2000 Stipling Warriors

I was reading Alma 56:47 last night about the 2000 stripling warriors to the kids. It says, "Now they never had fought, yet they did not fear death; and they did think more upon the liberty of their fathers than they did upon their lives; yea, they had been taught by their mothers, that if they did not doubt, God would deliver them."

The kids asked me if this meant that if they had enough faith God would deliver our Dad from death when he goes to war.

I told them no and their faces just fell. I told them that if daddy died in war it was because Heavenly Father needed him to do missionary work on the other side and that Heavenly Father would take care of us. As I was talking I remembered a talk given in Conference by David E. Simmons:

"As a young man, I returned home from an eighth-grade basketball tournament dejected, disappointed, and confused. I blurted out to my mother, “I don’t know why we lost—I had faith we’d win!”

I now realize that I did not then know what faith is.

Faith is not bravado, not just a wish, not just a hope. True faith is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ—confidence and trust in Jesus Christ that leads a person to follow Him. 1

Centuries ago, Daniel and his young associates were suddenly thrust from security into the world—a world foreign and intimidating. When Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego refused to bow down and worship a golden image set up by the king, a furious Nebuchadnezzar told them that if they would not worship as commanded, they would immediately be cast into a burning fiery furnace. “And who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands?”

The three young men quickly and confidently responded, “If it be so [if you cast us into the furnace], our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand.” That sounds like my eighth-grade kind of faith. But then they demonstrated that they fully understood what faith is. They continued, “But if not, … we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.” That is a statement of true faith.

They knew that they could trust God—even if things didn’t turn out the way they hoped. 4 They knew that faith is more than mental assent, more than an acknowledgment that God lives. Faith is total trust in Him.

Faith is believing that although we do not understand all things, He does. Faith is knowing that although our power is limited, His is not. Faith in Jesus Christ consists of complete reliance on Him."

I think we'll have a family home evening on this talk next Monday.

Fishing at Mirror Lake

This is Mirror Lake.

We took the kids fishing here.

Our lures were so big the fish thought they were new friends not bait.















After five minutes Gavin thought catching a fish was hopeless and went to play on the swings.















Corb reeled in some grass and said, "Look Mom! I caught some cabbage!" Yum.















Jared spent the whole time preparing rods, fixing reels, untangling lines....

We had the best time! It was a perfect family outing.

Sunday Tradition

We're making a Sunday Tradition of having a fire and roasting marshmellows.

Corbin ate all the big marshmellows in two days after I came home from grocery shopping (sneaking I might add) so we had to roast minis. It's really not the same.

The kids all wanted to wear Jared's shirts.

To the top of the Mountain

Little Man

So Corbin came into the living room yesterday and asked me to get him some kidney beans for a snack! What kind of kid is this!?

We call Corbin a lot of things, Corn Chip, Baby Corn, Little Man, Jamers, the Corbster....I adore him.
So here he is doing a great karate move that I thought he would appreciate seeing 10 years down the road, so I'm blogging it.

Crazy Sunday

So, this morning Jared and I were half asleep and we kept hearing this high pitched sqeaking noise. In our half sleep we thought it was a bug outside. Then it got really loud and I could hear Griff wrestling with something. I thought it was a mouse and jumped up to save it from Griff only to find the cutest bat ever!
It wouldn't fly so I thought it was injured. I followed it around the room as it walked on it's two hind feet and elbows. I scooped it up with the dustpan and put it in a box and left it until we got home from church. I wanted to research how to help it heal and what it would eat etc. I even named it Drake much to Jared's dismay.

As I was doing research I found out that bats usually have rabies. So I took Drake outside and put him on the ground and he flew away. My brother, Jimmy Hart, said,"That's not a good way to start the school year. You'll get a call from the school, 'Excuse me Mrs. Speaks but your children are foaming at the mouth. Could you please come pick them up?'"

I could have kept himforever though.

My Life is complete

So in a pervious blog I posted my sightings of a mommy and baby moose.
Aunt Tammy stood in as our daddy moose. But now my life is complete. On the way to pick Jared up from work we spotted a daddy moose and here he is:



I love the last picture. It's like he's trying to hide from us behind his twig. Good try.

Sneaking and Sharing

I walked into the kitchen and Corbin said, "Mom, I was sneaking marshmellows."

"But I shared some with Griffy."

How considerate. Really, how could I get mad?

More hiking and a bear.......

I know you are probably sick of hiking blogs but my blog is also our family journal. So this blog is for our remembrance as much as anything.


So here we are at the start of our hike. No whining yet....to be continuted....



I loved this curvy tree, it reminded me of something out of Lord of the Rings.



Jared loves to take close-ups of plants. Those are his leaves and then of course all of my handsome men. Jared had the kids go through thorn bushes so I could capture them standing in the creek. Oh and here's the creek



This is Jared's apostate picture, enough said.


Follow the boarded road, follow the boarded road, follow, follow, follow, follow, follow the boarded road.....


This is the disturbing big bootie tree.


Tree possessed by aliens.


Okay, okay, I know, enough trees.


How about a quiet, unsuspecting bridge.



Just kidding! Raging waterfall underneath! The pictures don't really do it justice. The waterfall is voracious.

Okay, from the trailhead to the end is 2.5 miles and at the end if a hand tram. You get into this little metal cage and pull yourself across. You can either continue hiking on the other side or pull yourself back over. It really is so much fun. Here's a slideshow of our trip on the hand tram.

So the whining started on the way back. They tried so hard but Corbin finally had to be carried. Here's Jared taking a break. All in all it was SOOOOOO much better than last time. They were more mentally prepared for the 5 miles this time. Click here for the story of the first time we did this hike.



When you go hiking in Alaska people usually take bear spray or a gun. We had a whistle. So we sat down to rest on a bench and we're just talking away and I look up and there's a bear just eating in the bushes right next to the trail. Jared was trying to get a picture when Gavin gave a war cry because well...he's Gavin and scared the bear away. No whistle necessary and that's why we only have a picture of the bear's back.
I can see why people get attacked by bears all the time in Alaska now. I was so fascinated by the bear that I was just standing there. I almost even tried to get it's attention! You forget it's a wild animal. Jared said, "I think we should just walk away." The boys and I did and then he stayed for five more minutes to get a picture of the bear. I was so glad he did.


Upon returning to the parking lot at the end of the hike we found this car. Notice the Alaskan liscense plates with two surf boards on top, obviously confused.





Then we enjoyed the sunset on the way home at 10:00p.m.