Fun Cleaning

Yes, this is what my kids call cleaning when they are working together.  Someone makes up a game and they start "playing" as they clean.  Oh how I love this!  Cleaning is getting done while I hear giggling.  It's not always fun and games, but there are a lot of times where my house is like this.  I love that they have time to be creative and enjoy each other!

Why I am a "Mormon"

     I think some might wonder why I have chosen a Mormon lifestyle. I feel impressed to make a post on the matter. So here I am.

     Some might say that I am a Mormon because my my parents are and I was brain washed into it or I am just trying to please them. This couldn't be farther from the truth, though I do like to make my parents happy after all the sacrificing they did for me, this is not a way they taught us to make them happy. They taught us that they would love us no matter what and that their house was a place where we were always be welcomed and loved. They encouraged us to find our own testimony of Christ.

     When I was about 13, my curiosity started to grow. I had friends that challenged my belief. There were people at church that behaved in a way that made me wonder why I was going there. I started to pray to know what was true. My parents were very good at allowing me to attend other churches. I went to several, a Catholic church, a Christian church, a Jewish church, a Baptist church and a few others. A close friend of mine had a wonderful mom who would tell me to go to church and look for ways to help others. I truly wanted to know where God wanted me to be. I remember asking Him to write it on my wall if the LDS faith was where I was supposed to be. Though this prayer was not answered in the way I wanted the answer came over the next few years through a series of experiences. I did what the gospel of Christ taught. I prayed, read the scriptures, fasted, attended the temple.

     God gave me some amazing leaders and friends from unexpected places. One of these friends was not always the best influence, but challenged me in ways that gave me the burning desire to know for myself. Without this friend I don't know if that desire would have been so strong.

      I knew that the Book of Mormon was supposed to be the "keystone of the LDS faith". So I needed to read it. I started with a little bit at a time each day. I was not an avid reader at this time and this is what I could handle. God knew me and guided me to the scriptures I needed to read. I read things like "I am encircled about eternally in the arms of His love" and "receive the Holy Ghost, it will show you ALL thing what ye should do." and "be familiar with ALL and free them with your substance, that they might be rich like unto you." and "yea, thus we see the gate of heaven is open to ALL, even to those who will believe on the name of Jesus Christ, who is the Son of God". It teaches over and over that Christ loves all and is waiting for you to look for him and love him back. The Book of Mormon and it's teachings made the gospel of Christ easier to under stand. If filled in some missing parts. The history and the way it was compiled and written in it's self is a testimony of the miracle that it came about. There is no way that a young farm boy who did not have access to undiscovered world history could have made this up. There was no turning back. I knew it was true.

     The LDS faith teaches and encourages people to pray for themselves to know. To read and to study it out in their minds. Not to contend with other in the matter of religion, but to teach "by persuasion, by long suffering, by gentleness, meekness, love unfeigned, by kindness." No other church offered this in my experience.

     I was eventually diagnosed with Lyme disease which gave me a lot of opportunity to put my faith to the test. I was given a husband that could handle the situation and has helped me to climb out of my shell. I have had many other chances to evaluate my beliefs and each time I look to the gospel principles to help me. They always work. Sometimes it takes some perspective to understand a situation, but if I approach difficult circumstances with gratitude and a prayer I always come out of it feeling the love of God.

     I am a Mormon because of my faith in Christ, not man. Man cannot inspire me and comfort me like He does. Sometimes His comfort and inspiration is through man because I am young in understanding when it comes to hearing Him. He knows how to reach me and it's up to me to "see" it.

Zion National Park

We spent a long weekend. with our good friends the Milam's, in Zion National Park.  We camped in Springdale and shuttled our way to the park everyday.  We hiked in beautiful landscapes, sang songs on the bus and roasted marshmallows.  We attempted to roast my homemade marshmallows, but we did not have success.  They sort of melted of the stick.  I did buy some sugar free marshmallows online that roasted quite nicely. Between the two families there were 12 children and 4 adults.  We got a lot of comments and looks.  One guy thought they were all mine.  Phew!  Can you imagine having that many so close together?  I have a deep respect for my mother in law and the Dugger family.

The Milam's used to be our some what neighbors here in Utah.  We got to know them through our homeschool group and ended up spending a lot of time with them.  While I was going through my 2 years of struggle (hard pregnancy and care giving for Melissa while she had cancer) Sonya Milam really took care of me and the kids.  She would show up at my house with her big van, come in my house and say "who wants to go to my house?!"  Of course all the kids took off running and were in the car before I could say "would you like to go?".  All of our kids get a long like a dream and have so much fun together.  They eventually made their way to Colorado.  It was so nice to be with them last week.  We had a grand time.

 This is the second hike we did called Angles Landing.  It was very steep, but so amazing.  Aaron took Aiden to the very top, while I stayed behind with the others at the first stop.  To get to the very top, you had to go through a series of chain led narrow paths with steep drop offs.  Aiden was very excited that he got to go.

Aaron hiking with Eva to Angles Landing

This picture is a little bit of an optical illusion.  I'm standing at the top of this trail and taking a picture looking down.  You can't see the whole trail.  Do you get an idea of how steep this was?

Looking out from the top

Here is Aiden along the Narrows trail.  We did not do the entire Narrows.  It's a hike that requires a permit because of the difficulty. We just hiked the mile to the beginning.

 Here are all of our kids together, minus Eva, she was asleep on Aaron's back as seen below.

The kids checking out the Virgin River.

Me and Aaron on the Hidden Canyon East Rim trail.

 The canyons were amazing.

This picture turned out a little blurry, but all the kids were looking at the camera!

Sonya was the only adult that could keep up with the kids.  Here she is with all the kids trailing behind her.

Before we all drove away toward home, we took some pictures with our buddies.

Here are Tanner, Sierra and Robyn.

Sierra and Robyn

Sophia, Emma and Savannah

Aiden and Henry

Mosiah and Eva

 

Sonya and me

Looks like we missed a picture of Aaron and Tom...

California

In April, I took the kids to California with me to attend my cousin Jill's wedding.  We stayed in Berkley with my brothers and took some time to check out the area.  I lost a few pictures some where and can't seem to find them so there are a few events missing from this post.  We had a marvelous time with my family.

 

Jill's wedding was a beautiful evening.  I felt at home amongst the farm girl decor, music and being surrounded by family and loved ones.  Good music, beautiful readings of poetry and verses made the ceremony enjoyable.  The happy couple were adorned with handsome attire.  For the music they had a small group of country music instruments from fiddle to banjo.  There is something about fiddle music that gives me chicken skin.  Between the wedding and the reception, Ron and Michelle took me on a drive to see our Grandma's old house on Geranium Place.  There are so many good memories of summers spent running around that house.  For the reception, Jill and her mom made colorful quilt squares for people to sign on and to decorate the tables with.  Also on the tables, there was home grown canned food as center pieces for people to take home.  I brought home an Indian spiced rhubarb jelly. Yum.  The food was amazing.  The food was served from a food truck just outside of the reception hall.  I had garlic chicken and grits and went back for some ox tail.  A savory and colorful beet salad with citrus dressing was served as well.  My stomach went away very happy and the best part was that I did not feel sick the next day.  Yeah!  It was a splendid evening.

 

 

On our way to California we stopped at the Salt Flats rest stop in western Utah.  The white is all salt.  The kids enjoyed checking it out and brought back a few samples to the car.

 

I had the "grand" idea of stopping in Lake Tahoe on the way for a night.  It was so cold that we were not able to be out side for longer than 5 minutes.  That night, snow decided to fall upon us.  Getting over the pass from Tahoe gave me the opportunity to learn how to put chains on my car.  It was an adventure indeed.

We stayed at a hotel in Berkeley which was right on the San Francisco Bay in the middle of two beautiful parks.  We had a great time walking around the parks.

I forgot how cold and windy San Francisco can be!  Can you see the Golden Gate bridge in this picture?

We traveled to Fisherman's Wharf with my brother Ron and his family.  Good old cousin bonding...

 Gwen and Cousin Lizzy

 We walked by the San Francisco Sour Dough Company

The kids enjoying real fish and chips and watching street performers

 

 

 

We spent one day with my cousin Tracy-Beth, her son Logan, Ron, Michelle and Lizzy at the Exploritorium.  We could have spent a week there.  I loved to watch the kids curiosity spark with the hands on exhibits. On the right side of the museum, you could look into their shop and watch how they build the different experiments. 

After many hours of exploring, we walked across the street to the beach to eat our lunch.  Out on the Bay, a sail boat race was in process.  The kids got wet, played with their cousins and had a great time!

 

 

Cousins from left to right: Emma, Logan, Aiden, Gwen, Eva, Robyn and Lizzy.

 

On Sunday we joined my parents and my Aunt Ann for church at my Grandma's old ward by the Oakland temple.  My Grandma used to live a mile away from here.  I used to love to look out her big bay windows and see the temple glowing in the darkness of night.

 

On our last day we drove an hour and a half to Santa Cruz.  I had planned on taking the kids on rides, but they were too entertained by the water and animal life the subsisted there in.

We had a great trip!