A Weekend at the Badlands, Wyoming

We spent the weekend riding dirt bikes at the Badlands in Wyoming. Dani, Scott, Liz and Sam came up Saturday to play. Zac's friend Mitch and his son Mason came up Friday and slept over and played all day Saturday with the boys. I always love getting away and being together as a family. 

Dani, Boden and Lewis in Dani's side by side 

Mitch, Mason, Kyson, Tegan, Zac 

Boden and Aunt Dani 

Gosh I love all these boys!!  Look how handsome they are!!  

Blue and Lewis hanging out in our trailer 

Liz, Sam and Boden 

Zac, Tegan, Mason, Scott and Kyson 

Chelese and Dani cruising around in the side by side 

Liz Boden and Sam 

Girls Night Out

About a week ago Bre Bolos texted me to see if I wanted to go hang out with her and some girls.  I was SO EXCITED.  I haven't seen her for so long.  We went up to Mt. Green to a boutique, dinner at the Timbermine and then we went and got ice cream at the Creamery.  It was such a fun night full of lots of laughs.  

Me, MeChell, Amber, Tara, Kelsie and Bre 

We were laughing so hard at these bathroom signs at the Creamery.  Gosh I love the simple things in life.  

Bodens Baptism

Having a baptism during COVID-19 was definitely different, but different in a really good way.  We could only have 20 people total and since we didn't know how to invite some family and friends and not others we made the decision to only have grandparents in person at the baptism.  I set up a zoom meeting and everyone could watch it virtually.  It was SO AWESOME to have Scott and Sandra be able to watch even though they are in a totally different state.  The spirit was so strong.  It was such an amazing day!!  

When Boden woke up he was SO EXCITED to get baptized.  The spirit was so strong in our home before the baptism.  It was so cold and rainy outside before we went to the church.  Krystal texted me the weather forecast hour by hour and said, "the weather is even symbolic of baptism today" when I looked at the hour by hour it showed, rainy and cold and then over time throughout the day the sun would come out and be warm.  I told Boden this was just like life, sometimes we have dark days, but as long as we remember Him, the "son" will come out and we will be comforted.  I LOVE this gospel so much and the comfort God gives us.  

Later that night I told Boden he needed to get in the bath and he told me "I am still clean from my baptism I don't need to bath" I said you are spiritually clean but not physically so go get bathed and he again told me he was still clean.  It was a struggle, but he finally got in the bath.  I can't believe he is growing up so fast.  I am so proud of him and the spirit he brings to our family.  We are so blessed.  

Angels Guiding Us

On Tuesday afternoon I dropped Beckem off at soccer practice and took Boden up to my parents to mow their lawn.  I told my dad I wanted to go exercise/walk for a bit.  He told me that he would be mowing the lawn with Boden while I went walking.  I took Blue and headed up the road.  I got to top of 2600 and turned to go on the canal road.  It was such a warm afternoon and Blue was super thirsty.  I didn't have Blue on a leash because I never do.  Not thinking, we got near the canal.  Blue went over to get a drink and before I could grab him he fell in the canal.  I kept trying to reach for him, but the water was too low for me to reach him.  The current was pushing him down the canal, but he was doggy paddling pretty hard against the current.  I called my dad and told him to hurry up to the canal because Blue fell in.  He said, "I will be right there"  I continued to try to grab Blue but I couldn't get him.  I knew there was a grate down the canal road and if I didn't get him out he would have drowned.  As soon as my dad got there we were about 20 feet from the drop to the grate.  I asked my dad for a rope.  he grabbed a rope off his back seat and threw it to me.  I jumped in the canal and held on to Blue as tight as I could.  The bottom was really mossy but I was able to get my footing.  We got the rope tied around Blue but the current was pretty strong.  My dad and I were have a hard time getting him out of the water.  My dad finally said, push his butt as hard as you can and I will pull.  We did that and we were able to get him out of the water.  It was then my turn to get out of the canal.  I was worried because I wasn't sure how I was going to get out.  I tired using the rope but I was afraid I was going to pull my dad in with me.  Right then a man came walking up and said, "do you need help"  we asked him to help us and he grabbed the rope.  Both my dad and him were able to pull me out of the water.  We thanked him and he walked away.  I seriously feel like he was an angel, his timing was perfect. I was soaked and shaken up pretty bad.  I put Blue in my dads truck and hoped in with him, my dad took us back to his house.  Once we got to his house he told me that this morning he was cleaning out the garage and had a really strong feeling to put that rope in his truck.  He thought it was a crazy idea because he didn't ever think he would need it but he put it in there anyway.  I seriously believe that an angel was watching out for Blue and I.  I am so grateful for my dad listening to that prompting and for his quick response to come up and help us.  I know without a doubt that Heaven was watching over us today!!  God is REAL!!  

Yard Clean Up

I am so grateful for my parents and Dwayne across the street to help us clean up our yard while we were gone.  They were able to get that tree loaded and hauled away from our front yard.  

Once we got home Zac tried to pull the tree in the back yard up with his truck, but the angle wasn't right.  Luckily Colton was able to bring one of the forklifts from Rocky Mountain and help us stand the tree up.  We are praying it makes it because we LOVE the shade and privacy we get from that tree.  

I took a picture of the stump out front.  The winds were so wild and crazy it actually twisted the tree a couple of times before it snapped it off.  I can't believe the power of mother nature.  We are SO LUCKY it didn't land on our house.  

On Our Way Home

We felt so blessed to make it home, but my heart hurt when I woke up and saw Boden just looking out the window.  The boys were so sad to leave, but we were all grateful to be alive and okay.   

When we got evacuated the boys were so sad because they didn't get a chance to buy a souvenir.  I kept telling them being alive was their souvenir, but that didn't cut it.  Since we got to the airport so early we told them to go find souvenirs in the airport.  Boden spent 30 dollars on keychains but that is what he wanted ha ha.  They worked all summer to save their money so they were excited to buy something with their own money.  Everyone got a souvenir except Tegan.  All he wanted was a fishing hat.  We were almost ready to go to the portal and Tegan spotted a fishing hat.  He was so excited.  He is so cute!!  I love the young man he is becoming!!  All my boys make me so happy and I am SO BLESSED to be able to enjoy everyday with them.   

A Guiding Hand

When we got up to our condo, the power was out.  The smoke was so thick from all the wild fires.  They had us stay in Depot Bay for the night in hopes that Gleneden had power the next day.  We woke up the next morning to even thicker smoke. Ash was falling all over us.  It was such a weird feeling.  About two hours after we woke up we were informed that they had now declared the area a "level 3" which means emergency evacuation.  We loaded everything up in the rental van, said a family prayer and started to head north. I asked Zac what he was doing because they said they were evacuating everyone north.  Zac said he just wanted to see where he could go since it was bumper to bumper on the 101.  We drove north for about 30 minutes and then we got to an area that a cop was blocking the road.  We had to make a U turn and head back down the 101. We were then a little worried because we were now that much more behind getting out of the area.  We were headed south on the 101 and all the sudden Zac turned left.  I asked him what he was doing and he said, this is a highway it's got to lead somewhere.  I was so worried because we didn't have cell phone service and we didn't have GPS because the smoke was SO THICK.  We just prayed we were going to be okay.  I asked Zac, "what if we are headed right to the fire" and he said "as long as we are headed south east I know we will be okay" I am not sure how he knew that but I felt at peace with it.   We stayed on that highway for sometime and then it ended up leading right to the freeway.  I was shocked but I know we were being guided.  We made it to Portland and were able to change our flights to the next morning.  We got a hotel and settled in for the night.  It was about two hours later we looked out the window and noticed all the smoke in Portland now.  We turned on the news and they announced the winds have now shifted and the smoke is all moving towards Portland.  We were so worried we were going to get stuck in Portland, but we decided to have faith.  We went to bed and got up really early to head the the airport.  We were able to get to the airport, five hours before our flight took off.  While we were sitting in the airport we found out that there were 35 fires burning :(  When we were evacuated there were 5 fires burning :(  Everyone in the airport was talking about the other fires being started by people.  I was so sad for this word and the ciaos we are bringing on ourselves.  We were able to get on our flight and get home.  I kept watching news reports of Oregon after we were home and the day after we flew out they evacuated Portland.  It was seriously a miracle we got out when we did.  I know God was watching over us.   We came home to no power from the storm here but it was still nice to be home.   

This was about 10 minutes from Portland.  The line of smoke was CRAZY but it felt good to see the sky again.