Mom Days

It's the little things that make Mom days.  This was my Mom day yesterday:

Brian leaves early in the morning to be at work by 6:30 and we get all the kids up to pray and read scriptures before he leaves.  After, most of the kids go back to sleep on the living room floor for awhile.  Peter brought his blanket up to my room and fell asleep on my bed and slept for nearly 3 more hours!  There is nothing sweeter than a child curled up in a blanket peacefully sleeping, hair all askew and body burrowed into the bed.  These are the mom moments I never tire of and that I will never forget!

Trek

Andy and Emma went on trek with our stake this last week.  They left on Tuesday and got home on Friday.  Emma went on trek with our last stake last summer and got to go again this year.

This trek was at Martin's Cove.  When I asked her the differences between the two she said that the trek in Utah was more physical and harder that way, this one was more spiritual because they were at the actual sites.  They also crossed the river three times which she said was a lot harder than she thought it would be.  Andy had a really good experience as well.

The girls from our ward that went on trek, from left to right: Ellyse Russell, Sage Jones, Emma, Saydria Russell, Caitlyn Cottrell, Mackenzie Cottrell

All the youth from our ward.  Andy is the second from the right.

Elder Edholm--week 3

Ok so first off sorry for not answering you're questions last time, I actually realized that I didn't answer them right after I signed off, but anyway the scripture that I want to go on my plaque is Mosiah 23:21-22. Elder Beach is going to the Santiago Mission, and there are six others here right now that are going to the West mission, two sisters and four elders. Oh and I told Elder Beach that you are praying for him, and he didn't say much, but I could tell that he was pretty grateful for it because he's told me that his mom has never really been there for him, and he's never met his dad.

Well we went contacting at the University last Friday, and we're gonna do it again tomorrow. Basically we just walk around the university talking to people, and handing out pamphlets and Book of Mormons if we can. But it was really great, I can't wait to do it again tomorrow. These people really shocked me because they're just so open, even if they're a member of a different church they will still talk to you and have a discussion about your religion. I'm already starting to love these people because they're just so kind and have the desire to talk to you. I could really tell that they liked talking to us because they looked interested and when we walked away they would start reading the pamphlet. And we were able to communicate with them okay, they understood most of what we said, and I could understand most of what they were saying.

Oh and the first counselor of the MTC presidency here and his wife lived in Orem. I keep meaning to bring this up, but I keep forgetting. And they lived in the Sharon East stake I think, I don't know if that's the same stake that Grandma lives in.

'Till next week

-Love,

Palmer

Elder Edholm and Elder Beach

Elder Frogley and Elder Edholm with Elder Beach in the background

All the Elders at the MTC

Yellowstone Part Deux

My friend Candace just sent me these pictures she took.  We had so much fun together!  Our kids should go on trek more often so we can take off on these fun adventures!

Me, Holly, and Candace

Smile kids!

Candace is above us taking the picture

Threesome selfie!

That is Old Faithful Inn behind us.  There are lots of random strangers at the park to take your picture!

Three musketeers for the day, Candace, Holly, and me

Three younger three musketeers, Maren, Lucy, and McKenna

Some Asians  wanted to take their picture also!

Our twin vehicles!

Yellowstone in a day

Eric, Lucy, Peter, and I and our friends Holly Mickelson and her daughter McKenna and Candace Cottrell and her daughter Maren left at a little before 7:00am for Yellowstone yesterday.  We spent one of the  most incredible days of my life in that wonderful park.  We drove back home at 11:30pm!  Wow, where else in the world could you do a day trip to Yellowstone but Wyoming!

Let me see if I can describe some of the highlights.

I drove my convertible and Candace drove her twin convertible (mine is blue, hers is red and the blue one used to be hers before we obtained it!).  Riding in a convertible through Yellowstone is the best way to see everything, no obstructions!

First of all as we drove into the park we stopped at a lookout and immediately noticed a ton of cars pulled over to the side of the road and cameras being whipped out.  We stopped and asked what they were looking at and one man pointed out a bear and her two cubs.  He told us he has been watching her for a week and that she has stayed in this crater like indention the whole time.  We could barely see her she was so far away.

Lookout point we stopped at, view of the lake

The bear and her cubs were down the hill behind us a long ways

Peter in action.  You can see the Teton mountain range in the far distance

So happy to be at our first stop

We then went to Fishing Bridge. The kids were looking at the tadpoles and Holly and I were chatting on the walkway next to the road when a man yelled, "get out of the way, he's running right towards you!"  We looked up and a bison was running right towards us!  We quickly called to the kids and we ran across the road to the other side.  The bison followed us!  It was very freaky, they are HUGE animals!  Fortunately the traffic on the road slowed him down a bit and then he ran right passed us, we could have reached out and touched him!  He then ran up the bank and on to his destination.  Peter thought it was the most awesome thing ever!

We saw lots of elk with huge racks and many more bison, they were everywhere, next to paths and on the road.  I also so a pelican, which I've never seen before and watched it eat some fish.

Old Faithful was really inspiring and worth the wait to watch it spew into the air.

Old Faithful before

Lucy waiting to capture a photo

All the kids waiting and waiting and waiting

Starting

Thar she blows!

This crater was really cool and the Forest Ranger was explaining how hot the water was with an aerial photo.

Holly on the left with the kids looking at the photo

But my favorite had to be Dragon's mouth.  It sounded like a real dragon and looked like it too!

Dragon's Mouth

We went on a little hike to the falls and it was worth every step, so beautiful and incredible.

Upper view of falls

Us before the hike down to the falls

So absolutely beautiful

View from the top of the falls looking down

Candace is on the left, then Peter and Candace's daughter Maren looking down at the falls

Lucy and her sunglasses 

This is up a bit looking down at the falls

The mountains and river above the falls

More mountains above the falls, they were so beautiful I couldn't stop taking pictures of them!

Eric and Peter on the trail down to the falls

Rock hole to sit and rest for a moment

McKenna on the left, Lucy and Maren sitting on the right.  Lucy rode with them and Candace the whole way and loved being with the BIG girls!

We drove around and this is the falls from the opposite direction

The grand canyon of Yellowstone was really awe inspiring as well.  We were almost done for the day and getting a little tired!

My picture doesn't do this sight justice.

Trying not to look as tired as they were!

Walking

Lucy found a cute chipmunk to take a picture of

On our way out we came to a spot where all the traffic was at a stand still and people with huge scopes and cameras were out.  We knew it had to be a bear.  It was Raspberry and her cubs and they were right next to the road!  Wow, she was beautiful and her cubs were so cute!  The sight was so incredible to me it almost brought me to tears!  I've never seen a bear that close before and it was a surreal experience.

Here we are coming up on the bear.  There were so many dead trees because of the beetle blight, it was sad to see.

Here she is, this photographer was violating the rules of getting closer than 100 yards.  The ranger was on his way to tell him to back away.

It's hard to see but one of her cubs is off to the left.

We got home late and were tired and sunburned, but no one cared.  The kids were troupers and never complained even though they got really tired!

This was an experience I will not soon forget!  I only wish the rest of my family could have been with us!  Peter asked me if I thought Andy and Emma would be this tired pushing their handcart on the trek this week as he was!  And just a humorous ending, when we were getting gas in Cody there was a bunch of Mennonites there dressed in their traditional clothing.  Peter asked me if they were going on trek too!