New Grandson Finally Arrives

Andrew Hyrum Nimer

Jared called us on Wednesday morning to let us know that little Andrew Hyrum had been born at 11:47 the night before.  He weighed in at 8 pounds and 5 ounces.  He finally got to come home on Saturday, June 1, 2013.  We are so happy to finally have our newest (number nine) grandchild here safe and sound.  Congratulations to Jared and Clara.

Memorial Day weekend was the busiest that it has been at the fort so far.  Monday we had 489 visitors.  There were people everywhere, but it was great being busy. 

We had the opportunity on Tuesday to invite two of the couples from “the Holler” over for dinner.  It was great being able to spend the evening socializing with our neighbors and playing games.  We are hoping to invite everybody over at some point since Stephen and I both socialize better in small groups than large.  While we were walking home on Wednesday from the top of the mountain, one of our neighbors suggested that we get together to play games sometime so they came that night.  We learned how to play Kings Gone Wild, a card game with a special deck. 

                                                                                                                                 Wednesday we got to see what Cove Fort Days might be like.  We had 200 youth from Ivins

Room of Light

Bible and Book of Mormon

Stake (near St. George) stop for a tour.  We were all assigned to different rooms and the youth moved from room to room with their leaders.  Stephen was assigned to the Bunk House that is at the end of the tour.  He said that most of the groups that came through were running behind, so he had to give an abbreviated tour.  I, on the other hand, was positioned in the Women’s Room or Room of Light.  I had 15-20 chances to get the three-minute presentation down right.  We talked about the Light of Christ and how we can receive it from the Bible, but if we never open and read our scriptures then the light can’t penetrate our souls.  The Bible is literally supported on the table by a Book of Mormon.  We know that the Book of Mormon supports the teachings of Christ found n the bible and that it is a second witness of Christ.  We want to study both of these books of scriptures so that we can gather up as much light as possible so that when we are overflowing with this light it will radiate out to others.  The Hinckleys understood the importance of scripture study and called the family together, morning and night, to read and ponder the word of god.

Thursday we worked in the morning and then went to Richfield in the afternoon to shop for food for when the grandkids came.  We treated ourselves to a movie at the local theater, or I should say that they treated us.  The theater there lets the missionaries from Cove Fort come for free and they even provide popcorn and soda for them.  Stephen was in heaven (almost) since the show they were playing was the newest Star Trek movie.  It definitely was an action movie.

Cory and Suzanne and the grandkids arrived around 10:30 on Friday morning.  As soon as we packed a lunch we were on the road for a day filled with adventures.  Our first stop was at the Fremont Indian State Park.  It was hard to move the kids out of the Discovery Center where they got to live the life of Fremont Indians and play at being scientists including donning lab coats for experiments.  Lila even had time to weave an entire rug.

We of course included some geocaching in the afternoon.  I gave the GPS to Suzanne and put them in charge of finding the sites.  We went past one of them so I told them to take the second dirt road.  The problem with that plan was that Cory didn’t see the first dirt road and went sailing past the second one.  After a tour of an unknown area, they finally turned around and found the right road and the geocache. 

Then it was on to Marysvale and the Miners’ Park.  It was a great place to explore but it was about 10 miles from the highway and about six of those miles were dirt road with lots of loose rocks.  Stephen was ready to turn around but luckily we finally saw the sign at the end of the road.  We were able to walk around the mining area and learned a lot of things about the mining industry in the area.  There was a creek running through Bullion Canyon so we spent quite awhile there looking for rocks and then throwing a lot of them back into the creek.  There was a bit of excitement when Lila let go of her newly acquired pink geocaching turtle and it started floating down the creek.  Cory attempted to get it but it continued past him even with him going into the stream a bit.  He and I tore off downstream trying to catch up to it.  I went further downstream but was happy to be signaled that Cory had caught it above where I was.  Lila was happily reunited with her toy and her dad got a big hug for all of his efforts. 

Bullion Waterfall

Cory's family in front of Bullion Waterfall

 

It had been a long day but we had one more stop to make before leaving the canyon.  Several of the missionaries had told us that we should go see Bullion Waterfall because it was just as spectacular as Yosemite Falls.  Being the relatively snobbish Californians that we are, we wanted to see if their claim to fame was accurate.  We had to park our cars at the trailhead and then walk into the falls.  Now we have to say that we never saw another car and/or hikers on the trail, but there were quite a few ATV/OHV.  It was “just” a mile to the falls, but it was a LONG mile.  Poor Cory had the added disadvantage of having to carry his youngest son, Christian, up the mountain and down.  The falls were worth the hike, but it would have been nice to ride up to them on an ATV.  There were some people at the top of the falls preparing to rappel down them, but after twenty minutes of waiting and the sun starting to set, we finally had to start down the trail without seeing them dangling from their ropes.  It was a great day, but I was definitely glad to get home.

Geoff, Christian, Lila, and Alex

Christian, Cory, Stephen doing hoop game

Saturday morning, Cory, Alex, and I went on a five mile hike to fulfill one of his Scouting requirements.  The three of us hiked up to Cove Creek where the Hinckley boys would have to go to get water for the fort.  It was a great walk with great weather, temperature, road conditions, and company.  During the hike back and forth we saw quite a bit of wildlife: a velvet ant, several types of lizards, a snake (that I almost stepped on), swift nests under the freeway, and a coyote.  As soon as we got back it was time to gather up the family and head for the fort.  It was fun taking everyone through the fort and sharing the life and times of the Hinckleys with them.  They had a great time playing with the hoops at the bunkhouse.  We only got half-way through the fort, so we hope that they will come again while we are here so we can finish the tour.

It has been a great week with blessings pouring into us from all areas.  Serving a mission allows your family, as well as yourself, to receive blessings in their lives.  I am so glad that we are here and that we chose to “Catch the Wave” that Elder Russell M. Nelson referred to in his conference talk in April.