Memories That Need Remembering

I have had such an itch to write lately!  All these things that are happening, all these memories, the good the bad and the ugly, they are passing so quickly.  I have been going back and reading some of the old blog posts.  I am so glad I posted about all those moments.  Here I am years later and no record!  I think I am going to have to start writing again.  It is hard to know where to start so I am going to just dive right in. 

Life got pretty stressful this summer.  When life is stressful I do not take pictures.  I just stop.  Therefore I have a limited number of photos to share, but I do have a few.  For starters I am going to make a list of some events from this past year…….

2014 in no particular order

Naomi sliced open her leg and received over 30 stitches

We helped remodel my parents 3700 square foot house

My parents sold said house and moved from our town to Shoshoni Wyoming

Naomi won a major battle with her diseased gallbladder

Lucy got baptized in the Sweetwater River at Martin’s Cove

My Grandpa Died

My Grandma won a major battle with breast cancer

Naomi started Kindergarten

I started a new job

We got chickens

We got a turkey whose name was Sandwich

We ate Sandwich

He was not yummy

Steve got a new calling in church as the Young Men’s President

We got an artificial Christmas tree for the first time in my life

The dog started jumping the 6 foot privacy fence

I ran 6 consecutive miles

Naomi started riding her bike with no training wheels

We visited Joe in New Mexico and went to Mesa Verde

We visited Will in Laramie and hiked in the Laramie Mountains

We visited Thermopolis and swam in the hot springs

We visited Idaho for Thanksgiving

We hunted Antelope, Deer, and Elk in the Wind River Mountains

My Dad got an Antelope and an Elk

We got none

We bought an old tent trailer for 200$

We camped in the old tent trailer

I met up with my Roosevelt Utah forever friends

I lost 45 lbs and regained 25 of them

We stopped drinking soda then started again

We stopped eating McDonalds and then started again

We hosted a Whipple family reunion at our house

Most recently I spent a week enduring painful procedures to have my varicose veins removed

There is so much more that has occurred, but these come to mind at the moment.  I know that there have been so many challenges in everyone’s lives around me this year.  I cannot think of a single person close to me that has not been hit hard with incredibly difficult times.  I know that Satan is trying to hit us where it hurts.  I know that he is challenging us all in ways we never thought possible.  I for one want to spit in his eye about now.  Don’t let discouragement get to you!  We can do this.  The Lord is with us.  This Christmas season I want more than anything to feel that, and let it soak all the way through my soul.  I want my girls to feel that cheer I used to feel every holiday season as a girl.  In order to do that for them I am trying to let go of the things that don’t matter, the things that get in the way and drag me down emotionally, physically, and spiritually.  The lyrics to that old classic Taylor Swift song come to mind……”Players gonna play play play play play, haters gonna hate hate hate hate hate, Shake it off!  Shake it off!”  Or something like that, Ha! 

Here are some inspirational photos from the best day of my entire year.  This is the day Lucy became a member of  The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  The day was cold and windy, everything went wrong, and yet the spirit was wonderful and she glowed!  I will never forget the feeling.  It was amazing to know what a special individual my daughter is and get a glimpse of how much Heavenly Father loves her.  We all felt it.  I hope someday I grow up to be like her.

Thank You Lindsay for doing the most beautiful job on the musical number!

I love that joyful look in her eyes!  Thanks everyone who came out and braved Wyoming wind and cold to witness Lucy’s baptism, it made it all the more special having you there. 

My New Favorite Mountains

I spent the majority of my time growing up in Kamas Utah, and in Roosevelt Utah.  This meant that my adventurous parents would take us camping and exploring mainly in the Uinta Mountains.  I love the Uinta Mountain Range.  They will always hold a place in my heart.  But now I live in Wyoming.  I am learning there are new mountain ranges to explore.  And although I love the Uinta’s these Wyoming Mountains are flipping amazing!

We are heading to the Snowy Range in the Medicine Bows next week and I am so excited to get back up there.  I have posted about them before and they were a most needed and happy surprise when we first moved to Rawlins 3 years ago.  Since then we have discovered the Wind River Range and the Wyoming Range.  I look forward to spending more time in both of these Mountain Ranges.  My brother Joe just took us up to an amazing place in the Wyoming Range.  We didn’t see another soul up there the entire day, so I am thinking it is not a very well known place.  He works for Chevron and the oil pumpers go up there.  It is a very cool place…….

The girls got to ride in the back of the truck, and that always makes their day!

They especially loved it because they got to ride in the back with Uncle Joe.  This is my amazing brother.  He smiled and laughed and tried to enjoy this trip even though he had a tooth ache from hell.

As we drove down the rode the sky got more and more beautiful.  I just kept snapping pictures from the back of the truck, while trying not to fall out, or let my kids fall out, as my Dad was driving.

Our blurry selfie.

ahhh, Naomi.  Always the eye closer.

I kinda like this guy.

We watched the sun set in the west while it’s light reflected off the clouds in the East.  The views in every direction were diverse and gorgeous.

On the way back the sky just kept getting better…..

I am astonished at the vastness and the beauty of this State called Wyoming.  I love getting to explore these high, wide, and lonesome places.  And although the opportunity to see new places and experience new vistas does not elude me the constant and firm face of the Uinta's continues to call my name.  I love that I live in a place where I get to have the best of all the Mountain Ranges.  I am the luckiest!!!

Tent Camping With Kiddos

At the beginning of the summer, before our lives became overrun with reunions, 47 mile treks, major remodeling projects and all the other lovely activities summer brings with it…..We went camping.  For 5 days.  In the Wyoming Range.  Just our little family and our dog.  It was the best!!!  Tent camping with little kids is not without it’s challenges though.  Especially for extended periods of time.  The things that got me thru were, baby wipes, portable potty seat and stand, a good enamel pitcher for boiling water, my Cabela's Camp Kitchen, a good canopy, extra table and chairs, and did I mention baby wipes.  We used so many baby wipes. 

When you camp with little kids you just have take a chill pill.  Or you will go crazy.  You have to stop caring about the dirt caked under your kids fingernails, toenails, ears, and all over their entire bodies, and just go with it.  You have to not worry when you realize all they have eaten for three days is hotdogs and s’mores.  When they get too dirty just strip  them down and throw them in the freezing ice cold creek.  That’s what I did, and they screamed so loud every animal for miles ran for their lives.  But they thanked me later, and for about 30 minutes they were really clean.

Playing cards were a big help too.  At night we played go fish.  Every night.  at least 3 times.  Naomi insisted.  She loved that game, she would talk about how we were going to play go fish later that night, every day, all, day, long. Lucy and Naomi dragged tree branches around and built houses.  They made dolls out of sticks and potatoes.  They played Moms.  They are so imaginative.  It was fun to watch them and see what they came up with to play next. It reminded me of when I was a kid and we would build forts and dig out old rotten logs and pretend to make Indian canoes. 

Each night we went on a drive to spot wild life at dusk.  We saw elk, moose, deer, antelope, porcupine, sandhill cranes, fox, muskrat, and beavers.

I got a lot of blurry pictures of animals.

We drove all over the mountain.

We drove to Afton, over the mountain on a steep windy dirt road.  We had to bust through some snow drifts, and I was pretty nervous as there was a straight drop off on one side.  And I was driving.  We gunned it through, slid around a bit, but made it just fine.  By the time we came back over the drifts had melted down a lot and it was easier.   It took us 2 hours to drive 30 miles, but the views were incredible. 

The sky was bigger than I can ever remember seeing it when we finally made it to the other side of this mountain range.

When it was time to head back to camp from Afton I was nervous about the snow drifts, and I think even Brutus was sick of driving on bumpy dirt roads.

On the way back we stopped at Crystal Lake. The girls loved all the wild flowers and we really needed to stretch our legs.  It was a short hike from the road and well worth the stop.  Poor Steve had an emergency potty moment and snuck off the trail a bit, only to have two hikers come up on him.  He has the very worst bathroom luck.

We went into Big Piney to get a burger and pee in a real toilet one day.  It was nice to get away from camp for a minute.   The day we went to Big Piney as soon as we came into cell range I got about a hundred messages.  My phone just kept going off, and we got the news that Will and Elise had their baby!!!  After a short visit with civilization we headed back to camp.    We hiked around our camp, and took a garbage bag up to a camp just down from us and cleaned up a bunch of garbage that had been left there.  We spent our days relaxing.  Lucy shot her bb gun.  We read On The Banks of Plum Creek.  We watched stars at night.  We listened to each other and learned more about each other.  We prayed together in our tent each night.  We fished in La Barge Creek.  We ate a ton of junk food…….

Brutus had his freedom.  He swam in the river when he wanted.  He rolled in the dirt when he wanted.  He laid in the shade, and played with the girls.  He was in dog heaven.

We saw new places and learned about the Oregon trail.  We saw the graves of pioneers. 

We slowed down.  And honestly it was hard to do.  After about day two I was over it.  I was ready for some entertainment, maybe a movie and a burger, some shopping, a shower, flush toilets.  But we persevered.  Once I allowed myself to relax and not be in such a hurry it was so nice.  I enjoyed each moment even if it was just sitting in my camp chair watching the girls pick wild flowers.  It made me realize my kids needed this.  They needed a reprieve from all the noise, from Netflix, from friends, from all the stuff we think we need to have and to do. If it wasn’t for the flush toilets and the hot running water, and my bed, I may have never come back home.

   On the last day Steve and I got up early.  The girls slept late.  We slowly began breaking camp.  We listened to the Sandhill Cranes calling to each other and we reluctantly loaded the truck.  Everything was finally packed except for the tent.  Steve had saved the watermelon that we had not eaten and was planning to shoot it to pieces with his 9mm before we left.  He thought it would be funny to play a trick on the girls.  He set up the melon and then rapid fired at it only yards away from the girls tent.  It was so LOUD!  It echoed all through the mountains.  Then he yelled, “LUCY, NAOMI, get out here I got a bear!!!!  You should have seen the size of their eyes when they came running out of the tent.  You have to know they were completely freaked out about bears the entire time we were there.  They both laughed when they realized they had been tricked.  It was hilarious and a great way to end our long campout in the Wyoming Range.  Lucy still swears she knew it wasn’t real….but I’m not convinced.