Chatfield Update 3/30/2010

Jake’s a big Scouter-boy now. He turned 11 years old last week and the next day went on his first 11-year-old overnighter. The 11 and 12 year olds were joining forces for this campout. After hearing this was Jake’s first overnighter many of the older boys decided to let Jake know there was some great FUN in store for him. Initially Jake was a little worried with those comments, wondering what initiation type activities he would have to go through but the anticipation of fun out-weighed his fears and Friday afternoon he and a whole host of scouts, their dads and leaders were off to Goblin Valley.

The weekend passed slowly for me. I was grateful that when the phone rang it was not to report a mishap from Goblin Valley. Kels was not able to go on this overnighter because of school. Graduation will bring about many blessings, one being the opportunity for Kels to go on campouts with Jake and the other scouts. I find reassurance in that thought.

While waiting for Jake to arrive home safely, Bianca and I traveled to Salt Lake for the Young Women’s Broadcast. We sat on the 2nd row of the highest balcony amongst thousands of beautiful young women, their mothers and leaders. We were given great counsel and insight on how to Be Strong and of a Good Courage (Joshua 1:9). One of Bianca’s favorite parts of the conference was when Sis. Dalton looked out at the huge conference center of young women and said that she imagined that there was a great army of valiant young women (maybe even girl friends) encouraging the 2000 Stripling Warriors. Bianca mentioned that she wouldn’t mind being a girl friend to a stripling warrior. I suggested that we have mighty army of missionaries today that are defending and sharing our beliefs…when the time is right she can go for it!

Bianca also liked Pres. Uchtdorf’s memories of the courtship of his wife. He began his talk with the phrase of “Once Upon A Time…” He said don’t we all enjoy that phrase and then maybe the one at the end that says “and they lived happily ever after.” He said that this can happen not only in fairy tales but as we live our Heavenly Father’s plan for us. And sometimes it takes a lot of work! He then went on telling some stories about how difficult at times it was to get his future wife to notice him. He even ended up peddling his future mother-in-law on bike rides to the church activities because the mother wouldn’t let the daughter go. He kept working on it and he said it finally paid off. I would imagine he has many more fun stories to tell. It was wonderful to see and hear the respect and love that Pres. Uchtdorf has for “his queen.”

As Bianca and I left the conference center we realized that we were in Salt Lake when half the state was there. The Final Four games were being held in the Energy Solutions Center just before the YW broadcast started. Needless to say it was a busy place to BEE!

We decided to wait to stop for dinner until we got back to Utah County. We agreed on a place to eat (Magelbys), a yummy soup and salad joint and while there received a call from Jake telling us that he had arrived home safely. His speech was a little slurred from fatigue but reassured me that he would tell me all about it once we arrived home. Once home we found him fast asleep in his nice comfortable bed.

Kels and Kate had a nice weekend—working hard at school, Activity Days, yard work (yeah, the grass is starting to green up and grow!), chores and preparing for the Sabbath. It’s a good thing someone works around here!

The next morning Jake was full of camping stories about lizards, staying up till 1:00 in the morning, eating an amazing breakfast, kids falling in ditches, thorns, red dirt, mighty swords of righteousness, several games of Capture the Flag amongst the carved goblin-like sculptures out of rock (see for yourself http://www.utah.com/stateparks/goblin_valley.httm ) and no mention of anything but just plain, good fun! We so appreciate good leaders!

We hope your days are filled with the fun things in life! We sure love you all.
Kels, Kellie, Bianca, Jake and Kate