Katie and Clark,
Just a quick note to tell you about Martin's Cove. In chronological order, of course. We left Saturday afternoon after Ty got home from Scout camp. We stopped at Little America for a bathroom stop and got ice cream cones. We thought of you because we were with you there about 2 months ago now. The drive to Martins Cove seemed much shorter than our drive of 11 hours to the Black Hills. No major meltdowns from Lauren. Yeah! We got to Missionary Village- that's the campground where we camped before and where the missionaries have their trailers-about 7:00. Grandma and Grandpa had arranged for us to stay in a mobile home there at missionary village. It had 2 bedrooms, living room, kitchen, bathroom. It was nice to stay there and not be dusty and dirty. Plus it was nice to have the extra space so we all could visit and eat together. We ate dinner that night and just stayed there to visit. McKay slept on a pull out bed in Grandma and Grandpa's trailer. Aubrey and Lauren slept in a double bed in one room, Dad and I had the other room and Becca, Levi, Blake and Ty slept in the living room.
On Sunday we went to church with G&G. It was fun to see how they live there. Church was in a log building with cement floors and folding chairs. Becca told Lauren that we were in church, and Lauren said, "this isn't church!" Grandma and I went to Primary with the girls for a while. The boys went to Sunday School with the youth. Missionaries are called to teach Primary and youth Sunday School classes. The young women go with the women to R.S. and the Priesthood all met together for their lesson. The girls were hesitant to go to Primary, but there were only 6 kids there total. They kept everyone together and showed a cool movie called A Pioneer Miracle. They had Singing Time. Then after Grandma and I left to go to R.S. the Primary made covered wagons out of Rice Krispie treats, marshmallow, round crackers, etc. The girls each got a Prarie Diamond ring, which is a ring made out of a hammered flat nail. They got a fabric bag to put rocks they collect in and a necklace made out of left over handcart wood with the Martin's Cove handcart insignia on it. Needless to say, the girls were very excited and impressed with Primary!
After church we went to the missionary potluck dinner. They do it every Sunday after church with all the missionaries and their guests. After that we went to the visitors center and watched the movie there. We changed our clothes and decided a walk to Devils Gate would be a good Sunday activity. So we walked right over to it down by the water. The girls were with us and G&G, but the 5 older kids went climbing on some rocks. After a while, G&G headed back with the girls and Dad and I went to find the kids, watching for rattlesnakes all the way, because there are a lot of rattlesnakes there. G&G have seen about 10 of them so far. When Julie and Mike and their family were there trekking to the Cove with their handcart, Landon saw one. They got to see the missionaries kill it with a shovel. Anyway Dad and I finally saw the kids, right as they were stripping down to jump in the Sweetwater River. They were pretty far ahead, right in the middle of Devils Gate. Tyler even stripped down to his boxers. Becca was trying to be the mother and keep everyone under control, but finally gave up and jumped in with them.
When we all got back to where G&G and the girls were, come to find out, no one is supposed to swim in that part of the Sweetwater River, even when it's not the Sabbath. There was a sign, but the kids either didn't see it or ignored it. All the kids were dripping wet, except Tyler. Grandma jokingly said that it looked like Tyler was the only one going to the celestial kingdom. I told her he was dry only because he was the only one who stripped down to his boxers to swim. Next we drove a few miles to Independance Rock. We were going to climb to the top, but there was a big wind and lightning storm, so we didn't think that was a good idea.
Monday we were at the visitors center by 8:30 a.m. because we knew it was going to be hot. We got a handcart and began our trek. We were the only ones on the trail that early, so it was nice. The kids went ahead and Dad and I stayed back to walk slower with G&G. Aubrey did pretty good on the way up to the cove, but Lauren complained most of the way if she wasn't riding in the handcart and Aubrey complained the whole way back. The spirit in the cove was beautiful, It is so touching to me all the sacrifices the pioneers made. I could have stayed there all day. Some time I want to go back and go to all the places- Martin's Cove, the place the Willie party was stranded in when the rescuers found them, Rocky Ridge, etc. On the way back G&G took us the way the youth trekkers go and we got to ford the Sweetwater River with the handcart. Then they took us upstream a ways so the kids could play in the river. We had a picnic when we got back. I just tried to imagine me as one of the pioneers, if Dad had died and I didn't have the older kids and how I would have made it in all that snow with little kids. It is nothing short of a miracle that anyone survived. On the way back we went past three statues that are new since we were there 5 years ago. They are monuments to the 4 young men from the valley who carried the freezing people across the Sweetwater River. Over and over they went carrying people across. It was so touching to me to see those statues and look at McKay and Levi and think that those young men were 17-21 years old. I think our boys would have done that to help freezing people, too.
We packed and cleaned our trailer after that and went to G&G trailer to cook our dinner. We ate outside their trailer on a little grassy spot, said goodbye and then started for home, stopping again at Little America for another ice cream cone. It was a great vacation. Orbit finally let Becca have a day off, so she was able to have her first vacation of the summer.
We thought of you often. On the way home we read a lot of "Fire of the Covenant" and it was cool because we read the part about Devils Gate and Independance Rock and we had just been there. The kids were also casting our family members in different movies and they decided that you, Katie, would be Belle and I can't remember the part they gave to Clark, maybe it was the candlestick. Then they cast us in Lord of the Rings, but I'm not familar enough with that movie to remember the parts they gave to you. I tell you that so you know that even when you're not with us, you are with us in our hearts. We think about you and talk about you often.
Last night we went to the Oquirrh mountain temple open house. It was beautiful!
I love you both very much!
Mom
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