Called to Serve

Yesterday, our oldest son opened a letter that will change our lives.

After two weeks of waiting, a big white envelope came in the mail holding a call to serve as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

 

So, after a hectic day, after everyone had had the chance to make a guess or two as to where Bryce would be assigned to serve, our family gathered while Bryce opened one of the most powerful pieces of mail he has ever received.

And just like that, my little boy isn't so little anymore.  This child that we have nurtured and taught for nearly 18 years suddenly has very adult decisions and opportunities laid out before him.  

Suddenly, his life stretches well beyond the borders of our home as he begins on a path to serve people more than 2000 miles away.

But, I guess this is exactly what we have been preparing and working for as his parents all these years.  Yes, we are very pleased he has chosen to serve a mission, but what I really mean is that our goal as parents is to support and encourage these young humans and help them develop into people who will become capable and independent and eventually up and leave us.  And if we have done our job well, they will be ready to make big decisions, serve the people around them, stand up for what they believe, and be a positive force in whatever community they are part of (as well as cook for themselves, do their own laundry, and hopefully clean the bathroom).  

At least, that is my hope for each of my babies.  I'm grateful that Bryce is choosing to look beyond himself and set an example of love and faith for his younger siblings.  I sincerely adore this boy and I'll always be thankful that he is mine.  How did he grow up so fast?

Yesterday's events are further proof to me that you can be delighted and joyous but still a bit mournful at the same time.  But it is a beautiful piece of mourning.

So, to sum up.  Florida Orlando, my new favorite mission in the world and August 8, not nearly far enough away.

My mother heart is beaming.

Vernal: Picking up where we left off

So a few summers ago, our family decided to try to visit all of the LDS temples in Utah.  We got off to a great start but as the summer ended we hadn't been able to visit the Vernal, Monticello, or Manti Temples.

I intended to pick up the goal again the next summer, but life happened, and then we moved and more life happened, so here we are almost three years later finally getting back around to that target.

Anyway, we opted to head to Vernal on a kind of spur-of-the-moment adventure.  So I jumped onto the TripAdvisor site (my go to when planning a trip and looking for awesome stuff to do) and off we went.

The drive was just about three hours, so not too bad.  We may or may not have played "Catch Phrase to the Death" to pass the time (don't worry, despite its name, the game is non-lethal).

We did visit the grounds to see the temple, and it was really really lovely.  I just can't get past the feel of these places.  I know they are more than just nice buildings.

Caught this cute, candid moment as these three walked along together.

But, as long as we were in Vernal we wanted to do like the Vernal-ites and see the nearby attractions.

Our first stop was McKonkie Ranch which is a site owned by a family and then shared with the public.  It holds dozens (probably hundreds) of petroglyphs and some of them were awesome!  This place was well worth a trip.

The next morning we opted for a fishing trip to Steinaker Reservoir just outside of Vernal.  The area was great, the temperature was really nice...the fishing STUNK!  

Pretty much, if we go fishing as a family we never catch anything.  I'm pretty sure we have a curse.  We must have angered the angling gods.  I'm not sure how to undo it, but yikes.  It's getting bad.

Oh well, we had a good time exploring the area anyway.  And we got really good at casting.  Over and over.  Stupid fish!!!  Stupid curse!!!

My three most focused fishermen worked their way around the lake trying to find the fish.  They had fun even if they didn't have success.

See this still shot of a fishing pole...that's pretty much how it was the whole time.  If you sit and stare at that picture for about two hours, you will have had pretty much the same experience we did (although, I admit, our surroundings were pretty fabulous).

Once we really got tired of NOT catching fish, we drove down the highway about a mile to explore a place called Moonshine Arch.  We learned not to listen to Google Maps because she lied to us about how to get there.  Naughty Google Maps.  Thankfully, there was a park ranger handy and he set us straight.

This place was awesome!

The hike to get there is a little bit of work, but it is very do-able.  The road is sandy and there are a few steep sections, but even our eight year old handled it without much trouble.  It was probably just over a mile from the parking lot to the arch.  It seems like you might even be able to drive further up the road sometimes, but the road was pretty rutted and washed out while we were there so walking was the better choice for us.

How brothers share a sip from a hydration pack.

Some people ALWAYS whine about hiking.
(but it was good-natured whining so I'll take it)

 The scenery was gorgeous.  The rocks were lovely and the weather was perfect.  It was not too hot, but also not chilly.  It was kind of a perfect day for this exploration.  I do love to get up close and personal with God's creations, and anything that involves rocks moves up on my list -- I have a thing for rocks.

One of the cool window areas you could climb to at the arch.

I love me a beautiful, gnarled piece of wood.

I don't know why Ellie is pretending to by scared...but ok!

Paker found this mini re-creation of Moonshine Arch nearby.
It's about eight inches tall.

The whole crew.

This was only an overnight trip, but we had a GREAT adventure.  I didn't really know what to expect, but Vernal had some really really great things to share with us.  Thanks, Vernal!

I LOVE these moments we have together, and I hope they help us to build bonds that will keep our family connected no matter what the future holds for us.  I sincerely adore these people -- especially my main partner in crime, he is more incredible than I can express (love you most, Joshua).  

We always have the best times together.

Group flossing.  Weirdos.  (but my favorite weirdos)

He's not a Man, He's a Chicken-Boo

(Not familiar with Chicken-Boo?  I'd say you might should indulge in a lovely little 90's cartoon called the "Animaniacs," but you can get a tiny tutorial on the topic here:
What the heck is Chicken-Boo? )

This week we had spring break, and my husband had five chicks following him around much of the time.

That's the face you get when you surprise take a picture of your husband while he is cooking.

He is a pretty good-lookin' guy and he has a bunch of really top-notch qualities...but these chicks were not human.  They were of the chick-en variety so I really wasn't too concerned.

You see, while some families took trips, watched movies, and had fancy adventures, my husband spent his spring break translating pages that looked like this...

into something that looks like this.

Yup, my man dedicated his spring break to helping me create a new, more-appropriate, will-hopefully-last-forever-because-we-never-want-to-do-that-again chicken coop to better house my clutch of hens.  

This guy really is a good sport.

Josh took my quickly imagined plans (drawn by a FAR from professional level engineer...but my little brother is an engineer so that makes it ok, right?) and helped me smooth out all the...er, rough (really really rough)...edges.  We punted kind of a lot when things didn't quite work the way we thought they would.  We made stuff up and learned things from the brilliant folks on YouTube.

But in the end, VOILA!  Freshly minted chicken coop with all the things we've learned we needed over the past year and enough space for our girls to happily live out their days in egg-laying bliss.

And that's why they were following him around all weekend (that, and they hoped he would give them some meal worms...he's pretty free with meal worms).  Really, who could blame them.  I know I can't.

I do love that guy!

Hope your spring break was just as eventful and maybe a little more exciting than ours.