Monday, August 24, 2009

Reggie's First Day of College

Reggie is at the beginning of his college career. He will be attending Utah State University. Go Aggies! What a way to start. It looks like he put on his finest clothes to impress his professors with. I hope it works.
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Sunday, August 23, 2009

Lost and Found - Backpack Trip Part 3

The ridge we climbed to get our barings.

Me and Jenna kissing the trail.

Jenna kissing the tent back at camp after hiking in the wilderness for 6 hours!

Realizing we were going the wrong way.

One of the mornings, everyone hiked to another lake about 20 minutes from our camp to go fishing. We didn’t follow a trail to get there. We bush wacked. After we were there for awhile, no one was catching anything so they decided they were going to start up to another lake they had planned to go to fish. I had decided that I would take Jenna back to camp because the hike was going to be pretty difficult. My sister-in-law, Sandy, was planning to go back to camp as well. So we started back. You know I hadn’t really paid attention on how we got to the lake but figured we hadn’t gone that far and Sandy probably knew the way. After awhile, both of us weren’t sure where we were. Neither one of us really knew the way. After about a half hour or so we did hit a trail and a lake. It said, First Lieutenant Lake. We didn’t have a map. We really had no idea where this lake was in relation to the lake we were camping by. We headed the direction we thought we needed to go following the trail. Pretty soon the trail ended. But we had decided that we had bush wacked earlier so we probably just needed to follow the river and we would pop out by the next lake. Well, we hiked and hike…..and hiked. The brush started getting thicker and thicker. The flies were swarming our sweaty heads. Jenna was carrying her fish and crying about the bugs and about being lost and about wanting her dad. She was so upset and it lasted for quite some time. Eventually the fish came off the stick because the jaw bone it was hanging from broke. So, I carried the fish in my hand. After a couple of hours, the fish’s skin was getting brittle and I knew it wouldn’t be any good to eat. I told Jenna we needed to leave the fish behind. I really needed both hands to get through what we were climbing through. Jenna was a good sport. About this same time, I had to stop hiking and just hug Jenna. She was so upset and I had tried to comfort her with words but she was tired and scared. We hugged tightly for a couple of minutes and I told her that I would not let anything bad happen to her and things were going to be okay. She relaxed and was amazing from that time on. We decided we really needed to say a prayer to help us all feel better. We hiked through some hard terrain. I actually was more worried that Sandy or I would fall before Jenna. We did have water and food. It is such a scary and uneasy feeling to be lost. For a long time, I would tell Jenna that we were almost there. But as hours went by, I didn’t know anymore. I couldn’t tell her that. I told her we were lost but it was going to be okay. We would be going along and a hopeless feeling would come and Sandy or I would say, “I don’t know where to go” or “I don’t know where we are.” We were waiting for our inspiration I guess. And Jenna would tell us that we reminded her that we were lost and that made her scared and if we didn’t talk about it that was better. We hiked for a long time. We hiked up to a ridge so we could get our bearings. We climbed some hard stuff and Jenna did so well. There was a saddle in the mountain I remembered that Dave had told me that they hike over that to get to Iris Lake where they were fishing which was right above our camp. We had been hiking the wrong way! We stayed up high on the ridge and started heading towards the saddle. We began to hook candy wrappers to the trees to leave evidence we had been there. Our biggest worry was that the others really had no idea we were lost yet. They had planned on fishing for a long time and getting back to camp around 7 p.m. If we weren’t there when they got back to camp they might think we had just gone on a little walk. They really wouldn’t know until it started getting dark and then there would be nothing they could do until morning and then they would worry all night about us. We were getting tired. We had begun hiking at 11:30 a.m. and at about 4:30 p.m. we were still lost. We were going in the right direction though. We decided to start down the mountain. The surroundings were looking a little more familiar. We had a feeling to keep heading down and we came to a river. We decided to cross it and climb up the other side. We hiked up about 30 feet and we hit a trail. I was in shock. I couldn’t believe it. I was ahead of Jenna and Sandy so I saw it first and I started screaming, “a trail, a trail, there is a trail!” We couldn’t believe it. Jenna and I got on all fours and pretended to kiss the ground and Sandy took our picture. The ironic thing is it was the trail by the lake that we had come to 5 ½ hours earlier! Ugh! We were not leaving the trail this time. So we headed down the trail. Well it didn’t take long to realize we were going the wrong direction on the trail because we came to a place we recognized from our initial hike in. So we changed directions and started hiking the other direction. Pretty soon we came to lakes we knew and then back to our camp. We ended up in camp at 5:30 p.m. 6 hours after we started hiking. We basically did a great big huge circle through the wilderness. When we first hit the trail in the beginning, if we had known where we were it would have taken us 20 minutes to get back to camp. We were so excited to have made it back. We were exhausted but the adrenalin was still high. We washed our feet in the river and then went and sat on the grassy hill where we had had church. We left a note at camp telling them where we were and that we had quite a story to tell them. At 6:30 they came looking for us. We had beat them back to camp by only 1 hour. They couldn’t believe the story. I still can’t believe it myself. It was truly a miracle. I truly believe that there really is not explanation why we made it back to camp that day other than divine intervention. Heavenly Father helped us. There is no other way.

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First Day of School 2009

It is hard to believe summer is over and school has begun. The only one missing is Reg. He is off to Utah State University. Hard to believe he is in college. It can't be. Can it? I remember college. Anyway, Rob is in the 5th grade. Alyica is in 8th grade. Jenna is in 3rd grade. And Frank is a Junior in High School. As you can see by the pictures. The older two are beyond first day of school picutres.
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Temple Blessings

This year we have been blessed to have 2 new temples dedicated in Utah. It is amazing how far we have come over the years. I remember as a young girl attending the dedication of the Jordan River Temple. I still have my ticket and hanky. I remember as a young girl the feeling I had there being in the temple. Now we can go to our own Stake Centers and participate in a temple's dedication. The special thing about today is that all my children were able to attend. I loved the talks and the spirit that was felt there. We were able to participate in the 9 a.m. session.

I really enjoyed the first speaker. I can't remember her name but she is from the General Primary Presidency. She gave a great analogy. She told of her grandson who aften asks his mother "why" when she tells him what to do. If the explaination isn't understandable to this young boy his mom will say "because I am the mom." I have said that myself so many times. We start out thinking that obedience is something we give our parents but we soon learn that it is a gift to us. That they love us more and want us to experience the joy that obedience can bring us. She compared this to our Father in Heaven. We may not always understand but we can experience that joy if will be obedient because he loves us more.

The Hosannah Shout and the singing of The Spirit of God were amazing. I am so greatful for the blessing of temples because He loves us more.
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Sunday, August 9, 2009

Lunch with the Family

We had a great lunch together celebrating Lynda's birthday. I love my family!


Sunday, August 2, 2009

Pack Family Backpack Continued....

Meal time was definitely a treat. What we carried in is what we ate....granola bars, Laffy Taffy, crackers, nuts, trailmix, dried fruit, oatmeal, hot chocolate, fruit snacks, backpacking dinners just add water. There were a few treats: freeze-dried ice-cream, bacon, and fresh fish. Our cousins were cooking brownies in an Outback Oven. Didn't quite work out for them. It exploded. The gas canister, burner and brownies. The pan survived but a little dented. It sounded like a shotgun going off. Very lucky no one was hurt. One of a few miracles on the trip.

Campfires were so much fun. Just being together laughing and being together. The skits the kids did were awesome! I haven't laughed that hard for a long time. Having a lot of scouters makes for some entertainment.


We hiked up to a place in the mountains where there was still snow. It made for fun skiing.

These are fun radom pictures. Alycia was awesome. The last time we went as a family she was about 6 years old. On the way out, we hadn't gone very far before she decided to complain she was tired and her pack was heavy. We couldn't believe it because her back was basically empty. Uncle Dave looked in her back and it was full of rocks. She thought they were pretty and wanted to take them home. She definitely didn't have room for rocks this time. Jenna was our family's water pumper. She loved it and we let her. There was so many wildflowers it was amazing. Reggie decided to do some wood carving of a rose. It is a work in progress. Frank brought Harry Potter 6 to read (actually I carried it my pack because his was so huge). Rob found a scarey looking bug while we were fishing. Rob. Yuck! We moved campsites after the first night to a better one. We just picked up the tents and moved them. Quite interesting. We had church together on a grassy hill near a beautiful lake. Very cool. I am so glad that we were able to go on this trip. Phil has been in Young Men's so long we really haven't had many chances to do this. There is something about carrying in all you need on your back and being away from the world. I love my family and I am glad we could spend time with extended family. My kids have been so blessed to have cousins that are close. Thanks to the Packs!

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Pack Family Backpack 2009

We went backing in the Sawtooth Mountains to the Soldier Lakes. What fun memories we will have. We went with two of Phil's brothers and some of their families.

Back Row: Jill, Phil, Josh, Dave, Nate, Reggie, Kevin, Frank
Middle Row: Sandy, Stephanie, Mandy, Alycia, Sue, Rob
Front Row: Sam, Jenna

We hiked in about 4 1/2 miles into the beautiful lakes. The packs were heavy but the scenery was beautiful. We saw so many beautiful wildflowers and lakes - even a knotted tree. The kids did amazing. This was Jenna's first trip. The hike in was a little rough. Phil carried her pack most of the way in. Posted by Picasa

Jenna's First Fish!!!

Jenna caught her first fish last week on our Pack Family Backpack. She was so excited she could hardly contain herself. No else caught a fish in that lake. One of the pictures shows Jenna's surprise as the fish wiggles out of her dad's hands. They did get it back though. We weren't able to eat the fish for dinner because of a story I will tell in a future blog. What a fun memory for Jenna.
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