Pioneer Children sang as they walked and walked and walked...

...Or as they watched their bus burn, like they did in our ward yesterday. They were on there way to Martin's Cove to go on trek. Here is the following story from KSL:

RAWLINS, Wyo. -- A handcart pioneer trek got off to a scary start when a tour bus taking some South Jordan teenagers to the starting location caught fire.
The real challenges for this group of young men and women from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints weren't supposed to start until their bus reached Martin's Cove. Instead, they found themselves with seconds to escape the burning bus.
"Within minutes our bus is engulfed in flames. Within literally 12 minutes the bus was completely burned to the frame." - Jeff Raditz, trek leaderFor many LDS teens, a handcart trek in Martin's Cove is a rite of passage -- a way to honor the pioneer experience. It's an example of faith and endurance.
"A lot of people died there. The people left Winter Quarters too late. They got stuck in the snow. It was 18 degrees below zero [Fahrenheit]," explained Susan Harker.
Harker's two kids, Avrielle and Craig, are on the trek with the young women and men of the South Jordan 1st Ward. The real danger, though, was in getting there and getting out of a bus on fire.

It all started with a flat tire outside Rawlins, Wyo., a couple hours away from Martin's Cove.

Trek leader Jeff Radditz said then entire bus burned in 12 minutes.  "Shortly after the first flat tire, we immediately got a second flat tire," said trek leader Jeff Radditz. "They fixed that within a half hour, and another half hour passed. We were on the road, and another tire went flat and caught fire." Radditz took home video of the bus burning on the side of the interstate. He took a cell phone picture of the end result.

"My daughter said there were flames coming through the floor of the bus as they were exiting," Harker said.

While the teens lost all of the supplies, some even their shoes in the fire, no one was hurt. The bus company sent a new bus, and the youth group stopped in Rawlins to take a vote on if they should continue. The decision was a unanimous "yes."

"All sorts of bad stuff happens in life, and you can't just lie down and die. You have to keep going. I think this is an important lesson for them," Harker said.

The group says they've been overwhelmed by the generosity of the people who stopped to help them, providing water, blankets and supplies.

I can't believe that this has happened, I'm just grateful that everyone is okay.  They are supposed to be on there way home today, they will definitely have stories to share with everyone.  It really brings a new meaning to "Please bless us that we will travel home in safety."  After I heard the news last night I couldn't get my mind to settle down, it felt like it was going a million miles an hour.  All I could do was think of them, and that I would have been one of the people on that bus.  I am so grateful for my ward!  I love all my young women!  And I am excited to see them!

Donut Falls

This last weekend we went on a hike up to Donut Falls! It was absolutely gorgeous, and a ton of fun! We went up with Amy and her kids, as well as the visiting Brazilian exchange students. We played in the water, which was absolutely freezing, but so refreshing! It was a nice way to spend our Saturday morning! If you haven't done the hike, I highly recommend it! All around it is about a 3 mile hike, with quite a steep incline. So be prepared with plenty of water! And don't forget your camera to take some pictures! Here are some of our pictures, I'm still waiting to get a copy of Amy's pictures.

Here I am starting to hike up the fall, and then there I am about half way up.

I am the one in the green shorts. :)

Nick really liked this piece of wood, it was amazing! When I was up there a couple of weeks ago for mutual I also noticed how amazing it was! It was so smooth and it looked like it has been there for a very long time!

I think that one of the reasons the wood is so soft and smooth is from the water that rushes over it.

Here's cute Nichole, she was throwing rocks into the water and she would start laughing! She was a good sport keeping up with everyone. I just had to keep telling her that it would just be one more hill.

I just really like this picture that Nick took. That is Matheus in the background, he is one of the exchange students.

My Country Tis Of Thee...

Happy late 4th of July! It was such a fun weekend!!! Full of a lot of things, parties, bbqs, fireworks and more parties! It was way fun! I think my favorite part of the whole weekend was doing fireworks! I love to light them and watch them, or I like to watch the ones that different cities do. So we started off Saturday morning having our pancake breakfast at Steven and Diane's. It was way fun, and super delicious! Diane makes the best buttermilk pancakes and buttermilk syrup, although I have to give credit to Steven for making the syrup, with just a little help from me and Diane. After breakfast we met Amy and Manny and the kids at Sandy Days. Which for me has always been a highlight of the 4th. I have done it since I was a little kid, and every year that I don't go I feel like I am missing something! But it was way fun, me, Amy and Nichole all got our faces painted, so much fun! It made Nick think I was a little kid, but who isn't a little kid at heart? And I proudly wore the paint on my face for the whole day! It was great to see all of the people's reaction to it! I got quite the compliments.

After Sandy Days, we went home to rest for a little while and so I could work on making dessert for Nick's family party that night. I made a patriotic ice cream cake, and firecracker bites, it was all so delicious! Then we went over to the in-laws house where we had lunch and then we went and bought fireworks! Then we came back and had an awesome dinner! After dinner we all went outside and started playing with some of the fireworks. Nick's brother brought him some firecrackers and he was in heaven! He also brought his potato cannon and we shot candy out of it for the little kids, it was great, we would shoot the candy out and they would all start yelling, "CANDY! CANDY!" and run after it like they had never seen candy before in there life! So that pretty much sums up Saturday, it was a very busy, but fun day!

On Sunday, we went over to my parents house, because they have Brazilian exchange students living with them for the month, so we had another big party over there! I again made dessert, which turned out to be heavenly! I made carrot cake, which I had never done before but it tasted so good! If I do say so myself! Then me and Nick,went out to the front yard and started playing with more fireworks. Eventually, everyone came out and started watching them. It was quite the day!

We both had the day off on Monday, so we didn't do a whole lot of exciting things. We did do some cleaning that I have been wanting to get done for a very long time, so that was nice. But other than that, it was a nice relaxing day! I hope you all had a great holiday weekend!

St. George adventures

The last weekend of June we had the chance to go down to St. George for a couple of days and watch my brother play basketball in a tournament. It was quite fun! I loved the heat and the sun! And the team was way fun to watch! They came in 2nd place in the tournament, they won 11 games out of 13. And they sadly lost to Copper Hills, who is one of the rival schools, but at least they beat them during the actual season. So, I guess it is okay. But while we were there, we stopped by the St. George Temple and took some pictures, and we also stopped by the Jacob Hamblin house. We also got to see a gorgeous sunset! It was absolutely beautiful, it made me so grateful for the beauty of everything around us. I think there is something so majestic about the redrocks in St. George! I can't even begin to describe the beauty of it! Here are a couple pictures of our adventures!