Bodil Mortensen

I signed up to decorate a table for our Pioneer Day activity. I borrowed my Dad's bronze statue and a book that tells about the Willie and Martin Handcart Companies. The bronze was made by my dad's cousin Steve Wirth. It depicts the story of Bodil Mortensen and is titled 'And should we die".

Many of those who crossed the plains were only children. One of those children was Bodil Mortensen, age nine, from Denmark. Bodil Mortensen came alone, before her family to join the saints in Salt Lake City, her older sister had traveled a year before her and was in Salt Lake. Bodil joined the Willie Handcart Company with a family from her country Denmark. Winter storms began early that year and slowed the travel of the company. Rock Ridge was a long hard journey for the children. The distance was about 15 miles, including a two-mile stretch in which the trail rose more than 700 feet in elevation. It took some of the children 27 hours to reach camp. The snow was already more than a foot deep, a blizzard was raging, and the temperatures were freezing. A howling October snowstorm blinded nine-year-old Bodil Mortensen as she climbed with several younger children, shivering and hungry, up the snow-covered slope of Rocky Ridge. Bodil was exhausted and weak, the young girl struggled on her way, hoping to reach Salt Lake City to be with her sister. Bodil was apparently assigned to care for some small children as they crossed Rocky Ridge. When they arrived at camp, in the wee hours of October 24th, she must have been sent to gather fire wood. All she could find was twigs of sagebrush. The next morning she was found leaning up against the wheel of a handcart, twigs clutched in her hands, frozen to death.

Bodil (Lyrics by Jenny Phillips)

Only nine leaving behind your home

what faith to leave all you know

so far to go

you are cold

shivering through the storms

your little fingers never warm

always one step more

you didn't know your journey would end

before you'd see the valley

but you left such a legacy

you didn't know

that your faith changes me

I can't feel my feet (your faith changes me)

There's nothing left to eat (your faith changes me)

Vocals by Jenny Phillips and Chloe Mueller

Happy Pioneer Day!

11 years and counting!

Happy Anniversary to us! We made it 11 years!! It doesn't feel like it has been that long since we said I do! So, I'll skip all the boring, mushy, lovey dovey junk from the past 11 years. I have to tell you though, I married one amazing guy! You're the best Clay. I love you!

Who needs a slip and slide....

.....when you have a SUPER SLIDE! We've had this slide for a few years and have used it once. Since the monsoons came early this year and have been sticking around, the pool has been long gone for some while now. The pool was so hard to take care of with all the rainwater that was getting in it, not to mention the leafs and pine needles and other various things that would blow in with each storm.
So, down comes the pool and up went the water slide. We even put up a little pool for me (and Nana) to sit in and catch some rays while the girls have a blast on the slide!

Then the monsoons struck up again. We did get a few hours of playtime in, then it was back inside to tackle the wall. THE WALL, that's a whole nother post. Uggghhh, I'll have to fill you all in!

See those clouds behind the girls!

We can't wait to play again tomorrow!! If you're in town call us up, we'll have a BBQ and play in the water. Kids of all ages welcome. I even went down the slide time after time (Nana too!). All you big kids out there, this is what summer is all about!!

Love and marriage

Love: When you take a bubble bath together.

Marriage: When you give the kids a bath.

Love: A romantic candle-light dinner for two.

Marriage: 4 happy meals.....to go.

Love: Giving your sweetheart some candy.

Marriage: Scraping candy off the carpet.

Love: A night out at the Symphony.

Marriage: A night out at Disney on ice.

Love: Aroma- French perfume.

Marriage: Aroma- "The baby needs changing"..........

Love: Lending your jacket to your sweetheart when she is cold.

Marriage: Your teenager just took your jacket.

Love: Long rides through the countryside.

Marriage: Long drives with the kids screaming in the backseat.

Love: Fancy restaurants, flowers, romantic dates, hand holding, late nights, fast cars.

Marriage: McDonald's, plants, once a month dates, ewwww they're holding hands!, early to bed early to rise, mini vans, nap time, ironing, dishes, house payments, lost teeth, kissing boo boos, teaching life lessons........eternal............priceless!

~Casssius and his new toy~

Ok, the pictures are a little weird but I'm still trying to get the hang of the new camera and all the settings. Bear with me! The girls had taken their Hula Hoops to summer school. There they were used and abused and all the shimmery stuff has started peeling off. I noticed the Hula Hoops out front against the front fence this morning when Clay was leaving for work. They looked pretty beat up and trashy, a bit of an eye sore so I threw them over the fence into the backyard.
Later I hear Cassisus barking and whimpering. I'm wondering if he's caught another gopher or bird to play with.
I see him outside rolling around with the hula hoop. It was too funny. Ever since I mowed the grass he has been so hyper and happy. A nice cut, clean yard can do that to a dog I guess.

We let him have his fun by himself for a while. We all stood by the sliding glass door snickering away because he was being so funny.

Then we decided to join in the fun with him. What a hoot. He is such an amazing and fun dog!

We'll see what his next new toy will be! At least we'll never have to buy him expensive dog toys, he comes up with his own entertainment!

Sit, Stay, Good boy!

Summer reading program

Yesterday was the first time we have been able to attend the summer reading program this year. Last year we didn't miss a day. Summer school and adventures have thus far prevented us from going. The girls were so excited to go. It was supposed to be a class on artistic dance today but the instructor ended up not being able to come. The school's art teacher filled in instead.
She read the kids some poems about summertime (most of the kids were very bored and I thought she read a few too many poems, but in the end it turned out to be a fun day).

Then the kids each got to design a summer journal. Some kids wrote poems, some drew pictures, and some just colored. I even got to make a journal. There were a lot of very artistic kids.

Alex and her finished product. We're looking forward to going next week as well.

Tuesday's with Alex

Twice a month Sydney has Achievement Days, and they're usually on Tuesdays. Yesterday was an Achievement Tuesday. I love these days. It's my chance to spend a few hours, one on one with Alex. My girls are best friends and do pretty much everything together. To get one alone is very rare, so these days are very special. Sydney and I get our special time in the mornings or evenings. Alex is usually early to bed and late to rise, so we have our special time while she gets her beauty sleep. Yesterday after dropping Sydney off we went to Safeway to check out the rental movies, couldn't find the one we wanted, then Alex spotted Starbucks and asked if we could get one. Yes! I love Starbucks, and since it was our special day a special treat was needed. Good idea Alex. Then we went home, I put on another coat of paint on the kitchen wall while Alex put her feet up and enjoyed being in charge of the clicker (the t.v. remote). When I got done painting we sat and watched an episode of Max and Ruby together. Then it was time to go get Sydney. When Sydney gets home, the girls are so excited to see each other. Like it has been days since they've seen each other. I love Tuesdays with Alex!

Fireworks!

Poor Clay, he misses out on all the fun stuff. He actually had the day off this year. He hadn't been feeling well most of the week so he decided to stay home from the fireworks this year. I was so glad when a friend called and invited us to watch the fireworks with her and her kids. Her hubby had to work :(. The kids had a great time, and the show lasted just long enough for them to love it but not long enough to get bored! It was a good show this year. We had fun snacking, enjoying the mini fireworks that were going off before the big show (some good citizens were setting them off, against the law but the kids liked it), and the excellent fireworks show put on by the Bisbee Firemen.
So I mentioned my camera had a beach setting. Well, it also has a fireworks setting (which was totally AWESOME!). Here are a few of my favorites.

We hope you all enjoyed the fourth. It was also my dad's birthday on the fourth. Happy 59th Dad, we love you!

Pacific Beach!

We went, we played, we had a blast!! We were so excited to get to go to the beach this year. Clay didn't get to come with us, he was hard at work while we were hard at play.
We got to go to California with Uncle Colin, Aunt Amy, and baby Harrison. A great time was had by all!
The girls had so much fun playing in the sand and the surf. We of course gathered shells, built sandcastles, swam, and buried Uncle Colin. The water was cold, once your body went numb it was pretty fun. It was overcast the whole time but we all came back pretty pink regardless.

Sydney and Alex even took turns burying each other. The sand was so clean and so soft. There was lots of seaweed from high tide but no rocks or anything else in the sand. It was so nice on the feet!

The girls were on the beach all day long and never once complained about getting bored. When it was time to go in they still weren't ready to leave. They want to go back so bad, we'll have to see about that.

Amy showed them how to make drip castles, and Uncle Colin helped them dig some tunnels in the sand. They got lots of water to make the sand wet for their sand castles.

Amy was in charge of finding a place to stay. She did an awesome job. This is our hotel, right off the beach!! No packing up and driving around to have fun. We just woke up, got in our swimsuits and walked right out to the beach! Talk about amazing! Saved time and we were able to play so much longer being so close to the beach! The view from our balcony was the best. We watched surfers in the early morning and fire dancers at night, all from the comfort of our suite!

This trip is one the girls will not soon forget. I have to say, I love my new camera. I was a little bit worried about taking it because I still wasn't familiar with it. I think it did a great job. It had a beach setting (the coolest thing ever). It was great. I spared you all the boring vacation photos. Narrowing it down to 10 was tough enough!

Baby Harrison was the star of the trip I think. What an amazing baby to travel with. He went from Phoenix to San Diego without hardly making a peep! He was so happy the whole time. I would definitely travel again with him (and mommy and daddy) anytime!

One more adventure has been crossed off our summer adventure list. Let's see what comes next!

Off to the beach!

Yay!! It's finally here. We're heading to Phoenix tonight then off to the beach in the morning. We're so excited we've been having a hard time sleeping. The girls are soooooo excited they almost can't stand it! Alex has her heart set on finding a starfish. I don't see that happening but you never know. I'll probably have to go to a gift shop or something, buy one, throw it out on the beach and have her find it. Knowing my luck, someone would swoop down right in front of her and get it. We'll see what happens. Sydney wants to find lots of shells and of course a sand dollar. I got a recipe from a friend of some solution to take to keep the shells in for a few days to take the smell out of them. Maybe this year we'll actually keep some of the shells we find. The last time we went to the beach, the shells stunk so bad for so long that we had to toss them!

I don't really care what I find. I just want to build a sandcastle, play in the ocean, soak up the sun, and spend the days with family. I'm sure my sandcastle will look nothing like this but we''ll have fun trying!

The one thing we really don't want to see on the beach..... SHARK! At sea world sure, on our beach....no thanks! The girls are so worried there is going to be a shark in the water. Sydney loves sharks. She has every book and poster they make about sharks! She has a shark head hanging on the ceiling above her bed along with posters. She loves sharks on t.v. and in books. I'm going to spend all of our beach time trying to convince her that there are NO SHARKS close to us, so go play in the water.

We'll have tons of pictures and stories about our California adventure to share with you soon! Until then, have a safe and fun fourth of July!! Happy Birthday Dad (on the 4th!)