August 18, The Calif boys



Another great week. We had Nori here until Wednesday. It was very nice to have her here. She is such a good friend to Sierra and the other kids.

 

On Monday night seven young men two adults from the Redwood City ward drove here to spend the week with our family on the ranch.  The leader, Mike Fleming, was from the Palo Alto ward and we thought this would be a good experience for the young men he is over. So from Tuesday through Friday we provided a ranch experience.  Projects included moving sprinkler pipe, building fence, cutting and chopping firewood, riding horses, moving cattle, shooting guns, a mountain hike, and driving tractor. It definitely got them out of their comfort zone. Friday night we asked each of them what they will remember. Most of the talked about the hard work of building fence through a swamp. Hopefully we taught them some good life lessons.  There is a good chance we will never see those boys again.  Hope we taught them a bit about hard work, the rewards of that work, and taking responsibility for your actions, preparing for the future, overcoming challenges, and being grateful for what you have, and the things that are really important in life.       

 

Eric, Bruno, Omar, Fernando after a good morning of chopping firewood.

They are definitely tired, hunger, and thirsty.

Nori learning to ride horses.  My mother did a great job of teaching her along with the Redwood City boys.

At the rock at VanPatten Lake. It's an awesome 40' cliff. All but one went off.

Mike jumping off first.

And off they go.....

Jefferson, the other youth leader, did this incredible back flip off the rock.

Our kids went o the 1.5 mile hike to the lake.  They all eventually went in, but not off the cliff.

Bruno, Isaac, Omar, Junior, Jefferson, Jose, Eric, Mike, and Fernando.