YIP Week 22 and Trek

Monday, June 11th

We are getting ready for our stake trek this week.  Bump is trying on his Nauvoo shirt and vest to make sure he can tuck all the extra fabric into his pants.  :)

Tuesday, June 12th

Today Gabby and Quincy had their yearly check up's with Dr. Allred.  Gabby earned a new camera by helping me to clean the house really well yesterday and was excited to take some pictures while we were in Salt Lake.  Here she is snapping a picture of the clinic as we were leaving.  Quincy got all of her Kindergarten shots and wasn't too happy about that even though she knew they were coming.  Both girls checked out well.  Gabby is in the 6% for her height and 4% for her weight, she's always been a tiny thing.  Quincy is in the 3% for her height and 15% for her weight.  We just like to grow them small in our family.

Wednesday, June 13th

Today I woke up in the morning to find a horrific scene.  The prince lay face down motionless in the pool.  We don't know if it was a terrible accident or something terribly sinister.  Gabby fished him out and we finished getting ourselves and the kids ready to take off over the next few days.  The kids and dog went to Jeremy and Jen's house.  The kitten went to our neighbors, the Lowery's.

Thursday, June 14th - Saturday, June 16th

TREK!!

I will try to summarize quickly an amazing few days.  We met at the Stake Center at 6:30 am and organized kids and leaders and then took off towards the desert.  We were around the Terra, Dugway area in Utah.  Day one was warm, but there was a nice constant breeze that made it bearable.  The trek was slow moving and we seemed to stop a lot for breaks.  Still we made it to our first camp by 2:00 ( a few hours earlier than anyone had planned).  We hung out with our family group and took off our shoes to rest our feet.  Luckily we were in some trees and hung up our tarp to help keep the sun off of us for awhile.  We had a lot of visitors from other families come to our camp.  It seemed to be the place to hang out.  That night after a yummy hamburger/hot dog dinner we played pioneer games and had a square dance.

Our family from left to right:  Courtney, Ehlana, Brandon, Bradley, Allen, Korban, Bump and Colton.  Such great kids!!

Some of Bump's young men came for a visit to our camp.  Here's Lance and Riley.

Day 2 - we cleaned up our camp and reloaded the handcart after a breakfast of pancakes, scrambled eggs and ham.  My sister Tracy joined us this morning on the medical staff.  It was fun to see her throughout the day.  This day was hotter and without the nice breezes that we had on the first day.  We had a lot farther to go, but the kids had loads of energy still.  I wish I could siphon some of their energy once in awhile.  We had a lot of hills to climb and a large descent before coming to the ranch where we would spend the night.  Our kids wouldn't be stopped and were third in line and kept on going with or without us with them.  We didn't see them the whole second part of the day they were so far ahead of us.  I had to stay back and walk with one of our boys who couldn't keep up either.

Partway through day 2 they pulled the men out of our group and gave us girls a little talk about all the women who came across the plains with the help of other women.  We then had a women's pull for awhile.  It was very touching when we came around a bend and the men were all standing there watching us with their hats off in respect as we went by.  Then they jumped in and helped us the rest of the way.  It was a neat experience that touched everyone.

Our second campsite had no shade and the wind was blowing hard.  We teamed up with a few other handcarts to tie our tarps to so that they didn't blow away.  We were so dusty and dirty and hot and tired we were just excited to have some kind of shade finally.  A neat thing happened that night as they gathered everyone for a devotional and testimony meeting.  President Lawrence asked for the faith and prayers of everyone there to calm the wind so that voices could be heard and people could be comfortable.  Within 5 minutes of him talking the wind stopped, clouds came over and covered the hot sun and we had a beautiful evening of testimonies and a fabulous sunset to watch.  It could not have been more perfect and a testimony builder for all of those in attendance.

Day 3 we woke up to a hot day with no breezes.  They allowed girls to wear pj bottoms or shorts and bloomers for the service project.  We fixed fencing at the church owned ranch for a few hours before loading up our cars and heading out to our nice air conditioning and showers.

We had a wonderful experience and can't wait to do it again the next time.  It was a learning trek for all the stake leaders involved because it was Grantsville's very first trek.  The next ones will be even better for everyone involved!

YIP Week 21

Sunday, June 3rd

Today we met with our trek family to meet them and talk a little bit about trek coming up next week.  We have some great kids in our group and it made me a little bit more excited about getting out there and spending time with them.  We created a little sign for our handcart with our number 23 on it.  We were supposed to do a stick figure of each of us in our group but the first few ended up looking a bit like aliens so we became the group "Area 23" and had a kind of pioneer alien theme.

Right before our meeting I got a call from my brother Jared asking for help because his wife was in the hospital with high blood pressure and would be there for at least a few days and I needed to help with their other 4 kids.  So, after our trek meeting I took off for Saratoga Springs to spend the night and get the kids ready to head to my house for the next few days.

Monday, June 4th thru the rest of the week (that's how it goes sometimes)

This week became a blur for me once I had Jared and Casi's little rug rats.  We had fun and played and enjoyed each other and found out that Casi was going to have a C-section on Tuesday morning to deliver their little 33 week old baby boy, Brigham.  The kids stayed at our house until Wednesday when I took them to Casi's mom's house.

And here he is!  Brigham Jared Wright was born on June 5th weighing 3 lbs. 4 oz and 16 inches long.  He and Gabby were pretty close to the same size and weight.  I had a bit of memories going through my head as all this was going on.  He is doing pretty well and doesn't have any of the problems that they have been worried about since February (ie bad heart, short limbs, genetic issues, etc).  Besides being small and early he is pretty perfect.  We are glad he's here and that he and Casi are doing well.

The kids all remember Brigham in their prayers now.  I guess the cat does too.

YIP - Week 20 and Quincy's Birthday

Monday, May 28th

Happy Memorial Day!

We started the day off cleaning up the whole house to get ready for some friends to come and stay the night.  We had a pretty relaxing Saturday and Sunday, so I didn't feel too bad making everyone do something productive for the holiday.  In the late afternoon we headed to Kaysville to have a BBQ with Bump's family.  Usually we do it at our house because we live close to grandparents graves, but this year we didn't visit the graves so we had Conner and Quincy's combined birthday party at Jeremy and Jen's house instead.  Quincy wanted a very chocolate ice cream cake and Conner doesn't like chocolate so we just got 2 small ones instead and they were super yummy!  Bump's parents and Darin and Sue and their families all came.  It was nice and relaxing.  Quincy got just what she wanted from Grandma and Grandpa - makeup!

Tuesday, May 29th

 At the end of the evening on Memorial Day our friends from Colorado, Chris and Julia Janz met up with us in Kaysville and followed us home to spend the night.  They planned to go to Lagoon the next day on their way up to a reunion in Idaho, but Lagoon wasn't open and so they got to spend the day with me instead.  They really wanted to catch up with Bump, but he had to work and it ended up being a really crazy day at work for him too.  We couldn't go to lunch, so we kept busy until he could get home for dinner where everyone  could catch up and then head out to see family in Idaho.

What do you do in Tooele without spending much money?  Well, you go visit the Great Salt Lake!  We took the kids to the big black rock and let them climb all over and look at the stinky bugs and things at the edge of the salty lake.  Afterward we went to let the kids play at the park while Chris, Julia and I chatted.  Then we came back to our house where the kids played outside in the sprinklers and got loads more energy out.  We had a nice visit and promised to go and see them in Colorado when we can.

Wednesday, May 30th

The kitten gave me a surprise attack today while I was laying down.  It's pretty noticeable. 

 It's a good thing that others in this house love her so much. . .

Thursday, May 31st

I splurged today and did something that I have been wanting to do for so long.  I hired a guy to come and detail the interior of my Mom Mobile.  He's been advertising on the local facebook classifieds and I have hinted to Bump, but he never did anything about it so I did.  He was having a Post-Memorial Day sale until the end of the month and I jumped on it - hello $35?  Totally worth it and more!!  It looks so good!  The best thing about it is that he comes to you!  I didn't have to drag the kids out and still got stuff done today while he worked for almost 3 hours on my awesome car.  I am so happy!

 Friday, June 1st

Happy 5th Birthday Quincy!

It still amazes me how quickly time has gone by since this baby girl has joined our family!  She is still so small and tiny, but she is so smart and so ready for Kindergarten in the fall.  Since we had her birthday party with Bump's family on Monday we kept things simple today.  First we headed to the Dollar Store and Quincy got to buy 5 things for her birthday.  Then we went to McDonald's and the kids played in the playplace for about 2 hours (I never let them do that, so it was a real treat)!!  After playing there, we called some of our BFF's over to play on the slip n slide and eat birthday cake.  Then we ate mashed potatoes with cheese on it for dinner (Quincy's request) and watched the Muppet Movie (her favorite).  What a great birthday!

 Quincy with her new hula hoop and sandals that she picked out for her special day.

 Saturday, June 2nd

Today while heading out to visit Bump's parents and help grandma home from the hospital (she just had knee replacement surgery) Quincy was drawing on Bump's iPad.  She said, "Dad look I drew a friendship."  Bump wasn't paying attention and glanced back to see what she drew.  He said, "that looks an awful lot like a Viking Ship."  I started laughing and looked at Bump.  To me it was so cute that she thought a friendship was an actual ship and was trying to draw it.  I had to point it out to Bump and then he started laughing too!  So, now we know what a friendSHIP looks like according to Quincy.

I didn't get any pictures, but we also got to go up to my brother Lee's house for their end of the school year water/slip n slide/ice cream party.  The kids played for hours while we helped Bump's parents get situated and home from the hospital.  Quincy still felt like it was her birthday celebration and that was just fine with us!  We had a great Saturday!