On Top Of The World

Hi everyone! I know it's been a while since I've done a weekly again. 

The past few weeks have been crazy but awesome. I've really enjoyed my services, and I've had some great chances to spend time with family. :) 

1- Willard Elementary

2- Bird Refuge

3- Temple

4- Camping Trip! (Longest part, just a heads-up!)

5- Halloween

1- Willard Elementary has been really fun and fulfilling. I've helped out in the classroom a bit more because there were substitutes for a while, and yesterday there wasn't time to take kids out for counting and number recognition. Benton's been teaching the kids in the classroom that my name is 'Melia', so I hear that quite often now. XD Some of them still call me Sister Howard, though, and the rest usually call me 'Miss Teacher' despite me telling them I'm not a teacher, just a volunteer. XD  I'm learning a bit more Spanish, but most of the kiddos still know way more than I do. I honestly love sitting behind them on the rug when they learn syllables and words, because I'm able to learn with them. It makes me feel like Elf, though, in the scenes where he was a giant in school. XD

2- The Bird Refuge has been awesome too! The past few times I've been there, I've helped with a couple of different things. By far my favorite was when the weather was bad a couple Saturdays ago. It was really stormy, and only five people walked in during the four hours I was at the visitor's center. Patricia came up to me with a crate of skulls and asked if another volunteer and I wanted to work through them. I was delighted! Half of the skulls were in boxes and had nice labels on them, but half of them were unlabeled and we got to figure out what they were! There were some huge models of grizzly bear and cougar skulls, but almost every other skull was real, not a replica! I was able to sort them into canine, feline, rodent, and 'other' without use of field guides or the internet, but then we started getting more specific to learn the exact species. There were bobcat, raccoon, coyote, weasel, rabbit, beaver, muskrat, and squirrel skulls. I loved the felines and canines the most. I had to play with every single skull, fitting the jawbones into the right spots and examining their teeth. XD  Totally a fun way to spend a Saturday morning! 

3- The temple has been awesome. I've been getting to know the other ordinance workers better and I got assigned to help out at the veil during endowment sessions. I was so worried I'd forget what to say, but Heavenly Father has definitely blessed my memory. After just two days of practicing with an ordinance card that had all the words on it, I felt confident enough to try without the card. I was able to remember everything that I needed to say, and I've had several patrons come up and thank me later for assisting them at the veil. :)  I've had several very spiritual moments in the temple and I always leave it feeling uplifted. 

4- Last week, I went on an awesome trip with my dad. We went scouting for elk, because he has a hunt coming up in a couple of weeks. I left with him on Wednesday evening and we got back home late Saturday night. The days are a bit of a blur to me, but it was so fun! When we got to where we wanted to camp, it was snowing, so we set up a tent in the middle of a miniature blizzard. Luckily, the tent has a stove and a spot for a chimney, so we were able to keep ourselves decently warm. XD I was still a bit cold, but I was able to sleep that night. 

4- Most of the trip was chilly and cool. I got to break out some of my Canada gear, including my heated gloves and wool socks. I became very attached to my ear warmer and my nicest CEM (Canada Edmonton Mission) facemask. Yes, it was given to me to wear in case I got sick, but it's WARM, so I wear it to stop my face from freezing too. XD The first morning, we saw some deer on the mountain with my dad's spotting scope, then we drove around in his truck and spooked a couple herds of elk. Until then, I'd only seen a single wild elk! It was amazing to watch dozens of those big animals bound around in fields and forests below us. We even got to film a bull bugling! Usually they're done bugling by this time of year. 

4- We didn't see any more elk for the rest of that day, but we went on an epic fourwheeler ride! I was honestly praying quite a bit during the ride, because we went up a lot of steep, narrow trails drifted with snow. We found an old steam engine from 1870 on one of the trails. It was so massive and solid! My dad said it got carried up the mountain by mules! I couldn't believe people had gotten it up there SO long ago. We were barely climbing the trail in our fourwheeler! I did have a neat moment during one scary patch of trail where I got a calm feeling that everything would be alright, though. I think Heavenly Father could tell I was nervous, and He wanted to reassure me.

4- And here's where I'll explain the title of the email. We drove up Red Ridge, I think, and it was the most absolutely muddiest road ever. We were flinging up clods of mud everywhere, and my big coat got pretty muddy because part of it stuck out the edge of the side-by-side. Towards evening, Dad wanted to climb up a mountain peak so that he could 'glass' (search with his binoculars and spotting scope) for elk. I thought we were just going to climb up a little ways to get a good vantage point, but no. Dad meant the actual peak of the mountain. The very tallest point. It was an exhausting climb, and we had to fight through almost knee-deep snow and scruffy trees, but it was totally worth it! Amazing views at the top, and the sunset was gorgeous. I felt like I was on top of the world. All of the other mountains were spread out below us and it was totally breathtaking. When we were hiking up, I got so hot in all my layers that I wanted to strip down to just my shirt and pants, but boy was I grateful for all the layers once we stopped moving! It got quite cold. 

4- Uncle Rodge and Aunt Edna were nice enough to let us sleep at their house for two of the nights. It was really nice to shower and have a proper bed to sleep in. :)  We got up well before the crack of dawn to drive back out and look some more. On Friday--our second day of looking for elk--we didn't see anything. I think Dad saw a deer or two, but I missed them. We drove around in his side-by-side a lot and had some great conversations. Everything from sharing bits of our testimonies to talking about scientific stuff and cracking jokes. One of my favorite parts of the trip was that we went on a literal wild goose chase. Some other hunters told us they'd seen elk up a trail called Wild Goose Road, so we drove up that to Wild Goose Peak. Sadly, we didn't see a single elk or deer. But it was a super fun ride up the mountain. :)

4- We drove up some more trails that afternoon. They were a bit muddy, but not as bad as the first day! I can't remember all of them, but I know we went up Jack's Peak and tried to get to another mountain called Pharaoh. The snow was too deep for the side-by-side, so we got out and hiked to the top of Jack's Peak. Once again, we went to the very top. It was about 9,950 feet of elevation, if I remember correctly. We stopped a lot for breathers and tried to walk where we could see plants sticking out of the snow, because the drifts were deceptively deep. When we were almost at the peak, I saw a spider scurrying over the snow! A dark little spider that was very much alive in those impossible conditions. I couldn't believe it! There was nothing for it to eat, and I'm surprised it wasn't frozen!

4- My dad wanted to hike down to Pharaoh despite all the snow and not being able to use the side-by-side, but I opted to stay on Jack's Peak. I ended up falling asleep for about an hour--half the time he was gone. But then my face got cold. XD  I pulled on my mask, and had to break out extra hand and toe warmers because mine were running out of heat. I paced around a bunch to keep warm and to keep myself occupied, and got to watch a beautiful sunset. It was cool to see lights spark up in the valleys below, and to watch the stars come out. When my dad got back a couple hours later, we hiked back to the side-by-side in the dark. We couldn't see the plants on the mountainside, so we just trudged through the drifts. One moment we'd be ankle-deep, then the next we'd sink in up to our waists! 

4- For the last day, Saturday, we glassed a bit from the freeway. Well, Dad glassed and I fell asleep. XD We saw a herd of elk, and he thinks it was the herd from Thursday that we saw with the bugling bull. Later, we went back up Wild Goose and actually saw some bull elk! I conked out and napped for a couple of hours in the side-by-side while Dad got footage of the elk. I had a super whacky dream and told him all the details I could remember. XD We also drove up Red Ridge again--if I remember correctly. All we saw were beef cows. There were tons of them. We went up some other trails and saw a bunch of elk and deer tracks, but no elk. We spooked a deer coming back. I saw it jump across the trail and we saw its tracks in the snow, but that was about all we saw that day.

4- I totally loved the trip! It was awesome to see elk in the wild, and to drive around in near isolation. There were times when my dad and I knew we were the only people on certain mountains because no one else had driven in the snow that day. I learned about some new trees, got lessons on identifying tracks, and also got to read a good chunk of one of my stories to my dad! I'd easily do it all again despite the cold, the mud, and my back getting sore from all the bumpy drives. XD It was totally worth it to see such amazing corners of the world that Heavenly Father created for us, and to be able to bond with my dad. 

5- Halloween was pretty fun! Our family carved pumpkins on Sunday evening. On Monday, I went to Willard Elementary. The kids were so wild, but it was cool to see all their  cute costumes! In the evening, I stayed to pass out candy to trick-or-treaters. I didn't know what to do for a costume, and Makady joked about me being Mrs. Claus because I was wearing winter clothes. So I broke out an old pair of Christmas pajamas and dressed up as Mrs. Claus. XD  Poor Indy freaked out the first few times trick-or-treaters came, but she learned very quickly that I gave her treats when she didn't bark at them. By the end of the night, she hardly cared that strangers were parading up to our door. 

Well, I hope everyone else has been doing good! I'm looking forward to resuming my services this week (I didn't go to the temple or the Bird Refuge when I was on the trip)! Hopefully I'll write another email soon! :)