Welcome Home January (and Pete)

I am so truly blessed. My life is complete again. I have my family, I have my dog, and I finally have my horse back! With an addition, January's colt. We have decided to call him Pete. Unfortunately, we don't get to keep him forever, but we do get him until sometime around July. He was born three weeks ago today. He's mama's Easter baby!

 We arrived safely. The weather was wonderful.

 We took a few minutes to visit Pete's papa, Docen Eddy

 He is a sweet heart

We stayed the night with my dad's cousin, Ashby, on Wednesday night.

Then Thursday morning we loaded up Pete and January and were on our way.

Just a quick trip. Down to Cheyenne and back in two days. 

I just couldn't help but go say Hi every time we stopped. :)

 The weather wasn't as kind on the way home but somehow we made it safely.

Of course January left a wonderfully big present in the trailer for me to clean up.

 

 He was unsure he could get down. But he did it!

 Meeting everyone.

Of course I had to ride for at least a few minutes!

 

Mamma is in good shape. She is getting use to being a pasture pet again

but she's still my wonderfully beautiful Janaury. 

 

As for Pete, he is growing with each day. He is awfully curious and superbly sweet, 

and has definitely captured my heart.  

 

Hello Star Valley

Before I begin updating you, let's paint a picture in our minds.

First, imagine you're in the middle of a field. There isn't much around you. A house with a red barn and large chicken coop in the near distance. And, some horses. You're surrounded by a valley of mountains, covered in snow. There's snow all around you. It blankets the field around you, climbing all the way up the mountains. You take a deep breath in, smelling the fresh air, and a hint of the smoke floating up out of the chimney.

Depending on who you are, this may sound pretty inviting. I feel like every one has their perfect place. Or, their paradise. What ever you call it, everyone has one. And this perfect place you've just imagined, this is mine.  Most of you probably think I'm crazy. How could I want to be in the cold surrounded by snow? Well, let me explain.

Let's think of another perfect place. We are on a beach. The sun shining down on us. The waves rolling up onto the beach. The warm sand beneath our skin. For me, there's a few things wrong with this picture. First, water is my worst fear. All of my nightmares are of either me or my parents in the middle of the ocean, drowning. Second, I don't like heat. And yes, there are ways to get out of the heat unless you're on an island, let's say Guam. Third, sand gets everywhere. There is no way around that at all.

The reason I'm sharing this with you, is not to make you dislike beaches. Or the sun. Or any of the other things that come along with being on an island, but to hopefully help you understand why I wanted to leave. Well, those reasons, and the fact that there are only about six horses on that island.

So, if you haven't already guessed, we are no longer on Guam. We are back in good old Star Valley. Dad and I flew to Hawaii and stayed there for about a week and a half. Then Nicole and Porter flew there. Dad and I met them in the airport and waited for 45 minutes or so. Then, boarded another airplane to fly to San Fransisco, CA. We had a three hour lay over there, then continued on to Boise, ID. This was towards the end of January so we were in Boise for my birthday. We slept for two days then drove to Star Valley.

We are now living in one side of a duplex we bought, planning to rent out the other.
I finally have my dog back, all four of my guitars, and I got to drive to Cheyenne and visit my mare, January, who has just had her baby on the 5th of April. He is a sorrel, the same color as his mamma, with a star on his forehead.

These were taken an hour after this little guy was born. I'm a grandma now. hah!

I had the opportunity to travel half way around the world with my family. Even though I didn't enjoy it as much as I had expected, I'm so glad we went. We got to go together as a family and that alone made the whole trip worth it. I've learned a lot in the past 6 months and am now a pro at flying. I have made memories (both good and bad), and have had adventures that most kids my age don't get the chance to.

An Adventure for the Family. (AKA Forced Family Fun)

The adventure begins... with everyone in our little Chevy car, on the side of the road, trying to find the head of a trail that unbeknown to us was like joining Bear Grills on the show "Man vs. Wild."

Dad said it would take about an hour to get to our destination. So off we all went with backpacks full of McDonald's burgers and water bottles. Little did we know what was between us and our destination.

We walked. And walked. And rested. And walked some more. All the while finding shoes along the trail of red dirt.

We figured we had to eat sometime. So we decided to eat at the half way point. 

Guess what the half way point was? 

A tank from World War II. Yep. An old abandoned tank. 

It had bullet holes in the side. Dad said he thought they were from an airplain dive bombing it because of the size of the holes and the angle they were shot through from. 

This I believe is the engine.

We enjoyed our little break. And so far the hike really hadn't been much of a hike at all. So onward we went. Five little ducks following our father into the jungle.

We didn't get very far from the tank when our trail became this:

A steep hill with stair like holes. It didn't help all that much that here is when it started raining. Hah!

The trail stayed about the same for a while. The rain came and went as it pleased. We crossed one shallow creek, then came another rather larger one. The water was a beautiful blue color. Someone (thankfully) had tied a rope to a tree on each side, above a log to get across it. 

After crossing the creek the trail was back to an easy walk. For a while. 

We didn't walk for very long before, 

We saw it. Down below us. 

There it was. Sigua Falls. Well, the top of it any way. We wanted to be at the bottom of it. 

But it was such a beautiful sight. It looked so lovely. We continued on. And that was where it got hard.

Back to this again. But worse. And this was just the beginning of it. 

It was like this for a while. Until it became this:

One rope on each side of the trail. Which now was basically a pit. And you can't tell from this but it was really steep. 

But still! We continued! Mom and dad were above me, and Nicole, porter, Morgan, and Harrison were below me. 

I took my time. Hoping no one had gotten hurt. But then I reached the bottom. And this is what I saw;

Nicole and the boys had already jumped in and gotten comfortable. 

It was so beautiful. When mom and dad got there dad just jumped in as well. 

Mom took her time. Hah it was cold. Just about like Star Valley water. ;)

We all had a good time. It was hot and a hard hike, but we all kept a good attitude and enjoyed that little adventure. By the time we made it to the falls, I think we all had a pretty good idea why there were shoes, and shoe soles, and shoe bottoms, every where. 

In the end we were a mess. And we were tired. But just about everyone said it was worth it. Thank you dad for making us go on that adventure. 

Update from the crew in Guam.

My dad always tells me, life is change. And I'm coming to understand that. Everything is entirely different here. But it has been a great adventure so far and gets better with each day. When we first got here I had a hard time. By the third day I was sitting next to my dad crying. But of course, he reminded me that things will change. And he was right. I have started making new friends and meeting new people. Even meeting new horses. 

We haven't exactly found a long term place to stay yet, but we are in a condo for now. 

I've started going to seminary, and those of us that are old enough go to mutual. 

We have also been enjoying the beaches here. 

And today, my family went to some cool pond/water hole type things. They had a lot of fun. 

You can barely see Harrison in this picture. 

They said there were shrimp in these. Crazy right? 

Mom and I also went to a horse stable.

And the name of the horse stable is Rock  n' Rail. This woman has five horses that she teaches English riding lessons on. 

This here is Sienna. She is a buckskin mare. Very sweet. She's tall and has nice large feet. ;) 

Learning how to saddle English style!

My first time riding English. Very different way of riding than what I'm use to! It was neat though. 

Everything so far so good on this side of the world! Miss and love you all. :)

December 7, 1941

There's a first time for everything right? Well I'm coming to understand that better now! I can now say I have ridden in a taxi, been on a boat, and visited somewhere famous. We stopped in Hawaii for two days! The first day I was just lazy. I slept a lot, and went to the beach. Our rental house was really nice! It had three bedrooms, one bathroom indoor and one outdoor. Have you ever heard of an outdoor bathroom? I never would have even guessed they exist! 

Right outside the back door was a concrete patio. At the edge of the patio was a rock path that led to a private beach! It was so cool! We had a beach in our back yard. Come on how cool is that?! 

Seriously, this was our back yard. 

I wrote this and sent it to everyone back home. It took me a couple times to write it because the waves would wash it away! 

The water scared me, so I didn't go in it much. But I love being on the beach in the sand. The waves were pretty big. Not too far from shore they were getting up to around 15 feet! 

For most the time we were in Hawaii it was cloudy. So the ocean was a gray color. But Porter and I wanted to take a selfie with the beach and the sun decided to show up just for that! I was honored. :)

I absolutely loved all the colors on this island! Mom and I "modeled" for each other. I just love how beautiful it is here. 

This is the front door of our house. Not too interesting. Just showng you.

This is our front yard. See all the colors?! 

I'm not entirely sure where this is.... Mom took this picture of Nicole somewhere around the house. 

Before we went to the airport, we stopped by Pearl Harbor. What an experience! If you haven't been, I would strongly suggest you go. I love history. Hearing stories of our American history, history of my ancestors, any kind of story from 100 years ago or more. So this was a really neat experience for me. Thinking of all the men still in that boat. I wonder, how do those men feel about what we are doing with their remains? Their spirits are somewhere, waiting. How do they feel about millions of people remembering them and what they did. Coming to their grave everyday to be reminded of that tragic event. 

"May God make his face to shine down upon them and grant them peace"