Brian & Jan's Argentina Mission

Happy Mother's Day!

Mom, thanks for the email! I appreciate it. I love you. I hope you are enjoying your Mother's Day. I'm sure it is different for you this year, but hopefully you know that we love and miss you. I wish we could talk on the phone like all the other missionaries do!

I got some beautiful flowers for Mother's Day. I just love these guys. It's a lot of fun raising them. Also, a lot of work! But I am so grateful to have these people in my life. Great kids!

So, Vienna finished up her soccer season. They did a great job and she is really learning the sport! It sure gets hot watching those games though. I'm glad the season is over! Reagan just swam in a a meet on Saturday and did very well. She shaved off some seconds on her backstroke and was excited about that. Alex is on a sports break at the moment, but recently did two over-night camp-outs and is earning his merit badges. One involved hiking in 4 miles with all his gear on his pack. He came back a tired boy!

Finally, here are some photos of Trek! What an experience that was! We'll probably never do it again because I'm pretty sure we made our calling and election made sure with that one! I wasn't expecting to help push/pull/drag that hand-cart so much, but our poor kids couldn't do it by themselves. It was tough! Probably a little TOO tough if you ask me (and Rob). But everyone survived. No one was seriously injured, but our Stake President got himself dehydrated! Reagan's already said she'll go on the next one, so there was some fun to be had. We had a great bunch of kids which made it much more enjoyable. I can't say I got much sleep though. It's tough when there's only about 2 inches of air between you and the cold, hard ground. All in all, IF we were asked to do it again, I guess I wouldn't turn it down, but Rob would definitely take some convincing. They killed us beforehand with endless "mandatory" meetings. And would it hurt to pass out a little more food? Sheesh! You know you're hungry when home-made elk jerky tastes like manna from heaven!

Here are our kids! Cassidy, Sydney, Dory, Simon, Trevor, Nick and Joe. Trevor and Cassidy were my favorites, but you're not allowed favorites, right?!

Our camo wagon.

Early on Day 1. Still can coax a smile from them.

A little while later. Not as many smiles. We were lucky and got a shady spot for 30 min.

Day 2. No sleep. Getting ready to make the nastiest stuff on earth: Corn Meal Mush. Not even honey and brown sugar can save that slop!

Day 3. Black powder rifle range. I hit the bull's eye. No lie!

Day 3. Contra-band cell-phone during kids' solo time. I enjoyed a candy bar.

The Ma's and Pa's from our ward. Yep, we all made it to the Celestial Kingdom. Hope to see some of you there. But only if you do a Trek. :)

Day 4. Breaking down camp. Almost time to go home!

This was our "kitchen". Inspiring view, eh?

This was our cup tree. We didn't really have any cupboards so the branches worked out nicely. You find out how resourceful you can be when push comes to shove. Take the giant fish hook I found in a bag of rope and used to secure our tarp tent! That and the all-mighty duct-tape.