June

June 2-

Last year I rode in HONOR of Harmoni, this year I rode in MEMORY of her!

My friends Kelly and RaeLynn rode up with me. The 3 of us went on several training rides together, so we decided to ride the whole 100 miles together. Which I always enjoy having some girls with me.

My dear sweet Sister-in-Law, Emily did this ride for the first time this year. She loved it. We both started with different girls, but ran into each other at a couple of the rest stops and snapped a photo together.

My brother designed these transfer tattoos that I could just print out at home onto tattoo paper.

I remember last year when I was all done with Little Red I called Harmoni and as we both sobbed on the phone, she said to me "I'm so proud of you. Thank you for riding for me. Next year I am riding with you!" Little did we know that she physically wouldn't be here to ride with me. But I ca honestly tell you that she was with me in spirit that day.  Especially the last 25 miles when my body was feeling the miles.

My emotions were very raw. I ended up being alone the last 20 miles and I couldn't fight the tears. I'm sure as I was passing girls they were wondering why I was crying? Anyway, I prayed for a moment on that ride where I could feel Harm...and I'm grateful that I did. I could feel her saying: "I am proud of you! Thank you for riding for me!"

The ride is in Logan, so we had a bit of a drive after the ride. Thankfully RaeLynn's hubby was our driver so we wouldn't have to worry about it. When we got home I found Jesse busy working on the house. Back-filling the hole with the skid-steer.  I know this was such a relief for him because it would mean that our neighbors retaining wall would finally be secure again.

He reminded of WALL-E as he was cruisin' around the yard.

June 7th
Back-fill all done.

...And a random photo of Fynn trying to cut grapes in half with scissors. He is amazingly so independent.

 June 8
 The steel beam for the upper addition was delivered.  It was 800 lbs for $1000....no big deal.

June 9th
You know summer is officially here when the boys can play in Grandma and Grandpa's creek.

June 13
This robe was Ryker's when he was about this age of Fynn. Fynn randonly got it out and wanted to wear it. Brought back memories of Ryker wearing it. I swear that was only yesterday. I love-hate them all growing up.

June 16
On June 4 President Nelson gave a Youth World-Wide fireside. Being in the YWs I attended it. In this fireside he issued the youth into the YOUTH BATTALION to help gather Israel.  I swear when I was that age I don't think I even know what "gathering Israel" even meant. These youth are strong.
To help them start this he issued a few challenges to them.
1.  Hold a 7 day fast from social media.
2.  For 3 weeks in a row, make a weekly sacrifice of time to the Lord
3. Keep on the covenant path
4. Pray daily that all God's children might receive the blessings of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
5. Stand out and be different form the world.

As soon as he mentioned the first challenge several of the girls around me INSTANTLY disabled their Social Media accounts. With their instant ability to follow the prophet, I thought to myself "Well if they can do it, I can too." So I disabled mine.

Over the course of the next few days I found myself when I would pick up my phone I would subconsciously scroll over to where the icons would have been. But they weren't there. I was noticing I was held captive to something that I hadn't realized it was holding me captive. I no longer was wasting time mindlessly scrolling through Instagram.

My 7-days turned into 14 days. I was enjoying the time to reflect and set goals to improve myself.  I was feeling free. I contemplated what my true purpose was of  posting on Social Media. I knew when I went back on I felt differently about it. I wasn't sure at the time exactly what my plans were, but I felt differently from the Social Media Fast and I wanted to keep it.

For the #2 challenge I decided that I would sacrifice my time to the Lord by going to the Temple.  It had been awhile. I made it a part to go early in the morning instead of going to the gym early in the morning.

I recorded my thought and feelings of this on my phone and I wanna record it on here.

 (Jun 9) "I pondered about the second challenge and felt inspired to attend the temple early in the morning. As I went this morning I thought to myself that I want to make a habit of going once a week. Plus today I just needed it.

As I walked towards the temple my heart was already feeling the burst of urgency to be there. I walked in. Got dressed and went back to do Initiatory.  It felt peaceful there. But I was also coming for comfort and to find some value in myself.

I did the work for 4 sisters and then went up to the Celestial Room. I was the only one in the room (minus the one temple worker). I walked to the back where I could cry without being noticed. I prayed and cried and pondered and cried some more. I sat there for at least 30 mins. Longing for an answer,  a feeling or a confirmation of some sort. It never really came.

I decided it was time to leave. I changed my clothes in my locker room and made it to the parking lot. When I was almost to my truck a thought whispered to me "Come back every week and I'll help you feel valued."

Tears, Gratitude and Love I felt. I was reminded of the story book "You are Special" where the wooden whemick people gave each other stars and dots for the good or no talents and deeds. But Lucia had none. They wouldn't stick to her. Punchinello wanted that too. How did she do it? She told him to go see Eli the wood carver everyday. So he went not feeling sure about it. Eli knew Punchinello. Told him he loved him and to come everyday to feel that love. To feel valued.

Just like Eli to Punchinello, I felt the Lord telling me the same thing. Go every week to visit him and he'll help me feel Special.

I loved that the Lord used a story that I was familiar with to speak to me."

 June 18-Fathers Day

God has truly blessed me with a man who is  genuine good FATHER to my 3 sons. 

June 19

Jesse hired a mini crew to pour the floor of the garage. 

June 21- Headed to Island Park with the Goodrich Clan

When we got to the cabin Ryker

...and Cy picked me and my mom a bouquet of flowers.

I thought it was such a sweet gesture.

June 22- Yellowstone Day!!!

My whole family hasn't vacationed together in a really long time. The cousins were so happy to be together. We were constantly giggling about Arie and Fynn's bond.

Old Faithful was packed. I couldn't believe all the people that were there. 

And the only way to get a good photo was to naturally get on top of Jesse's shoulders. Fynn wanted to join in on that as well. I had to giggle when my sister was taking a picture for me that an Asian woman passed and was so excited and took a photo for herself on her phone. We were all laughing.

We walked around the boardwalk after watching Old Faithful go off.

We took a picture by this pool because it was in the shape of a heart. 

Look at this group of cousins.

Big Sister/Baby Sister Photo

My mom herniated a disc in her back in July 2017 and we thought that when we planned this vacation back in Jan that she would be all better. But she wasn't. She's able to walk around just fine. But sitting and laying down is really difficult for her. My dad rented a motor home so that she could stand up during all the driving. It was the perfect way to get around for her.

All these boys! When I was growing up in a house full of girls we only had 2 boys around. And now the girls are totally out numbered.

We got a kick out of our lunch break set up. Pulled our truck right up next to the motor home and everyone ate in the bed of the truck as mom handed us all the food from the fridge out of the motor home.

The girls and their chariot ride.

We didn't see a whole lot of wild life, but we did see mostly bison.

The Yellowstone Upper and Lower Falls were quite amazing.

These 2 were also inseparable. Double Trouble became their nicknames.

Honestly vacationing with this sister was the best. She drove all the way from Oregon. Brutal drive but so glad she was willing to make it.

June 23- Henry Fork Hike

Boys and their sticks.

Girls and their selfies.

Fynn and his flower.

Love this scenery.

This hike was an out and back 2 mile hike with no elevation. Really just a nature walk. But by the time we hit the mile turn around point, the little girlies were done. I think it took us well over an hour to hike a mile. So alot of people didn't really want to venture back the last mile.

Jesse offered to run back and just pick is up with the truck. Well that took forever because he couldn't find us. It wasn't as simple as it deemed to be to find us at the end of the trail. We only walked along the river and we were right by a road when we ended, so we thought it could just drive down the road. Nope not that easy. But he eventually he figured it out and we were all so excited to see the truck pulling in. I"m pretty sure we all commented that waiting to get a ride back took longer than actually just walking back.

But we all got to ride in the bed of the truck, so that made it all worth it.

Muddy bums and all.

June 24- Day at Wade Lake
We honestly were so excited to play at the lake and it ended up to be FREEZING! We were all bundled up. Those who actually got in the water were brave souls.

Despite the cold temperatures it was still so pretty to look at.

Grandma Teresa gave all her grand-kids sunglasses. Getting a photo of all of them looking at the camera is one hilarious feat. Many commented that it was similar to herding cats.

It was windy, so we tried to fly a kite..... TRIED to fly a kite.

 June 25- Headed home the long way

Everyone was eager to get on the road early on this day. Mostly Manda who had a long drive ahead of her and my parents were eager to get the motor home returned by a certain time.  My little family wasn't ready to go home. Plus our pass to Yellowstone was good for a whole week and we had only used it for one day.

Jesse thought it would be cool to go home through the the South Entrance of Yellowstone and see as much as we could along the way.

These flower fields were just outside of our cabin. I could't believe how pretty they were.

Another bouquet for the road.

First Stop was Firehole Falls

Second Stop: Lower Geyser Basin

This was actually was cooler than I expected. The colors of the pool was incredible. Then to have the contrast of the pine trees in the background was breathtaking.

I think this was called Dual Falls, or something like that.

Moose Falls

This was the very last stop that was right before the exit. We went onto to the West Thumb of Yellowstone Lake to stop and eat our lunch. I thought I had a picture there, but I must have been busy putting lunches together for the boys.

Our next stop was driving by the TETONS!  Never before have I been to these Mountains. As we got closer and closer to them I couldn't believe how beautiful they were.

They look so dreamy from the distance.

Then to have Jackson Lake contrasting the scenery. I was in awe. I told Jesse that one day we had to make a trip back to these Grand Tetons and really spend a good long weekend there, hiking, camping etc.

We were going to stop through Jackson, WY but it was so busy we had to just get a picture as we drove by. At the last minute we realized we would be driving through Lava Hot Springs and we thought it would be fun to float the river a couple of times with the boys. So to save time we just drove through Jackson instead of making it an official stop.

The drive from Jackson to Lava shocked me  how pretty it was. There was the greenest fields and rolling mountains and windy roads. They boys played corners on each turn we took. We jammed to music and made it such a fun time. I remember feeling SO HAPPY!

Eventually the tiredness set in and they slept for a bit. I got a kick out of Cy and his seat belt contraption to sleep.

We made it to Lava right before they were closing. The guy running the rentals for the tubes was way nice and let us still rent even though he was about to close up. We said we would only go down the river one time. We explained our adventure we were on and we really wanted to say that we floated the river. He was so kind to let us go, plus he gave us a discount.

The boys giggled the whole way down the river. It was awesome! When we walked our tube back to the start the guy let us go again. And then again. We were thrilled.

After that we went across the street to the public hot pools to soak. We ran into some friends while we were there too. Kind of funny. We talked with them and the boys played with their kiddos. Such a blast.

We stayed until dark and then decided to hit the rest of the drive home.

The boys changed into their jammies and they munched on the rest of the snacks in my bag for dinner. As we were about to get on the freeway the boys said to us "Thank you Mom and Dad! This was the best day ever. It was better than the whole entire trip!" I love when they are grateful like that.

So in total...
445 miles were traveled
14 hours spent
8 sights seen
4 National Parks
4 Pitstops
2 Trips down the river
2 bags of sunflower seeds
1 AMAZING DAY!!!