Letter - Best Week of the Year

I'm posting this a few days late.

To see pictures of the events described in this letter click here: 

To see a video of our clear creek cliff jumping click here:

Sunday, July 27, 2014

We've had a nice week. We are on our way home from Snowflake after a fabulous Flake family reunion and Snowflake Pioneer Day celebration.  I love my family and my wonderful pioneer heritage and I love Snowflake. I hope that when we retire Chad and I can build on the lot my mom and dad gave us and be snow birds. We could live in Snowflake in the summer after the horrible spring winds have stopped and stay until it gets too cold in the fall then move back to Gilbert.  It would be super awesome if we could build a reunion hall with a big kitchen and mess hall/recreation hall. But I will still be happy without all that if it doesn't happen.  It's just fun to dream about.

Monday we went to Spencer's school to get his schedule for Jr. High!!!  It's so exciting for him and for our family that he's going into Jr. High. He said he's a little nervous though and bummed that summer is over.  He will do well. He's excited to try out for flag football in about a week.

Tuesday the kids and I packed up and headed to Snowflake. We left Chad at home to work and then on Thursday after work he caught a ride up with our nephew Ray. It was SO SO hot as we packed up to leave. It was well over 110 degrees all week so we picked a good week to head up north. The weather in Snowflake was beautiful.

It was nice to get up to Snowflake a few days before all the reunion festivities started so we could be more relaxed and not have to worry about getting to all the events on time. The kids and I had fun playing with our Snowflake cousins and also Kayla and her kids before everyone else arrived on Thursday afternoon. The boys got pretty good at riding horses. I even helped them catch the horses one day.  I think they were impressed with my cowgirl skills.  If not, at least I impressed myself ... until I stepped in a pile of poop and had to wash my shoes. I rode a horse again for the fourth time since my accident and for the second time this month.  I gave Tilly a ride on my mom's horse Business for a while in the arena.  I was super nervous about getting on because Business wouldn't hold still. It took me a long time to finally do it. Kayla was laughing at me and Spencer was in the arena cheering me on saying, "you can do it mom!"  I don't really like riding horses in an arena because it’s boring.  It would be fun to go riding on the range and move cattle again, but I'm probably too chicken to do that anymore.  Tilly and Marlee loved riding on the horse.  Karalee even got on this time!!  She agreed to let her cousin Lindsey give her a ride. She didn't like it much though, she was too scared.

Thursday morning I took the kids minus Tilly and plus Jaki to hike Four Mile Knoll. It is a very short hike. We had a good time. That afternoon the boys and some of the other older cousins went to swim at Tom's pond.

Friday morning was the Flake rodeo. It was fun but it was a bit hot and dusty. Bryant did the barrel race and Spencer did the grocery race with Kayla and my cousin Lisa. All the kids got to chase after the money calf and do the foot races and the boot race. Friday afternoon I went home to rest and cool off before the Flake program and was too lazy to go back into town to attend it. Friday evening Kami, Jennifer Marie and I were in charge of dinner. We served hamburgers and hotdogs, watermelon, veggies, chips, cookies and lemonade. It was fun to prepare it and clean it up with them.  Chad and Spencer went to the temple to do baptisms for the dead with several of the other cousins while we prepared dinner.

Saturday morning was the parade.  Spencer marched in Teresa's Mormon Battalion entry which she was asked to organize by the Snowflake Heritage Foundation. The other kids had a good time collecting candy from several parade floats. After the parade was over we quickly went home and got ready to drive over to Winslow to go cliff jumping at clear creek. We took all of our kids with us and put life jackets on the girls. Doug and two of his boys Todd and Ryan came plus Rend, Ray, Alden, Trigger, Manasseh, Rachel and Taden.  Trigger who is only 5 jumped off the cliff we call dragon's head 3 times. It's about fifteen feet high!!  He was awesome.  Chad impressed and dazzled us with his cliff jumping skills.  He even jumped off Brad’s rock which we’ve determined is probably about 50-60 feet.

Last night we attended the Snowflake rodeo.  It rained on us and was a bit cold but that made it more memorable and it was still fun.  Travis, Taden and Todd did the grocery race but finished last as they had a hard time getting all three of them on the horse fast enough. Tyler and Hayden participated in the world championship keg race, which is the crowning event of the Snowflake rodeos. Hayden won $1000 and a nice shiny new belt buckle. I suggested to him that he needs to wear his new belt buckle on his mission as it will be a great conversation starter. He agreed.

This morning we had a nice lazy morning before church since my Mom's ward didn't start until 1:00.  Bryant and the girls had lots of fun catching frogs with their cousins before it was time to come in and get cleaned up and fix their hair.  All the girls and their cousins wanted an Elsa braid (Elsa is a character in the Disney movie Frozen) this morning. Tilly's hair still isn't quit long enough for an Elsa braid so she got two Anna braids (Anna is another character from Frozen.)

We had a nice dinner of sweet pork burritos after church and had a good time visiting until Chad announced we needed to "leave if we were going to stay ahead of the weather." (Name the movie that quote comes from and maybe I'll send you a surprise!)  There was not really any bad weather by the way, he was just being funny.

Now that everything is over and we are heading back home I'm going to miss staying up late and visiting with the family, especially watching Kayla laugh so hard that she cries when she tells her new jokes.  I'm also going to miss watching my kids play with their cousins. There is such a special bond between cousins. They can go months or years between seeing each other and still be best friends when they get together again.  Things aren’t always perfectly perfect when we get together, feelings get hurt, there are lines for the bathroom and to get dinner, there aren’t enough beds and it can get crowded but I still look forward to getting together.  I love my family.

My quote for today is from Elder Uchtdorf. "Love is spelled T I M E."  When you love someone you will spend time with them. I glad I got to spend time with my family this week.

 Love,

 Mindy

 P.S. Here are some of Kayla's jokes:

 "Why can't you hear a pterodactyl go to the bathroom?

 .... Because the p is silent."

 "Why can't you catch elephants hiding in trees?

 .... Because they're really good at it.