Ellie's Mission Farewell!

 It was a wonderful day!  The family that could came and joined the Randall's at sacrament meeting for this special time.  Between Bryan's family and ours, we added about 4 rows of extra people at the meeting.  Ellie gave a great talk and also played in a violin/piano trio that was beautifully done.  She got set apart this morning and will start home MTC for a little while and then go up to Provo to finish up.  She has worked hard to come to this decision to serve and has worked hard to earn money to pay her way.  She's a sweetheart and we are proud of her and excited to see her go and have this experience of serving the Lord and his children.  Our prayers go with you Ellie!  Love you!  

Here's Sister Randall getting dropped off at the MTC in Provo, Utah!  And she's off...!

August birthdays - Clara #9!!!

Clara's #9 got mixed in pretty good with Ellie's missionary farewell today.  They came down for it and were supposed to stay with us.  Then our plumping started in with a big leak in the downstairs bathroom ceiling and we ended up having to tear out ceiling there, in the closet and under the kitchen sink.  It ended up being a 2 day project, so they went to stay with Juge and Lance instead.  But, we got to sing happy birthday to her after Ellie's farewell at the park open house/lunch.  So Happy Birthday sweet Clara!  We love you and hope you have a magical coming year with lots of adventures!  

We celebrated with Bean for his #37.  He came down from Cedar and spent the night here.  We took the long way home drive from Cedar through Enterprise.  Then we went to lunch at Panda Garden.  Very yummy!  Last night we had hot chocolate chip cookies and ice cream for his "birthday cake".  It was delicious too.  Bean is doing well with the help of the team he works with and his meds seem to be tolerable.  We are grateful and he is in good hands and doing well.  Happy #37 Bean!  We love you!!!

Tavin and Torin celebrated birthdays on the 25th #24, and the 26th #11.  We just had to text Tavin, but got to go over and enjoy birthday pie and visiting with Ferf and Torin.  He's growing into a fine young man and we are proud of him.  He's been through and still goes through lots a junk from the divorce situation, but seems to be moving forward in positive ways in his life. Some of the siblings, Ferf and us went together on a new bike for Torin.  Happy Birthday Torin!  We love you!  Love you Tavin...he's also going forward in positive ways and has started a new job working in the digital design area for the Utah Jazz.  He spend the summer in NYC doing an internship.  He's exceptionally gifted in his area of work.  Good Luck in the big world Tavin...and happy birthday!  Sorry, no pics of Tavin!  

Pine Valley after the fire...

 This morning Paul and I both woke up too early and knew we weren't going to get back to sleep.  We decided to go up and hike through the campground area at Pine Valley to see what's left after the fire.  We had gone up for a picnic dinner the other night, but didn't have time then.  We hiked about 8 miles total.  You can't drive your car in so we had to hike from the pay booth basically.  We started by hiking up the road to see how the picnic site we use for our Memorial Day picnic each year faired.  Not too good...pretty much all of the trees around there got badly burned.  There is some spottiness to the burned areas, but the end of the campground nearest town seems to have taken the brunt of it.  Lots of the rest of the it is pretty much fine.  No structures in the campground area are ruined, but a few of the signs got burned up.  We hiked up to see the waterfall that we love and finally found it.  It's fine, of course, but the stream has changed course in a lot of places.  They had some rain up there recently and with no plants to hold any of the water back it just gushes down every gully and floods the river channels and changes them when the debris of fallen trees get all smashed up and dam it.  Pretty crazy what has already happened with just that much rain.  Hopefully the ground cover starts coming back and helps with some of the erosion problems.  The water carried lots of the ash and there is a layer of it on top of everything that the water brought down with it.  There was one place that one of the little bridges got washed out up at the top of the road by the last campsite. The stream got really crazy coming down there. There are still a lot of unburned trees and some that look like they will be able to make it even partially burned possibly.  People were up there clearing the area around the power lines and they were taking out some of the trees there. The lake is a mess with all of the debris that have washed down the stream and gathered there.  It's pretty sad.  But, overall, there was more left that I thought there would be.  We did drive through a neighborhood near the campground and a street that was furthest back by the mountain had several houses that had burned clear down there.  Pretty sad for those people.  It looks like the fire jumped the road between the pay booth and the lake and went up and over Gardner Peak and may over to Whipple Valley before they got it stopped.  We drove up the dirt road toward the Mill Flat Trailhead and we actually saw a place up on the mountain still smoking a little.  Hope we get some more rain soon, but also worried about the erosion issues it will cause if it does.  We weren't really supposed to be there, but I'm glad we went and we know what it's like now.  

 

Pippin for fun!

 Juge, Lance and kids were going to the lake and asked us to tend Pippin for them.  Of course we said yes.  He's grown quite a lot since last time we tended him, but he's still a kitten and full of lots of fun.  He did decided he only slept in our bed and not his at night, but it wasn't a problem.  He learned to sit in the sink and drink from the tap like Genghis used to.  It took him a while to figure it out with lots of splashing around.  He was wild and crazy and really wanted to go outside.  I just took him out a little on a leash.  Didn't want to lose the him.  He got a little sassy sometimes, but over all we just enjoyed having him around for a little bit.  He's still a funny, crazy kitten after all!

Malaki Moss Lillywhite gets baptized!

Isn't that one cute kid?  Yes he is, and we are so proud of him and excited that he got baptized today!  It was a wonderful, joyful event.  Unfortunately many of our family members could not be there, but he had great support from other friends and family.  Lou Anne and kids, Afton and Joel were there, and Jennifer, Paul and I.  The baptism was so nice with great talks and a song by Eliza!  Happy following Jesus and being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints!  Always remember that you are a child of God, Kai, and He and Jesus...and the rest of us, love you!  

The chapel Kai got baptized in is a newer one and it had this beautiful painting hanging in the hall outside where he was confirmed (by his dad).  I loved it and took a picture, but it's hard to get it square, so I downloaded this one.  Here's the info about it. 

Romans 8:16 – The Spirit itself beareth witness with out spirit, that we are the children of God. 

Among the greatest treasure of knowledge that we have been given is this: we are all the children of God.  This truth carries with it great blessings.  It should guide us in how we treat those around us and in how we view ourselves.  Eash of God’s children are of great worth with immeasurable potential.

In this painting we see children from many different cultures and backgrounds.  They stand with Christ, bearing witness with him that they are children of God.  All of the kids look directly at the viewer confident in the joy they feel in the presence of their Savior. 

When we strive to see others as God would see us, our hearts are softened, our minds are opened and the Spirit comes to dwell with us, bringing peace and joy.  

A Grand vacation! Wind Cave, Badlands and Theodore Roosevelt National Parks plus lots more!

This ended up being such a great trip!  We saw so many awesome things.  We thought these parks might not be too grand, but they were wonderful, and so were the many other great things we saw too!  It was well worth the nearly 3,000 miles we drove to see them. (Oh, yes...we started the vacation the night before by going to see The Importance of Being Earnest up in Cedar City.  It was hilarious!)  

Wednesday, July 23rd, we started on our journey to make it to New Castle, Colorado, to spend the night.  Along the way we stopped by Colorado National Monument to do their amazing 23-mile Historic Rim Rock Drive.  It was spectacular!  We just wished we would have had more time to do some of the hikes along the way.  We may need to make a return trip when the weather is a bit cooler and we have more time.  It was so worth making time for it in our agenda for that day.  

That evening we stayed in New Castle, CO, at the Wingate Hotel.  It was good and very close to Glenwood which is where we found Culver's to eat dinner and then enjoyed walking/driving around to see the historic sights and the amazing hot springs pool they have there.  It was a good day.  We drove about 550 miles.  The next morning we took a river walk in Glenwood where we saw the confluence of the Roaring Fork and Colorado Rivers.  It was beautiful and got us the exercise we needed to get our day started.  

Thursday, July 24th - This day we drove to Custer, South Dakota where we stayed for 4 nights.  We used it as a hub for the many places we wanted to go in that area.  That night we had dinner at the Purple Pie Place.  It was really cute, but the food was not quite as cute as we had hoped, but good enough.  Afterwards we went on a beautiful forest drive in Custer State Park.  This park has so many awesome drives and beautiful scenery and more.  This night we got a week-long pass for $25 and went to Sylvan Lake and took the hike around it.  Such a gorgeous mountain lake with cool rocks and beautiful forest around it.  Just wish we could have kayaked or swam in it!  Custer State Park became our go to place in the evenings after we got back from adventures and sometimes we did some daytime adventures there too when we had some spare time.  It was so worth the pass price for what we got out of it.  

Friday, July 25th, - This day we went to Mount Rushmore and then in the afternoon we went to Wind Cave NP.  We did a beautiful drive through Custer State Park and the forest to get to Mount Rushmore.  The forests are FULL of ponderosa trees and green grasses and flowers covering the ground.  They were so beautiful! Along the way we stopped at the Peter Norbeck Outdoor Education Center.  It has amazing stonework.  It wasn't open at the time, but we enjoyed walking around it.  Also along the way we saw what you call pigtail bridges that were invented to fit the twisty road through the  mountains along the way to Mount Rushmore.  At Mount Rushmore we did the Presidential Trail up to the base of the bottom of the hill with the carvings.  It was a good hike.  We also did the Visitor's Center film/tour and listened to a Ranger Talk about the carving of the faces and learned some new facts.  It was a great visit. 

Then we went on to Wind Cave NP.  We had time to eat a picnic lunch and see the Visitor's Center info while we waited for our reservation time.  This cave is unique because of the honecomb shaped boxwork formations that it has in it.  We did the Fairgrounds tour that's about 2/3 of a mile with 450 stairs.  It was great.  This is a really big cave, but it felt very different from most caves we have visited because of the lack of stalagmites and stalactites.  It was formed in a different way and the boxwork are the main formations you see in it. We took a little hike after the cave tour to see the natural entrance to the cave.  

After we go back to Custer that evening, we had some time after dinner to go for the Needles Highway drive in Custer State Park.  This is such a beautiful forest/stone drive!!!  We loved every minute of it!

The last tunnel you go through is so narrow you don't know if you are going to fit...it feels like going through the eye of a needle.  And then you come out and see the actual Needle formation and...WOW!  So cool!!!  

Saturday, July 26th, - Jewel Cave National Monument, Crazy Horse Memorial, The Gordon Stockade, the Custer State Park Visitor Center, the Wildlife Station Visitor Center, the Wildlife Loop and the Bison Center.  Along the way we saw bison in the road and also wild donkeys that weren't very wild.  They loved to be fed carrots.  We loved Jewel Cave. It was so much prettier and Wind Cave, but smaller.  There's a lot that is still being explored though.  We took a little hike around when we got their because it wasn't open yet.  We were the first tour of the day.  After the tour we went on a little drive to an old cabin and stairway that the CCC built for the natural opening of the cave.  We didn't do the natural opening tour because it was shorter and by lantern light only.  We did SO many stairs in this cave.  It was a work out, but so worth it.  Our guide was also fantastic.  We had a picnic after we saw the cabin and natural opening.  Then we continued on to Crazy Horse.  

Crazy Horse Memorial is really great.  It really helps you see the native American's story and how so much was pretty much stolen from them as they kept remaking reservation boundaries and then people kept ignoring them.  

The host at the Wildlife Station Visitor Center told us what great mushroom, swiss cheese, bison burgers they had at the Blue Bell Lodge, so on our way back home after the drive, we stopped in and had them and more great food there.  They even had live country music while we were there.  It was really nice! 

Sunday, July 27, it was time to go to church in Rapid City.  We attended the Mount Rushmore Ward and enjoyed a great meeting there.  I especially enjoyed watching the way the deacons helped a handicapped boy do his part of passing the sacrament.  The whole ward was so great and seemed to just love that boy.  He was cute and very friendly.  His sister gave her mission farewell talk as part of the meeting and told about how she had spent the summer taking care of him and told how much he had taught her that would help her on her mission.  It was sweet.  After that we headed over to Badlands NP.  It was super crowded.  Lots of motorcyclists were there on their way to the Sturgis rally that is coming up in August.  It was a cool park, but not my favorite of the 3 we came to see.  It just seemed so monotone in color. We did enjoy it and made stops and did a little hike.  It has a rich fossil history and I can see that's why it needed to be preserved.  We did the scenic drive and the Visitor's Center things.  Then we headed back to Custer for our last night there.  We had saved our motel breakfast in the fridge and had it for dinner that night.  It was very good!  That evening after our dinner we for a drive in the Custer State Park and saw the "Badger Hole" cabin.  It's the cabin of a famous South Dakota state Poet Lauriat, Charles Badger Clark.  It was a really cute cabin he built and lived in.  There was a hike in the forest around it that had lots of info about him and his poetry.  I really enjoyed his poetry that was shared on some of the signs on the interpretive trail about him.  The after that, we did a beautiful little hike around Legion Lake at sunset.   

 Monday, July 28 - We have now come 1638 miles as we leave Custer to head up to Theodore Roosevelt NP.  We left via the Sylvan Lake Road to enjoy that beautiful bit of Custer State Park one more time.  Then it was a long drive to the Painted Canyons Visitor Center at the south section of this park.  We had some misty, rainy weather along the way and lots of open prairie driving.  It is so VAST and green and flat!  We looked around at the very small visitor center and then did a terrible muddy nature hike there.  At the end we found a water spigot, thank goodness, so we could get our shoes and the rest of us cleaned of from the very slick, sticky mud on us!  I did some slip sliding and really got muddy!  As we went on we did  the scenic drive another a few more hikes that we really liked and saw more herds of bison!  It turned out to be a beautiful park and I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked it!  That night we headed to Watford for the night and came into North Dakota along the way there.  

Tuesday, July 29 - Leaving Watford and coming back down to the North Unit of Theodore Roosevelt NP.  We loved this section of the park as well.  We enjoyed the scenic drive and a Caprock Coulee hike and a nature trail too. We especially liked the Cannonball mystery rocks!   After that, we made the drive to Devil's Tower in Wyoming.  Wow, was it worth the drive! It's so cool and unique.  We did the hike around the base of it and did the Visitor's Center.  We totally enjoyed it even though it was a bit out of the way.  Then we drove on to Casper/Evansville to stay the night. We had some great hamburgers for dinner here.

Wednesday, July 30 - We just sort of  looked around for what was interesting in the area for this day.  We stopped by Independence Rock and did the hike around it.  It's cool.  We went up on top on one side.  We read all the information about it.  Then down the road a while we came to Devil's Gate and stopped at the viewpoint above it and did the interpretive walk there.  Then we drove down to the Church Visitor Center for Martin Cove/Devil's Gate and toured that site with a missionary and then watched the movie they had.  We even saw a rattlesnake there! Afterwards we did the 2 mile hike to see Devil's Gate up close.  It was all very nice.    I was glad to finally see this place.  Then it was time to start the drive home.  We drove and drove and did the terrible traffic in SLC to Jay and Brynn's for a great dinner and fun evening with them.  It was good to see them and we enjoyed visiting. We had a good sleep and then got on the road for home the next morning.  (The one picture I took of them didn't turn out unfortunately.)  

Thursday, July 31 - Time to head home.  We stopped in at Beaver for gas and ice cream to celebrate the end of our trip at the Creamery.  We got home at a very decent time and ate dinner at home for the first time in a while!  It was good to be back to our own bed, but our motels for the trip were actually very comfortable and convenient.  At one place we had a room that was really for a wheel chair, but it was still good, just not much counter space and a hand shower.