The night after the final summer youth group at Hart Ranch, Terry brought together his Utah mission trip team at our house for a tabbing party (I was at work). They had been working insanely hard over the previous couple months to complete all the prep work that was required for their trip, and on this day, they marked all the appropriate passages in the Bible and all the Mormon books they had read.
They had learned so so much about Mormonism so they would be prepared to have conversations in Salt Lake City and share the true gospel with those they met, and be prepared for a missionary to come to their door, or anyone for that matter. Furthermore, the real "point" of this trip was to firmly establish the students in their own faith in the biblical risen Jesus Christ. In order to identify a counterfeit, you have to know the original well.
One of the most fascinating things Terry told me about (I learned a ton second hand), was the history of their Book of Abraham. Joseph Smith bought this old Egyptian scroll/papyrus from a traveling salesman of some sort and declared that it was the lost Book of Abraham. He went on to "translate" it completely wrong. Back in the early 1800's there was no Rosetta Stone, thus no one knew what Egyptian was actually saying, but now we do. Joseph Smith straight up LIED (only one of a whole host of lies actually). This scrap says nothing about Abraham or the Israelites or any lost tribe. It's all about Egyptian burial customs. What's more, he added a head belonging to Abraham or something to that dark skinned person when it's supposed to be a Anubis' head, like a jackal, hence the script about burial customs, since he was their god of embalming the dead. That just blew my mind. How can they get away with all that rubbish?!
Back to the chronological story. They also took some silly pictures while at our house.
The following day was very busy for Terry, doing all the last minute outside things to prepare for renting our house for the rally. He was leaving Saturday, July 28 and returning the following Saturday, the 4th. However, our rally renters were to arrive that Wednesday the 1st and I would have to get everything else prepared by myself. Thankfully he did a lot before he left because I was so much left to do. One thing he did, with Samuel's limited help, was organize the loft in the garage.
That night I deadheaded my dahlias. These ones are so big...and beautiful even in death.
The night before he left we dropped off two vehicles at Steven and Prae's and then Matt's. This picture is from us driving the Chrysler to Matt's.
That night we discovered that the van battery was completely dead! We hadn't left any doors open or lights on so we didn't know what had caused it to die. This was an unwelcome event since Terry was leaving the following morning and I know nothing about cars. He gave me a tutorial on how to charge the battery and I took this picture so I wouldn't forget. It came in handy because when I went to a shop to have them check the battery juice, they put the cables on wrong and I had to correct them. 😳😑
That Saturday Terry left early and then I drove our kids over to the church to once again say goodbye to daddy and take a few nice pictures of the team.
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| Abby, Tori, Zoe, Tilly, Terry, Ethan, Luke, Moses |
"Big Mike" gave the boys a lecture about being men and taking care of the girls. It's funny I have evidence of this talk (the photo below) because it evolved into a huge story that Terry told the students on the way home in order to entertain them. The guys had been joking the whole trip about how bad it would be if Tori, Mike's daughter, was to get hurt since he had charged them to protect her. They started making up a story about how Tori fell out of the van and was lost, and knowing they were at fault for losing her, ran away because they were afraid of Mike's retribution. Terry took up the story there, with much embellishment that I can't remember, incorporating many random funny incidents and inside jokes from their trip. Tori hit her head, lost her memory, and became a ninja employed by her own father, "Big Mike" who was operating a ninja search for her. Tori ended up almost dying when Tilly put a marshmallow in her mouth to revive her. Eventually all the dispersed members of the team came together in Utah and Tori got her memory back.
He kept those students on the edge of their seat and they loved it. It really was awesome. He should write it down. In fact, he should write children's books.
Loading up.
Good bye!
I sent Terry this selfie once me and the kids loaded up.
From there we went to Batteries and Bulbs to have the battery checked. The whole system tested fine so I was bummed since I couldn't just buy a new battery and be done with it. But while they were testing it, the belt made again that same alarming sound that it had when we were in Mitchell coming back from Minnesota just a week or so before. I was not about to drive that van around in the country and on the interstate during the motorcycle rally because I did not want to get stranded without a husband in that mess. Very dangerous. So we went to my parents house and parked the van and retrieved the Envoy that Terry had parked there the previous day when he had exchanged for my dad's van to drive to Utah.
We had a little lunch there and meanwhile, Terry was having lunch in Lusk. I was keeping tabs on him pretty closely. I'm a creeper like that. But I missed him!
Once we got home me and the kids got to work on cleaning the inside of the house for the rally. I had many things to accomplish before Wednesday. Terry did everything at the top of the list and I had to do what was added on the bottom, plus so many others that weren't written down.
I had the kids put away all the toys in the basement and then move all the furniture and stuffed animals so I could vacuum under everything. Ezra played with Legos when they were done. The olders were all sent to organized their rooms.
Noah pulled all that stuff out for me and I vacuumed behind it, moved it all back into place, and vacuumed under the couch cushions. I did the same for every piece of furniture or bed that could be moved in the house.
Looking from the previous corner.
Meanwhile Terry and the team had reached Table in the Wilderness in Centennial, WY, where they were spending the night to break up their drive.
Terry sent me this photo and told me to find all seven students. It was like Where's Waldo for me but I've numbered them to make it easier.
That night they had a fire pit and s'more session while I continued to clean house.
The following morning, Sunday July 29, I went to church, but not Terry. Ha ha. They did the high ropes course at camp!
Just this weekend we had a Utah BBQ reunion and hosted all the seven students and their families here to look at all the photos and videos and hear the stories from the trip. I include this photo of Abby (?) and Luke climbing because we laughed so much over how long it took Luke to make it up the wall. Like two or three girls climbed up in the time it took him. 😂
From Table they had to drive all the way across the rest of Wyoming and to Salt Lake City.
But first they stopped in Saratoga and played in the hot spring there. We've gone many times and I was glad they had the time to do it. Though of course I wished I was with them. I was always wishing that because I knew this was a great group of students and they were going to have an amazing time together. I was right. They're bonded for life. They had so much fun.
In the actual pool of the spring.
They stopped in Rawlins for lunch around the time I was getting home from church with all four kids.
That afternoon I think I gave out a few more jobs and then let the kids watch a movie. Meanwhile I had the oven to self-clean, something I had never done before since I usually scrub it. But it was so far gone it needed this deep clean.
While the oven was cooking I cleaned out the fridge and freezer. I hate that job.
Just after dinner time Terry and the students arrived. I was relieved. I always worry one or both of us are going to die when we're separated or traveling. Every time.
Terry sent me this photo once they got settled at their host home. Thankfully they were staying in an actual house and not a church floor like had been arranged before.
Tilly made breakfast for them every single morning. She and her mom had planned, shopped, and packed for each of the meals the team would require that week. Talk about amazing. That day was spent touring different evangelical ministries and the Mormon temple area downtown. After breakfast they went to Sandra Tanner's ministry. She is a born again believer and has been for some time but she is actually in the line of Brigham Young! She taught them many eye opening things.
One of the coolest things they learned was about Joseph Smith's "golden tablets." These are a reproduction made of lead, based off his descriptions, though no one ever saw them and there's no evidence of their existence. The thing is, Joseph said that at one point he was being chased while carrying the golden plates. These lead plates were only 118 pounds but the "golden plates" would have weighed over 200 pounds and there is no possible way he could have run three miles while being chased and holding them at the same time. It's not humanly possible.
Meanwhile I took the kids to Storybook Island for a playdate with Abby and two of her kids, Hallie and Zachary. Samuel and Ezra love Zachary and continually beg to play with him. We finally made it happen.
From there Abby and her crew came to our house for lunch while Terry and his crew ate a bag lunch in Salt Lake before beginning their tour.
Here's the Mormon Museum. I will say one thing, all their architecture is absolutely beautiful.
Getting ready to go in the Temple Square.
Girl missionaries always conduct the tours because they're less argumentative than the boys used to be. 😂 This is inside the place the Mormon Tabernacle Choir rehearses.
Taking a photo with their tour guides.
I think after that they went in the Temple Square for more touring. Tilly fell asleep. Everyone was exhausted already.
From the top of wherever they were was a viewing deck. That's the temple.
It is certainly beautiful.
Another building had a garden on top of it!
In front of the temple.
That afternoon the kids and I had been running around doing something I can't even remember and as a reward we stopped at Culvers for some custard. Drool.
In the evenings I didn't want to cook and have leftovers I would have to throw away so we ate all the previous leftovers and then the kids had leftover frozen pizza. I went to Qdoba for dinner! On my way home I stopped by Kendra and Sarah's with a couple dahlias for them and a little adult time.
That evening Terry and the team visited another ministry that reaches out to Mormons, though I can't remember their name.
From there the team went home and did some debriefing before going to bed late, after 11pm. Terry and I talked on the phone late, which made me unable to fall asleep until like 2am just like the previous night when we stayed up late to chat, and Terry stayed up even later, making his own additions to the "Book of Abraham" with photos he had taken in the last couple days. 😂😆
The next morning, Tuesday July 31st, I had strawberries fresh from our garden to top my oatmeal. I needed to clear out those berries since a lot would go bad while our renters were in the house.
I can't remember what I did that day besides more cleaning and preparing, but Terry and crew went to Brigham Young University for their first round of face to face Mormon discussion.
Terry took these pictures of his students in front of photos of Mormon missionaries intending to photoshop their faces on the missionary bodies. He did it wrong because they're in the same picture, but still, Moses' face makes me laugh so much. 😆
Rewind, they might have had some more tours and then had conversations in the afternoon. This is the huge auditorium where their "living prophet" speaks twice a year. Its a very beautiful room and can hold up to 20,000 people.
They had lunch in the Brigham Young cafeteria and got into conversations in line and while they were eating. Terry had a number of very good talks with Mormons there. That evening they debriefed back at the house.
The following morning, Wednesday July 31st, they did a service project of some time with this church that reaches out to Mormons.
They did some kind of cleaning here. But that afternoon they went tubing on a river! I don't have any of those photos but they'll be in the video.
That morning was absolutely crazy for me. I wasn't sure when the renters would arrive but they could come any time after 1pm. I had SO MUCH left to do. Every time I walked by something while doing another thing, I would remember to do something else. I still needed to put away the coats, which reminded me to leave some hangers in each closet in case they wanted to hang anything up, which would remind me of something else and something else, on and on until 2pm until we finally left.
Noah had left earlier in the morning to go spend two nights with Jack but Evie was such a help. I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off and she sat down with the littles and read to them all on her own initiative. Such a good girl.
Getting loaded up!
We had a lot of stuff!
My house was pristine.
I mean seriously, it was perfect.
I worked my butt off, but at least I got paid to do it.
From there we went to my folks house to drop off Luna and the cat. The littles watched Grampa shoot his bow and I ate some food since I hadn't even had time to have lunch.
Then we finally drove out to the ranch. Chicken watching time! That was something we did every single day without fail, several times a day.
The chickens were more shy than last time we had been there for the fourth of July. They did not want to be approached or picked up at all. I had to instruct Ezra and then took a selfie with him.
Jerry opened up this old grain bin for them to peck around in.
The boys thought that was funny.
We would just sit around with the chickens so they'd get used to us.
Here's a "fluffy foot."
And a "fluffy head." These are the littles favorites.
Gramma did grab one and let the kids pet it but she didn't like it.
The littles on the back swing being best buddies or frenemies, hard to tell.
Back to Terry. This was their dinner after tubing.
Then we went to Bridal Veil Falls before going home.
Beautiful fiery orange sunset at the ranch that night due to the California fire's smoke.
Pretty the other way too.
Lovely.
So that night was our first experience putting the chickens to bed. Alice invited us to come and see what she has to do to get them ready and I was so confused as to why she put on long pants, a coat, and gloves when we went out... But when she showed me what the hens do, I understood. They jockey for the best spot, which apparently is the top of the door, except they can't stay there because she closes the door at night. So she has to move them to the proper roosting boards. 😂
Video of the silly birds.
There, now they're ready for sleep.
The crew stopped in a Starbucks on their way home to get a treat and record another portion of their rap. Oh yeah, another thing they had been working on and entertaining themselves with was a Mormon rap about all the wild things they'd learned.
The following morning, Thursday August 2nd, Grampa took the littles out on a very short four wheeler ride. Me and Evie walked down to the creek.
Grampa followed us down with the rocks the littles had collected and they threw them in.
We took a short tour around the nearby fields.
Shari arrived late morning.
Grampa went and fetched the neighbor renter kids and everybody went on an extended roller coaster ride. I like Rebekah's lifted arms.
I took a few turns as well.
Samuel and Ezra have come so far from being deathly afraid of the coaster. Now they love it.
I like Ezra's expression.
Meanwhile the crew was getting ready to have some more lunch time conversations at Brigham Young University. Already that morning they had gone door to door and tried to have gospel conversations.
Terry sent me a secretive video of Luke and Tori's discussion and here is a picture of it. Awesome job guys!!
Meanwhile, after lunch we went for another short walk to the bridge.
Terry took a picture of the crew in front of the temple. That's a golden Moroni angel at the top.
When Shari left Alice and I took the kids on a short four wheeler ride. Down by Grampa's fields was what I thought was corn, however, it was cane, whatever that is.
The next day, Friday August 3rd, was their final day in Utah. They spend their morning visiting an outreach for women or children fleeing polygamy. They might have had lunch there (?) and I thought this photo of Luke with a little girl was adorable.
Holly's Home was the name of the place. The blacked out figure is a person they were sheltering who had come to them out of what amounts to slavery.
That morning I spent at Faith's visiting and letting the kids run wild in their forest. Afterwards I picked up Noah from Jana and then hung out at Shari's for a bit. Noah was actually so exhausted from all his fun with Jack that he had a nap while we were there. The girls and littles played in their back yard pool and then we did a couple errands before heading back to the ranch. We dropped off our homeschool exemption forms at the school administration building, something that I usually forget to do until the last minute. I had to have it done early this year so Noah could compete in Cross Country with Rapid City Christian the following week.
From there we went back to the ranch while Terry and the crew went out to eat for pizza to end their week.
Afterward they went to a beautiful Catholic Church for some time of quiet and reflection.
I thought this verse at the front was more than appropriate for all they had learned that week.
From there they climbed Ensign Peak at sunset for further debriefing.
He sent me this photo and I was blown away by the beautiful sunset.
One more team photo.
When they descended the hill they remained in the park for a long time for discussion and debriefing. I kept checking on Terry's location to see if he could talk before I went to bed, but I went to sleep before they even left.
The following morning, Saturday August 4th, the crew got packed up and said their goodbyes. Their host family and Ryan, their leader, had become dear to them.
I was creeping on them when they left and was confused when Terry didn't take the obvious and shortest route home. I understood once he sent me a pic from Krispy Kreme.
I love Tilly's reaction. 😂
Fresh Krispy Kremes bring out Terry's crazy eyes.
Meanwhile we were having a relaxed morning at the ranch. Gramma was teaching Noah how to play Scrabble on the computer.
That afternoon was spent at my parents house just chilling out. Mom had a new recipe she wanted to try out on us. I used my time to go and visit my childhood friend Katie finally and see her new baby Sylvie. I've known Katie since 4th or 5th grade and felt terrible it had been a month before I finally got over there to see her. She was having a baby shower the following day but I couldn't make it since Terry would have just got back.
Such a beautiful smile, beautiful baby, and beautiful friend.
Back at my folks house, mom had me go through a pile of some of Steph's old art that dad had unearthed somewhere. We found this homemade poster that Steph made in high school and it was such a blast from the past. I vividly remember that hanging in our room. I said it was her early version of a Pinterest board. 😏😂
She had pencil drawn a self portrait from a high school school photo I believe. It was so good.
Back at the ranch we arrived just in time to the put the chickens to bed. The kids were so excited to see daddy the next day.
The original plan was for Terry to sleep at my parents house since we thought he'd arrive back at midnight and be too exhausted to drive further after ten or twelve hours on the road. But he got back at 9:30pm and had plenty of juice left to get to the ranch. So he went to my parents to drop off their van and take ours to the ranch, but our van was dead despite being charged all afternoon! So he had to take their big white van home. I didn't care as long as he got there.
And he finally came home to the ranch just before 11pm. WAHOO! Muh hunny was home! Plus, he brought me the perfect gift (besides himself), a set of Han and Leia mugs! 💙💚
Here is the video that Terry made for the trip:
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