This week was full of the usual things.  Savannah didn’t have a cross country meet, but she did have practices.  Sarah had two tennis matches which I got to see.  Her coach matched her with Alyson and switched them to JV and they have been summarily creaming their opponents ever since – as well as having a great time being together.  They’ve even been staying after at practices so they can play more!  Megan cheered at two football games.  Mariah played in a soccer game on Wednesday.  They all had music lessons!

The weather has been wonderful and Mariah and Cheyenne and Calianne have been playing outside each day afterschool.  They’ve made a “hotel” over at the neighbors and have been having a great time.  They didn’t want to wait for the leaves to fall!  Who can blame them for wanting to play such a great game?

I arranged for a couple of playdates with Bethany last week.  So she has some new friends and had great fun.  She continues to have the most fun with Cali and Cheyenne, though.  This means that they get to have Benjamin with them, too, as Ben has taken to following Bethany most everywhere.  That is unless Beth is doing something boring like watching TV.  Then Ben climbs and explores.  He is fearless – and creative.  It is much easier to get onto a stool when you first climb onto a chair don’t you know.

The big news for the week is that Sarah had a birthday and turned fourteen.  Crazy girl!  Didn’t we tell her on her last birthday that that was far enough?  Ah well. We can’t deny that she is turning into a beautiful young woman and deserves all the very best that life has to offer her!

On Saturday, she wanted to go ice skating with some of her friends in the afternoon.  So Megan and Sarah and Hannah and Allyson and Sydney went ice skating.  Afterwards, they had me stop at Reams for ice cream cones and a walk home.  Sidney had to leave after that, but the rest of the girls stayed and had pizza with our family.  Then they strung Christmas lights along the back porch, brought out speakers and an ipod, and played Pit and other loud games.  They also danced a bit on the picnic table.  Mariah and Rebekah joined the crowd, too.  Actually, so did the boy who lives in the house behind us, but we won’t mention that, because boys are not allowed!  He did a good job hiding while the picture was taken.

 

Sunday after church we went over to Grandma and Grandpa Gazdik’s for dinner and cake and presents.  We were so excited because Kayla took a break from all that socializing, I mean studying at BYU, so she could be with us, too!  She ended up giving Sarah her favorite present:  a BYU t-shirt from a real BYU student.  How cool is that??

We gave her some shirts, too.  Bethany decided to try some on.

You always get help opening presents in this family.

Really?  My house?  Our local high school puts these banners on the houses of some of the students for special occasions.  This past weekend was homecoming and, as Savannah is an athlete on the cross country team, she got a banner on her house!  Wow!  I have a high schooler!  (Have I mentioned that?)  I guess I had better start getting used to it. . .

Speaking of Savannah and cross country, she had an invitational this past Friday in Kiwanis park in Provo.  (The same park, I might add, I used to bring her to play when she was three years-old and her dad worked in the building nearby.  Was I nostalgic?  I was thunderstruck!  How did all those years go by so fast???)  Anyway, it’s a good thing that she comes back when she runs away (unlike when she was 3) because I would not be able to catch her anymore.  She is fast!  Even in the rain and the mud, of which there was aplenty on Friday, she ran a great race.  Kevin and I paced up and down the field (yes, in the rain) catching her at different spots to cheer her on.  There were about ten teams there and hundreds of kids.  They ran both JV races first and by the time the girls’ varsity teams raced, the pathways, though grass, were seeping mud.  She was rather spattered at the end!  That’s a true cross country race!

Sarah had her first tennis matches this week.  I went to watch her play at her second match which was here at Springville.  She and her partner lost the first time they played and won the second.  It is fun to watch her play and develop this skill. 

Megan cheered on Wednesday and Saturday.  She has a lot of fun doing it!  She and I went shopping Saturday, too, as she needed new jeans.  We had a good time together.  She is a cheerful girl!

Mariah had soccer on Wednesday and Saturday.  Mariah had a couple of really stellar shots on the goal! Her team as a whole is getting better and better.  I can’t believe she only has two games left!  I’m sad!  She is so fun to watch!

The twins are settling into their school schedule.  They practice piano in the morning, so they don’t have to do that after school.  Kevin and I also decided that we can count the time we spend in family scripture reading for their reading homework.  That frees up a bit more of their afternoons!  Now, if we just didn’t have to do math! 

We had a friend come over to play with Bethany one day last week and she had great fun!  As soon as Cali and Chey are home, she buzzes off with them to whatever house they are visiting that day.  She loves to join in their play!  Benjamin’s new favorite thing to do is pry the keys off of my laptop’s keyboard.  That is a very expensive new pastime. Fortunately, when Cheyenne is home, he is vastly entertained by the grasshoppers that Cheyenne still loves to catch!

He looks like he wants to get it out and play with it, but he does not.  Cheyenne is still the bravest when it comes to bugs in our family! 

Sarah made the tennis team!!  Go Sarah!  She has improved tremendously since last year, which not only means greater respect, but even more importantly, it means more fun!  Matches start next week.  (FYI:  Since we live so close to the junior high, she walks herself to practices and back!  It’s no more work for me.)

Megan decided against doing tennis this year.  She decided violin and cheer and school is enough.  (Actually she decided school and cheer is enough but her mother is rather stubborn about that whole musical instrument thing.  Unfortunately for her – she thinks!)  Kevin and I got to go see her cheer this past week since on Wednesday her team was at home here at the high school.

She has a lot of fun.  She does a good job, too!  That is her friend Parker in front.  Go Mustangs!

Savannah had cross country practice after school all week AND was healthy enough to go all week.  Go Savannah!  They had a huge meet Saturday morning at Soldier Hollow (where the cross country skiers competed in the 2004 Olympics).  It’s a beautiful place!  Savannah didn’t notice, though.  She said the route was two miles uphill and the last mile straight down – enough to be scary!  The two miles uphill was enough to make her sore the next day and decrease her time, which discouraged her.  We reassured her that it was the hill that slowed her down!  It sounds like a very hard course.  It’s so great that she is in good enough shape that she can even attempt it, let alone do so well!

These three older girls also had Young Women in Excellence this past week.  (Our church has a program for the girls 12-18 where they complete requirements, earn ribbons in each of seven values, and finally earn a Personal Progress Award.  This meeting recognizes progress on earning that award.)  Our ward’s young women leader was saying how she was thinking the other day, “Those Skinner girls are sure good girls.  I wish there were seven of them.  Oh, wait!  There are!”  Funny, huh?  We’re glad that they are loved and appreciated!  Savannah earned two ribbons, Sarah earned two, and Megan earned her very first!  Savannah conducted the meeting, Megan gave a talk, and Sarah played the piano for the opening and closing hymns.  Wow!  You know, they really are good girls.  I feel so blessed to have them.  They are working hard and doing good things and what’s even more, they’re nice to each other and to others.  I love them to pieces!

Mariah had a bye for her soccer game midweek, but did play on Saturday.  She has this great coach who never gets mad and talks to the girls so patiently and has practices with them all season.  He is a rare find.  It is fun to watch her team progress, too, as they start to catch on to the things he teaches them and implement it into games.  Saturday’s game, for instance, was the best so far!  I had to laugh, though, because the other coach who was also obviously a very good coach, too, was a very different personality.  Toward the end of the game he would holler to the girls on his team, “Don’t get emotional!  Just get back into the game!”  Which is a nice way of saying, “Quit crying!”  Heh, heh.  I bet no one has to holler that at boys’ games!

So, if you’ve been paying attention, you’ll have noticed that on Saturday morning, Savannah had a cross country meet and Mariah had a soccer game.  Megan also cheered at a football game in Salem (or was it Payson?).  Not to be outdone, Kevin ran in a half marathon and I tried to get under 27 minutes in a 5K.  Not a bad morning, huh?  Kevin did great in his half-marathon.  He ran with a friend of his, so he didn’t push himself for a personal record.  He still ran a very impressive time and was not at all worn out at the end of his 13.2 miles!  He is a fast runner and in great shape!  Go Kevin!  On the other hand, while running my fastest time since having children and coming in first in my age group (another medal, yay me!  I’ve decided that it is very smart to run in these 5Ks that are paired with half marathons, because all the good runners run in the half!), the sad news is that I did not meet my goal.  Boo!  27:26 was my time.  SO CLOSE!!  Kevin says he will run with me next time and get me to meet my goal.  I am holding him to it!  I WILL DO THIS THING!

Cali and Cheyenne are getting used to the 2nd grade.  They are enjoying it for the most part.  Cheyenne does get a little sad sometimes in the mornings or at night and wish that she could stay home with me.  She is a tender soul.  On the whole, I think school is good for them and they are learning a lot.  I do wish, though, that they didn’t have homework in this grade.  They come home so worn out and so in need of some free playing time!  I hate to sit them down at the table, instead, and do more work!  It’s the pits.

Meanwhile, Benjamin, Bethany, and I are figuring out our days with just each other.  Benjamin gives great hugs now!  My little girls always went through a phase where they would just hug my face – intensely – which is painful.  Ben hasn’t done that.  He hugs around the shoulders – hard—and it is wonderful.  What a sweet boy.  He is still as determined as ever, though, and is no better at taking “no” for an answer.  In this picture he is smiling because he thinks that I am just as thrilled that he has figured out how to climb a stool as he is thrilled with himself.  Sorry, son.  I think the fish deserves protection at least when I am watching and able.  I know, however, that the fish’s days are probably now numbered.

He has found some new favorite things to do and they mostly involve imitating me.  He takes dishes out of the dishwasher one at a time, lays it  on the table, then goes back for another dish.  When he has plenty, he stacks them up and takes them to another place and lays them out again.  When I’m lucky, he ends by taking them back to the dishwasher.  He plays a variation of this game with laundry – clothes out of the basket, onto the bed, off the bed, back into the basket, pick up the basket, go to another room, repeat.  I have to admire the boy for trying to master a process which does seem to be so utterly pointless!  I have to say, though, that I’m glad to see him interested in something that is (mostly) non-destructive.  :)

Bethany is mostly watching a lot of TV.  I cringe to admit this!  I have always been so careful to keep my kids’ watching hours down to a minimum.  They’re good shows . . .  Anyway, we will work on it.  She misses her sisters!  I need to invite some little girls over, I think!

I am trying to figure out how much more time I actually have.  Not as much as I think is what I have basically figured out!  But some . . . 

It’s all good.

This past weekend we got to go on a pioneer trek in Wyoming at Martin’s Cove.

It was an amazing experience!  A member of our ward organized the event specifically for descendants of Martin’s handcart company and rescuers of the handcart company.  Kevin’s ancestor, Daniel Tyler, happened to be in the company on his way back from a mission in Europe.  So, we qualified!  There were about 150 people there.  I’m sure we were just a small sampling of all the ancestors from that amazing group, but it was a good size group to go trekking with.  The week before we left is a bit of a blur for me, as I tried to find pioneer clothes for everyone in the family (my ward helped me out a lot!) and did everything else to get ready. 

One event of note that we can’t let slip by is that Meg got to cheer for her first football game Wednesday night!  She had such fun and she looked adorable.  Her jacket even has her name on it!  Cool!

We needed to check in at the pioneer experience by 10 am on Friday and since it is a 5 1/2 hour drive, we needed to drive up Thursday night.  Grandma and Grandpa Gazdik came too and they pointed us our way in the dark to our campsite.  When we woke up, we found we were in a beautiful, remote place. The mist in the background is rising off of the Sweetwater River.  It was a beautiful morning.  The girls did each other’s hair while Kevin and I got things ready for our handcart. 

We got what we needed and drove over to the Visitor’s Center to check in.  Don’t we look like just a page out of history?? 

They had some games for the kids to play while we waited.  This one involved two sticks and a hoop.  It is a lot trickier than it looks!  At least for me.  :)

We saw a movie in the Visitor’s Center about the Martin Handcart company.  Right after that we got to pretend like we were still in Florence and we took a vote whether we wanted to go on or stay at Florence for the winter.  Martin’s group obviously decided to go on and, as we had just watched in the video, had watched many of their members die.  I wanted to shout, “Don’t go!!!!”  But the arguments to go on were compelling and I had, afterall, managed to get all those pioneer clothes and I didn’t want all that to go to waste.  So!  We were given our handcarts – one handcart for every ten people.  For us, that meant one for our family.  It would not be too much of an exaggeration to say that I didn’t touch the handcart the whole weekend.  We had some very willing volunteers.  My only trouble was keeping up with my eager girls!  And I run five times a week!

These girls were always in front . . .

and these girls in back!  Although, Cali and Cheyenne liked to come back and hold my hands as we went along.  Bethany was a good sport about riding in back.  She even used the buckets for drums towards the end.  She was very creative. 

Ben rode on Dad’s back in the backpack.  He didn’t much like the cart.  It may have been due to a bit too much attention from his big sister!

That first day we walked about three miles back to the campsite.  It was not bad.  The wind was our biggest trial, it being so strong that it nearly blew us backward at times.  We did need to go up one very steep hill through deep sand.  Before we ascended, they chose out three members of our group – one nearly dead who needed to ride, one very sick who could not help, and one already an angel who would stand along the path up the hill to watch over us.  It was very touching.  It was also very enlightening, as I did need to push this time, since Kevin, as Daniel Tyler needed to go oversee the company’s progress.  Wheels do not turn easily in sand.  But, seeing as we were last, men and angels came to help and took the handcart completely out of my hands.  Yes, the help of angels can make all the difference in the world.

 

Back at camp, the wind was still a blowing.  They had games set up for the kids and the little ones even got to make pioneer dolls.

  It was one of our most challenging times, though.  Dinner took a long time to heat up because of the wind.  The kids were worn out.  Some were bored.  The wind would NOT STOP.  I could not do anything about it.  I thought then, “I would not trade any of my trials for this trial of the pioneers.  THIS was a very hard thing.” –and it wasn’t even snowing and our food hadn’t run out and I would be in Utah in a little over 24 hours!  Perhaps I am not pioneer stock afterall.

Fortunately, Kevin did figure out how to get our food cooked and the wind did die down and after dinner . . . there was dancing!!

  What could be better than that?  I love pioneer dancing.  We had a devotional after that and learned some more stories of people in the handcart company.  It was a great day.

We were very thankful for our tent that night, too.  The wind came roaring across the plains again around midnight and beat up our tent for hours.  It was a little scary and VERY noisy, but our tent held up fine and we all got back to sleep eventually.

The next morning was cold (and windy) so we all stayed in the tent while Dad cooked us breakfast outside and I walked back and forth and was grateful for the warm moments inside the tent.  Yay tent!  We had a devotional that morning, too, and Kevin spoke about Daniel Tyler.  He did a great job.  We broke camp after that.  Soon we were ready and back on the trail again.

We hiked over to the entrance to Martin’s Cove after that.  Grandma and Grandpa were troopers.  It was great fun to have them with us. After a picnic lunch, we abandoned our handcarts, and hiked the path into the Cove.  We stopped at a smaller cove first and had another devotional.  As we rested here, I took this picture of Kevin talking with fellow pioneers as I am sure his ancestor Daniel Tyler had done once there in that very spot. Martin’s Cove is a long narrow area between two low mountains.  The handcart company went there seeking shelter from the snow storm and I am sure, the wind, which is brutal and we experienced first hand.  They were waiting for the rescuers which they knew were on their way.  Still, 56 died in the three days they waited.  What a place.  What a sacrifice.  What a commitment to their faith and to their desire to find salvation for their children.  Maybe I could be a pioneer.  As long as the “why” is strong enough, people can do amazing things.

Finally, we crossed the Sweetwater River.  The Martin Handcart company had to cross the river through broken ice and frozen feet.  We crossed it on a nice, warm day, but we did it quietly.  We tried to remember them.

After the crossing, we headed back to the Visitor’s Center to turn in our handcart and head home.  I think Bethany had gotten kind of attached to it, though, since as we were driving home she asked us if we had remembered to bring our cart!  We got home around one in the morning.  Was it hard?  Yes.  Was it wonderful?  YES!  I’m so glad we went!  I learned so much.  And I even think that Wyoming is beautiful.  My camera does not do it justice!