Father and Son Campout

I'm proud of Ammon that, despite his extra busy work and school schedule, not to mention just having had the babies and the passing of Abigail, a recent houseful of guests and the like...he decided to make time, even taking off work, so he and Connor could have some bonding time alone out in the wilderness...with a whole bunch of other dads and their boys at the annual 

Father and Son campout.

I always love sprawling out on logs first thing in the morning, don't you?

One good night's sleep = One happy camper

that's one big tree!

  

sunburned

sassy

safari guy

warning to other campers:

this trip caused...delirium...huh?!!,

boredom
(so, whatcha wanna do...I know, blow bubbles!...with my mouth!)

a spattering of fear,

and a touch of craziness!

But all in all, it's times like these that make all the trouble to get there worthwhile, ahhh.

Mother's Day

So on Mother's Day we headed up to the cemetary where we have our precious Abigail buried.

(I'll post more about the funeral and burial later- it's been enough time that I think I can write about it soon).

I was so choked up with emotion here. I hated seeing GRASS starting to grow on her grave!! That means it's been awhile since she's been gone and I hate that thought. It's painful and jerks at my heart all over again. The grave seems so final (even though I know it's not...).

Quite a juxtaposition- my living daughter next to my spiritually alive yet physically dead (http://mormon.org/faq/life-after-death/) daughter at her earthly resting place.

 

My boys resting (Amelia was asleep) while I pondered and thought. What mixed emotions I had! Here I was celebrating "Mother's day"...not with all my children...in a cemetary. I struggled with those feelings of loss all over again. But I do have to say, having had twins and still having one has helped to fill the gaping hole I had in my heart when my Abigail passed away. This first holiday was pretty hard for me.

Easter was more hopeful than I anticipated (the joy of the resurrection due to Christ's Atonement http://mormon.org/faq/atonement-of-christ/ swallowed up my pain) so that day does not hold sad memories for me. Of course I still cried but they were hope-filled tears of joy.

Silly cowboy boot in my face ;)

We're all here

Daydreaming

Our sleeping princess

Hope

Great-grandparents: After the cemetary, we visited with my grandparents in Chandler. This was their first time seeing Amelia since she was released from the hospital. My grandparents weren't able to visit Amelia in the hospital due to grandma's health. 

Amelia being held by her great-grandma Rosemary Spears.

With (Great) Aunt LaDonna (her first time seeing her too).

Amelia's photo shoot

 

Bats!

Austin's famed Congress Avenue "Bat Bridge" houses "the largest urban bat colony in the world". Quite a claim to fame. So, we were in- we wanted to see it while in Austin this time. (As a side note- we wanted to see it last time we were there in August but didn't make it. Connor made this his choice to see given the choice between this and the Albuquerque Hot Air Balloon Fiesta that I had planned to catch on my drive over from Tucson to Austin. I'm actually glad for the bat bridge choice as Albuquerque was a lot further of a drive and more out of my way than I thought- a 7 hour drive!).

So, we went to see the bats last Friday night as part of our "Trailer Crawl" outing. My sister Laura and I took the 2 older kids (my Connor and her 2-year-old Olivia while her husband watched the twins and Amelia- he was brave!). Austin has another surprising claim to fame in their food trailers- they're quite gourmet and very popular. We made a progressive dinner of it starting with Moroccan Burgers- very yummy. Then crepes (I love crepes- I guess I'm a frenchie at heart), a tasty taco from another trailer and finished with a big rattlesnake donut from this fancy exclusively donuts trailer. It was definitely the kids' favorite with a coiled foot-long gummy rattler on the top!

Between the trailer hopping, at about dusk, we made our way to the Bat Bridge. We parked at the newspaper parking lot and headed to the park staging area which had signs posted about the bats. Very interesting- apparently these bats come from Mexico and the mamas come to the Austin bridge to have their young. There are some 1.5 million bats under there. It was hard to believe they were all under there as we waited in eery near silence because we didn't hear or see anything but we certainly smelled something-  bat dung, pee yew! Between complaining (thank you Connor) about the smell, the kids played in the dirt (there was a jogging path under the bridge area), checked out the other kids and waited for the main attraction.



This is the view we had of the bridge as darkness fell.



So dusk finally came and we started to hear squeaks of bats waking up. Then streams of bats came flying out. They came out very fast, so fast that we had a hard time seeing them. If you could see wind blowing, that's what it looked like. Connor looked and said he didn't see anything. He was getting really frustrated and said "mom, I don't see any bats...there aren't any bats...I don't believe in bats!"

This is what we expected to see and nothing was what we actually saw.





I thought it was pretty funny that he was getting so worked up but I tried to squelch my gaffaws since he was obviously irritated. He wanted to leave seeing that he didn't see anything. Then I got the idea to go on top of the bridge (you can see from underneath or on top) so up the stairs we went. We went to an area where lots of people were (thought that a good bet) near a street light and eureka! We saw BATS!! They were easy to see streaming in the artificial light. Connor was now a believer :)

Simple enough for a child to understand

Things Connor says...so I don't forget:

Tonight at bedtime I was talking about how we need to be quiet to hear the voice of the Lord (Think story of Elijah which I briefly tried to share) and Connor said in response that he wanted to stay in bed all day so he wouldn't get upset with Olivia (we're visiting here with them now in TX) so he could hear what God says. I told him that that's the challenge to keep our calm and be patient everyday so the Spirit can be with us. He then said he would be quiet all day and not say anything so he could hear the voice of God. I told him that that seems like it would be nice to be off somewhere removed from people (think monks) but I said again, that is the challenge- to live everyday in this world and still be still enough to hear the Spirit teach us the right way to go. I told him that the voice of the Lord is more a voice you feel than a voice you hear and we talked about how you feel the Spirit. Such a cool conversation.


When I told him about the story of Elijah he wanted to sing it and add it to the song 'Follow the Prophet'. I told him we could work on that tomorrow and share them for FHE. He wanted to also do verses for Joseph Smith, Moroni and Abinadi. That should be a fun project tomorrow.

I also talked to him about how we need to be happy about living the Gospel-- he's been very grumpy about Gospel things lately saying he doesn't want to go to Church or read scriptures. I told him those things help us follow the path and that it's really hard to stay on the path sometimes. That there is one right way and we are here out of Heavenly Father and Jesus' presence to prove ourselves. That there is one right way and we need to be quiet enough to hear the Spirit so we know the right way to go. He said "mommy, there should be signs to keep us on the path." Oh how I love that kid! I said that there are! That's why we go to Church and have the commandments- the "signs" along the path- that tell us and help guide us the right way! He's really a thinker. He then said we should make a movie (one of his favorite things lately) with signs that show the way. My mind wandered for a moment and thought how cool that would be! The simplicity of the Gospel, "simple enough for a child to understand", portrayed in a movie that could help others to see it's simplicity too. Ah, the wisdom of a 6-year-old. I told him maybe we'll make one and put it on youtube- ha, we'll see!!

In the Air Force

Well, it's official- Ammon is now in the Air Force Reserve.

Taking his oath.

Going from full-on civilian in casual jeans (I thought he should have dressed up more) to soon being in uniform. The guy issuing the oath is wearing the Air Force uniform (the camouflage) which is what Ammon will be wearing everyday for his training. I wanted to see Ammon dressed in it and to get a picture before he left but there just was not time. He was frantically finishing up his last class (early) before he left (more about school below).

He flew out today to Alabama for Commissioned Officer Training. He'll be gone for 4 weeks. Then home for 10 days then back for his first tour for 2 months with the other Chaplain Candidates. He's pretty excited and hopeful this will be what he feels it will be.

This possible career change has been a long road so far and something he (we) have been working on for a long time (at least 18 months now). Because he will be a LDS Chaplain and we don't have a paid clergy in our Church nor do our leaders go through seminary (not early morning-ha ha (or cushy release-time like Ammon did) but a divinity school), he has had to take correspondence courses through a divinity school out of California. [As a side note, this school does not like Mormons. He has been told by the Church military department that if they knew he was LDS, that there are professors there that would fail him. He (or any LDS) is also not allowed to take courses on their campus- why, are you afraid we'd convert your ministers-in-training?! He's only allowed to take independent study courses, which is what he's doing]. These courses are necessary for him to gain credit acceptable to apply as a chaplain for the military. Ammon has also taken a BYU LDS military chaplain class (part 1 done and part 2 to go) to prepare him. He will be done next Spring with his coursework- yeah, can't wait!! It's been hard having him working full-time and going to school full-time. He studies every spare moment. We totally thought we were done with the "being a student-thing". Ammon made the comment that he was a student when Connor was born (getting his Master's from CSU) and is now in school again when the girls were born. I hope this isn't a pattern where he'll be back for more schooling when our next babies come along!

When Ammon was leaving today he asked Connor if he will miss him. Connor said "no, I'm not going to miss you, I'm going to remember you." Ammon liked that response. Pretty intuitive for a little 5-year-old, eh? So, see ya honey, we're so proud of you and we'll be missing...errrr...remembering you!!!

Great-grandpa's visit

We were so privileged to have Ammon's grandpa visit for Amelia's blessing. He brought her a copy of his published life history called "Glorious Struggle". He read the inscription to her that he wrote inside the front cover. He has been traveling around to all of the great-grandchildren's blessings in the past few years. What a legacy he is leaving for us all.

We so love you Great-grandpa Gordon!!

Tombstone- "The town too tough to die"

Ammon's grandpa was here and wanted to see this famous Old West town. Walking down the streets was like you were transported back in time (except for when you saw the cars...). We had a yummy lunch at the O.K. Cafe. It was in an historic building that was around back in the infamous gunfight days. After our tummys were full, we had a great time strolling around and even dressed up for some old time photos. This was a four generation shot with great-grandpa Maughan, grandma Larsen, Ammon and Connor and Amelia. Cool! We had such a fun day!

Thanks great-grandpa and grandma for visiting and enjoying this fantastic day with us!!