Idaho Trip #3 Rodeo Weekend

On a whim we decided to go back up to Dayton/Preston the last weekend in July for the Famous Preston Night Rodeo weekend, which is a hometown celebration that not very many people miss if they grew up in Preston.  I love to go back and visit because that is when you see long ago acquaintances and do a lot of catching up.  Cody talked me into going up again this year so he could hang out with his cousin, Afton, and it didn't take much for me to say yes. 

We went up on Friday morning and did some school shopping on the way.  Cody, Mady, her friend Cheyenne Stratton, and Cami went with me.  Cody was very impatient to get there, so every time we stopped to school shop he would get grumpy.  We got to Preston about 6:30, just after the rodeo parade and dropped Cody off at my brother Troy's house.  Cody wanted to spend the weekend with them and he had promised his Aunt Bernie that he would make her breakfast a year ago and she wanted him to pay-up.  

Saturday I left Cami, Mady and Cheyenne in the capable hands of Grandma and went to visit my Aunt Irene (my Dad's sister).  She has been letting me scan old photo's of my ancestors and told me I could come and do some this weekend.  I spent five hours with Irene and she told me stories about my Grandpa Bert (my dads' dad) and other relatives.  I learned a lot about the Stone(s) side of the family and their history.  She helped me label the old pictures and scan them.  We had a very good visit and I thoroughly enjoyed hearing her stories.  Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the day of scanning.

This is Grandma Afton and Grandpa Bert early in their relationship.  I think they were being silly because she is pulling his hair. 

This is my Aunts Lenore, Joy and little Maxine in front of my Grandma Aftons' childhood home.  They are my dad's older sisters.  (As of this date, Aunt Lenore has passed away, Aunt Joy lives in Burley, ID, and Aunt Maxine lives in Preston).

My Dad on his bike with training wheels.  He has always had dark hair as an adult, here he looks blonde! 

 

 Grandma Afton and Grandpa Bert when they were courting.  Grandma looks so young here, but how pretty she is!  And what a handsome guy Grandpa was, although I think he got better with age. 

 

This is one from my history.  This is our neighbors and my family going trick-or-treating at my Grandma's house.  On the back row is (L-R) Darin Carter, my brother Troy, Trent Carter, on the front left is Calleen Carter, Quivon Carter, my sister Vickie (in the mask), me, and in the very front is Cameo Carter.  I love the home-made costumes. 

 

 This is a great picture of my dad and his cousin Garth Stones in front of a monument in Death Valley.  I'm told that Their family took a trip to Southern California when dad was about two and took this picture.  Taking a trip is unheard of when you own a farm and dairy cattle, so this was a very special trip.  Garth is on the left, Dad on the right.

 

My dad and his cousin Garth not too many years later.  I love the little overalls they are wearing!

 

This is one of my very favorites of this batch of scans, this is the threshing machine the farmers shared to bring in their harvest.  It breaks off the wheat kernels from the stalks and separates them then they bag the kernels for sale or use and use the straw for beds or the animals.  Doug loves the old tractor.  I feel super lucky to have this picture.

 

I scanned about 500 pictures this time, some of them duplicates from last year, but I thoroughly enjoyed visiting with my Aunt Irene and hearing her perspective of our history.  While I was scanning the kids went fluming and motorcycle riding and had a great time at Grandma Beutlers.  Even Cami gathered her courage and rode down the flume with Austin there (I don't think I would have let her go if he wouldn't have been there). 

 

After visiting Aunt Irene, I ran back to Dayton and picked up my kids and we went to the parade and rodeo in Preston.  It was great entertainment and we had alot of fun with my brother Troy and his family.  Cody rode in the parade with my nephew Bracken and niece Afton, which he liked, and we met up after for the rodeo.

 

Cody is in the back of the flatbed throwing candy.  He loves the attention, but I think it is so funny because he really doesn't know anyone in Preston except his cousins.  Funny guy! 

 

The rodeo was very good this year and we visited the Carnival after for an hour and the kids rode the rides with all their cousins.  It loved seeing former classmates and catching up with them while the kids were busy.  (The older I get, the less I can do carnival rides).   Austin took the older kids home with him and stopped somewhere along the way to have a dance in the the middle of the street somewhere on an empty farm road in Dayton.  (He had Mady, Cheyenne, Brody, Tanner, and himself) They all had a blast!  We were all exhausted but happy, and slept in the next morning until it was time to return south.

It was a quick trip but worth it to me to be with my family again and learn so much about our history, and to see the kids have such a great time!   

Parkers' visit and Pioneer Day

We had a special treat this year.  Our nephew and Dalyons best buddie Parker, came to stay with us for a few day over Pioneer Day.  Parker lives in Pocatello, ID with his family.  His grandparents on his Dads side have a vacation home in St. George and he was able to catch a ride with them and come and stay with us for a few days.  He and Dalyon have a lot in common, and stayed up late playing video games and doing other activities together.  They are twins in many ways and were inseparable.  It was nice to have him here for Pioneer Day too, and  we also got some great pictures.

We started the holiday with the annual Pioneer Day Parade.  You can tell my kids are the most excited to be there.  Mady dressed up in her Trek attire and helped with the float.  Cami, Parker and Dalyon are sitting on the corner.

  After the parade we went to the celebration at the Community Center.  The weather was perfect for the day- 78 degrees!  That is unheard of in Southern Utah for July!  The skies were overcast so we stayed and played for most of the morning.  The wards in our area do the booths so we played games and had treats for little or no money.  The boys were having a great time!

Cami met her friend Jessica Perry at the park and they got to spend the day together.  They had their faces painted, and played pioneer games and had ice cream.  What a fun day!

That night I took the kids to the Washington City fireworks.  We stopped at McDonald's and had very unhealthy kids meals (according to Jessica) and played games in the dark until the fireworks started.  It was a great 25 minute show!  After we had to take Parker to his grandparents so they could take him home with them the next day.  We are so glad he came to stay for a few days and look forward to having him again next summer! 

Idaho Trip #2. . . The Beutler Reunion

After a memorable ride up, we were glad to arrive in Dayton on Thursday night and set up our "camp" (which is just our tent in Grandma and Grandpa's back yard).  The weather was much cooler there and it makes it easy to sleep outside.  Since Austin and Cody were already there, there wasn't a lot to unpack and set up so it went quickly.  It was really nice to see Austin again (even though he had just been home the week before) and to have us all together for a few days.  Most of this post is going to be in pictures because once we hit the farm the kids scatter and all do something different while the adults fix food and visit.  That is the what the Beutler Reunion is all about!!

This is a new activity for the kids.  With Austin living and working on the farm, he has gotten to do some of the things Doug and I used to do as kids, and that includes "fluming".  A flume is when the canal has to cross a road and they build a metal canal to take it across.  The metal canal has bars across and is a little bit steeper than the normal canal.  When the water is high it can be dangerous, but this day it wasn't very high and the kids had fun floating down the flume, then pulling themselves back up against the current.  The older kids went twice during the reunion.  It is so much fun to hang out with our cousins!!

As usual the kids loaded the bikes up and took a ride up the canyon to the basin, west of Dayton.  It is an easy ride on a dirt road the whole way and the more skilled riders usually take detours to make it interesting.  This is Tanner getting ready to unload his three wheeler, and the rest of the group already suiting up behind.

Here are my kids!  Austin (right)  Mady (furthest away on the four wheeler)
Cody (driving the four-wheeler in the middle) and my brothers youngest daughter
Afton riding behind Cody.  Cody invited Afton to come  ride with them for the
day.  The other cousins from Doug's side couldn't figure out how she was Cody's
cousin, and not theirs.  When they finally figured it out, they started to flirt with her.
It was really funny to watch.

 

Here the boys are having wheelie contests down the road.  I'm not sure if anyone actually
won, but it was a great competition!!

 

The little kids put their heads together and created a parade for everyone, including
the throwing of candy.  They used Grandpa's four-wheeler and pulled the carts behind
while everyone waved and smiled.  Some of the other cousins decorated bikes and rode
behind the carts.  They worked on their "floats" for most of the day Saturday and the parade
was in the afternoon. 

Kerry and Joylynn were in charge of this reunion and Kerry had made
little games that he positioned throughout the back yard for us to
play whenever.  This is a monkey game that you alternately pull each rope
and the monkey walks up.  There were two so we could race.  Doug and Cody
are racing and it looks like it is a tie. 

Years ago when Grandma was still having babies, presumably the twins (Kerry and Katie) the workout rage was a contraption similar to this that would supposedly shake the fat off you.  Grandpa, in his ingenious way, made Grandma  one so they didn't have to buy one.  It has a small motor on it that moves the belt back and forth, jiggling whatever is leaned against it.  Uncle Mike dug it out of the basement and plugged it in and IT WORKED!!  All of us had a turn at it, and it felt like a zumba routine that you didn't have to put a lot of effort into.  It kept us occupied for most of the afternoon!

Dalyon didn't have much to jiggle, but tried it anyway.  It was a fun walk down memory lane for all the family! 

 During the evening we all gather inside and visit or watch TV.  There is plenty of laughter
and teasing as well as reminiscing of the "good ol' days".

The teenage cousins love to play cards and Grandma keeps them supplied with candy.  They play Golf,
Thump Thump, Slap Jack, and other fun and quirky card games.  When things get heated they get loud,
but are having such a good time we don't shush them. . . . very often.   (Left to right:  Chandler, Brody, Hailey,
Tanner, Mady, McKenzie, Bracken, Cody)

The kids play cards whenever there is down time.  You can see that Mady
is the ringleader.  From left to right, Chandler, Bracken, Tanner, Mady, and Brody.

This is Olivia, Sammy, Hailey, Dalyon and Cami playing on the overly loved
hammock.  The little girls love to swing, ride bikes and play with the dolls they brought as well as
watch TV and play games.


The reunion lasts until Sunday when slowly we all clean up and go travel home.  It is always a great time at the reunion and we are always well fed.  Already we are looking forward to next year!
 

Idaho Trip #2. . . Getting there. . .

What a crazy busy summer!!  A week after the Trek we loaded up the truck and headed to Dayton, ID for the annual Beutler Family Reunion that we all look forward to each year.  We were lucky to have Austin come home for the Trek the week before, although we didn't see too much of him with all his friends and dates he had and then him leaving for the Trek, and when he went back to the farm the next Sunday he took Cody with him.  They work long hard days up there and I knew it would be good for Cody to experience what a 15 hour work day feels like. Mady was also gone the week after Trek.  She joined the Hurricane FFA and they had their Summer Ag Tour, where they take four days and travel around the state visiting different agricultural sights and learning about the different aspects of the industry.  They traveled north this year leaving on Wed., July 11.  They traveled to a turkey farm and a mink farm on their way to the KOA campground in Provo.  Mady said the mink farm wasn't too bad, (I remember the mink farmers coming into my dads store in Preston and they stunk SO bad!!) but that the turkey farm made her and the others sick.  The killing floor was pretty graphic and their empty stomachs really turned while they were there.  That night they "camped out" at the KOA and swam in the pool. On Thursday they visited Barnes Bullets in Santequin where they make high dollar ammunition.  They all came home with copper casings that were discarded from the bullet floor. 

That same day Doug and I loaded the two kids left at home, (which was VERY weird, to only have two kids at home) and our own camping gear and headed north for the annual Beutler reunion in Dayton.  We arranged to pick up Mady at Mount Timpanogas Caves that afternoon, and because we didn't want to sit and wait around, we decided to join the FFA group and hike up to the caves.  We bought our tickets online and they told us that it was about a mile and a half hike up to the caves so we planned to arrived early, however because of all the factors slowing us down this trip, we arrived a few minutes late and missed going up with the group.  The Forest Rangers said it was no problem and put us in a later group.  The hike is only a mile and a half, but they give you an hour and a half to get to the caves because it is a 12% grade and has to be taken slowly.  We ended up doing it in 50 minutes and catching up with the FFA kids. (Yay for us!!)

Starting up the trail, so far it is easy.

 

Just keep walking, walking, walking, just keep walking
up the hill. . .. .

The halfway point!!!  Yay!!! (Cami is not sure she wants to keep going).

The three quarter sign!!! YAY!!  Except the steepest part is yet to come!! 
Dalyon skipped and jogged and would go a ways up, then come back and meet us,
while the rest of us kept an even step and breathing cadence just to reach the top. 

We made it!!  We were very hot, and extremely sweaty, but made it!!
The caves stay about 43 degree's year round and it felt so good compared to the
heat outside.  They were well worth the hike! 

Inside the cave it was very tight in place, and very cool.  Cami had on
both her my jackets.  Following the tour which took about an hour, we walked
back down the same trail, which only took 20 minutes (compared to the 50 it took
to hike up!).  We all agreed it was definitely worth the effort to see the caves and hear
the stories about their discoveries and what they were used for until the forest service
took them over.

After the hike and the tour, and the walk down we got the dog out of the
back of the truck and took her on a walk down by the river.  It was just too
tempting to me and I took off my shoes and soaked my feet in the frigid water.
Gracie (the dog) loved running up and down the river and Mady and Cami came
to join me to soak their feet.

 It was fun to hang out with the FFA kids from Dixie High, Desert Hills High and Hurricane High.  Mady said her goodbyes and joined us for the rest of the journey to Dayton that night and the ever anticipated reunion. 

Idaho trip #1

In June my Mom and Dad and Cody and I took a trip to Preston to attend my niece Jessica's wedding.  This is her second marriage and we are all glad to see that she has found a really great guy to share her life with.  She has a little boy who is three (who looks more like her new husband than his biological father), and is expecting a little girl.  They had the ceremony at Willow Flats, a campground above the Cub River canyon east of Preston.  Cody and I stayed with the Beutlers where we got to visit with Austin.  He is living with Grandma and Grandpa Beutler for the rest of the year to work on our cousin Wesley's farm. 

Jessica, her husband Michael Knotts, and her little boy Layne as the
ring bearer.  Michael is the nephew of my Aunt Janae who is married to my
Uncle Billy (my moms brother).  We aren't related except through marriage,
but Jessica was awfully worried.

This is my Mom and Dad and Austin and Cody having dinner after the wedding.
The boys had a great time together and enjoyed getting to know my Dad
a little better.  It was an enjoyable time for all. 

Austin and Cody having bonding time.  Both with laptops and chatting
with girls online.  

While we were in Cub River we went for a drive up to the place where my Grandma Afton grew up.  It has been changed from a homestead to rangeland and a lot of the buildings were gone, but Grandma's house was still there although in rubble.  It was very interesting to visit the place that she grew up and to remember all the stories she used to tell us. 

The house as it sits now.  The overgowth, cows and time have
destroyed it.

This is what it looked like years ago.  This is my Aunt Lanore, Aunt Joy
 and Aunt Maxine (tallest to smallest) in front of Grandma's childhood home. 

We had a very good visit and I'm very happy for Jessica and her new family.  I really enjoyed seeing relatives and visiting places I haven't been for years.  It was a nice trip down memory lane. 

Pioneer Trek 2012

This year our stake took the youth to Wyoming to do the Martins Cove Trek for three days.  The group met on Tuesday night, July 3, at 8 pm at the Stake Center where they had a fireside to learn about some of the stories about the Pioneers as well as to be grouped into "families" for the trek.  Each family consisted of a Ma and Pa, random couples from our stake who work with the youth, and about eight to ten youth who were brothers and sisters.  There were about 25 "families" from our stake who traveled through the night on charter buses to Rock Springs Wyoming where they awoke to breakfast and handcarts.  They kids were supposed to sleep on the buses during the night, but true to teenage expectations, there was little sleep happening. 

This is the drop off at the Stake Center.  They are so clean and organized.  This
is Mady, Austin and Topher (Kris Wilson). 

Ready to go:  Jared Cahoon, Austin, Eric Colson, Topher, Darringer Scow,
and in the middle is Olivia Thayne, who ended up being a treasured sister to Mady.

The first day was fairly easy the kids reported and they traveled with their handcarts to Independence Rock.  It was named Independence because the pioneers needed to be that far in their travels by the Fourth of July if they were going to make it to Salt Lake City before the snow began, and it was significant that our youth traveled there on Independence Day to experience the holiday there. 

Off they go!  Austin is pushing. 

Independence Rock.  The American flag flies on top, and it is a difficult
hike up, the hill is very steep.

Camp that night.  This part of Wyoming is flat and no trees.  It kind of looks
like a gold rush camp. 

Mady and her family having a great time on day two of the Trek. 

They took time to have fun, too.  Mady is jumping rope and getting some pretty
good air under her.  They also took a break by the Sweetwater river to cool off.

Jessica Green and Mady playing in the water trying to keep
their skirts dry.

Austin carrying one of his sisters across the Sweetwater river.  The crossing
was a silent crossing so no one  spoke while they went across.  Three girls from out stake
played their violins while the group crossed and Mady thought it was
a very spiritual experience.  (One of the girls was our cousin Sadi Beutler, another was
Mady's friend Rachel Nielson).  

Mady being carried across the Sweetwater. 

Austins Ma and Pa were Trevor and Rhonda Anderton,
and this was his family.

Mady's Ma and Pa were the Nielsons and this is her family. 

They visited Martins Cove where they had a fireside about the pioneers that died there and in the stories the adults told they substituted some of the names of the kids in their groups.  It was a very spiritual experience for everyone as the adults told them of thier friends dying.  They also received letters from the Pony Express (written from their parents) that they got to read during the quiet times.  The group traveled home on Saturday and arrived about 9 o'clock.  I was surprised to find the kids energized and excited and not exhausted and grumpy.  Each of them only got one blister on their feet and no sunburns or cold sores to remember the experience by.  I think the experience was life changing for some, and definitely memorable to all.