Going Home

The title of this post has a dual meaning. Last week was crazy. We received some news from Cameron's family (I hope she doesn't mind me sharing) that his sister, who was due around the 9th of this month had been having some complications and in the end had lost the baby. How sad, how very very sad it was to hear this. I can only image the preparations that had been made seeing that she was due in just a week or two. So, with that news we started looking at ways to make it home and luckily Cameron's employer was very flexible and accomidating. So much so that he let us take one of their planes so that we could fly ourselves up to Washington. Driving would have taken an eternity and plane tickets were pricey, plus we wanted Cameron's other sister who lives in Rexburg to be able to come with us as well. This was the best plan. We had planned on leaving Saturday morning.
2AM Saturday Morning: Kaity comes running in our room saying, "Sissy throwing up!" Oh geeze...Sure enough she's throwing up. All of a sudden I get the urge to do the same and there stands poor Cameron with two sickies on his hands. This ritual continues far into the day so that cancelled all travel plans. By later that night Breanne and I start feeling better but then Cameron starts to feel icky. It seems like this will never end. Cameron makes it through the night without visiting the bathroom or the need of one of our trusty bowls, lucky devil. Sunday morning rolls around. The girls and I are chipper and feeling almost 100% better and Cameron seems to be fairing well. We decide to make the trip after all.
Around 11 AM we take off for Rexburg to pick up his sister. The flight was bumpy. Breanne and I were still recovering a bit so we weren't feeling real great and had our eyes closed for most of the trip. Our first stop to get fuel couldn't come soon enough. Filmore, UT never looked so good! After eating a bit of something we got back in the plane and made the rest of the way to ID. We were almost there, we had made it more then 5 hours in that small plane, 20 mins until landing and all of a sudden Bre yells, "I'm gonna throw up!" And she did. In the only empty plastic bag I could find and it had atleast 2 holes in it. Needless to say it was a mess, but mostly on Bre so we just had a quick wardrobe change in flight and that took care of most of it. We finally landed on solid ground.
The next morning we left bright and early and had terrific weather. Not a single bump. Okay, right before we landed in WA we had a few little "roller coasters", that's the only way I can describe the feeling. After a couple of those Kaity says, "More fun, Daddy! More fun!" We're all thinking, "No more fun, please!" That pretty much sums up how Kaity did the flight there. Nothing phased that kid and when we had all that turbulence the first day she kept asking for crackers and cookies while Bre and I just held our sensitive stomachs.
Okay, the whole reason we came. We got to Cam's parents on Monday. Tuesday they had planned a small funeral with just family. Cameron's dad prepared a talk about the special spirit that had come it to the world, ever so briefly and the blessings that the Lord has promised to us if we stand faithful. That Mike and Larissa would get to raise this child, not in this world, but in a more perfect place. That the blessings of the temple bring us the knowledge that we are forever families. That this little child will watch over them and their children and comfort and uplift. His talk was awesome. Not without tears but so powerful. Doug amazes me. He's a quite type of guy, but when it comes to matters of faith he just blows me away.
This isn't my trial but by watching them go through this and put their little Celeste Hope to rest I was in awe of their strength. It's moments like these, the ones where we don't have any answers of why, that make me so profoundly grateful for this Gospel. For a Father in Heaven that gives us these trials, these road blocks in life, that try us, that try our faith, but that teach us so much. And allows us to feel the love that he has for us. Because that's the only way to get through things like this. The events in life that can so easily break us. To know that Heavenly Father has a plan and we need to put our trust in Him and let Him lead us. Larissa stood as an example to me. I know her days couldn't have been easy, I know they weren't, but she continues on. I know she probably prays daily for strength to get through, but she's received it. We ended the funeral by letting some white balloons go with messages written on them. It was a beautiful sight to see all these messages floating "up to Heaven" as Larissa's little boy Austin put it.
So, the title of the post. Going home. Yes, we did but so did Celeste. She was named such to remind us that she's in the Celestial Kingdom with our Father. I'm glad that we were able to come and support them and to spend the little time we had there.
I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Kayaks and Birthdays

 We got to go on this really amazin kayaking trip last Wednesday. It started at the base of Hoover Dam and ended at Willow Beach (not even real sure where that is). To get to the base of the dam they took us on this restricted road that we had to get permits for. A person escorted us down and had to observe us the whole time and didn't leave until we started paddling away.
The morning was B.E.A.Utiful, no wind. It was a perfect day to go down the river. While we were waiting for everyone to get their boats ready to go I was sitting on the rocks with one foot in my kayak. I was going to fix my seat real quick but didn't realize that the rocks were so slippery. I serisouly fell into the river before the trip even started. The guy who escoted us did say that he had never seen anyone slip in so gracefully :) That made me feel better. So I got to check the water out before everyone else. It was about 40-50 degrees. Yeah, a bit chilly...

Watch out guys. Those rocks can be slippery...I would know.

 There were lots of little places to stop along the river. Hot springs and what not, but we wanted to try and find these hot pools. This little canyon that were hiking up? Not the right way to the hot pools but we didn't realize that until we had hiked almost half a mile in. Come to find out later that trail led to the highway. So we really added an extra mile to our trip. I think that hike spent everyone more then the paddling. By this time in the day it was well over 100 and not many of us were equiped for hiking as we were in water shoes and bathing suits. Oh well, now we know.

This was the sign on the REAL trail to the hot pools. I guess a couple people in our group didn't see it on the way up and dunked themselves completely...it does say it's rare. Lets hope that's true.

 We had to climb this ladder to get to the hot pools. The first pool that's at the top is pretty warm. We described it as Bullhead City tap water. Yes, living here in the desert we don't have cold tap water in the summer and turn our hot water heaters almost completely off. Anyway, the first pool was like that and the second was like a really hot hot tub. The third one was burn the flesh off your legs hot. Maybe it was just because my chins got burnt but seriously I couldn't stand to be in it. I had to run through it!

Cameron's in the background making his way to the "flesh melter".

 Ahhh, beautiful...but the wind started to pick up in the afternoon and the stops becam less and less as we tried to paddle against the wind. It was down right brutal at times. Our friends were in a double kayak and his wife hurt her shoulders, not on the trip, and couldn't paddle so he was paddling that thing by himself in the wind, with another kayak tied to the back because on the trip one of the other ladies slipped and hurt her wrist. It was quite the sight and at times he couldn't even keep it facing down river. If I hadn't been trying to keep myself facing down stream I would have taken a picture. The day ended at 5 when we finally reached it to the pull out spot. Phew!

For Cameron's birthday he wanted to go out to eat. Here in Bullhead there aren't a lot of places to choose from and we hadn't been to Lake Havasu City yet so we headed down that way. I don't think there's an original idea in all of Havasu. They have the London Bridge, you know...the one from London, and they have these mini lighthouses from places across the country. Why they can't come up with their own thing I'll never know. Anyway, for fun I made Cam and the girls get their picture with one of the mini lighthouses.

It was windy. Well, it's always windy.

THE London Bridge.

Randomness over the last 2 months

I've realized that I have neglected to off load my camera in the last couple of months. Oops. So here are some pictures from Easter, our trip to Big Bear Lake and other randomness that happens at our house.

My Bre turned 5 on May 1st!

Poor dog in a choke hold. This happens often.

Tea Time

We had an Easter Egg hunt with some kids from our church

Breanne looking a lot like "Gus Gus" right here.

Big Bear Lake

 We took a trip to good ol' Riverside, CA a couple weeks ago to visit some friends out there. I brought my camera but for some odd reason I didn't take any pictures with it. Here's a couple I took with my phone. I got to see the baby that was born the day after we left town (that I didn't take a picture of!), walk Mt. Rubidoux once more for old time sake, run a 5K with a jogging stroller and play with my former softball team, "I'd Hit It" (which means I got to see Rae and Dane. I wish we could have spent more time together).

I'm hoping that this summer will bring some more exciting posts. Here are some of the things we have planned: A kayaking trip on the 15th of June that starts at the base of Hoover Dam (thanks to a lovely lady who is kindly watching our kiddos that day!!! Thank you Sandy!), 18th is Cameron's birthday, 19th is Father's day, the girls and I are taking a trip to Utah on the 27th of June to visit long lost friends (YAY!), 4th of July (don't know what yet but it's always fun, right?) and to end our summer of vacations we (the girls and I) will fly home to Washington for 2 weeks the end of July (courtesy of my Mama. Thanks, Mom!). Breanne starts Kindergarten on the 8th of Aug. So now you all know our schedule for the next 2 months. Hopefully, I'll remember to take pictures.

Oh, and on another note. I know I already put up here that Cam was going to start getting trained in the seaplanes but he's about one flight away from having his first student. His boss also told him that as soon as he's good to solo in the buccaneer he can take me on a flight. It sounds pretty cool because you can put the landing gear up and down in the water. There's a restaurant in Lake Havasu City that's on the river. I guess you can fly the "buck" down there, land in the water, put the gear down, go up the boat launch and park it in the parking lot. SWEET!

 He also took his ATP written (a test he has to have completed to get a job with an airlines) with an 86%. Now, that may not seem too impressive but listen to this. This test has only 80 questions but it pulls the 80 questions from a test bank of 1500! It's basically memorizing everything that you possibly can and then going and taking the test...immediately before all the information falls out of your brain. He had to go up to Vegas to take it which is 1.5 hours away. He took a practice test the night before and got a low 80. The say to expect about 10% lower on your actual test. You need a 70% to pass so we were expecting him to barely pass this thing and he ended up with a pretty decent score. Just made me proud that he was able to pull it out and get it done.