Youth Conference

Gavin is currently serving in the Young Men's Presidency as the first counselor (Shan Miller is president). He helped organize a ward youth conference trip to the Bar Ten and then down the Colorado River doing some rafting. We got home last Monday night (they were leaving to Youth Conference Tuesday morning), and there was an extra seat on the raft. I asked Gavin if I could tag along, and of course he said yes! I called my mom up and asked her what she was doing the next three days. She didn't have much going on, so she said she would love to watch the girls while Gavin and I went on the trip. She's such a great mom and grandma!! She is always so excited to have the grandkids over. We sure are lucky to have her!! Anyway, I was so excited to go on the river! I love to do things outdoors, and I've been begging Gavin to take me down the river for past couple years since I haven't been pregnant or have a new baby. He told me he would try to take me on an upper trip later this summer, but I knew better!! I knew if he went down this lower river trip for Youth Conference, that he wouldn't want to do an upper trip the same summer. He told me that he still would take me even if he did this lower trip...but after the trip, he said, "You read my mind! I don't think I can do the upper trip after this trip." Ya, I know my hubby too well!! I'm glad I went for that round! We had such a great time!! I love to be down in the canyon and look up at the canyon walls surrounding me. It is the most beautiful scenery - very peaceful! I'll quickly write a few things we did on the trip, and then post some pictures. We spent the first day at the Bar Ten riding horses, listening to the ranch demo (I learned a lot about me there-Gavin can usually tell his jokes there without me hearing such as when he is putting shoes on a horse and files down the hooves of the horse, it reminds him of his wives thick rough toenails. Haha. Very funny Gavin!), skeet shooting, hiking, dinner, games, and the evening program. The next morning, we helicoptered down to the river. Everyone loved the helicopter ride!! We started down the river, and not too much longer the wind really picked up. We were all freezing cold as the wind constantly blew freezing cold water onto our bodies. Being wet in the wind and never having a chance to warm up was kind of miserable for everyone. No one wanted to ride up front, so I put on my rain jacket and sat up front and took it for the team! :) We stopped at Pumpkin Springs for lunch, and then Gavin and some of the youth put on their life jackets and jumped off the "pumpkin." We loaded back on the rafts for a fun, hot afternoon in the rapids. It really warmed up and made all the difference for the kids. They didn't have any problems riding on the front of the raft that afternoon when it was warm. Also the afternoon, we stopped at Travertine Falls and hiked up to a beautiful waterfall. The rocks were steep and slick, so there were ropes and a latter to use to climb to the waterfall. The water in the waterfall was so warm! It was a really fun day! I think everyone had a great time! That evening, we pulled into the beach, set up camp, had dinner, and played some games (Gavin kept everyone entertained with his fun personality... the girls all came home with a crush on him!). I had a really hard time going to sleep. We had cots to sleep on with a sleeping bag and sheet, but no pillow. I have a hard time without a pillow, especially when I have to sleep on my back! The tops of my legs got so sunburned that day that I couldn't lay on my stomach because it rubbed my legs-ouch! After 800 mg of ibuprofen, I finally fell asleep and slept great! The boatmen woke us up at 4:47 am to get packed up and have breakfast. We had a big day ahead of us! We floated all the way to the dock at Lake Mead - no rapids that day. It was very relaxing...and hot! When we got to our drop off point, we were about thirty minutes early for our ride (Derrick and Amy Haslem drove vans to pick us up). Gavin tried to call them to see where they were at. They were still about two hours away!! They had a few problems that morning (flat tire, got pulled over by a policeman, and got stuck in traffic for an hour and a half at Hoover Dam). The kids were hot and tired but very patient. When they got there, we ate lunch that they brought us and loaded up in the vans. It was about a five hour drive home. Gavin kept the kids entertained in the van by whistling at all the girls taking pictures on Hoover Dam (we got stuck there for an hour in traffic) and by passing pligs in the same kind of van as us and dancing for them! The youth thought it was pretty funny. The youth even got the plig wives to dance in their van for us! Anyway, we had a great time! It was fun for Gavin and I to spend some time together, just the two of us! I love him very much!! We have so much fun together!!

Hailee was hot!

Yesterday afternoon, Hailee got back from a back ride and was dying of heat! Summer definitely hit this past week!! I was in Ellie's room when she asked me how to turn the AC cooler. I told her to push the down arrow. After a few minutes, she came back in Ellie's room to inform me that the numbers wouldn't move. I told her I would look at it in a minute. A few minutes later I went to see what the problem was as I felt the AC blowing full blast. I took a look at the thermostat. No wonder the numbers wouldn't move anymore...she had turned it down to 35 degrees!! I told her we were going to turn into ice cubes! We had a good laugh! :)

Hannah packs her own bags for the ranch

As soon as Hannah knows we are going to the ranch, she packs her bags! She is always so excited to go!! We will be leaving to the ranch at 6 am tomorrow, and before Hannah went to sleep, she let me know her bag was packed. After she fell asleep, I opened her bag to see what she might have packed this time. I pulled out a baby doll blanket, all sorts of little toys from the playroom, a story book, and last of all...her Book of Mormon. My heart just melted! What a sweetie! Among all her toys, blankets, and books was the most important thing of all! I thought it was very cute. She must know I always forget mine! Good thing she'll have hers!!

Redirecting my focus

The past six months of our family's life has been crazy!! In December, we moved out of our first home in Jedora Estates after living there for 5 1/2 years. Our house wasn't even for sale, but our brother-in-law Rick just had a buyer he thought it would be perfect for. We loved the home and have so many sweet memories there, but it was right in the entrance of the subdivision. Cars were constantly turning off a busy road right into the entrance at high speeds. It was hard to let the kids ever go out front and play. The weird thing was, we sold our lot just a couple months earlier, so not only did we have to find a rental to live in for awhile, we had to quickly find a lot to build on. After much contemplation and prayer, we finally decided on one. We drew up some house plans as fast as we could and began building. Our new house is just about done!! We have moved, found a lot, drew up plans, almost completed a new house, and are getting ready to move again (into our new house) all in about six months! Like I said, it's been a little crazy around here! On top of all that, I have helped in Hannah's preschool this year (with Aunt Heidi) which was so much fun but took more time than I felt I had to spare while building a new house. Anyway, back to my title of my entry, "Redirecting my focus." I'm so ready to focus on being a better mom and a better wife. Those things have kind of been pushed aside lately, and it's time to change that! I bought my mom the most wonderful book for Mother's Day because I knew she loved the author (Linda Eyre who wrote it with her daughter Shawni Pothier). I snuck into the book for a couple days before I gave it away on Mother's Day. I loved it, and it reminded me of the mother I want to be. I am really trying to relax a little and not be so busy. I am trying to enjoy each moment and notice all the sweet, cute, tender things the girls do each day...and there are a lot of these moments. As soon as I decided to slow down and take more time to notice these things, motherhood suddenly became more enjoyable (not that I didn't enjoy it before)! There was just more of a sweetness about being a mother. For example, the day after realizing I needed to slow down and enjoy this journey, we decided to have a picnic in our front yard. I spread out a blanket, made sandwiches, cut up an apple, grabbed some carrot sticks, and some juice boxes, and we had such a fun picnic. I noticed how cute the girls were to one another (I usually only notice the fighting moments)! Hailee and Hannah are so sweet and helpful to Ellie. I listened to their sweet laughter with one another. After they ate, they began piling themselves on top of each other and just giggling. It was such a sweet, tender moment. I was sad that I haven't taken the time to enjoy these moments more. As everyone always warns me, they grow up too fast! It is my new goal and my new focus to enjoy mothering more, spend more quality time with them (I spend a whole lot of time with them but it's usually working on things like dinner, cleaning, or the new house), and be more tender with them. I've noticed about myself that when I am busy or overwhelmed with things, I am much more critical of the kids. I point out all the things they are doing wrong but don't ever noticed what they are doing right or good! What kind of mother am I?? That's why I am refocusing!!

Trying to get it together!!

When our computer crashed last fall, I stopped writing in our family journal. Once everything was recovered on our computer, I still didn't write in our journal! I think it's so important to keep a journal! I want our children to remember all the things they do individually and we do as a family during their "growing up" years. I also want a place I, Andrea, can write my feelings and things that I learn each day. Hopefully this will help and hopefully it will be something we can treasure as family!!