About a Trampoline. . .

Oh, I mean, About Grandpa. It could have ment the same thing!! Grama and Grampa came down yesterday. Grampa was tired, so He layed down on the floor for a little nap. . . Ha, Ha, Ha. He's OBVIOUSLY not around my kids enough. If you lay down on the floor at our house, the only thing you get, is a wrestle match. Yesterday was NO exception.

A perfect ending. . .

After we got home from the trek on Saturday, and After we cleaned up we started hearing "BOOM", "POP" sounds. We looked up and saw that American Fork was doing Fireworks for Steel Days. If you didn't already know, we have an amazing view off of our bedroom deck. So we hightailed it up there. It was a perfect setting Fireworks going off right by the Mt. Timpanogos Temple. I had to run and get my camera. I've never really taken pictures of fireworks before, and don't really know how, so these aren't the best they could have been, but I think they are pretty none the less~

Thanks for looking!

TREK!!!

Last week Jonathan and I went on the "trek" for our stake. For those of you who don't know what trek is: Trek is a "camp" where youth go push handcarts and do thinks that pioneers would have done crossing the plains. (nutshell) I would have liked to take more pictures, but I was too busy trying to remember to breath. Yes, It was A LOT harder than I thought, and no, I didn't prepare like I should have!

We started out at a service project for the American West Heritage Center in Wellsville, Utah. (home again, home again, well, withing 5 miles anyway). Our "company's" job was to weed the garden. Which, once we found out what everyone elses job was, we were grateful, because we got to sample some of the veggies and fruit. Others were weeding the pumpkin patch, no samples there!


We then set out on the trek. This is our families flag.

Hot it was, Cold it was and BEAUTIFUL it was!!!

Chili! MMMMMMM. The best meal we had for four days!

The first night of trek. We got a message from "Porter Rockwell". The army is coming. We needed to move out. So at about sunset, we packed up our camp and headed out for about 3 hours. this is lights from the company about 1/2 mile behind us. If you can tell, they are a ways down, which means, we were CLIMBING most of the time.

For one of the morning "DEVOTIONALS" we were on the side of a hill. We took over the home of some grasshoppers, so they found a new home on us!

These are the girls in our group. They were all awesome. This picture was taken at the start of the womens pull. Yes, we were happy. They do this pull in honor of Mary Fielding Smith. She was the wife of Hyrum Smith, who was the Brother of Joseph Smith. She was determined to go with the company to Zion. Her husband had just been Martyered. I donw that she had struggles, she had a young family, no help and 7 wagons that were part of her team. She overcame Much trial and tribulations. So the leaders wanted to show the girls, that they can do much with great faith.

This is a picture of the hill we had to climb. If you can't tell, that last hill is about strait up. It was honesly the hardest thing I've EVER done. My husband asked if it was harder than child birth. My answer is this: YES. For Childbirth, I had pain pills.

The people who run the trek have billy goats that followed us everywhere. We gave Baby Beans a ride on one!

We got to trek through dust and MUD. up to our knees. Many shoes were lost in this mud pit!

We had to rest whenever we could!

And yes, we tied the kids up like horses to pull the handcarts!

Some have asked me if I had fun. The answer to that was NO. It was seriously the hardest thing I've ever done before. But I would definately do it again. It was one of the best experiences of my life~

Phrase of the day. . .

This happened yesterday as we were driving past the cemetary.

Ethan: "Look, Mom, they're watering the dead people!!! It's really sad that they're dead, huh?"

The Bright Side

The bright side of life. As a mother this is something that I have to look for almost everyday. As a general rule, anything other than the day to day routine is very bright. Then there are days like to day, when the unexpected happens. You are ready for the dishes, the toys, the food throwing, what you are not ready for is this (see below). So, beyond the smile and the shake of the head, one may ask: "What is the bright side of all of that?"

And the answer is this: I can't possibly put all the cushions back on the couch without vacuuming. One more thing checked off the list!

Phrase of the day. . .

Ethan: "Wow, this is FACINATING!"
Mom: "What is?"
Ethan: "My Toast with Dip It!"

The ER

Well, yesterday was eventful, to say the least! Scotty-doo returened home from his mission. We were able to go to the airport and pick him up, and Yes, we were late. Jonny & I decied to get breakfast before, so we weren't ornery and yelling at eachother all morning (I think it was a wise decision, for there would be much yelling and orneryness later that afternoon.) We got there just in time to see them hugging everyone after getting off the elevator. So It is good to have him home!

Because of all the exitement that morning, I decided to take a nap. Of course Jonathan followed me. (He can't refuse a nap!) We had been asleep for 15 to 20 minutes when all of a sudden we here a cry from Ethan. It starts as an "Ow, I'm hurt" cry but quickly turns into an "I'm BLEEDING" cry, which grabs our attention. I run down, and there is blood everywhere coming from the mouth region. I couldn't find it for the life of me. But there was the cut, on his upper lip. I think the reason I couldn't find it at first, was because it looked like Ketsup, and and E's Upper lip is a frequent home for that. So I get it cleaned up, and it is VERY deep, so we go to the ER and got stiches. The DR. didn't mention how many, but we are guessing about 5 or 6. That was our very first trip in 5 1/2 years of parent hood, I think we've done pretty good! I do need to say, that the American Fork ER, is NOTHING like the ER that I watch every thursday. (I think that's a good thing!)