Weekly Recap: with the snowy miracle

School Highlights:

• Our history lesson was an introduction to slavery. We're working toward the Civil War, this lesson was eye opening for some kids. We've talked about slavery in the past, but we really talked about it this time.
• We studied Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost. We really like this poem and it was fun to learn more about it.
• Our science lesson was about the sense of touch.
• For geography we talked about the growth of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in South America. It was prophesied that the church would grow there, like an acorn grows into a might oak tree. We looked at when the prophecies happened, and how church membership grew. Pretty neat! Then we worked on religion reports for our chosen countries.
• Prokofiev was the subject of our music lesson. What a great musician!

Okay, I had to get the school highlights done first! Now for the rest of the week, and the great snowy miracle. Dear readers, Heavenly Father does love and watch over every single one of his children, and here's a big way that he watched over our extended family last week.

We knew we'd need to drive to Afton, WY soon for Grandma's graveside service. We also knew the tires on our van were very near the end of their life. Monday my husband took the van and got new tires on his lunch break. That was a relief to finally have done, and to have the money in hand already.

I watched the weather forecast as soon as we knew what day the services in Afton would be. That was unnerving... even though it's March, the Groundhog has seen his shadow. We've been getting snow storms, and were expecting a big one the day we'd have to drive so far (200 miles one way.) Well, I am very anxious about snow and driving.. my poor husband! There are three canyons and multiple smaller passes to get to Afton from our home, and I was terrified because they'd all be getting inches of snow. All week I watched, that storm was coming, no questions about it. I told my husband we needed chains, just in case. And I prayed... I felt selfish because we NEED water right now, but if that storm could wait a little, that would be nice. We live in a large valley in the Rocky Mountains, so when storms come, they get stuck sometimes and hang around a little longer.

On his two days off, my husband took our van to a friend of his who owns a body shop. He wanted to get the rear windshield wiper repaired; it had stopped working a couple of months ago. The friend ordered the part and said come back the next day to install it. So my husband did, and this man said, "Hey, I have that pair of chains over there, I think they're the right size for your van. Would you like them?" So my husband brought them home, and he and my son practiced putting them on.

This whole week I've had a fever. It got to the point that I just didn't want to get out of bed, so the kids did school on their own or on my bed as needed, between my naps. The fever never got very high, but it started to go away by Friday.

I already use the Utah Department of Transportation app that shows road conditions and traffic. I realized there were probably equivalent apps for the other states we'd be driving through. So I downloaded them and figured out how to use them. I was still scared for our drive the next day, and planed to leave an hour and a half earlier than we'd need to. Well, that evening the weatherman said something shocking. That storm that was coming was heading towards us, but then it STOPPED. And it backed off, a tiny bit. The road we'd usually take would get some snow overnight, but not nearly as much as expected.

Well, we decided we'd take a different route anyway, just to be safe and to avoid possibly icy roads. Most family members still took the regular way, and they did see cars sliding, and slippery roads, but it wasn't nearly as bad as anyone expected. The way we went was dry. We did encounter fog in one place.

Yes, dry. The entire way, except for the pass right into Afton. What a huge blessing. Every family member arrived safely and we had a great day together remembering Grandma. It was so nice to see family, especially people we haven't seen in years.

This is going in to Afton. It was the first time we saw the Star Valley Temple! Look how pretty it is!

It is a smaller temple, and we thought Moroni looked HUGE up there on a smaller building! The Moroni statue is tall anyway, we measured the height in our entry once, but this temple shows the size more than any other we've seen.

On the way home, we went the regular way. There were areas with wet roads, but it was just fine. After the sun went down, the storm came through! We woke up to about 4" of snow down here in the valley, and we were so grateful that Heavenly Father sent so many blessings over the week.

Bear Lake in winter. So pretty.

Until next week!