Here and There with my Kids.....

This is my boy, Jabes! What a great little helper he is, so fast to catch on to things and always willing to help without complaining. He has been so good to help when he visits grandma and grandpa, especially grandpa with his sprinklers. He helped Matt all last week with yard work and he is always by my side wanting to cook, especially deserts! I decided to have him help me make a Levi quilt and he learned how to iron each square, helped me "sandwich" the squares and is now wanting to help sew. I promised to get him some practise material, it drove him crazy to watch me sew because he wanted to do it. I am just constantly amazed by you Jabin and hope you always have the ambition for life and willing attitude I see in you.

Now, just one little negative note............my handsome boy!


Last Monday I was sitting at the dentist office with Jabin and I glanced at him and noticed he didn't have any lashes. I thought to myself maybe they got singed somehow and asked him in a frantic but quiet voice "Jabin what happened to your lashes?" as I noticed they were gone on both sides!! He said they were long and he cut them. I said the first thing that came to mind, "Are You Crazy!" I was on the brink of tears and I didn't have my cell phone so I had Jabin wait in the dentist chair (we were waiting on the dentist) as I ran home to get my phone to call Matt. I could not believe it. I tried not to embarrass him anymore but I had to mention it to the dentist assistant. As we were talking the dentist wondered what we were talking about and I told him. He said he didn't notice but he did notice the nick in his hair where he took the razor to it. This apparently is a little phase Jabin is going through. I told him I have had enough and banned him from anything sharp, i.e. razors, scissors etc.
I guess it must not be that noticeable because he said he did it a long time ago and I just barely noticed. I feel so bad because his baptism is coming up, Judd's wedding and school pictures. Of course I had to take pictures for my blog and he said "your mean." I asked why and he said, "you are going to email these to your friends." I said no, I am not. I am just putting it on my blog so I can show you why you have no lashes like the other kids in school.


Jabin said, "At least I don't wake up with any boogers in my eyes in the morning."

"They were too long and I cut them."

Haddy's tooth finally came out. First only one front tooth came out and she looked kind of like a jack-o-lantern. The second tooth was hanging on and Dallas and Matt were dying to pull it. She kept saying that she only likes mom because she doesn't bug her about pulling her tooth (mom would throw up if she even looked at it hanging from her gums.) Well...after a little bit of crying and a lot of drama dad finally pulled it out. He had to pay Haddy a dollar for letting him and then she was visited by the tooth fairy so it was all worth it. She looks perfect for the first day of First Grade!

10k at 10,000 Feet

I have been so busy this summer that I haven't had the chance to do any local 5K races but I was excited to be in town for the Skyline High Elevation Challenge; 10k at 10,000 feet (about 6.3 miles.) Last year I suprised myself and was in the Sanpete Messenger as 1st Place. I had actually got 3rd place but they didn't count the out of the area runners in the paper. My time last year was 52:22.

This year I went up with some of my friends pictured left to right: Jessica Pay, Debbie Harward, me, Jodi Green, and Holly Cook. Jessica's husband Todd also ran. There were about 209 runners this year and I thought it was brutal!!! the first 3 miles is a pretty steep incline and I came so close to stopping for a minute to walk but I didn't. I knew I could do it and I wouldn't let myself give up. Like Forest says "I just kept on running." I ended up getting 4th place this time and hopefully it will come out in the paper as 2nd. Mind you this is in my category women 26-39 years old. The girl ahead of me is a local doctor and quite the avid runner. Well I beat last years time by 2 1/2 minutes!! I was pretty happy about that and finished just under 50 minutes. It felt really good when it was over. When I got home Matt and I took the kids to dinner and a movie. We got home early enough I decided to run another 6 miles since my relay is coming up in 3 weeks and I pretty much have to do three 10k's.

Martin Cove's Youth Conference Trek July 28-31st

Crossing the Sweetwater

104 degrees in Dan's Cove

With my Young Women's calling I had the opportunity to go to Martin's Cove with the stake for youth conference. I talked Matt into going with and we were a Ma and Pa for a family. I had a lot to do to prepare for the trek and I had a lot of help getting it done. We needed to have pioneer outfits, homemade journals and possible bags, 5 gallon buckets (to pack everything that we could take with us), and everyone needed to know how to square dance. We also had some really neat firesides about the pioneers. My mom was able to take the kids so Matt met her in Heber Monday morning and she kept them all week. I am so glad they have gotten to spend extra time with their grandparents this summer. They have so much fun and they learn to work and have fun doing it. They also get to swim in the river!!

Well the morning finally came when it was time to go. Matt volunteered to take his truck and Glen (1st counselor in the bishopric) and Nora Olson rode with us. Everyone else rode the commercial buses, the ones with not such a great track record. Matt and I soon found out that we were going to have a great time with Glen and Nora we had plenty to talk about and pretty soon we were laughing and joking and the ride went by so fast. We stopped in Rawlings and changed into our pioneer skirts. I had brought some fingernail polish in Matt's truck and it had gotten hot and leaked in his consul. I knew I was in trouble but Matt was nice in front of our company. Nora and I was snickering in the back because she knew what Glen would do to her if she had done that. Luckily I had another bottle of nail polish in my purse because Matt threw that one away. I painted my nails in Taco Jo's and we all had a good laugh.

When we got to Martin's Cove everyone got their cart and we started off. We had been divided into families and each family took a cart. The first day we pulled the carts about three miles to Cherry Creek Camp Ground.

This was a rattlesnake just off the trail on the way to camp. Several others were along the trail. I can't believe we made it through the whole trip with no one getting bit.

Everyone had a name that they were trekking in remembrance of. Matt was going as William Wingnall and I was Grace Wingnall. We had a 3 month old baby named William Wingnall as well. As we started the trek the second day they stopped the company several times as they had couples stop, who were symbolizing the people of the Martin Hand Cart Company, and they would announce that they had lost an infant or a mother and baby had passed away etc. It was quite emotional as they would tell the stories and as we were out in the elements and to even think of loosing a baby or child and having to leave them on the trail.

This is Matt and I's family. We were mainly with our ward and we really got to know the kids and the leaders on a more personal level. They were all such good kids and we really had a good time. We played games and we even had a kid that could play the fiddle. He started playing well after it was time for everyone to go to bed and everyone just gravitated towards him and we listened to him play for quite a while. It was so neat. I think I am going to have to make Jabin learn how to play the fiddle.

These monuments are of the "Utah Boys" just after the Sweetwater Crossing. They are so touching and I wish I would have gotten a better picture. They are of the young boys that carried the whole company across the freezing water. One of the statues has a boy carrying a small boy and if you look closely in his coat you can see an infant baby.

The second day we pulled the carts to a place called Dan's Cove. This is where we were told some more pioneer stories and the stake president gave a special blessing to the company. Then we went on to Martin's Cove. It was 104 degrees and we had a lot of people with us that started to suffer heat stroke and some problems with diabetes and others had knee and ankle problems. After Martin's Cove we went down to the Sweetwater where we were able to cross the river. Matt wanted to carry me across but it was so hot I really wanted to get in. It did feel good and it was quite deep. I can't imagine the pioneers crossing it in the freezing weather and having their skirts freeze and cut their legs as they had to keep walking.

The Women's Pull

This was one of the neatest experiences I had during the Trek. They had all the men leave the hand cart company, which symbolized how a lot of the men died or were called off to fight in the Mormon Battalion. They went up the hill and lined the "rocky ridge." They were instructed not to help no matter how hard it was on us. They pulled the women aside and spoke to us and told us to pretend that the men weren't there. As we started pulling up this hill it was quite difficult and a lot harder then I thought it was going to be. I didn't look up but as soon as we started pulling through the men I felt the warmest feeling and could hear them sniffling and crying. The spirit was really strong and even some of the girls were overcome with tears. When we got our cart to the top I was completely out of breath. I hurried back because we had young girls pulling carts by themselves. As soon as I crabbed onto one of the carts I could tell that Carly was struggling to breathe and I knew she had asthma. Her mom was with me and she crabbed her and helped her as she was having an asthma attack. It was really difficult but I am glad it was so hard because of the impact it had on everyone and especially me.

That night they had the Pony Express deliver mail to everyone. I got a special letter from my mom that meant a lot to me and I got the chance to write a letter for Matt.

Some of the treats that I was excited to share with everyone was my dutch oven popcorn, kick the can ice cream and buttermilk syrup for the pancakes. I make these things all the time and should know the recipe but I need to have it there to look at. I forgot my recipe! The popcorn was great and I even made it Kettle corn. The ice cream and syrup didn't work so great and I promised everyone the recipe so they could make it themselves and I could redeem myself.

We stopped at Independence Rock on the way home. We wore our pioneer outfits the whole time and we were all hot and stinky. It felt so good to change for the ride home and put flip flops on. I put my tennis shoes on for the hike up Independence Rock though. This is a picture of Matt and I and some of the girls from our ward.

The Bishop, Stake President, and I decided to grab all the kids that wanted to climb the rock and do a line stretching down from on top of the rock. We had so much fun climbing all over the rock. The bus driver that drove our ward joined right in with us and even did the hand cart trek with us. He has been going since 1992 when he drives the different wards and stakes. He took us around the back of the rock to the cave where some of the original names were carved in the rock.

Stake President Tim Blackham in the bright shirt. His wife is back by me and these are some of the boys in our ward.

Matt and the Bishop pointing out names in the cave.

On the way home we were coming up the last hill almost to Evanston and our truck just lost all power. We were just talking about times when our cars have broken down so it was really ironic. We pulled over and Glen just mentioned that we may have a dirty fuel filter because it happened to his cousin. Our truck only has 13 thousand miles on it and sure enough the gage said zero life on the fuel filter. It started back up and if our filter would have been dirty we wouldn't have been able to go over 65 mph but since we hit a certain number of miles that was just the trucks warning that we need to change the filter. It worked fine and we did get a laugh about that even. We stopped at a rest stop in Evanston and the bishop ordered pizza. We had so much fun. I laughed so hard at Nora my eye almost swelled shut on the way home. I couldn't believe 6 hours could go by so fast. I felt like I was on a high school cheerleading trip I had so much fun. I will always remember the stuffed beaver at the gas station, the lawn chair incident with the missionaries, and Glen with his one sock and bare foot going in to get four 50 cent cones at Little America. Thanks Olsons' for the great time!!

Dusty's Grand Canyon Ride July 17th

Dusty Mundy took us on his Grand Canyon ride, which is in the mountains above Fillmore. We invited Jolene to come along and Dallas came, after I did a little coaxing. Dusty's cousin Steve Roberts, Kelly, Melanie, Ron and Mark also came. Steve and Ron have diabetes pretty bad and Ron also has M.S. It was a pretty long ride for Ron mainly because of the terrible pain he is constantly in. One of the guys said you can imagine your worst pain like after working out and lifting weights and your really sore and that is what he always feels like so anything out of the ordinary like this is probably 10 times worse. He never said a word but his friends knew he was hurting. It made me really appreciate my health. I am so lucky to not have to struggle or be in agonizing pain to enjoy the things I love.
The ride started out pretty good. I was riding Oscar because Badger had thrown a shoe. Matt usually leads Oscar for a pack horse so we realized pretty quick that Oscar does better when he is behind Dan, Matt's horse. He also doesn't know a whole lot. As we headed up the trail Oscar was prancing right along the edge of the trail. One side of the trail was a hill side and the other was a pretty steep drop off in some places. On the switch backs, when he saw Dan headed back, he would lunge up the steep hill side instead of following the trail around the turn. We stopped at one point and Matt went with Dusty to look at something and Oscar started to get worked up. He started to rear up but settled down when Matt came back and we headed up the trail again.....or so I thought he had settled down. Oscar started to lunge and rear up again. Oscar is about 17 hands tall, which is pretty tall so when he rears up it is pretty high in the air. I slowly got off and held on to his reins. He bailed off the embankment into some dead fall and lunged up until he got back on the trail. I led him for a little ways until he settled down and got back on. I could tell he was mellowed out a little after that and he did pretty well the rest of the way, as long as I stayed right by Matt. The first stop was Mossy Falls. It was beautiful from the trail and we tied up the horses and hiked to the falls. The water was fresh right out of the mountain and it was so good!

Me, Matt, Dusty, Brandon Day, Kelly, Melanie, and Dallas. Jolene was taking the picture. The rest of the crew stayed up with the horses.

Matt and Dusty

Dallas Matty on Wakara. Dusty is so good to let Dallas ride his horse. He is such a good horse and you can trust him for kids.

This is the look off at the Grand Canyon trail head. It was quite a ways down and kind of scary getting to close. Matt was holding on to Dallas. Dusty looks a little to close.

Me and Jolene. Jolene loves riding as much as I do and I am so glad she came.

The next part of the ride was the steepest trail I have probably ever been on. I am so glad Oscar decided to behave because it is not a place for a horse to lunge or bail off the trail. Matt and I thought Dallas will be up for anything after this ride and she did really good. She said she was scared but didn't say anything.

Probably about half way down the mountain there was an old gold mine. I will have to get the exact story but I guess there is some legends around Fillmore that the golden plates were buried there. Whoever worked on this mine was told to go straight back into the mountain and they would find them. I was excited for the adventure but when I saw the little hole that you had to climb in I thought they were kidding us.

They weren't kidding and Matt went first. I was sure to bring the camera.

If you can get over claustrophobia just at the beginning it opens up so you can stand up. Kelly was prepared and had flashlights. My flash worked really well for the pictures but the mine was pitch black.

There was water at the bottom of the mine. The walls were red which rubbed off on our clothes. Dusty said he wanted to see me come out with red streaks in my hair, but I was a step ahead of him and put my bandanna on my head.

Kelly, Melanie, and Jolene trying to keep their feet dry.

Jolene, Mark (Dusty's brother), me, Dallas, Melanie and Kelly at the end of the mine.

Climbing out of the mine.

Dusty worked really hard making this trail and stayed up here for the summer. They had a little kitchen and living area set up. Dusty is quite the trail blazer and taught us how he marked his trails with the double x.

Dallas checking out the rock room. There is also a place that Dusty calls the Sacred Grove. There were all kinds of adventures and sites on this ride and we had a great time. We lost Buster along the way and Melanie said she saw him get kicked by a horse. I was hoping he would be back at the trucks when we got there and he wasn't. I was kind of worried about him and didn't want to leave him. As we were loading up Kelly went down ahead and ended up coming back and he had Buster in the truck. He had found some people that were feeding him fried chicken. I was glad we didn't have to go home without him. Porter was missing too but there were a lot of people on the trail that Dusty and Kelly knew and they thought they would bring him home to them.

After the ride we went over to Dusty's house where Diane had made a huge home cooked, home grown meal! It was so good and it was so kind of her to have cooked all day so we could enjoy dinner when we got home. We went out and sat on the porch and ate and talked and then had some really good cobbler. Dallas had really bad leg cramps so I rubbed her legs and Diane gave her an aspirin. Dusty has a beautiful garden and shared with us some cucumbers and squash and zucchini. What great friends!!!