Vacation and Opening of New School Year All Rolled into One!

We took a trip up to UT to meet with the C, B, and H families to celebrate our theme and opening of a  new school year!

On the way, we visited Cove Fort...

Visited Lawni and her crew and saw their new home...  

We also stayed with Peri and Dallen and visited the V Family,  but didn't get any pictures!

Reuniting with the C Family and it feels so good!

Two little ladies happy to be out of the car and exploring the C's backyard!

Once everyone got to the C's, the older kids did a Book of Mormon read a thon!  531 pages in 24 hours!  These kids are amazing and didn't want to stop to take breaks- they were determined to finish within 24 hours!  They did sleep for about 7 hours, and took breaks for meals- and I think we made them go jump on the trampoline once when things were getting a little squirrely.  But aside from that, it was reading, listening, or acting it out for the whole 24 hours!  Truthfully, I didn't know how much you could get out of the scriptures by reading them this quickly, but the Book of Mormon is powerful and the Spirit was strong!  Of course, we were all familiar with it and the stories in it, so reading it this quickly acted as a good reminder to us and a quick overview of such an inspiring book.

 All smiles as we finished right at the 24 hour mark!  These are amazing kids!

 Here is Camden showing us SCRIPTURE POWER!

A well deserved swim at a beautiful pool after all that reading!

 After the Read-A-Thon, we headed up to Bear Lake for some more fun.  The original plan was to go to Bear Lake, which is not far from the Martin Harris Pageant, and go to the Pageant to learn more about the coming forth of the Book of Mormon.  Well, after we had already figured out days that work for all 4 families, found a lake house that would fit all four families and reserved it, we found out the Pageant did not start until the following weekend. We couldn't change our plans at this point, and figured we could still do a lot at the lake house for our opening of celebration of school.  The first night at the Lake, Moroni, a prophet from the Book of Mormon, came to visit all the kids.  He gave us a challenge to dig deep into the Book of Mormon this year by learning about the principles and civilizations in it, and to learn about other ancient civilizations, like Egypt, Greece, and Rome.  He gave us school shirts that say "Discovering Lost Worlds".  We are so excited to search the scriptures this year as we dig into the past to learn about what was going on around the world in those ancient days!  

After Moroni visited, we did a fun activity teaching Lehi's dream (see our Lehi below) to show importance of holding on to the Iron Rod, or word of God!

We also spent 2 days enjoying the water with a boat, wave runners, and paddle boards...

And exploring around the rental house...

 Saturday morning, before hitting the lake, we went to Minnetonka Caves.  So cool!

At the end of the tour, the tour guide asked if we wanted the "Spiritual Tour".  We said sure!  She said she usually only does it for Girls Camp groups, but felt like our group would appreciate it!  She turned off the lights in the cave-so it was about as black as it gets- and we had to hold fast to the iron rod handrail to get back to the lighted portion of the cave.  I'll admit it was a little creepy especially since I was the LAST person in the long line of people holding the rail, and I was quite aware of the bats we had seen flying around earlier!  Of course, once she turned the lights on, she related Lehi's dream to us and the importance of holding to the rod, and to each other, to help us through dark times in our life.  It was a perfect way to relate this tour to our school year and our study of the Book of Mormon.  So glad she was inspired to give us that "spiritual tour" and we were inspired to teach our kids about Lehi's dream just a few nights before!  It is neat to see the Lord's hand in our school theme!  

Just crazy kids having fun!

This "Band of Brothers" as we call them are all made from the same cloth.  It is so fun watching them together as all they need is each other to have the best time ever!

Another neat thing about this trip was that after our second day on the lake, to no one's fault, we got locked out!  A few kids thought we might starve to death once the random few snacks that were left from the lake were gone and we had been out there for about an hour.  After many failed attempts to get inside, and thinking the owners would have to send someone from Logan, which is an hour away with a key, Tanner suggested we say a prayer.  Within about 10 minutes after the prayer, a certain teenage boy who may have a future in breaking and entering, was able to pick the deadbolt lock with a credit card and no damage done to the house!  Don't ask how he did it- again it was the Lords hand at work!  I was so glad the kids were able to see a prayer answered so quickly and obviously.    

Handsome boys at the BUSIEST sacrament meeting I had ever seen!  Every classroom was full and people were even sitting in the hallway at this Bear Lake ward sacrament meeting!  Nice to see all these good people taking time away from their vacation to attend church and keep the Sabbath Holy!

Our annual "In order by age" picture... 

 Band of Brothers saying goodbye...

And with a stop at Bridal Veil Falls on the way home, and again at Peri's and then again in Vegas our trip was over and we are excited to start digging for the Truth as we uncover lost, ancient lands!