Flaming Gorge Memory ;)

So randomly I thought of this while I was with my family this last Monday so I though that I’d share it!

My family is obsessed with Flaming Gorge. Yes, OBSESSED was for sure an understatement…… for sure. It kind of feels like our whole lives revolve around it actually. From the time I was little we have gone ever year. Well, we missed maybe 2 because of various reasons (ps, that really doesn’t ever happen. That was rare). Anyways, now that you understand the obsession that has nothing to do with this story I’m about to tell, we can move on.

Last year was a very special one for us. I had a parade for Miss. Saratoga on the Saturday that we were already supposed to be there. We usually leave on a Friday or Thursday, so we were already breaking the norm. We got there and pretty much it rained the whole time. We only swam once (also abnormal. We are fish and are basically in the water the whole time), and there were puddles everywhere that were up to our ankles the whole time. Even talking about it today we hardly remember anything that we did. On Sunday we went on our hike that we always go on down the mountain, up a stream, to the waterfall. That is always memorable, especially because this year we jumped in and swam. Buuuuttt, if I remember right Sunday was the day that Karly wasn’t feeling very good. She was breathing weird and something with her throat hurt really bad. We thought that it was allergies basically the whole time. But on Monday my mom debating leaving because she was sick. She was pretty much fine during the day, but in the night time she would wake my family up (not me apparently because I sleep like a rock) because she would be breathing so loudly and weirdly. So finally on Thursday night, much to our dismay my mom finally decided that we needed to leave soon. At first we were super mad because we had already come late and had hardly done anything. Besides that, it was getting dark and we all thought that she was crazy for wanting to drive down the canyon. She explained to us that she had a very strong feeling about it. The spirit was telling her that if she didn’t get Karly out of this damp cold weather that she would suffer permeably for the rest of her life. As she told us she sounded frightened and scared as she cried. We new this was serious business. Earlier we had prayed as a family for us to be able to decided what we should do; as we sat in the car we told Heavenly Father what we had decided and we all felt that we should leave as soon as we could. 

It was had to explain to my family why we had just decided that we were leaving. They were all so worried about us going down the canyon at night, but they supported us knowing that we were guided by the spirit. We packed up camp (this is not an exaggeration) and our car in less than 20min. As we said our quick goodbyes we headed down the mountain. I remember asking my mom if she was scared. She was strong in saying that she wasn’t because she knew that Heavenly Father would protect her because we were doing his will. We all watched closely for deer as we headed down. I think we only say maybe 2 deer our whole way down and they were far away from the road. We relaxed as we got back down to the city.

We got home at about 3am. My mom was a trooper! She drove the whole way. Another thing I remember, was that she said she didn’t feel tired at all the whole time, until we drove into our driveway and it hit her. She knew that was because of the help of our Father in Heaven. I don’t doubt that even for a second.

My mom took Karly to the doctors the next day, well, that day I guess technically. They checked her out and said that she was fine and that it would probably go away on it’s own. But, then our doctor said, you know what, I think we should take an x-ray of her chest, just be sure. So they took the x-ray and were astonished to find that her left lung was about halfway full of fluid and that she had pneumonia. Our doctor said he had never seen anyone breathing that well with a lung like that (Calder lungs, ya gotta love em’). He even said that if she would have been up at Flaming Gorge for one more night it could have damaged her lungs permanently. That was such a testimony builder to not only us, but our whole entire extended family. The spirit is such a powerful thing. Sometimes, listening, or not listening, can be a matter of life or death. If we listen, he will guide us in the right direction.

My mom and I had a conversation on the way home from Flaming Gorge and I told that even if there was nothing wrong with Karly that we still knew that we made the right choice. Even if we never found out what would have happened. Having faith in the choice you make is a huge part of listening to the spirit. Sometimes we don’t know and may never know in this life why we made a certain choice. But if we just trust him in everything we can have the comfort that we can make the right choices. J