Seasons of Life

Once again I'm posting about another favorite of mine. (I think my last few posts have been my favorites). This favorite is camping/4-wheeling in the fall. The campgrounds are mostly empty. The air is crisp, which makes the evening fire and morning hot chocolate feel even warmer and more comforting than normal summer camping. There is a smell of wet dirt and decaying leaves that leaves me.......well, I can't really put into words how I feel when I smell that. I know, it sounds odd - but I just love it! The crisp air, the smells, the quietness...all of it - it brings back memories of the many falls of my youth, and it brings an excitement for the falls of the future, and it brings a peace and comfort for the present. I think I know the word I was looking for...content.

Usually this fall camping/4-wheeling has involved my parents. The last two years it didn't because they were on the other side of heaven. I remember the last two years feeling a kind of emptiness as I knew how much they would have loved to be there with us, and see the fall leaves. So last year, we collected leaves to bring to them. This year, they were with us, and I felt complete again. But as I look to next year, doing this again, I realize that they probably won't be with us again - as they are preparing for another mission. But the seasons of life will go on, and with each season, there are the sweet memories of the past, and the anticipation of the future, but mostly - the contentment for the present.

I enjoyed every minute with having my parents with us this year.

And...I enjoyed every minute of having our children with us. Brayden was at scout camp, and I missed having him with us. :( He's in another season of life I suppose.

Jarin

Kamden & Ira

Jarin and Nicky

We even rode through some of this white stuff. I'm not sure if "content" would be the right word for that! It was less than 3 months ago that we were riding through snow because it was such a long spring. And it's here again...so soon!

Emilie

Emilie & Grandpa

Kamden cleaning up the camp. What a good helper *wink*.

We rode through the mountain trails over to Bear Lake where we got hamburgers and milk shakes - then headed back through the mountains. Fun Times!! I'm praying that the good weather holds out for two more weeks so we can get one more camping/riding in this season. (Is is wrong to pray for such silly things?...possibly. But I can't help it!)

September

September is my very favorite month of the year.

I love that the leaves start to change color. I love the crispness in the air.

It is one of my favorite months to 4-wheel (because the leaves changing gives the back country a certain magic).

Our family at Logan Peak - Jarin is in there, if you look close enough you can see him hiding behind me. He wasn't thrilled about having his picture taken.

September also means our wedding anniversary. This year marked 18 grand and adventurous years. 18 years??? I married Ira when I was 20. So another 2 years, and I've been with him as long as I was with my parents. Wowsers...we're getting old! Anyways, to celebrate, Ira and I got away for a couple days in SLC. We went to the BYU game that was way fun to watch. And Saturday we did a whole lot of nothing. Just walked around different shopping places, didn't buy much, but held hands and talked. My kind of date.

Our good friends, Chuck and Irene watched our kids for us. Irene was a patient of Ira's when we lived in Sandy, and we became instant friends, and have stayed that way since we met them 10 years ago. We hadn't seen them in too long - but our kids came to love them (again) in the short time they spent with them. Pretty neat people.

Ira looks about 12 years old in our engagement picture. Good thing he became a dad and a bishop to give him lots of gray hair so he looks somewhat his age now! ha ha. Unfortunantly it's had the same affect on me :(

September also means lots and lots of canning produce. It is really a pain in the keester to can, and every year I wonder why I do it. But every year, when it's all done, and my shelves are full of yummy fruits and vegies, some of which came from our garden or the gardens of family and friends - I have a sense of satisfaction that I can't get when I just go buy the stuff. And the store bought just doesn't compare to the yumminess of homemade.

I do love September the best. BUT, I really, really like October too. So another great month coming right up - can't wait to see what adventures it holds for us. So far so good...

Here's a new one

I am totally confused by our youngest rag muffin. Kamden has always spoken very well and very precisely. The last month, he's decided to take on stammering. However, it's only when he wants to. If I listen in on his imagination play, he doesn't do it. Then a couple weeks ago, he stopped doing it. I thought "whew...we're through that stage". Then, a couple of days ago, he picked it up again with FULL FORCE, and he's not only stammering - he's YELLING while he's stammering. I'm thinking that this last child in our family is searching for attention...really there's got to be a better way to get our attention. And him, of all our kids, shouldn't be starving for attention.

Everything I've read is to just ignore the stammering, and to not finish his sentences for him. He will grow out of it. (Even if it takes - no exaggeration- 5 minutes to spit out one word?)

In the meantime...I have a serious headache!!! ey-yi-yi.....

Happy, Happy Birthday Emi Dear...

I can hardly believe that in one more year, Emilie will be in Young Womens. Really??? That seems impossible.

It seems like yesterday that we received a letter from her birth mom telling us that we were to be new parents to a little girl. I will never forget the day we received word that she had been born, and the 3 tortorous weeks that followed, while we waited until she could home with us. I will always treasure the moment I laid eyes on her for the first time, and when I was finally able to hold her in my arms.

Emilie is a sweet little girl (next year I can't say little girl anymore - I'll have to say young woman). She is full of spunk, determination, and independence. She claims to be a tom boy, but she loves to look pretty. So while she's all pretty, she's playing in the dirt (that's my girl!). With all that determined independence, we don't always see eye to eye - but I also know that with all that determined independence - she will go a long way in her life. She will succeed at whatever she sets her mind to.

For her birthday we surprised her with tickets to the Broadway show of Mary Poppins in Salt Lake City. Before the show, we went to dinner at Emilie's favorite restaurant - Golden Corral.

Loves the gifts

I told them to put their arms around each other. I had to chuckle at the "half" hug from Brayden. It's just not "legit" (teenage word for cool, or rad, or groovy) to hug one's sister.

Happy Birthday Emi Girl!

Tri-School Trot

I forgot that I skipped right over this grand event. I think the tri-school trot is the greatest fund raiser for a school. The kids aren't selling me anything that I can't use. Instead, they are gaining self confidence as they commit to run however many laps they chose. And get sponsors (mom/dad) to pay them (their schools) whatever amount of money we choose per lap that they run. All three local elementary schools run together with their different colored shirt. The kids love having all the people on the side cheering for them, and knowing they are earning money for their schools. It's a great accomplishment for them and for their schools.

Good job Jarin and Emilie!

My nephew, Truman was running as well.

Run, Jarin, Run!

Run, Emi, Run!

Emilie ran her 10 laps she committed to, plus a couple more. Then she climbed on board with Riley Carpenter and rode a couple more laps.

So proud of my kiddos, they ran with all their might. And I love this picture with all the flags which represent the country I love.

Paiute Trail

Two of my favorite things to do, combined into one fabulous weekend - LUV IT!

My first favorite thing to do is a 3-day weekend away with Ira. Especially when it's a bit of a road trip, because then I get his undivided attention for however many hours it takes to get there. Then I get the ride home too! It's simply fabulous. I love that we get to hold hands, and actually walk together without both of us trying to round up kids. I love that we get to finish our sentences without being interrupted. I love that we get to laugh more and play more. I love that we are just relaxed and can enjoy each others company - even when it's silent between us - it's a comfortable silence. I love that my "emotional tank" gets to be refilled. I love that we can be ready to walk out the door in 5 minutes, not an hour and 5 minutes with getting everyone ready. And then when our weekend comes to a close - I love that I can hug my children and remember why it's good to be home too.

Yep...a weekend away with my husband is a "must-do". In fact, I "must do" it again...soon!

My second favorite thing to do is being in the outdoors - camping, hiking, swimming, boating...4-wheeling! We went to Central Utah on a trail we had never been on before, and we went with our 4-wheeling traveling friends.

helmet head! No one said this was a fashion show :)

Yes...it was THAT cold. We are warming our hands with the warm exhaust coming from the 4-wheeler. That's a new one - I've never done that before!

And yes...it was that muddy. But mud can sure be fun!

If you could zoom in on this picture, you'd see the rain pouring down.

Roger Douglas

The other couples who were with us.

Jen & Bryce Douglas

These two were new to our usual group.

LuAnn and Sheridan Peterson

Marilyn & Roger Douglas

Just the two of us.

Our 4-wheeling buddies. This is the third trip we have taken with this group (except Bryce and Jen). Every single trip we have taken with them, it has been unseasonably and miserably cold. We're beginning to wonder if our friendship is meant to be! Not really, because of course it is. At least we know we're not just "fare-weathered" friends! ha ha

It's funny how the age gaps between us goes unnoticed. I have loved traveling with this group, and we're already planning our next 4-wheeling trip to Moab - can't wait!!!

Labor Day Weekend

I love Labor Day weekend. It is the kick-off to my favorite month of the year. I also don't like it when Labor Day is finished, because in my mind, summer is officially over. I love summer, and love fall even more. Unfortunantly, in Cache Valley, both are short lived - especially fall. So when Labor Day rolls around - we gotta live it up to it's fullest.

We decided to take a camping trip to Jackson Hole and Yellowstone. We headed on our way, with much anticipation of the adventures we'd have, and the wildlife we would see. Somewhere in the middle of Wyoming, THIS was our first experience with wildlife...Sheep - hundreds of them in the road, surrounding our truck.

We finally made it to Signal Mountain, where we set up camp, then headed to Jackson Lake, just below the Tetons, with our Kayaks. It was absolutely beautiful.

Later that evening, we went to Bar T-5 in Jackson Hole. We have always been Bar J fans, but Bar J was sold out, so we thought we'd try this other one. Here's my review of the two...For Ira and I as adults, Bar J is the winner. BUT, for Ira and I as parents, Bar T-5 won. Bar T was more spendy, so that wasn't so fun, but it was more kid happy. We started our adventure by taking covered wagons a couple of miles to where the dinner and entertainment were.

They had entertainment along the road, such as Indians and a trapper.

After dinner, there was a program with jokes and songs. Kam really got into dancing with the songs.

Our next day was Sunday, so we had a low-key day to try to keep the Sabbath Holy the best we could. So we went on a drive through Yellowstone.

Yellowstone wouldn't be complete without a stop at Old Faithful.

...and a few of the hot geysers.

It was the basic Yellowstone journey, until we stopped to see Steamboat Willie (below). Notice how Ira is sitting on that railing? We since learned that probably wouldn't be a good idea. Right after this picture was taken, we decided to head back up the path. There was a big group of people listening to a ranger, and I had to squeeze past some of them. I pushed against a rail (slightly, not with full force), and the thing gave out. I had my back to it, and I went falling about 3 feet (from the deck to the ground, plus my 5 feet of height) to the ground below, shoulders and head first. As I was in mid-air, I visualized the signs all around to not go off the path, because the ground below could be thin crust over a pool of boiling water. So, during my descend (which was probably only a second or two - but seemed like a lifetime), I was sure I was going to go crashing through the ground into the hot water. I landed with relatively little damage... so I thought at the time - just my pride was damaged. But as the minutes and hours wore on, it became apparent that I was going to be hurting for a while from that fall. As I remember the faces of people standing around, I was grateful that it was me that fell, and not any of the grandmas or grandpas that were there. It hurt me, but it could have REALLY hurt them.

After a few tears, I put on a smile and continued with our journey. We went to the famous Yellowstone Canyon. It really is spectacular to see.

As we were leaving the canyon, we saw a sign on the side of the road which read, "LDS Sacrament Meeting at 4:30." We looked at our clock, which read 4:28. As you can see from the pictures, we weren't dressed for what we were accustomed to wearing to church. But everyone else walking down the path was dressed like we were. So we joined in the crowd, and found ourselves in an open ampitheatre for a fast and testimony meeting. They chose priesthood boys out of the gathering to administer the sacrament. Then we had testimony meeting. The last man to stand up was a neighbor of ours, (small world!) Towards the end of his testimony, he saw us - and it must have thrown off his train of thought, cuz in the middle of a sentence, he exclaimed, "HI Bishop!!! I knew we'd see someone we know here." Everyone got a good laugh out of it. I was a bit embarrassed, because Kamden was being quite disruptive, and I didn't let it bother me too much (until that point) because no one knew us or anything about us. Now we were in the spotlight, and not being very good role-models! :)

However, it was such a neat meeting to be in attendance of. I'm so glad we were at the right place at the right time.

After church, we still hadn't seen any of the wildlife we had been telling the kids we would see. When this big boy came strolling down the road. We saw several after that, but this was the closest.

The Tetons and the sunset welcomed us back to Jackson Park as we were finishing our wonderful day at Yellowstone.

Back to camp...

This is one of my favorite spots for a picture. It is on Signal Mountain, overlooking Jackson Lake and the Tetons. I just love the Tetons - it is one of my favorite places to go.

Jarin

Brayden

Our last day in Jackson, we took our Kayaks out once again. This time to a different lake (don't know the name). But it only allowed non-motorized boats. So we felt a little more safe to explore all around. There is nothing like being right below the great, majestic Tetons.

Jarin

Nicky

Ira, Kamden, Jarin

Kamden - his smile says it all...it was a perfect vacation to end summer and start fall.