Stake Conference

A few weeks ago in church there was an announcement made that this Stake Conference we would be getting a new Stake presidency.  We had two members of the Seventy in attendance - Elder Wilson and Elder Evanson.  The buildings were packed!

Lennard and I were able to get a babysitter for the adult session on Saturday night.  I'm so glad we did.  It was a wonderful meeting.  President Beazer talked about 'stretching our souls in service' and that as we observe and then serve our VTing and HTing will be magnified.  Sister Burwell (Stake Primary President) had me in tears as she told of an experience where two children's choirs were able to sing to each other and show love for all... no matter their race, religion, etc.  Our daily actions should show that we are disciples of Christ.  Matt Freeman, a recent convert, bore his testimony and used the example of finding diamonds amongst the coal.  There is so much evil in this world, but there is good if you will look for it. There were a number of other speakers - a sister who had recently returned to activity in the church and the Calgary mission president and his wife.

Then, Elder Evanson stood to speak.  His whole talk was about light and how if you have good thoughts, the light will shine out.  He suggested a few ways to draw closer to our Savior:

L - love others
I - invest time in the scriptures
G - go and do!
H - hearken unto the Spirit.  Be happy!
T - temple service brings light into our lives.

Elder Wilson finished off the meeting by sharing more about 'light' and how in the gospel the blessings far outweigh the sacrifices.  He told about his family's FHE evenings and it made me want to try harder with our FHE so that the kids will remember that we did at least try!  He spent some time talking about Lehi's dream and the fruit; holding on to the rod of iron - the word of God.  It was a great talk.

Sunday morning, the building was humming with people!  My uncle had got there extra early and saved us seats in the chapel.  The kids were a little restless, but they did pretty good.  As the meeting started, you could tell that everyone was anxious to find out who our new Stake presidency would be. Elder Evanson stood up and bore his testimony of the sacredness of calling a new Stake President and how it was a 'Pentecostal' experience.  He also said that as soon as this man walked into the room, he and Elder Wilson knew that he would be the next president.  He then announced that James Ferguson had been called as our new Stake President!  He is our bishop!  I'd told Lennard earlier that I thought he could easily be called, but I didn't think about it actually happening.  Bob Quinton was called as 1st counselor and Austin Nunn as 2nd counselor.  We will now be getting a new bishopric and Leavitt ward too (Austin is bishop there).  Wow.  Lots of changes will be happening!

The rest of the meeting was spent listening to the past Stake Presidency bear their testimonies, then the new Stake Presidency and the Temple President and Matron.  Elder Evanson spoke about serving and how we need to stop worrying about what we can't do and just start serving.  Through the Atonement of Jesus Christ we don't need to carry our trials by ourselves.  Elder Wilson finished the meeting and basically said that if we are doing the things we are supposed to do we will be blessed. It's the small and simple things that will get us through this life.  Lennard and I were both surprised when he told a story of a friend of his from Harvey Station, NB.  To say that we perked up would be an understatement.  Lennard was ready to race to the front afterwards to find out who this friend is, but there were so many people that we didn't get the chance.  Thankfully, my mom was in the choir and happened to be right there when Elder Wilson went passed, so she asked.  The man's last name wasn't one that we recognized, but it was still pretty cool.  Pretty sure we were the only two in the building that knew where Harvey Station is!

It was an excellent meeting.  Mom and Dad came over afterwards to have some lunch.  It was nice to sit and visit with them. We had a pretty lazy afternoon together.  This coming week is going to be crazy busy, so we were glad for a bit of down time before the week starts.

Orange Belt

While I was busy getting things ready for my book club to come over to our house tonight, Lennard took Ben to martial arts.  When they got home, Ben had a grin from ear to ear!  He tested and passed to orange belt!  He was so excited and we are so proud of his hard work and persistence.  He's gained a lot of confidence this session and is doing so well.  I'll add a picture when I get one... Lennard took a video of him being tested, but it's on his phone - I'll try to post it once I get it.  Good job, Benny!

Cove Fort

Since we had everything cleaned up and ready to go last night, it was easy to get hooked up and on the road by about 7:30 am.  It was a beautiful morning and we both wondered why we were leaving such a nice place to head home to snow!  (My dad texted me a photo this morning.)

On our way down to St. George, we'd seen a sign for Cove Fort and we decided that we'd maybe stop on the way home.  As we started home, Lennard asked if I wanted to stop.  I figured we wouldn't ever (or rarely) be back, so I said yes.  Thankfully it wasn't far off the highway and we ended up getting a tour all to ourselves.

We watched a short film in this little cabin that we were told is the original cabin belonging to Ira Hinckley (President Hinckley's grandfather) that was moved here.

 We then got to go across the street to tour Fort Cove.

 The kids got to try closing and opening the doors.

 The tour was great.  It made me very grateful for the modern conveniences that we have now!  I can't imagine cooking for 50-60 people every day without running water.  The bread pans on the wall are five lb loaf pans and Sister Hinckley would make 10 pans a day! Yikes!

 The dominos were found when they excavated the site.  They are made out of bone and leather.

 We were told that when the baby outgrew the crib they could turn it over and it would make a bench.  So smart!

 The kids were SO excited when Elder Butler gave them a pioneer toy at the end of the tour.

 As we were visiting with Elder Butler who was giving the tour, we discovered that he is best friends with our mission president, Rex Allen!  Such a small world!

The kids even got suckers - complete with 'Cove Fort 1867' on it!

We were there for about an hour and a half, but it was worth the stop.  We grabbed some Subway sandwiches for lunch and then drove the rest of the day until we got to Idaho Falls for the night.  We had some crazy road work that slowed us down between Pocatello and Idaho Falls that slowed us way down, so we were really happy to get stopped.  It was so much colder that we were glad we had a trailer with heat!

Children's Museum

I love vacations where we don't have a strict timeline.  We had another super relaxed morning and just hung out together.  It has been so nice to have some downtime together.  Once we got ready and had breakfast, we decided to go check out the local Deseret Industries.  It was actually just me that wanted to go, but the rest of the family complied!  I managed to find lots of summer tops for Emma and even found some for me!  We got Ben some shorts and tops as well.  I was so impressed with the selection and prices.  I love being able find deals!

We had some lunch... then discovered that we were out of propane, so then we headed over to Costco (again), to get the propane tank filled.  Once that errand was done, we headed down to the Children's Museum.  The kids were SO excited!

Pretty much the very first room we walked in to, Ben found a cow to milk!  Ha! Ha!  It actually squirted water.  Too funny.

 There were so many fun thing for them to do!  Emma loved the store and the karaoke stage the best.

 Ben loved the airplane (big surprise!).

 Ben and Lennard played here for quite a while creating a pathway for the golf ball to go through.

 There was a fun dinosaur room.

 Emma found the art room and had to collect a few more coloring pages.

 Ben loved the science rooms.  The funnest part was taking a family picture of our shadows!  I wish I could have managed to get a picture of it for us!

 Emma and Ben both loved this room - loading 'copper' (foam rocks) into buckets and turning the crank to transport them across the room.

 This is one of my favorite pictures.  Ben got dressed up and when I asked him to take a picture with the dragon - this is what he did.  Love it!

 After 2 1/2 hours, we finally told the kids that we needed to go.  They definitely would have stayed longer...  When I went looking for Lennard and Ben, I finally found them - in the airplane!  Two peas in a pod!

From the museum, we went back to the Visitor's Center and let the kids play on the touch screens one last time.  We also got to watch a short movie about David Whitmer and his role in helping Joseph Smith.  It was an excellent film.

We stopped at WalMart on the way back to the trailer to get a "surprise" that Melissa had asked us to pick up and bring home with us.  Then, we spent the rest of the evening cleaning up and getting everything organized for the morning.

Pioneer Park and More

Another great morning!  Emma slept in until 8:00 am!  That never happens!  We had a great breakfast and then decided to to explore Pioneer Park.

By far, this was where the kids (and Lennard) had the most fun... there are no trails and they just got to go explore wherever they wanted to!

See the foot holes in the rock to climb up?  Lennard did it... complete with a cast!

St. George Temple

 The kids loved all the little 'caves' that they got to climb in.

 We found a Scout cave and the kids loved getting to go in and explore.

A family picture... finally!

This is the rocks we were climbing on top of!

We climbed in and out and up and down all over the park.  It was amazing.  Thankfully they had bathrooms there with a water faucet to refill our water bottles.  The kids would have spent all day there.  It got a bit warm though!  As we were leaving the park we asked a couple that was just coming in if they knew where the slot canyon is.  The guy Lennard was talking to gave him directions, but they were sort of vague.  We decided to drive down the road and see what we could find.  As we were driving, we found Snow Canyon and turned off to check it out.  I'm so glad we did!  It was so amazing!

The landscape was so cool.  We stopped at one of the parking lots and decided to climb to the top of one of the hills.

The view from the top!

Emma loved climbing!

I love that they are standing the same way!

By the time we climbed back to the truck, we were all hungry.  We stopped at Panda Express to get some food. We took it back to the trailer to eat and we polished it all off!  It was such good food!

We took the kids to the Jacob Hamblin house afterwards - although we had to stop at the Visitor's Center first to get the address.  Somehow the address I'd written down before was wrong.  Lennard and I have visited it before, so I didn't end up taking any pictures inside.  The kids did pretty good through the tour, but they were pretty done by the end.

We stopped at Costco on the way back and picked up a few things and then hung out at the trailer for the rest of the evening.

Zion National Park

We all slept so well last night that the kids actually slept in!  Hooray!  We had a great morning, a good breakfast and then headed out to Zion National Park.  The landscape changed so much during the drive that we were constantly commenting on how beautiful it is.  We were able to drive right to the Visitor's Center (after paying our park entrance of $30/week).  It was a little fun trying to find a parking spot, but after searching for a bit we found a spot and got all geared up to go on some hikes. 

We stopped at the Visitor's Center for a bit and got some info on the hikes that would be good for the kids.  We then had to go catch a shuttle to the end of the canyon.  There was a large line-up to get a shuttle, but the shuttles came almost every 5-7 minutes, so we only waited about 20 minutes or so.

We rode all the way to the last stop and got to watch all the scenery - which is absolutely amazing. Our first hike was the Riverside Walk.  It was perfect for the kids!

The entire pathway is paved so it was easy to stroll along.  The only downside was that we hadn't timed our arrival to the park very well and it was almost lunch time when we started hiking.  The kids were hungry, but they did really well.  Emma loved the trail mix I had packed, so she was good.  Ben just wanted licorice.  lol.

We made it to the end of the trail and found a bench to sit and eat some more.  There were so many squirrels - that were WAY too tame.  At first it was fun to see them, but they just wouldn't leave the kids alone while they were trying to eat!  Emma stood on a bench and ate her snack and cringed every time a squirrel scampered underneath the bench.

 Ben sat on the wall to eat his snack and ended up having a squirrel come right onto his lap and try to climb him!  I tried to shoo it away, but it didn't even flinch.  Ben started freaking out, so I ended up grabbing the squirrel and throwing it!  ha! ha!  Every time he saw a squirrel on the way back he would give them a wide berth!

The 'hike' was so amazing and beautiful.  There was just enough shade to keep us cooled off and enough sunshine to enjoy the heat.

As we were on the shuttle, we saw some mountain climbers.  Made me sick to my stomach just thinking about hanging off the side of that huge mountain!

This is one of the shuttles we took.  Once we did the Riverside Walk, we filled up our water bottles again, and headed down to the Weeping Rock.

 It was a steeper hike, but quite short.  Once at the top, we climbed a few stairs and went up under the overhang where the water was flowing!  The kids didn't like getting wet, but it was pretty neat standing under the rock and seeing the water and the spectacular view!

 Ben loved finding different places to 'rest'.  He thought this rock would make a pretty cool bed.

 As soon as Ben got a picture, Emma needed one too!  ha! ha!

 By this time, we were all getting quite hungry, so we took the shuttle to the Lodge.  We got some (overpriced) food and sat out on the patio to eat.  The wind had come up though so it was interesting to try to hold everything down so it would blow away!  The kids ate a bit and then were off to run around and find new friends (which they did!).  Lennard and I both agree that we would love to come back and spend more time here!  It is so beautiful.

 After lunch and playtime, we decided to do one more hike.  We went to explore the Emerald Pools.  The kids were a little more tired this hike and let us know about it, although they did really well still.

 I think if we'd come later in the year it would have been more impressive at the end of the hike.  The pools were quite murky and brown and the kids didn't want to get wet again, so we didn't get to continue to see some of the other pools higher up.

Of course, I'm behind the camera, so no picture with me... but I sure do love this little family of mine! It was such a fantastic day.  We had a bit of 'fun' getting a shuttle back to the visitor's center as they were completely packed!  We let one go by, but when the next one was just as full, we decided we'd better just go.  We had to stand the whole way back, but at least we got a ride!

The kids both fell asleep on the way back to the trailer.  Their little legs worked hard today!