While you were away...

found this in my drafts...



So Jacob and Cora have been gone it seems like for months! However, they were only gone last week and then a few days this week. I have tried to do something fun with Owen and Sadie while they were gone so they didn't feel too left out. I know Sadie has missed Cora so much!
Last week while Jacob and Cora were off at camps I decided to take Owen and Sadie to Jungle Jim's It is an indoor amusement park geared toward younger kids. I don't think Sadie has been here at an age to enjoy it. She had a ton of fun!

We also took our weekly hike, to Bell Canyon. We only went to the lower lake. It was beautiful but it was also smelly! Lots of ducks swam around and we saw a few fish close to the bank. We did this hike with My mom, sister-Bridgette and her kids Tommy, Adam, Katrina, Kyle and Caleb, I also had a friends Daughter Lindsay.

Anna, my sister, flew in on Thursday to run a half Marathon with me on Friday night so here is a picture of us at the start line!

Saturday we went crawdad fishing. We took the little girl across the street, M.J. She was fun and loved being with the kids. She didn't like the crawdads at all and she fell asleep in the chair. She is adorable. :) Cora and Jacob were home for this!

Anna flew home on Monday morning. SO sad to see her go. This week seems like a blur. I have spent a lot of my time getting school stuff ready. I am on the parent organization board so I have had a lot to do!

Jacob and Cora left for the Super Activity on Thursday morning to Flaming Gorge. They were so excited, it meant another two days alone with Owen and Sadie though! Thursday we chilled around the house and also did a little shopping. Friday was the funnest day for me. I was volunteering at the school most of the morning and also registered the kids for Junior High!! ACK! Then we were gonna head downtown. I decided last minute to take tracks so I didn't have to worry about parking and road closures. We were going down the Tour of Utah Stage 4 finish line. The Tour of Utah is a 6 day race around northern Utah for elite cyclists! They had a big expo/carnival thing going on! The kids raced banana's:

Then we walked around and got tons of free stuff. Don was volunteering so he was also there and we saw him occasionally. There was a HUGE screen TV that they had a live feed on so we watched them ride through Magna, a small town West of Salt Lake. It was soo cool to see them ride and know exactly where they were. We slowly made our way through all the vendor booths and saw the finish was coming close so we went over to secure some finish lie spots. I noticed a TV across from us and we quickly figured out they were close. I watched the TV. a few pacer cars started to come through and the helicopter (we were watching the live feed through) came past us and started circling. finally watching the TV I saw them turn the corner to the street we were on!! It was soo exciting to se





Oh my goodness this post is full of fun pictures and that is only week 1!!! I am gonna close with that and will post again in a few days! Hopefully time doesn't escape me because the best is yet to come! School starts in 11 days and I still have so much I want to do. How sad huh? My kids are excited to go back! For me, it starts a new chapter. I am looking for employment. I hope I can find something fulfilling but flexible! I want something that is challenging but something I can enjoy and look forward doing. is that even possible?

Sunday Special

I feel an overwhelming desire to make my family strong in the gospel. I always have felt a little something. but now it is huge! The world gets scarier every day! My children need to be prepared!
I decided in the spring to read the Book of Mormon again. It has been a long time since I had. then in June I was issued a challenge to read the Book of Mormon in 40 days. I said no because I was already toward the end of Alma and wanted to finish before I started over. But the challenge issuer said he would set up the reading challenge for me starting where I was. No getting out of it right? It was incredible to read the Book of Mormon so quickly. To spend hours a day in the words of our prophets of old. It comes down to about 7 chapters a day but if you get behind to catch up is extremely hard, but I did it!! I finished! And now I can finish it again and count it for reading it twice in 2012!

Yesterday at church, during Sacrament meeting. Well it was during the opening song, Owen said he wanted to bear is testimony. I told him We could go home and talk about it and he could do it next month but he insisted in doing it. I asked what he wanted to say so he told me. Then I asked if he wanted me to help him. He said no, so I asked if he wanted to write it down and read it and he said yes. I wrote it down for him and told him I would go up with him (part of my challenge was to bear my testimony on the Book of Mormon). As soon as the counselor sat down we went up. He was so good. It just warmed my heart.

So as I was reading about Moroni building walls up around his cities. I likened it to building up walls around my home/my family. but not real walls. I am talking their testimonies. I want to give them every spiritual experience I can. I will go out of my way to do something little. I took Cora to do baptisms for the dead the day after her birthday because she was gone the whole week after. She is so excited to go with her friends too!

Like I said when I started this the desire to keep my family strong in the gospel is so strong I can almost feel it. It makes me want to cry. Where is the boundary that I don't force it though? In the Lord's hands I can do anything! Whew!



Each step, each day of my journey should move me progressively closer to Him. He doesn't expect or even want me to "run faster" than I am able. In fact, there may be days when I can't run at all. I may just be able to walk, crawl, or scoot, but my job is to be diligent or faithful as I move forward—no matter how small my progression.

-Kris Belcher

A walk through the wild flowers!

Had to head back up to Cecret Lake for the wild flowers. They were soo beautiful! I wished I had a good camera!! AGG!! I really thought fairies and unicorns were gonna come out! It was so magical and mystical!! I can't even describe the beauty!! There was one part (where I swear there would be fairies) the pine trees the big black boulders, the cloudy black sky, the greenery speckled with red, orange, purple, pink and yellow flowers. It was amazing! I wanted to stay there and take it all in!

Forget me not!

When we came out of the meadows there was a few people stopped on the trail. and we hear a whispering of moose, there were in fact two bull moose!! and a cow came by a few minutes later. Aren't the mountains amazing??

what majestic animals they are!!

Well we had a smaller group yesterday! We ended up hiking just under 5 miles and it was all pretty hard. Mom, Dad and Justin did not come up to the lake. It is a pretty steep hike up! The snow was gone and the lake had more water it was so peaceful!

Beautiful lake!!

Cora-last day as an 11 year old!

I'm not sure where we are going next week but I don't think it will be in the deep forest like we have been going!

2000 Stripling Warriors!

So on Sunday Cora came home from Primary and and was telling me about a Parade the following Friday. She said there were gonna be a bunch of boys dressed as Helaman's Army. I got chills and knew we had to go. I know my mom loves parades so I invited her along. I talked to my neighbor about it and got all the info. She said she would save us a place, they were going up in the morning to save spots. Yesterday we spent most of the day with some school friends then headed up to the parade. It was so fun! And I haven't been to such a packed parade before!!

This picture was one of the first entries in the parade. As the band walked by I noticed the clarinet player was my cousin Mickey. I grabbed my phone out of my pocket and tried to snap a picture, well I got the back of him!! lol

Awesome V-dub Bus!!

Kids loved the "origami" dragon out of money!

after many many floats, band and other things there was nothing. Like the parade was finished but the last cop cars didn't come by. For about 5 minutes the parade stopped. There was silence. Then, in the distance you could hear a soft pounding.

In the Book of Mormon the Nephites fought the Lamanites. Then the Nephites made a covenant with God that they would not shed blood any more and the buried their weapons of war. Years later the Lamanites came upon them to fight again but because of the covenant they had made, they wouldn't fight. The sons of the Nephites stood up and said they didn't make the covenant with God and that they would fight. Helaman took charge of this army. They fought a long time and after the war, not one of the sons had been killed. They are known as the Stripling Warriors or the Army of Helaman. (Alma 53)

So years ago a stake president who often dressed as Helaman and told the story thought it would be awesome to gather 2000 young men and dress them like warriors and do a march. His vision was coming to life. Every time I have thought about this event or told people about it this week I would get goosebumps! The moment was here. around the corner we saw Helaman and a few warriors, then came the Army! It was sooo neat!! There is a primary song call the Army of Helaman, I could not for the life of me think of how it started but I wanted to sing it and yell "my Hero!!" I sang the chorus over and over in my head. Honestly it has got to be my favorite primary song!


I had to wipe tears from my eyes as they walked by.

It was so sweet to see young men both strong and weak. There were a few in wheelchairs and others being helped along the way.

The last couple rows of young men were missionaries. It was so neat!!
I am so thankful I had this moment to look across the faces of these young boys and think about the other boys who thousands of years ago set off on their walk to war. They must have been so scared but the Lord protected them. He is an amazing God!



"We Will Not Doubt!"

Lake Mary, Martha and Dog

Oh How I love this trail! The first time I went I was snow shoeing when I was about 16 and thought it the most miserable thing in the world. BUT I have been dying to go back ever since, but I never knew where it was till a few years ago. we actually went up last year, in the summer. I just loved it!! It was definitely on my to do list for this summer. So today was the chosen day. We planned on going to Lake Mary but I kind of wanted to go on to Lake Martha and possibly Lake Catherine. So I said before we headed out if anyone was interested I would love to go on.

Beautiful Lake Mary

Me!

Owen

Cora

Jacob

Sadie

So after we had made it to Lake Mary we had our snacks/lunches and I asked if anyone wanted to go on. I had a few that did so we went on to Lake Martha. The hike was just beautiful and very easy. It said it was about a half a mile but I'm not sure it was really that far.
As we came upon it Wendy said "there's a moose!!" YAY!!! I love moose!! I think think they are so majestic!! I think it was a young bull or cow because it had no antlers and it wasn't very big, It was by itself unless mama was hiding.

Lake Martha with the awesome moose!

No one wanted to go on to Lake Catherine so we headed back to Lake Mary and caught up with our group that was just leaving. We started walking back and took a little detour to Dog Lake which was a tiny little thing!

Dog Lake

Sadie, Ian, Justin, Owen, Daniel and Katrina

I just love our weekly hikes!! I love to be out and take advantage of this beautiful place we have so close to us!! I think I say that every post don't I? I'm gonna look for snowshoes this winter. I really want to go back in the winter!!


I am so proud of my mom for making this hike!! She has been on a few of our easy hikes and although this is categorized as easy it really isn't it is an almost 800 foot elevation climb in 1 mile. She made it!!! We had a good sized group today!! My mom, dad, My sister Wendy and her boys, Wesley, Daniel and Justin, my sister Bridgette and her kids, Tommy, Adam, Katrina, Kyle and Caleb, My friend Debbie and two of her kids, Ellie and Ian and then me and my four kids.

Hidden Falls

So I started a hiking group on Facebook. This was our first official hike! It was by far the easiest and shortest!! haha! It was so pretty though!! It was about 100 feet off the road. It is crazy how many times I have drove past that spot and had no idea the beauty hiding behind the trees!!

Hidden Falls:

I have been trying to read my scriptures more and become closer to God this year and think it put me in a different mind set when I am with my family in the mountains. I just feel the love of God!


Melanie, Mary, Jacob

Sadie

My Mom Mary, Michelle an Jacob

Owen was with us also but I didn't get any pictures of him!! CRAZY!! We stayed for about an hour and played in the water. On our first trip I cut up cheese and meat and brought crackers. My mom now brings that and the kids love the yummy snacks!!

A Mother's Worst Nightmare

My heart is broken by eyes have run dry.....


Two weeks ago I turned on the TV to hear a little girl, 6 year old Sierra Newbold had been missing, then found a little while later by a canal. I prayed she had just wondered off and fell in but they didn't say either way. It was soooo close to my home.. Less than a mile, two streets away. I was terrified. I hugged my little 6 year old Sadie a little more that day. I was glued to the tv all day for more info. I talked to a lady in my ward who was somehow related say the families house ha been broken into a few times and they had a security camera and it showed someone leave the house with something. I didn't want to believe it.. I was in denial. Later on the news they showed her sweet little face. I went Visiting Teaching that night to find out it was one of our neighbor's best friends little sister. Don did work on her truck a couple years back. I knew Aubrey, she was always at the Howell's after school and she was always so cute when we would go to Sizzler, she works there. The later announce that Sierra had been assaulted and murdered.

I locked my doors and didn't sleep well that night as soon as I woke up in the morning I checked all the beds in the house for my kids, to my relief they were there. 10 days went on. I checked Twitter because I follow the West Jordan Police, every day the tweet was the same. "no new developments in the Sierra Newbold case" I was really getting frustrated. There is a child killer loose.

Finally after 2 weeks they announced at the noon news the police had an news conference scheduled at 3pm about the case. I didn't go anywhere waiting for 3pm to come along. They had found the monster that had done this evil act. I cried all through the news conference. Honestly there have been so many people praying for this to happen and hearing how it all went down it was definitely "divine intervention", just like the officer said. It is amazing to me!

Well, this has been so difficult for me. To have a child the same age. It pulls at the heart strings. My hear toes out to the Newbold family. My thoughts and prayers are for you. I am so sorry for the loss of your sweet angel.

My kids and I have talked a lot about this. Esp Sadie, she knows about it, she asks about her. I was so happy to tell her they had caught the man who hurt the little girl. I remember as a kid there was a little girl that was kidnapped and killed. Sadie will never forget this, she will always have a strange connection to it. What a cruel world we live in..

Last night I kissed my kids good night and when I woke up... I still checked their beds...

Donut Falls

Ok First off I just have to say I had heard that part of the structure that made this Donut Falls had fallen, but I wasn't prepared to be so sad to see it-or to NOT see it. See back in the old days there was a big almost cave like appearance. We would go in and there was a hole in the top and the water ran through. It is completely gone. So here are the pictures!

Jacob and Evan, I try to always invite extra friends to come with and this time Jacob's friend and his family came.

Owen and Adam

Cora and Kyle, Cora is Kyle's "Honey", he sticks to her like honey too! ;)

Way up there on the mountain are the Wright's; Debbie, Ellie and Ian

Bridgette (with Kaleb on her back) and Mom stayed down at the bottom while we all climbed up!

Owen and Adam again.

Cora and Mary

Sadie- she tries to be so brave. But really she is so scared to really climb around!

Yes I know I am a nerd!!

Ok I just loved this!! This was part of the portion that fell, You can see the moss on it and now the water runs over it. A lot of the moss was all dried up but it used to be on the top! Gosh Donut Falls used to be so mystical!!

Well the hike was easy. We got to the parking lot with another group. They started out a few minutes before us and we caught up with them on the trail. When we caught up we would wait for the rest of our group to catch up. There is a part where you climb down about 10 feet and that is where they thought they were on the wrong trail so they turned around. It has been years since I had been up there but I did remember it so I kept us going. I don't know how they could think they were in the wrong place since they climbed down. As soon as you climb down you walk around the corner and can see the falls. Perhaps they didn't know it had fallen. Well it is fine because like I said we had the place to ourselves for quite a while. When we climbed up I told the kids what it used to look like. I will have to find pictures!! I must have some somewhere!!


Ok this last picture is from Sunday! We went on a walk around Silver Lake. One of my favorite easy walks! The mosquitoes were out in full force so Don was saying let's go!