Week One of Scarlett's life

Scott and Chantel had made a decision that they were not going to flood Facebook with pictures of Scarlett everyday.  I can understand their feelings and certainly respect their decision but I certainly love seeing pictures of her especially on days when I can't see her.  As I mentioned in a prior post, Chantel was so good to send me a picture of her on the first Wednesday of her life when I hadn't seen her.  And again on Friday, she sent me another set of pictures as I didn't see her then.  Like everyone has said, it is amazing to be the grandmother.  I love to see and be with Scarlett and I also love seeing Scott and Chantel with her as well.  And all of it makes me very excited for Niki and Tosha and Austen to start their experiences together.  I really have missed having Tosha and Austen around over the past week.

Yesterday I had the opportunity to spend the day with Chantel and Scarlett.  It was a quiet and peaceful day just talking and watching Scarlett.  For the first time, I got to see her wide awake for about 20 minutes in a row and that was just amazing.  We took her on a walk and also on her first trip to Wal-Mart.  She wasn't impressed with either event as she slept through them but it was a good first experience out and about with her.

Like Scott and Chantel, I don't plan to put pictures of Scarlett every post but here are a few from this past week.  After all, you all are just getting acquainted with her, too.

Old spot--new place!

Jena will be enjoying a once in a life time experience of being able to sing for the Cultural Celebration for the Rededication of the Ogden Temple.  As a family we will be able to attend the Open House in August along with some non-member neighbors who actually asked us if we would take them.  This will be the fifth open house I have attended:  (remodeled) St. George, Jordan River, Oquirrh Mountain, Brigham City, and now the new Ogden Temple.  I remember thinking when Gary and I attended the Jordan River Temple Open House and then the dedication, that it was a once in a life time event.  Little did I know how much the temple building would expand throughout the world.  Now I think someday there might even be a temple in Syracuse or somewhere "near by" in North Davis County.  Although I am really grateful to live 25 minutes from a temple to the south and soon again from a temple in the north.

On top of those "life time" experiences, I was privileged to add one to my life.  I along with others from our ward and stake got to help clean the Ogden Temple prior to the beginning of official Open House.  Our stake was the only one given the assignment to go clean.  We were asked on Sunday for 30 people from each ward over the course of 6 shifts.  I was able to go on Wednesday afternoon.  It was hard and demanding work as we crawled around cleaning marble moldings and climbed step ladders to clear high doors and door frames of dark wood.  Our group actually started as the Credenza crew as our first task was to move out each large credenza from the wall, clean the back, carpet, molding and walls and then put it back.  We did that on the second floor (notice how many there are if you are ever there) and in the basement.  During a break I had an opportunity to go up to the 3rd floor and seeing the Celestial room.  In its own unique way, it was stunning.  There are little touches throughout the temple which are slight reminders of the old Ogden Temple.  According to workers, there is one original mural which was rehung on the main level and two vases which were kept and placed in the Celestial room.  By some of the "art deco" style can be seen in small ways.  So excited to have our "own" temple back in a new and breath-taking version.

As I was there, in my jeans and sweating as I worked, I just counted myself so lucky to have this experience.  Throughout my life as I enter into the temple, there will be lamps I have touched, marble I have shined, and wood I polished.  I will always have those memories to fill my heart and mind in that holy place.  Thank you!

She is here......

Jena asked me a couple of days ago: "What day was Friday?" "July 18th" "Don't forget to write that down because that is Scarlett's birth."  True and we won't forget, because:

 

SCARLETT FAY HALL

 

HAS ARRIVED!

(In my mom's journal, she would always write the new grandchild's name in big capital letters.  I am following the tradition.)

Picture I texted to my family--taken about 5 minutes after she was born

 

Chantel called us around 9 in the morning to tell us that she had been having contractions since about 1:00 a.m. and they were regular and increasing.  All good signs!  We were excited.  Except for Jena who was at Girls Camp this week--(yes, lots of camping for Jena in a 10 day period.).  I managed to not text them every hour for an update but was glad to get a text from Scott about 12:30 that they were heading up to the hospital.  (And actually they didn't quite leave then.  On their way out they discovered they were totally out of cat food so Chantel sent Scott to Wal-Mart to get some.  She said she regretted when she had to manage some "good contractions" without him, but fortunately he made it back and then they were able to leave for the hospital.)

 

About 2ish, they were checked into the hospital and I headed up to be part of the support team.  It was an amazing experience to be there with Scott and Chantel and Chantel's family (minus her dad who was flying home from Phoenix).  Chantel's friend served as the doula and kept all of us focused on our tasks to help Chantel get baby Scarlett here.  Chantel was able to deliver Scarlett naturally which she was thrilled about (but not sure if she would do it again.).  Their midwife was also excellent.  However Chantel was the star--working and breathing and doing everything she needed to do.  I have seen a number of babies born and it always is a great experience, no matter what way it is done.  Moms really give everything to get these tiny people here.

 

Scarlett was 7 lbs. and 19 1/2 inches long.  They stayed in the hospital until Saturday night and then headed home.  Since then I am mostly thinking of reasons to go see her.  Being a grandmother is great so far.  Scott and Chantel have been so great to share her with us and Chantel's family.  We all are hooked on her.

 

Scott with Chantel's brother Travis before the birth

Miss Scarlett being weighed

New daddy

I love this picture of the three of them

Sunset on Scarlett's first day.

Since Scarlett was born at 6:30 p.m., Chantel missed the dinner ordering by the time things had calmed down enough to figure out she was hungry.  Gary and I made the dinner run to Zuppa's.  I ordered a Cuban BBQ sandwich in honor of Scott, Chantel, and Scarlett (I did refrain from taking a picture of my empty sandwich carton which was labeled "Cuban".)

 

Jena got to meet Scarlett on Saturday at the hospital along with Jessica and Elessia:

 

I saw this paper months ago and just had
to get it for our arrival gifts for Scarlett and Niki.
I thought it was perfect although not really baby colors.

Jena and Scarlett

Jessica and Scarlett

 

This is a great learning experience for Jena and she is planning on being a great aunt to Scarlett and Niki.  Scott was trying to get Jena to say that Scarlett was the best baby in the world.  She finally told him that she loved Scarlett...and then added "and Niki."

I was able to see her everyday until Wednesday.  Chantel sent me this picture to me by text just as I was getting out of the temple in Ogden.  So exciting!

As a fun bonus, my niece and her husband also had their new son, Crew,  that morning so Grandma Hall had a great grandson and great granddaughter born on the same day. Melissa and Chris's baby was due the day after Tosha in August so it was a bit of a surprise but they are all doing well.

We all have been missing Tosha and Austen as we have been enjoying Scarlett.  Tosha sent me this cute picture.

 

Now the countdown begins for Niki's arrival in August! 

 

 

Mary Poppins

Playbill in the theatre for Mary Poppins

I was so excited to write about trek that I forgot to mention that we went to Mary Poppins at the Hale Theatre on the Monday before Trek.  It was amazing.  The sets were so diverse and changed so often.  It is hard to imagine how they engineered all of that.  I hope that my soon-to-arrive grandchildren will love the theatre because I would love to take them.

Grandma Hall wasn't feeling up to the play that night so Meggan Sparrow came as her "sub" and it was fun to share it with her.  Jena also loved it.

Trek Day 3

Actually it was Day 3 for Jena and the rest of the Trekkers, but Gary and I had a peaceful quiet morning at the campsite and then headed for home.  (I had forgotten the mayo for our lunch sandwiches and I was a bit anxious to find out if baby Scarlett had arrived so it was good to be heading home.) We had decided not to offer to bring kids home because we knew there were so many parents who wanted that opportunity to share a bit of Trek with the youth.  We felt blessed to have had a whole day.

They spent the day cleaning up and packing up.  Then they had several special activities including getting a Pony Express Rider bringing letters from home (parents had written letters for each of the kids), and a reenactment of the Sweetwater Rescue.  Eight of the young men carried in their arms the remaining 400 youth across a small patch of water.  They had some family time and some alone time in the trees.  There were some amazing pictures of this morning in the Trek video which is posted on my Facebook page.

On the other hand, we slept in, ate a nice breakfast, and took another walk through the trees.  We chatted with our friends the Denneys and then headed home.

Posing on a large stump in the camp ground

I noticed my shadow on the ground and thought it was a cool picture
Weird I know...

 If you haven't been in the mountains for awhile (attention all of my Texas family), enjoy!

Did I mention how beautiful the world is?

Trek Day Two

This was the day we spent at Trek so we have pictures to share.

We put on our "pioneer finest" and headed back down the road about 16 miles to the parking lot.  As we pulled in, this was the sight we saw:

 I am not going to lie.  I got tears in my eyes seeing them trekking down the hill.  It was an amazing sight!

There was a little hill right by the parking lot so we stopped there and took some great pictures of the families pushing their carts up.  The families were organized with a Youth Ma and Pa, eight other youth from all different wards in our Stake, plus 2 Adult "children". 

 This is Jena's family minus Jena who traveled a bit slower than the rest of the trekkers.  On the first day, she and her assigned sister who start off near the front of the handcarts and walk along while they all passed by and then they would get a lift from a trailing truck back to the front and start walking again.  At each break, they told us that her Ma would track her down and gather her to the family.  They walked 10 miles the first day although I am not sure how far Jena actually traveled by foot, she loved it all.

Bro. and Sis. Miggins were the adult Children
in Jena's family. Below is Maddie Kimball who was assigned as Jena's big sister.
 These were the only three people
from our ward in her family.  Jena knew a couple of
the other kids before the Trek a little bit.

Jena, Maddie, and another helper up a little incline

This morning was the time of the Women's Pull.  This represents the time when Mormon men were requested to leave their families along the trail in their wagons and join the Mormon Battalion to fight down in California.  Jena and I headed down to join the girls and women for their morning side while the young men and men headed up the mountainside.  It was a sobering sight as they separated (and these weren't even actual families.  How hard for a husband and father to leave his family crossing the plains!).

At the morningside, Jena sitting on her 5 gal. bucket.

Sis. Hatch spoke.  She is the Stake YW president.  I loved the description of her talk which was shared by Lindsay Ericksen at the Post-Trek fireside.  To paraphrase, she shared: "I was really psyched to do the Women's pull.  I knew we could do it.  I expected Sis. Hatch to talk about the strength and power of women and how we can accomplished hard things.  I thought she would be cheering us on and telling us how we could do it.  Instead she talked about the power and role of men.  She told us that the world was teaching us the wrong thing about men and belittling their roles in marriages, families, and society.  She taught us to stand strong and testify of the importance and role of men.  We need to expect them to be strong and work with them.  She challenged us to look into the eyes of the young men and men as we pushed up the hill.  See their goodness, their strength, how they want to help and pull with us."  Then Lindsay paused and said, "I took that challenge but only could look once.  It was too much to bear."

The women waiting at the bottom of the hill

Pushing up the hill
(cameraman on the side near the bottom of the hill)

 The young men and men had headed up the hill earlier and had their own morningside.  Then they were told to line the side of the hill near the top.  They could only watch as the girls struggled with the handcarts up the hill.  As the cart crested the hill, they could go to their family's cart and help them push it to the nearby stopping place.

Gary is standing at the top of the hill on the left in his blue shirt.

We chose to not have Jena do the push up the hill although I regretted it later.  I should have walked up with her.  She got a ride over to the testimony meeting which was held after every cart had made it up the hill.  With 400 youth, it was a long testimony meeting and we were told that Jena bore a sweet testimony herself in front of all those people.  Wish we had seen that, but those that needed to I am sure were there to hear it.

We headed out to walk the mile up to where the games were to be held in the afternoon and started setting up.  The skies were mostly overcast so it wasn't too hot for most of the day until right near the end of the games around 5:00.  Then the sun came out and we all really started sweating.

Susan Westbroek, Wendy Garcia, and Karla Robinett setting up
the Relay games.  I ran the Potato Sack races for 400 youth and adults.

Gary and Tim Robinett managed these tall catapults
launching water balloons.  Gary had a slight mishap as
a young grandchild of the landowners tripped over a
wire which release the 2 by 6 into Gary's face.
He was left with a knot on his head and a black eye
although he said he never got a headache.
I didn't see it until a couple of hours later since I was
in a different area of the field.

The tent city for the Trekkers

Jena's family was taking a family nap
after the games.  Everyone was actually sleeping but
Jena had her head up until she saw us
getting ready to take a picture so she
buried her head in a bonnet.

Ma (Megan) with Jena
Both Jena's Ma and Pa were outstanding with her.

 Jena's family is having dinner together.  Jena was definitely a part of this group and we so appreciate their willingness to go the extra mile.  Jena was relaxed with them and having a great time interacting with them.  We even overheard her making jokes with them.  Her Pa-Gavin- has known Jena since she was in 7th grade although I don't know him.  He told me later that it had been awesome to have Jena in their family.  She was always smiling and happy.

Here we are in our Trek clothes.

 Our Bishop and friend, Steve Slater, was able to go as an "unattached adult".  The Bishops were invited to do that so that they could visit with all of the youth in the ward along the way.  This picture was taken at the Friday night fireside.

We were there!

Friday night Hoedown took place in a large meadow near where we did the earlier games.  The kids had said that they didn't think they wanted to do the hoedown but from what we saw and heard later, it was one of the highlights of the trip.

The caller did a great job managing 400 youth and adults in two huge circles.
There were smiling and laughing everywhere.

 We knew that Jena would love it and she did.  The top picture she didn't know that we were there watching the dance.

 As the night wore on, she finally had traveled around the circle to near where we were sitting and I got this picture as she saw us watching her.  Smiles!

After taking that picture of Jena dancing, we decided to hike back to our RV and head back to our camping spot.  As we reached the parking lot, the moon was just above the trees.  It was a full moon and we heard it allowed the dancing to continue even later.  It was a perfect end to an awesome day.