Scattered Thoughts

 1. Guard was so excited for Deacon's camp. His first year at YM camp! They camped at Green River State Park and took in all the fun in the area. They rafted down the river, scrambled at Goblin Valley, golfed in Green River, hiked in Arches (Guard missed this because of an upset stomach - too much sugar!), and had a blast hanging around the campground.

Guard's favorite activity was the rafting, but he truly loved all of it. He is blessed to have such amazing leaders who really do care about the boys. (I'm so sad I didn't get any pictures of his leaving or coming; I guess he really is the youngest child!)

2. While Guard was at camp, Kate and I attended the Utah Valley Parade of Homes. It was so much fun! We had an amazing time touring the houses, critiquing the decor, absorbing all the good ideas, and laughing at the crazy things we saw. I loved spending three days with just her. We came home tired each night, but it was so worth it!

3. The day after Guard got home from camp, he went to Space Camp for five hours. I was worried he would be too exhausted, but he had so much fun.

Father's Day

 Father's Day this year was so fun! We invited Grandpa and Grandma Randall and the Kellys over for BBQ pizza and visiting. Dinner was great; Greg did a wonderful job with the pizza. I made one of Greg's (and Dad's) favorite treats - Bavarian Dessert. And then the kids played and the adults visited. It was very relaxing and so good to be with family. We are trying to be with my dad as much as possible since his recent diagnosis of dementia. We don't know what the future holds; we are taking advantage of all the time we have. I love my dad so much! I'm trying not to panic about the time we have left, but be thankful and mindful of what we do have.

(Guard and Grandpa at the piano that both of them played as boys.)

We are so beyond thankful for Greg! He is the foundation of this family. His children know he is their #1 supporter. He loves completely. He lives to serve and spend time with his family. We are so blessed!

Yellowpine 2024

I'm not one of those people that like visiting the same place twice. There are so many incredible places to see in the world, that why would you keep going back to the same place? There are only a few destinations that keep our attention and we are willing to revisit...Lake Powell, winter Yellowstone, Moab/Green River, and my favorite, Yellowpine Campground in The Basin of Utah. 

Yellowpine is truly my spot. As soon as I see the turnoff to the campground, my shoulders lose their tension and drop an inch or two, my constant headache lessens, and my smile eases out of its hiding place from behing a life of stress. It is beautiful, quiet, safe, and happy. I love it!

This year felt a bit different. After reflection, I think we are all getting older. My parents are slowing down, especially Dad. Enoch and Kate are maturing and don't have the same enthusiam for our traditional Yellowpine activities like water balloons and water rockets. I've been considering how to faciliate a transition so my family still enjoys our time here. I've been pondering and pray that I will have some ideas for next year.

Even so, we still have an incredible time! It is amazing to me that despite your age, we all love throwing rocks in a body of water. Everyone - boys and girls, old and young. We always make a trip to the Upper Stillwater Dam and simply throw rocks.

Later that night, we drove back up to the dam around 10pm. There was a slight possibility of Northern Lights and we wanted to check it out. Sadly, we didn't see any Aurora Borealis, but we did see an amazing sunset. It is incredible what you can see without the interferring lights of the city.

The next day was filled with games and off-roading. Since we camped so early in the season, we ran into a few snowfields and an abundance of flowing water. The Jeep sported its summer splatter after many rides through the forest. 

Later that day, we prepped for our Glow Parade. Every year, we walk around the campground and give glow sticks to all the children. Afterwards, our kids ride their bikes, with both their bikes and themselves glowing, around the campground a few times. It is one of our favorite traditions!

It was an amazing weekend! We had so much fun with family in the woods. We can't wait to go back next year!

Family Search Center

One of Enoch's opportunities as a Service Missionary in the Orem, Utah mission is to serve at the Family Search Center in Lehi. When picking his assignments, he vacilated about Family Search. He decided to give it a try and has really enjoyed it. He serves in Tech and helps people with the scanning machines - photos, books, slides, home movies, etc.

Today, carrying a big, heavy photo album, we visited Enoch. He taught us how to scan in old pictures, enhance them, and save them to Family Search. Guard did a few pictures and then we went exploring throughout the center.

Kate did most of the pictures and scanned in almost 450. These were pictures of my parents in the early days of their marriage from the year 1975-1978. It covered a lot of life events, including their marriage, their days at BYU, my birth, and the death of my mom.

It felt so good to get those pictures out of a sticky-back album and onto the computer. They looked so good as well, with the computer automatically correcting the color and bluriness. After scanning, we had lunch with Enoch at the Cafe. He loves eating there because missionaries get a 70% discount. He can have a huge lunch for only a few dollars. Guard loved it too. He got one of his favorites - cocount shrimp along with fries, a drink, and frozen yogurt.

It was a fabulous morning! We can't wait to go back and do more scanning.

 

Oak's Injury

It's a good think we love these bunnies so much, because they can sometimes be trouble!

Guard came running upstairs last Friday morning in a panic. Oak was injured, badly. He didn't know what happened, but Oak was bleeding and Cedar and Honor were in different rooms in the Bunny Condo. (We assumed Cedar jumped into Oak's room through the 2 1/2 inch opening at the top, attacked Oak, and then Oak jumped into Honor's room. Unneutered male rabbits can be very vicious towards other males when they reach puberty.)

We immediately started calling vets in the area (our vet did not have any openings that day and Oak couldn't not wait through the weekend, plus Monday since it was Memorial Day). Rabbits are considered exotic animals in Utah, so it is difficult to find a clinic that will treat them. We finally found a vet in Lindon that treated rabbits and had an opening in the early afternoon.

We kept Oak as comfortable as possible until his appointment. He was quite a mess. Cedar had attacked his testicles and they were hanging out of his body. The vet, Dr. Hanson, was very concerned, rescheduled his later appointments, and took Oak in for emergency surgery. 

A couple of hours later, I picked him up. His surgery went well. His body temperature wasn't coming up as quickly as they would like, so they suggested I snuggle him until he was warm again. Guard and Greg were camping with Cahoons, so Kate and I were on bunny duty until the next morning. I held Oak all night and finally his temperature returned to normal. He recovered quickly, the worst part was his hatred of the cone (which only lasted two days), getting his medicine and food through a syringe, and having to live inside for two weeks. He's a fighter and we are so happy he is his happy self again!

 

Early Morning Awake Up Call

 My heart still beats a bit erractically even thinking about it. The shock of coming out of a deep sleep to a blaring alarm screeching Fire! Fire! Fire! is never how you want to wake up. Especially at 1:30 am. My first thought was I couldn't smell smoke, but I was also still half asleep, my brain groggy. Greg jumped out of bed, quicker on the uptake than me. He rushed out of our room to find Kate standing right there. That girl is quick! She made it upstairs in seconds!

A few moments later, Enoch was standing in the kitchen asking what was going on. Greg was rushing around the house looking for a fire, Enoch and Kate were trying to find the detector that was going off (turns out it was all of them since they are connected), and I was running down to Guard's room because we hadn't seem him yet. He was curled up in bed, the blankets pulled over his head, and his hands covering his ears. Yeah, afterward we had the talk about what to do when the fire alarm goes off!

Soon we all gathered in the kitchen, realizing that there wasn't a fire, but a faulty battery. It did take us quite awile to figure out how to turn on the alarm. We finally realized it was the detector just outside the master bedroom and we had to rip it off the ceiling and forcably remove the battery. It wasn't easy. The next day, Greg replaced all the batteries in the dectactors with fresh ones. Hopefully, we have another seven years before we go through that again!

Ice Skating In Lehi

 Lehi is really coming up in the world - we now have an ice skating rink! It's small, it's temporary, it's full of divets, but it's ours and we couldn't wait to try it out. Thankfully we had a friend who organize a skate party with a bunch of homeschool friends. I didn't know that this party was on the last day the rink was open, so we were doubly blessed to snag a spot and go.

Kate loves ice skating and has been a decent amount. It showed. She glided over the ice and built up some speed (not a lot, it really was small and crowded). But, she always had a smile on her face.

Guard had never been ice skating before and it showed. In the beginning, he hugged the edges with his hand always on the fence. It didn't take long before he ventured out into the rink and had a great time. Before we left, he was pretty comfortable on the skates and was quite steady.

It was such a fun afternoon! We are hoping that Lehi has an ice skating rink next year!

New Shocks for the Jeep

 We love our Jeep! Greg loves his Jeep! Our family loves our Jeep!

But man, they are money pits!

That's okay; it has given us so many fun times together as a family. Plus, Greg never asks for much, so I'm coming to terms with the money being spent on this car.

For Christmas, Greg got new shocks for the Jeep. He and Gavin decided they could tackle this project on their own. I'm not sure in the beginning they realized what it would involve, but they did it! It took about seven hours longer than they thought, a few new tools midway through, and having to make adjustments to the instructions for it to work on our specific Jeep, but they did it!

Saturday morning, they started and completed the back and some of the front by midnight. They were hardy, working in the cold garage and dealing with frustrating setbacks.

Monday afternoon, Gavin came back down and they finished the front. Greg and Gavin both enjoy cars, but they haven't really taken on big projects with repairs and improvements. This was a pretty big project. Greg watched a lot of YouTube videos and they tweaked and adjusted when bars needed to be shaved off and things didn't fit quite right. They were happy to be done and I hope they are proud of their work. I'm proud of them! 

We can't wait for some awesome off-roading this spring!

Randall Family Christmas Party

 It has not been a tradition to have a Randall Christmas party every year. Usually we do something, but Grandpa and Grandma have been on missions for so many Christmases, that we haven't developed a good tradition. This year we had a party though and it was wonderful!

We started with an easy dinner of Costco alfredo and chicken pot pie. Easy and yummy! Easier still for me to pick up a gluten-free, dairy-free frozen chicken pot pie for Kate. Dinner was full of conservation and sharing; it was wonderful.

After, the younger kids (Marcus, Guard, Lucy, and Milo) played upstairs while the adults visited. It was so fun to catch up with everyone and have some quality family time. After a bit, Grandma called us together for a fun craft. At the Christmas Devotional a few weeks earlier, Elder Gong told the story of his wife making clothespin ornaments for Christmas. We made our own ornaments and the kids had so much fun with it!

After ornaments, we did stockings. Grandma and Grandpa went all out this year and all the kids were thrilled with their presents. Enoch favorite present was a wooden puzzle globe, Kate loved her art dice, and Guard was super excited with his electronic bank.

It was great night and we can't wait to do it again next year!

Bethlehem Dinner

One of my favorite Christmas traditions is our Bethlehem dinner. We always have it on December 17th, eight days before Christmas Eve. We prepare food that would have been eaten by Jesus and his family (or, as Greg says, if Bethlehem had a Costco!). We eat fish, lentils, crackers, cheese, flat bread, grapes, dates, nuts, figs, cucumbers, oranges, and persimmons. It is truly one of our favorite meals - so much good food!

We eat by candlelight on the floor. Some of us are adventurous and finish our meal with our fingers, as per custom. We talk, laugh, and share our favorite stories of Christ.

After dinner, we celebrate our first night of Fowler Hannukah. It is such a special night to remember Jesus and his birth.

Our Sweet Coal

 Coa's birthday was a few weeks ago. She turned 12. I can't believe she is 12! She is starting to show her age a bit - more gray hairs, shaky back legs, grumpy attitude, possible hearing loss (or maybe just more grumpy attitude?), but she is still our sweet girl. She actually lays on her dog bed occasionally, which makes me happy and sad at the same time. Happy because she has her own soft spot, but sad because I know it is because she is getting older, is slowing down, and wants more comfort.

Border Collies and Aussie Shepherds are very much heirachical dogs. They know where they fit in the family and they know who the Alpha males are. Greg is her highest Alpha, with Gavin followed closed behind. When Coal came to our family, Enoch was six. He wasn't old enough or had enough power to be an Alpha. Because of that, Enoch's and Coal's relationship has always looked a bit different. Enoch is Coal's safe person, they one she goes to for comfort, tummy rubs, and 'good girls'. And Coal loves to lick Enoch's feet! And he lets her! 

They have such a sweet relationship! I'm so happy that Coal has Enoch, especially now that she needs some pampering. Enoch makes sure she is fed, watered, and loved everyday. She is lucky to have him. We are blessed to have them both!

Enoch and the Temple

This is one the those days, those best days, that you wait for, work for, pray for, and when it comes it is even better than you imagined it would be.

Enoch received his endowments today and it was glorious! 

He was ready. Not only did he study and prepare, he has lived the life, and made the choices to be granted the priviledge for continued learning and blessings. The spirit was strong with him after the session. I could see his curious mind spinning, absorbing all he could. It seemed as if things long forgotten were clicking back into place and he had complete peace of wholness in his spirit; like knowing who he was after a lapse of memory.

Heavenly Father has gifted him a pure heart, one without guile and anger. It is a rare gift. As I have watched Enoch prepare for this day, I have recognized a spiritual maturity than he has kept tucked away. As his mom, I have felt it from him, but now he knows it himself and that is powerful. He is at the beginning of his journey of understanding himself and how he can be more, be what God needs him to be, through the covenants of the temple.

Scattered Thoughts

 1. So many cute pictures of our bunnies! This is Cedar and Sycamore, loafing and flopping. We love our buns!

2. Guard can't decide if Sycamore is helping him with school or not, but either way, he loves being with his babies.

3. We also love our Autumn. Her favorite place in the whole world is under the Christmas tree. She gets so excited when she sees the tree going up. This year, we decided to put our baby manger under the tree and Autumn has decided that it was just for her. She is usually in the manger snuggling with 'baby Jesus'. A few times, I've found the baby nudged onto the floor in the morning with Autumn curled up in the manger.