Trek

Happy Father's Day!  I don't spend a lot of time on social media, but I read Christine's Instagram post and I loved the scripture she quoted.  Since it applies to Roy as well, I will re-quote it here:

"Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord; and the fruit of the womb is his reward.  As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth.  Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them; they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in in the gate."  Psalm 126:3-5

Roy is a wonderful husband and father.  He was always happy to welcome another child into our family.  He is forever thinking of ways to serve others, and he has always treated me like a queen.  

Roy and Catharine on Trek

The day before Trek, Sara told us to watch TV the next day to see Ori and Effie help Good Day, Utah, show off some great summer toys.  We missed it, but she sent us the link.  It was fun--and especially fun since they got to keep a bunch of the toys.  They got the dinosaur, a beach ball, some sand toys, a blow up pool and some bubble guns.  Sara's neighbor (and member of her YW presidency), had arranged for them to be on the segment, she works for Good Day, Utah.  Afterwards, Ori asked her, "When can we be on TV again?"

Roy and I left for Trek early Monday morning a couple of hours before the youth left the Stake Center.  He was in charge of hauling all the buckets and then helping to set up the kitchen and food tent, etc.

Church parking lot prior to departure.

The guys set up everything while the few women mostly watched and visited.
Roy (in the red shirt) helping to set up the "kitchen"

When it was time for the kids to arrive, those of us who were trail walkers set off to meet them at the trail head.  Our first day was supposed to be seven miles.  The historic "Brigham's arrow" was just a short way from the trail head. Well, somehow we missed it, even though it was enclosed by a fence, so we just kept walking--getting off track right from the beginning :)  After about a half mile of trekking the wrong way, we realized our error and turned around.  I had been at the front and was now at the back.  We were lucky that the temperature was only in the low 70's, because with the sun shining it felt really hot.
After we had walked at least the 7 miles, we headed off in the wrong direction once again.  Again, I was in the lead (I needed the bathroom and was anxious to get back).  My phone rang and since it was Roy I answered it. "You're going the wrong way," he said.  I called out to the trail boss who was a little ahead of me, and told him that the camp could see us and we were headed the wrong way.  We corrected the course, and...I ended up in the back again.  After about another mile, I was in desperate need of a bathroom.  There was sage brush everywhere, but no cover.  I hailed the medical vehicle and told them I really had to go.  "That is a medical emergency, get in." he said smiling.  So I rode the last half mile and beat everyone to the porta-potties.  I had still walked at least 8 miles.  I heard that we ended up hiking more than 9 miles because of the detours.

On the first day, the main challenge was "Gravel Hill."  The youth had
to turn the cart backward, attach a rope, and hang on.  The gravel
consisted of small boulders, and they really did make the course
hazardous, as it was hard to get a foothold.

Tammy Mederios (my 2nd counselor, myself [great picture!]
Kathy Hurst (my 1st counselor) and Tiffany Shaw, another trail walker.

  This is Philo Dibble rock.  Philo Dibble carved
his name and date in the rock while he was stationed here, watching
for Johnson's army.  It was an extra short but steep hike to see this.
 (I'm obviously not close enough here to show it off) This was on the trail
on the 3rd day.

The 2nd day was shorter.  We hiked about 3 miles to lunch, and then hiked a little ways to where there were more trees so the kids could have solo time.  I sat down in the shade and was immediately surrounded by gnats.  I decided it wasn't worth it, so, after finding that Travis Johnson and his wife (Stake YM president) were heading back to camp early to help fix dinner, I joined them.  It was a very relaxed afternoon and evening with games, dinner and a square dance. The dancing looked fun, but I decided I needed to save my feet for the 7 + miles on the following day.  It was fun watching, though.

The days felt hot, but the nights were cold.  

Ready to head out--2nd day (I'm on the left by my counselor, Tammy Mederios
She and her husband were a ma and pa.

Fireside (1st night)

How much are you roughing it when it takes 6 huge trailers to
haul everything needed for a 3 day trek?

Roy and I ran one of the games on the 2nd day.  The Trek leader that gave me the hula hoops for my game gave me the hoops and said, "sorry."  Sorry because the idea was to roll the hoop with a stick and make it a race.  It didn't work because she had purchased the cheapest hula hoops she could possibly find.  They were adjustable hula hoops.  They came apart, and they had ridges underneath so you certainly could NOT roll the hoop with the sticks.  We changed the game up so they would work, and the kids had fun anyway.  

I must have been pretty tired the last day, because as we had our last rest stop, maybe the last mile or so of the journey, I sat down on the little camp stool I'd been carrying.  I started thinking that maybe I should put the stool in the cart so I didn't have to carry it.  Then I realized it wasn't in my hands and I said, out loud, "Where's my stool?" in that panicked way I talk when I think I've misplaced something.  My counselor, Kathy, who was walking with me said, "You're sitting on it."  We laughed, and then the trail captain jokingly called out, "MEDICAL!"  

Final stretch.  Notice the train on the left.

An eagle's nest close to our camp on the 2nd night



 Elise sent us pictures that brought back a lot of Georgia memories.  We used to take the kids to Krispie Kreme in downtown Atlanta about once a month when we first lived there.  When they built a Krispie Kreme closer to home, it lost some of it's specialness, so we didn't go nearly as often.

I meant to put the above picture in a couple of weeks ago.  Matt was awarded a Partnership award by the Logan Police department for all the work he's been doing to get people to support their department.

And Dan's mushroom search continues.  He's going to cut this open tonight, and depending on what he finds, cook it up.  Yum yum!

Slow week for me

This was a slow week as far as family news goes.  At least, I don't feel like I did very much (I did have a fun fall on my ice skates on Monday--right on my tailbone.  It really hurt but I was fine by Wednesday).  Roy was out of town on business, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.  He was in Chicago.  Usually all he does when he's on work trips is work, but this trip he decided to go watch the Chicago Cubs.  He said there were something like 36,000 people there.  Parking was anywhere from $40 to $100.  We are lucky to live in Utah.  

Roy watching the baseball game

As I said, nothing much happened in my life, but I received some cute pictures from others in the family.   

 Dojin's artistry kept him occupied for hours.  I said that I hoped when he ran out of room he wouldn't make the wall his next canvas--so she sent me another picture:

Then she admitted that he had originally started on the wall.

Caitlyn's had a busier week.  She flew to Georgia to help Elise get situated in her new home.  They did have one day to go sight see a little bit. The pictures are taken at the Savannah Rapids.

 Dan went hiking with his kids--all four of them--without Jieun.  He survived with only kneeing one child (Yuna).  Dojin took care of injuring himself by falling onto a branch.  I guess he scratched his back up pretty well.

For some reason, unknown to me, Dan has been interested in mushrooms lately--and there are a lot of them this year with all the rain (Dan--what is slime mold?)  He asked for pictures and Jennie sent him this one--labeling it "fungi"  I thought she was really rude to call her boyfriend that, until she explained to her slightly slow parents that she was really saying "fun guy."

It's been a little bit of a hard week as I've painfully realized that I have some things I need to work on, and a few areas where I need to repent.  I guess that's an ongoing thing for all of us in this mortal existence.

Next week should offer more in the way of interesting news as Roy and I leave for Trek tomorrow morning.  I'm sure I've mentioned that when Roy found out I was going on Trek, he immediately volunteered his services and was put on the logistics committee.  My responsibilities are considerably less than his--I'm a trail walker and, along with my presidency and the Young Men leaders, am in charge of running some games--which have been pre-planned by someone else.  Roy, on the other hand is hauling bags, handling radios, and generally helping wherever needed.  He'll be super busy.  We get back Wednesday night and he leaves the next morning on another business trip and won't be back until Saturday-late morning.   Coming up we still have Caitlyn's surgery to look forward to, as well as Jennie's wisdom teeth removal.  These, along with all our church responsibilities, are thwarting most of our summer camping trips this year.
I hope the next letter will be more exciting and I'll have some interesting things to share. 

Memorial Day

Roy and I put the red flowers on the grave on Sunday
evening.  Adrienne and AJ met us there.  Ila loved walking
on the grave markers.

Yuna, Doyeon, Hyeji and Dojin
sending off balloons to Tom on Memorial Day

 Adrienne and AJ joined us on Monday when we visited my parent's graves and payed a visit to Roy's dad in Santaquin.   It made for a long day, but it was a great way to spend Memorial Day.

AJ, Finn, Ila, Adrienne, Ollie, Grandpa Verl and Gunnar

Ila and Adrienne

Caitlyn spotted this beautiful Gray Heron on our compost bin in the back yard.  We've never seen such a large bird in our yard before.  He stuck around for several minutes.

Ollie always asks us if we can come to his games.  He takes his sports very seriously!

 We let Caitlyn join us on our date night (baby of the family privilege, I guess).  She ordered gnochi in a pine nut sauce.  We had never eaten in this restaurant at Station Park before.  It was a little expensive but very good.  We also invited her since she won't be able to eat real food for a couple of months after her surgery (which has been delayed until June 25).

We had all the family over for dinner on Sunday evening.  Everyone but Elise's family and Caitlyn, who had left early Sunday morning to travel to Augusta, Georgia all on her own.  She reiterated to me that she is 19 and has already done some traveling on her own and would be fine.  I only worried about her catching the shuttle from Atlanta to Augusta, and once she'd done that I didn't worry any more.  Thankfully, she arrived safely.
It is fun to have everyone around and it's rewarding to see the grandchildren interact and enjoy each other so much.  Even Effie was pointing out "my cousins" in the picture on the end table in the family room.  She stuck around grandma quite a bit.  She pointed to the salt and told me she didn't like it.  Then she asked me what the pepper grinder was.  I told her it was pepper and that it was spicy.  She disagreed with me.  I then showed her the Tajin and told her it was spicy.  I asked her, "Do you want to taste it."  She nodded so I poured a little on the counter.  She scooped a little bit with her fingers and put it in her mouth.  She made quite a face but other than that she didn't complain.

Ila and Ruby

The grandchildren chasing grandpa

Ila's favorite activity, walking over rocks with someone
for support

Greta, Avie and Ila

Roy, Catharine and Ila

Memorial Day Weekend

AJ's grandma, Fae Fridal Francis passed away this past week.  She was 97 years old.  Fae was a friend of my father, as they were both raised in the Tremonton, Utah area.  Back in 2007, just before Adrienne's marriage to AJ, we had a family shower in their honor at Lisa and Mark's home (AJ's parents).  My dad drove over from Salt Lake with a couple of Christine's children in tow.  When he arrived at the shower, I could see that all was not well.  My dad was very listless and obviously didn't feel very well.  I directed him immediately to the food and encouraged him to eat something.  He loaded his plate and sat down and bowed his head.  Lisa saw him and thought he was praying, but when I looked over, I realized he had passed out.  There were several nurses present at the shower--Roy's nephews Shane and Brady (nurse anesthetists), and Adrienne and Dan who had both been trained as CNA's.  I had someone call 911, and the nurses immediately began helping him.  Apparently, my dad had taken his insulin before driving to our home, knowing that he could get something to eat when he arrived, but it was a half hour drive and his blood sugar got too low.  My dad started to revive and was given orange juice, etc. and was helped to a comfortable chair.  He smiled up at everyone and said, "I'm not making a very good impression on Fae."  
We called 911 and told them not to come, but they must've been bored because they showed up anyway.  It was a memorable shower!
Roy and I went to Fae's viewing.  There were See's chocolates strategically placed for all to enjoy.  It was obviously one of her favorites.  There was also a basket of Hostess Twinkies, cupcakes, etc.  She was quite the junk food connoisseur.  It was said of her at the funeral that a rice krispie treat and a milk shake was her idea of a healthy breakfast.  Of course, she was always very thin and could eat anything she wanted without gaining weight.  Caitlyn and I went to the funeral the next morning.  It was a nice memorial for a wonderful lady.  The highlight, however, was when Ila got to sit by Caitlyn and grandma.  She put her face to mine and cuddled for a minute.  It was heaven because she has never given me that kind of attention before. 

Saturday Roy and I planted the garden. We planted tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, basil, various winter and summer squashes, a couple of melons, and planted seeds for beets, onions, and peas.  Luckily we were able to fit in a short nap before heading to the Bee's game with friends.  It was a good game, though the Bees lost, with a fireworks show afterwards.  The rain threatened all evening, but waited to pour down the minute the game was over.  Everyone took cover.  We weren't sure they'd still do fireworks, but soon we heard the booming so took a seat to watch.

Selfies are always so flattering (NOT).  Here we are with our friends the Atkinson's from the ward.

 Dan and his family were able to get down to Santaquin for a visit with grandpa.  He took them out to dinner.  I was quite surprised because he doesn't usually want to leave the care center.

It's great that we can decorate Tom's grave so easily now.  We are planning to decorate his grave this evening. and my parent's graves tomorrow.  Nan Theobald decorated Roy's parents yesterday (I think), so our thoughts went with her for them this year.  We remember our loved ones all the time, so we don't really need a holiday to be reminded.