Idaho, Betsy, Bennion's Red Scarfs

Sunday July 23, Bob and I spoke in the Evanston 2nd Ward on Faith through Trials.  This was a difficult topic as we were waiting news on Betsy, our Snowflake granddaughter, who was life flighted to Phoenix Children's Hospital.  She really started her improvement on Friday after a visit from a support dog, a golden retriever.  Prayers, a dog, and modern medicine has pulled her through.  Our daughter Heidi really stepped in and took great care of both Valerie and Betsy in our absence.  She is truly an angel!

Betsy with the retriever support dog.  Notice the smile.  She is such a sweet brave girl.

Sunday after church we headed for a planned visit to my sister, Linda Perkins, in Idaho Falls and lunch with Joshua, our grandson who is working in Rigby, Idaho for the summer.  It is close to the seventh anniversary of Jon Perkins death from brain cancer, so it was an emotional time, especially with Betsy's issues. It was a very short visit, but a good one.  Josh is happy and looks good.  He took us to one of his favorite eating places in Rigby, Bambinos, It was good but not as good as just being with family.  We came back to the ranch on Monday.  I didn't take any pictures, I guess my mind was elsewhere.

We drove through, Lava Hot Springs, Soda Springs, by Bancroft, Chesterfield, and Montpelier on our way back to the ranch.  Soda Springs is where our good friends the Larsens are from.

Tuesday was a cold and rainy day.  The weather here is crazy, but we loved the rain to settle the dust.  It made cleaning the port a johns much nicer than on a hot day.  Wednesday our trekkers from the Bennion Stake came in.  We were on trail 29, which has become one of my favorite trails.  There were 118 with 9 handcarts.  It was so fun having a small group.  They were so organized but not so scheduled that we had a lot of pressure to keep on schedule.  It was a good thing, as for the first couple of days I wanted to pack up and go home to be with Valerie and Betsy.  They joined their prayers with ours and our prayers were answered.  We served with Elder David and Sister Linda Ekins from Hinckley, Utah.  Trail 29 has lots of challenging hills both up and down and they did great.  These kids came in great and left even greater!

Elder David and Sister Ekins with us on trail 29

The Bennion Stake at the top of their first real big hill coming out of Prarie Dog.  It was cloudy and a bit rainy.

One of several steep hills.

Thursday night Bob did his pony express and I called their hoe down.  This was my last hoe down and it was a good one.  The kids and support people seemed to enjoy it.  It was tough for both of us as that was Betsy's worst day and our hearts and minds were not 100% in, but thankfully the Lord stepped in and helped us both.

A stylish hairdo done only with grass and weeds!

Friday was their women's pull and this one is a great one.  Kevin McDougal, the trail boss, told the story of the Arthur family in the Ellsworth Handcart company that lost their little boy along the trail.  The company stopped for two days and went out searching for him but then had to move on.  The mom gave the dad a red scarf and told him if he found him dead to bury him in the scarf and if he found him alive to come in waving the scarf as a sign that he had been found.  The company moved on with the mother and two children pulling their handcart.  The Mas in the group then gave red scarves to the Pas and all the boys left for the girls to pull the hancarts up the hill. (about 1 mile)  As the girls came around the last curve all the men and boys were up on top waving red scarves that they gave to all the girls!  It was amazing and very effective.  He then finished the story on top of how a farmer had found the young boy and taken him in to care for him until his father found him.  It was several days as the mom watched every night for her husband to return.

The men and boys lining the trail with their red scarves

The first cart up the hill on the women's pull

Love this view at the top of the women's pull on 29.  They pull from the valley below!

One of the Pas was Reed Arnold who they kept calling the Guatemalan.  I asked him why and found out that his Father was my sister, Rosemary's, mission president in  Guatemala in 1975-76.  Reed was 4-6 years old at the time.  I called Rosemary and the two talked and cried for about 10 minutes.  It was high on a mountain top as our phone service is pretty shaky on the trail or in the missionary village, but they were able to share lots of good memories of Guatemala and time with President Arnold who has since passed on.   It is always fun to make connections on the trail and usually there is one to be made.

Going down "graveyard" hill.  One of the steepest downhills.  You can see the port a johns to the right,  their destination.

They left Saturday morning leaving a part of them in my heart forever.  They were a great group of kids and people and I am always so grateful to have the memories they leave with us.  This was also a great day in Betsy's recovery so we felt really good about life and so grateful for answered prayers.

Beautiful sunset with the "dance hall of the dead" in the background

Nothing beats these skies, I will love them forever!

Deb and Jeff Cowan, our directors from last year, came on Saturday from their home in Cedar City. What a sweet treat that was to visit with them again.  They had left their missionary badges around the ranch for us to find and it was fun to find just a piece of them in paint supplies, port a johns, buckets, tools, and anywhere else they were found.  They attended church with us today and had lunch with all the missionaries.

Deb and Jeff Cowan with the many found name tags!

Got good news today!  Betsy is being moved out of the ICU onto the regular floor!  It was so hard to stay on our mission through the ups and downs of this week, but the news is great and she will be home in a couple of days if her progress continues.  Our prayers have certainly been answered but it was not without a lot of ups and downs.

The smiles continue.  Our sweet Betsy!