Happy 46th Anniversary to us!

 I can't believe we've been married so long!  And it's still so fun!  Paul came up with a great idea for a little get away for this year.  Monday is actually the day, but we went on Friday/Sat. up to Midway Utah and stayed a night at the Homestead House Resort.  That sounds a little bit fancier than it was, but it was really nice.  It's a cute resort with different "houses" spread all around their property.  We stayed in the Farmhouse.  Kind of old fashioned, antique type furnishings.  It's probably a lot prettier when it's not winter, but it's still really pretty with lots of winding paths between the houses and grass and big trees.  And the thing we really went for is that it has this giant crater that you can go inside of and swim in a hot spring pool that's inside!  The water comes up from below and is 90 degrees.  You come ready to swim; we had our jogging suits on over our swimsuits.  It was really pretty cold outside (our time to swim and soak was at 6:30 pm), and then put your stuff in a locker, get a life jacket on and just float and swim around this lovely warm pool inside this rock crater that is all around with just a little hole on top.  They keep the hole covered with a tarp in winter so the air inside stays warmer like the water.  Otherwise you'd be seeing daylight above you through that hole.  We had fun just because it's so unique.  Just looks like an ugly old mound on the outside and then inside is this beautiful, warm aqua colored pool.  People were using snorkels and masks and some people were having scuba lessons there too.  Probably about 30 people inside altogether.  After your time is up, you get out dry off and put on your warm clothes and go back outside to your car really quick this time of year so you don't freeze to death!  We love seeing and doing new things and this was just right.  The town of Midway is a beautiful combination of old time houses and crazy awesome gigantic/beautiful mansions.  

On our way up we stopped at Beaver to get cheese.  We also stopped a few places to look for things Paul was needing and found a wonderful birthday present/Gore-Tex jacket at REI.  We love looking in sporting goods shops.  And we ate yummy lunch in Fillmore at Costa Vida (had to eat outside because of Covid-19).  After our swim/soak we got dinner at Panda Express and took it to our room to eat it because you can't eat inside there either.  Then we walked over to the Lodge and enjoyed a few games of checkers (reminiscent of our honeymoon where we drew a checkerboard and used different colored tissue wads for men).  Then we explored the lodge and learned more about the crater and town's history.  

The next day we had really yummy breakfast in the Lodge restaurant.  I tried eggs benedict and loved it.  It was really good food and fast.  Then we enjoyed exploring the grounds some and did a little Xmas shopping there and then headed out. We stopped by Temple Square and walked around to see how the temple update is coming along and enjoyed walking through the City Creek Mall. Then we stopped in at a giant Costco in Salt Lake for a few things ours doesn't carry.  Then we lunched in Orem and picked up some Krispy Kreme donuts to bring home (ate some too).  We listened to a good book on the way when we had finished just enjoying talking.  All in all, it was just a fun, relaxing, remembering wonderful time to get away and enjoy time together.  

A Weed moment

 Time has passed and life goes on, but every now and again there are moments when the heart hurts with remembering - bitter sweet moments.  We all had one of those the other day when Lou sent this to all of us.  

Hi LouAnne. 

I was reading my scriptures this morning and remembered a letter that Lenae had emailed me years ago. I wanted to share it with you. She is such a wise wonderful person. Hope you are doing well!

Dearest Heather,

The other day, in my scripture study, I came across this scripture and it hit me really hard. It takes place when the brother of Jared and all their people had boarded their barges and headed out to sea. In Ether 6:5-6 it says:

5 And it came to pass that the Lord God caused that there should be a furious wind blow upon the face of the waters, towards the promised land; and thus they were tossed upon the waves of the sea before the wind.
6 And it came to pass that they were many times buried in the depths of the sea, because of the mountain waves which broke upon them, and also the great and terrible tempests which were caused by the fierceness of the wind.

The thing that hit me about this is that Lord provided wind to help them progress, but the very thing he gave them to help them progress, also provided some very difficult trials! I’m sure it was utterly terrifying to be tossed on “mountain waves” and “buried in the depths of the sea”! I think we are given trials to give us a chance to improve and progress in the way the Lord has planned for us. He wants us to reach our destination of perfection, but we can’t do that without some very difficult learning experiences. 

Another thing that I loved about this section is how they got through these challenges. In verse 9, it says:

9 And they did sing praises unto the Lord; yea, the brother of Jared did sing praises unto the Lord, and he did thank and praise the Lord all the day long; and when the night came, they did not cease to praise the Lord.

Whoa! That’s pretty hard to do when you’re cramped in a barge with the only light being from a small rock at each end and the only fresh air that enter the barge (which you share with all your animals) comes from a small hole that can only be unstopped when you’re not in the middle of a huge storm. I’ve found that often, I would rather question “Why?” than sing praises. It’s hard to be grateful for trials like these! I’m still not there most of the time! But I am trying. I am trying to find joy in the journey. I am trying to realize that at least, I am moving forward and being watched over.

In verse 10, it states that:

10 And thus they were driven forth; and no monster of the sea could break them, neither whale that could mar them; and they did have light continually, whether it was above the water or under the water.

We are known! Our pain is seen! Heavenly Father IS watching out for us and protecting us from worse things. We too have light continually, we just have to acknowledge and look to it for guidance! I am so grateful that Heavenly Father provided scriptures to guide us as we face “mountain waves” and being “buried in the depths of the sea”. I am so glad that we can liken them unto us and find nuggets of wisdom and comfort in them!

I hope you can find comfort at this time and know that your pain is known and He is looking out for you! I love you so much and know that you are going to get through this and it will be ok!

Hold tight to the light!!

Love,

Lenae

Right now we are studying these verses in the Book of Mormon for our Come Follow Me Sunday School lessons.  Weed hit the nail on the head with these observations.  

We made it to Wah Weep HooDoos

We went there years ago and decided to go again.  I was worried we might be too old and tired to get there, but we made it...and it good time!  And, it was as awesome this time as it was the first time!  It's just amazing to see these huge hoo doos out in the middle of no where.  They are so beautiful and unique.  It was perfect desert weather.  When the wind was blowing in the shade, it was just a little bit chilly, but in the sun it was perfect.  The riverbed was just damp in a few places, but not mud and the sand was not deep enough to be a problem when we chose to walk there instead.  And the elevation gain was almost nothing, so that was nice too.  We did just a little over 10 miles total and got out just as the sun was going behind the mountains.  And we didn't see anyone else on the trail all day long!  Perfect!

Jem...continues to grow in cuteness!

 I wrote about the wonderful event of Jem joining the family, but somehow he has escaped much mention since then.  So I am here to say that he, like all babies, continues to grow in cuteness!  So I want to add some pictures of that cuteness that I have available to me.  Unfortunately the pictures and time with this little guy have been somewhat limited by the Covid-19 limitations we are all dealing with during this crazy year.  He hasn't been blessed, we haven't had any family dinners and our other gatherings have been greatly limited by the continued problems with getting this virus under control. It is unfortunate, but has been unavoidable.  

I may add a few more before the end of this year!

Halloween 2020

 Here's the 2020 lineup of Halloween cuties!  We went over to Ferf and Ryan's to eat yummy food, lots of their Halloween candy, and to watch the BYU game that was on that night.  We're kind of bah humbuggers about Halloween anymore, but the good company, food and football game at least got us out of our house.  And we did get to see some of these cuties in costume live.  Others we had to enjoy via pictures only!  

Brookside to Baker - always a favorite little hike

Saturday afternoon we hiked one of our favorites.  We had hoped to see the leaves changing, but they were pretty much all off from a little cold snap a bit ago.  But it was still as beautiful as always.  No matter what the season, this little hike never disappoints.  We couldn't figure out why the water was so high after such a dry year, but when we got to the top we found that they are doing a lot of work on this old earthen dam from some damage that occurred a few years ago during a high water time and they are in the process of draining the lake right now. On the way back down we decided to try the little wild grapes that were still on the dried up vines.  They were so good!  We ate quite a few handfuls of them each.  There are a lot of seeds per each grape, but it was worth it.    It was interesting to see the work being done.  I always take too many pictures on this hike because it's just so pretty!  It was pretty cool and windy, but we loved it!

Eliza Rae Lillywhite - Baptism day - in spite of Covid-19

 We've enjoyed 3 baptisms of grand children this year, and all of them have been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.  At Tahlia's we had to limit numbers and change the regularly scheduled date that it would have happened.  Trigg waited a few months until we could have a bigger group of people attend if we had it outside - he was baptized in a good friend's swimming pool.  And now Eliza had her baptism, Saturday, November 7th.  We had pretty small numbers allowed and other people watched it on Zoom (the other 2 had that option also), and we couldn't gather outside afterwards for treats as had originally been planned. (It would have been too cold anyway.)  One cool thing was knowing that just a couple of blocks away amid the wind and cold, the new Red Cliffs Temple dedication ceremony was underway.  It was a very few people could attend event also.  Hopefully it will be broadcast sometime.  Who knows, maybe Eliza will get married there some time in the future!  It was a lovely baptism and she seemed very happy.  Her dad baptized and confirmed her.  It's one of those "shout for joy" events that we are so happy to have happen.  And it's even better when it happens when life has been so crazy all year with this dumb disease disrupting so many things that are important in our lives.  So happy for Eliza!  

Here's some birthday fun!  

Another grand "edventure" date happens

 We are getting down to the end of the grand "edventure" dates for the year.  We started strong and went on lots of dates early in the year...and then Covid-19 shut us down for several months.  We took Brenden and Koen to a new miniature golf course in town and it was a fun date with them. Bean joined us for the fun.  Paul scobbed us all by getting 2's on almost all of the 18 holes!  Brenden was the only one to get a hole in one.  Koen scored a 2 on one hole.  These boys are growing up (11 and 12 now) and dates are changing the way they do when kids get older and busier.  We didn't think we'd ever find these guys free from soccer games at the same time.  Glad we finally did!  We ended the date at Arctic Circle  for ice cream and fried cheese curds.  

The Fall glow @ Pine Valley

Fall has been a little disappointing up on Cedar Mountain this year.  Usually it's my favorite place, but it has been so dry that the trees just didn't seem to have it in them to put on much color this year.  I love Fall; it's my favorite season, so to lose it makes me sad.  But we found some pretty up in Pine Valley on a short hike, thank goodness.  I always love this place too, and though maybe not as bright as usual, it was still in color that brought joy to the heart.  Just a little time there is so good for the soul!  And we had an extra that made it even better.  Paul spotted an apple tree there in the middle of these forest trees...and it had little yellow apples.  He was able to harvest a couple and they were delicious!  So funny to find and apple tree there!  We've hiked up here many times, but never noticed it before this year.  

Finishing up Yellowstone - Fall Break 2020

 We had one day at Yellowstone earlier this year when we vacationed in the summer up that way.  We needed a few more days to finish all of it that was open.  We decided to do it for Fall Break.  It turned out to be a really nice trip.  We left Wednesday afternoon and spent the night with Jay and Brynn and then took off the next morning.  We got there in time to have most of the afternoon Thursday to get started.  We came in at the West entrance and went south to visit the Lower, Midway and Upper Geyser basins on that part of the Grand Loop.  Our last stop for the day was Old Faithful and we were lucky enough to arrive at a time when we were able to see it erupt at 6:28 pm! (Earlier we arrived just in time to see another geyser erupt and also saw buffalo scattered around there.) It wasn't too crowded either.  Actually because of the time of year and because all of the Lodges and Visitor's Centers are closed for Covid, the whole trip was a little less crowded than it might have otherwise been.  Another thing that was great was that we did lots of walking to see all of the places so we weren't just driving and never getting any exercise.  It was cold!  We had light coats and no long john pants that first afternoon and we got pretty cold.  The next two days we were just right even though it was about 38 degrees, sometimes less, and snowed and rained a little.  We stayed in West Yellowstone for the first two nights.  Pretty crowded there in the evening, so the first night we just cooked chicken pot pies in the microwave in our room for dinner.  The hotels weren't serving regular breakfasts the whole trip.  They just had brown bag breakfasts that you picked up to eat in your own room.  We brought other food and ate lunches in the car as we drove around.  It was too cold to sit outside and eat!  

On Friday we drove the upper western part of the Grand Loop and visited all of the cool stuff along the way between Madison and Mammoth Hot Springs.  So many awesome things to see there!  Mammoth Hot Springs was probably the coolest thing that day.  It's so different from the other things you get to see.  We also took a long loop hike that day and saw all different kinds of hydro thermal phenomenon at the Norris Geyser Basin.  It's a really huge area of activity.  We drove clear to the North Entrance also so we could see the Roosevelt Arch at Gardiner.  I had always wanted to see it and it didn't disappoint!  Amazing stonework! That night we got lucky and found a really nice Chinese restaurant that didn't have an hour wait/wasn't crowded.  Really good food!  

Saturday morning we went to the Grizzly & Wolf  Rescue Center in West Yellowstone.  It was a really interesting place to learn about and actually see these animals up close.  They also had river otters and birds.  We were glad we took the time to take it in.  After that we drove up the west side to cross over at Norris Road and saw all we could of the Lower/Upper Falls at the Grand Canyon area of the park.  We got to hike a little to see it from different viewpoints.  We couldn't drive the road from Canyon Village to Tower-Roosevelt because that section was still closed as it had been earlier in the year when we came.  They just have to close full sections to do roadwork sometimes. That will have to be visited at another time.  After going as far as we could there, we drove down the lower east side (Lake and West Thumb section) and out of the south entrance through the Tetons to Jackson and then on the Pocatello to spend the night.  We got lucky again and were able to eat dinner at the Sizzler there.  It was really good.  

Sunday morning it was time to head home.  We took some I-15 and some backroads to get  home.  We listened to a couple of good books on the long drive parts.  It was a GREAT trip!