Johnson Family Dish

Mormon Battalion Trail

Scott went on his first real campout this last weekend with his daddy and Scout troop (and lots of other daddy’s too).  Naturally he was thrilled about this adventure.  So thrilled in fact that he was packed a week ahead of time. 

He also worked to earn a new hatchet to bring along with him.  This must be a male thing, if there is any tool, even if they really don’t need it, they MUST have it; to complete the experience, I guess.

They went to the section of the trail near Maricopa.  They camped out on Friday night.  I am not super clear on the details of this next little oddity, I will just let the picture speak:

And I should say that no, this is not normal camping behavior, in my experience (and perhaps is a tiny part of why I hate camping).  I, unlike my husband, cannot cause a mattress to come along for the camping experience.  The Gardner family brought this for him, from what I understand.  He said he slept really well on it too.  (Thanks Bob for capturing this priceless bit of camping eccentricity.  And thanks Gardners for being so lavish with your bishop.  He did enjoy it.)

Our troop worked hard restoring the trail on Saturday.  (Ethan aka Sunny, pictured here hard at work.  Courtesy of Bob Gray photography.)

They hauled out two heaping truck loads, as you see above, of old tires and trash that was dumped in the desert.  (This photo also courtesy of Bob.) 

Scott went on and on about the Mormon Batallion Soldiers who came through that evening to talk to them about the history of the trail.  They carried working replica black powder guns which they shot off for the boys. 

Scott’s first official Scout campout was really fun, something he will always remember, I am sure.

It’s No Secret….

that we Gatti’s love a good Halloween Party!  

(From the left to right, back row: Jacob, Uncle Joe, Aunt Gwen, Michelle, Lorna (Jakes new and recently deceased wife), and Morgan.  From left to right front row:  Addi, Charis, Joey and Scott.)

My cousins Bill and Sandi threw a Halloween costume party for thier two little girls, Kimmie and Annie.  It was so much fun!   (Thanks Sandi and Bill!)

They fed us:

They entertained us, and stuffed us full of cupcakes and cookies, yum!  (Sandi makes the absolute best sugar cookie, ever, I had to take some home with us.)

And differences were put aside for the night, as you can see by the fuzz (our Scott) sitting right next to a well known Mafiosi (Joey Gatti). 

And me and Teresa.

You can find pictures of the birthday girls and family at Bill and Sandi’s Blog (<– by clicking here).

Addi Turns 9 and Morgan 13, All in the Same Day!

October 15th has come and gone again leaving two of our girls one year older.  We celebrated for several days. 

Their birthday really felt like a holiday this year because Daddy took the day off and we took the whole family to lunch to celebrate:

Then, we had a party with friends the next night:

Pierce and Darin played the piano for us.  They both are very accomplished pianists.  It was really fun to hear all of the pop songs that Pierce has memorized.  To quote Kelcie “he is AMAAZINGG!!!”  He played everything from “Clocks” by Coldplay to “Don’t Stop Believin’” by Journey. 

(I love this picture Kelcie took mid key.)

The kids also played games and just goofed off.  It was tons of fun!

Um…Scott, you might want to get that buddy.  You’re losing your eyeball.

The Story of A Lifetime

I woke up in the middle of the night a few months ago.  I was thinking about the book that I am going to write, someday.  Actually, this had been a subject which had occupied my thoughts for sometime prior to this point.  I woke up because the title of the book burst into my head, it caused a midnight storm there which would not let me rest again until I jotted my thoughts down in the spiral notebook that I had been brainstorming in earlier.  So, here it is, the title of my story: Raised by Wolves; Pecked to Death by Chickens. 

Yes, I am serious!  I am going for a mildly humorous (sometimes possibly a little dark humor) take on my life.  If I only write this for fun, and for my children, that will be satsifying to me.  But, that will not stop me from trying to gain the necessary skills and connections to get myself published.  Colonel Sanders was 68 when he bagan KFC so, the way I see it, I got time baby!!!

I love that Randon’s Great Great Grandfather Benjamin F. Johnson wrote his memoirs (with out any skills), I adore reading his story.  I feel like I know him well from reading his story.  For me, he does not die because not only does his posterity continue but, I can enter the world in which he lived anytime I open that book; I can enter his thoughts.  I believe that his writings, and those of countless other authors I love, are a fantastic legacy.  I want to leave something that will share who I am and what I experienced in this life with my children and thier children, even after I am gone, just like Benjamin F.

Delayed Idaho Post

Okay, I started this post days ago and haven’t had time to finish it. We have had a bad cold/flu thing going through the Johnson population here. Addi and Morgan developed it during our trip so we literally got off of the plane and went straight into care for the ill mode. Kelcie got it next but, returned to school today.

I had to fit the shopping that I usually would have done on Saturday in to the week too.

On top of that Randon has had a demanding bishop week. I have been in the thick of my research paper on happiness: trying to collect data, calculate it, enter it into excell, analyze it, write about it, and do some additional research for it. So far, I am at 15 pages (and that is a very rough draft and doesn’t include any of my own research data!). I have a lot of polishing to do and many more additions to it still. I have learned some interesting stuff, primarily from other people’s research on different aspects or components of happiness.

And, it has been an “all hands on deck” math week for me. Lots of challenging assignments (and a few tears of frustration too). Randon and I actually did math every single day of our “get-away.” Such is the nature of being a student, I guess (not to mention the spouse of one). He was incredibly helpful, BTW. He has a knack for math, and I missed a math class the day we left town so, I am not sure I would have figured it out with out his “skills.” Thank you, Darling.

So, I think it goes without saying that we have all been sleeping like the dead here at night (and some of the sick among us, during the day too). It was a crazy busy week to get ready to go out of town and a crazy busy week to get back into town and catch up.

Isn’t life grand?!

Beautiful Idaho

Randon and I travelled to Idaho together for a long weekend. We left on Thursday morning and returned Sunday afternoon. The weather was a pristine 79 degrees. Our taxi driver appologized that his air conditioning was not working, we explained where we were from and that the whole state of Idaho felt air conditioned, from our perspective. (We took a taxi only a short distance to where a vehicle was stored for us.)

We then drove from Boise north along the senic south fork of the Payette River. The leaves were just showing thier fall colors. Randon wanted me to cross this suspension bridge across the river, he is such a funny guy. Below him, what you don’t see is a particularly turbulent area of the river. Serious white water there, the pictures don’t do it justice but here they are anyway:

(Really, the pictures are too flat.  They do not capture the nature of the rapids very well.)

The place we stay in Idaho is not only serene but it touts a very unique location as well:

We spent our days exploring this area, and we have plenty of scrapes and bruises to prove it.  Idaho back country is magnificent!  We went down the river in a raft and we went on some long mountain trails.  (I really want to go into detail about our adventures and discoveries but, that will have to wait until I have more time.) 

We found this sign about 4 miles into our not so graceful climb up a 7500 ft. mountain. We started the climb at 6500 ft. (we did not gain much, only 1000 ft., but it is hard to breath even that high up)

We stopped and took these photos on the way home Sunday morning:

It is interesting, I think, that Idaho has the fattest cows I have ever seen!!  They taste good too.  This big guy saw me snapping pictures of his enormous herd and came to give me a proper Idaho send off.