Thankful for Family

At times of sorrow, comes an incredible gratefulness for family. I decided that I would put some pictures on of family this last week in our times we tried to get over our grief. Just a little bit of playing around during a week of sadness.

Sorrow and Blessings

This is the first time I have had a chance to just breathe in 3 days. Sunday night there was an accident near Hanksville, Utah. My brother in law, my sister and her 3 kids plus friends were in a horrible accident. We have lost my brother in law, my 7 year old niece which was our princess and my 15 year old nephew. I can't figure out words that describe our lost. I just have sat and cried for days and the tears seem to keep flowing and the engery keeps going. There have been times that my family has not slept for 2 days. During all this sorrow, there have been many blessings and seeds planted of the gospel. I have just sat and cried with many of my sisters because we have been so overwhelmed with the gratitude we feel for people and strangers we don't even know. I talked to a lady that donated a hand built casket for my beloved niece. It was just an amazing thing that this stranger is doing for us. We have had so many strangers tell us they are coming to the funeral to support the family because of the sorrow they have felt. There was a man that stopped right after the accident, at the time my sister was trying to lift the car which was on my niece. That kind stranger did cpr on my dear Alissa for 45 minutes until the highway patrol pulled him off and he went to my precious Tyler and then to my great Brother in Law. He has called my family because he has felt the same loss as we. He will be at the funeral and we are grateful that he will be there to help us through this trying time. We have people looking for my Alissa's scotty dog which was alive with the other dogs. We are still amazed and grateful the the grace of our heavenly father to allow my dear sister and amazing 10 year old nephew Marky (ping) to come out with only a few bumps. My nephew Ping is just a little man. He has been telling us about the accident and what he saw. Sometimes in more detail than we can even handle and he has just stayed strong. He will occasionally say random comments as he allows himself to really feel things. Tonight he said that he wishes God would just take people when they were too old to do anything. Such insight and such a great little boy who is so strong and sometimes will come and cheer us up when we are having our moments. I happen to be having one of those moments and he just said its ok, and gave me a hug... then of course he knows that playing WII takes my mind of things.. and tells me he is going to kick my butt in tennis. Its amazing how much strength he gives kids who have seen more than any adult should see. My sister is another story, she was praying last week and asked for a sign to see if there really was a god. She however, has been willing to listen to all of us about the plan of salvation and what we are hear on earth for. The hardest thing for me to see is her sitting there with stitches and bruises holding my Alissa and Tylers favorite stuff animals. She refused to wash her right hand because it has Alissa's blood on it and believes that is the only thing she has of her daughter. So many heart wrenching times, yet I am trying to keep that peace I felt on Sunday when we found out. I am just still working through my emotions, trying to keep them under control and yet in many times we all just fall apart. People coming to the house that we don't even know, and seeing the tears of Tyler's best friends that are just torn apart. Their old teachers and people who were always there for them. Their ward has been awesome. We have recieved so much food at my sisters house. Although I am really tired on cold cuts and rolls.. we have had that for 3 days.. today someone brought great pasta salad and soup it was a nice change. However, we are so blessed to have people care so much about my sister and her family that they would care to bring so much in. Well I have to go to bed, the viewing is tomorrow. Its going to be a hard day and Friday is the funeral. I just keep the thought of eternity and that heavenly father has a plan for us and he is there with us carrying us through the hard times. I will write more and post pictures as I can.

Flaming Gorge Trip Day One

We decided to go to Flaming Gorge with my sister Lori and her family. We were so excited to be up in the mountains and to have a fun relaxing trip. We rented a boat so that we would have 2 boats up there for those who wanted to put put around or those who just wanted to fish. This turned out to be one of those trying vacations that never seem to end. We were told that we could not bring Shadow. Dale was not happy about that however I figured he would come up with a reason he had to take Shadow and he was right. He called the hotel we were staying and told him that he was a veteran and suffered from Post Tramatic Syndrom. The hotel manager stated that we could take shadow. I knew from the first day this trip was going to turn out to one of those adventures in life that you never want to re-live. We were loaded and ready to go to Lori and Paul's house to get them. We were driving down Bangeter and realized the guy in front of us tire was blowing out. So of course the great citizen my husband is when we got to the stop light he ran about 4 cars down to tell the guy his tire had blown out (this is because he kept driving and didn't seem to notice it was blown out). The guy just stared at him, Dale just ran back to the truck and said he thinks the guy is on something and/or the car is stolen. Well the guy kept driving down the road around 55 miles per hour on a tire that was not there. People were honking and yelling at him however he just went on down the road. Strange thing to have happen and should have told us something about the rest of the trip. Well we were on our way. Thinking that Flaming Gorge was only 2 hours away, we were not ready fro 4 hours and steep switchbacks. Shadow was right there with his dad though, helping him through the stress.

While we were driving through Wyoming I realized that I didn't put a lot of the snacks for us in the front of the cab (thinking that it was only 2 hours drive). Well we could not stop because we didn't know our way and Paul a regular speed driver was hard to keep track of. So as we were starvng to death, I was looking at the clouds and was imaging them looking like mashed potatoes and how yummy it would be at that point. Dale was not happy and I was trying to keep him from dying of hunger. When we got to the top of the mountain we had to pay 5 dollars a day. Another thing I didn't know about. Well not having correct change I had to leave a 20.00 about 10 dollars too much... I was so frustrated. Then we go to leave and our tire rim on the boat flew off, I ended up jogging 1/2 a mile to grab it. Luckily a stranger had picked it up and was walking toward me. I through it in the back of the truck and we were on our way.

So after 4 hours we arrived at our destination with a lot of me calming Dale down because of the drive. We were excited because it was so beatiful. We pulled in after Lori and Paul and were anxious to see what kind of place we were staying in. After Paul and Dale went to check it out they came back and said there was no place for us to cook in there. Well, that would not have been bad normally, however we brought all our food to be cooked and we would just starve... so Paul went to talk to reservations and came back saying that we were staying in a trailer. Well, my first thought was a little trailer with no bathroom... it was a little better than that. It was a single wide, with a big porch and no air condition. Oh my bad, it had a little window air condition that kept the kitchen barable around 89 degrees. Being that it happened to be around 98 degrees in there. We were still too excited to even care. There were enough bathrooms to share and bedrooms for everyone.. we were happy.

The best thing about the trailer is the mule deer would come almost right up to us and just sit and look at us. These are the pictures of the trailer and the deer.

A horse is a horse of course...

So I was at my sisters new house and they happen to have their horses actually located right behind their house. I took a few different pictures and wanted to share them. I really have always wanted a horse, however just have never had one. I love to take advantage of riding as much as I can. Here are Doc and a a strange horse.