House O' Sullivans

This was the scene at our house for over two weeks: Barf bowls and sick kids from the end of May until the second week of June. I prayed for relief from the plague (the dreaded week-long stomach flu) so that we could go on our family trek (although sick people on trek would have made it way more realistic I guess). Casey turned 47 on June 3rd. He had early morning meetings (and then meetings all day), so the plan was to celebrate with dinner at his parent's house that night. With Lindy and baby Sean sick that day, I had to miss church and then miss Casey's birthday to stay home with the wee puking ones. It was a pretty crappy day. I felt like Cinderella, doing all of the work and then missing out on everything. Birthday morning! We'd planned to cook breakfast for dinner and then have strawberry rhubarb pies for dessert, so Casey took Sophie, Hallee, and Zeke with him out to his parent's house for the festivities while I cleaned out vomit bowls at ho...

Five years ago, when I was serving in the stake YW presidency, we planned a pioneer trek for the youth. Casey was dubbed the Trail Boss (he was a stake high counsellor at the time), and I organized a group of fiddlers to play hymns and old-school fiddle tunes during our journey. (We practiced for a whole year, leading up to trek!) At the last minute, Casey and I also assumed the duties of Ma and Pa to a "family" of youth, since the assigned couple couldn't come. I honestly thought that dressing up and pulling a handcart across Wyoming would be a little hokey, but it ended up being a very spiritual journey, partly due to the land that we travelled across. We trekked on a part of the actual Mormon Trail just outside of Fort Bridger that is privately owned by several ranchers. There are literally dozens of pioneer graves along the trail and it is truly sacred ground. I felt that the first time that we were there.  Casey has gone on pioneer trek 3 times with our stak...