August 2020: Paiute Trail, Pine Valley and Lake Mead

 

Sheep traffic along the trail

Ned and Lincoln race to an Island in the middle of Barney Lake

The boys decided to hop on logs to try to get over to an Island in the middle of Barney Lake

Nikki all covered up-not for Covid, but for the dust. 

We had one extra seat so we brought Anna with us so Gwen would have a fellow girl to keep her company.  

Zach drove the Razr

I got to drive the General

We stayed at these cute cabins on our Paiute trail trip.  Gwen, Lincoln and West are enjoying a doughnut breakfast before our ride. 

We have the best neighbors!  Our neighbor Jim allowed us to use his boat for a refreshing outing as a family.  The kids had fun trying out knee boarding, a little wakeboarding and a lot of swimming in the clear water at an island.  

Zach talked my dad into tackling the large job of oiling the logs of the whole cabin.  It was a dirty job and Zach had a rare beard so he looks even more rustic than normal.  

If you look close enough you can see the cool King snake we came across on our hike.  It made me a little nervous, not because I'm afraid of snakes, but because I figure that where this is a King snake, there could also be a Rattlesnake close by.  

We found a fun little hike near a stream with this fun fort someone took the time to build.  

We made several trips to Pine Valley this Summer.  Since Zach could work from anywhere with WiFi we found ourselves escaping to the cooler mountain air a number of times.  We helped with a few projects: oiling the logs and redoing the deck.  We were even able to escape when the school year started since all the kids were doing their school virtual.  

Our super generous neighbor Angela gave us these super cute Disney face masks
Gwen tells me that I told them they didn't have to smile since their masks were already smiling so that is why their eyes look weird. 

A couple more pictures with some explanation: We enjoyed a couple trips to Pine Valley in August. We did some more great hikes, played a bunch of soccer outside. It was in one of these soccer games that I reached down to stop a goal and the ball hit my finger just right to dislocate it. Zach took me down to St. George to reset it, but it looked a bit funky for a while. Ned made our own version of Captain Moroni's flag and the boys had fun being macho!

On our way back from one of our Pine Valley trips, we stopped and said hello to grandma and grandpa Hills. Later in the month, Zach took Ned on a hike to Mt. Charleston and Nyle on a bike ride. We try to squeeze in one-on-one time with our kids whenever possible.

Malachi 3:10. "Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse...and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of Hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it." At the end of August, Gwen had a testimony boosting experience that I think might have solidified her testimony of Tithing. First, some background info. Our kids complete chores and piano practice daily in order to get paid weekly. The money they earn is used to purchase their clothes. They also get paid if they receive a Straight A report card, which they almost always receive. Gwen had been stashing her earnings for quite a while. Then one day (maybe in January?) she lost it all! It was a couple hundred dollars worth. Because receiving Straight A's is relatively easy for Gwen, she had been relying on that money to pay for the bulk of her clothes since she really didn't like doing chores or practicing the piano. She hadn't really worked hard on either because she already had a fair amount from her grades. That is of course, until she lost it all. Zach, I and Gwen scoured the house looking for it with no avail. I told her that if she was faithful completing her chores and practice AND in paying her tithing, I was sure it would show up at some point. It was a cause for concern for sure and she began doing her chores and practice more dutifully, hopeful that the next month when she could pay her tithing, it might show up. Then COVID hit and we weren't able to go to church. Paying tithing became challenging because she always paid in person at church. Months went by and she was keeping track of what she needed to pay for tithing, waiting for the chance to actually do it. Another tidbit of important info is that Gwen is really, really into Barbies. For a few Christmases, she had been asking for a Barbie house. I always so no, for two reasons. 1)They're outrageously expensive. 2)They're huge and take up valuable space in a house full of 7 people. Well, back to end of August, about 8 months after she lost her money, Gwen has developed the good habit of always completing her chores and piano practice. She has also been keeping track of what she owes for tithing and we finally have the chance to go back to church in person. Gwen made sure to pay her tithing. I (with a fair amount of timid faith) told her that we probably would find her money now and left it at that. Around this time, we decided that we wanted to do some remodeling of the kitchen and that we were going to do the work ourselves. One week after Gwen paid her tithing, Zach was standing up on the counter to get a good look at the inside of a cabinet so he could take it down and he finds the missing envelopes of Gwen's money! We were sure we had looked in this cabinet, but had not seen it! We called Gwen in right away and she was so excited to have all her money back! We were all so grateful and I think Gwen went and thanked Heavenly Father right away. But like the abundantly loving Father that He is, this wasn't the end of his blessings. As Zach and I went on our nightly walk that evening, we noticed that it was bulk trash day. It was a little later than normal for us to be out on our walk so I suggested we walk a different route. On our different walk, we noticed someone had place two very large Barbie houses out for to be picked up for trash. I first walked by and Zach asked if perhaps we should pick it up for Gwen, because she had been asking for one for so long. I dismissed it at first because of my 2nd reason for not wanting one (too big). But, we had to loop around by the same house to get home and on that walk we realized that perhaps this could be one of those blessings that there is "not enough room" to receive. We recognized that if we love Gwen as much as we do, perhaps her Heavenly Father loves her even more and provided this abudant blessing for her. I relented and we walked back home to get Pedro so we could load it up. When we got home, the kids were in bed so we carefully carried it up to the third floor to await Gwen's discovery. Only thing is, she didn't go upstairs at all the next day so Zach and I decided to call her up to discover it. This turned out to be so much better because we were then able to see her expression when she found it- it was priceless! We shared with her that it was a gift from a loving Heavenly Father, a blessing from tithing.