I HAVE A 1st GRADER!!!

Today August 23, 2010 marks the day that Madison Paige McDowell began 1st grade!!!! She was so excited this morning! She got up at 7:30am when her alarm went off, ate all her breakfast. and didn't even fight to do her hair!! Her backpack has been packed since Saturday, and her clothes had been picked out for a week or two. Since this year is what they call a "Unified Dress Code" Madison has the choice of dark jeans, navy blue or black pant/long shorts/skirt/dress, on the bottom and a solid polo on top. With the color restriction of red and blue because they are "gang" colors! Good thing she has the option of pink. We are accessorizing with hair bows, and shoes since the uniform is pretty boring.

Zachary was a little bummed when we took Madison into her classroom. He didn't even want to take a picture with her. They gave each other a hug it was so cute. I don't think that he realizes that she won't get home until 4pm! I will have to find some fun things for us to do.

Before we got in the car!

This is the full uniform look. Don't ask me why she is posing like that!

Outside the school. Here she is again posing, this time with her lunch!!

I don't remember having a locker until 6th grade!


She has a seat at the front of the class! She was so excited to have a real desk and notebooks! She only knows 2 maybe 3 kids in her class from last year. I'm sure she will come home and know everyone! We are so proud of our Madison. She is so smart and on top of it. I know that she will excel in 1st grade. We love you Madison, have a great first day of school!!

Yeehaw!

Last night we had the opportunity to go the the Caldwell Night Rodeo. Our good friends Scott and Michele had a few extra tickets and we were invited to go! Madison has been asking all summer when we were going to take her to a rodeo. Here in Idaho and just over the border in Oregon there are a TON of rodeos to attend all summer. There are big ones like the CNR (which is on the national circuit!) and little county ones.

The kids had a blast. Every event was something new, and I tried to explain each of them. I grew up going to rodeos, even my dad was a bronc rider and a rodeo clown! Madison's favorite part was when the girls would ride by. They wore sparkly shirts and their horses were decked out in pink. Last night also happened to be "Tough Enough to Wear Pink Night!" All the cowboys/girls wear pink shirts in support of Beast Cancer.

Madison couldn't wait for barrel racing!

At the end as we were walking out the 2010 Rodeo Queens were signing pictures and handing out free hats! Madison and Zachary both got personal autographed pictures of the girls and a picture to boot. (Travis had my camera on his fishing trip so I had a disposable , I will post pictures as soon as I can!)

Trek Day 4/5

Thursday morning we had to get up at I think 4am, break camp and help serve breakfast. It was breakfast burritos that morning. We boarded the bus and headed for Salt Lake City, Utah. Awaiting us was a soft bed, running water, real toilets and not to forget a SHOWER!!!! We were able to do some sight seeing Thursday afternoon. Our friends Kristen and Robert came and met us at the Conference Center, they asked us what our plans were and what time we had to be back. Dinner was provided at the hotel at 6:30pm, however we didn't feel like fighting 250+ people for KFC. So they took us to Chili's instead! We had a great time.

It was fun to catch up with such great friends. Carly and Brandon are just younger than Madison and Zachary.

Now on with the sight seeing tour of Temple Square. Travis and I haven't been to Temple Square since 2002. So it was fun to see all the sights.

Travis said the first thing we had to do was go to the top of the Church Office Building.
On our way we couldn't pass up the opportunity to take this picture. This is a pedestal for taking pictures. It's mostly used by newlyweds! We took the same picture back in 2002!


At the top they have an observation deck for a 360 degree view of the city.
We saw tons of things and learned a lot from the lady who gave us a visual tour.
This was my favorite shot.

After we were done up here we did the North and South Visitors Centers.
There were so many things to see. This is the newest and coolest thing to see in the South Visitors Center.

It's a 30th scaled exact replica of the Salt Lake Temple. There were no details left behind. From the sun, moon and stars on the outer walls to the carpet and murals in the ordinance rooms. It was pretty cool!
Here is the inside.

Every detail is exact. The original Temple took 40 years to construct, and was a great blessing to the Saints when it was completed.

We had such a great time in Salt Lake City. On Friday we ended our trip at the Assembly Hall. We had the opportunity to hear from Elder Grow of the Seventy. It was a pretty neat experience. We ended the trek on a good note. We had a great week and enjoyed every minute of it. We were grateful for the opportunity to attend, and very grateful for my parents taking the kids for 10 days!

I think I would do Trek again in a heartbeat!

Trek Day 3

Day 3 was Wednesday. We woke up fairly early, I think it was around 4:45am maybe 5am that day. We broke camp, had biscuits and homemade gravy for breakfast. We then had a 2.5-3 hour bus ride to the Martin's Cove Visitors Center. Once we arrived we filled water bottles, grabbed our carts and had an orientation meeting with the senior missionaries. We watched a few videos about Martin's Cove and the crossing of the Sweetwater River. Then we headed out. We had about a 1.5 mile walk into Dan's Cove which is where we parked the carts and had lunch. Dan Jones was part of the rescue party that helped the pioneers in the Martin Handcart Company. He had a cove named after him, and this is where we had a small fireside meeting.

The was the Cart Park! There were rows and rows of handcarts ready to be pulled!

After we were done in Dan's Cove, we the began the hike into Martin's Cove. It was about a 3 mile loop. Lot's of hills and not a lot of shade. The Martin Handcart Company arrived in the cove in the Winter of 1856. There was 19 inches of snow on the ground and they took shelter against the mountain side.

Our hike into the cove.

This is the lower part of Martin's Cove. There was also an upper ridge, mast of the pioneers camped here in the lower ridge.

When the pioneer's came to the Sweetwater river, many broke down and couldn't face having to cross it. It wasn't very deep but it was partially frozen and at this point the could go no further. So 3 young men (teenagers) from the rescue party, carried the women and children as well as the weaker men across the river. In our reenactment we did have a few young men from each company carry a few girls across. Others used the bridge, unlike the pioneers who could not afford to cross the bridge and in turn they had to cross in on foot.

Crossing the Sweetwater River.

Day 3 total mileage was around 6 miles. It was probably our hottest day. We then camped at Cherry Creek campground, and had hamburgers for dinner. We also had the "Pony Express" come in and deliver letters to the youth. Day 3 was pretty fun. Next post will be of our time spent in Salt Lake on Temple Square.

Trek 2010 post 2

Hello I am back with day 2 of trek 2010! Tuesday was Rock Ridge day. It was a 15+ mile hike in 85 degree weather. Travis and I did not participate in this hike because obviously, I am preggers!! And was strongly advised against it. However we were in charge of about 17 youth who also didn't go. At the Willie Handcart visitors center, there were tours and videos for us to watch. We also tied and finished 2 quilts in the Humanitarian center.

This was pretty cool for the girls. Some had never tied a quilt before. There were 3 boys including Travis. One tied quits because he had really bad blisters and the other one did manual labor outside with the Senior Missionaries.


Since we didn't participate in Rocky Ridge, we were bused around the mountain to the campsite at Rock Creek Hollow. For those of you who don't know the story of Rocky Ridge/ Rock Creek Hollow I will fill you in.
The pioneers in the Willie Handcart Company did Rocky Ridge in the dead of winter and 13 had died do to exposure and exhaustion. Rock Creek Hollow is where the mass grave of 13 were buried. One of these men William James was the great great Grandfather of one of our Trekkers. She was able to participate and the see when her great great Grandfather was buried. Two men in the company who dug the grave and buried these Saints, died 2 days later due to exhaustion. They were buried up around the hollow in 2 unmarked graves.


This stone was along the path to where the 2 men were buried. They were part of the 2nd rescue party.


Next are a few picture of what our group endured during Rocky Ridge. There was a few mud bogs that the carts had to pass through. The BLM owns the land and they had some serious rules that we had to follow.


After these brave Young Men and our Bishop pulled the carts through they had to continue to hike in these clothes and shoes. The mud was like a badge of honor!

Last is a video of the first and second company coming in from Rocky Ridge. They were very excited to be back! Hope you enjoyed day 2. Tomorrow will be Martin's Cove.

Trek 2010 post 1

Hey all! We survived a week of sleeping in tents, waking up no later than 5am, long bus rides, and not to mention all the fun we had. I am breaking these trek posts up into days. So this is Trek post 1 day one, the following posts will be labeled the same way!

Okay, so the trek started off with a 14 hour bus ride from Caldwell, Idaho at 12:01 am. Our bus didn't get quiet until about 2 am, the again at 4am. Some buses took longer than that to get quiet!! I didn't take pictures of the bus ride seeing as how it was not my favorite part of the trip! Don't get me wrong, we had some pretty good laughs and made some pretty good memories. However, you try sleeping on a bus full of teenagers being 15+ weeks pregnant not the best times of my life. Anyway on with the show!

First off, this is my bucket! Everything I needed for 4 days had to fit in my bucket! Sometimes it all fit and sometimes it wouldn't!

Here is Travis nice and clean fresh off the bus! We weren't assigned to a family so we just put our stuff on any cart that was available! This is right before we hauled all of our stuff into camp at South Pass.

The one and only picture from my camera of the 2 of us! We were clean and smelled nice! Everyone was craving a shower by Thursday!


This is either right before or after we crossed the river 3 times! This was at the Sixth Crossing. The water was above my knees and it felt pretty good. This was the first day and this part of the trek was 5-6 miles long and included the Women's pull. Many of the women pioneers we often left to pull the cart by them selves, due to the death of their husbands and/or the Mormon
Battalion.

This was the first crossing. The carts were pulled through the river. The first crossing was a silent cross, to help us remember what the pioneers had gone through.
The subsequent crossings we were able to splash and have fun!


Waiting for our tun to cross.


Okay this ends day one. It was an incredible experience and we had a blast. Day 2 will come tomorrow.