Richland Stake Trek

It was forecast to be up to 107 degrees the first day of trek when we looked the night before.  I posted on FB for some prayers for us that we could do it safely and that the meteorologists would be wrong.  I actually said that if they go outside and feel hot to say a prayer for us on trek. When we woke up Monday morning the weather forecast had changed.  It gave a 20 percent chance of precipitation and the temperature was forecast to go down to 98 degrees instead (I’d take that over 107!)  When we went outside, the grass was wet with dew, so we thought that could be all the precipitation we got that day already done.

Cottonwood Ward Youth 14-18 headed out to the Trek. (Elizabeth’s in the front in the bright orangeish shirt.)

Andy and I headed out to the church owned property where the trek happens (Bing Canyon).  It’s on a part of AgriNorthwest, a church farm.

We collected all of this stuff because we are Pa/Ma and needed to have a lot of things ready for our family.  They told us we could have up to ten kids, so we opted to bring kind of large tents to make sure there would be plenty of room.

The carts all lined up and ready to be loaded up for the next several days.

Ma and Pa Ransom ready to go (and still clean and not super hot yet.)

The wards started showing up with the youth from the stake.  130 youth participated in the trek this year!  Elizabeth with her cute pioneer outfit.  She and Grandma Mary made the apron the week before.  She got the bonnet and skirt from our ward and I found the shirt at a thrift store for her to match her skirt.

All of us together before we were assigned our families.

After we were assigned our ten children, we headed around to different stations to collect some supplies in Iowa City.  At the hospital we all got babies.  The three families in our group (one from each company-including ours and Elizabeth’s) all got twin babies.  Other groups had babies with broken arms, some with colic, and another set that was adopted babies that they had to take to other families to feed them. Mostly I took this picture because that lady is super awesome and I helped a friend paint the canvases behind the shade in Iowa City.  She traced everything out and we had a painting party one morning.  It was great.  (I painted the sod roof on top of the hospital).

Our Ransom Family.  Six girls, four boys, and newborn twins.  We were ready to go!

Elizabeth’s family photo (don’t have an official one yet.)

Our company was the last one to leave, but eventually we headed out on our journey.

We had a flag to design.  One of our girls took charge of that when we had a few minutes to sit and rest.

We pushed, pushed, pushed the water with our kids.  The clue on the sole of my hiking boots that I bought before the trek four years ago melted due to the hot sand!  That’s how hot it was!  Andy guesses that the sand was close to 200 degrees.  There was duct tape holding shoes together all over the trail and we even passed by a few soles at the start.  Crazy!

I had to duct tape my left shoe together because the sole was starting to come loose.

Took shoes off at a rest stop to duct tape them and let my feet rest.  Had a little leaning party with my trek daughters so we could all rest our backs.

The first afternoon of Trek on June 26th when Richland and surrounding areas were experiencing a pretty terrible storm, with a lot of rain, hail, wind, broken branches, house fires from lightning, and flash floods, we were out on the trail with our families. The company Pa and Ma Ransom were in the green company which was assigned to be the last company of the day. We were down in the bottom of a canyon (best place to be when there is lightning) waiting out the storm.

Picture taken when we were at the bottom of the canyon with the other three carts in our company at the top just before they made them come down.

Our family got out a tarp and rested and talked about things and watched the sky.   We started to see lightning flash all around where we were.  The other carts that hadn’t come down to the valley yet were left at the top to get the kids down to safety.

Andy resting on the tarp.

One of our trek sons curled up a few inches away from Andy.  It was kind of cute.  He fell right asleep.  He was tired!

We were experiencing a lot of heat earlier in the day so the cloud cover was welcomed, but the storm didn’t seem to be hitting close to us. We looked up at the clouds and couldn’t even see ANY cloud movement above us. We were watching lightning strikes all around us, but missing where we were, right in the middle. We had more family time with our ten kids resting and talking and getting to know each other and also talking about faith. Other groups in the green company opted to do a more formal Family Home Evening and had their buckets out, sang songs, which was just what their family needed right then.

Some of our girls resting and waiting out the storm.

Eventually, they gave the signal that the rest of us could go up the huge hill, which the cart had to be tied with a rope and hauled up pulling on the rope like a tug-of-war, and the rest of us climbed up.

At the top of the huge hill after everyone was up, the wind started up again fiercely. Our family had to hurry and get out tarps for cover because the rain pounded down on us along with the dirt! It was wild!

Sorry these pictures are blurry.  The wind was too fast to make the camera focus.

After dinner I was shown a picture of the weather radar map that someone from Richland had sent to another trek mom that showed a donut looking shape of storm surrounding a hole in the middle directly where we were.

I know that we were protected from the storm with all of the prayers from those in Richland and beyond praying for us to be safe and protected. We did see a hill that seemed to be a long ways away that was on fire and there were trucks up there taking care of it. The next day we actually passed that fire while we were hiking. We heard that our Stake President, Don Powell was very busy with phone calls from concerned Richland Stake members worried about our youth out on trek because of the flash flood warnings and adverse weather conditions in Richland and the area. We were protected! What a miracle!

Wonderful week full of spiritual experiences: planned and unplanned.

That evening brought a beautiful sunset!

We set up camp when the wind settled down a little bit and made dinner in the back of a huge truck along with everyone else.  Dessert was a bundt cake that was steamed in a larger pot.  Ours turned out okay, but my friend’s didn’t.  She said it was terrible.  The water kept getting into her pan and making it a gooey mess.  I took her the rest of our cake that our kids didn’t want anymore of and they loved it.

Cooking breakfast the next morning in the huge truck.  It had been very windy all night.

Due to the fire danger in the area, this was the only place we were allowed to cook.  The rest of our meals were delivered to us.

We had someone take another family picture before we headed out Tuesday morning.

We came across a ‘rancher’ who happened to have a field of watermelons he wanted to share with us.  I think the food stops are the best.  Fresh, juicy watermelon is SO refreshing!  It was really hot this day too!

I like seeing when the wagons are all spread out.

A friend in our ward stopped by our house and picked up my tennis shoes for me so I could hike the rest of trek with a little traction instead of duct tape on the bottom of my hiking boots.  She was coming back for activities, so I switched out my shoes at lunchtime.

Another stop was ‘milking’ Bessie.  They had several stops that would determine what kind of lunch was given to each family the next day.  This is Elizabeth milking Bessie actually.

When we stopped for lunch, Elizabeth’s blue company was just leaving.  We snagged a picture of Elizabeth.  She was working hard and having a good time with her family.

We walked past the fire that happened the previous day.  So crazy!  So blessed!

Elizabeth at the end of day two.  Andy went around and made sure he had pictures of all of the kids in our ward for our ward newsletter.

We had a speaker who talked about choices and all about pioneers.

I didn’t take many pictures on the third day, but I did get some of my favorite part:  the steep downhill part where we turned the cart backwards to steer it down the hill.

They actually tell the Pa/Ma that we don’t need to help with the cart, but I wanted to help with this part.  Our oldest boy was helping with a backpack water sprayer for our company and another boy went home the first night because his feet that were already hurt from something else were hurting too bad (but he didn’t complain or even mention them the entire day and worked really hard all day!)  Anyway, I wanted to jump in and help here.

We had five of us across the bar and it was so much fun!

We took the cart across the ‘Sweetwater Crossing’.

And made it to Zion on Wednesday night.  Our green company and yellow company came into Zion together.  They wanted everyone to wait and come in together, but the blue company was struggling and was way behind us so they sent us in.

We parked our carts and went to wait on the grass for the blue company to come in so we could cheer for them.  Instead, one of the company leaders said that whoever wanted to was welcome to go and rescue the blue company who were struggling so much.  Nearly ALL of the kids jumped right back up and ran out to help.  At that point over 100 kids were on the trail trying to help with five carts.  They were so quick to jump up and help each other and I loved seeing that enthusiasm and love of each other.

Blue company heading into Zion.

Elizabeth’s family cart was the first one in for blue company.  She was right there in the front with some boys and they were running as they passed the gate.  I thought it was so wonderful that she was ‘running into Zion’!  She said they were pushing so hard that the kids in front had to run to keep up, but I like it anyway. She said most of the time she was up front with the boys in her family pulling the handcart.

There were several people in the blue company who were really hurting.  One had a super swollen knee that she’d had surgery on the previous year, a Ma had blisters all over her feet, another had a hurt ankle.  A few were super close to being sent home because they weren’t feeling well.  I’m glad they were able to stay and made it to Zion with their families.

That night we set up camp in Zion and had a feast!  The activities committee set up a pie eating contest for the Pa’s.  The Ma’s had to be behind them to help them wipe their faces afterwards. (There were a few stand ins because one Pa wouldn’t do it and another has diabetes), but Andy did it and nearly won.  If you are looking for us, I’m in the brown shirt.

They had a hoedown that night and a few moments of reflection as well.

The next morning we had a morning-side devotional. They shared some stories and then divided us into groups of two families to share testimonies before coming back to have the rest of the devotional.  It was wonderful.

Picture of Elizabeth next to her trek Ma on the last morning.  As soon as they got into Zion, both of Elizabeth’s Ma and Pa came over to Andy and I and told us how awesome she is.  I’m so glad she had this experience!  

We survived!  It was kind of nice to get home before noon since mostly Thursday morning we just had to break camp and put everything away.

It was hot.  It was hard.  It was tiring and exhausting.  But it was WORTH IT!  Every bit of it.  The messages received, the answered prayers, the service rendered, the testimonies built, the friendships made.

I decided that four years ago I was in better shape physically and this time I was in better shape spiritually.  I spent quite a bit of the two months before trek reading all about pioneers in my own family line and others.   Andy and I read talks about the subjects that each day was going to be devoted to learning about on trek.  We researched our own ancestors and learned things we didn’t know before.  I rewrote a few histories so they would be easier to read and understand and with one compiled several different accounts of her life that I found because they asked each person to come with the name of someone they could walk to honor.

I learned that no matter how slow you go, if you have faith in every footstep, you will get to where you need to be.  Life isn’t a race.  Head in the right direction and you’ll be okay.

I learned that children really are sent to the right families.  We had a few daughters who told us that some other kids thought our family wasn’t a very good one to be assigned to and they were trying to convince them otherwise because they thought our family was the best and I just told them that the people who assigned the families prayed about it and sent them to the right one for them, just like their real family is the right family for them.  And it’s even better if you believe that YOUR family is the best one.  Loved all those kids!

We really did enjoy hot showers on Thursday afternoon though!  I expect that the city water people were trying to figure out why there was so much dirt going through the pipes all afternoon and extra water usage.

I got all the laundry started, including sleeping bags, started washing the kitchen stuff and boxes we took because everything was covered in dirt, and got the things we borrowed ready to return.  Andy and Olivia went to the store and picked up a little treat to deliver with thank you notes that Andy and I took around before going out to dinner.

And now Andy’s mustache-less.  Thank goodness!  I don’t like facial hair at all, but put up with it occasionally when there’s a real reason for it like trek or a Halloween costume.

Elizabeth had a great experience too and says she will remember it the rest of her life and now has lifelong friends in her trek siblings.  When we returned a bucket to a member of the Stake Presidency with a treat on Sunday night with Elizabeth, he asked her if they should continue to have trek and she said that they absolutely should because it builds their testimonies and strengthens them and that she had a great time and made lasting memories.

A HUGE thank you goes out to Grandma Mary who watched our other three kids for the days we were on trek.  It was so nice to know that they were taken care of and would be safe.  We didn’t worry about them at all knowing that she was taking care of them.

Cape Disappointment

We were invited to go to a friend’s 10th anniversary camping party with their family and friends the last weekend in June way back in September when the spots were open for registering a spot.  We registered for all four days; Friday-Tuesday and kept having to cross our fingers that the school date changes due to snow wouldn’t affect trek.  They did though.  We ended up having to adjust our camping reservations and drive home on Sunday instead so we could start the Trek on Monday.  It all worked out.

We left early Friday morning to go to the Washington Coast.  Cape Disappointment is just on the Washington side across the Columbia River from Astoria, Oregon.  Although we had been to Astoria several times since we got married, we hadn’t been to Cape Disappointment.  And we weren’t disappointed.

On the way there, we came to a standstill and waited for probably 20 minutes at a stop along the highway.  Eventually a police car, firetruck, and then two ambulances came past.  We decided to turn around and try to find another way to where we needed to be.  We couldn’t find the right turn off and turned around again and got back in the standstill line on the highway much further back from where we were initially.  We discovered later that we had passed the turn off we had been looking for and took it and never did quite figure out what had happened ahead of where we had stopped.  This ended up adding at least an hour to our trip.

We played some car games, MadLibs, Alphabet Animals (like if the first person says, “alligator”, the next says an animal that starts with the letter B and it continues), and Alphabet Train where if you start you say a word like “Coast” and the next person has to start their word with the letter T and so on.  This was really good for Abby especially to be able to sound them out, figure out which letter it was, and then think of the right thing to say.  We also played a guess-the-character game the way you’d play 20 questions.  So one person thinks of a character and then tells us to start asking questions.  We can ask if it’s a cartoon character, from a tv show, movie, color of the character, if they are in more than one episode, etc.  Pretty fun.

The car was LOADED (actually I finished packing for trek Monday and packed and loaded the car Tuesday with everything I could for the coast so we could relax a little the rest of the week.)  Elizabeth is back there next to the pile of stuff.

We were stopped next to this pretty flower some of the time as we waited for the accident.

When we got to the coast we unpacked into our Yurt we rented (permanent tent with wood floors, a high ceiling, heat, electricity, and lighting, plus a twin/full bunkbed and a full futon).  Elizabeth opted to not share a bed, so Olivia and Abby shared the top bunk twin and Vincent slept on the futon still in couch shape.  We brought a foam mat for Elizabeth to sleep on the floor (her choice). Some people brought their trailers, others brought tents, we had our yurt, and my friend’s parents stayed at a B&B close by (it’s their anniversary too!)

We headed over to our friend’s trailer spot to see if they needed help with dinner (we were eating all the meals there together), but they were still waiting on the chili for the fritos-banditos to get there in his parent’s car, so we headed down to the beach to check it out.

The kids played in the little circular driveway that was separate from the main road that was shared by each set of ten campsites.

Ready to play at the beach!  (Elizabeth opted to stay in the yurt and draw.  She’s working on some projects.)

Found some tide pools to play in.

So, so sad that this picture turned out blurry… =(

View of the lighthouse from the beach.  It’s actually under construction right now so we couldn’t go inside.

Some of the tidepools were pretty deep!

Abby found some pretty shells she needed to save.

Abby and two friends to play with.

Me and my buddy Ally.  So glad they invited us to go on this campout with them.  We had a good time hanging out with them and their family and other friends.The next day we had breakfast with our friends (bagel sandwiches-egg, canadian bacon, cheese and fruit to eat) and then our family headed out to do a little bit of touristing.  We visited the Astoria Tower and the Cape Disappointment Lighthouse (and Fred Meyer, but that’s hardly a tourist visit).

Vincent at breakfast.

Abby helping walk our friend’s dog around with her buddy.

Abby found some wildflowers to share.

Olivia ready to go!  The sooner we could finish errands and tourist visits, the sooner she could play at the beach!

 

Vincent waiting for us outside the yurt.

Vincent, Abby, and Luke checking out the yurt from the screen window on the side.

Vincent by the yurt.

Astoria Column.  There are 164 stairs in a spiral staircase inside that leads up to a small overlook at the top.  We all climbed it and the kids tossed a little balsa wood airplane (purchased for $1 at the gift shop) from the top. There are different main parts of the area’s history wrapped on a mural all around the column.

This is what it looked like from the top.  To the left of the walkway, by the man in the red shirt, is one of our planes flying down.

Abby, Elizabeth, Vincent, and Olivia at the top.

Andy and I at the top of the Astoria Tower.

This photograph looks like a painting to me.  Beautiful view!!!

A little depiction of what the inside looks like.  That’s a LOT of stairs!

Photo of the HUGE bridge connecting this part of Oregon to Washington. You can hardly even see that on the far side there’s another big bridge closer to Washington.  We liked going over this.  Our friend’s mom said she didn’t know what she was going to do because she might have to stay at the campsite and have her husband visit her there because the bridge freaked her out so much.

Love to see the ships and barges in the river!

We hiked over to the Cape Disappointment Lighthouse after we got back to Washington.  Had a little photo op there too.

 

Elizabeth was our photographer most of the day.  She took this picture of all of us except for her close to the lighthouse.

And a little snapshot of Elizabeth with Vincent.

And all of our kids together!

Another shot of us on a bench.

We stopped by a gift shop at the lighthouse and there was a bird’s nest with baby birds to peek at.  So tiny and cute.

We got back in time for sandwiches for lunch and went to the beach again.  We forgot to pack sunscreen but didn’t notice until after we had already gone to the store, so we skipped it.  I got a bad sunburn on my chest… and because of the wind pulling my shirt collar, it’s not even even.

These three most wanted to play in the waves.  Andy and Elizabeth went out exploring by the jetty for a bit.

Vincent at the ocean.

Abby posing by the ocean.

Olivia LOVES the water at the ocean!

Abby wrote her name in the sand.

And Abby flew her kite for a little bit.  The wind was CRAZY strong!

Vincent and Olivia jumping waves.

When Olivia got bored of jumping waves, she sat down and let them come to her.

Vincent flying his kite.

We walked down to another part of the beach and ran into Andy who got back from the jetty.  He kept Vincent with him because Vincent wasn’t done playing on the beach yet and I took both girls back to the yurt to change.

Some of the group playing games in the afternoon.

Ally and Jason with the crabs they bought.  Happy 10th Anniversary!

Ally made some Red Lobster cheddar biscuits.  They were delicious!

Abby ‘started’ the fire.

Abby sweet-talked Ally’s brother who gave her a clam to try.  She ate it and saved the shell.  She didn’t like it much though.

Vincent tried the crab meat.  He wanted to try the clams, but they were already gone by then.

Vincent liked the crab meat.  Saturday evening was the planned big dinner crab dinner.  Most of the people (30!) went and bought some crabs locally to bring back to cook.  We opted to just eat the side dishes for dinner since we don’t like seafood.

It was great to go camping with one of my best friends!  We always have a good time together.

The whole group who was there on Saturday night.  SO much fun!

Andy and I headed down to the beach to watch the sun set.  It was beautiful!

There were some thin clouds on the horizon distorting the sun, but I thought it looked really cool.

Gorgeous waves!

And after the sun set, it was still so pretty!

When we got back to the campsite (we left our kids there with our friends) they had added some vitamins to the fire to make fun colored flames.

Sunday morning we packed up our yurt and stopped by our friend’s place for breakfast. We had pancakes, bacon, and eggs with hot chocolate for breakfast before heading out for home.

When we got home we took all the camping stuff out of the car and immediately reloaded it with all of the trek stuff that I had set aside ready to go.  I went over to my neighbor across the street who was outside watching this to explain a little why we were reloading as soon as we got home and chatted for a bit about what the trek is and why we are doing it along with a ‘pray for me. it’s supposed to be 107 degrees Monday…’ and I mentioned my sunburn and showed it to her.  She came over a few minutes later with some miracle cream that took all of the sting of the sunburn right out and made me comfortable again.  I am going to need to buy some of that.  I used it twice on Sunday night and once Monday morning and didn’t need it again!

Our friends are thinking about making this an annual tradition.  Sounds fun to us, but we’ll see if it works on years we have family reunions.  This year is an odd no reunion year so this was pretty much our only summer trip.

June 2017

Our trip to the Pacific Ocean and Stake Pioneer Trek will be separate blogs.

Because of the nine snow days this winter, school was extended to June 15th.  Early in June The Reptile Man came to visit the students with an assembly and had an evening show families were invited to as well.  Abby and Vincent really liked it.

Abby with the giant tortoise.
Vincent and Abby with a friend and the huge python.

The kindergarten classes had a fun concert full of Mother Goose songs.  Abby really got into it.  She’s a little dramatic.

This one is my favorite.

Luckily, they had a daytime performance because the evening show was during one of my last shifts at work.  You read that right.  I gave my notice at Kohl’s and had my last shift there.  I needed less stress and a break from all the frustrations there.

Olivia, Vincent, and Abby had a successful lemonade stand early in the month.  Vincent rode around advertising it and they made quite a bit of spending money.

Andy and I hiked Candy Mountain three times this month (maybe once last month is in that count.)  Nice hike to get us ready for Trek.

Pretty view from up on top.

Our Stake had a special Stake Conference with Neil L. Anderson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles visiting along with Joni Koch of the Seventy.  The talks were so great and the spirit was felt.  Truth was taught.  And the kids remembered many of the things that were taught there too, even weeks later!

The dentist recommended that both Olivia and Vincent have checkups at the orthodontist to see about getting braces.   It’s kind of a mess.  Some baby teeth are still working their way in, others don’t have room to come in, and many of the teeth coming in are coming in crooked.  The plan is to start him with a brace on the roof of his mouth for six months to see if that will give him more room and make his other front teeth come down and then start braces after all of his permanent teeth come in.

This is Vincent’s x-ray of his mouth.

The plan for Olivia is to wait six months until her last permanent teeth come all the way in.  Luckily, our new dental insurance will cover some of the orthodontist cost.

Before school got out, I hurried to finish a project I’ve been wanted to do.  I sanded and painted the base of our family room cabinet under our long bar counter.  My friend Ally came over to help and the sister missionaries stopped by too.  We got it all done before the kids got home on the last day of school.  We painted THREE coats of black paint.

I kind of love it!  I’m going to work on the top of the counter next.  I think we’ll find some texturing paint to just cover what’s up there already.

The little doors are covering the skinny cupboard that is really there just to have access to the plumbing for the kitchen sink on the other side.

On the last day of school Olivia’s sixth period class was invited to a laser tag party by a boy in her class whose dad just started this business.  We paid the $10 and dropped her off in the rain to play for a few hours.  She loved it.  She said it was her new favorite sport.

Pretty good group of kids to play laser tag in the rain.  Even her teacher came with two of his kids to play.  So fun!

We had a chance to go and watch a cousin play baseball when we had a free afternoon and it was close by.  Vincent and Abby used some of their lemonade stand money to buy a treat while they watched.

One of Abby’s friends had a birthday party.  They had a wonderful time playing and crafting and running around.

The school library is open twice a week so we went to check it out and check out some books.  It was well attended and there were friends to do things with there.

We spent a few afternoons swimming at a friend’s pool since it was so hot!

Our neighbor across the street came over and invited us to pick raspberries in her backyard.  Abby and I picked enough to make some delicious freezer jam.

I celebrated another birthday!  After quitting Kohl’s I had a solid week before the kids were out of school to get some things taken care of.  One day I went shopping with a friend at the mall and helped with the yearbooks at the school.  Another day I went to the Temple with a few friends and then out to lunch (where they told them it was almost my birthday so they sang to me and brought over a treat.)

Andy was gone on a trip until the evening of my birthday/our anniversary.  We went out to eat at Olive Garden.  Very good!

My parents stopped by to drop off a birthday gift too.  So nice!

My first ever best friend Desi came up for a visit.  She and I were best friends starting in kindergarten until I moved away to Burbank.  We were penpals after that and never lost touch.  So great to catch up with her.  We visited all day and then Andy took us out to eat at Red Robin for dinner.

I scanned some old pictures and made them into a collage for fun.  This one is from when we were little.

And this one is from after I moved away, plus the one from her visit.

The friend who went to the mall with me helped me pick out this yellow skirt so I found a blue shirt to go with it.  I thought it looked pretty nice.

We bought Andy a giant light up Rubik’s Cube for Father’s Day.  He seemed to like it.

Grandpa Paul invited Elizabeth to go and help him with Walla Walla’s Cub Scout Day Camp.  Grandma Mary picked her up early enough to put the rest of her Spring Break quilt top together.  Looks great!

One of our former cub scouts got his mission call to Bangkok Thailand. So excited for him!

Elizabeth finished a summer goal of painting her siblings like her self portrait she made at school this year in art.  She wants to make more for other people and sell them.  If you are interested, contact her at easyransom@gmail.com

I love how they turned out!  I need to frame them and find a place I want to hang them.

Still to come from our June-Coast Trip and Trek.