Kitties

Nickel left us last week when we believe he was accidentally poisoned.  He had such a large territory, that it's pretty amazing he made it home to let us know.  We found him laying peacefully under the rhododendron bush.  We held a burial service and said goodbye to our first kitty.

I guess we are no good at kitty separation.

Meet Jellybean...

...and Skippy.

What do You do in the Summertime?

On a trip to Lemhi, Idaho, we spent time with family doing all the good stuff.  We had bonfires in front of beautiful sunsets,

 hung out with Grandpa,

 camped out in tents with cousins,

 rode horses a couple of times,

 shot a few rounds,

 and competed in the "Grandpa Games".

But how can you beat going and hanging out with buffalo?  You can't.  They're just awesome!

Pa Blankenagel - Trek: Inspiration

Ma certainly has the marketshare on interest, as her post was read by more than twice as many people as any of mine!  And her writing is excellent...definately better than mine.

I don't want to go on and on.  I really don't...except that sometimes I do want to.  Particularly when there is something really great to discuss.  It's about time to wrap all this Trek stuff up, though, so I'll quickly summarize a few things:

The trek, for me, was fun.  It was semi-challenging, but mostly fun.  It could have been tremendously challenging, but our kids were ready to work.  With everyone jockeying for the most difficult pulling positions, our responsibilities as Ma and Pa were made light!  Seriously, these youth were amazing at not only jumping in to help at any time, but also watching out for eachother.  I later heard from one girl's mother that her daughter explained, "It was the little things that made it great.  We stopped for a rest and the boys picked us flowers." 

Through blistered feet, dehydration, exhaustion, and additional loads to carry; these kids never complained.  They talked and laughed and encouraged eachother and whenever the trail turned up, they dug in their toes.  No one said, "That is too steep for us."  We pulled our carts up hills that were difficult just to walk up.

One individual hill stuck out to me.  We were missing our two eldest boys and Ma, and we had gained an 8-pound baby (named Sarah Zion) that had to be carried and a 40-pound rock (named Chuck 'The Rock' Norris) that rode in the cart.  The slope was steep enough that, for safety, only one cart would go up at a time.  Tall grass laid down over the rough surface to create an unpredictable and slick surface.  The hill began at about a 3:1 slope, and then the trail banked left and became nearly twice that steep.  As we approached the turn, I thought there was no way we would make it up the steep section.  I yelled something like, "Great job!  Keep a steady pace!"  Up we went.  Each step I took got shorter due to sliding.  Our progress slowed, and just before coming to a complete halt, 3 young men - recently returned from the Battalion - latched onto our cart, and propelled us quickly up the remaining 30 feet.  We cheered and hollared thanks to the young men who were already headed down for the next pull. 

The attitudes and demeanor of these youth was inspiring!

Personally, my greatest challenge (as I have already alluded to) was to securely pack the cart.  A very close second though, was witnessing my daughters chopping carrots with my knife...using a cast-iron dutch oven lid as a cutting board.  With every tink...tink...tink I could imagine the cutting edge curling over.  After a few minutes, one daughter innocently said, "Pa, this knife isn't very sharp!"

I forced a smile and said, "Oh yeah?...Sorry about that."  Fortunately that broke the ice between my knife and I, so I was later willing to use it to teach the boys how to play Stretch.

There was a lot more that occured out there, but I'm going to finish up here.  The trek will forever be a part of us, and we look forward to watching our children grow.  And we'll hope - with fingers crossed - that we can do this again!

Ma Blankenagel - Trek Day 2: Family Challenge

Well, we all know that I don't write as well as "Pa," but I would like to let you know about the family challenge we recieved on day two at lunch break. I was expecting to be spiritually uplifted with my family but got it in a different way than expected.

I knew before the trek that each family would get a challenge that they had to participate in. However, I didn't know what our challenge would be. I decided to go and get a scroll that I was to read to my family. As I pre-read it, I was okay, but as I read it aloud to them the tears started flowing: I died during childbirth, leaving an eight pound "rice baby" with the family and not being able to be with them anymore. It was hard to read and I don't know why. I had only known "my family" for a day or so but I felt like they were really mine. I didn't want to say goodbye to Brandon and leave him to do so much hard work. I wanted to help out. I was looking forward to this day. I guess that we never want to die. I remember my mom saying something to the fact that she's not scared of death but of not being there to help out her family when we needed her. Looking back, that's how I felt.

I gained composure and walked away with the dead. We headed down the trail to an air conditioned truck which we rode in back to base camp. There we were greeted with sandwiches, fresh fruit, lemonade, salad, and chocolate cake. "So this is what celestial life is like!" was the joke of the day. We sat around in chairs on a shaded porch for about an hour and were then hauled up to the camp where we would meet our families again. We decided to hike a little up the hill closer to where they would be coming around the bend and found out that we would have about an hour before the families would be there. We baked on that mountain side! It was mentioned that we could sing to the families as they came around the bend to boost their spirits and tired bodies so that they would make it to the camp.

After A LOT of practice, the songs which we sang were "Come, Come Ye Saints," and "How Firm A Foundation." This was the other spiritual uplifting I recieved from my Heavenly Father because He knew I needed it. The singing was okay for the first few families. But as my family came around the corner I could no longer sing. Emotions took over and tears flowed freely, again. Here was my family that made it and especially my husband! It made me think about how loved ones who have passed beyond the veil must feel as they once again see their family that they left behind. To see them "make it." It was overwhelming. And I must say that I wasn't the only dead one who had emotional problems along the same lines.

Then to see my oldest sons, who had been taken for the Mormon Battalion, come around with other families who had lost both parents or who needed strength to pull the handcarts; was rewarding. They could have just stayed with their family, letting others struggle but decided that they had enough energy left to help out. I was proud!

I will never know what my family went through on day two. I still to this day wish I hadn't died, but I recieved the spiritual manifestations that I was hoping for on this trek; just in a different way. I would gladly go again if they asked me!