harvesting and resting

“And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due

 season we shall reap, if we faint not”

 This scripture gave me so much comfort today.  Sometimes it feels like as a family we are soooooo far away from the goals and aspirations that me and brandon have for us.  I envision all these things and sometimes just getting everyone fed and clean is about as much as I'm capable of!  But thinking about planting little seeds this morning somehow made me feel so much better.  I want to reap these huge rewards but I guess I just need to take comfort from my little garden.  Some days all I do is plant tiny little seeds.  All we get done is family prayer - that's it.  And sometimes days will go by without getting into my garden - but then we catch up and spend so much time working and watering and pulling weeds and it looks wonderful, till the weeds grow back and someone forgets to water.  But at the end of all that work we always harvest so much.  And those tiny little seeds I planted so long ago now matter so so much.  I can't feel like the tiny seeds don't count for much.  Especially now when my kids are little.  Every hug, every I love you, every family home evening counts, even when it feels sometimes like it doesn't.  And as long as i don't faint, gosh darn't, we will have something good to reap:). 

We went to Coeur d'Alene with my family over the 4th of july and then with Byron and Karen to Orcas Island in Washington State after that for a week.  It was beautiful and perfect and I loved almost every second of it.  Leah cried in the car and it was a whole tone of driving, but so worth it.  And kind of liberating to think we can just tuck our little kids into a car and drive that far away and be in some place so wonderful in a day.  

 We rode bikes on the hiawatha bike trail - it started out with a pretty treacherous (for grady anyway) 1 1/2 miles through an old train tunnel.  it was completely dark, like completely pitch black, dark as dark can get.  And my bike lamp didn't work.  But Brandon's did and I couldn't help but think of all these analogies the whole time about how important it is to have the light of the spirit in your life and not to have to always rely on others testimonies.  kinda how my mind works.  Gray and Clara rode on tag a long bikes and Graham was in a seat behind me and Leah got pulled along with poor parson in a trailer by paul ( I say poor because she cried a lot - I tried to stay away from them as much as possible.....sorry guys:()  It was beautiful though, clear up high along the ridge of a mountain.  The hiawatha trail is an old railroad track turned into bike and hiking trail.  13 miles almost all down hill with lots of fun tunnels to go through.

 At 15 1/2 months Leah finally learned to walk!!!

 The dock out in front of the home my parents rented.  The lake is beautiful!!! They rented wave runners one day and just cruising around this beautiful place was so much fun. There was also a hot tub which made for a super awesome spot to watch the fireworks over the lake from on the 4th! Clara said, "I've never in my whole entire life seen fireworks over a lake!"  me neither babe:)

 This is the spot where my sisters husband is going to build a zip line course.  gorgeous!

 We spent wed. - monday in idaho, then got up and drove to seattle.  I still am not sure how we accomplished this, but somehow in about an hour and a half we made it to the russian bakery at the market for cheese rolls, into the market for my very most favorite on the whole planet balsamic vinegar and white truffle oil, plus a bag of rainier cherries and apricots, then onto "serious pie" where they seriously made us two pizza's to go in like 8 minutes (which was lucky cause we were parked illegally) and while those were cooking I ran into the Dahlia bakery for a box full of cookies! In my opinion we got every most amazingly perfect food item that city has to offer.  We were pleasantly stuffed by the time we got to anacortes to catch the ferry.  The ferry ride over was amazing.  Look at that sun set!  

 

This vacation was heaven.  It felt like a real vacation.  I took a nap and went for a hike or walk almost every day. Didn't wear make up or anything made out of denim the whole week.  We spent hours exploring beaches and tide pools.  We ate ice cream and rode our bikes around the darling little village of eastsound.  we ate awesome seafood Byron cooked up for us one night.  we saw jaw droppingly beautiful scenery and we soaked up the 70 degree weather.  Having a 4 - 4 ratio for kids to adults is soo perfect for a vacation and we were so happy Byron and Karen came with us.  It was perfect.  One day me and Brandon went for a drive and found the perfect hike that ended up and the most beautiful little beach I've ever seen.  We laid on the sand and climbed up on the rocks in the most perfectly warm goldeny sunshine and talked and laughed and brandon jumped in the freezing ocean water and it seriously felt like the most wonderfully relaxing happy afternoon that I could ever even dream about. I am in love with this place.