Family Pioneer Trek at Martin's Cove

We're at Bear Lake now, enjoying a few days with most of my family members before the official Eyre reunion starts on Friday. So great to be with everyone, to see the kids having so much fun together, to meet a new niece, to have that uniquely wonderful feeling of relaxing togetherness that Bear Lake brings.


For a few days before we got here, we were at Martin's Cove in Wyoming doing a pioneer trek. Jared and I did one with the youth from our area in St George three years ago and had a great experience but thought it would be all the more meaningful if we could go with our own kids. So when our stake in Ogden announced that they were going to do a family pioneer trek this summer, we signed up for three days of wearing pioneer clothes while camping and pulling a handcart through the Wyoming wilderness while hearing faith-promoting pioneer stories and having some good old fashioned fun. And it turned out to be a truly wonderful family bonding and learning experience. 

Here we are near Devil's Gate (that break in the rocks in the background)

The kids thought this would have been a much more comfortable way to travel than pulling handcarts.
But only the richest could afford wagons so mostly wagons like these were used to haul provisions and
families hauled their personal possessions in handcarts.

The kids really loved the adventure of it all and the things we learned about pioneers really seemed to sink in and affect them. I looked over at Silas during a film about a little pioneer boy who lost his father in a terrible snow storm during the little orientation meeting when we first got there, and his eyes were glistening with tears. I asked Oliver at the end what he learned. He said "That it would be really hard to be a pioneer for three reasons. You get hardly any food and it's bad food. You walk a LOT. And you might die." Isaac insisted on pulling the handcart by himself for about a 1/2 a mile so he could see what it was like for the pioneer boys his age who had to do stuff like that. Ashton and Isaac both took great care of several very little kids to help out the kids' parents and it was great to see all the families really help each other in every way throughout the experience. Eliza delighted all the pioneer stories and games and was so helpful and cute about everything.

One of the really cool things about going on this trek to Martin's Cove was that Jared's great great great grandmother, Amy Orme, and great great grandfather, Samuel Washington Orme, along with his two sisters, Sarah Ann and Rebecca, were in the Martin handcart company that got caught in the early snows and endured unthinkable hunger and cold while waiting in Martin's Cove for rescue parties to save them. They walked about a hundred miles through 2-foot-deep snow with their handcarts, subsisting on rations of 4 oz of flour a day until they were finally rescued. There are so many heartbreaking but faith promoting stories and we felt proud that some of those stories belonged to one of our ancestors.

Here's a little story we know about the Ormes: As the storms got worse and the rations got smaller, men were dying right and left. As men were primarily responsible for pulling the handcarts and as men typically have a higher need for calories than women anyway, the 4 oz of flour for all adults that they whittled their way down to after weeks of semi-starvation was just not working out for the men. Samuel's mom and sisters saw the men dying and decided to do a very brave and very hard thing. They decided to insist that Samuel take part of their rations to supplement his own so he could keep his strength up and help them all make it through this ordeal. Likely due to their sacrifice, all four family members lived. Samuel went on to support his mother and sisters as a blacksmith all his life (their dad had died before the trek began). We found a great tribute written about Samuel by his son at the visitor's center. Samuel was as honest and faithful and hardworking as they come.

Here are the kids looking for their ancestors on the list of members of the Martin Handcart Company of 1856:



And here's what they found (the names in red are those that died - and there's sadly a whole lot of red on that board). Great great great grandmother Amy, great great aunts Sarah Ann and Rebecca, and great great grandfather Samuel (Washtington was his middle name because he was born on the 4th of July). Samuel's son was Silas who our Silas is named for.

When we first got there, we set up camp (feeling pretty darn grateful for the tents we've got instead of the canvas and sticks the pioneers had for tents - in the snow...)

Then we had had the beautiful experience of watching a couple little girls from our stake be baptized in the Sweetwater River.

We picked up our handcarts from here (and the twins made fast friends with this big dog who looks like a sheep and who has appointed himself the guardian of all pioneer treks according to the missionaries who help manage the treks- they wanted me to be sure to include a photo of Oscar the dog and this is the best I could get -he wasn't much for posing for photos).

Then we packed up our handcarts and headed out. The kids were really proud of the family flag they designed and made all by themselves. I was proud of myself for backing off and letting them do whatever they wanted. And it turned out great!

The kids loved puling the handcart and letting the adults act as the brakes in the back (they got going a little fast here and there...). They insisted on having the adults ride from time to time to make it harder and to imagine what it would have been like if they had to pull sick parents as so many pioneer children did.

We pushed and pulled our handcart all day and the kids were tough. After learning about their ancestors walking through snow and freezing and starving, there wasn't much room for complaints, I guess.

We all sat down in Martin's Cove to hear about the plight and strength of the brave pioneers in the Martin Company. If you want to read all about it, there's some good info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mormon_handcart_pioneers

We rolled up our pants and hitched up our skirts to pull our handcart through the Sweetwater River that the pioneers had had to cross repeatedly in the ice and snow.

It was great to see all the kids on the trek loving the simple passtimes of long ago - climbing trees, playing tag, whittling, playing pioneer games, chewing on grass stalks, climbing rocks. It was very nice to put away all electronics and see how quickly the kids came up with great activities.

Silas and Oliver were a pretty good match for each other with the stick pull.

All the kids were enamored with these little string and wooden circle things you could get going - much better than a yo-yo...

Eliza and her friend Savannah had SO much fun together.

By the end, we were all pretty darn worn out from all the walking, the hot sun, and the late and not-so-comfy nights. Here's Silas during an evening of pioneer stories. Love how he's got a piece of grass in his mouth. Ashton got all the kids in camp going on sucking on the ends of grass...

On the final day of the trek, we had the chance to drive a few minutes up the road (a day's journey for pioneers) and see Independence Rock, a major landmark on the Oregon, Mormon, and California Trails. It's called the "registry of the desert" since pioneers all the way back to 1824 inscribed their names on this rock. It was fun to climb up on top for great views of the old trail and see 100's of names all over the rock. The goal of the pioneers was to make it to this rock by independence day - if they could do that, they'd most likely beat the storms and make it to their destinations safely. The Martin Handcart Company didn't make it to Independence rock until October. Combine their lateness with the very early onset of winter and things just weren't good.



This one says A.E. Moody, July 8th, 1853. Love the neat handwriting.

J.L. Holland 1862.

 On the left, hehind Isaac and his little friend Amelia you can see a bridge and traces of the old trail.

It was a landmark experience for our family. Experiencing a small token piece of what our ancestors experienced was so good for us all. We felt things we couldn't have felt any other way. We loved sharing this experience as a family. And we're all feeling so extra grateful now for the gospel our ancestors sacrificed so much for, for the good food we have, for our van, for air conditioning, for clean clothes and washing machines, for water bottles and sunscreen, for modern clothing, for comfortable beds, for health and strength.

We felt a lot of love for each other - and our van - as we pulled out of camp and headed to Bear Lake in a vastly speedier and more comfortable fashion than our ancestors traveled.

Favorite Journal Entries - and writing prompt ideas

One of my kids "must-do's" for each day this summer is writing in their summer journals. We have a list of writing prompts they can choose from (my list is below) or they can come up with their own topic if they want or just write about what is going on in their lives and in their heads. The kids love it when I sit by them and ask to read what they've been writing. I've learned a lot about how things look from their perspective and what's important to them by reading what they've written. 

I asked their permission to post an entry from each child's journal:

By Silas, age 7 - he's so excited for our upcoming Bear Lake reunion

I love what Oliver had to say about his twin, Silas. I love how he says Silas is
"helpful, loving, gentle and kind" and that "he wants to have fun witch is the best thing that
ever eggzisted in life and he nows how to have fun"

Eliza has written way more than anyone else - she's really into writing
and has captured some great stuff.
To me, our backyard needs tons of work and is a bit of an eyesore.
Glad to know it looks so great through her eyes.

Isaac loves his old and new bikes even more than I realized.
And I love how he spells neighbor - knabor.
And for the record, I'm a pretty decent mountain biker - I'm just not into the
crazy bumps and drop-offs that Jared and Isaac and Ashton love...

I love seeing that under that somewhat surly pre-teen, there's still the
very excited and fun-loving little boy we know and love.
Ashton was his dad's right-arm man designing and building that zipline (see it HERE).

I love that these journals are helping my kids capture important bits of their childhood and I love seeing them get better and better at sitting down and expressing themselves on paper every day. I don't bother them much about spelling or punctuation with their summer writing (as you can see from the examples above).Sometimes I'll point out a place where it's a bit hard for me to understand what they're trying to say because of messy handwriting or especially odd spelling or missing punctuation and they happily fix that. But mostly, I think it's great for them to just pour out their thoughts on paper and get excited about writing w/o the details of their writing being an issue.


Here are the writing prompts we have on a list for our kids to refer to (and my sister Shawni has some great ones for her kids as well - check them out in her post from today HERE) 

Writing Prompts

What is your favorite day you can remember? What were all the things that made it so great? Remember to use lots of adjectives (describing words)!

What is the worst day you can remember? What made it so bad? If you could go back, what could you do to make it a better day?

Describe your house. What rooms are in your house? What do you do in each room? What do you like about your house? What do you like about your backyard?

What is your bedroom like? What does it look like? What does it have in it? What do you like to do in there? What do you like best about your room? What would you like to change about your room?

Describe one member of your family. (Do every member of the family by the end of the summer!)

What is the favorite day you can remember? What were all the things that made it so great? Remember to use lots of adjectives (describing words)!

What are some great things about being a member of your family? What do you love to do with your family? How can you help your family be even better?

If you could have any super power, what would it be? Why would you choose that super power? What would you do with your super power? How would you stay humble even though you'd be so awesome?

Write about someone you feel sorry for. Is there anything you could do to help that person? Why or why not?

If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go? Why do you want to go there? How would you get there? What activities would you do there? What souvenirs would you want to bring back for your family and friends?

If you could have any pet in the world, what pet would you have? Why would you pick that pet? How would you take care of that pet? What issues might you have to resolve to make that pet work out OK?

Write everything you can remember about the grade and class you were in last year. Where did you sit in the classroom? Who did you sit by at lunch? Who did you play with at recess? What games did you play at recess? What were your favorite classroom activities? Why? What activities did you NOT like? Why? What was your teacher's name? What did you like about your teacher? What didn't you like about your teacher?

Who are your best friends? What do you like about each friend?

If you were the principal of your school, and your goal was to help every student be really successful and healthly and happy, what would you do to make your school better? What would you change about how the school looks and what materials are available in the school? What would you change about the things teachers teach and the way they teach them? What would you change about school lunch? What would you change about recess?

Imagine your perfect day. When would you wake up? What would you do? What would you eat? Where would you go? Who would you be with?

What are your talents and interests? What are you good at? What are you working on? What do you wish you were good at?

Write about someone you admire. Why do you think this person is great? What can they do that you'd like to do? What have they done that was a great example for others? How could you be more like this person?


What are some great things about being a member of your family? What do you love to do with your family? How can you help your family be even better?

(If you want all these prompts in a nice printable format as well as my list of 5-10 minute daily household tasks that the kids do and tons more ideas and printables to help make the rest of the summer wonderful, check this out: Summer Camp Kit)

Bingham Canyon, Grandma, and a New Job

Like my new header? After about 6 months of having "make a new blog header" on my "to-do" list, I finally did it.

The kids are sitting here doing their writing for the day so I thought I'd join them in writing. I haven't felt particularly inspired about writing on this blog in the past couple weeks. I'm realizing that motivation, like so many things in life, comes in waves. Some days, some hours, some weeks, I feel excited about doing a given thing, then other times, I just really don't feel like it. No real rhyme or reason to it. I can usually force myself to do the things I don't really feel like doing if it's important or timely. But sometimes, if no one else is waiting on me and it's fine either way, I give in to that "I don't feel like it" thing. And I'm learning to be OK with that.

Our Learning Adventures Camp is still going very well. The kids did their three weeks of almost-perfect points and earned their trip to Lagoon (scheduled for next week). They decided they wanted to pool their points for the next 3-week period (which they'll be done with next week when we take off on a family Pioneer Trek and then head to Bear Lake) and earn a trampoline for the backyard (it'll cost them their points plus they need to do a big part of the work to dig the hole so we can make it an in-ground trampoline - and actually they're about as excited about digging the hole as they are about the trampoline...).

It's been great to see how many families are loving these Learning Adventure Camp ideas. Here's one of my favorite adaptations.

And here are a few things we've been up to lately:

For last week's field trip, we went to Kennecott Copper Mine - the largest man-made hole on earth -  with our friends the Reynolds. We saw trucks the size of a house and learned all about how they get the copper out of the earth and refine it (it's quite a process). As the canyon where the mine is located is named after my great great grandfather, Erastus Bingham, the trip had added significance.

Here we are with info about our great great grandfather

Here's a close-up of the sign so you can read it. Cool that they ended up in Ogden where we now live. And the little cabin they built in Ogden was eventually moved to Pioneer Village at Lagoon and we visited it last year. I think maybe the connection to Lagoon was cooler to the kids than the connection to the copper mine...

see Ashton in the back?

For this week's field trip, we went to Logan for one of my mission companion's birthdays and got a chance to visit my sweet grandma as well.

It was SO FUN to see amazing women who were my companions in Bulgaria at the birthday party of one of them, Deborah. What crazy and beautiful times we had there together - having people share wild stories with us, going to church in old communist club buildings or bars where the church could rent space, seeing people's lives change as they felt loved and saw real purpose in life.

And as always, it was wonderful to be with my Grandma. It's heartbreaking that she doesn't know me anymore but she is still as beautiful as ever - her love for all of us radiating even when she doesn't remember who we are. The kids did all the jig saw puzzles she made for her children 60 years ago and I told her how many 1000's of kids and families she helped through the Joy School program she helped start (she ran the original Joy School for about 30 years). She's always pleasantly surprised to hear that Joy Schools are still going and to remember that she made up most of the lesson plans that are still being used throughout the world. We always sing Joy School songs with her and it's beautiful to see her smile.


Jared and Isaac (with minimal help from the rest of us) have been working hard on a new fence for our backyard. The old one blew over in the huge wind storms many months ago. It's going to be a very strong and very lovely fence. They've been working fast because JARED GOT A NEW JOB and really wanted to finish the fence before going back into the world of full time work at an office. It's been over a year that Jared has been working diligently on major projects that have moved the Power of Moms website to where it needs to be while doing consulting for others and helping get an exciting new company off the ground with some friends. The pieced-together work has been good work and we've loved Jared's more flexible schedule. But he was ready for a new challenge and he's found a good fit. It's in Salt Lake but since he can do the full commute on the train and the train has wifi so he can work while traveling. It'll be a whole new thing for all of us but we're really excited for Jared and for the company who gets to enjoy his skills and presence.

This might not look like a lot. But getting the old fence out of there and getting these posts
and 10 more installed in concrete deep in the ground has been a MAJOR project.
Yeah, Isaac and Jared!

Uncharted Waters

For family night, we decided to play a board game together as a family - we haven't done that in a long time. It was all well an good until one player decided to stop playing mid-game. He hadn't scored any points and everyone else had. But there was still plenty of time for things to turn around in the game and it's a game where fortunes can shift quite unexpectedly. We pointed this out politely. When that didn't work, we stated that "Looslis aren't quitters" and insisted that he keep playing. But that didn't work. He defiantly said, "I'm not playing and you can't make me" and stormed off.

In the grand scheme of things, being a good sport and finishing out a board game with your family really doesn't matter much. But learning to keep trying when things are hard DOES matter. So many things come easy to this particular child and when something turns out to be difficult, he's taken aback, he feels really uncomfortable, and he really prefers to walk away. He wants to be an instant winner all the time. But life doesn't work like that. We're always telling him that "when the going gets tough, the tough get going" and that "hard is good."

As our kids get older, it's so tricky to know what to control while we still can control it (in hopes that strongly encouraging some things with talks or bribes or whatever it takes may lead to more understanding and self-motivation some day) and what to let go of as we strive to respect our kids' opinions and their need to make their own decisions. Jared and I struggle to be loving, understanding parents while also pushing our children strongly towards the things they are capable of and that will likely bring them joy and success.

I'm realizing more and more that while life is much easier when it comes to taking care of my children's basic physical needs now that they're older, it's much harder when it comes to the tricky nuanced work of taking care of my big kids' mental, social, emotional and spiritual development. The phrase, "Little kids, little problems. Big kids, big problems" seems to hold true. The plethora of little problems just about did me in some days when I had 5 preschoolers. But I'm finding that all it takes is one "big kid problem" to really throw me for a loop.

I have been blessed with some excellent raw material with these kids of mine. They are generally kind, helpful and smart smart. We've set up rules and consequences with their input and help and we've had a lot of buy-in from the kids as we kindly but firmly enforce what we can all see makes sense. We've experienced very little defiance and only a few tantrums. The kids respect that we are the ones in charge and seem to appreciate that we ask for their help and their input in roughly equal doses. We work hard to ensure that they know they are loved and appreciated and cherished.

But as they get older, they want and need to take on more control of their own lives. And that's hard stuff. As much as I know they need to make more of their own decisions and become their own person, it's so hard to know when to insist and when to give in, when to hold on and when to let go, when to say something and when to be quiet.

I've figured out a lot of things about parenting - partly thanks to being raised by wonderful parents whose example gave me a big leg-up when I started out as a mom, partly thanks to the wonderful ideas I get from our community of deliberate mothers at The Power of Moms, and party due to trial and error.

The last few couple years, I've felt like a pretty darn good mom as I've really hit my stride as a mom. I quite naturally "get" elementary school-age kids (babies and toddlers, as adorable and fun as they are, were a bit more of a stretch for me). But just lately, my 12-year-old and sometimes his 11-year-old brother are humbling me big time. I'm in some uncharted waters for sure. And it's hard stuff!

Here are four things I've learned so far (mostly the hard way):

• "If it's important to you, it's important to me." My mom suggested I remember this phrase when I headed into marriage and I'm finding it's just as important for kids. I'm working to show real interest in the things they care about and to really discuss possibilities they bring up, even if they originally sound pretty "off." I'm learning about bands the kids have mentioned. I'm getting to know their friends. I'm helping my son earn up money for the electric guitar he really wants.
• Relationships take time. I can't expect my kids to open up to me if I'm so busy I don't have time to talk when they want to talk. When I'm so tired at the end of the day and just want to clock-out as a mom after tucking kids in bed, if I'll tuck my son in last, go sit on his bed, and just let him say whatever, we often have good conversations about important things. 
• People respect those who give them respect. When I ask my older kids what might be an appropriate consequence when one of the younger children has broken an important rule, they feel flattered and respected - and are more likely to pay attention to the rules themselves. When I ask for their help in researching something I'm thinking about doing or buying that fits with their interests and knowledge, they feel useful and helpful.
• Raise the Praise, Minimize the Criticize. As I tuck my son in bed each night, if I take 30 seconds to tell him something I really appreciate that he did that day or something I've noticed he's good at, I'm making vital investments in my relationship with him. When I ignore what I can ignore and minimize criticism and/or keep critiques short and sweet, our relationship is much better. 
• Sleep and Food Matter - a lot. Remember when we were so careful to make sure our babies got good naps and ate enough healthy food and no junk? Remember when lack of sleep or food resulted in serious melt-downs with our toddlers? As pre-teens bodies and brains go through puberty, they need quality sleep and quality food desperately - but often don't feel the need for either. I'm getting my son to bed early. He can read or use his ipod in bed for a while (that helps keep him from being defiant about going to bed). Then I tell him it's lights-out and we chat a bit and he's usually tired enough not to fight it much. I'm pretty sure it'll just make him want it more if I try to ban my kids from all junk food. But I've found that if I only have healthy foods (lots of fruits and veggies on hand for snacking, healthy breakfasts and dinners) in the house, that's what he'll end up eating for the most part. We talk about what fuels our bodies efficiently and he worries about the amount of acne and excess weight he sees on some kids and generally accepts that healthy food is best.

As I move forward, I know I'll mess up and I know there will be power-struggles and tricky questions. But as I'm trying to teach my son, "when the going gets tough, the tough get going" and "hard is good."

I'm so glad we've got some great moms of teens and older kids writing stuff for us on The Power of Moms Here are a few posts that have helped me on this new roller coaster ride of mothering pre-teens:
Short Shorts and Mothering Teens
Managing Social Media and Technology with our Kids
The Personality Test that Helped me Really See my Daughter
Podcast: Patience with Teenagers
How to Tell a Teenager "I Love You"
Straight Talk: Beauty, Brains or Both?

P.S. One thing I HAVE figured out pretty well is road trips. If you've got a family road trip coming up, check out my latest post on The Power of Moms - Tried-and-True Road Trip Tips.

Wedding and Family Reunion in Ashton

Our niece Kristen (Jared's brother Brian's daughter) got married last weekend to a great guy named Jarin (now there's an Aaron, Karen, Saren, and Jarin in the family...). We were so glad we could head up to "the farm" for the wedding and enjoy the rare chance to be with ALL Jared's 8 siblings and most of their spouses and kids. It was a serious house-ful at Grandma Loosli's house. I wish I had a photo of the full group but in the craziness of wedding photography, I didn't think to take a photo of my own...

We had a wonderful 4 days at the farm. We stayed up until the wee hours playing games and laughing until we were crying. We prepared and ate wonderful meals and consumed tasty snacks galore. We waited in line for the bathroom now and then. We helped prepare for the wedding by setting up chairs, tying ribbons on chairs, making mounds of guacamole (the food at the reception was wonderful and Connie's guacamole was something we all could help with), and doing every other little thing we could do to help with the big event. We rode horses (and Ashton decided he's a serious horseman and galloped through the fields with glee until he fell off - but luckily he wasn't hurt). We did the often-annual Loosli Family Fun Run (I was so proud of myself for doing the full 10K this year thanks to some good running partners, some perfect weather and lovely scenery). The kids enjoyed scores of hours on the good old trampoline. We enjoyed amazing beauty. We talked about wedding plans for two more nieces who'll be married in August. We watched Jared and Aaron and most of the men-folk build an exciting new zip line in Grandma's back yard and then watched the kids enjoy it immensely (what a great Father's Day activity to build this and bring so much joy to all the kids! Plus it was a great bonding activity for the dads). 

I'm so blessed to be a Loosli.

Here's the story in pictures:

Making mountains of guacamole (Isaac's favorite thing in the world) for the wedding reception

The lovely wedding on Friday

Getting ready for the Loosli Fun Run

quick snapshot while I ran the 10K. Scenery like this and perfect cool weather makes running so nice.

another shot across the field while running

Building the zipline - everyone surveying how to anchor the pole...

Hay bales - perfect solution for building a platform to reach the zip line

Finished zip line - SO MUCH FUN! (that's Eliza taking her turn -
adults and kids alike rode that zipline for hours on end)

Silas and Oliver with their cousin Logan having fun on horses

The kids spent about 8 hours a day on this great old trampoline and the huge tire swing behind them.

 Ashton is a gorgeous place. These are all just raw photos taken with my phone:

We all stood out there to watch this sunset. Beautiful moment.

Pasture land across the street from Jared's mom's house

Tiny potatoes starting to come up in the fields

Tetons in the distance

Father's Day gifts. Loved being there for Father's day so we could
visit Jared's dad's grave and reminisce about great times with that great man.