Reed's 9th Birthday

 Reed's birthday was on a Sunday this year, so we started him out partying on Friday night with all his friends. I think the highlight for him was that they were able to stay until after dark and exhaust themselves with spooky yard games. Oh, the running and the screaming...so joyful! Then Sunday, presents and cake and doting on him every moment, of course. He got a new bike and is finally getting really good at riding it - starts and stops all by himself. We love him so much!

I have to share an experience I had involving Reed recently. As the Primary President, and because of Covid, I was working on a digital primary program (a video), and thought I had it all done. I had been collecting songs and comments and lots of cute clips of the kids, and had arranged them all in a sweet, spiritual video, then saved and uploaded it (ready to play in Sacrament Meeting) and considered it done. A couple days later, I came home to the quiet house after dropping the kids off for school and was suddenly overcome by a strong impression. The Spirit told me I needed to include Reed's testimony in the video. I felt it so strong that I started to pace around and feel a little anxious (like urgency), like I wanted to get back in my car and go pull him out of school and do it right then. But instead I knelt down and prayed and promised Heavenly Father I would obey, and told Him I was sorry for not consulting Him sooner; for not asking Him what He wanted to have in the video. And as I prayed another strong feeling came over me - I knew and understood that Reed was a very special and important person, and that I am very lucky to be his mother. And I cried and cried and knew it was true.

After school that day, the first thing I did was find Reed and tell him how special he is and how thankful I am to be his mom, and when I got him home I recorded his testimony - and I'm so glad I did! He told about an experience he had while reading the scriptures and an answer he received when he prayed to know if they are true. It was very pure and powerful! Now that I have added his testimony to the video and re-saved it and uploaded it again, I have felt peace about it ever since.

In addition to being very grateful for Reed, I am also very thankful for the intense personal revelation that is coming to me in these increasingly intense times.

Romantic American Road Trip

 "America is beautiful, and vast. I'm grateful that there are still wild places that we can go. It makes me feel very primitive; primal." - Scott Gordon

Our road trip across the country was a little bit like a blast to the past. All along the way, we tried to put ourselves in the shoes of the people who first experienced all the things we were seeing/experiencing. Our first interesting stop was in South Dakota at a Mammoth dig site in the Black Hills (and I mean a LOT of mammoths - it was supposedly a sink hole that trapped dozens of them and other prehistoric animals). It was crazy to think that those massive animals were just wandering around here at one time.

Next we went to Mount Rushmore. This was a favorite for me. I admire the artist/sculptor (Borglum) for choosing the men that he did - American Presidents who fought for, founded, expanded, preserved, and improved this country (on a Covenant Land), and saw it for what it was: favored and blessed by God. On one of the informative placards put up for the tourists, there was a quote by Abraham Lincoln that stood out for Scott and me and made us think of our country's contentious climate today. It said, in a jist, "though passions may strain, they must never break our bonds of affection for each other." Definitely going to work on living that and spreading it around. We also visited the Crazy Horse Monument and its Indian Museum. I love and admire the natives of this land for all they suffered, for their culture that adds beauty to ours, and for our spiritual connection to them through the truths found in the Book of Mormon.

Next we geared up to hike the highest peak in the Black Hills (and east of the Rocky Mountains) - Black Elk Peak. It will be hard to convince anyone of the beauty of the Black Hills with just words; I hope the pictures will do it some justice. We hiked alongside and underneath mountain-high megaliths, standing around like statues. I kept saying "This feels like something out of Lord of the Rings!" There was a Depression Project Fireman's Lookout/Castle/Fort at the top that was fun to explore. Of course there's always something spiritual about reaching the top of a mountain, but this one was REALLY high, and its views were soul stirring. I kept thinking that the strain and the effort were so worth it. I thought about how Moses, Nephi, the Brother of Jared and Jesus all went into the mountains to commune with God. They could have knelt down by their beds, but instead they put forth great effort to hike up and find God. I thought that our efforts to get up to the Temple will be rewarded in the same way. It's hard to get there (Satan makes it hard for us and we make it hard for ourselves), but the effort is worth it. The Lord loves and appreciates our efforts. He responds to them.

On the way west to Yellowstone, we took a little jog off the main highway to see Devil's Tower (a sky-scraping rock in Wyoming - fun to see its massiveness  in person). We slept in Cody, WY outside the East Gate of Yellowstone Park so we could get an early start seeing ALL the things. Half way into our day, however, there was a forest fire in the Park, that led to road closures, that led to a horrific traffic jam. Glass half full - we spent half the day seeing cool stuff and going on awesome hikes (brightly colored geothermal pools, geysers galore, Old Faithful, Grand Prismatic Spring, and Fairy Falls). Glass half empty - we spent half the day sitting in traffic, almost ran out of gas, couldn't eat dinner and had to sleep in our car! We decided not to stay in Yellowstone a second day.

On Sunday morning at 4:30am, we were too cold and uncomfortable to sleep anymore, but that gave us a big head start on driving for the day. We headed south through the Tetons and Jackson Hole. We stopped in a valley around 9:00am, parked in front of a scenic lookout (Big Horn Cliffs) and had church - we studied Come Follow Me and read some Ensign articles. It was a good kick start for some great Gospel discussions on marriage and family during the long hours of driving. As we were going along we realized that we weren't far from the Martin's Cove Visitor Center. Had to go a little out of our way, but it ended up being one of our favorite parts of the trip. We saw Martin's Cove, Devil's Gate, and the Sweetwater Crossing Site. Wandering around in that area, with the afternoon sun bearing down, turned out to be a strenuous hike in itself, but while we were out on the quiet trail, we saw a pack of wolves trying to corner a herd of deer, way off in the distance. It was so thrilling, we stood and watched for a long time. We left there feeling a deep sympathy and love for our Pioneer forebears.

Monday morning (Labor Day) we woke up in Scott's Bluff, Nebraska, with nothing left to do but start the last leg back home to Kansas. First though, we had to stop and visit Chimney Rock, which was also conveniently close by.  This was a sweet experience. I know that several of my lines of ancestry passed through that place, trying to gather to Zion. And my Great Great Grandfather, Mark Ephraim Beazer was born there as his British convert parents were on their way, with his older sister Eliza Ann (after sailing the Atlantic), to the Salt Lake Valley. I felt so honored to stand there, even though I stood next to my conveniently fast and efficient vehicle on a paved road (a stark contrast to their experience). Before we left, we honored the pioneer dead in the nearby cemetery by reading their names and remembering them. One of the grave markers belonged to Mary Murray Murdoch, famous for saying, "Tell John I died with my face toward Zion." Mary Murdoch was a widow who had immigrated from Scotland and was trying to join her son John and the Saints in Zion. I tear up to think that she didn't make it there in body, but because of her and others like her, my feet are on that hard and rugged trail,  and my face is pointed Zionward as well.

Scott and I took this trip because we had already booked the time off for a romantic anniversary cruise to Iceland and Ireland (which was painfully canceled due to Covid). Our backup road trip around America, with several historic stops, was probably the perfect remedy for feeling sorry for our spoiled rotten selves. All we needed to celebrate us, was us! And after 144 hours on the road alone together, we are even better best friends.