Fabulously Fun Family Weekend In Rexburg Idaho

Last weekend, our family went on the most amazing trip.  We went to Family Education Week at BYU Idaho.  We had the BEST time while we were there.  It was Thursday, August 1st - Saturday, August 3rd.  Steve and I were able to choose from Gospel centered classes to go to throughout the day and the kids were all separated into age groups and they had classes and devotionals and played fun games while the adults were in classes.  We seriously had the best time and we were all sad to leave when it was over.  Over the 3 days there were several Family Devotionals we went to together.  We all came away spiritually charged.  It was like EFY for the whole family!

The kids weren't so sure they were going to enjoy their time there, especially when I showed them their schedules.  But all four of the kids had a blast and made many new friends.  Zac even found a friend who was in his group at EFY last year.  And Addy, who usually won't leave my side,  didn't want to go each time I picked her up from her class.  I had to drag her out.

We loved being on the beautiful BYUI campus.  We made sure to take a campus tour in hopes of softening our U of  U loving children's hearts.  They have the most beautiful gardens there.  We were able to walk through them several times a day on our way to classes.  And we luncheoned in the gardens each day as well.  Below, Zac was standing behind this wall because he didn't want to be in the picture.  I told him to come out and get in the picture.  He would only come out half way.  He kept saying "I'm IN the picture!"

We had dinner one night at Big Jud's and had 2 of their monstrously good hamburgers.

Our enrollment in Education Week ($75 for our WHOLE family!) gave us access to all the campus facilities.  Most for free, the rest for a discounted price.  The first night we were there we went swimming.  The second night my family members refused to go to the dance no matter how hard I tried to persuade them.  So we went bowling instead.  It cost us a whopping $5 total.

More garden pictures.  The smell in the gardens was intoxicating.

We ate dinner one night at Millhollow.  My sister Kristy worked there when she was a college student.  A few days before we ate there, she posted a picture on facebook of her family in Texas eating Blue Bell Ice Cream and asked me if I was jealous.  So I couldn't resist posting this picture asking her if she was jealous.

Another activity we were able to do was the Ropes course on campus.  Again at a discounted price.  The cost of this activity for our whole family was $15!  We had a blast!  The kids loved climbing this huge structure and did it over and over again.

Emily

She made it to the top!

Zac                                                     Emily and Zac

Zac made it to the top!

Aubrey made it to the top!

Addy made it to the top...of the stairs.  But I thought that was pretty good since she didn't want to even try to climb in the first place.

At the bottom the guy who was helping us said she could swing since she didn't want to climb any higher.

I ALMOST made it to the top but this dumb rope ladder completely twisted around so I was on the wrong side and was leaning back away from the structure.  I kept trying to right it or pull myself up to the top but by that time I was totally out of upper body strength. 

Steve also almost made it to the top and probably could have but he was a little nervous because he had to keep instructing his belayer (who has self diagnosed ADD) and trying to instruct your belayer, who's hands your life is in, from 50 feet up in the air is a little stressful.  Oh yeah, Zac was on belay.

Zac and Em both decided to try going up the ladder swing, which is one of the hardest parts to go up.

Em made it to the top!

Here are some of the other ropes course challenges we did.

After our adventures on the Ropes Course, it was time to head for home.  We were all a little bit sad to say goodbye to our fabulously fun family weekend.  We loved every minute of it.  We didn't get home until almost 1AM on Sunday.  We got up and went to church that morning and I couldn't bring myself to take my wrist band off.  I was still in denial that it was over.  Everyone at church probably thought I was a total nerd.  I finally found the strength to remove it later that night. 

My favorite quote from the weekend comes from Steve: "An entire town full of people who don't wear shorts.  That's just weird."

Webcam Wednesday: Ummm, Yeah, That Really Happened

We went camping last weekend.  We spent one whole day riding ATVs.  While we were stopped for lunch we noticed a doe watching us.  She didn't seem to be scared as we got closer to her to try to take a picture.  Then, the next thing we knew, she was approaching our picnic table.  The closer she got, the more we were able to see that she looked very unhealthy.  I felt so bad I thought, "She needs some food!"  So I offered her some of our lunch.  She came right up and sniffed things in my hand.  But she would not eat them.  In hindsight, her familiarity with people, especially at this picnic area where they are apt to feed her people food (speaking from firsthand knowledge), could very likely be the cause of why she is sick.  It was still a neat experience.  I do feel bad for her (I've prayed for her several times since this happened-call me crazy) and hope she will recover.  Here is a video of my encounter:

Please Read This Post And Find Out Why My Summer Has Been Incomplete

So, this is how it is.  We have been livin' it up big time this summer.  BIG TIME!  We have had a blast.  We have been running from one awesome fun thing to the next.  All.  Summer.  Long.  We have grown closer together as a family.  We have made some pretty epic memories.  I'm feelin' pretty good in regards to the fact that I have given my children an "Awesomely Epic Summer of Fun to Remember and Cherish Their Whole Lives Through".

But it feels incomplete.

I read this the other day:

"You are here on earth for a divine purpose.  It is not to be endlessly entertained or to be constantly in full pursuit of pleasure.  You are here to be tried, to prove yourself so that you can receive the additional blessings God has for you."  -Richard G. Scott   (click here to read it in it's entirety)

And it made me think.  About our Epic Summer of fun.

Then I stopped by a friends house last night and ended up having a little chat with her.  She was telling me how much unfun it is to have her younger children in school right now, while her older ones are still enjoying their summer vacation.  You see, our Elementary School just switched to year round and the first track started last week.  My two youngest should have started school last week.  But they didn't.  At the end of the school year last spring, I was ready to either pull my kids out of school and home school them or pray that they got into this really awesome Charter School we were trying to get into.  Well, Heavenly Father must have known I couldn't handle home school very well, because all 3 of my girls got in!  (it doesn't include High School so poor Zac has to go to regular old school)  Anyhoo, it made me feel so grateful that I still have my kids home for 3 more weeks.  Because, like I said, our summer was incomplete.

Ever since I read that quote from Elder Scott, I have been trying to formulate a plan to add a little depth to our "Awesomely Epic Summer of Fun to Remember and Cherish Our Whole Lives Through".  Then today I found myself in the middle of an amusement/water park that we have season tickets to this year.  And a little part of me wanted to take my children and run right out of there, never to return.  Now!  I had to formulate something NOW!

So, I did.

My children do not know this yet, because half of them have not been here today.  But by tomorrow, they will be all informed.  I am challenging my family to read the Book of Mormon in 30 days, starting August 1st!  I'm a little nervous, I have to say.   But I'm more excited than nervous.  This is not an impossible task.  Have you looked at a Book of Mormon lately?  It's not that long.  531 pages, in which half of the page is footnotes.  I've read books with more pages than that in less than 30 days.

Just listen to this:

"There is a power in the Book of Mormon which will begin to flow into your lives the moment you begin a serious study of the book.  You will find greater power to resist temptation.  You will find the power to avoid deception.  You will find the power to stay on the straight and narrow path."  -Ezra Taft Benson 

"Without reservation I promise you that if each of you will observe this simple program, regardless of how many times you previously may have read the Book of Mormon, there will come into your lives and into your homes an added measure of the Spirit of the Lord, a strengthened resolution to walk in obedience to His commandments, and a stronger testimony of the living reality of the Son of God."  -Gordon B. Hinckley

Ummm...I can't think of a better way to end our summer and prepare my kids to go back to school than this.

I have read the Book of Mormon many times.  I know, without any doubt, that it is a true book.  And I know that the promises made above are also true.  I have felt it's power working in my life many times as I have read it.  I have felt it bless my family as we have read it together.  If you are reading this and you don't know what the Book of Mormon is, give it a try!  Read it and then draw your own conclusions.  The end of the book has this promise:

"And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.  And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things."  Moroni 10:4-5.

At the end of this post I'm including a 30 day reading schedule I found online.  Just in case any of you would like to join me.  If you have a smart phone and have the free LDS Gospel Library app downloaded, it will actually read the book to you.  Wherever you are.  How handy is that?  It will also do that if you read it online by clicking here.  If you don't own a copy of the book you can request a free copy by clicking here.  Or, you can just ask me and I will send you one, no strings attached.  To find out more about just exactly what the Book of Mormon is, click here.

"I opened it with eagerness, and read its title page.  I then read the testimony of several witnesses in relation to the manner of its being found and translated.  After this I commenced its contents by course.  I read all day; eating was a burden, I had no desire for food; sleep was a burden when the night came, for I preferred reading to sleep.  As I read, the spirit of the Lord was upon me, and I knew and comprehended that the book was true." -Parley P. Pratt

Happy Birthday Bart!

Happy Birthday to my Brother-in-Law, Bart!  Bart has been a part of our family since he started dating my sister Farrah when she was 16.  Back when I got married and moved to Utah, with in a few weeks Bart left for his mission to Brazil and Farrah moved to Utah to go to BYU.  It was like my mom lost 3 of her children all at the same time.  Some of my favorite memories are when Bart and Farrah were newly weds and lived in Provo and we got to see them on a regular basis.  Those were the good old days, when I would fill their answering machine up with hours of messages.  Happy Birthday Bart!

           Can't see the video?  Click here.  It may help, it may not.

Happy Birthday Teresa

Happy Birthday to my Sister-in-Law, Teresa!  Making this video reminded me of all the fun we have had together in the few short years you have been a part of our family.  We miss you and I am glad you were able to come visit us this summer  (move back here!).  Hope you have had an AMAZING Birthday!

Can't see the video?  Click here.  It may or may not help.

Bored?  Click here to watch ALL my Birthday Videos.

The Pioneer Legacy of Redie Shirley Robertson, AKA: Great Granny

Yesterday was a state holiday in Utah.  It was Pioneer Day.  On this day we remember the pioneers who made the long hard journey to their new home in the wilderness.  They arrived in the Salt Lake Valley on July 24, 1847.  I had ancestors who were in that company with Brigham Young, and while I though of them and their great sacrifices yesterday, there was a different kind of pioneer I had on my mind.

My Great Grandmother, Redie Susie Robertson, truly was a pioneer.  She, along with my grandmother Irene Byrd Snow, were the first people in their family to join the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  On May 1, 1938, Irene and Redie were baptized by Charles Shirley in Kelsey Texas.  Later, Redie would marry Charles Shirley.

Her decision on that day influenced thousands of lives, including me and my children.  For that I am forever grateful.  I can hear her now, in her East Texas accent, saying her famous phrase "I'm so glad you're my family!"  

Here is a 4 generation picture taken sometime in the early 1980's.  Top row: My Granny Snow- Irene Byrd Snow and my dad, Earl Snow.  On the couch: Me, Great Granny- Redie Robertson, my sisters- Farrah and Kristy.  (Side note: I have been looking through a lot of old pictures lately.  Growing up, I had no idea how AWESOME my Granny Snow's house was.  Every picture I see of her house now I think "Oh my!  I want that!"  How many times as a youth did I sit on that couch and not realize just how awesome it was?  I want that couch!)

5 Generation Photo taken in 2000

Irene, Emily, Redie, Earl, Zac, Allyson

Great Granny has been on my mind so much lately. I am reading her biography right now, which was compiled by my Great Uncle Harold and his wife Diane.  I have felt her presence in my life so much lately.  Her love for her ancestors and her love for the Gospel of Jesus Christ and also for the Temple of the Lord have been ignited in me like they never have before, and I know that she is the one making this happen.  This is a woman who loved the Temple so much, she would spend the entire day there, doing 6 or 7 Endowment Sessions in a day.  In one part of her history that I am reading, it says that in the first 6 months of 1982 she did 231 Endowments, 72 Sealings, 30 Initiatories and 15 Baptisms.  And it says was only able to do that much because she went on a trip for two weeks and when she came home, the Temple was closed for two weeks and also that her husband was sick so she had to take over the yard work and other things.  It also says that in August of that year, in trying to make up for lost time, she did 43 Endowments.  A little later in the book it states that by the end of the year she had completed 492 Endowments!  What an amazing example!

Here is a picture of us, taken outside the gates of the Dallas Temple, which was under construction.  I am standing next to her holding her hand.

Here we are outside the Dallas Temple, after my family was sealed for "Time and all Eternity".   I feel such a special bond with her right now, that when I looked up these pictures for this post and found two pictures of her standing beside me outside of the Temple, I got so excited.

The following is from the cover page of her Biography and was written by her son, Harold Grant Shirley in 2009.  I believe it sums up her life so completely:

How do you bring to life the one who brought you life?  How can those who never knew Sister Redie discover the real Redie by reading alone, even when you throw in a few photographs?  Hopefully, these pages will give a glimmer of a glimpse of this gentle giant whose selfless service blessed the lives of those who benefited from her healing touch as a nurse and mother as well as her many students in Primary and Mutual and Relief Society and Sunday School.  She laboriously sought out literally thousands of names in genealogical research the old-fashioned way by writing letters to and interviewing shirt-tail relatives, visiting cemeteries, and poring over census records without aid of computer.  Then she personally saw to it that all the saving ordinances were performed in their behalf: the baptism, the confirmation, the initiatory, the endowment, and then were organized into forever families through the sealing.  She loved her families in both directions: those ancestors who brought her to her unique time and place in history: her descendants who profit from having a faithful forbear who forged forward from her conversion in 1938 until her death in 2001.  Not that she never took a backward step; her journals attest that she took many, but she tried to be moving onward and upward before she went to bed each night.

What a great woman, example and legacy.  I want some day to grow up to be just like her.

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