabel was so excited for Brady to open the present she picked out for him, she helped him open it and then modeled it for him!

Then she had him try them on......

And then it was Ben's turn :)

Then Isabel modeled Brady's new shirt. I didn't get a picture of her modeling his new basketball shorts.... they are red to match the headband and wristbands :)

Isabel asked Brady if he was going to golf for his birthday. Brady said no, cause it was too expensive, he would just go play basketball instead.... so when we saw this at the store, the kids thought it was perfect! Daddy could golf with them in the backyard!!
Later that night we did do fireworks. Yes, these are illegal ones. The boys had fun for sure!
Loading the bottle rocket launchers....
All the boys (and Isabel) getting in on the action! Those things were loud. No wonder they were free with purchase!

I didn't get any good pictures of the big fireworks. It was quite a show though! Lots of fun!

This is one of Isabel's friends. Shylo. She and her family came to watch too. All in all a fun day! Happy birthday Brady! We love you tons :)