Issue 58

The Mountain of the Lord

Wednesday night we had the amazing opportunity to take the family through the Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house. We are so lucky to have this new temple in our area. The children were so excited to see inside. We all got to sit together in one of the sealing rooms, and it made me long for the day that we will all sit together in a dedicated temple.

Steve and I have had the neat opportunity to be volunteers at the open house too. Steve has worked security and I've ushered and worked as a hostess, handing out yummy cookies in the food tent for several hours. I'm so grateful for these opportunities that have really made the temple feel like it's ours.

Freshen It Up 2009

A week ago my Dad, my Brother-in-Law and me set off for an adventure to the unknown. Our destination was the legendary "Million Dollar" highway of Colorado Silver Rush fame. Our goal was to rest, relax and take in some beautiful scenery. We were successful on all accounts. We took two cars on the trip. One car for hauling (the Bronco) and the other for sun tanning while driving (the Mustang). The two car option was perfect as we could ditch either of the cars for the other go pretty much anywhere our little hearts desired, which included the near-tops of a few mountains. To begin with, understand that the Silver Rush lasted about 20 years at the beginning of the century, so the hundreds of prospector settlements that sprung up ALL over the Colorado mountains were short lived affairs; in fact, most of them ghost towns with rare survivor turned into a tourist attraction. With that as a background, we started our adventure in Ouray, a pretty little tourist town, inhabited by some 1,000+ people with the sole purpose to make us feel at home. The city was pretty, the KOA clean and hospitable, and the hikes, drives, and explorations in the surrounding mountains sublime and given to unwinding, except for the parts where you were close to the edge of a cliff with a 300 foot drop-off, but even then, we never found ourselves in any danger nor did we seek it. Days one and two were spent in and around Ouray. On the third we drove the length of the million dollar highway. It was a beautiful drive through mine dotted hills and wide vistas of mountains. We were surprised to see the openness in comparison to the boxy, surrounded feel of Ouray. Both were nice, but I liked the openness better. We found a spot to camp just outside of Silverton, near a river. This camping was free, but the facilities were adequate and the site itself clean and large. Again, openness. We took a drive up the Silverton canyon and noted some very large mines with many superstructures still in place, though very dilapidated. At the top of the canyon was an honest to goodness ghost town. It was fascinating to walk through the crumbling homes and think about the winters and other hardships they must have endured living at the tops of these mountains. I especially enjoyed reviewing some newspaper from 1907 that had been stuffed into the walls of one home as insulation and since discovered and put on display. Day four found us in a mood to fish, so we did. We purchased a license (day three) and headed for Lake Molas (day four). We found Lake Molas to be a lake surrounded on one side by a day-use campground, the other side for day use by anyone. We tossed in two lines and my Brother-in-Law promptly caught a beautiful, near 12 inch Rainbow Trout. I was ecstatic, due to my desire to cook a fish over the campfire later that evening, and we both continued to fish. A couple of hours later another fish was caught, again by my Brother-in-Law. It was almost identical to the first fish, and I knew we would have a good fish bake later that evening and happily gutted and cleaned the fish. My Brother-in-Law then proceeded to attempt to pay me for half of the license, which he had earned. The rest of the day was gravy from a fishing stand-point. We fished two other lakes in the beating sun and the pouring rain (and thunder and lightning), but we didn't seem to care too much, each lake was beautiful, with incredible mountain-top views. We didn't catch anything more that day. Catching a fish was almost second priority. I almost caught one, but it was truly "the one that got away." It struck my line as I was fixing a mess of line that had unthreaded from my spinner. I saw the bobbin go under a few times, only a few feet away from me in the water, as we were fishing from a peer, and grabbed the line with my bare hands to reel in the fish. It sprang from the water, a nice plump morsel of a fish, and back in the water it struggled to free itself and a very short time later was successful in doing so. Don't cry for me though. Truthfully, that was enough for me. To be so close to fishing glory and yet to have the prize denied me is a common fishing story for me. If you want to have success at fishing, fish with me, because you will invariably catch something from that watery world and I will only congratulate you heartily and gut your fish. Such was my lot that day as well as the next fishing trip the following day, where eight fish were caught in a party of five, with me the only one to catch nothing, not even a bite. Sniff, enough about that! Day four found us waking from a previous night of incessant rain that drowned everything in camp and nearly drowned us had we not been so meticulous in our camping preparations. We brought enough equipment for an army, yet found use for every stick of it in some manner. We awoke very early on this very rainy day four in order to get me home for another camp that evening with the scouts. I was grateful to my travelling companions for their heroic, yet safe, driving that did indeed deliver me home on time for the camp. It was unequivocally a great trip! The companionship, food and good-times had by all made it a great and lasting experience that will need to have a sibling in the future. My only hope is that more of the male side of my family will escape with us next time and make some more fun and epic memories as those we made together on this trip. It was truly refreshing!

Issue 57

Mom and Me by Daniel age 9

Steve has been gone all week camping with his Dad and brother-in-law, taking the camera with him. I was promised a blog article and photos for my role in holding down the fort. As I anxiously await the safe return of my husband (and my camera) I will share with you instead this sweet picture Daniel just presented me with. He seems to be most creative when he should be sleeping! The hand on my shoulder melted my heart. I wasn't sure where the glasses came from, since I don't own any, but he explained he hadn't learned to draw girl's eyes yet, so he used glasses instead. It's either that or he thinks I need glasses. Hmmm . . . . .

Issue 56

Lagoon

Friday was Steve's annual work Lagoon day. It was also the last day of school and the last day of simulations, so Steve took the younger kids at lunch time and Steve L, Whitney and I joined them at dinner time. After 3 days in Disneyland I was just fine with an evening at Lagoon.

Con-Con Pictures

I tried loading these pictures several times last Friday, but they just wouldn’t take. It was probably user error, since it was 1:00 am, following a week of helping at the school with simulations week and an afternoon and evening of Lagoon. Yep, most definitely user error. I fell asleep waiting for them to load (the fifth try) and woke up at 2:00 am. Disoriented, I just published the article, sans pictures. So finally, I bring you Simulation Week photos!

Disasters by Daniel age 9

Court of Honor

Steve earned his First Class Scout rank a month ago, but received his patch at his court of honor this week. We are proud of the hard work he put in earning this rank, especially overcoming the swimming challenge. Having Grandparents there made it even more special.

Liberty Girls Retreat

At the liberty girls retreat we did some dancing and made rag-rugs and cooked stone soup and quilted. And we got liberty girl tee-shirts there and all the liberty girl groups in Utah where there. I loved it! We also made book marks. All of he activities where things they did in the great depression.


Rag rug making

Quilting

Square Dancing

Issue 55

Cookie Party by Janey

The cookie party was really, really fun. It’s a girl scout party that celebrates all the girl scout that sold cookies. They put my name up on a screen, because I sold 500 boxes of cookies. We ate lunch and played real carnival games and won prizes, and went in the bounce house. I didn’t like the cookie party, I LOVED it!

Teen Writer's Conference

Whitney with a favorite author, James Dashner, at the teen writing conference. All of the authors donated their time for the day long conference that taught teens how to become life long writers. Whitney loved the conference and came home on fire about the novel she has been writing. Here is an essay that she wrote for the conference:

ALPACA

They say you are in trouble when the alpaca puts its ears back. I’m inclined to agree. At least I was, when I was holding onto the back of a baby alpaca and an adult put her ears back at me. At the time I was living in New Zealand. I was volunteering at an alpaca farm with one hundred plus animals. It was feeding time and we where trying to catch and separate all the babies from the herd so we could halter train them. We did this every Tuesday, but this time I did something wrong.
When you are catching an alpaca you want to get your arms around the base of its long neck. If you get that you have control of the animal. Then you can get a halter over its head and clip on a lead. Bet you didn’t know you can halter lead an alpaca did you? Well any way, you usually approach it from the front, but I approached it from the back. That was mistake number one. Mistake number two was grabbing two hand holds of fleece in my desperation. I had been trying to catch this one for fifteen minutes. And then I let out a triumphal yell to let everyone know I had finally caught her.
The end result was me being dragged across the corral, holding onto the back of a panicked alpaca. Ouch. To make matters worse when it finally slowed down, as to not crash in to the fence, an adult alpaca named Perfection came up. No doubt I looked like some fearsome predator that had attacked her grandbaby, holding onto its back, making it squeal in terror. I got a barrage of alfalfa cud spat in my face. Twice. Then she started kicking me! I had to high-tail it to the fence before she could get me again. Of course everyone was laughing their heads off as I vaulted over the rail. Perfection paced by the fence with a smug expression. Yes, alpacas can look very smug when they want to.

Simulations Week by Whitney

(Note by Mom: American Youth Leadership Institute joined forces with Whitney's high school for Simulations Week. The youth had 8 different simulations to choose from. The music simulation composed, performed and recorded beautiful music for the rest of us. The art simulation created an amazing mural on a wall at the high school that promoted peace. Their was a legislature simulation, a mock trial intensive and a city council simulation, among others. Steve L. picked the Olympics simulation, where the year was 2025 and their group was in charge of promoting peace through the Olympic games. Their job was to invent new sports and play them for the Olympics held at the high school. It was truly an amazing opportunity filled with lots of unique learning.)

This week I had the opportunity to attend the Constitutional Convention simulation (The Con Con.) This is a week long simulation, where you are given a scenario where the country has been almost destroyed and you have to wright a new constitution for it. This year we were dealing with the aftermath of WWIII.

We got to the school building at 6:30 every morning because my Mom had the keys to the building and she was in charge of all the meals for the simulation.

It was an amazing "hands on" lesson on how the constitution works and it's different functions. The simulation ended at 2:45 every day, but there was a different activity that went on after. Things kike game night, a concert, a talent show, and a formal banquet.

The banquet was cool. You got all dressed up, and a boy escorts you to your table. You get etiquette lessons before and everyone's served by waiters.

In the actual meetings you are a delegate from a state. Emotions ran high a lot of the time, but it was amazing. I can't wait until next year.