The S'More Experience

Julie insisted that we build a fire and make S'Mores. She brought all the stuff, including very fancy skewers for marshmallow cooking. C'mon Julie, "you know there's no way 'round it." Smoke follows beauty... Ava is carefully toasting a coconut covered marshmallow.

YUM!

Julie, you are the queen. Delicious!

OK, Ava. That is funny!

Now you're talking...

Even Nick could not resist coming out to make one treat.

I'd say we have some happy campers here!

Does this make you want to join us? You are welcome at our campfire anytime!

The only thing that was bad about being outside the whole week long was the blasted mosquitoes. They loved Becca, and would not leave her alone! We had to use tons insect repellent to keep the pesky, buzzing mosquitoes in check.

The hike

A trail that we love to hike is located near the top of Sawtelle Peak. It takes us through meadows of flowers and through pine trees, and there are even supposed to be bears up there! We filled our camelbacks, packed a lunch and headed for the trail head. As we got higher and higher up the peak I mentioned there was a lot of snow. When we found the trail head we discovered that the trail was completely covered with snow and we couldn't do the hike we had planned for so long. :o( So we went to plan B and drove to Warm Springs. It is about 6 miles down a winding dirt road off the paved road that takes us to Mesa Falls. The road was so badly rutted that we decided to park the car and walk to the trail head. This is the view of the Grand Tetons from where we parked the car. Warm Springs is another source for a river that comes from the huge caldera area of Yellowstone and Island Park. This water comes from the mountainside and is always 50 degrees in temperature. Just as we crossed the bridge to the trail head I noticed all of these butterfiles on the ground near a little puddle of water. They were so beautiful!

The wild flowers were incredible and colorful.

Here is my favorite hiking buddy going down the trail. This was a gorgeous place to enjoy the summer day. We were glad for the mild cloud cover. It kept us from getting too hot!

Yellowstone in all it's splendor...

Since the cabin at Island Park is only about 45 miles south of Yellowstone, OF COURSE we drive to the park! It is so beautiful and everytime I go, I am so intrigued by the geyers, mud pots, hot springs, wildlife, and the beautiful trees and mountains. This trip we were lucky that the eagle was home! Becca, Julie and Ava have a small herd of elk behind them. These elk never leave this area as there is always food for them, even during the winter.

Just beyond this bend in the river are the magnificent Yellowstone Falls.

There is always a rainbow where the water lands and the spray is bountiful.

We were lucky enought to see this sweet mamma and her baby!

I just love walking through the geyer areas. It was pretty windy...

Ava enjoyed the paint pots, the steaming water, and the geyers. She did notice the smell of the sulfer in the air.

This is a good sister-shot of Julie and Becca, right by the bacteria mats.

Can't go to Yellowstone without getting ice cream at the lodge. Ave enjoyed hers immensely. (In fact, she kept asking when we were going to get ice cream about 3 times per minute!)

Waiting with the rest of the tourists for....

...the big gusher...Old Faithful! It is so fun to see this amazing feat of nature. The sky was so blue and it was a gorgeous day!

I always love going to Yellowstone. I even take the same pictures over and over!

Island Park - My Summer Haven

My favorite place on Earth is Island Park, ID where we can enjoy life at my sister's cabin. We got to go stay at that beautiful little place for 5 whole days! (Thanks, Janet & Lenny!) We arrived late afternoon on June 22nd, unloaded the car, and the drove over to Mesa Falls, which is just a short distance from the cabin. The falls are so beautiful! There is a micro-climate on the cliffs that thrives on the spray created by the falls. Becca, Julie and Me with beautiful Mesa Falls in the background. On the way back to the cabin, a small herd of horses wandered on the the road as we were driving. We slowed way down and this one walked right up to the car.

In the evening, I took Ava for a short walk over to the Buffalo River. It is only about 2 blocks from the cabin. We sat on a rock and watched the fish jump. She was thrilled with this experience.

On Tuesday, we went to Big Springs where Johnny Sack's cabin is located. This is a state park and has a beautiful natural spring that bubbles up out of the ground, and the springs create an amazing river that is the start of a tributary to the Snake river.

The cabin is all hand crafted and is so fun to walk through. My favorite part this time was these unique hat hangers (yes, elk feet).

The water in the river is so clear! There are giant trout under the bridge.

The day we went, this little muskrat was the one we enjoyed watching. He is swimming with a piece of bread in his mouth here.

Ava gives a nice smile with the clear springs behind her.

Tuesday night, we went to Mac's Inn to see a musical and have a prime rib dinner. Nick and Becca love the prime rib!

Ava is hilarious! I love her big eyes. She is so dramatic sometimes! She enjoyed the play and talked to some of the actors.

Early Tuesday morning, Rod and I got up and walked around Silver Lake. It is so beautiful! We saw tons of tracks on the trail, but did not see any of the moose that made them.

This place is a bird refuge, so there are different water fowl that reside here. It was really fun to watch this flock of pelicans feed. The would dive way down and then pop up out of the water. It was like an exotic dance!

The lake was like glass, and the reflection of the mountains, sky, and trees just reiterated the existence of God to me, and that he created everything on the earth for a specific purpose.

There was so much dew that our pants got quite wet as we walked down the road that curves around one end of the lake.

The wild flowers this summer are numerous in variety and amazing in their beauty! The colors were brilliant and we reveled in every scene we enjoyed as we did our hike around the lake. There were also patches of mushrooms and fungus because of the unusual amount of rain.

Snake?!!!

So....... last night we had just prayed, and are just serving up our tacos when we hear "ding-dong, ding-dong, BAM BAM BAM." We are all "what the heck?" Rod answers the door and we hear a kid say something about a big black snake in the yard. Rod sort of ho-hums "okay" and goes to check it out. 10 seconds later he us running past the window and we hear "Let me get my shovel." Becca, Nick, and I look at each other and simultaneously rise from the table and run for the door. I did have the sense to grab my camera. We were not going to miss this!

So we see that there IS a big black snake! It has yellow bands around it with little flecks of red or pink, and is actually in the neighbor's yard, right next to where Rod parks his car on a parking strip that separates our yard from the neighbor's. The kids have a hose and are spraying the snake. The mom is quite hysterical. The snake is slithering along the cinder block wall toward their house. Rod starts chopping at the snake with his shovel, keeping his distance while doing so.

He injured it enought that he could move it away from the wall. He then succeeded in severing the poor snake's head. It was pretty gross.

I think it was about 5-6 feet long - bigger than any of the snakes we have seen on our hikes! I looked it up on the internet and found a perfect match under "Arizona snakes." It was a Long-nosed snake, non-venomous and common to Maricopa County. For more information here is a link: http://www.reptilesofaz.org/Snakes-Subpages/h-r-lecontei.html The one here is just like the bottom pictured snake on the link, in Maricopa County, which is where we live. I just wonder where this poor creature has been holed up in our neighborhood, and if it has friends!

Nick held open a bag so Rod could throw the corpse in the trash. He does look a little grossed out. We returned to our dinner. Becca stated, "I'm not hungry now." We were all pretty animated after that and had some lively conversation during dinner. Snake taco, anyone??

Chaos...

My house looked like a tornado zone for about 5 days. It drove me up the wall! Becca decided it was time to re-decorate her room (I have encouraged her to do this for about 3 years). She emptied everything out so we could paint - so every room in the house had boxes and stuff where ever there was an empty spot to put it.

The painting project was not too bad. She chose a beautiful pale blue. It looks sensational, and really lightens up her room.

We used the old "Scooby Doo" sheets for a drop cloth.

On Friday of last week, Becca and I went to IKEA and got her new furniture. They delivered it on Monday, totally adding more stuff to the utter chaos in my house. Monday night Rod and I assembled the bed, and a special storage unit that goes behind the headboard. I don't know if you have ever assembled IKEA furniture, but it is quite an experience. I think there was like a 10-pound bag of screws, bolts, wooden pegs, whirligigs, plastic doo-dads, brackets, and other hardware. It takes a little time just to sort it all out. But if you follow the directions, look at the pictures, and do it just like the instructions indicate, you do get a nice-looking finished product. I did put a couple of different pieces on upside-down, and backwards, making it necessary to backtrack some of the assembly process, but all in all we did pretty good with it. We worked on that until well after 10:00 PM. Needless to say, it was exhausting. I am working four 10-hour days during the summer weeks, so I had already put in a long day. I do enjoy the Friday off, though!

Tuesday night, we got the dresser assembled. That also took several hours. Rod and I made and assembly-line type production out of building the drawers and it worked very nicely. As you can see, Becca supervised. Part of the finished dresser...

It all turned out very nicely. I am not allowed to post pictures of the finished room until she does, so I have only shown the production phase of this project. I am glad it is done and that most of her stuff is now back into her room. She worked hard at packing and unpacking, planning it all out, and she even helped paint. Good job, Becca!

Creativity

My sweet mother would always heave a sigh and say "I'm just not creative." Yet we wore meticulously and beautifully hand sewn clothing, we enjoyed home canned juices and jams and fruits, pickled beets, sweet pickles, mustard pickles, dill pickles, chili sauce - all done by mom in her kitchen; we had embroidered pillowcases with crocheted borders (mom never sat down without some kind of hand work going on); every closet, drawer, and cupboard in our home was in perfect order - a place for everything and everything in its place; she had a cleaner home than I have ever experience since I left there; well-balanced meals; well-balanced checkbook; security, comfort, and joy. All because of Mom. She created a heaven for us in our home. She couldn't carry a tune in a bucket, but I would rather have a bucket of her mustard pickles any day! She couldn't play a musical instrument, but she could garden, and she was the best helpmeet to my father.

This incredible video contains one of my favorite orations. It is eloquent, sincere, and full of truth. It strikes a deep chord in my heart. We are each divine in our nature, and full of godly qualities. I love this. May it give you a pat on the back for who you are and for the unique qualities you own. Remember, there is no one like you! You are incredible! And I hope my Mom now knows that she is, indeed, creative! I know that she is certainly creating joy on the other side, where she is anxiously engaged in a good work - just as she always was when she was on the earth.

A Thought...

Life is a coin; you can spend it any way you wish, but you can only spend it once.

Lions & Tigers & Bears, Oh My!

We went on a hike at South Mountain last Saturday - a new place for us. It was a gorgeous morning - perfect weather. We enjoyed cactus blooms, fresh air, blue skies and the scent of the desert. We also saw a Gila Monster! He was not as happy to see us as we were to see him. There were about 7 in our group and he felt a little out numbered. He hissed at us and tried to act tough. We gave him his space as they are quite venomous. It sure was neat to see this. Not everyone has seen a Gila Monster out in the wild! I loved it!

First "Pay it Forward" project done!

Yestderday I made the above pioneer bonnet. It is for Miriam. I will present her "Pay it Forward" gift to her today. She is going on the Pioneer Trek on June 12, so I think it will come in handy for her. One down - Four to go! If you don't know what "Pay it Forward" is, see my March 25th post.

Girl Stuff...

The other night I was talking nail polish with a girl friend. I told her that because I have used very cheap polish in the past, I had to let my toe nails heal because they were soft and flaky. She asked about pricing of nail polish. She asked me how long a bottle of polish lasted. After doing the math, (she is a bookkeeper) she pointed out that per use, it was not that expensive to get good polish that would not ruin my toe nails. About a week later, she gave me a present. Guess what it was? Right! Some really nice polish. It was so fun to have her think of me in this way. That night, I did a pedicure.

This is a GREAT color for me. Thanks, Cyndee!

You know I love you, girlfriend!

How does your garden grow?

So we decided to try our hand at planting a few things in AZ. This is what some of our poor string beans look like. Booooo! I have always had the "black thumb of death" when it comes to growing anything! This is what some other string beans look like. Yay!

Our cherry tomatoes are doing quite well...

And we are actually enjoying the fruits of the harvest. YUM!

Tonight we had the annual Community Bar-B-Que at Cordova. The staff memers volunteer their time to set up tables, flip hamburgers, supervise carnival games, clean up, and serve community members. Mr. Phillips and Mr. Goertzen manned the grill. The hamburgers were GREAT! Tina and Georgia sold tickets. (I also sold tickets.) For $1.00 per person, you can get a burger, chips, drink, and cookie. What a great deal! Many of the teachers enjoyed socializing with their students outside the classroom setting. Ms. Erivez teaches math. She is amazing.

Community members flocked to the multi-purpose room to enjoy all of the carnival activities.

National Junior Honor Society students ran many of the booths, with their advisor, Ms. Peterson. The kids loved this one where they got to throw a bean bag into the Cobra's mouth. The Cobra is our school mascott.

More NJHS students entertaining the crowd with the every favorite activity "Can you keep your eye on the ball?

Ms. Knight, Ms. Rodriguez, and Ms. Nightingale made sure there was pleanty of lemonade and ice water for everyone.

Other staff members were in the kitchen on the serving line making sure everyone received their food. They all worked so hard!

Mr. Gunn hates having his picture taken. (So does everyone!) He worked so hard tonight! He was excited about this BBQ and enjoys socializing with the parents and community members in the neighborhood. He is an amazing administrator. I am so thankful to have found my job at Cordova. It has been a great year!

Ma & Pa Training

Last weekend, Rod and I had our Ma & Pa Trek Training. We carpooled to Estrella Park where we camped out for the night and had some intensive training as to what our role will be on the Pioneer Trek in June. We are one of 11 couples that will serve as the Ma and Pa to about a dozen of the youth in each Trek Family. We were asked to dress in our pioneer clothing and come prepared to participate as the children in a trek family, led by our trainers who served as our Ma and Pa.

Julie and John McLean.

The Sharps, the McLeans, and the Beesons - all incredible couples from our ward that will be guiding their trek families.

Rod and I are making sure we have our buckets and sleeping gear. We enjoyed some getting acquainted activities during the evening as we learned certain skills about leading discussions with our Trek families. There are some amazing leaders that have organized this Pioneer Trek. I cannot believe all of the planning, praying, sweat and tears that have gone into this activity.

We slept under these tarps. The wind blew ALL NIGHT and it was a pretty sleepless night for most of us. It was very noisy as the wind whipped the heavy blue tarps around. There were also giant spiders that wanted sleep with us. My poor tent mates said I did sleep for a couple of hours (they could hear me snoring). Sorry, ladies!

Our camp cooks made some dutch oven breakfast burritos. They were wonderful! We had beef stew and biscuits the night before with several wonderful choices of cobbler. I do love dutch oven cooking!

Enjoying our breakfast before the work of the day started.

We had to put our hand cart together. The first thing to do was stand the cart on its end so the axel and wheels could be assembled. Our Trek Families will have to assemble their own carts, load their belongings in the way they think is best and then secure the load before they hit the trail.

They gave Tammie and Me some blue rubber gloves and told us we were the axel greasers. We greased up the axels before the wheels were put on. It was nice, black grease!

Wanna shake hands?

Our little light weight Suzy-Q stood in the cart to keep it from tipping back while the wheels were being installed.

All loaded up and ready for the journey. Make it nice and secure, John. It's still a little windy today.

Tammie thinks she can pull the cart all by herself!

And we are on the road!

We all took turns pulling or pushing in different spots. This gave us a chance to talk to new people and learn about our fellow travelers.

It wasn't too difficult on the paved road. We had a long rope tied to the cart. It helped to move it along as we each pulled on our handle on the rope. I know the pioneers did not enjoy the luxury of pavement!

This will be our second trek. We went to Martin's cove in Wyoming about 5 years ago as a Ma and Pa. I know this trek will be way different, and we are very excited to be involved in this marvelous experience. I have always loved my pioneer heritage as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It was the Mormon Pioneers that blazed the trail and settled in Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, California, Nevada and many other western states.

This is my turn to push. I almost had to run to keep up. There were lots of able-bodied modern pioneers helping with this handcart today. We had some very interesting activites once we arrived at our destination. I know I had to dig deep to share the feelings that I had during our activities. I am looking forward to our Trek in June. I know it will be a life-changing experience for all of the youth, and for all of the Ma and Pa couples as well. I wish I could share some of the activities, but I don't want to spoil the experience ahead for my young friends that read my blog. There will be many situations they will have to figure out for themselves. After the Trek, I will record these experiences.

Happy Trails!