Utah

A few days after trek, we packed up the car and drove to Utah to spend time with my family.  All three of my sisters were going to be there, so I was very excited to spend time with them and have all of our kids play together.  We were there for two weeks.  Since I don't have a lot of time right now and want to move on with blogging, I'm just going to upload my favorite pictures and not share the hundreds of photos we took.  You are welcome.  My sister Megan already posted about our trip in great detail, so I don't feel like I need to do it again.  Here we go.

Playing with my parents cats.  This one is Ichabod

Cora and Bella





We had a BBQ with my dad's side of the family.  These are my uncles and aunts and parents

My cousins on my dad's side (not everyone could make it)  Brett, Trisha, Jodi, Charee, Megan, Tiffany and me.

 Everyone

July 24th

OK--I know this looks extremely strange, all of us in costumes in July.  My family loves Halloween, and my mom used to throw us Halloween parties when we were younger.  (This where my Halloween party tradition comes from.)  Some of my sisters don't have the parties for their kids and wanted my mom to throw a Halloween party while we were there, so they could experience the fun.  So she did.  This is my family in their costumes. 

My sisters and parents

my parents and the grandkids

before dinner

Doing crafts--Noah loved hanging out on the counter. 

My dad was worn out and snuck in a nap during the party.   

Noah and Emmett (7 months apart)

July 25th

My mom had lots of sewing crafts for the older girls.  They were making a Halloween quilt. 

This night we had a BBQ with my mom's side of the family.  This is all of us.

My sisters and the cousins.  Tiffany, Charee, me, Megan, Tyler, Katie, Heidi, Tysha and Shanda. 

Lydia working on her sewing.

July 26th

My sister Tiffany had to leave this day, so we had to take more pictures.  She's the one in pink.

We had a fire that night and had s'mores. 

July 27th

Today we took the kids to a little "zoo" in Logan.  They had a park next door, so we let the kids play after. 

We had tin foil dinners that night.  (Kids had hot dogs).

July 28

We went up to Logan Canyon for a picnic

The kids all threw rocks in the water.  They had a blast!

After we got home they played some more in the backyard

The older girls were working on their halloween quilts that night. 

July 29th

Having another fire

me and my sister Megan with a georgeous sunset

July 31

My dad wanted to take us all on a hike up in the mountains near his house.  It was nice, but the kids were tired after about 5 minutes. 

Bella and Paigey playing in the dorm room. 

Later that afternoon after the 2 boys took their naps, Grandma and Grandpa took us all out for ice cream at Charlie's.  Yum!

Aug. 1

My sister Megan left today and my mom went with her. Megan is an artist and she does these beautiful oil paintings. She learns her techniques at painting workshops. She was going to go to one as soon as she got home, and it was a week long workshop. My mom went out to watch her kids since her husband is a lawyer and was in trial all week.

These are two paintings that she did of our two grandmothers.  She is awesome!

Aug. 2

My sister Charee and I and our kids drove down past Salt Lake to go to Gardner Village, which is a fun shopping area for crafts and holiday things. 

 the gang

 Emily, Paige and Maggie waiting while I shopped.

 My favorite store is here, called Pine Needles (a quilting/sewing/fabric store).  Charee was a saint and took all the kids outside and watched them so I could look around in peace. 

Garrett was flying in that night so he could drive us home in a few days.  So, I had to stay in Salt Lake to pick him up.  I had a few hours  before I had to go and pick him up.  Charee took all the kids home (7 total), so that I didn't have to take them with me.  She fed them dinner and got the younger ones in bed for me.  She was so nice to help me out!  Thanks Charee!

Aug. 3

The next day, Charee was going to Boondocks with her kids and my cousin Andy and his 2 kids and so they offered to take Maggie and Lydia with them.  They all had a great time. 

 Emily, Lydia and Maggie

 Emily, Lydia, Maggie, Alexis, Rachel

That night, (our last night) we had a campfire.  The kids went out on the grass, in the dark and told jokes and sang songs and played games and just laughed and laughed.  They had so much fun!  We started driving home the next day. 

A Week to be a Pioneer

Our stake had it's first ever handcart trek in July of this year. They were looking for people to help participate and Garrett and I really wanted to be a part of it. So, we volunteered to be a "Ma and Pa". We were both very excited about the experience and prepared throughout the year to be ready.  It was held up in Washington near Plymouth in a place called Bing Canyon.  We went from July 9th through the 13th.  My mom came to stay with our kids so that we could go. 

I'm not going to go into all the details on here, since I've already written about it in my journal, but I will say that it was one of the hardest things I've been through.  We were ready to go home the first night!  There was extremely hot weather--up to 110 degrees the first day and I was not prepared for that or the physical demands of it.  But I'd have to say that it was an extremely spiritual experience, one that will stay with me for a long time.  If you had asked me on the last day of trek if I ever wanted to participate in a trek again, I would have said No, thank you!  But looking back on it now, I definitely think I would.  Because even though it was hard and at times miserable, the things I learned from it and the testimony I gained outweigh all the bad experiences. 

DAY 1

Getting there early to pack our handcarts before the youth arrived

Ma and Pa McKibben

All of the Ma's and Pa's getting a lift to the handcarts.  Garrett and I are in the middle.

The buses arrive with all the youth (around 250 youth--it took 6 buses to get them all there.)

Packing up gear

My daughter Maggie and her cousin Sydney (from Alaska) were able to go. 

Our family on the first day

Don't let the cloud cover fool you.  It eventually wore off and it got hot!!

The Rope Pull up this big hill

DAY 2

 Presenting the Indians with gifts as payment to travel through their lands

Pioneer activities like learning to play the harmonica, making pioneer dolls, archery, walking on stilts, learning first aid, rope making, tomahawk throwing, etc.

 Maggie having a good time

Getting to hang out with friends and having lots of waterfights to keep cool!

 Putting up the tents

 Our home for the night

 This is the side of our handcart with our tarp making some shade for us.

 We had a square dance that night, which the kids all loved

DAY 3

 Short devotional from a "missionary" headed back East.

 Our family eating lunch

 Washing our hair was such a treat.  Not only was it nice to be clean, but getting your head wet really helped you cool off.  This is my niece Sydney getting her hair washed. 

 Trek choir

 Our family resting

 Our family picture

Maggie and Sydney's family picture

Evening time

DAY 4  Finally Getting to Zion!!

 Devotional in the morning

 Women's Pull

 Maggie and Sydney's cart with the boys helping at the end

 Waiting to climb "Rocky Ridge"

 Our Stake President, President Richardson assigning "illnesses" to members of the families who would then not be able to help pull the hand cart up the hill.  In our family, he made Garrett be the sick one. 

 Ma McKibben

 Us looking down on the companies ahead of us thinking, we're almost there and it looks SO Easy!!

 We were wrong.  They saved the hardest part of the trek for the last miles in the hottest part of the day.  This is the staff cart with President Richardson taking a break.  It was HARD!  The picture doesn't show it, but we had to pull the handcarts through sandy loose dirt up and down hills.  We were all so spent!

Finally coming into Zion!

 Garrett and I walking into Zion.  Some other young men who had reached Zion first, came back to help those of us at the end who were having a hard time and who had run out of water.  So Garrett and I walked in without our handcart or our family because they took the handcart in for us.  So thankful for them!

 This was our handcart

 Maggie and Sydney and Maggie's friend Annica in Zion after running through the sprinklers.

 TREATS!!

 President Richardson

 They prepared dinner for us that night, which was so nice. 

 Testimony meeting

Testimony Meeting and then they had another square dance. 

DAY 5

 After making breakfast, taking down tents and packing up gear, they had one last meeting,

 Then the girls did some stuff for girls camp (since trek took the place of Girls Camp) and the boys did some scouting stuff.  Everyone loves Camp songs!

 Then they had a bonus dance while waiting for the buses to arrive.  I love the youth--they have so much energy and love to have a good time!

Then we all went home!