End of Summer

Crista, Matt, Jennie, Jordan and kids took the last full week of summer before school starts to have their turn at Flaming Gorge.  Sadly, the boat only worked for one day...but at least they got back to the dock before it stopped and wouldn't start up again.  They weren't terribly disappointed because for their one day on the lake they had perfect weather, and that wouldn't have been true the rest of the week.  Later in the week it got windy and a little rainy.  They still had a lot of fun as there's a lot to do up there, with or without a boat.  Roy thinks the fuel pump went out and he drove up after dinner Sunday night to bring the boat back down and deliver it to be fixed.  The boat place said they had time to work on it this week.  Up and back is at least a 5 hour drive, but he had to be back Sunday night because he had a root canal scheduled with Stephen Oblad for Monday morning 8:00 am.  

Todd found a friend when they went to the beach on Tuesday.  This boy was there with his grandparents and seemed to be an only child.  Todd saw all his awesome toys and asked Crista if he thought the boy would play with him.  Crista said he could ask, and he did.  He played with him for 3 hours.  Whenever the boys grandparents asked Todd if he wanted a drink or a treat, he would say, "No, we're playing."  He doesn't care much about food when he's focused.

Matt with Zack.  He loved the water.

Foster

Todd and Foster

Zack loved baby Elijah

Elijah in his Dumbo outfit

Another funny story about Todd:  He rode the baby Talon until it ran out of battery, then after Matt helped him get it to the garage to plug it in, Todd stood there watching it; waiting for it to get charged so he could ride it again.  Matt finally convinced him it wouldn't be ready for riding anytime soon (it was bedtime already). 

Roy had a ride scheduled for the weekend.  I wasn't planning on going, but I could tell Roy really wanted me to, even though he said, "no pressure."  I had been working for hours on my lesson for Sunday, pounding out all my notes throughout the week and thought leaving the house might be a good break. About 30 minutes before Roy was scheduled to leave, I decided to go with him.  I figured I had three hours in the car to put my lesson together.  This ride was slightly different because we left from Ferron, UT, rode in the Talon for 60+ miles on various trails, and then stayed the night in Ephraim, UT.  Because of this we had to take as little as possible for the overnight stay.  I was able to get my lesson far enough to leave my computer behind in the truck (thankfully, as it wouldn't have been easy to take it).  I also had until noon Sunday to fine tune it.  It turned out to be a fun ride and since I'd had an epidural on my back earlier in the week, I didn't seem to suffer any ill effects from the bumpiness (it was really bumpy with lots of rocks on several of the trails).  The best part of the trip was the sociality.  There were only10 rigs (a very small group) and only 4 women, but it was a lot of fun to get to know the women.  

The main point of all these rides is the opportunity to see scenery that most people will never see.  The 2nd main point is that Roy likes the challenge of the rides.

 Roy and I stopped on the trail to pick a few of these rocks for our rock gardens.  We found out afterwards that this is oolitic limestone, the stones used to build the Manti Temple.  I got razzed by the ride leader--he said that I held up the ride by collecting rocks.  If I did it was for just a few minutes.

Roy took a picture of these dead trees for Sara.  She loves scenery like this.

The aspens were beautiful and there were a few times we saw trees with leaves starting to yellow; preparing for fall.

My favorite story from my lesson Sunday was one that was in the minutes of the School of the Prophets.  A man named Zebedee Coltrin related this experience:

"At one of these meetings after the organization of the school…Joseph, having given instructions, and while engaged in silent prayer, kneeling with our hands uplifted, each one praying in silence, no one whispered beneath his breath, a personage walked through the room from east to west and Joseph asked if we saw him. I saw Him and suppose the others did, and Joseph answered, “That is Jesus, the Son of God, our elder brother.” Afterward Joseph told us to resume our former position in prayer, which we did. Another person came through; he was surrounded as with a flame of fire… Joseph said this was the

Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. I saw Him."

We're also promised that we can see Him in D&C 93:1 Verily, thus saith the Lord: It shall come to pass that every soul who forsaketh his sins and cometh unto me, and calleth on my name, and obeyeth my voice, and keepeth my commandments, shall see my face and know that I am.

I'm not sure what the timeline is on this, but I trust that it will happen in the Lord's own time.