Birthdays, Valentines, Sick Again, and Ice

Two birthdays have come and gone in our family. Grant turned one year old on January 25th. I thought he’d be walking by now since he learned to crawl so early, but he’s pretty content just zipping around on all fours. Grant loves to help us empty the dishwasher when we’re emptying or filling it (any time he sees it open, he crawls to it as fast as he can and starts pulling things out). He also loves the vacuum and will follow it around or plop himself in front of it whenever we vacuum a room. Still, his favorite thing to do is to play catch with me. He especially likes to throw the ball back and forth to me under the couch. He is actually really good at throwing and catching a ball and we think he must be left handed. Grant is a very happy boy and usually gives us no problem going to sleep. He likes to be held much more than any of the girls and we can even rock him before he goes to sleep. Finally, Grant loves food – specifically oatmeal, yogurt, tomatoes, and fruit, but he’ll eat just about anything.






Just before Grant’s birthday, he, Lily, and I got pretty sick. This has been the worst year for sicknesses in our family. I had what I thought was a cold, but it went into my throat and I got very little sleep for almost 2 weeks because I couldn’t stop coughing all night. Lily had the same thing and had a fever to go along with it. She started to come out of the sickness just as Grant and I got into the worst of it. Grant had a fever of over a 103 for three days straight. Even Tylenol wouldn’t bring it down more than a couple degrees. When it would get over 103 he would moan and toss his body around the bed. When he’d eat, he’d throw it up. Those were some really rough nights. Finally, he and I both went to the doctor. I had an ear infection, a sinus infection, and bronchitis. Grant had RSV and Pneumonia. His temperature was 104.5 when the doctors checked it and they had us run to the hospital for X-rays and blood work. After medication we are much better than we were, but the virus part of this sickness has been going on and on. I’ve heard several people say they’ve had it for about 2 months. We are all going on about a month and a half of stuffy/runny noses, coughing, and being tired. I guess we need these difficult times to appreciate when we are feeling well.

The week before Amy’s birthday we went on a date and I took her to JC Penny where she spent an hour trying on pants and eventually getting some new jeans. We were trading off watching kids with the Young’s and we didn’t really know what to do with ourselves once we were done shopping. We got our car washed and then Amy wanted to pick up our kids. I relented and drove back to the Young’s at 8:00pm. Angie answered the door by opening it halfway and whispering “what are you doing here? I just started a movie for the kids!” After some prodding (we are new at this) she coaxed Amy to go see a movie. We rented one and returned to our quiet home to watch it. It was so nice to do something just a little spontaneous and not have to worry about the kids. I know we need to do more of that. With the challenges of scheduling and lack of money, we just haven’t done it enough.

My parents came up and stayed with us for a few days and celebrated Amy’s birthday with us. Since Amy’s birthday is on Valentines, I also planned to have a “Cold Box” done for her garden, but it’s taking me a lot longer than I thought. My dad and I spent some time working on it while he was here. We also were able to talk several nights after the kids were in bed, and watch a few movies. On Valentines/Amy’s birthday, we drove to McCall and enjoyed seeing all the ice sculptures. The official event was a week earlier and the sculptures were beginning to melt, but it was still really incredible and the kids enjoyed it. Since we all packed into our van for the long drive to McCall and back home, it was quite an adventure. We even had a picnic lunch in the van, while we parked at a grocery store. It was funny to see the looks we got from all the ritzy people with a single or no child living in McCall. It reminded me of being a kid and always getting looks like that when our entire family, all six kids, went out together. By the end of the drive, we were all tired and thankful to be home again.

We enjoyed dinner at Angie and Gary’s the next day and celebrated Amy’s birthday a little more. I told Amy I think she is the most loved person I know. For several days people called and brought gifts over. I think the attention she gets from others is an indication of how unselfish and caring she is. Everyone loves my Amy, including me!

Finally, I just want to write a quick note about how I am feeling during the worst economic condition this Country has faced since the Great Depression. For now, I am working and still getting paid, but the future is definitely uncertain and in fact doesn’t look good. This month I have been battling my fears regarding losing my job. I’ve read several inspiring talks by apostles and have pondered the words of scriptures. I’ve concluded that righteousness does not make one exempt from hard and difficult conditions (although sometimes the Lord may step in to help). I’ve determined that the main blessing from living the gospel during difficult times is that it helps us be happy despite the horrible situations we are in. One thing Pres. Faust said is that sometimes the greatest blessings come from the worst challenges. As an example he referred to the greatest blessing ever given coming from the worst suffering ever endured (the atonement). While I am unsure of the future, I hope I can have hope, faith, and an attitude that reflects I know God is in control. I’m sure we all needed these difficult times to test us and cause us to rededicate ourselves to the Lord. I know that a major part of my judgment will be how I responded to the challenges I faced here on earth. I hope I can endure it well.

Christmas, New Years, and Back to Normal

Well, Christmas and New Years have come and gone. Although we were having a much smaller Christmas this year, Amy and I were still really looking forward to it. We had the traditional foods ready, planned to go caroling on Christmas Eve to our neighbors, and planned to go out to the Bevan’s Christmas afternoon. Well, everything didn’t go according to plan. The girls really struggled to be happy and to obey on Christmas Eve and I began wondering whether they were feeling well. We read the Christmas story, skipped caroling, and sent the kids to bed. Amy and I worked on wrapping presents and stuffing stockings and got to bed late that evening. A few hours later the crying began (Grant first, and then the girls). A few hours later, Baily was throwing up. Our Christmas breakfast didn’t work out like we hoped. We tried doing our own turnovers with pie filling and crescent roll dough and it wasn’t the same. By late morning, the girls were feeling well enough to open presents. It was fun to watch their excitement despite the downturn of events. We were most disappointed that we had to cancel our trip to Angie and Gary’s. Over the next week, everyone but me went through the throwing up – although I came very close several nights in a row. It was especially difficult to watch Lily dry heave over and over again, wishing I could help her. It’s a good thing kids bounce back to their normal happy selves when the sickness leaves.



Baily got a jump rope this year and is still working on figuring out how to jump and swing the rope at the right time. I’m sure she’ll get it soon! She also got a watch, which she was excited about. A woman I work with gave us a tutu making kit (including crown and wings) and Bethy danced around like a fairy for several days with everything on. She is so full of passion and is our little drama queen. It’s fun to just be around her. Lily got doll clothes that Amy spent so much time making. They were really cute and I think Lily will enjoy them for several years. Grant got a little wood train and has really enjoyed it. Grandma sent books and a really fun game that the kids love to play. Dawn made a “quillo” for us and Aaron and Sarah sent a game. We really missed our family this year, but overall we were really blessed and enjoyed our time together. I got new shoes from Amy and I gave her some clothes (which she picked out). In between days when we thought we weren’t sick, we went up to see the Bevans. Gary, Nate, and Bryan all got guns for Christmas and we went out above the cycle park and shot clay pigeons and targets. I really had a good time with them and was so glad to get a chance to get away from the city. That night, Nate stayed at the house after we put the kids to bed and Amy, Angie, Gary, and I went to Emmett’s local pool hall and played pool. We ordered lots of onion rings and just had a blast until Nate called and said Lily was throwing up. Once again, despite the sickness, we loved being with the Bevans. I sure am thankful for the relationships I have with my family.










New years, we were still battling sicknesses, but felt well enough to spend the evening with the Dittrichs. They also invited Bishop Ashton and his kids (Addie was down South visiting friends). We enjoyed playing games and talking, but were tired and relieved at 11:00 to go home and go to bed. I know, we aren’t very good partiers when it gets late, but the kids will never know the difference!

Now, life is pretty well back to normal. No one in the family is sick and we are back to our routines of school and work. Sometimes I feel like it’s more relaxing to be at work than to be on vacation. Still, work has really been picking up and I’m enjoying working on a variety of projects right now. Church responsibilities are also keeping me busy. This month we are planning a retreat for all the boys. We are going to the Tripples’ cabin in Cascade and doing a bunch of team building activities. I’m looking forward to it. I really felt like we needed a weekend to be together and get to know each other better. I asked the bishopric to speak on quorum responsibilities and unity and we’ll have a short testimony meeting Friday night. It should be a great experience.

Finding Faith, Caroling, and Preparing for Christmas

Christmas is almost here and I thought I better capture some of the things that have been going on before the holidays put us into a mad rush. On Saturday, a week and a half ago, Amy went with April to Oregon for their annual girls’ chocolate-making-day. While they were gone, Bethy kept complaining about a stomach ache and repeatedly requested a blessing. At first I thought she was being too dramatic and told her to wait and see if it felt better. But after about an hour of lying in bed, I finally put on my shirt and tie and gave her one. About 10 minutes later, she was playing with her sisters and proclaimed, “I’m not sick any more dad!” My first thought was that she hadn’t really been sick, but then I realized that even if she hadn’t, she had shown her trust and child like faith in God by acting on her feelings. Who am I, really, to say that the sickness was not as real as her faith? Amy and I had been searching for our digital camera ever since we left for Utah several weeks before. I had even gone to the store the previous day to compare prices, but realized we couldn’t afford a new one. I had pretty much given up the hope of being able to take pictures of this year’s Christmas. But, when I saw the complete trust that Elizabeth put in the Lord’s abilities I finally humbled myself, kneeled down and asked for help. Knowing that a digital camera is relatively meaningless in relation to the Lord’s grand purposes, I was humbled to find the Camera only ten minutes later in a place both Amy and I had searched thoroughly on multiple occasions. It was another witness to me of the Lord’s love for me and the need to trust him. I know that God doesn’t solve every problem or lay out every correct decision before me. He expects me to use my brain, search my feelings, and recognize the source of all that is good, so that I can learn to become like him. Often, he lets me make a decision on my own because he either trusts me, or knows that the consequences will teach me far more than providing the solution at the outset. I know that he won’t always help me find every lost item, but it sure is comforting to be reminded every so often of his ability and willingness to help me. Maybe the next time I don’t find what I’m looking for, He will provide me the heart to be grateful for what I do have.

Last week ended up very busy. On Monday evening I had a meeting in Meridian and then rushed back to Nampa’s City Council meeting, which went almost to 10pm. I needed approval of the scope of work for the update to the comprehensive plan so that I could request qualifications from planning firms. There has been a lot of interest in providing consulting services for the plan and I’m really looking forward to getting the update moving. Tuesday, Amy and I hired a babysitter and went to the company Christmas dinner. Unfortunately, there were so many people that to me it felt too impersonal. I would rather have had just our department meet at a restaurant or someone’s home, but maybe we’ll try that next year. Wednesday night I had scouts and Thursday night I had the open house for the University District plan I have been working on all year. I really didn’t get an evening with my family until Friday.

The weekend was full of activities as well. We took all the kids to Kelli Dittrich’s birthday party, met up with Angie afterwards so Baily and Bethy could stay with her for the night, baked a ham, went to the Ward Christmas dinner, and spent the evening preparing my lesson for priest’s quorum. Sunday was filled with morning and afternoon meetings, then we travelled to Boise and had our annual Christmas dinner and caroling with Uncle Dave, Aunt Nola, Carolyn, Ed’s family, and the Bevans. It was nice to be together and made me wish our lives were less busy so that we could get together more often. I think we’ll probably go out to see the Bevans on Thursday after we open presents and have breakfast at our place. We sure do have great relatives and we love them so much! For some reason, being at the Bryans this weekend reminded me of being at my grandparents during Christmas time. I hope they are pleased with the family we have become.

We have been so blessed this year. We have felt the spirit of Christmas a little stronger in our family as we have tried to sacrifice a little for others. I hope my children will always remember Christmas as a time to give and not so much a time to get. I am so grateful for my knowledge of the true meaning of Christmas and that Heavenly Father gave us the greatest gift of all - His Son. Merry Christmas!

Dizziness, Car Trouble, Thanksgiving, and Christmas Begins

A couple weeks ago, Amy finally got over some extreme dizziness and headaches she suffered through for over a week. Unfortunately, when it first started we didn’t know what to do. We went to several doctors and then had an MRI done before we learned that they had no idea what the problem was. So, $500 later (yes after insurance! Seems a pretty hefty charge to hear they don’t know what the problem is) we still didn’t know what to do. Amy was sitting in front of me one night and I started rubbing her neck and found some really tight and knotted muscles. It was painful, but Amy allowed me to work on it for a while and by the next morning she was no longer dizzy. We think she slept on her neck wrong plus with her nursing and holding Grant all the time, she must have hurt some nerves as well as muscles. Anyway, she’s doing much better now.

That same week, I took my car into a mechanic to get the oil changed and of course was given a long list of items that needed to be done to the car. $220 later I left with the most critical items done. I’m pretty sure that car is not going to be around too much longer, but it sure has been a good one for us. Needless to say, we are now skimping to make our budget work. Raising a family is always an adventure.

We had a really nice trip down to Utah for Thanksgiving. Tuesday night we stayed at the Ruperts so we wouldn’t have to go all the way in one night. Wednesday morning we travelled to Tooele to help out throughout the day with cooking and getting ready for the meal. Since we had Thanksgiving with Ammon and Liz last year, we told the Olson’s we would spend this year’s Thanksgiving with them. Since most everyone was busy with in-laws on Thursday, we decided to have an Ashby Thanksgiving on Wednesday and have oriental food. It was wonderful and if it were up to me, we’d do an oriental day-before-Thanksgiving meal every year. Ammon, Liz, Dawn, Ray, and the Allens all joined us at Mom and Dad’s and we had a great time eating, talking, and just enjoying being together. One major down-side to the holiday was that we couldn’t find our camera before leaving and still haven’t been able to find it since. I’m hoping everyone who did take pictures will share them.

Thursday we spent the traditional Olson Thanksgiving breakfast at Steph and Pete’s home and then spent the afternoon for the Turkey dinner at Amy’s aunt Kristi’s home in Orem. Afterwards, we returned to the Ferguson’s to collect our stuff and talk for a while and finally, returned back to my parents to get the kids in bed (or at least we tried). Overall, it was a nice holiday and I didn’t eat as much as I usually do since I was thinking about my fitness test the following week. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday because, as Gary likes to say, it is unadulterated – no push for all the spending and selfishness until the next morning on Black Friday. This year’s Black Friday resulted in a Walmart employee in a New York being trampled to death by early morning shoppers. Thankfully, Thanksgiving hasn’t become so commercialized and self centered as people have made Christmas. Still, I think there is still so much good about the Christmas season.

Friday morning, Ammon, Travis, Ray, Dad, and I went on our traditional skeet shoot. We drove out South of Stockton and had a great time shooting and talking. That is one of my favorite traditions. On Friday afternoon Amy, Grant, and I went camping with all my high school buddies and their spouses. Ammon came too and it was a lot of fun to revisit our old memories and be reminded about so many things I’d forgotten. We went to White Rocks (Cave-Man-Condos) and it was cold but beautiful. We enjoyed trap shooting again, shooting Ryan’s potato gun, talking into the night, and having an amazing dutch oven dinner and gourmet breakfast. We returned on Saturday to the church where Liz and my mom had made a big batch of fish chowder and we met up with the rest of our family members. Those attending over the weekend included: Ryan and Rose; Derek and Maren & kids; Clayton and Ruth; Matt and Teresa; Stephen and his two kids; Ammon and Liz; Amy and Me & kids; and Camille and Scott Hadzik. An unexpected blessing was that Derek got a bunch of gear that needed small repairs, but that were fairly new, from a place he used to work and we got a couple jackets, kids backpacks, and a couple sleeping bags for only $10 – an early Christmas for us! I really want to do this again soon. It was so good to see everyone again.

We attended Church on Sunday, then headed home so I could finish some home teaching on the last day of the month. Someday I’m going to be better at that, but this time it was because families had to keep postponing. We were very grateful to finally get a good nights rest – unfortunately it had been about 2 weeks since we had slept at least 7 hours in one night and we were getting pretty cranky.

Christmas is in full swing now. We have our tree up and have been listening to Christmas music around the house. We watched “It’s a Wonderful Life” the other day and read “A Christmas Dress for Ellen.” We watched the 1st Presidencies Christmas Devotional and have been consistently reminded of how blessed we are. I did really well on my fitness test this time and Amy passed as well. We think we’ll probably get about $170. I kept chanting to myself during the run “Christmas, Christmas, Christmas…” and it helped me get through with my best time yet. One thing that I really liked from the 1st Presidency message the other day was when Elder Uchtdorf said that he believes the economic crisis the world is in will probably cause a lot of people to cut back on the amount they spend for Christmas and that this is probably a blessing in disguise because it turns us to the true meaning of Christmas. I hope I can always keep in mind what Christmas really means. We are trying this year something a little different to make sure our children know how blessed they are and remind them that Christmas is not meant to be a selfish holiday. They have been so willing to think more of others and it has taught me to be more like them. I am grateful for Christ’s perfect example of humility and gratitude and am glad to be reminded of his humble birth.

I know it’s been a while since I last wrote. Work has definitely picked up and my calling has been extremely busy too. A couple of weeks ago my week went like this: Monday was family home evening, Tuesday I went to the pack meeting and helped organize the younger scouts to go do “scouting for food,” Wednesday night I took the older scouts around on their “scouting for food” routes, Thursday I went with the youth to do baptisms at the temple, Saturday I helped the youth pick up the donated food and drop it off at the church, then watched the primary prepare for their primary program, Sunday was a full day of meetings. It’s not like that every week, but it sure has been busy.

My least favorite holiday is over, but Amy has a way of making Halloween enjoyable. She made us all masks and we dressed up in our “incredibles” outfits. We came to my work and then to the ward trunk-or-treat. The kids had a lot of fun and loved the candy.







A couple weeks ago our family and the Dittrich’s went to Layton and Lisa Anderson’s for a Family Home Evening. They asked us to bring a lantern because we wouldn’t be using electricity. We started off by talking about what we are grateful for and then they talked about the pioneers and how they didn’t have electricity. We made scones on a gas grill (something they didn’t have either) the kids made home-made butter, and Bishop (former) helped the kids make home-made ice cream (rolling the can back and forth to all the giggling girls). They were so good with all the kids and I loved to see Layton on the floor having as much fun as the girls. Shane and I shot buffalo (small wooden targets with a rubber band gun). It was such a fun night and we left being even more grateful for the good people in our life.








This past weekend, the Rupert’s came to visit us. It was so fun to have them up. I spent too many nights, however, up until 2 or 3 in the morning just talking with them. While they were here, we visited the Boise Zoo which just opened up a new exhibit with lions, tigers, a giraffe, and a zebra. The kids loved it and I was impressed with our little zoo. It was a lot of fun. On Monday night, we went out to Celebration Park and roasted hotdogs and enjoyed exploring the banks of the Snake River. The Rupert’s left last night and we look forward to visiting them soon. Next week will be Thanksgiving and I’m really looking forward to seeing my family. I’m also excited to see my friends from High School and we have planned to go camping with the them and their spouses out at Cave-Man Condos.

New Photos

I just loaded a few photos from our trip to City of Rocks. Dawn and Ray were there too, but somehow I missed them with my camera. Check out September if you'd like to see them.

Dodge-ball, Animal Crackers, & Economy

I have had an eventful couple of weeks. For about the past month, I have been playing dodge-ball with some guys from our ward. Oscar Williamson and Justin Bledsoe organized a stake dodge-ball tournament and the final tournament was last Thursday night. We had official dodge-ball rules and balls and we all had a great time getting ready for and playing in the tournament. Oscar even had special team shirts made for our team. I have to admit though, it was the most painful sport I’ve played. Every time I played I would ache for days, and toward the end, I ached for an entire week after the games. I got tennis elbow every time and it would often wake me up in the middle of the night from the pain. I’m still not fully recovered, but I’m glad its over so I don’t damage it any more.

My team won the tournament, we had about 15 teams of 6 and played in brackets, playing the best out of 7 games for each team we played. I was one of the slowest on the team, but I still enjoyed it and felt like I at least contributed to most of the winning games. While most of the people we played against and who cheered from the sides were respectful, I was extremely disappointed in a few individuals who obviously could not handle the competition. At one point one man on another team not only became angry about certain calls, but proceeded to make fun of others right in front of his two teenage boys. Another man came into the gym wearing a suit during the final championship games and began yelling and screaming about calls that he felt should have been made against our team. It disappointed me to later learn that this first man was the Stake Sunday School President and the second was a current Bishop. I believe that how you deal with an intense or challenging situation is a major indication of who you are. If that is all it takes to get us angry and to degrade others, Satan has an arsenal of tools to bring on these emotions. Despite the occasional disappointment, I think the tournament was a major success and I am excited for next year.

I need to write about another experience that happened during the tournament. Amy had something she needed to go to that evening, so she took the two youngest kids and I took the two oldest. We brought toys, games, and crayons to keep them entertained on the sidelines, but that wasn’t enough to keep them in the gym. While playing the championship round, Baily came running on to the court urging me to come see what Bethy had done. After the game finished I hurried down the hall to find Bethy and Brianna in the nursery room. They had found a huge jar of animal crackers, dumped them on the floor and then stepped on them. Every inch of the floor was covered in crumbs, cookies, and toys. When Amy and I got in to bed that night, we found that earlier in the day Bethy had drawn on our bed sheets and on every blank page in Amy’s diary and some that weren’t blank. The next day we had her help us clean the entire house as part of her consequences and she did it with very little complaining. Sometimes I feel like there is really no effective way to discipline a four year old! Nothing seems to stick!

After thinking back on that day, I realized that similar things happened in both the dodge-ball tournament and in my relationship with my own child. Although I didn’t use degrading words, in an intense situation (when I found the pen marks everywhere) I lost my temper and shouted at Bethy. When will I ever learn to just stay composed when I discipline? I’ve renewed a goal every day since to not raise my voice the entire day. While I did slip once, I have done much better since. I find that when I’m in control, even though the situation around me may not be, life challenges becomes more manageable and negative feelings don’t smother all the positive.

To another topic, we are currently experiencing one of the worst economic crises since the depression. Several banks have failed, others have been bought out to save them, AIG insurance was bailed out by the Federal Reserve, followed by a bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Now Pres. Bush and the Federal Reserve are proposing a $700 billion bailout to save all these Wall Street Financial companies who are now failing because of bad investments and the foreclosure of so many bad loans. Whether it is the right thing to do or not, the majority of the citizens of the U.S. see this bailout as helping out the people who got the country into this economic crisis in the first place and doing nothing to help the regular citizen. Other arguments are against government involvement in the market, and others argue against putting the burden of our bad decisions on the backs of future generations of tax payers. On one side, I agree with all the arguments, and on the other, I see the need for something to be done. There is a lot of fear and families are really struggling all around us. I read an article in the Ensign for October that basically agreed that the wickedness and instability we are seeing in the world is a sign that the Lord’s coming is not far away. This General Authority said we should not be surprised when we see this uncertainty and instability, because it follows what Prophets have foretold since Old Testament times. Whether the end will come in my life time, or when I’ve passed, this has been a good reminder to me to ensure I am prepared and that I increase my faith in the Plan of Happiness. I know these trials the world faces are necessary to humble us and increase our faith.

City of Rocks, Baby Megan, and New Counselor

My birthday was this last Saturday. Ammon and I have been talking about meeting somewhere between his place and mine to go camping for a while now. We finally got to do it this past weekend. A friend of mine recommended going to the City of Rocks National Reserve, just south of Burley, so we decided to try it out.

We also invited others in our family. Angie and Gary’s family met us there and Dawn and Ray came up too. Unfortunately, Erin, Travis, Mom, and Dad couldn’t make it. Mom has been recovering from her surgery and also had back spasms all week. Erin had an emergency c-section and little Megan (spelling?) is doing well. I heard that it was a really traumatic experience for Erin (the baby was coming out “breach” and the nurse had to hold her in for twenty minutes until the doctor arrived for the c-section). I talked to them last night and it sounded like things are going well for both mother and baby now.

The Reserve was incredible! Huge granite boulders and spires struck out of the sandy ground for mile upon mile. We were fortunate to camp in the Twin Sisters campground farther away from most of the climbing routes, but plenty of rock around us to allow the kids to climb around and find little caves and tunnels in the rock. All the kids really enjoyed it and I often spotted Nathan and Bryan at the top of a large boulder or rock cliff, like human mountain goats. The smaller kids found little canyons and small caves to play in. It was fun to see them so excited. Now that we have a big tent and Grant is old enough to handle it, I’d really like to go camping more as a family. Unfortunately, winter is coming again. Maybe we can get a few more trips in before it’s too cold.

Friday night Amy and I made stew for everyone and after roasting marshmallows, we all enjoyed some dutch oven peach cobbler made by Ray and Dawn. We all sat around the campfire and talked until it was dark. After everyone else was in bed, Ammon and I stayed up and talked for a while longer until the bats started flying right past our heads. The next morning, Gary made his dutch oven breakfast and we had hot cocoa and juice. Most of the kids went with Angie and Gary on a good long walk and when they got back, we packed up and drove around the rest of the Reserve. The scenery was incredible and we could see climbers all over the Reserve. At one point as we were driving up the side of the mountain, we looked across the valley and watched two people climb to the top of a huge spire and then stand on the top as if it were a huge platform rather than a tiny peak with a precipice on all sides.

We stopped for lunch at a picnic area with tables and a large old fashioned hand pump to bring drinking water up from a perched aquifer below. The only negative adventure we had was when a bee got into Baily’s pants and stung her several times before we could get it out.

On the way there and the way back, Amy and I read together. We are reading the Lord of the Rings series for my first time and we are both really enjoying it. I thought back on the day and realized how great my birthday turned out. I would much rather spend time with my siblings and family in the outdoors than get lots of expensive presents. I wish the rest of our family could have been there, they would have enjoyed it. We decided to make a trip to the Reserve a yearly tradition. The scenery and terrain is fantastic and it is about four hours for both those in Utah and those in Idaho to get there.

Yesterday I got a new first counselor – Bro. Bender. He will also serve as the Assistant Varsity Coach under Lanson Baumgartner. This week we will be planning for the next six months of activities and I’m excited to have Lanson now be over the Varsity scouts. The Teacher age boys have a little more time to do activities and I look forward to having them get into the outdoors more. We have done very little of that in the Venture program. Last night at Rhet’s eagle court of honor I met the new Stake Young Men’s President – President Mansfield who was just released as bishop of the 20th ward. He informed me of upcoming firesides and events. It was so nice to have the stake actually communicate with me and I’m really looking forward to working with Pres. Mansfield. It feels like things are headed in the right direction. I sure do enjoy my calling and feel like the Lord is blessing me so much.

Flu, Baily's Class, and Friends

The stomach flu that each of my kids had, finally caught up to me last week. In the middle of the night on Monday morning, I woke up sick. The entire Labor Day holiday I spent throwing up. It was terrible, but thankfully only lasted about 24 hours. Still, a week later and I continue to feel drained. Grant is now seven months old and still wakes up in the middle of the night. We’ve tried putting the pacifier back in to see if he would go back to sleep, but to no avail. Once he wakes up hungry, he will not settle down until he’s fed. Since Amy has a super-ability to not wake up through the screaming, I end up getting him from his room. So, with the sickness, waking up several times a night to crying, and having things that keep me up too late at night, I am feeling a little worn out. For Grant, I think its time we just let him cry himself back to sleep in the middle of the night. The girls all went through this and learned quickly to just go back to sleep, but never were as awake and as loud as Grant. I’m not looking forward to it, but something needs to happen.

On to another topic – Amy and I signed up this year to volunteer in Baily’s class. Although Amy did it last year fairly regularly, I never had the chance. Now that I have Fridays off, I take one Friday and Amy takes the next. Amy and I have worried about sending Baily to school where she hears negative and degrading talk and where she must interact with disrespectful and even cruel children. Yet, we know this is also part of life. We decided that rather than isolating her, we would be as involved in her schooling as seemed appropriate. So far it’s been a really great experience and I was very impressed with Baily’s teacher Mrs. Noble. She told me that Baily had the second highest score in her grade for a reading assessment test they take at the beginning of each year. I think this will be a really good year for Baily.

This past weekend seemed to go by in a blur. I went home teaching, attended a business opportunity meeting hosted by one of the families I home teach; fixed several flats (including on my bike); went for a family bike ride; played dodgeball (and got appointed to be team captain in a dodgeball league); removed the storm door in the front; removed the damaged molding and replaced with new molding; made many trips to the store for groceries, propane, and other household items; made smores with the Dittrichs late Friday night, had friends over for Sunday dinner; did a lot of cleaning; and a little yard work. In some ways, I’ve created more work for myself. I originally put the storm door on incorrectly and although it worked, it didn’t look very nice and wasn’t air tight. So I still need to figure out the best way to put the door on. Shane offered to help me and I think I’m going to need him. I just never have been very good at fixing household items. Shane just built a room on to his house and then built his own large bookshelf. It looked incredible. I wish I had more of that ability, but I guess the only way to get it is to start trying. At least I’ve begun the learning process.

We decided this week to try and reach out to other people in our ward. We have felt such a strong bond with our friends the Dittrichs. Still, we knew we shouldn’t be exclusive. So, we had Read and Angie Young and Lanson and Amy Baumgartner over for dinner on Sunday. We all just talked while our kids played outside or in their rooms. The kids went a little wild and were all very dirty by the end of the night, but it was well worth it. We felt such a good feeling after everyone had gone home. We feel so blessed to be surrounded by such good people who all have their own unique way of helping us. I am always impressed with people who I like to call “real.” “Real” people are those that may not do everything the traditional way, but have no pretenses - no false fronts. I feel very comfortable around these people who are open, honest, and humble.