Happy Birthday to Me

We met up with my family at Yellowstone Lake in western Wisconsin over Labor Day weekend, and celebrated my 28th birthday. Favorite parts: s'mores and campfire stories by Grandma Jo and Chris, running trails in the morning with my dad, Nate falling in love with fishing, watching Andy and Jackson play together, dad's breakfast crepes, just spending time with the family. My, I love you guys. Thanks for thinking of me.

Oregon trip Day 6

Today is the big day!

The reason we all we crazy enough to road trip cross country.

Brynn-bear's baptism.

In our faith, Latter Day Saints follow Christ's example by being baptized by immersion in water and then receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. We also believe children are unable to commit sin (are born pure) and are redeemed through Christ's mercy should they die before they are baptized- which, in our religion, is the age of 8.

“Listen to the words of Christ, your Redeemer, your Lord and your God. Behold, I came into the world not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance; the whole need no physician, but they that are sick; wherefore, little children are whole, for they are not capable of committing sin” (Moro. 8:8).

We believe that by the age of 8, children can understand the difference between right and wrong, become accountable for their choices, and therefore have need for repentance. Or in other words, we are baptized in the name if Jesus Christ for the remission of our sins.

(picture pulled from the web so you get an idea)

Those who are baptized enter into a covenant with God to take upon themselves the name of Jesus Christ, keep His commandments, and serve Him to the end. We remember and recommit to this covenant every Sunday when we take the sacrament during our church service.

I didn't take any pictures of the event, or at the family get together afterward.

I was feeling really overwhelmed.

I was so proud of Brynn for making the choice to be baptized, so there's those emotions.

I had been traveling for a week with little kids and no husband and missing him, so there's those emotions.

It was so touching to have my entire family there to show our love and support to this little girl on her special day.

But really it was an overwhelming feeling of gratitude for Preston (Brynn's step dad, married Rochelle last year) and his family who stepped in to this little girl's life and loved her completely. If a father is a worthy, active member of the church and has been ordained with the priesthood (the power and authority of God), he is able to baptize his child. So on this Saturday, it was Preston baptizing Brynn. A mix of emotions that it wasn't Mike up there baptizing his daughter, but again, so much gratitude that Preston was. That Rochelle and Preston have continue strong in their faith, and helped my sweet niece's faith to grow.

Divorce is hard.

Even for aunts.

I gave Preston and Rochelle teary hugs afterward and tried to express my gratitude to Preston and his parents individually, but I have never been good at expressing the truest feelings of my heart.

I am grateful that Brynn (and Caden) have a dad in their life every day.

Of course, I am sad that isn't Mike with them every day.

Of course.

But I am so glad that Preston loves these kids and has happily taken on this responsibility.

I make it sound so formal, and, again, am botching an effort to express how I really feel- just know that I love my family. And that has grown to include Preston and his family now.

After a fun cupcake family get together with those closest to Preston and Rochelle at a local park (again, no pictures! ah! My brain was on another planet.) We drove over to the coast to spend the next 3 days together.

We arrived.

Claimed bedrooms.

Changed clothes.

And hit the beach.

The water was cold.

Colder than Lake Michigan.

(that's sayin' something)

But a few still braved the cold

There was a lot of this...

and this...

and this...

this...

Family- a basic social unit consisting of parents and their children,

considered as a group, whether dwelling together or not: the traditional family.

Family.... so much more than that

Oregon Trip Day 3

Morning of Day 3

Day two we had hoped to camp in Yellowstone, but when I was making reservations, all soft sided RVs or popout spots were spoken for. The bear are extremely active this year and many camp sites were sticking to a "hard sided only" RV vehicles. So, I I found a place out of "bear country" who allowed tent sided pop outs that had a playground and booked it.

The kids and I played soccer on the grass and played on the playground while the guys hooked up the camper and Mom got dinner started. Mmmmm a cheese burger never tasted so good!

In the morning we got up early and finished the drive to Yellowstone.

This is the day Andy still talks about. He says, " Member that time we stopped and ate in the camper and got out and there were big animals (buffalo) but we can't touch them. And we drove and got out and saw some big animals (carribou) . Yeah. That was fun."

Right before driving through the Yellowstone gates a black bear ran in front of Ben's van just in front of us. I could hear him (in my in mind) saying, "You guys see that?!" Much of the forest on the east side of the park has been destroyed by the forest fire. I remember hearing about it, but it is overwhelming to see in person. Heartbreaking.

Our first stop was Yellowstone Lake.

My mom just kept saying,"this lake is HUGE!"

But, as we live on Lake Michigan, my kids didn't even bat an eye, they just got down to business.

Throwing rocks.

Collecting sticks.

Getting wet.

Let me take a minute to say how wonderful it is to pull a camper while traveling with little kids. Though the beds pop out, the camper itself, is "ready to go" at all times.

Fooooooor example, we are on a stretch of highway and a 2 year old has to go potty.

Pull over and go in the camper.

Or we are starving, but still have another few hours to go before we get to our campsite for the night. Pull over and eat in the camper.

bathroom.

fridge.

freezer.

microwave.

oven.

stove.

sink.

table.

benches.

All at immediate access.

It was heavenly.

My only concern now is that on our next road trip, Andy will expect to be able to "pull over! I need to poop in the camper!"

We stopped for lunch just on the other side of Fishing Bridge (where, despite the name, you can't actually fish from) because there was a buffalo sitting on the hill. Erica snapped a couple of pictures of him (that I will steal). We guessed there were more up on the hill and found a good place to climb up. We were right. But did not venture closer as more people die from buffalo attacks than bear attacks each year.

My dad is coming up the hill behind Ben- you can just spot his head. I know his thinking: He was thinking he better go over and stand by Ben (who was closer than we were) in case the buffalo charges and he can jump in the way to block Jackson/distract the buffalo, etc. That's just how my dad thinks and that was the reason I had my "danger" thoughts up in the woods with the turkey. He is incredibly protective of his kids and grandkids. I can't write all of the examples, but he is always gently making suggestions for the safety of the kids. He is very aware of them. I think it's sweet and thoughtful instead of crazy and overprotective:) I know you're reading this! I love you, dad!

From buffaloes we viewed the fountain paint pots, geysers, mud pots, Old Faithful and other geothermic wonders. Again, I deferred to Erica for photos. Here she is snapping one of this geyser in Yellowstone Lake.

We did not make reservations for Night 3, as we didn't know what time we would leave Yellowstone/ how far we would drive that night. Dad bought an atlas at a gas station about an hour west of the park and eye-spied Lewis and Clark Caverns and Campground.

Picking this place off of a map, we had no idea what to expect. It was my favorite campground all trip. It had a great playground, shower houses, fire pits, picnic tables, GRASS!

Erica and I took the kids to the playground while Dad, Ben and Nate set up shop and Mom got dinner started. This had become our routine and it worked so smoothly.

This was the first night I felt like we just "hung out".

Night 1 we returned late from Mt. Rushmore and went straight to bed.

Night 2 we got to bed early so we could get up early for Yellowstone.

Night 3, we didn't need to worry about the morning, we were staying there to go to the caverns. We could just relax. We made s'mores. played on the playground until dark. And sat around talking by the fire.

this was why I wanted to come on this trip.

Perfection.

.