Ma's and Pa's and Their Kiddo's

This summer I was called to be a Ma, with Dave as Pa, over a group of youth for our stake youth conference – a handcart trek to Martin’s Cove. We were divided into groups in May, so the work started early. I have to say that by the time we left I had to work pretty hard to convince myself that I still wanted to go, but I know our going was for a purpose because in all actuality, we shouldn’t have been going, but that’s another story for another time. Our “family” changed so many times over the months leading to youth conference that I was pretty nervous by the time the day came. We ended up with two girls, Rebecca Minor and Taylor Johnson (Green River) and six boys, Jake Colyar, Dexter (Dex Wayne) Sheets, Koi Cook, Calen Shumway, Tyler Hickerson (Green River) and Lane Talbot who joined our group the day before we left. I was also nervous about trying to deal with six boys. I do girls better J But I grew to love these boys!! They were so enthusiastic, so much fun to be around, and so cooperative and obedient. The girls, too, but I can do girls, the boys surprised me.

I got up Wednesday morning, July 28^th at 4:00 am, showered hard enough and straightened my hair straight enough to last for four days, and headed to the church at 5:30. We had a short devotional, got in our rented Tahoe; Dave and I, Jake, Koi, Calen, Dex, Rebecca and Shalia Harmison from another family, and we took off. The ride was 9 hours long and I was pretty worried about keeping six teen aged kids entertained for 9 hours in a Chevy Tahoe, but they were pretty self entertaining, so the ride went pretty fast. We arrived at Martin’s Cove at about 3:00 pm, met up with our Green River kids and went to orientation. We sang Come, Come Ye Saints for the opening song, I was playing the piano, so it wasn’t good that I started crying at that moment, but it became a common thing for the rest of the trip. I know there is a special spirit where faithful pioneers have walked, and I know the Lord concentrates His spirit where ever his youth are meeting together, so a double dose of spirit and I was teared up pretty much the whole time.

We got our handcarts and took off – and I mean TOOK OFF – with six boys brimming with pent up energy at the helm. Wynette Hawks, our stake young women’s president, told me when she added Lane to our group that she was concerned these boys were going to give me a run for my money. I was starting to realize how true that was, but in a whole different way than both of us realized. I ran to keep up with them as they ran with our handcart J

We trekked three miles that afternoon arriving atour camp site at about 6:00. It was a big open dirt field with the few fire pits, the wind was blowing from all directions, we were trying to gather our stuff, set up camp, set up tents, deal with blisters (already) and cook dinner all at the same time. The dinner system was, you took a cooler to the food camp, they filled it, you went and got it and left another cooler to be filled for the next meal. Tyler went and got our food cooler and when I looked in it and saw a package of spaghetti noodles and one bottle of spaghetti sauce, my heart dropped. This wasn’t enough food for six boys! I sent Tyler back to the food camp to get another bottle of sauce ( I looked on the bottle and it said “serves five” so thought they must have forgotten one) but he came back empty handed. He said they didn’t have anymore and this should be enough. So I started to boil water to cook the noodles.

The wind was blowing so hard that even on high the flame wouldn’t boil the water. Finally we just threw the noodles in. BIG mistake, because then the noodles wouldn’t cook. They just glommed together as I trying to separate them. I threw a lid on the pot hoping it would hold in the heat better and took Rebecca to the first aid station to have her blister looked at, where I was told by the five first aid people who weren't doing anything at all, to just to go back to camp and put duct tape on it. I was pretty frustrated by then, so I wasn’t having nice thoughts towards ANYONE in the food or first aid camps. I marched back to camp, put duct tape on Rebecca’s blister, went to look at our spaghetti, and OH MY GOSH!! It was a mess. The noodles were stuck together, the water now had the consistency of glue, and it STILL wasn’t boiling. I hurried and tried to drain the glue water off the noodles, but it was so thick it wouldn’t drain. I tried running cold water over it to dilute it enough that it would drain, but that just made the noodles even more sticky. Finally I looked at the pot of gloppy noodles and glue, looked at the tiny little bit of sauce warming on the other burner of our camp stove, dumped them together and called our family to dinner. They had been fighting with tents that wanted to act more like kites than tents, so they were worn out and hungry. The spaghetti didn’t look too bad sitting there in the pan with the sauce on it, so I was hoping it would taste somewhat as good as it looked, but NO. Unaware of what they were getting themselves into, the kids dished up the spaghetti onto their plates and dug in. I watched their faces go from hungry excitement to confusion, to disgust. I took a bite of mine. It was BAD. It tasted like flour and water, which was ironic when you think about it, because the pioneers ate flour and water. The only difference was, we had plenty of it :0 Jake looked up at me and said, “Ma, what is this?” I said, “It’s spaghetti glue, Jake, eat up.” Lane joined in. “I thought we were having spaghetti. What went wrong?!” We had Dave dig a hole and they all buried our dinner in the ground while I hiked to the parking area and got some jerky and a bowl of grapes out of our Tahoe and that’s what we ate for dinner. Jerky and grapes. I also gave them a package of sunflower seeds at our family devotional about faith later that night, so they really didn't go hungry. I, on the other hand, was disappointed and frustrated and, I admit, ready to go home. I crawled into bed ready for a good night’s sleep that, although I didn’t know it at the time, was NOT going to happen . . .

Celebrating Freedom in Red Rocks and Blue Jeans

Our 4th of July celebration was the BEST! We had cute grandkids to play with . . .

Baby bunnies to snuggle . . .


And a lot of fun to be had.

The weekend was hot, but we made the most of it. There was a hike to Delicate Arch at night because we had a cute girl from Singapore staying with us and she needed to see it. . .

A trip to the sand hill because we pass it every time we come into Moab and when the kids say, "can we stop and play at the sand hill?" We always say, "Some day."

Well, some day finally came. Brody LOVED wallowing in the sand. He crawled in it, laid in it, ate some of it, and just had a good, good time.

Capri, on the other hand, wouldn't STAND for it. Not for a minute. And she was still mad for 20 minutes after we took her out of it.

Kimbrey, Daniel, Aiden and Chase climbed to the tip top of the hill several times and sledded down. They weren't very good at it.

Here they come! Kimbrey, Aiden and Chase. Oh No! They're loosing Aiden :) :0

We had so much fun at the sand hill Chase couldn't stand it! So the next day we went to Sand Dune Arch. It was the perfect outing for a hot day. Sand Dune Arch is back behind the rocks in the shade. The sand was nice and cool and we had it pretty much to ourselves.

Chase was a good sport and let us bury him in the sand.

When he got out, Chase and I climbed into a tiny, narrow slot between the rocks. It was an adventure!

When we were kids we used to climb to the top of Sane Dune Arch and jump off the back side into the sand. I'm older and wiser now, so I didn't jump off, but I did climb to the top for old time's sake. Come to Moab! We'll take you on an adventure, too.

Boys + Great Outdoors = Happiness

While going through pictures on my memory card last night in preparation for Girls Camp, I came across these two of Drew. They apparently were taken while I was in my not blogging state of life.

This one is just cool. A nicely in focus picture of Drew riding past me with the background blurred. It shows motion, and I couldn't replicate this if I tried all day.

And here Drew is all geared up and ready to rappel off the side of a mountain. This is his new high adventure "thing".

Me, myself, am spending the weekend doing my new high adventure "thing". Playing with two grandboys while their parent celebrate an anniversary. We were up bright and early this morning, dressed, fed and outside by 6:30.

Chase is in love with Drew's old blue scooter. He "practices" riding it everywhere, and periodically . . .

It has to be gassed up.

He also loves going HIGH on the horse swing! Brody had lots of fun in the baby swing, but his pictures were all blurry. Apparently he was swinging too high and fast :)

It always amazed me when little boys bypass a yard full of nice grass and sit down to play in the gravel. What's up with that?

But he finally got up, climbed up on this rock, and posed for me. Actually, he heard Grandpa's crow hollering and was trying to see where the noise was coming from. What a cutie!

Right now the house is quiet. Brody is napping, Drew took Chase to the park (Chase rode the scooter there, of course) and I am planning our next big adventure. After all, Kimbrey and Daniel won't be back until tomorrow, and there is still fun to be had!

Slickrock Fun

It has been SO fun having Brennan home for a couple of weeks. We're going to loose him to USU summer semester soon, but today we talked him into riding with us on the Slickrock trail.

I, myself didn't ride a motorcycle. I twisted my ankle on Saturday's hike, and again in my heels on Sunday, so I'm on bed rest until our handcart trek. I rode the moutain bike you can see in the foreground there.
At least, I rode it to the trail head and then sat on the rock and read a book while Dave and Brennan rode the loop. It worked out best for everyone involved. AFTER Dave got his flat tire fixed and AFTER he ran back home for gas for Brennan's bike. We were NOT well prepared today :)

While Dave ran home for gas, Brennan rode Dave's bike around the practice loop. There he is WAY off in the distance there. And if you can't see him, just look at the pretty scenery. It was beautiful up on Slickrock today.

Here's Brennan coming in from his practice loop on Dave's bike. Chase, what kind of motorcycle is Brennan riding? That Chaser knows his motorcycles!!
Finally they got it together and rode the Slickrock loop. While I sat in the nice, cool outdoors with the beautiful scenery surrounding me and read. What a perfect Memorial Day!

A Good Day . . .

Memorial Weekend with no company is such a bummer! But we got up bright and early this morning determined to make the best of it. I did some algebra, which took ALL morning :( and after a good lunch at the Rotary Park with the boys, Dave and I headed out to hike. We went here.

To Secret Spire, a pretty cool looking rock. I can't tell you where it is . . . because it is a secret :):):):) Just kidding, I was reading all the way, so I have no idea how we got there. But our mission was to find a trail that went all the way to the river. And it was a hard job!

We stopped once in the shade and laid down under a tree. This is what it looked like laying down under that tree. It was so pretty I had to take a picture.

We also found a gnarly looking cedar tree whose trunk had twisted almost into a knot. So Dave had me stand by it while he took a picture. I think he forgot about the knot, but here's a picture of me :)

I'm not sure how he did this, but I like it. It looks like I'm being beamed up into heaven, and that's not a bad place to be beamed up to. Beam me up, Scotty!! Oh, and in this pic, you can see the knot. We never made it to the river, but we'll go back someday and try again. We're hikers, after all.

An Aquarium in Salt Lake???

Who would have guessed that here in Utah, far, far away from the ocean, there would be an aquarium to visit? We were in Salt Lake last week, so after Kimbrey and I finished with a session here
I wish I had taken this picture, by the way. Isn't it nice? The Temple was, too. Big enough to make me feel like I was in a Temple in Salt Lake, but small enough to make me feel comfortable. I come from the land of the very tiny Monticello Temple, after all. I get more than a little panicky when I don't know where I am or where I need to go from here.
Warning!! These next photos were taken with my phone camera, so they are not-so-good. But at least I HAD my phone camera :)

After our Temple session, we took Chase and Brody to the Aquarium while Dave and Daniel went to boring USA-All meetings. And we got to pet the Manrays, find Nemo,

See them feed the penguins . . . .

And then watch the penguins swim around! We got to see sharks, octopuses, all kinds of cool ocean creatures. And what did Chase want to see?

The frogs. Over and over again. "Let's go see the frogs!" And when we left, because he was SO good, I let him pick out a prize from the gift shop. He chose a frog. Two frogs, actually. Funny Chase! What a good time we had, and how nice to know that we don't need no stickin' ocean!!

Three Boys, a Girl, a Dad, and A Jumping Jacks Air Slide Competition

First up, the kid you can't see through because he's just so brown, The Aidenator, Aiden Gordon.

Wild, unabashed, and free.

Notice Porter, watching from the top, taking in the technique.

Sometimes sliding headfirst . . . .

Other times barrel rolling down the slide

Overall, I think he's satisfied with his performance. Good job Aiden!

Next up in our blow up slide competition we present Porter Cozzens.
Porter is the climbing champ of the competition.

Porter's slide form is classic. He starts out careful and methodical.

But before too long his free spirit starts to come out.

And he is dazzling us with his jumps.

Good show Porter. Well done!

Next we present Bridger, the Brig man! He is casual and unhurried climbing up the slide . . .

But when he is coming down!

This kid is all over the place! He really puts on a show for the crowd.

Nice form, Bridger. Way to wow the competition!

Not to be outdone by the boys, we present Miss Capricious and her balancing act.

You've got talent little Capri. What a budding star :)

And now for your entertainment pleasure, we bring you Aiden and Capri's Daddy.

This is Kenny, the budding blog star. It's his birthday today. Happy Birthday Kenny!!
And that ends our coverage of the Jumping Jacks Air Slide competition
Thanks to our competitors for a great blow up slide show. It couldn't have been better