We were lucky enough for baseball practice to be cancelled this Friday. It opened up the opportunity to head up to Spokane to go see Gale in the hospital. Kyle called me Friday afternoon and told me to get the kids packed we were staying the night in a hotel. Staying in a hotel for the kids is like going to Disneyland! They love it. So we arrived at the Hampton Inn at 9:30. Kyle took the kids swimming right away to get it out of their system. We ordered pizza and were in bed by midnight. The next morning we headed to go visit Gale in the hospital. Other than suffering from boredom he is doing so good. They can't do surgery until Thursday because of the swelling in his forearm. But he is able to walk around now. We had a great visit. He is very grateful for all of the support from the community, friends and family. The kids were so excited to see him and sat on his bed the whole time telling him stories about the week. We left to go have lunch while he had an ultra sound to check for blood clots. Kyle treated us to PF Changs. One of our favorite restaurants. We gobbled it up! Even Savannah ate lots of noodles and chicken! Then it was back to say goodbye to Grandpa. While we were back at the hospital it started snowing a blizzard! It was pretty but we were glad to get back home to our 50 degree weather! Sunday morning the Easter Bunny came. But because she was so tired from hiding eggs and planting baskets at 5 o'clock that morning she slept in until 8:30! Conference started at 9. What a good conference! All of the talks really touched my heart! I made a yummy breakfast casserole and everyone sat infront of the tv watching conference, eating and coloring their new coloring books they got in their Easter Baskets. During the break I baked a three layer Carrot cake with cream cheese frosting because everyone knows it's not Easter without carrot cake! After the afternoon session it was off the Grandmas with our carrot cake. Grandma made a yummy Easter dinner with ham, potatoes, rolls and corn. Delicious! (Thanks Mom). But unfortunately our good time was interrupted by a phone call from my Uncle Rick letting us know of a tragedy that had just taken place. Little Shelby Roden (11 year old daughter of Shelly (Cox) and Russ Roden) had been in a tragic 4-wheeling accident and had passed away at the scene. We took a moment and reflected on how special eternal families are. I came home and read my patriartichal blessing and searched the scriptures for answers on eternal families. So I would like to close this blog by bearing my testimony. I would like to say that I have been warned numerous times both in my blessing and by church officials about the importance of eternal families. I know that times in my life if not now but in the future I will have an experience in my life when my family will be tried and tested with a very difficult time. Through the past couple of years I can truly testify of this experience. I have had to go to my Heavenly Father and ask him for strength and endurance and each time weather the cry for help was short or long I have been blessed with courage and patience and the knowledge that everything would be alright. I know that no matter what I am faced with in this life I can go to my Heavenly Father for the strength I need for guidance in my marriage and my motherhood duties. Loosing my job in October was probably the most depressing things I've ever been through. My inner strength took a beating! I didn't know what to do with myself. It took me a long time to understand that being able to stay at home with my children was one of the greatest blessings to come of it. I had always been needed at work now I was needed at home. Many times the world has told me that going back to work would make things better. But Kyle was stronger than me and with his faith had told me that everything would be alright. I would trust him and everytime things turned out better than expected. Now I can't imagine going back to work. I just don't know how I would do it! We have been so blessed. I have a testimony that Heavenly Father's Plan works for us. He knows it and now matter what is going on in our life we can turn to him and he will help us make it work. It's the plan for happiness. If you want to be happy then all we have to do is follow this plan. But I also testify that the more we want this plan to work the harder the advisary tries to work against it. That's the scary part! He will tempt us with the most lavish things this world can offer to gets us to go astray. That's why we need to stay as close to the Lord as we possibly can. He will protect us and give us the things we need to ward off the evilness of the world. But it is tough and it is hard and it is stressful this constant fight between good and evil! And in the end Good will prevail and we will live eternally with our families. That is our promise and this is my testimony. Amen
This was a busy and exciting week for us! The boys had their second game of the minor league season. Cody hit a ground ball and made it second and Weston caught a ball and threw it to second getting the runner out. That was so exciting! Weston turned 9 on Tuesday! My mom had already threw a party for him on Sunday and he got some wonderful presents from everyone! But Tuesday he got to take cupcakes and juice to share with his class. He's never gotten to do that before because his birthday always falls in the middle of Spring Break. We asked his what he wanted to do for his birthday and he said he wanted to go camping. The first plan was for him and Cody and his Dad to go out somewhere for the night and camp. Well the plan got bigger and better and before you knew it we were all packed in the suburban headed to Ensign Ranch up above Cle Elum. We had so much fun! Our friends The Merrell's joined us. We rented a family cabin (the pictures posted above that really don't give it justice!) It was awesome! Chuck Merrell blessed us with his delicious dutch oven dinner of scalloped potatoes and smothered chicken. Oh my gosh it was so yummy!! I love dutch oven dinners!! Chuck took all of kids on a nighttime hike for about an hour. That wore them out. so we thought. Nobody really got to sleep until after 1 am. Savannah was the only one who slept all through the night if you can believe it! Weston had brought a friend, Jayden. Him and Cody couldn't get to sleep and kept waking us up to tell us that a herd of elk were walking through our campground. And sure enough in the morning there were elk hoofprints through our campground. Also during the night Cody and Jayden got up to help Kyle cool the cabin down and Jayden fell down the stairs. The poor kid walked away unharmed but it gave us a pretty good scare! I woke up to Kyle cooking a yummy breakfast of pancakes, sausage and eggs. The rest of the morning was spent lounging around the campfire and enjoying the peacfulness of nature. The kids found a river to wade through. So we strung a clothesline to dry out the shoes and socks. After they were dry we took all of them to an opstical course out in the woods. They had a blast balancing on logs and climbing and swinging on ropes draped down from the trees. Kyle took the boys fishing while the girls and I stayed back at the cabin to watch a movie on the laptop. After we got the cabin cleaned up and checked out we headed up to Northbend for an afternoon of shopping at the outlet mall. Then we headed home. I was amazed we got home at 8:30! Just in time to unpack the suburban and get some sleep. I was so happy that Savannah slept in until 8:30 so I could get some sleep too. It was just a great weekend! What beautiful weather! I'm so excited for Spring and Summer. Kyle and I are making it a goal to get to do this more. Camping is just a great way of bringing the family together! The cabins were awesome! I suggest it to any family looking to have a quick get away!
