Easter Campout!

It has been a family tradition since I was a little girl to go camping on or around Easter weekend. Because of different family members schedules, we went a couple of weeks early this year. My sister and her family were also not able to be there because of a funeral. Besides missing having them there, we all had a really good time. We spent the night at my grandpa's cabin on the Arizona Strip and on Saturday we went on like a five hour 4-wheeler ride. It was a little cold so everyone had to bundle up, but once the day went on it turned out to be great weather. Because the size of our family is bigger than what would comfortably fit on our 4-wheeler, the kids rotated around riding with grandma and grandpa and uncle Trumbull and aunt Dally. Thankfully they were okay with having extra bodies ride with them.


We stopped at this old cabin that was built in the 1940's for some of the sheep herders. Inside the cabin many of the original items were still there. We found newspaper articles and magazines from the 1950's. Along the concrete walls people had carved their names and dates of when they had visited the old cabin. It was really neat to see so many names carved into the walls.

We had lunch at the base of a bunch of boulders. Everyone loved climbing around the rocks. I couldn't believe how well my kids did with climbing. It actually made me a little nervous to have them so unafraid of the heights. Some Indian writings on the rocks.
Grandma and Treyson on top of a big rock.


We spent most of the day riding on the 4-wheelers and the kids were such troopers. Even Traxton did great and took two naps on my shoulder. I am so grateful to have such fun family traditions that started when I was young and have continued on so that my kids can enjoy some of the same things I enjoyed as a kid. I am also so lucky to have Jared who enjoys these type of things and is willing to go along with some of these crazy adventures that my family comes up with

Family Fun!

Our kids had worked really hard with their homework and obeying all our rules, so we rewarded them with a trip to the bowling alley. They had a blast and were so funny to watch. Ashten came up with the idea that pushing the ball was easier, and it must have worked because she ended up with a better score than me. Pretty sad!



I thought it would be easier to just put all three kids in the bathtub together, but I was wrong. They had a lot of fun playing with the bubbles together, but it took a major strategic effort to get them all out without any of them drowning.


Anytime Jared is busy doing anything Traxton has to be right there "helping". Jared loves having him be so interested, but the down side has been that a lot of tools and parts have gone missing. Jared was changing the shocks in his truck with his little helper right there waiting to help out.

Busy little Bees

This past weekend I went with Jared and his dad to take a load of bees to California. As most of you know, Jared and his dad are beekeepers and they have a contract to pollinate one of the farms just north of Bakersfield, California owned by the LDS church. They have been taking bees down there for the last five or so years and I have never been, so I thought it would be fun to go and check things out. When you travel with bees, you have to travel at night otherwise most of the bees wont be in their hives and you would just move a less than full beehive. So we left town around nine with the trailer loaded. I think my role was to help keep the guys awake while they drove, but sadly, I failed. I pretty much slept the entire way. (The trailer loaded with beehives)

We got to California early in the morning and the guys got the beehives unloaded in the almond orchards. Jared wanted to show me around a little since it was my first trip, so we went over to their processing plant and had a little tour. I was amazed with the efficiency of the process. Although, being as it is owned by the church, I shouldn't have been so surprised.

Here are just a few items that I found very interesting.

*The almond orchard where we have a contract is over five miles wide and they want every blossom to be pollinated by bees. Over 25,000 beehives are brought in for about six weeks every year by different beekeepers. It costs them over $5 million to pay for the pollination. We were also told that this is the cheapest expense the farm has. (Jared and I standing in the almond orchard. The trees were just starting to bloom. I only wish I could have seen the orchard in full bloom. Jared says it is beautiful)

*Every part of the almond nut is used in some form or another. The shells are separated and used in animal bedding, like what you would buy to fill a hamster cage. The spongy thing that surrounds the shell is blended together with other stuff to make cattle feed. They make about as much money on these parts of the nut as they do on the actual almond. The almonds are shelled and sorted, they actually had a bin full of almonds that were "flawed". After they are shelled and sorted, they are boxed up to be shipped out. We were told that most almonds are sold to countries like India and china. (One of the piles of shells taken from the almond nuts)
(Almonds being dumped into the boxes after being processed)
(All of these boxes were full of almonds that were ready to be shipped out)

From the planting of new trees and the pollinating of the blossoms, to the finish product of shelling the almonds and sorting them and their by-products for purchase was such a detailed process. I was totally amazed with the efficiency of how things were ran and organized. It just reminded me of how inspired our leaders are in many different areas.

I loved being able to go with Jared to see where he has been taking the bees and to be able to spend that time with him, too bad I slept most of the trip. I couldn't think of a better thing to do on our Valentine's Day weekend.