Sunday, August 16, 2009

What a week! It feels good to finally catch my breath. I'll spare you from giving you all the details, and just stick to the highlights.
To start the week off we were able to go with Ginny and her parents to the Draper temple to do the temple work for her brother Charlie. What an incredible experience! The spirit was so strong witnessing to me once again how important family is and how powerful the bonds are that connect us.
Also this week my sister Nora was in town. I love the family time we get when she comes to town. She stayed with us Sunday night and of course we stayed up till all hours of the night talking! And who can forget our unique camping experience over the weekend. I'll tell you about that later.
Also, one of my mission companions came to town this week from Texas. Audrey and I were actually companions twice on the mission, in the MTC and then again about half way through our mission. So we got together with Randall, Schellenburg and Bonner and stayed at Hogi yogi until they had to kick us out cause they were closing! It was soooo good to see them and catch up!


One of the other highlights of the week was our family camping trip that turned into a sleep over at Ryan's. So, the reader's digest version is this-
We tried to camp at Murdock Basin up in the Uintah's. The weather man said it was only 30% chance of rain so we thought we would risk it. Bad choice. We were meeting everyone up there Friday after work. My family was going up earlier to have everything set up and be ready for us. We had to meet them at the trailhead parking and then would pick us up from there in the rhino and take us off roading up to the camping spot. We got there and there was no sign of them. We sat there waiting for them for over an hour. The sky kept getting darker and darker with clouds, then came rain and still no sight of them.
Little did we know what drama they were going through. They made it to the campsite and dropped off most the stuff. They broke the trailer hitch getting up there. Then on their way back down to get the rest of the stuff it started hailing and snowing on them, leaving them all soaked and their stuff drenched. When they tried to come get us in the rhino it broke down, so they tried to pull it with the truck and the rope busted.
By the time they got to us practically everything was broken, wet and freezing! Poor things!
It was almost midnight by this point and we were all starving, so we drove back to Park City, ate at Wendy's and then all crashed at Ryan and Sonja's.
And what would ya know- Saturday was bright and sunny.
We were determined to make the most of our weekend and decided to hike up to Bells Canyon.

It was a beautiful hike with a gorgeous view of a waterfall at the top and the valley below. I was especially proud of my mom for making it to the top. She just had surgery on her rotater cuff in her shoulder and was quite the trooper. There were times that we had to help her over some pretty big rocks on the path because she couldn't pull herself up and over them with her hurt arm- but I can't help but make it a comparison to life. There are times when we all need others' help to pull us up and over some of the trials we face in life, but that's why we're here and that's what family is for.