9 June 2018 - Saturday

9 June 2018 - Saturday

We had a very happy reunion last night after I finished my blog!  We had a surprise visit from the Brown Family and the Sathre Family!!  Mom had just gone to bed, and I was finishing up my blog and looking at some current events, when a knock came on the door.  When I opened it, in my pajamas, there they were!  It was so unbelievable that they would come and surprise us like this!  They wanted to support us in our Sacrament talks tomorrow, and that gave us the whole day to see the mission and to experience Casper.

Excited to be with some of the Grandchildren again!

Checking out the view from the front window!

Getting settled in and organized!

Granny and Grandpa have company!!  Yea!!

We are so grateful to have our family with us!!

Our first order of business was a nice three mile walk.  I met up with Tom and Jared and Zac and  Cody and Hayley and Mia for the morning three mile walk.  Mom and I had the thoughts and the prayers at the correlation meeting, so we had to go in to Martin's Cove at 8:00am.  After our correlation meeting, mom and I came back to the Missionary Village, and we made our family plans for the day.

I think we had a fun day with the tours of the mission, pulling handcarts and seeing the Visitors' Center.  The kids had a first hand view of the many opportunities we have as missionaries.  As we were doing a tour of the Fort Seminoe, we had another family join us!  I invited them to come with us to the Trek Center for a movie about the emigrants, and they readily took me up on the offer.  They even took a handcart after my tour and presentation to both families!  It was great to see them get a part of the mission experience that they did not anticipate!  

Our trip to Casper was a lot of fun as well.  We had lunch at a really neat Pizza place in Casper and then did our shopping at Sam's and Wal-Mart.  And after we finished our business there, we headed back to Martin's Cove for a trek to the Devil's Gate area.  Only Jared, Cody, Landon, Zac, Hayley and Mia and I went on the walk to Devils Gate.  I was able to show them a few spots not seen by most of the people and that was great, as well.  The wind came up and the mosquitoes went away and that was another tender mercy.  However, when we got back to the Missionary Village about an hour later, we heard on the radio that someone had been bitten by a rattlesnake in the Devils Gate area. 

The kids wanted to pull some handcarts after the walk to Devils Gate, so we spent a few extra minutes at the Prairie Park.  It has been such a treat to have two of our precious families together with us here in the mission field!!!

The cousin pioneers with Devils Gate in the background

We are happy pioneers!

We have handcarts for all sizes!

And for my final thought, today marks the birth-date of my mom, Barbara June Sykes.  She would have been 93 years old today.  What a precious lady, and one who did her very best to provide for her children after her husband, my father, Jack, was taken from her so prematurely.  I will always hold my mom in high esteem for her sacrifices and for her love for me.