Miscellaneous

I have a bunch of pictures to post but no way to get them from my camera card to my blog. Sorry. Posts without pictures are b-o-r-i-n-g. Eventually I will be able to add some pictures.

Our work is physically hard so you'd think we'd lose lots of weight. Actually, Reed has lost 7 pounds. So why is it so hard to lose weight here? Many times we eat junk on the run. For lunch we often have to rely on lunchables because of the convenience. We munch on candy bars and such. Usually on Saturday night there is a party with food. Sunday is a huge potluck. Besides having a lot of good cooks here, there are also lots of leftovers from the campers. Last Monday night we had a neighborhood FHE picnic. Tuesday and Wednesday we were invited to eat in the camp of some of the Young Women we had on the Challenge Course. Thursday night we had another dinner invitation but instead we went into Heber to eat at a restaurant with other challenge course hosts. One of the camps had so much Mulligan Stew left over that it was distributed amongst the missionaries. Everyone who went to pick up some stew said it was the largest pot they had ever seen. Amongst the other ingredients, it had 100 pounds of potatoes in it. It wasn't very tasty...which is probably why they had so much left over. Friday was our P-day and we just grabbed a quick breakfast at McDonalds after I had a blood test. We went to the DUP history archive in SLC and then ate at Chuck-A-Rama. Saturday night we had a large meal for a 'going away' party for a Church employee at Heber Valley Camp. Today was the big Sunday potluck. Campers left a lot of food for the missionaries again. Whatever wasn't taken will be thrown away. Another missionary couple has invited us to dinner tomorrow evening in their trailer...I think to eat leftovers. I am starting to think a simple yogurt or banana sounds best. Why don't we learn to quit stuffing ourselves?

We didn't do anything to celebrate Fathers Day on the 15th and Reed's birthday on the 16th. Each day sort of blends into the next one.

We were happy to have Kim, Bryan, Riley, Ashley, Jayse, Brynlee, Jill, Brandon, Courtney, Hailey, Natalie, Kaden, Robin, Andrew, Ashlyn, Katelyn, Candace, Jory, Mason, Tanner and Landon come to stay here in cabins last weekend. They were able to climb a pole, walk across a log, then go down a zip-line on Challenge Course 2. Then we went on the Giant Swing on Challenge Course 5. After that we went on paddle boats on Legacy Lake. On Sunday they attended Sacrament Meeting and the pot luck lunch with us. Then we had a family get-together at a pavilion. The girls gave us gifts. I am really excited that we received gift certificates to go on a Hot Air Balloon Ride! That is something I've had on my 'bucket list' for a long time.

One evening during the week we saddled up our 'Japanese Quarter Horses' (a.k.a. ATVs) and went on a trail ride with a bunch of other missionaries. The trail was quite dusty but it was good to get out for a ride. Because of the California fires the sky was quite hazy. Besides the usual deer sightings, we ran into a sheep herd out on the range. There were a couple of dead sheep which had probably been killed by other animals.

I was able to visit a few moments with nieces, Andrea and Lauren, when their stake was in Camp Hinckley. When we got back from SLC on Friday we had a note on our door that said the Merkleys would like to see us. They lived in our ward in Millville several years ago. Eric Merkley was Young Men's President when Reed was Bishop and rode with us to Martin's Cove for a youth activity/pioneer reenactment. I hunted for another Millville family who was supposed to be up here but I never did find them.

While at the DUP history archive we were able to obtain some histories of Amelia Brittingham Gray Neal Gallagher. (Reed's great-great-great grandmother who was buried in Heber City) They were very interesting to say the least. We had the wrong order of her husbands. We mistakenly understood she only had children by her middle husband. One history described her physical appearance and added that she was not a very good looking woman. One history said her first husband drank alot and was mean so one night when he came home drunk she wrapped him in a sheet and beat him then took the kids and left him. Now we are armed with some dates and information, we want to do some more 'digging.' They also had a picture but we were unable to order it as the photo department was closed that day.