Our 4th of July

I am consistently about a month behind on the blog. It drives me crazy, but I hope that once school starts I will have a little more time to stay up to date! This year for the 4th of July we went to a breakfast with our ward. We go every year and we really love having that tradition. After breakfast we headed out to Buhl for their parade. We met up with the Bleazard's and our kids had a blast!

We had a really good laugh at this trailer. They listed all the cities nearby and forgot about Jerome and added it to the side!

I have really lucked out with good babies that do well with staying in their strollers. Taysom was content and happy during the whole parade!

Sam was brave this year and ventured out to get some of the candy. She wasn't very fast and their was a boy from a few families over and he kept taking the candy from Sam. He would literally grab it out of her hand. I really wanted to say something, but I bit my tongue. I'm sure my kids have annoyed other moms and families, so I'm not going to get into the middle of it. She didn't seem to mind and was still having fun, so oh well.

That evening we went over to our friends the Hamblin's. It seems we haven't seen them forever, so it was good to see them and spend some time with them.

My kids loved the fireworks and we were grateful we actually got to set some off, since a wind storm had just passed by. 

Sam loved the sparklers for a while. Right after this was taken, one of the other kids walked past her with a sparkler and it got caught on the sleeve of her shirt. It started burning her and of course she tried to knock it down. Vaughn and I both jumped up and Vaughn was able to get it off. She was so lucky that she wasn't hurt more seriously. She had two little burn marks on her arm, but it could and should have been so much worse! She is one lucky little girl that was being watched out for!

Stake Trek

A few months ago, Vaughn and I were called to be a Ma and Pa on trek for our stake! We were so excited and also so nervous! I was nervous for so many reasons. Vaughn was just mainly excited! We had a few training meetings and finally the time came for us to go! 

This is our ward family. We met at the church on Tuesday morning and man, my stomach was in knots! 

We loaded up our car full of boys and headed to the South Hills. 

In the back is Alex C. and Adam T.

In the middle is Bubba H, Brennan C. and Benny C.

They are all such a great group of Young Men! 

Once we arrived at the South Hills, we unloaded the trailer we pulled and gathered as a large group with the whole stake. One by one they called the Ma and Pa's up to read the list for the families! There were several comments made about it feeling like the Hunger Games! "May the odds be ever in your favor!" It was so gut wrenching!! 

We had four boys and four girls in our family. I knew 0 of them. Vaughn knew just 1 of the girls. We had lunch together as a family and everyone was so quiet! We ate lunch and tried to get to know one another better. The kids told us about themselves and we told them a little bit about us. After lunch it was time to hit the trail. 

I knew the first day was going to be the hardest. We were going about six miles and we also had the women's pull coming up. A couple of the kids had been on the previous trek and had an idea of what was coming, but the younger ones had no idea. So as we started approaching the hill I started getting nervous. The call came for the brothers to go accept a call from the Lord and left us women to pull the cart. I wish I had been allowed to bring my camera. Just to show the hill that we were to walk up, with a cart. My girls Courtney, Dariann, Melissa and Amanda all decided to pull the wagon and I would stay in the back and push. At first the hill didn't seem to be that hard. Of course, I was in the back with my head down and so I had no idea of what was coming, but I wasn't having to work too hard to get the wagon to go up the hill. Then a few yards later it really got intense. I kept trying to yell up to my girls words of encouragement, but I didn't know if they could hear me or not. I was hoping that they were doing ok. 

The hill was brutal. I was pushing with all the strength that I had and my legs and arms started shaking. I was sweating and really starting to worry about my girls. When I felt like I was getting close to the end of my strength, I noticed the Angels. (Members of our stake that were dressed in white who had come to help the women). It was so amazing to feel the cart and our load get lighter with their help. They were instructed not to talk to us, but some very special angels came to help me and I received a pat on the shoulder here or a pat on the hand there and even kind smiles. It was such an awesome spiritual experience. My appreciation and gratitude for the pioneers has grown so much. 

In all the women's pull was about 3/4 of a mile It was rocky, sandy, steep and just plain hard. Some of the kids commented that the hill from this trek was more intense then the previous one. I was happy to hear that my girls had encouraged one another while pulling. They were able to bond as sisters and grow together in that experience.  The boys and Vaughn arrived not long after we reached the top of the hill and even if our boys didn't show that it was hard on them to watch the girls pull the cart, they never let the girls pull the cart again for the rest of the trip. They were our "clydesdale's". They were amazing! 

We were a quiet family. We could see the different dimensions in the other families and we all seemed to be ok with ours. Our kids were so respectful and fun to be around. We had a lot of silence in our family the first day or so, but finally on the last night they really let go of their inhibitions and were really having fun together! They were supposed to go to bed around 10:30 on the last night, but they were having so much fun and finally goofing around that we let them stay up late. We were in our tent across a little path and we could hear them laughing and teasing each other. It was amazing! I really love all of those kids and am amazed at what incredible individuals they are. One girl and one boy would sometimes be drawn away from camp by a friend, but all I had to do was yell their name and they were back within minutes! 

Our car full of boys all survived! 

They look a little bit dirtier and I'm sure they didn't smell very good (couldn't smell them over ourselves!) but they still had smiles on their faces!

Our amazing trek family!

Jack, Jonathan (Choncho), Ben, Courtney, Madsen, Amanda, Dariann, Melissa, me and Vaughn.

We gave ourselves a nickname of the "Pea" Family. Gotta love inside jokes!

This was just as we were getting ready to leave. I learned so much from the kids and I know they were put in our family for a reason. Being a Ma & Pa was such an overwhelming, trying, spiritual and truly rewarding experience! I am grateful beyond words that we were able to go and experience this with the youth!