He who is our Savior slumbers not nor sleeps

This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the Priesthood Session of the April 1994 Conference.

President Hinckley seems to have had a really great ability to keep things in perspective. People always talk about his optimism, and I guess that is kind of the same thing—but it wasn't an optimism that didn't notice the church's opposition. He noticed; he just didn't WORRY about it. Ha! Maybe you have to develop that ability when you're in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles or the First Presidency. I've just been thinking about Elder Holland this week and feeling so bad about all the people who are criticizing him. It helps me feel better to read the words of President Hinckley, who saw plenty of contention during his time as an apostle, and I'm sure endured just as many criticisms:

God is at the helm. Never doubt it. When we are confronted with opposition, He will open the way when there appears to be no way. Our individual efforts may be humble and appear somewhat insignificant. But the accumulated good works of all, laboring together with a common purpose, will bring to pass great and wondrous accomplishments. The world will be a better place for our united service. Our people will be a happy people, a blessed people, a people whose shepherd is our Lord, leading us through pastures green and peaceful, if we will walk after His pattern and in His light.

Let not any voices of discontent disturb you. Let not the critics worry you.…

He who is our Savior slumbers not nor sleeps as He watches over this His kingdom.

As surely as this is the work of the Lord, there will be opposition. There will be those, perhaps not a few, who with the sophistry of beguiling words and clever design will spread doubt and seek to undermine the foundation on which this cause is established. They will have their brief day in the sun. They may have for a brief season the plaudits of the doubters and the skeptics and the critics. But they will fade and be forgotten as have their kind in the past.

Meanwhile, we shall go forward, regardless of their criticism, aware of but undeterred by their statements and actions. Said the Lord even before the Church was organized:

“Therefore, fear not, little flock; do good; let earth and hell combine against you, for if ye are built upon my rock, they cannot prevail. …

“Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not.

“Behold the wounds which pierced my side, and also the prints of the nails in my hands and feet; be faithful, keep my commandments, and ye shall inherit the kingdom of heaven.”

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The Ferny Redwoods

We love the redwood forests so much, and Jedediah Smith State Park is our favorite of them! We have been missing this place since our last trip here in 2014! It really is the most beautiful, ancient forest. You feel like you have gone back to the time of the dinosaurs! 

We drove along Howland Hill Road when we first got to Crescent City, which is a beautiful drive along a narrow dirt road through the old-growth redwoods. Right along the road everything was grey and covered with dust from the cars, which was strange because it is usually so wet and green everywhere! And we were really sad when we got to the Millcreek trail, which we loved last time, and saw that it was closed for renovation! The beautiful, secret Grove of the Titans is not so secret anymore and the park rangers are building up a boardwalk to avoid people trampling everything as they go off-trail to find them. I suppose it's for the best, but we were so disappointed that we couldn't hike that beautiful trail!

But—we consoled ourselves as we talked about it that evening—there are many more beautiful places to hike in the redwoods, and maybe we would find somewhere we liked just as much!

We spent part of a morning seeing Stout Grove, which is the one place everyone goes at this park. It's beautiful and flat—more of a walk than a hike, and with lots of fallen trees to climb on, so it's a nice spot for little kids and babies.

Everyone always likes to go into these little tree-homes.

Even the sort of medium-sized redwoods are SO BIG!

Seb found another caterpillar for Gus. He was so pleased!

I like it how in the redwoods—and I guess by the ocean in general—the clouds are such a noticeable part of the weather. They're always lowering down and making mist, or clearing out suddenly and letting in sunshine you didn't even know was waiting above them. I can't decide if the forests are prettier in the mist or with sunlight coming through the trees! Luckily we had some of both.

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Crescent City house

The rental house we stayed at in Crescent City was so beautiful. It was a little ways outside of town, by a lake, and there were chickens and lambs and a frog pond and a big deck out back overlooking the lake. We saw a beaver working on his dam in the pond, and one night we heard a great horned owl hooting at us from one of the trees.

It was only a few hours' drive from Coos Bay down across the California border to Crescent City. Gus slept peacefully with his "Caw" in the car.

Sam had much to say about this "Elk Crossing" sign. Mostly because the pose of the elk is ambiguous…is he facing toward us, head turning sideways to look back over his shoulder? Or is he looking away from us and we're staring at his hindquarters? Apparently it is the strange positioning of his feet that makes it unclear.

The lady that owned the house was SO NICE. She met us there and walked us all around the property to make sure we knew we could play all over and explore everything. She told us to feel free to gather eggs from the chickens (Goldie LOVED doing that) and she kept stepping back to look at us and exclaim, "Oh, you are such a nice big family!" Eventually she took this picture of us, to remember us by, I suppose. :) She said, "I assume you are Mormons?" and I sadly missed the perfect opportunity to say, as President Nelson said we ought to, "If you mean, are we members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints…then yes!"

She and her husband were Catholic and had a big family of their own (six children)…and they also had this beautiful Last Supper carving in their dining room. She got it when her children's Catholic School (where she was once the principal) closed.

Once we got settled in the house, Ziggy and Gus took the opportunity to run and run and run in this long sunroom at the back of the house.

There was a little apartment in what I think used to be the garage. Abe and Malachi slept there, along with St. Francis or whoever that is. It was really nice!

The lane to the barn, where they hold weddings and events sometimes

A little redwood grove

Walking back to the house from the barn

There was a whole big flock of lambs that lived by the house, and they were guarded by a faithful watch-donkey, Fresca. She was VERY vigilant and never took her eyes off us when we walked by!

The daisies were out everywhere in Oregon and California too, all along the roadsides and in every grassy field. We had a huge field of them growing by our house too. They were so beautiful! I wish they would grow wild like this in Utah! I wonder why they don't—too dry?

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Shore Acres hike

One of the best things about going on a trip with lots of ages of children is that you don't have to do EVERYTHING TOGETHER! Ha! I do LIKE to do things together, and it always gives me great satisfaction when the older ones are happy to do things with everyone else, but it is also so nice to not have to drag people along to do something they aren't very interested in!

You know it's going to be a good hike when it starts out like this!

In that spirit, Sam and I went out on a hike by ourselves one morning, and it was lovely to just leave the little ones playing at the house and the big ones sleeping in, and enjoy being together…without them! We were just five minutes down the road from three different state parks. We started on a trail at Sunset Beach State Park and then hiked up onto the cliffs along the ocean and into Shore Acres State Park. It was so beautiful!! The morning was cool and misty, and there were long lines of rocks along the coastline that made the water spray up in huge hundred-foot-high plumes when the waves crashed into them. (I didn't have our zoom lens, but look at this picture, for example!) Sam and I could NOT get enough of it.

I know all these pictures look basically the same, but each wave was so different. Some sprayed up in columns. Some broke across flat rocks and made whirlpools and waterfalls. Some crashed over outcroppings and formed impossibly-located pools and channels lapping back to make new patterns with the oncoming waves.

This was my favorite—a huge waterfall that only formed every so often, when a big enough wave crashed at just the right angle over the rock.

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Our own little beach

One never expects to really do much playing in the water on the beach in Oregon. But we were lucky enough to have some sunny afternoons, and while I didn't get IN the water myself, the children seemed to stay warm enough! They would run in and play and then come out and dry off and warm up, and I mostly held Ziggy and Teddy's hands as they got braver and braver jumping over the waves, and watched everyone laughing and making up games and burying each other in the sand. It was lovely. And this picture above makes me so happy every time I look at it! Look at Seb's smile! I love seeing that smile.

The other great thing is just that we were all by ourselves here, which always makes a place feel like your own. It was great not to have to worry that we might be bothering someone…or to have anyone bothering us! Ha ha. It was such a great little secluded spot.

The bravest among us.

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The Southern Coast

 

Before when we've taken this trip we've always stayed on the upper end of the coast, and we love it there. We love the steam train, and Rockaway Beach, and we love to go to the Tillamook Creamery and get ice cream and cheese. But when I planned this trip I didn't even know if the Tillamook Creamery—or anything—would be open again after the pandemic closures! It was too sad to think of NOT being able to go there, and I found a rental house down on the Southern Coast that looked good, so I figured we'd just find new things to do in a new place!

But there was a general uproar when I said we might head down the coast without going up to Tillamook first. It turned out that the Creamery WAS open, and the coastal drive was just as fast as the other way, with the added bonus that we could eat at our favorite restaurant, The Fish Peddler, if we went up that way first. So that was settled! We took the loveliest route (bypassing Portland on small roads) to Tillamook Bay and then planned to drive all the way down the coast from there to Coos Bay where we were staying.

While we waited for lunch, we played on the rocky beach of the bay. Teddy discovered that when he lifted up any of the rocks, a whole bunch of tiny crabs would scuttle away. They were so cute! Junie managed to catch one in a shell:

And Gus was totally enthralled with them! He made cute squeaky noises at them to show how cute they were.

The daisies were out in full force as well!

Somehow I have driven up the lower part of the Oregon/California Coast (above San Francisco, and through Crescent City etc.) and I have driven the upper part between Netarts and Seaside, nearly up to Washington, but I have never been along the middle part of the coast. It was such a beautiful drive! Sam and I loved it. There are beautiful rocky cliffs and green forests, as on the upper coast, but as you get further south there is also a long stretch of sand dunes right along the beach, which was cool to see. And there are lots of bays and inlets and bridges, many built in the same Art Deco style.

We ended up driving back north a little ways (on another day) to find the sand dunes. It was a little tricky because everywhere seemed geared completely toward ATV's and not just people playing in the dunes, but we did finally find a spot where ATV's weren't allowed. (We actually looked into renting one for the big boys, and they were excited about that, but it turned out Abe couldn't drive anyone except himself, and Sam and I didn't want to have to leave the little kids behind and drive one, so that didn't work out either. The big boys were SUCH good sports about it! Even though they were disappointed.) We had a good time anyway, jumping around and digging in the sand.

Gus blundered around falling down every two seconds, and laughing about it. Sometimes he would just stay down and start rolling rather than try to get up again. He was THE DIRTIEST by the end. But he enjoyed every second of it!

Another fun thing on the southern coast, south of Coos Bay in Bannon, was this little wild animal park/zoo. They had quite a few cool animals like tigers and lions and gorillas, and the kids even got to pet a baby cheetah. There were lots of goats and deer to pet too. Gus and Ziggy and Teddy loved it!

A fox with his nose tucked under his tail—I didn't know they really slept like that!

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