I am TIRED!

This is not a complaint just airing my thoughts.  What do you do as a stay at home mom, when you really want to be involved at school with the parent club and in the classroom, at church not only in your calling but help others as well, exercise, craft, help throw celebrations, take care of your kids...I am exhausted and I haven't even done anything yet.  In fact my next goal is to clean my house so it will be ready in the morning for a baby shower.  None of the jobs I take on are overwhelming, and if I were an organized individual it would not be an issue.  I am a procrastinator, and a little on the lazy side too.  This is NOT humility speaking it is fact.  Will anyone who comes to my house please give me a "True Dat!" (Tara that was for you!)  My house is not clean, infact it is rarely picked up with the exception of the 10 minutes before Jeremy gets home until I am left alone with the children again the next morning.

Again I am starting to get stuck in the rut that I hear my self repeating the phrase "If I can just get through this week."  On my list of commitments, there is not one thing I want to scratch off or feel I need to scratch off.  I am very fortunate to have friends who are willing to swap sitting with me so I can be available for my kids at school (I love my friends!)  I am grateful for a husband that would prefer the house be clean, the laundry done and dinner on the table when he walks in the door, but roles up his sleeves, takes a deep breath and gets to work...some more.  I have help, I am not doing this alone.  But man I am exhausted.  I am absolutely positive this has nothing to do with staying up until 2:00am having a great time chatting it up with some friends!

A Wonderful Saturday

It was a wonderful day for me, not so much for Jeremy.  He worked really hard cleaning up the garage.  While I read the piles of old letters that I wrote him starting in high school, then moving on to college, while he was on his mission, then after I said good bye as he moved to Utah to go to school fully expecting to get a letter saying he met his future bride.

I loved reading the letters and seeing how he has always been my best friend.  There were letters telling him about relationships, problems at home, stressful days at work, questions of my future.  I just couldn't help reading it and know that we were supposed to be together.

One of my favorite lines was when he was on his mission and getting close to coming home.  I was asking about his plans and I said something like this "You'll come home, go to college, get married and have a million kids. You always have goals and you always achieve them!"  When I read it I thought how funny that it was me he had about a million kids with.  Another line was saying that the girl who finally gets her hands on him would be extremely lucky.  Again, who knew it would be me.  To this day I still love him and feel so blessed to be married to a great man.

Also in the box was a key chain that contained these two pictures.  They were taken when we started dating in December of '98, the second time is how I refer to it, since we dated in high school too.

So young huh?  He looks a little more tired now and I a little more round, but we are still this much in love!

Creative Cousins

It seems like the last little bit we have not seen the cousins very much so we were especially surprised when we got the call asking if Gwen and Spencer could come over for a little bit.  Of course we are always willing to have some fun with them.  LA is just too far away!

As the girls were sitting around wondering what to do I asked if they wanted to sew something.  Being that they are both new to the craft I tried to think of something that would be easy, and cute.  So we decided to make monsters, well sort of.  Using the craft stash from Grandma June, the girls picked out this super cute fabric.  I gave them paper to draw the shape of their monster, creating a pattern.  Next they got to cut them out.

Putting right sides together they sewed the pieces together.  Gwen said that sewing was a lot easier than she thought.

Miranda on the other and said she thought it was harder.  Both girls quickly got the hang of it, although applying the correct pressure on the pedal was the hardest part.

Then they turned them and stuffed them.

Next came the hand stitching.  They stitched the  hole closed, then sewed on buttons for eyes.  Grandma June had the biggest button collection.

Then they cut out mouths and sewed them on to the face of their monster.  Meanwhile a little monster who will remain nameless, let her own creative juices flow.  

This is powdered sugar.  The funny thing is when I saw the bag on the counter last night, I thought 'I should put this away.'  Then about 15 minutes before this discovery, I thought 'where is Lauren?'  Too bad I have yet to act on those promptings.  One of these days Heavenly Father will get through to me!

 The mouth got a little skewed but I think she did a great job for it being her first sewing project!  I didn't get a picture of Gwen's before she left, but it was equally as cute!

Houseparty Rocks

I hosted my third House Party.  Just a quick  back ground, I have done a Ziploc one, lots and lots of great products, then I got chosen to do a Hasbro Game Night, where we got about $80 in games to add to our closet, including the just released Trivial Pursuit Bet You Know it!  If you want to try it out come over and play.  The most recent was a Boboli Pizza Crust on the Grill party.

They sent me 8 $5.00 coupons to purchase bobolui pizza crusts and I provided toppings.

We heated up the grills and started whipping up pizzas.  I made 2 Pepperoni, 1 cheese, 1 Lime Chicken and Cilantro (the recipe came in the party pack), so yummy! I made a BBQ Chicken Pizza, with bacon, tomatoes, green onions and a Garlic Ranch Sauce.  A meat lovers, pepperoni, canadian bacon and crumbled bacon then one with slice tomatoes and Basil over a Garlic Ranch Sauce.  The last one was pepperoni and bacon...it was all that was left for the toppings.

 

It looks like I am the only one working but I totally put my guests to work.  All the ladies helped while the guys played with the kids.  I can totally see why the men typically take on the grilling responsibilities!

I am sure it was a good change for the Dad's too! Unfortunately, Jeremy's highlight had nothing to do with food (serious, I am not jesting!) early in the day he acquired a toy from his youth.  A Spin Jammer, it is a frisbee that has a little cone in the middle so you can spin it or catch it on your finger tip.  Jeremy said it is awesome for tricks!  I think he may be caressing it in the above picture

The most awesome part was the food tent.  It is awesome for BBQ's I think all the ladies would have traded their super cool Boboli reusable totes for this bad boy! (It is the little red tent over a pizza.)

Over all I think it was a success.  Thank you www.houseparty.com and Boboli!

There and Back again!

Sometime early in the year some friends put together a camping trip to Yosemite.  Jeremy had been and hiked Half Dome with the guys but we thought it would be so much fun to experience it with the family.  We looked forward to it for quite some time.  The week before we were going to go, Jeremy informed me that he couldn't leave work for several important reasons.  I was upset.  We had really only planned this one vacation, of the eight families (I think it was seven) we were already down to 4 including us and I REALLY wanted to go.  I asked Jeremy if I could go with out him, to which he quickly replied no.  For the safety of our children and myself, not because he was sad to be missing out on the experience.  After much pouting on my end, he reluctantly agreed.  Then I pleaded with my friends to see if they would be willing to help out with the kids while I did stuff like set up the tent (and help with this part too!) and cooked.  They wholeheartedly stepped up to the plate.

So Tuesday morning, I had the car all packed and we were off.  Honestly I wasn't too nervous, but I knew I had a good support system.  The drive there went smoothly, with no incidents.  There is one part that I probably almost wet my pants, it was scary.  You go up this super windy (as in lots of turns) road.  I think you change about 1500 feet in elevation in 5 miles.  It is crazy.  Luckily I knew when it would end and I was watching the odometer when I got the chance.

Once we got into Yosemite Valley we stopped and walked to Lower Yosemite Falls.  It was beautiful.  I can not tell you how amazing it is to be in the valley of Yosemite.  It is so beautiful.  It was really hard to watch the kids and take pictures so my options are limited.  Here is the group we caravan-ed with.  The three that aren't mine played, carried, watched chased, etc.  my two little ones pretty much the whole time.  They were so good with all my kids.

I tried to get one with just my kids and this was the best I could get.  I finally got Lauren to open her eyse and Logan closed his, oh well!

At about 5:30 we arrived at our campsite where the other two families were already set up.  We quickly got to work and people helped me set up my tent.  My friend John, blew up our air mattresses then helped me for at least 30 minutes rearranging poles until we were satisfied.  Even my friend Tim helped, he put two stakes in the ground, then disappeared (I am kind of take charge and bossy).  In his defense he ended up getting Jackson out of the car and holding him while I was setting up.  My friend Eve was in there as well getting her hands dirty.  After that was set up I pretty much relaxed, and the kids ran around.  They were in heaven, and I just prayed the owies that the kids got could be taken care of with a band-aid!  The campsite was awesome.  The kids had a few big rocks they could climb on, they never got bored with that.  For dinner that night, the Porter family cooked some pretty amazing chicken, pasta salad, veggie tray and watermelon.  For dessert the Crowe family made a fabulous dutch oven peach cobbler, I think I am a sucker for that dessert.  The Crawford's shared some delicious cupcakes, even though they were coconut, they were fantastic as Tara would say!  I on the other hand contributed more mouths to feed, it is a tough job but some one had to do it!

I love this picture of Lauren.  She had so much fun running around, sometimes with the pack of kiddos and sometimes with her imaginary friend that she talked with.  In this pictures she is "shakin' it!"  We had a great campfire talk and were even told to be quiet, in a not so polite way.  If they heard what I heard they would probably be laughing too!

We had all checked the weather before we left and were planning for a fabulous 80 degrees during the day and a perfect 50 degrees at night.  We were not taking into account the fact that the weather was for the valley not at the elevation (above Bridalveil Falls) that we were at.  It was FA-REEEEZZZZZZZZZ-ING! One of my friends said in the morning there was about a foot and a half of ice along the bottom of our tent.  This picture was taken after about 45 minutes of cooking, can you see the frost on the propane?

 The Crowe Family, with help cooking from John and Todd, did breakfast and it was another all out meal, these people know how to provide a meal for the crowd.  They served up pancakes with strawberries and whipped cream, cheesey eggs, bacon and dutch oven biscuits.  As you can tell it was a hit with my family, again I contributed to the consumption of the awesome spread.

This day we went on our one hike.  We talked to the ranger and he said it was perfect for strollers and it was a fairly easy hike, with a little house at the end for the kids to play in.  Awesome.  We start out and it was pretty good.  I had two little ones in my stroller and Lauren wanted to walk.  Eventually the path started becoming a little less maintained then it was pretty near impossible to get through.  After about 45 minutes, Todd ran up about a mile and knew we had missed the turn.  We ended up heading back to camp to grab lunch.  The hike was supposed to be easy enough that we didn't need our lunch just snacks.  On the way back I walked a little more leisurely and was able to appreciate the surroundings.  There were meadows of wildflowers that I didn't notice while my head was down and I was pushing the stroller like a bulldozer.  It was a good walk and I am glad we did it.

We headed back to camp and that is when the Park Ranger volunteer told us to not pick the wildlfowers.  Oops!  With  7 girls we had about 5 bouquets, the oldest two were not interested in the flowers as much.  After lunch we decide to go out to Glacier Point.  WOW!  Is that a beautiful place to view the Yosemite Valley!  I wish I had my camera (turns out I did it just happened to be on Miranda's back, who pretty much ditched me every chance she got!).  Some friends took some pictures and I will get some soon.  My friend Heather said it so well with one word "Majestic!"  You just stare in awe, it is so beautiful.  It makes you feel small and insignificant, but what a place to view the Lord's beauty that he created for us.

This is me and the kids at Glacier Point.  Right behind us is Half Dome.

We came back to camp and it was starting to get cold so I changed all the kids into pants and their sweaters if they wanted them.  Lauren continued to play and run around, then I look over and she is kneeling on the ground grabbing hand fulls of dirt and pouring them all over her lap.  This picture does not do her dirtiness any justice.

I love her facial expression in this photo.  She had such big round eyes and her cheeks are to die for!

 

When she saw this picture when we got home she said "Soren so sad."  The Crawford's prepared dinner this night.  It was grilled chicken fajitas, with black beans.  I think I almost killed myself eating two, but they were so good!  It was topped off with S'more's,  It made the camping trip complete.  I think roasted marshmallows are a symbol and necessity of a perfect camping trip!

Jackson was so happy when I let him run around.  This isn't the best picture but I thought it captured his attitude when he was free.

Thursday morning, our final day, we were up at 6:00am, by we I mean me and the kids.  The Crawfords had to leave to a fancy schmancy car show in Carmel, the Doll's left the night before due to a work commitment and the Porter family were still asleep.  It was so stinkin' cold and there was no wood for a fire so after having nothing warm to offer the kids, I loaded them in the car and put on a movie, while I started packing up some stuff.

 The next morning I did breakfast.  I provided homemade blueberry crumb muffins, banana bread, oatmeal (note for next year oatmeal IS NOT a good idea!), Sunny D (which despite the name does nothing to warm you up!), gogurt, milk and bananas.  It was a little on the wimpy side compared to the great meals from the previous group meals.

At about 10:30 I was done packing everything up (with help), Lauren repeated the dirt performance from last night, and I was exhausted from not getting good sleep, and being nervous for the crazy five mile windy road ahead.  We had planned to go walk around Mirror Lake but I couldn't do it anymore and just needed to get home.  When clarifying directions, I lost it and started to cry, so the Porter's said they would go home too so I could follow them.  It was such a blessing to me but I feel bad for cutting their vacation short as well.  Needless to say the drive home was pretty uneventful, except for the boy potty break when they spotted a baby rattle snake.

So that is my adventure.  It was amazing and I hope this is an annual trip.  I know there would be very little that would keep Jeremy away next time!

Thank you to the Porters, Dolls, Crawfords, and Crowes for all your help and making it a really nice trip for me.  You all were amazing!

She is spirited

Surprise I am talking of Lauren!  We were at Jeremy's work and it was the first time his new boss met the children.  Within a minute, she spotted Lauren and said, which one of these is not like the other? and chuckled.  I am not sure if she has heard of Lauren or simply by her stance that it was obvious.  Maybe I said something like "Kids this is not a playground, they are working and we need to be quiet."  She may have had defiance written all over her face..I don't know what it was that caused the distinction.

Tonight at dinner she said yet again "Mine tummies hurt!" This is her excuse for not eating dinner, her excuse for needing milk, for being hungry, for not being tired.  Her tummy always hurts.  As I was sitting at the table yet again hearing the same line, I was thinking I need to put my foot down and make her eat something so her diet contains more than stolen chocolates, 3 cups of milk and as many go-gurts that were sneakily removed from the fridge.  I can't deny she has good taste...well in the chocolate stealing department anyways.

I was thinking how she has this strong spirit about her that is pretty amazing.  As a parent it drives me bananas.  With Lauren you can not make her do something she doesn't want to do, it is pretty much impossible.  So to bed I sent her.  Then I had to practically man handle her into her pajamas, at times she was laughing and others telling me that she was no longer tired.

After getting her dressed and rolling her in her blanket, I put my arm around her and she started screaming, kicking, karate chopping my throat.  Then she proceeds to scream "bye, bye."  I asked "you want to go bye-bye?" "No" she clarified "You go bye-bye" "Where do you want me to go?"  "Outside!"  With tears in her eyes (like an ocean mind you) and my eyes starting to fill up, I thought of how our Father in Heaven feels about us.  Then I thought what examples in the scriptures teach us how to deal/love/serve a difficult child.  I am sure there are many, but I so badly want her to conform to the mold I already have.  Knowing that is what I want I then feel guilty because all these things that make her difficult, are the reasons that she is special and that I love her.

I hope when she grows up she remembers the times when the movie ended and she got up and danced.  The times when she asks for "fast kisses", or gives us good strong hugs or the laughter that is usually always present in our home.  I hope the moments when she is screaming and yelling at me to go away and I am doing everything in my power to be calm, and reassure her that I love her and I know she is just tired, that she doesn't think that I didn't love her or that I was indifferent to her pain.  I hope she knows when I look into those eyes puffy from crying that my heart hurts too.  I want her to keep that spirit but I also want her to obey.  I guess that is why we have agency...than again she is 3.  I really hope three is easier than two, if not, then I deserve to have her as the easiest teenager/young adult ever!

My Dearest Summer

I have missed you, I think you were visiting here and there, but I haven't gotten to visit you with much appreciation.  Thankfully we have so many fond memories of those quick visits.  It seemed like just yesterday I was alive with the promise of many relaxing moments surrounded by warmth, laughter and happy, possibly wet, children.  It is now 3 and a half weeks until you disappear from my life for a time and I am worried that I didn't take advantage of the time we had together.  It is coming to a close too fast, for tat reason I am a little sad.

The time has passed too quickly, but I will most definitely begin the countdown until we meet again.  In the meantime I hope to survive the next little while and hopefully get in a day of relaxation!  And just so we are clear, summer, you are my absolute favorite time of the year.  You equate to fun, lemonade, ice cream, pajama days, swimming, ice cream, day trips, park days, late nights, early mornings, ice cream, visits from friends and family and usually some sort of vacation, I can't believe I almost forgot to mention ice cream.

I will never sway in my devotion...until fall hits and the wonderful things that I cherish about it...like Apple Hill, pumpkins, turkeys....I mean summer how I love thee!

Mountains and Valleys

The last month or so I have been focusing on training for a triathlon sprint.  I have been pretty consistent with morning workouts.  It has been nice to push my body in a way that it never has been pushed before.  It is not a secret I AM clumsy and I am not athletic.  Needless to say I really want to accomplish this goal of being a triathlete, even a mini triathlete is awesome.

So today I went to my friend Lanette's workout.  I came home exhausted.  I was wondering if all this work has even been productive.  I had shin splints, then I babied it for a while.  This week I thought that I would be better, I started doing the jumping again at Lanette's class and I actually ran on Tuesday.  Now my shins are starting to hurt again.  It is so frustrating because I want to do this so bad.

It brought an article from January's Ensign to my mind (probably because I just read it a couple days before.) Making Mountains.  In the article he tells us of his experience as a mountain guide.  He said people would come to him and say I want to go to the highest peek and look at the view.  He would tell them that is really is a great view but to truly appreciate the view they need to see the base of the mountain.  It would be a harder trail but it would be worth it.

He compares that to life.  We would all like to be on top and just appreciate what is around us.  But it is only through trials that we are really grateful for the blessings at the end.  It really is a great article that I probably didn't do justice, but we all have our problems and feel like if we could just get through this, when what we are really doing is building a great foundation for an awesome view.

He says “To appreciate the height, you must experience the bottom,” he says. “You can’t appreciate the end without understanding the process.”

So I know that I am starting to falter in exercise, only in the sense I can feel hopelessness creeping up my sensitive ego.  Then this particular thought came to me and reminded me, that I have to create this great base before I will be the superstar I want to become.  Then the view will be totally worth it all!  Right Jer?

I love when I read an article and it totally applies to my current situation!

Conversation piece

I feel I have neglected my blog when it comes to kid-isms.  I find it so much easier to put the little quip on facebook, like on Friday when we were unpacking from our little jaunt to LA, two police officers showed up at our door responding to a 911 hang up, shockingly the culprit was NOT Lauren but Jackson, yes our 18 month old baby.  He dialed about 15 numbers after 911 but it went through none the less.  It kind of freaked out my sister-in-law who was working dispatch.  She called our home and cell phone numbers but it was a blocked number so we didn't answer on any of our phones.  OOPS!  In our defense, Jeremy had just picked up a telemarketer call, his cell was not on him and I was in the car elsewhere so I had no idea.

So this morning I was getting ready and I start listening to Haylie and Hannah's conversation.  It went something pretty close to this:

Haylie "I am taller"
Hannah "Does that mean you have a taller head."
Haylie "I think yes because you have a bigger head"
Hannah "My head is fatter?"
Haylie "Yes, I think so."

We always tell people how Hannah is a little shorter and thinner than Haylie but she Hannah has a rounder, fuller face.  It cracked me up that we must have said it enough for it to be ingrained in their psyche.

Wordfull Wednesday {Work}

This will be the last one of this series.  We will see if I can come up with some though provoking topics of my own.  I really enjoy the challenge and digging a little deeper, then the childlike atmosphere I live in most of the time!  Check out Chocolate on my Cranium  if you are human the name alone should entice you to take a look at her blog!


Work - President David O. McKay said, “Let us realize that the privilege to work is a gift, that the power to work is a blessing, that love of work is success” How do you instill the value of work in your children? Do they do chores around the house? Do you work together on projects? "Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities." (Family Proclamation, paragraph7)



Because I married the best example of most things good, I have to use Jeremy as an example.  Jeremy sort of fell into his career.  It was just a job that he took to pass the time until he left for college.  In fact his position was more or less not real.  He did all kinds of odds and ends type of jobs.  Nothing exactly specific...you know the kinds of projects that get shoved in the back corner and ignored.  That is what he did.  Then when he went to Utah for school he got a job at a local credit union and decided he loved the industry.  When we got married and moved back he was able to get a job back at the credit union here.  Through turns of events and divine timing he was promoted, again and again.  I can tell you it wasn't hard for him to go to work and he enjoyed it.  He enjoyed his co-workers, he loved his employer and was passionate about the industry.  We recognized that blessing and we were extremely grateful that he had regular business hours, but more importantly that he loved his job.


Today as the market has changed it makes work a little less cheerful, but he continues to be an example of hard work to me and the children.  When we got married, I carried too much debt so we stayed in CA where the debt was incurred and the wages were able to pay it off quicker.  So it meant Jeremy transferred schools.  Eventually it got too hard (or maybe I got too whiny) and he stopped taking classes for a while.  In the last two years he has really focused on school.


This is what his day is typically like.  Wake up and study from 6:00am to 7:15, then run, come home shower be at work by 8:30.  Work a normal day, often times needing to work through lunch, come home at 6:00 eat dinner, play with the kids as much as time allows, put the kids to bed, then study for another hour.  Then folds laundry, then studies scriptures, pleasure reads (in all honesty for about 2 minutes before the book flops closed on his nose and startles him awake...side note, this is one of my favorite times of day!  He insists he is reading but the man can really fall asleep in -1.25 seconds, it is a gift I tell you.  Anyways he reads and his book falls then he looks at me like "What?"  Then I giggle and he may smile or try and deny he was sleeping.  It happens at least 5 times before he admits to being won over by sleep.  I know cheap entertainment but I love it.)  He works so hard so we don't have to!


Lucky for us he gets Saturdays off and he dedicated one weekend night to strictly family with no studying and we gear Saturday to mostly family activities.


He does an excellent job of teaching our kids the importance of work, not only his job, but working in his calling, and serving as often as possible.  We teach our kids the importance of work by making them help pick up after themselves and each other.  We teach them about serving those around them.  This summer we are actually growing a garden, so they will really get to learn about working to earth.  I can't wait for the rewards of that work.


I am not saying work is easy or that Jeremy is eager to do all these things.  He is exhausted, but he keeps on , keeping on.  He does it out of pure love.

Hap McGee Ranch

Yesterday we visited a park that was recommended by a friend.  Hap McGee Ranch.  It was right off the freeway and yet still tucked back so it was away from traffic.  It was a fabulous park.  It had all the necessities, like bathrooms that are REAL close.  It had water for the kids to run through with a button was easy enough for the kids to push.  Right next to that is sand for them to get covered in.  There were 2 climbing structures, as well as swings and a real teeter totter, not to mention a merry go round thing.  I had no idea parks still had these.  There was a huge grassy area with a beautiful white gazebo in the middle as well.

I didn't get very good pictures, but you can kind of see one of the structures to the right with a little train as well.

The girls took a break to eat.  I had yet to release Jackson from the stroller.

And just because I like pictures with the twins looking like twins, can you believe these two will be in kindergarten in a month or so?

Overall I would highly recommend this park.  It has something for everyone!

Contra Loma '10

Every summer we make at least one trip to Contra Loma.  I love it.  It is always hot, it is clean and there are plenty of life guards.  So yesterday was our first trip of the summer.  We blew up the floaty rings and packed stuff to make a lunch only to find out I forgot the bread.  So we had String cheese wrapped in lunch meat, YUM! ; )

We had a few good experiences.  It started with Haylie loosing her first tooth.  She is our youngest so far.  It was nothing spectacular.  She was eating and felt something hard in her mouth and it was her tooth.

The tooth next to it is now loose, and Hannah's two front bottom teeth are a tad loose too.  So it begins!

One of my goals this summer was to make sure the four older kids were swimming.  So we have tried to take advantage of every opportunity.  Miranda has been invited to several pool parties, and at each one I have told the parents she is not a strong swimmer, although she can make it across the pool.  Contra Loma has a new rule, in order to go in the "deep water" you have to pass a swim test.  I think it is about 25 yards freestyle.  I can't do that, well maybe on a good day.  Then if you can't touch you have to tread water for 30 seconds.  So she insisted that she wanted to take the test.  I tried to discourage her, simply because I didn't want her to be embarrassed.  She knew she could do it.  So we went over there and sure enough she did it.  I was so proud of her.  I love that she knew she could do it and didn't let my lack of faith discourage her.  She loved being able to go in the deep water with the older kids.

For the most part the kids just swam and had a grand time.  We missed the annual picture of Logan Kyle and Caden jumping off the side, but there is hope for another trip.

Having all the kids there is no easy task and I realize  that I have a lot of faith that they will be safe.  I learned from last year that sometimes close is not enough, when Haylie went a little to far and couldn't touch.  I barely reached her before the lifeguard did.  Luckily she was perfectly fine and more than willing to stay in the water.  This year I had floaty rings for both Lauren and Jackson.  The older kids enjoyed pushing them around.  As I looked over to Lauren I saw the floaty tip with the help of her brother coming up under neath it, and she went head first in the water.  Again I was right there so she was OK, but still it was a little scary.

Both of them loved the rings, they also loved playing in the sand.  Oh and the sand is the coarse stuff not the kind you are picking out of crevices for days.  Jackson was happy wherever we put him.  When Lauren was ready to go back in, she would climb in her ring and wade out to the deeper water.  It was funny watching her waddle.  She is still super independent, I can't help but appreciate that part of her personality.

Overall it was another fabulous day.  I would not attempt this  completely alone but try not to lean on the generosity of my friends' help.  But they sure do make a difference.

Pioneer Trek 2010-Day 1

We got up, not so early, on Thursday morning and kissed our little kid-lets goodbye.  Then met up with our youth and headed to the El Dorado National Forest.  The drive was fun, there is nothing like listening to three teenage boys sing Taylor Swift songs A-capella.  Luckily with Jeremy's phone we were able to pull up a few on youtube.  Not really pioneer-ish but this is how we started our journey.  We eventually swapped some youth (Jeremy and I are so NOT cool!) and the last half of the drive was a little more quiet.

When we finally showed up it was hustle and bustle.  We finally got to meet the youth that would be calling us Ma and Pa.  They all seemed to mesh pretty well.  I didn't see any eye rolls or dirty looks.  That was a relief!

We packed up our handcart and joined together for a little introduction by Ranger Frank.  Ranger Frank is one who was a big help to Sister Cadwallader, who was the go to gal in organizing this.  Ranger Frank was a wealth of information.  If you listened to him talk for a second about the Pioneers you would have no doubt that this man was truly a Mormon.  Turns out he is Episcopalian.  He clarified this when we told him he is welcome at our church anytime ; ).  He told us a little about our journey, a few rules and then sent us on our way.  We ended up with a baby and a chicken, only they ran out of chickens so we didn't have that trial or what ever the story was with the chickens.

Then we lined up.  We left in handcart companies of 6 and each company left about 20 minutes apart.  We were in the last group, which turned out to be a little frustrating for our go getter family. I wish this picture did the hill justice but it looks a whole lot flatter than what it really was.

When we were finally able to get going, we walked up and up and up.  I think for about 40 minutes or so.  Then maybe up a little bit more.  As Mas and Pas we were instructed to let the youth do it.  There were times it was hard to watch them suffer.  At the same time, after about 5 minutes, I was out of breath and more than willing to let them handle it.  The boys, men youth, whatever...pulled a lot of the time.

But for the most part the girls hung on to the back, even when it felt completely useless.  When we got to the top they had what they called a vignette, or story.  Each time we stopped, a few people would act out or read passages from real pioneers.  The first day the stories focused mostly on food and weather.  Either of these  circumstances would have made me throw in the towel and give up.  We continued on and went up more, then down.  The terrain got a little more sketchy, bumpy, rocky etc.  We came to a point where there was a big standstill.  It turns out there was a girl who got too close to the wheel and her foot got ran over.  YIKES!  Some people were frustrated, there was lots of grumbling.  Then an amazing thing happened.  It was silent, and the priesthood gave this girl a blessing.  It reminded me that even in those times of trials, those pioneers were never alone.  They had the priesthood to heal, to comfort, and encourage them to carry on.  That particular family let everyone else pass while they waited for help.  Our family was more then happy to keep on Trekking!

On a side note, two weeks before Trek they visited and there was 4 +/- feet of snow where we would be camping, and doing the vignettes.  Amazingly enough due to great weather and a few dedicated leaders the snow was not a problem.  However we did get a chance to cross a patch.  It wasn't hard, but it got the girls to squeal when the mud splashed on their feet.  We stopped at a half way point and moved up to the second company.  As we started on the next leg we had an assignment for Nate.  He was to leave our family and run to the other handcart companies, looking for his son Arthur. He had to take one more young man and they were to run around for 20 minutes.  Then return.  He was also given a "scarf".  If his son was found alive he was to wave it like a flag.  If he was found dead, he was to wrap up his son in the scarf.  He and David left.  They ran hard for at least 40 minutes.  There was no luck.  That was all the information we had so we kept walking.  On this leg indians were hootin' and hollerin' along the trail.  Nate was certain the indians took his son.  The girls took a turn pulling the cart, then the boys pulled again.  We finally pulled into camp around 4:00pm.  It was ahead of schedule.  The youth pretty much were able to run free.  It was fairly relaxing.

We were treated to chicken and steak fajitas for dinner.  Then there was some musical entertainment.  Followed by s'mores.  The sunset was beautiful.

Picture taken by Kurt P. Schwartz

We then had a family devotional. It was at this time we found out the rest of Nate's story.  He had lost his son because the weather was turning bad.  In the hustle and bustle of trying to beat the weather, they got separated.  By the time he realized they were in a storm.  He left his family to find his son.  As he left his wife gave him a scarf and gave him the above mentioned instruction.  He looked and looked to no avail.  After a couple of days, he stopped at a post, and was told that his son had been found by another family.  He was near frozen, and surrounded by wolves.  The family took him in and cared for him.  After a week Arthur was reunited with his family.  It turns out this was an ancestor to Nate.  He had acted out his own history.  The coolest part was that Nate hadn't even realized he had Pioneer ancestry.  The first clue that this was about him was when he heard it was a relative to Butch Cassidy, and Nate knew that was one of his ancestors.  I thought this really made it hit home for him.

We laid out our sleeping bads and slept under the stars.  A first for me!  I think I would totally enjoy it if it was a Sleep Number pad I was sleeping on as well as the bugs having a 100 feet restraining order.  The stars were something else though, simply breathtaking. Then the noise started.

Slow drumming, then it quickened.  I started having an internal debate.  I knew I wouldn't REALLY be hurt, but deep inside I was praying that our campsite was tucked for enough back that we would go unnoticed.  Then it got louder, with indian chanting.  It went on for quite some time, or like 15 minutes, which ever is longer.  Eventually the noise died down, we hunted down some youth who were hunting down the surprisingly fake indians.  Once our family was complete I felt a certain peace knowing everyone was home.  I then proceeded to toss and turn wondering what would be in store for us tomorrow.