Voting

My mom was born and raised in British Colombia,Canada got married and moved down to the states.She had her first four children(there are seven of us) up in B.C to be near her family,but always came back down. She has always carried a green card and has never been able to vote, but growing up she always taught us kids the greatness of this country, to be grateful for our freedom and the importance of voting. My parents worked hard to make sure we would have this privilage and by the time we were in our teens three out of four (I'm included in that three) of us kids had recieved our citizenship. Ever since I turned eighteen I have tried to make sure I have voted whenever the opportunity has come. Yet as I was filling out my ballot this morning my children came up to me and asked me what I was doing. So I told them I was voting and they asked me what voting was and why, and I realized how much I have taken it for granted. I have not even attempted to teach my children the basics of our country. I realize I need to start teaching them all those things my mother taught me. As I slipped my ballot in the box I felt proud and grateful for this privilage, and I am grateful to all those who have made it possible for us all to have this privilage.

Floating the River

I've never gone floating down a river before, but I've always heard how enjoyable and relaxing it can be .Which leads me into my experiance on Saturday. We went to our ward campout on Friday night and on Saturday there was a family float planned down the Satsop river for anyone who wanted to go. Well Rob planned on taking Cody and Grant and I really wanted to go but did not think I should take my three year old , but I was assured that he would do fine in one of the small boats that were available so I pushed the little voices of doubt to the back of the unused spaces of my brain and merrily set off down the river with everyone. Well it did not take me very long to figure out that I was not prepared for I wore flip flops with no tread that do not do well on the slippery slimy rocks but I didn't take that as my first warning to go back. I kept going when one of them broke and proceeded to float down the river warning number two. I recovered my broken flip flops put them back together and planned to forge on, but by then we discovered that Boyd(our three year old)who was in a little boat ahead of us with Conan and being pulled by Rusty was not happy and crying warning number three. Rob handed him off to me told me where the car keys were if I wanted to go back. We weren't too far down the river and he went to take care of our other two children . There I was standing there on slippery rocks pregnant with a crying three yr old in my arms wondering if I could make it back up the river in my broken flip flops. I made a quick educated decision I leaped into the last biggest boat in the group going by ( I still really wanted to go) and convinced myself that Boyd would be fine with me in the bigger boat .He was for a while but it did not last long, for I decided to switch boats to help a young girl paddle who was having trouble paddling by herself BIG MISTAKE.Boyd went from somewhat calmed to screaming his head off but I was sure that he would calm back down just as he had in the other boat (the unused parts of my brain were working overtime) he did not. I valiantly paddled down the river with a screaming toddler for there was no turning back now and felt sorry for myself and anybody else who was within hearing of us. I was miserable it was not the relaxing ,enjoyable experiance I had been told it would be ,but I resigned myself to the fact that I had three hours of this ahead of me. Rob finally took pity on me halfway down and we actually figured out a really good system on our really big inner tube and we put Cody's smaller one inside it and I had Rob lay down in the middle with Boyd, Who immediatly calmed down and I had Cody next to Rob and Grant was in his tube tied us. As Rob told the boys stories I pulled us through the shallow parts and then I would hop on. We were now a happy family. I had finally acheived the enjoyable relaxing experiance I had so craved and thought to myself it was easy floating from then on . I thought too soon. Some how two young boys on the trip ended up with no floating devices and had fallen behind they had life jackets on but we could not just leave them behind so we had them hop onto our really big inner tube and away we went. But it didn't take us long to get hung up again as we found ourselves out of the current in a deep pool of water.I'm not a good swimmer and with no life jacket ,and with six people of varying ages and weights I clung to the tube and tried to move us through the water. After several minutes I manage to find shallower water and pull us through and met up with some swift moving water.By now everyone was gone from our sight except for Ashton who was waiting on the other side to warn us that the water would take us straight for a log jam. I instantly panicked jumped off the tube and grabbed the end of the rope thinking I could walk us through the current and keep us from the logs,but it was too strong and started pulling me over.Rob yelled at me to jump on the tube or I would get sucked under but I was too far from them and had to let go. As I stood there wondering how I would get back to my family, Rob had his own problems as he had to jump off to keep them from hitting the log jam and having to grab Boyd who fell through the tube when he jumped off . They managed to get to shore though and I managed to make my way down to them. Rob not trusting my management of the tube anymore had me lay down with Boyd while he got down the river. I half heartedly argued with him and then laid down. So we set off on the last leg of our journey with our crew which now consisted of Rob and I, our three children ,the two Hensley boys ,and Ashton . We all sang songs to put Boyd to sleep (I'm not the storyteller) as rob got us safely to our destination arriving tired but happy. As I've told others about my trip and now as I write it I realize how much going down that river is like us going through our life. Sometimes we are miserable and at times we are happy and content. At times we are safe and secure and other times we find ourselves in dangerous waters.Not one of us would go back to our Father in Heaven and ask him to put us in a plastic bubble to keep us from all experiances.So I just want to thank you Jenny for talking me into going I had a great and memorable time,and I want to thank our really big innertube that carried us all down that river! Oh and Boyd claimed right along with his brothers that he loved floating down the river YEAH RIGHT!!!!