Summer 2016 Mega-Trip

We went on a three week vacation this summer to attend our Aicardi Syndrome Family Conference in Colorado Springs.  It was my last year (of six) to serve on the planning committee.  It went smoothly but I was so busy taking care of things and having fun that I actually don't have many pictures from it.

After the conference, we traveled to some National Parks in Colorado and Utah and then attended my niece's wedding in Provo.  It was a long trip, but we had so much fun seeing our Aicardi family, going new places as a family, and being able to celebrate with my niece on her happy day.

Aicardi girls group photo

The conference planning committee.

The 14 year old friends

Aicardi Siblings

The Founders with their gift from the group--this year's conference theme. The logo for the Foundation (and on this sign) is the profile of their Aicardi daughter who passed away several years ago.

Having fun at the dance!

Justin leading the Q&A session with the researchers.

Annie with her best friends

I owe Cindy so much thanks! She and I spent the last two years planning the entire agenda for this conference. She's the best!

Two of my favorite Aicardi mom friends

Justin was in charge of organizing child care for the conference this year, so what's better than a video game trailer!...

...and Nerf laser tag!  Child care was a hit this year.

While in Colorado Springs for the conference, we went to see Garden of the Gods which was pretty neat.

We stopped for a short break to see the Great Sand Dunes National Park.  We all had so much fun that we wish we had planned to have more time there.

You can rent sandboards and sleds to ride down the sand dunes behind us.  We didn't have time for that, plus walking across the super hot sand to be out there in the sun wasn't too appealing, but it would have been a lot of fun earlier in the day.

So we just played in the water and sand close by.

Annie had a really great time in Mesa Verde and was able to see a lot there.

I took Molly and Lexie on a hike to one dwelling.

We were able to see almost all the others from just small walks to overlooks.

And lots of surface dwellings were fully accessible.

The Monticello, Utah LDS temple

Natural Bridges National Monument had lots of accessible trails to overlooks to see the bridges...

...but some trails got rather steep for Annie.

We stopped for a short while at Capitol Reef and had a nice picnic.

In Salt Lake we were able to meet Justin's brother's new dogs.  The girls ate them up...

...and they ate up Lexie too.

Then we got to see all of my side of the family at my niece's wedding. She was a beautiful bride and it was a happy day.

The cousins all had fun together.

My parents and siblings

Ryan's family

Kami's family

Eric's family

My parents

4th of July with Cousins

Justin's brother and his family came to visit us for the 4th of July which was so much fun!

Cousins at the Winter Quarters Temple

Mormon Trail Center

The big slides downtown were a huge hit!

Pedestrian bridge across the Missouri into Iowa

And no trip to Nebraska for the 4th would be complete without a HUGE fireworks display!

Ponca State Park Campout

We camped at Ponca State Park with some other friends and had a great time.  However, this time the weather wasn't so great.  We tent camped through a night of storms with 70mph winds and pounding rain.  Branches from trees were falling around our campsite.  We prayed that our tent would be protected and amazingly enough, we had no damage to our tent, and not even a drop of water inside!

Also, the heat and humidity were so bad (heat index of 105 degrees) that Justin got sick one evening from it, and even with three fans in our tent at night, we didn't sleep much since the heat was still so high even at night.  We got a little bit of relief in our friends' trailers with A/C, we cooled off in the pool one day and spent some time doing activities at the air conditioned lodge. So even though the heat and humidity were extreme and we were a bit frightened during the big storm, we survived and still had a great time.  But now we are shopping around for a small pop up trailer that will provide us with air conditioning and a much easier set up and tear down of camp!

A great campsite!

Trying to get some sleep at night with three fans in our tent.

We did lots of archery and even decided to buy two of our own bows this year.

Kayaking on the backwaters of the Missouri.

This is where we could usually find Molly reading.

Ponca has a giant shooting range for all sorts of different weapons.  This time we decided to try our hands at the atl atl.  Justin struggled to get the hang of it, but it came more naturally for me. :)

We had fun doing slingshots too, but they were much harder to get good aim.

Girls Camp and the Tree of Life

Justin took Annie to our church's girls camp again this year.  One experience was particularly special and memorable.  Justin told us about it when they got home from camp and here's my brief re-telling. 


The leaders at camp set up a trail to be like the path to the tree of life with a rope as an iron rod. Along the way they had pictures of Christ, the temple, etc. set up and they planned to have a leader at each one to talk to the girls.

Knowing that it would be tough to take Annie on the trail, Justin decided to get a head start with Annie while the other girls listened to a speaker at the beginning of the trail first. Justin took Annie on the trail, which was very bumpy and rough, but it was still light outside so he could easily see to navigate the trail.

No leaders were at the pictures when Annie came to them, but Justin stopped at each one to talk to Annie about it. Eventually they arrived at the end with the tree of life before anyone else. They had a big tree in an open field decorated with white Christmas tree lights to signify the tree of life. Annie loved looking at the lights and was really happy when she made it to the tree. She was smiling huge and just loved being there at the tree. Justin stayed at the tree with Annie for quite a while before any other girls started to arrive.

Later at the girls camp testimony meeting, Justin learned what that iron rod experience was like for all the other girls. They talked about how distracting it was to have other young women off in the bushes away from the trail yelling things at them and telling them they’re no good and worthless, and to hear other young women who were in a small shed away from the trail, laughing and having fun, working to convince the girls on the trail to join them (like the great and spacious building). They also talked about how difficult the trail was because it was dark and they couldn’t see their way very easily.

It wasn’t until Justin heard the other girls’ experiences that he was touched with comparing their experiences on the trail with Annie’s. Annie's experiences on the trail were very symbolic to her unique life. Annie didn’t have to go on the trail when it was dark—her path was continually lit--just as in her life, she continually has the spirit with her and is never left without that special companionship.

Annie's path was still a rough and rocky trail and not always easy to travel. But on Annie's rough and rocky path, she wasn’t tempted or yelled at by the “adversary” or the other girls hiding in the bushes.  And that's true of Annie's life. She faces difficult challenges every day--seizures, medical challenges, physical challenges, and even mental and communication challenges--yet Satan is powerless over her.  She is immune to his temptations.

Annie was the first one to get to the tree and was thrilled to be there.  Likewise, she will return to live with her Heavenly Father before her friends at girls camp do. And I know that when she gets there, she will be even happier than she was when she arrived at this tree decorated with Christmas lights, because her surroundings will be even more glorious! 

When the leaders decided to provide this symbolic experience for the girls, I'm sure they had no idea that they would also be providing Annie with her own unique symbolic experience. Annie truly had a wonderful time at camp and Justin felt equally blessed to be able to attend with her and experience this Tree of Life trail with her.

Annie arriving at the Tree of Life

Just like last year, a group of girls included Annie in cookie baking. We were touched that none of these girls are in Annie's ward, yet they still reached out to her to include her.

Mahoney State Park Camping Trip

As soon as the kids were out of school, we packed up and headed out to Mahoney State Park for 4 days of camping.  There was tons there to keep us busy, and we had a great time.  The weather was even perfect too.

It's hard to fit all our camping gear in our car.  This time we decided to take out the front passenger seat to give us more room, which helped a lot!

We had a great campsite right by the pond.  Not many campsite will accommodate our 20'x10' tent and Annie's wheelchair.

Mahoney State Park has a theater so we went to a play while we were there.  It was a LOT of fun with audience participation.

Justin took Molly and Lexie out on the paddle boats.

It was perfect weather for tent camping!

Played frisbee golf, miniature golf, and tennis while we were there.

We climbed the observation tower for a great view.

...but this is only as high as Molly got before she became too scared.  With see-through steps and the tower swaying in the wind, it did make for quite a thrill.

We spent one whole day at the waterpark at Mahoney.  They have waterslides and a wave pool with the biggest waves!  We had a blast!

And no camping trip would be complete without roasting marshmallows!

Two Year Harp Anniversary

It's been exactly two years now since I started playing the harp.  That means it's also time for the Spring Harp Recital.  This first song is the one I'm playing at the recital, called Pastorale.  It's been a really fun one to learn because it is mostly in 5/8 time, with several time signature changes throughout the piece.  

This second song is one I've recently been working on that I've also enjoyed called Peace Be With You.  I could have polished it a little bit more, but wanted to quickly record it while I had my equipment out.  Here is my first and only take:

 

Christ Our Savior, LDS Hymn Medley on Harp

I have the joy of playing prelude on my harp for our Easter Sunday church service this Sunday.  I didn't have any simple hymn arrangements appropriate for prelude, so I wrote several of my own arrangements.  I really liked how these three arrangements all about the Savior sounded together, so I decided to put them into a medley in celebration of Easter.  The hymns in the medley are "I Know that My Redeemer Lives", "There Is a Green Hill Far Away", and "I Believe in Christ".