Martin's Cove in Wyoming

This last week has been an interesting experience. On Monday at work I was told that I was being laid off. It came as a shock and I am not sure exactly what I am going to do at this moment but I have had a week to think about what I want to do. Any ideas or know of anyone that is hiring?

So amidst this unforeseen rut in the road of life, we had a remarkable week otherwise. On Friday and Saturday we took a trip to Martin's Cove in Wyoming. It is a place where Mormon Pioneers crossing the plains on their way to Utah got stranded because of an early winter snow storm in the winter of 1856. It was an incredible experience. We got a little handcart and hiked about 8 miles along the original trail. You can still see the ruts in the road where the original handcarts carved out a trail. We went into Martin's Cove, a place in between two mountains, where this handcart company stayed until they were rescued. It was a humbling experience to hear the stories of these people. Many of them froze to death while many others hardly had any food. They suffered all this because of their faith in God.

Here is a link that is great to explain the story of these amazing pioneers.

http://www.lds.org/gospellibrary/pioneer/28_Martins_Cove.html

Here we are starting out on the trail. It was a cold rainy day. We got a small glimpe of what these people might have experienced.

Here is an overlook of the Wyoming Plains and the Sweetwater River

After pulling our handcart in the rain, we got to the Sweetwater River. We rolled up our pants and crossed....it was cold. I can't imagine how these pioneers crossed the river when it was a lot higher and there was ice floating in the river.

Here is the Sweetwater river looking back over where we had just passed.

Summer Fun

We went to a tropical island paradise this last weekend and took this incredible sunset photo---we didn't have to go far to have an incredible view. The Secret tropical paradise location.....Antelope Island. Well it really isn't tropical more like desert, but watching this remarkable sunset over the lake makes you feel like you are in a romantic tropical location. We had a great time. We swam or should I say floated in the Great Salt Lake. It was incredible--you really don't sink!!! We had so much fun floating around.

We took a little road trip up north and went to Promontory Point. (The famous spot where the Union Pacific RailRoad met the Central Pacific RailRoad completely the railroad system across the United States). It was a really neat place. They did a reenactment of the actual event and David was chosen out of the audience to be one of the people that drove down the Golden Spike. It was a fun learning experience.

We went with the youth of our ward to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open house in South Jordan Utah. The Temple is beautiful. We are grateful to have been able to go and participate in such an occasion. We are grateful for temples and are excited to have this new temple in our midst.

We went to David's summer work party at "Hillbilly Ranch" (a cabin near Causey Reservoir). It was a lot of fun. We ran in a gunny sack and three-legged race and well, we lost. It was all fun and games until.....well, somehow I went "bam!" right on the ground and landed on my elbow. I got a very large bruise. It was so bad I had to go get it x-rayed. It wasn't broken--thank goodness--just really banged up. We had a great time!

We are on the far left and you can tell we aren't winning.....