A Day of Rest

Mary Jean, David, and Shelby drove up early this morning to make it to church with us at 9:00 AM. They got here about 8:10 or so, while we were getting ready for our first Sunday as official members of the ward in Big Piney. It takes about 10 minutes to get to the Church house from our home in Marbleton, which really isn’t too bad when you consider how far some folks drive to get to church. We were greeted at the front door by a member of the bishopric, and when I told him my name, he said, “I already knew that. We got your records last week.” Nothing gets past anybody in a small town.

The meetings were pleasant, the speakers were both inspiring and enjoyable, and the spirit was felt by all present. David and I went to Priesthood together; the Elders and the High Priests typically meet together because there are so few bretheren. I’m pretty sure that we were supposed to have a lesson from the manual today, but it turned into a discussion about cattle and swear-words used to “bless” the beeves once they’ve been roped. I have to admit, it is certainly more fun to attend priesthood meeting here.

After church we came home and had a quick lunch, and enjoyed one of my favorite Harline family traditions: happy hour. Happy hour is a time when all the kids are quiet and play nicely, and the grown-ups take a nap. After seven hours of driving yesterday, and barely six hours of sleep last night, I was ready for a nice nap. It was wonderful. The kids did a great job of playing quietly, so everyone enjoyed a pleasant mid-afternoon nap.

After our nap, we decided to embark on another Harline tradition: the Sunday drive. David had a couple of places in mind that he wanted to see, one of which was the green river. It was absolutely gorgeous today. I’ve posted a couple of pictures here of the river. It made me want to run home and get my fishing rod just to see how many fish I could catch. And the great part is, it is only 5 minutes away from home. How cool is that!

We’ve returned home now, and are just enjoying a low-key evening. Tomorrow I return to work, and Julie, Mary Jean, David and the kids have a day of fun planned. It should be great.