Father's Day Flee: Day Three

(Saturday) This morning I went running again in the morning while Rick and Curtis fixed a big breakfast of pancakes and sausages and eggs. Then Jase and Ellen taught an awesome lesson with lots of neat insights. Then they sent everyone out for some "ponder time" for thirty minutes. I was valuable for me and I wrote a lot of thoughts in my journal.

The kids played lots of games throughout the whole time we were here (ping pong, Foosball, pool, basketball, Scum, murder in the dark...).

This afternoon we all went to Mountain Meadows Massacre and Rick taught us about what happened there. It is such a heavy topic -- so tragic -- and it was SO hot outside! We did the small hike and looked at the monuments.

A couple of weeks ago we found Janika's little camera from her mission and Jenna asked if she could have it. I said that she could and so ever since she has been having a great time taking lots of pictures! Here is a collage with a few of the pictures I found on her camera...

Notice the little humming bird. There was a hummingbird feeder right outside one of the windows and there were so many hummingbirds buzzing around it! There were also two birds that flew right into one of the lodge windows and fell to their death. Sad!

We came back and Jared and Raquel taught their lessons. They were both excellent! I have been SO impressed by the teaching of our returned missionaries on this trip! Rick put the kids in charge of fixing dinner tonight (hamburgers and hotdogs) so that we could get ready for family pictures. I really wanted to get family pictures since this was the first time our whole family has been together since before Jared's mission! I will add those pictures into the next post. Raquel also did a photo shoot of Jenna and Janelle and they turned out really pretty!

Tonight was another rousing game of murder in the dark and then Jared and Rick told scary stories with the lights off. I kept falling asleep during Rick's story. He is an amazing storyteller, but I was SO tired!!

Family Pictures

We had Raquel take pictures of our family using our camera...

Father's Day Flee: Day Two "Creating a Conduit of Revelation"

This morning I went running near the lodge. It was nice to get out of the St. George heat!  Curtis then taught the morning lesson and did a great job! He had Raquel and Morgan sing a song and then had us all read and discuss the scriptures from Ephesians 6: 11-17 (about putting on the whole armor of God to withstand the wiles of the devil...and the shield of faith to quench the fiery darts of the wicked and the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.).  

After the discussion he pulled our these big cardboard/Styrofoam type boards and told everyone to write down something we were already doing to keep the lines of revelation open in order and something we could do better in order to receive more revelation and protection from God. We put down items such as: studying the scriptures, saying our prayers, going to the temple, ministering to others, and so forth. Then we taped the papers on to the “shields.”  These actions are part of our “shield” against the fiery darts of the wicked.  

We then all drove to the Holmstead Ranch Resort for a paint ball activity. He had the Dads (Curtis and Rick) run through the paintball course while the kids (whoever wanted to) shot paint balls at them! I was a little worried about this since I had heard that getting hit with paint balls really hurt! At least they were wearing long pants and the guy in charge lent Rick a jacket with thick material. They also wore helmets. They ran through the course and got hit a few times!

Then they ran through the course again – this time hiding behind the “shields” while they ran. They really helped to protect them as long as they stayed behind them! Then the kids played for a while and some of them also ran the course (with the shields) while the others shot at them. Then we discussed what we had learned from the activity. Some of the comments included the fact that if we were following the commandments and doing God’s will then we would be protected. That is not to say that nothing bad would ever happen to us, but we could avoid many pitfalls (like addictions) and we would be able to withstand other things we may face with God’s help. When the kids shot at the Dads with their shields the paint balls actually bounced off the shields and didn’t explode. We talked about how we can be “ion the world” but not of the world. Many of the evils around us actually just “bounce right off” because we are not focused on them and often don’t even know they are happening. There were lots of great comments and we had a great discussion!

After this activity some of the group went back to the cabin and some stayed at the Holmstead Ranch Resort to try out the paddle boats. This is a really cute place and we talked about how this would be a nice place to come and stay sometime with our family! They had a little lake with cute little cabins surrounding it. They had a nice fire pit and playground and outside games. They also have the paint ball and a petting zoo. We never made it to the petting zoo. 

 
After we came home and relaxed for a bit then much of the group went to the reservoir that we had passed on the way to Holmstead ranch. Janika and Brandon brought a couple of fishing poles and so they and Josh tried their hand at fishing -- but didn't catch anything. the others swam in the reservoir and then went back to the little lake again since it was more clean! 

While they were at the lake Rick and I started fixing dinner -- Salmon and home-made tartar sauce, rice, watermelon, strawberry spinach salad, fruit salad, green salad, broccoli and cauliflower salad, and potato salad! (I know -- us and our salads, right?! I am telling you, we ate well on this trip!) We had ice-cream for dessert!

Then it was some very loud and crazy rounds of murder in the dark! (It was the kind where you wander around the house in the dark until someone swipes your neck and tells you where to sit until someone asks if you are dead and then you go to the "spirit world" and wait until the round is over and then everyone tries to figure out who the murderer is while different people defend themselves and accuse other people. Then some of us (the adults mostly) went to bed while the kids stayed up and played Scum!

Father's Day Flee Day One "Creating a Conduit of Revelation"

Today we left for Father's Day Flee! Rick and I both had interpreting appointments this morning (which we are grateful for since interpreting appointments are practically non existent right now due to Covid-19 and social distancing). We came home and packed up. Rick bought TONS of food!! Luckily we had Jase and Ellen's van so that we could fill it full of food and supplies! We had three separate cars - Jase and Ellen in her van, Rick with Janelle and Jared, and me with Jaiden, Josh, and Jenna. We all arrived in Pine Valley to check out the spacious beautiful cabin where we would be staying. We absolutely loved it! 

We all took a tour of the cabin and picked out our rooms. Rick and I were in a master bedroom with a huge jetted tub and a shower that could have fit the whole family, ha ha! The kitchen has a huge fridge (which we later learned cost $9000.00!) There were two fridges (one downstairs), two dishwashers, two ovens, a long fancy custom table, a giant snack bar/island. There was a huge game room downstairs with a ping pong and Foosball table, poker table, and shelves of games. There were  lots of bedrooms and several that we didn't even end up using.

We put all of the food away and got the girls busy making some salads and then the kids all started playing games and Rick and I took a little nap. We finished making dinner right about the time the Healeys arrived! We had lasagna for dinner. I had made a gluten free lasagna last night to bring and we brought two Costco lasagnas for everyone else and it was just the right amount of food with a little leftover. We made garlic bread from rolls and Jenna and I used gluten free bread for our garlic bread. We had a strawberry spinach salad, regular green salad, and baked squash. It was all delicious!

 For our opening ceremonies Rick taught everyone the FDF dance -- it is basically the same dance every year but he always throws in something new and different just to mix things up! I always laugh when I watch the videos of the infamous FDF dance! Rick the divided everyone up into three groups and gave them different tubes and pipes to make a home-made "conduit." The theme this year was "Creating a Conduit of Revelation."

There were PVC pipes, metal circular pipes like you would see coming out of a water heater, and big cardboard pipes. He also gave everyone strips of towels and sheets and one roll of duct tape. The instructions was to take all of the pieces and made a conduit for water. He then gave the hose to each group at a time to see how much water made it from the beginning of their conduit to the end and into the bucket. He measure the water level to see who won. We tied with the first group. The third group got a clog at the first and so they got very little, if any, water! We then discussed the many lessons we learned comparing the conduits we built to our own personal conduits of revelation. It was a fun, creative activity!

Then Rick taught the rest of his lesson and the kids all went and played games downstairs while Rick and I visited with Curtis and Steph. Janika and Brandon couldn't leave Logan until after work and so they didn't arrive until 11:30 tonight. When they arrived they went to see Jared (I forgot that this is the first time they have seen him since his mission!) Rick and I visited with Curtis and Steph until about 12:30 am and then we hit the hay! 

Josh's Braces Off

Isn't is sad when you finally get your braces off after two years and no one can see your beautiful smile since you have to wear a mask due to a world-wide pandemic? You look great, Josh!! 

Cousins

The girls and I slept over at Shane and Alicia's house last night and they treated us to a yummy breakfast of pancakes and sausages. Alicia set up a big slip-n-slide in their back yard and the kids had a ball playing on it. We left around 3:30 to head back for St. George. The first thing the girls said when we got into the car was "Well, that was fun!!" It was nice to have have a change of scenery and spend some time with our extended family -- even if it was only for a short time! We stopped at Wendy's on the way home for dinner (which was a mistake because it was quite expensive!) Jaiden drove for an hour or so in order to get some of her driving hours in!

Callahan and Kate's Wedding

This morning I headed up north in order to attend Callahan and Kate's wedding. Callahan is my nephew (Jen and Gray's son). I brought Jaiden and Jenna with me so that they could have some time to spend with their cousins tonight and tomorrow. We arrived at Shane and Alicia's and then had a delicious dinner of Mexican Chicken. Shane and Alicia had also invited invited mom and dad to dinner and it was great to see them -- we haven't seen them since we came up for Jase and Ellen's wedding. The wedding was very nice. Kate and Callahan had written their own unique vows, which were very true to life -- many of them humorous. Kate is a beautiful girl and she and Callahan make a great couple. Rick was going to come up to the wedding with me, but he ended up having to go to his annual S&I area in-service. Jaiden and Jenna were excited to come and spend time with their cousins. They had a great time!