Chaco Canyon

We made it to and from New Mexico without a hitch! Phew! We are home now in Mendon safe and sound. We arrived home Saturday night at 10 p.m. It was a 10 hour drive home and I must say the girls were amazing in the car. Dave and I were sweating for a bit Saturday morning when his computer came up with the "cannot find the operating system error". How in the world were we going to survive 10 hours in the car with no movies! Thank goodness that prayers are answered because I was sure saying some that the computer would kick in and work!

On Friday, after our awesome Thanksgiving Day feast, we went and visited Chaco Canyon, which is an old Pueblo Indian ruin. What an incredible sight to see. I have to give thanks to Dan and Linda for the use of their camera for the pictures shown below. What is the one thing Michelle forgot to pack. Yep...the camera. It was left at home in Mendon in the cabinet.

The pictures below do not do the ruins justice. It really was incredible to see how they made their dwellings hundreds of years ago in the middle of the desert. I loved watching the awe Hannah was in. She has been learning a bit about the Indians in school and so she was completely amazed at where the lived and that we were walking where they walked. She was also impressed and the Pyroglyphics on the rocks. Thanks to Grandma Welker for giving her the book on Chaco Canyon. It is a treasure to her.

Here's a few of the fun sayings from the girls:

On our drive down on Wednesday, we stopped at the Hole in the Rock just outside of Moab for a sandwich. I got the girls out of the van to go to the restroom and Hannah looks at the huge rock mountain and asks, "Mom! Is that real or is it a painting?"

As we're walking in Chaco Canyon Hannah says, "I'm touching things that the Chaco Indians made. I will never wash my hands again!"

When we got to the visitor's center at Chaco Canyon, I once again took the girls to the restroom. One of the stalls in the restroom had a sign on it that said it was out of order. Ashley says, "I guess the Indians forgot to flush the toilet."

As we were walking along the trail, Ashley kept asking, "Where are the Indian footprints?" She REALLY wanted to find one.

Here's the pictures............

The next picture shows a couple of things. First is the cool dwellings in the background. Second is that Nicole could not make it to the bitter end. She crashed!


This is our nephew Jared. He is eight years old. One of the dwellings was open so you could walk through. He is showing how small the doors were that you walked through from room to room.

At one point inside the dwelling you could stand in one doorway and see through about five other doorways to the outside. All of us are standing inside the dwelling and this is Hannah and Ashley on the outside of the dwelling. It was cool to see how all of the doors lined up!

Fun times! I will post the pictures from the four corners when I get them from Grandma Welker. Note to self........DO NOT leave the camera home!

And We're Off...........

The Welkers are off to New Mexico for Thanksgiving. We are heading down with almost all of Dave's family to be with his mom and dad, who are serving a mission in New Mexico, for Thanksgiving.

The plan was to leave Mendon Tuesday night at 5 p.m. and head to American Fork to stay with Dave's sister Janee. Not too bad....we left Mendon at 6 p.m. We had to wait for Glade (brother) to get off work before heading out today for the rest of the drive to New Mexico. It is now 1:15 and I think we're on our way!

As I was leaving work in Monday and chatting with my good friend Jen she said she hoped our trip was uneventful and we didn't return with any "stories", which means major trauma. I totally agree. I'm praying for an uneventful and "storyless" drive to New Mexico.

Until later!

A Whirlwind of a Sunday

This past Sunday was on the the craziest Sundays I believe we have every had. I need to give a bit of preface before you'll understand the story of Sunday.

On Friday, my cell phone died. We do not have a home phone and my cell phone number is used as our "home" phone. I was completely lost all day on Friday without my phone. I knew I was heading to St. George the following week for a conference and I wanted/needed a new phone before my travels.

On Saturday, we took the girls to my Mom's around 5 o'clock and Dave and I headed to the Verizon store. Finally, Dave and I left the Verizon store at 7 o'clock frustrated that we waited 50 minutes for a salesman and then were bummed to find that we could only purchase two phones that did not require us to pay an additional $30 per month for Internet service.

First of all.....I do not want to spend an additional $30 per month to have Internet access on my phone. "Supposedly" the manufactures are starting to require this. I did not want to spend of $50 for a new phone. Of the two choices I had, one was for $79.99 after the mail-in rebate and the other was $129.99 after the mail-in rebate. AARRGGHHH!!

As we're driving around town running our other errands, I called Traci to see if her provided made her sign up for Internet service when she upgraded her phone a few weeks ago. One of the phones Verizon was telling me needed Internet services was one that Traci upgraded too. Long story short.....Traci did not have to sign up for Internet service and she told us to check out the phones at Walmart. I did not know that you could upgrade your cell phone at Walmart for TONS cheaper!

Here we are at Walmart purchasing a new phone for $28.88 compared to the $129.99 at Verizon. After going through all of the hassles because we are on the Friends and Family plan and Dave is not authorized on the account, we were ready to purchase. Dave had to call Customer Service who then had to call his sister Erin so he could be authorized. Then, Dave had to call Erin to get her SSN, Birth date, Driver's License Number and Expiration. My goodness! They might as well asked for a blood sample too!

We're at the check out. We're ready to activate the phone and pay. The sales guy at Walmart calles Verizon customer service, which Dave talked to them 5 minutes prior and guess what? They are now closed. Yep, no cell phone purchase for Dave and Michelle. We left Walmart empty handed too. Are you kidding me?!?!? We finally were back to pick up the girls at 8:30 and according to "our" plan, we wanted to be home much before this watching a movie and eating popcorn.

On Friday night at 10 p.m., I checked for messages on my broken phone by using Dave's phone. There were two messages from the Executive Secretary for the Stake President for Dave. He wanted Dave to call him back so he could set up an appointment for Dave Sunday morning.

I passed the message on to Dave and told him that he'd have to give him a call sometime on Saturday. Dave's comment was something to the effect of, "I'm sure they want me to be stake athletic director or something. It can't be anything too major and would I be terrible if I didn't want to do it?"

Well, the craziness of Saturday came and went and around 9:30 p.m. I reminded Dave that he hadn't called the executive secretary back. Oh well. It can't be that important. I'm sure they'll call back and set something up for next Sunday. That was that and off to bed we went.

Ashley gave the scripture in primary opening exercises on Sunday and both Dave and I went in to help and support her. After her scripture, Dave rode with another guy in the ward to take a baby home to his Dad for a nap and to check up on him and do a little home teaching. They guy had had another surgery on his arm. Now that Mendon has four wards, we are no longer to hold Sunday school in the chapel.

So being late to Sunday school is not fun trying to find a seat in the Relief Society room that is packed like sardines. Instead of fighting my way in and making a grand entrance because I was late, I went and sat on the couch in the foyer. Dave returned from his "home teaching" and sat with me. The next ward coming in needed additional chairs set up for a farewell so Dave was off helping when the Bishop approached me on the couch. He asked how Dave was handling the new calling. What? I had to explain that our phone was broken and Dave hadn't chatted with the Stake President yet. Dave returns and again the Bishop asks, "You didn't chat with the Stake President? Well, he's here setting the others apart I can see if he has time to chat with you." What? Setting the others apart? This can't be a major calling remember? They only asked to chat with Dave. Don't they ask to meet with both of you when it's something big?

Dave went off with the Bishop to find the Stake President and I went off to Relief Society. For some reason I chose to sit on the back row this day. I gave the opening prayer and said I would read a part of the lesson. As I'm sitting here, the next thing I know, I'm getting a tap on my shoulder. It's Dave saying, "Come with me." I walk out and ask what's going on. He says to come and be with him while he's set apart for his new calling. I ask what it is. He says Elders Quorum President and I laughed. He said, "Just kidding. It's Second Counselor in the Elder's Quorum Presidency."

Let the whirlwind begin. We're off to the room and get to the door as they're setting apart the President. Then it's time to set apart the First Counselor. Then Dave and then the Secretary. After that, the Stake Presidency says to have the exiting Presidency give their testimony and then in incoming Presidency is to give their testimony. Now if you know Dave and I, you know this is not something we do easily. We really like to keep quiet in our chairs and keep to ourselves. Especially because we are both such sympathy criers.

Dave did an awesome job with his testimony. Yes, he was already doing the sympathy crying before he even went to the front of the room but that's alright. He has such a big heart and I do have to say the spirit was EXTREMELY strong in the room.

This Sunday we chose to drive the golf cart to church. It's probably one of the last times this year we could do it. It was a nice sunny morning. As we're driving home, Dave takes a breath and says, "That is so not what I thought was going to happen today."

It's probably a good thing it turned out this way. If Dave had a few days to think about this new calling he may have very well said no. Being caught off guard and totally caught up in the whirlwind was probably the best way to go.

Dave will do great in this calling. He was taught in his younger years the concept of serving other. This is something he likes to do and he does it very well. I know he will be great!

When we got home from church, we took some random pictures of the girls:


This is the skirt Hannah made in her sewing class.......

Wait a minute! Stay here!

Now give us a funny face.......

Happy Halloween

This year for Halloween we had at our household Cat Woman, Tinkerbell, and a Fairy Princess.

I was thinking that with Halloween on Saturday this year would work out great. No crazyness of having trick-or-treating on a week night. Boy was I surprised! This year turned out to be nothing but mass craziness! I had at LEAST one child dressed in their costume from Wednesday through all day Saturday!

Both Hannah and Ashley had a Halloween party for TaVaci on Wednesday, which entailed both of them needing their costumes.

Ashley had a Halloween party for preschool on Thursday so she needed to be in costume.

Hannah had a Halloween party on Friday in her school class so she needed to go in costume.

Hannah, Ashley, and Nicole went trick-or-treating with daycare on Friday afternoon to the Nursing home so all three needed to be in their costumes.

Saturday afternoon brought us getting in costumes and heading in to Logan for trick-or-treating at Lee's Marketplace, Grandma Nana's, Grandma Peterson's, and some of the other houses in Grandma Peterson's neighborhood.

Saturday night after returning home from Logan, Dave dressed up in his Sheriff's costume (he patroled Mendon) and we headed to Wellsville to trick-or-treat at one of the Vice Principal's houses. She gives great treats! Glow in the dark wands! The girls LOVE going there.

We then headed back to Mendon and loaded on the golf cart for trick-or-treating around our neighborhood. We trick-or-treat up and down our road and then head to the Bishop's house, which isn't too far from us, for roasting hot dogs. After the hot dogs and hot chocolate, we headed in the golf cart to another friend's house for fresh scones and honey and a little more hot chocolate all while chatting with everyone around a camp fire. Now this is what I call a great way to celebrate Halloween. We had so much fun trick-or-treating with the girls and hanging out with friends and neighbors.

The girls LOVE trick-or-treating with the golf cart. Dave rigs it so we have a red swirly light on top. We call it "trick-or-treating in style".