Looking Forward to the Fourth of July

Fourth of July is coming up, hard to believe!! Sounds great!! I’m really missing my family, look forward to spending time with my girls and the grandkids.  I’ve got to get myself feeling better so I can enjoy the family. Stacy & her family is arriving in town from California on July 3rd too, so excited to see them all

Friday/ Sick

We were invited to go golfing with Jason and Jeanae this morning.  I’m not feeling well at all today.  I could tell I’ve been fighting something this last week I’ve had swollen glands & my energy level has been really low the last couple of days, the worst of it set in last night with sneezing,coughing and body aches, I don’t feel good at all this morning, I’m lying in bed while Craig went golfing without me.  I’m feeling very melancholy today too, this thing with Darlene has really upset me now.  I’m trying not to let it bother me but It really does!!  Hopefully it will smooth out in time, but it does cause contention in our young women’s program.  I just feel a cloud of darkness hanging over me today.  Being sick doesn’t help.  I’ve got to not let this drag me down and cheer up!! Things will get better.  I do miss having our home in Salt Lake so much!! I miss our life there, don’t know how much longer I can hang out at Bear Lake, the mixed emotions is wearing my positive attitude down.  It will be nice to have a break from young women’s for a couple  of weeks, we don’t have lessons the next two Sundays.  I want to spend time with my own family.

Thursday/ Cloud of Darkness

Still sorting things in the garage I wanted to get some things to the rummage sale this weekend. I’m still so tired I don’t have much energy I can tell I’m fighting something.  I have swollen glands and low energy.  I spent the day sorting in the garage and moving sprinklers around for Flints yard.  They are not coming up for three weeks and asked us to keep their yard watered.  It has felt good to tinker outside.  Summer is finally here.  The weather has warmed up in the 80’s. I have placed as much as I can from the garage in the cabin, consolidating two homes is challenging, I still have stuff I don’t want to get rid of.  I’ve put about all I can in the lower closets in the garage which has been nice to have, we’ve come along way since last year.  Weeding through all our belongings and thinning things out, it’s hard to get rid of our things that we’ve collected our entire marriage.  I have to say I am sentimental over our belongings.  Craig has a rental storage unit over by the car wash that we are going to try to move the bulk of what furniture we have left, so it will clear out our lower garage.  I still want to buy a home in the Salt lake valley, at least a condo of some type.  I do miss being closer to my kids and grandkids.  Moving our things around has got me a little emotional today, I hate to see things get broken, moving is hard on our belongings.  I feel a dark cloud hanging over me today, really depressed and discouraged.  Craig mentioned that Tonya her mother had a talk with Darlene Peterson one of my beehives. She has been acting really strange to Craig and I the last couple of months just flat out rude, I can tell she doesn’t like us.  She won’t even hardly speak to either one of us, she just looks at us and walks away.  It has definitely been a sudden change. Craig Talked to Tonya and she said that it was from something that one of the Laurels had said.  Well I know where that came from, her own mother because I have not said anything to any of the laurels I’m sure it’s the situation that happened with Sierra, I confided in Darlene’s mom Tonya as my visiting teacher about my feelings the day when I was very upset and had an emotional breakdown over it all.  Darlene overheard her mom talking about our conversation I’m sure. It has totally been taken out of context.  It makes me feel so sad again about all of this Sierra situation that I got sucked into by her mother.  I was defending Sierra, trying to help her, which backfired on me.  Darlene has the attitude that we are snobby and better than everybody else.  Which is so crazy Craig and I have given our all since we’ve been here,to be loving, kind and serving everyone that we have come in contact with.  I feel that Chloe acts the same way towards me and I’m wondering if there’s been conversation with Chloe and Darlene since I know they are best friends.  Small town gossip is very challenging. I feel betrayed by her mom as well, she was very understanding of my feelings but obviously something was said when she returned home and Darlene picked up on the negative. Feel like throwing my hands up in the air and saying I quit !! I don’t need the stress in my life.  The Young women in this ward are very challenging, most of them are from inactive families and they don’t have the parent support which is very challenging to get them to even come to the activities.  It seems to be a losing battle and hard not to get discouraged over at all. Now I have to deal with their petty feelings.  It really makes me angry.  

Time Out

After hosting our boating party I was totally exhausted I needed to take a day off and just relax and that’s what I did. Craig went golfing in a golf tournament, so I had a few hours to myself which felt really nice I’ve not had that time for a while. I did a few tidying up chores, I put my swimsuit on, to get some sunshine, sat down in a chair and read a book.  It felt really good just to relax today.

Ashtyn’s Birthday

June 26th, 2016 Today is our baby Ashtyn’s Two-year-old birthday she is such an adorable little granddaughter we love her all so much, two years have gone by so quickly, I think we might drive down today to see
 your little Ashtyn for her birthday.

Wednesday Morning

I am so tired from our boating party last night that I can hardly move today standing on my feet for over six hours was exhausting. I never even got in the boat.  Menlove's brought their boat and Craig pulling kids too- wake boarding and surfing.  I had to stay back at the shore to manage the things that were going on here with the kids- feeding and cleaning up it took all of my time and energy just staying behind keep things running smoothly- well  they all had an awesome time didn’t want to go home we finally had to get them on their way home by 9:30 PM- time to end this party. Y M first counselor Rose is awesome in coming back and helping me clean up. Craig and I were pulling our boat out at about 10:30 PM last night it was a beautiful night with a full 🌕 moon.  Craig took off and went golfing this morning in a golf tournament- I’m too tired to do much of anything I think I’m just gonna go get my lounge chair and relax this morning and read a little bit. I would love to sit in the sun and read a book, I haven’t done that yet this summer. I have to say summer is officially here now!!! The weather has just warmed up enough this week to get out on the lake.  The warm sunshine
does feel good☀️.

   

Young Men and Young Women Boating Activity

We had a great activity this Tuesday.  Craig and I got up early in order to get ready we had to drive to Randolph to vote in the primary election for Us senate and county commissioner election, we voted for Mitt Romney for the US State Senate, we are a big Romney fans for the Republican Party.  Shelly and Dennis,  Craig's sister stop by to visit with us for a couple hours at lunchtime,fun to visit with them.  I spent the afternoon getting things ready for our barbecue boating party with all the youth from the ward, we had over 30 here and they all had such an awesome time, they started arriving at
4 pm. and stayed till about 9:30 pm. they didn’t want to go home -they were having such a great time.  
Mika Anderson on our Beehives.

Monday

Craig and I tackle the lower garage sorting and pulling things out, I want to move our stuff to the storage unit, we need to get our trailer back from Peterson’s, they borrowed it three months ago when they moved from their home, when they sold it.  They were only going to use it for about three weeks and they still have it.  We have a lot of our heavy furniture that Craig wants to move over to the storage unit, but he needs to have someone help him- I am useless when it comes to lifting that stuff I’m just not strong enough and my back won’t handle it.  I was wore out just from our sorting and moving things around.  We are slowly getting ourselves organized- I still probably have another full day of sorting and moving things around.  It will be nice to have our lower garage cleaned out from all our storage things.  It will be much easier for me not to have to look at all our things stored in the lower garage, being out of sight will help me emotionally. 

Sunday

I had another very busy day, I had to get up early to get ready for Bishops council, meeting at 7:30am.  We were hosting the sacrament program for the senior center in Montpelier the young men and young women, so we met at the church at 9 AM to drive to Montpelier a half an hour drive, the sacrament meeting went really well.  I love singing- I sang a solo from the same songs I sang in Sacrament a last month.  Elise Berning my secretary played the piano for us and gave a beautiful talk, one of our young men spoke about his experience at trek Jaden Ward.  And my young women sang our theme song peace in Christ.  We had six beehives singing.  It was a spiritual experience for all of us to serve there.  We drove back to our ward in time for about 30 minutes of young women to discuss girls camp coming up and their plans for this summer, we all have a busy schedule.  Church seems really long by 12:30 I had to go to the -Bishop youth Council meeting so I didn’t get home till about 1:30 in the afternoon.  I was so tired I had to take a long afternoon nap. I woke up just in time to get ready for our bishop youth discussion meeting with all the youth at our home tonight I had to make brownies and get things set up we were planning on having a campfire outside and making smore‘s with all the kids- we had about 20 people attend.  Craig give the spiritual thought and discussion with the youth, he talked about the importance of following our prophet president Nelson’s counsel in these latter days and his last conference talk that he just spoke at for all the youth throughout the world. The young man and the young women all had a great time roasting marshmallows in making  smore‘s.  This has been a long day at church work and I was really tired by the end of the day.  It has been a blessed day serving in the church.

Saturday Chores

Saturday was a busy day working around the cabin.  I’ve been sorting and trying to get things put away from my trek pile, to the wedding & stuff that I brought back from Shannon's home I had been storing there. I had a bunch of piles in the garage that I needed to sort and put away, we are trying to organize the garage downstairs too!   Craig got a storage unit that we can now use so we want to unpack and move some stuff over there to free up space in the  lower garage and we have been slowly working on that too, Craig has been watching me like a hawk ,he does not want me to bring anything else back into the cabin.  I know I’ve been filling it up with our things combining three homes over the years has been a chore, our big home in Draper we  have been slowly going through our stuff, I’ve given a lot of it to the kids- I’ve moved in about as much as I can into the Cabin, it's filled up!! We kept busy all day. Life doesn’t slow down for us.  

Friday Temple Day

Our young women have been going to the temple on Friday mornings to do baptisms for the dead they’ve gone for about the last five weeks they leave at 5:30 AM in the morning I was able to go with them this Friday. I had to get up at 4:30 AM to wash my hair and clean up, we sat around the campfire last night didn’t go to bed till about midnight so I smelled like a 🔥 campfire.  Only had four hours of sleep.  I managed to get myself dressed I was really tired from a full day with the McPherron‘s boating.  We have four girls attend this Friday and they are preparing their own family names, we did about 15 family name after the girls left I stayed for an endowment session and went through for Tenny Loveall who is one of my Loveall ancestors.  I had a full day in Logan and I had to go to Hobby lobby to exchange some things from the Kneaders for lunch.  Fun to catch up with her and seeing her for a while, she’s my oldest Laurel in the young women’s program she will be a senior this next year she works for her dad at their business in Logan.  After lunch with Jeslyn I had to head over to Sam’s Club to buy food for our big boating party coming up on Tuesday the 26th- I was so tired when I was shopping I could hardly keep my eyes open- I had to push through my shopping and get home I had a long hour drive up Logan Canyon being so tired it felt good to be home- this has been a blessed day

Steve & Jill

Steve & Jill long lasting friends over the years, we have known them since Craig started in the insurance business in 1979, we have been on lots of fun convention trips over the years with them  they have been great friends. It has been too long since we have seen each other. They are here this week camping at ideal Beach with Jill sister from Hawaii-  we stayed with Geralyn many years ago when we went to Hawaii, fond memories, They are all here with their grandkids for the week- they all came over Thursday afternoon to hang out on our lawn and go boating- we all had a great day there were about 30 people here and then we all went to Café Sabor for dinner the Thursday evening Mexican special- fun to visit with our friends for the day

Relief Socity Media Night

I was asked to help teach the sisters in the ward how to manage apps on their cell phone.  We had 8 sisters attend tonight.  It was a great discussion, with lots to learn.  Everyone left motivated to do more they love the blog idea that I’ve done on my own that I shared with them how easy it is.  They were so excited we had some good laughs and several of them wanted me to come over and help them get started, love serving in our ward, afterwords I went by and visited with Janie Wallentine who is our new beehive to wish her a happy birthday- I had lots of church work to do today it’s been a full day.

Our Young Women’s Activity

Trisha helped me make a cute invitation.  We are having a personal progress night eating pancakes, setting goals for the Summer, trying to encourage the girls to work on personal progress.  Things didn’t end well !! Very disappointing. They were all playing pool in the end after their interviews, the older girls were teasing the brand new girls about pranking them at girls camp in July- now they are scared to go to girls camp.  Crazy I never dream the older girls would do this.  Always have to be two steps ahead of them.  Unstructured time with teenage girls is never a good idea. Something to be aware of especially girls camp. I remember a LOT of drama in my camp days when there was down time. Not just pranking.   No one is to blame. But we have got to be on our toes and not let them be unsupervised. Pranking has always been a part of camps but it is so unpleasant and in today’s world, seems to be the stuff that can totally mess with these girls self confidence and even their activity in the church. I would have loved to have texted something more like Saige had a great time because the older girls made her feel accepted and taught her how to play pool. I am sure Jainee deals with a fair share of that from her older sister BUT Rylee is so fragile and Saige is so vulnerable that it breaks my heart that the night ended that way for those younger girls.  Rose sent them a text last night to make them aware -  FWD: What up ladies— I got some feedback tonight that a couple of our young girls are scared to go to camp now cause of prank talk from tonight. I’m sure you were joking around but some of our little noobs don’t know any better and are scared! Do me favor and help em feel welcome, it’s their first time for all this. Thank ya much :).  They texted back and said they were sorry and didn’t mean it to be taken so seriously. Which is what i figured. We talked about what it was like being a new beehive and how it was kind of scary. So I think they are aware and also know that we have a higher standard than that. I kind of hope this will jump start us into our older girls being more aware of the responsibilities they have in taking care of those younger girls.

Losing Weight

I got on the scales this morning and was pleasantly surprised I’ve dropped below the 160 Mark, I weigh 159.4, I haven’t seen that for over a year I started Nutrisystem diet at the end of April it’s taking me about six weeks, I’ve dropped down 10 pounds slower than I’d liked, I know I’ve cheated a lot going back-and-forth to see the kids in Salt Lake, eating out is hard to stay on my diet, going on trek didn’t know if I would lose anyway, so surprised this morning!!! Just keep going, slowly but surely, at least I’m going in the right direction.

Tuesday morning

I woke up to the sound of chainsaws.  It is going to be noisy around here for the next few days.  Flint is as having all of the big trees next door trim down on their property.  I’ve been laying in bed updating my blog this morning, so many things happening that I haven’t taken the time to record. The weather is on the cooler side since our rainstorm on Sunday, some on Monday as well.  The sun is out today but it is cool- in the 60's.  Too cold to be getting in the water. Summer weather is actually slow coming at Bear Lake this year.  It has been really hot in Salt Lake in the 90's, it’s always cooler at the lake which does feel good, I can’t take the 90° weather anymore.  I need to prepare for our young women’s gathering tonight we are having a pancake dinner an important hour of personal progress, to help set goals for the summer.  I am so tired this morning want to slow down a little bit today.  I need to still unpack our belongings from trek and put those things away.  I have things that I need to return from the Peterson‘s wedding, I need to drive to Logan to go to Hobby Lobby for that but I think I’ll wait till Thursday this week..  The Burbidge family are going home today want to spend time with them before they leave.

Monday

Monday morning no rest!!!  We had to clean up the lower garage.  With all the rain it had flooded halfway into our lower garage it was a wet muddy mess.  Craig hosed it out while I pushed the water and mud out with the broom, it took us half the morning to clean up the mess.  I got a text messages early that morning that it was our game night so I had to muster up the energy to entertain three couples for family night game night.  It was my turn to cook dinner.   Luckily I had some chicken in the freezer to make barbecue chicken and Trisha had leftover potatoes from Father’s Day dinner, I had to go down to Mike’s market to get produce to make a salad, vegetables and strawberries for strawberry shortcake, it was a yummy dinner,  Turned out nice even though My cupboards were lean,  we had a great dinner and fun playing games with our Bear lake friends. The Burbidge family has been here for the day. Jacob stayed over so Jacob and Boston are having fun hanging out together, they are cute little cousins,they play really well together. After our friends left we built a campfire and had Smore’s with Jacob and Boston.  Things don’t slow down around here I’m moving from one event  to the next.  Feels like I’m barely able to catch my breath for the next event.

Father’s Day

No time to slow down we got home about 9:30 PM from our trek adventure.  I was dead tired. When we arrived home the Noriega family were here, they had come Thursday evening for a softball tournament in Montpelier, Idaho for Aubrey.  Her team took first place at the tournament.  They had a nice time for three days sleeping over at the cabin and spending Father’s Day with us I had to get myself up Sunday morning and dressed for church by 9 AM even though I’m really tired,  I needed to attend our church meetings. We had a blessed Father’s Day gathering with our family.  The Burbidge family arrive later that afternoon and Trisha cooked us a yummy dinner.  I was able to take an afternoon nap and spend a little time reading, I needed some downtime to rest from our trek,  I am so tired!!! Shar and Dave gave Craig some orange sticks and a fun Corvette ball cap to wear, Trisha gave Craig a pedicure for her Father’s Day gift which was greatly needed from all our walking.  Sunday it started raining and it rained and rained I haven’t seen it rain this hard in quiet awhile, we actually were flooded in our lower garage, had so much water running down that it went into half of the garage had to get the pump out to keep pumping the water out or it would’ve been a lot worse.  We got buckets and buckets of rain.  Then Noriega family had to pack up and leave Sunday evening. Trisha and her family are staying till Tuesday.  Stacy, Shannon and Tasha all FaceTime Craig to wish him a happy Father’s Day, fun to visit with our kids, the blessings of technology.  Who would of dreamed years earlier, we can now talk to each other and actually see one another on the phone.  I gave Craig a Bear Lake T-shirt but he doesn’t really like it so we’re going to have to take it back and find something else, don’t think I took any pictures, we were so busy with the family, and the flooding in the lower garage.  I was so tired that I forgot to take any pictures of our special day.

Thomas Family on Father Day.  They didn’t come to the lake this year.
 Such a darling picture.

Our Last Trek Day

Our third and last day had arrived.   We had to get up early that morning and be all packed up, our tents taken down and ready to go by 6:45 am in the morning. We woke up at about 5 AM to start 
packing up it was on the cool side and raining on us, a slow drizzle. Taking our tents down was challenging.  Our family was not as organized as we should have been.  Braxton took off and did not help us,  I had to go find him. He was in line for breakfast and I had to drag him out of line.  We weren’t suppose to eat until we had our camp all packed up and then eat together as a family for our last goodbyes, That did not go as well as I would have liked.  We were one of the last groups getting our things loaded up to go.  Working as a team makes a big difference.  We needed Braxton.  He kept leaving our group to hang our with his friends.  Our stake mixed up the families, we were not with our ward youth.  Craig and I felt this was challenging.  We would have rather been with our ward youth to bond with them.  After breakfast we had to pull our carts three miles out to the bus.  We watched a final movie of the pioneers, cleaned our hand carts and loaded up to drive to the Willie Handcart visitor center,  We then hike down to the park below to have lunch it was a beautiful setting, very peaceful and reverent.   After lunch we loaded up on the buses and run another hour to Rockport a sacred  area where the Willy handcart company had gathered and 15 people died as they came up Rocky Ridge, they had sacrificed much.  Stranded in the cold weather and trying to survive extreme circumstances, I just can’t even imagine the suffering that they had to endure.  At this sacred site we had a testimony meeting with all the youth  I was able to stand and share my thoughts and feelings about this experience, I was so honored to be able to have a glimpse of what our Martin handcart ancestors had endure. We have nine ancestors that survived in the Martin’s  handcart company they gave their all for the gospel of Jesus Christ and to gather to Zion, so grateful for them and their sacrifices,  I am a first generation Mormon and I have a taste of their hearts desire to gather to Zion, at 15 years old our family moved to Utah to be apart of the church gathering, we wanted to come to Zion.  We wanted to feel the spirit of strength, of living among Latter-day Saints. Strength comes in numbers.  I was an only Mormon girl in my entire school and area in which we lived there were few LDS members living in Florida in 1970-71  The only blessing was that I was able to meet my future husband in that short period of time that we lived in Florida for six months.  Moving to Utah and gathering to Zion has been a great blessing in my life I am so grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ I have been blessed with so much. I have strive to  live the gospel principles over the years.   I’m grateful for my testimony of the gospel, the church is true, with all my heart I feel so much gratitude for this experience.  This has been something I've wanted to experience before I got to old.  Going at 61 years old was a challenge but I survived very well for three days, wouldn’t want to have to endure a lot more though, I do love the comforts of life.  I’m so grateful for all my very many many blessings the Lord has blessed us by this experience. 

Our Trek Family

Our Trek family we had three girls and three boys. Cambrey, Hattie  and Amber, Braxton, Matthew, Brodrick.  When we arrive to Martins Cove they divided us in our family groups and then assigned us a hand cart to pull to our campsite. There was about 200 youth and leaders in our trek company walking into our campsite.  We all crossed the river at one point with our handcarts.  At this point we talked about the rescuers that had crossed the river carrying the members from the Martins company across that icy waters in November 1856.  it was cold when we plunged in the water in the summertime, I can’t imagine in the winter time how cold it was.  It was a very scared moment to honor those that sacrificed so much physically to make their journey to Zion they knew the gospel of Jesus Christ was true and sacrificed everything they had to fulfill the commandment from the prophet Brigham young at the time to gather to Zion, in the Rocky Mountains.  When we arrived to our campsite we were assigned a certain area to camp, we had to set up our tents and organize ourselves for our campsite, setting up our three tents was a little challenging for our family.  I was feeling disorganized and very tired from our 3 1/2 miles walking in, we were all really tired after riding the bus for five hours and then pulling our handcarts 3 1/2 miles, my feet are really tired, my shoes were full of sand and they were hurting, I needed to rest. We had some down time and then a yummy dinner with all the group that evening.  We sat bye the campfire visiting with our little family getting to know our kids and a little bit about each of them. Trying to remember all their names.  First thing that morning we were up and going early, we were the first ones that had our handcart buckets loaded up and at the front of the caravan, our trek master let us be the first hand cart to pull out.  I had a hard time keeping up at their pace in the beginning.  We had a very full day. walked about 9 miles, our second day we walked to Martins Cove and visited the sacred site, did our woman’s pull up Rocky Ridge with all the girls pulling their handcarts in groups of six women with the young men all standing at the top of the ridge watching us and standing in silence, it was a sacred moment for us all. We then walked another two miles back to our campsite for the evening, we were all really tired it was a long day walking.  I did get a some blisters on my feet from all the walking.  When we arrived back to our campsite all hot and tired, no shade to cover under so everyone headed down to the river to take a dip, the youth all had fun in the river playing and floating down with the gentle river current.  The water was only about knee-deep but swift enough current you could lay backwards and float down.  Cold water felt really good on my feet.  And we all took a little nap we were tired, the wind kicked up and blew really really hard, our tents are all having a hard time staying up for most of the evening it was going to be a long night.  square dancing was going to be canceled because of the wind the kids all managed to have fun despite the wind, they played red rover come over and a huge tug of war pull.  We had a good dinner Ribs and corn on the cob.  We later sat by a campfire, visiting as the wind began to die down. Our last night I didn’t go as I had envisioned, we had to adjust because of the strong wind, we didn’t do our campfire smore’s it was too windy and kids were tired and went to bed.  We all were really tired from our long day of walking.  I managed to get some sleep though the night despite the wind. 

Trek With the Youth

We had a busy week getting ready for Trek,  Craig & I put up our tent and slept out one night to make sure we had what we needed to be somewhat comfortable sleeping.  Wednesday was a busy day packing up the things needed.  We were a Ma & Pa for 3 girls and 3 young men from our stake. We took the time to read up on our Martin handcart ancestors.  We are going to Martin’s cove which is a five hour drive on the bus from Bear lake.  We had to have all our things at the church Wednesday evening 7:30 pm.    The Bishop let me know there was a young women, non member working at the KOA for the summer, she would like to go to trek.  I meet with her to help her get ready at the last minute.  We were able to get her pioneer clothing to wear.  Pray that she will have a good experience.  We are excited for our adventure.  We are going to be gone three days. Let the Fun Begin!! We all meet at the church at 7am for the Bus

Jayla & Debbie waiting to get on the bus, excited for a new adventure ! 
Craig & Debbie in our Pioneer clothing for the Trek.

Sabbath Day

I had a lovely Sabbath day, my meetings were very uplifting I was asked to help teach a little bit in relief society today about the young women ministering in the new program with relief society ages 14 to 18 to invite all of our young women to attend relief society today, it was a very special meeting, the picture I posted is about highlights from our conference last week from the prophet President Nelson and his wife challenging the ranks of the youth to join the army of Jesus Christ in defending the truth of the gospel and be a light to the world as we prepare our selves and the world for the second coming of Jesus Christ.  we talked about ways to help the girls and to fight depression by looking outward in serving those around them. I’m so excited about the new ministering program for our young women. We are having a young women’s presidency meeting tonight at 7 PM at my home to follow up with our discussion.  It was a busy day at church I was so tired when I got home today I had to take a long two hour nap to recoup from our very busy week, I’m so grateful I was able to attend church and I renew my covenants this day.

Our Busy Week

We have had an eventful week as family took my dear 82 mother to the airport after her two week stay with us on Monday.  We got up early to drive to Salt lake to get her to be airport and drive back the same day, spent 6 hours driving in one day. Our grandson came back with us, Landon was able to spend a few days with us but ended up at the Primary children’s hospital by the end of the week with food stuck in his esophagus, it had to be scoped out. Scary for him over 13 hours of not being able to swallow, but doing better now, I decorated that same day for Bishop Peterson’s daughter, Alisa Peterson wedding reception, it was lovely,We celebrated our 41st wedding anniversary June 7th, we took a lovely rhino ride up in the mountains, the wild flowers were all so pretty to see, we attended our grandson Boston’s baptism on Saturday morning another trek drive back to Salt Lake,  We attended a Trek prep stake meeting, went boating one day with Landon, had the elder missionaries over to our home for two lessons and feed them dinner on Wednesday.  It was special to have the missionaries in our home. We have indeed had a very busy week, the many blessing of family ❤️ love

Boston Baptism Day

We gave Boston scriptures for a Baptism gift.  He was really excited to get them.  He is such a sweet boy.  It was a lovely baptism.

  A very special day for Grandparents 

He received lots of hugs from his family congratulation to him and the decision he has made to follow Jesus Christ.  

Landon At The Hospital

 
Landon got food stuck in his throat about 2pm Friday afternoon after eating some of his left over burrito from Cafe Sabor, he Swallowed too big a bit, hoping it would go down but it never did.  He tried drinking a Diet Coke, but nothing would go down he had to keep spitting. We called his mother to let her know.  I was at the wedding reception decorating and helping out during the reception.  By 8pm we packed up in a hurry and drove him to Primary Children’s hospital on our way down from the lake.  We were planning on coming down last night for Boston’s baptism today.  Poor little guy he had to suffer for over 12 hours before they were able to remove the food in his Esophagus.   We met Shannon & Ryan at the hospital.  Landon was glad to see his parents.  We had a great time at the Lake this week with Landon, at least this happened the last day of his time at the lake with us.  When they did the X-ray test  they could see he had total obstruction.  How miserable for him.  The scope surgery went well.  They arrived home about 6am this morning.  We are all so tired from the long night at the hospital & little sleep.  Craig and I brought baby Ashtyn home and put her to bed we got a little bit of sleep about 4 hours, before we had to get up early to dress and go to Boston’s baptism this morning at 9am.  All has ended well.

Decorating For Alisa Peterson Wedding

I spent the day decorating their reception today,  it has been a big project.  My darn back is not liking the standing.  It is hard on me.  Things turned out lovely.  

Our 41 Wedding Anniversay

Craig & I are celebrating our 41 wedding anniversary.  We are staying home this year no big plans. We have Landon here with us for the week.  It is a beautiful day, I love my dear husband so very much, he means all the world to me !!! Sweet note from our Stacy she is always so thoughtful:
Happy Anniversary you two love 💕 birds! Love you both so much! So glad you stuck in all these years through the good and the bad. I love and admire you Mom and Dad! 🤗😘💕 Hope you have a good day!!  Note to my hubby: I wanted to say how very much I love ❤️ you 💕on our anniversary of 41 years, you are the love of my life, I have so many special memories of our life together, you have filled my life dreams and more!! thank you for being such a wonderful husband , love you with all my ❤️ heart and love you for all eternity !!🌹

Missionary Lessons For Landon

The elder missionaries came yesterday  afternoon at 4pm to teach Landon about the gospel.  Landon is taking it all in.  Yesterday morning we read in the Book of Mormon in 3 Nephi.  Today  we read the introduction of the book the missionaries gave him.    Landon said a very heart felt prayer after his first lesson.  This morning he was reading in the book they gave him.  Landon told me today he knows the Book of Mormon is a true book of God.  The missionaries are coming again today at 4pm and we are feeding them dinner.

Boating Today

Summer is Here!! We put the boat in today.  It is warming up, but it is still cold riding in the boat.  It is to cold for me to get in the water.  Landon is a brave boy.  He is wake boarding.  We had a fun day yesterday.  He rode the wave blaster and Craig took him golfing with him in the afternoon.  I worked on finishing up making mini flower arrangements for Alisa Peterson wedding luncheon on Thursday. I’m decorating for her wedding reception on Friday at the Lake.  This morning I woke up early and finished planting flowers I bought for my summer flower pots.  I need to go pick up some more pots to finish up,  I had to take a break to go boating with Craig & Landon.  
It is cold still but Landon doesn’t seem to mind the cold water!! 

Our Pioneer Trek Night

We have only one more weeks till we go on the the big pioneer trek.   Tonight is our preparation night as mom and pa. We meet our youth family, hopefully they’ll show up tonight.  I’m having a hard time getting my girls from our ward to even go, tonight I only have three girls attending we have about 13 boys attending from our ward.  Craig and I bought a harmonica for him to practice so we can sing some of the pioneer songs while we’re on the trek.  Craig does play the harmonica but it’s been a lot of years so he needs to practice!!  We bought an extra one so  someone can practice with him.  I have had a busy day getting things ready for the Peterson’s wedding, I made 12 little centerpiece vases for their table luncheon they turned out darling I’m decorating for their wedding on Friday it should be lots of fun but a lot of work too.  I’m worried about going on the trek because my ankle and foot hurts and my back hurts when I stand too long and I feel like I’ve done that much today and my back is killing me I have to lay down and rest.  Pray I have the strength to go on trek.  We have lots to do to get ready for only one more week.-  I had fun learning the square dances they taught us.  We got our trek buckets last night, only one more week.

Our Landon

Craig and I drove all the way to Salt Lake yesterday and back in less than 24 hours we brought Landon back with us.   He didn’t get to come to the lake over memorial weekend with his brothers there wasn’t enough room in the car with the Burbidge family so he got left behind he got out of school on Friday so he was excited to come to the lake.  He likes spending time with his grandpa and grandma.  You told me he’s had a really fun day last night we cooked a big campfire and roasted
hot dogs so they were yummy today he got to ride the wave blaster and went golfing with Craig at 4 o’clock today we had the missionaries come and teach him a discussion about the book on Mormon and the restoration of the church.  I want to try to get him baptized sometime this summer trying to teach him the gospel of Jesus Christ.  We had three elder Missionaries and they were awesome they’re coming back tomorrow at 4 PM and we are feeding them dinner.

Taking Mom To The Airport

Craig & I got up early to drive to Salt Lake to take my mother to the airport.   She has had a good visit.  She has been very emotional this trip thinking this is her last time coming to see everyone.  It may very well be her last trip to Utah. She is going to be 82 July 20th.  She has aged a lot,  she has a really hard time getting around.  With the high altitude she has had a really hard time breathing as well.   Her heart is only functioning at 20% and her defibrillator went off three times while she was here visiting so we know it is going to be challenging for her to come back for another visit.  I got really emotional when I kissed her and said goodbye to her at the airport, the tears just started flowing.  I was able to get a lady to put her in a wheelchair and stay with her until she boarded the plane they won’t let you go through security anymore.  She had a direct flight Tommy and Richelle are picking her up in Dallas.  She text me when she arrived and said that everything went well it felt good to be back to Texas and her breathing is much much better.  We are going to miss her.  
Gaga with baby Ashytn.  Shannon did her hair and she looks
so pretty. Mom enjoyed her time here so much, Gaga with Ryan
.

Very Special Sabbath day

I stayed late at Shannon’s home Saturday evening by 9pm- I felt I should should come back to the lake for my Sunday meetings.  I headed home and arrive at 12:39 pm.  By the time I unloaded all my stuff from the car I crawled in bed about 1:45am.  I had to get up early to take a shower and wash my hair, I hadn’t had a shower for three days.  Felt good to clean up. So glad I made the effort to come home for my Sunday meetings, so proud of my dear husband, he did a great job conducting our fast and testimony meeting.  He shared a very touching testimony.  It set the tone for the rest of the meeting.  We had a great Sunday school lesson.  Our last class for the family relationship class we have been taking for the last 8 weeks.  Our young women lesson was taught by sister Lundgren, my 2nd  counselor.  She taught about the priesthood and shared an inspiring message about the power of the priesthood in our lives.  After our meeting I stayed afterwards to renew my temple recommend. We didn’t home until around 2pm.  I played with the wedding things I purchased yesterday figuring out how I want to display things for the Peterson wedding.  I had to take a nap 😴, I was so tired getting home late.  We then gather back at the church at 6pm for the world wide youth broadcast by the prophet.  It was amazing,  enlisting all youth 12 to 18 years of age to join in the army of youth around he world to prepare the earth for the second coming of our Savior by being a light to the world in sharing the gospel, for the final gathering of Israel.  It was such an inspiring conference want to listen to it again    This has been a blessed Sunday, so happy I was able to keep the Sabbath holy and feel of my Heavenly Father's Love this day.

Took Mom to See the Girls

After Memorial Weekend I spent a day cleaning up on Tuesday.  Felt good to get things tidy up.  The girls are good at changing their sheets and leaving things tidy.  Trisha rearrange her room and it looks nice. she worked hard cleaning up and was great cooking a yummy Sunday dinner for us all. Sticking to my diet is a challenge for me I did manage to get thru the weekend with out gaining weight.  We were going to head to salt lake on Wednesday but Mom’s defibrillator went off in the night and she did not feel well enough to travel.  We have enjoyed watching a Netflick's series Hart & Dixie in the evenings.  It is a nice diversion from all her talking, she talks my ear off, stories I have heard many times.  I can write her life history.  I did try to get her to sit down and work in the history I started for her 4 yrs ago.  She didn’t last very long.  I have got to buckle down and get it completed before she passes on.  I wanted to print one for each of my siblings.  It is going to be a very nice book.  Thursday we were really to head out by noon.  I helped to pack her up, we were not coming back to the cabin. We drive to Salt Lake,  I needed to go to the chiro for an adjustment.  I’m hurting really bad on my left side.  Craig Campbell gave me a pain block in my lower back and it seemed to help, it was 4:30 we were both tired so we decided to go to Shar’s on Friday.   We spent the night at Tasha’s home Thursday evening.  Mom had fun playing with Annie and Winn and Lincoln for the evening.  The kids love her she is really cute with the kids.  We had a fun sleepover with the kids.  Annie loves me to read stories to her.  Friday morning I awoke early and went for a walk.  I walked 3 1/2 miles.  I love walking in the Pepperwood neighborhood.  It is a beautiful area.  Trying to get walking time in, preparing for the big Trek coming up the middle of June.  Friday morning we headed out to Sharlena’s home.  We had fun visiting with the Noriega grand kids, Cole, Aubrey, Austin, Jacob.  Shar & I went and got pizza for dinner.  We then all watched the greatest Showman musical.  It is so good we all love it!! I’ve now seen it 5 times.  It is a movie I can watch over and over.  Mom & I slept over in Aubrey’s room.  Saturday morning the Noriega family all had to get up early and head a out the door for sports events for the day.  Shar & Cole we’re out by 6:3Oam. Cole had a football competition at Weber State college.  I took a quick walk around the block to get my body moving. We just got dressed and headed out the door about 10:00 am figured we could clean up at Shannon’s home.  This was our next visit in making the rounds.  Shannon didn't make it to the cabin so Mom has not spent much time with her.   We arrived at Shannon’s home about noon.  I left Mom to hang out with their family while I went shopping.  I’m decorating for the Peterson’s wedding this coming Friday June 8th.  I needed to figure out what do.  Her colors are peach and navy blue.  Those are challenging colors to pull together.  I was at hobby lobby for over two hours. I got lucky they were having a sale on their flowers and wedding things.  I did find lots of fun things.  Mom is sleeping over at Shannon’s tonight. 
Our sleep over with Annie, great-grandmother Gaga and Grandmother Debbie

At Natasha's home

We came down from the lake to visit all the kids before mom goes home on Monday June 4th.   We slept over at Natasha home last night.  Mom had a fun time playing with the great/grand kids last night.  We are having lunch with the Burbidge family today.  
Playing dress-up with Gaga- Winn and Annie -