Birthday Boy and Missing Man

On June 20th we celebrated Dereks 25th birthday! It was a pretty typical day: he went to work, he mowed a lawn, and then after that it was time to party. :) We went to dinner with his parents and my parents at Applebees. We had a lot of fun visiting and the food was delicious. After dinner with the parents Derek and I came home and we had a bunch of friends over for cake and ice cream. It was fun to get together with anyone. Here Derek is with his birthday cake that I made him...(nothing fancy). But he sure does look cute.

I know there is a picture of him when he is little when he turned 8 holding his 8 birthday cake. I gotta get a copy and put them side by side...so cute. He got a lot of generous gifts from everyone and he had a great day. 

Two days later was a day I will probably never forget. My dad went out hiking with the scouts in his ward and a few of the young men leaders. They did a pretty demanding hike with several repels (pretty big ones) and hiking in between. After the last repel my dad wanted to get ahead a little bit and he needed to use the bathroom so he told one of the priests he was going to start and they could catch up to him. Well, my dad ended up going down the wrong path. There were two choices and he thought he heard he was supposed to go left when in reality he was supposed to go right. He was very weak from the long hike and strenuous day. He had given his lunch to someone who forgot theirs and he had also given his last water to one of the boys who was out of water. So he had a backpack with a few granola bars but that was it. He hiked quite a ways and realized he had gone the wrong way but he was too weak to back track at that point. So he figured he would keep going and it would probably eventually lead out to a place where he could get help. Well he got to a point where the only choice to go was a repel. And he couldn't do it alone. So he had no other choice but to back track now. As he was back tracking it started getting dark to the point where he couldn't see anything anymore so he just thought, "well I can't do anything now" So he found a rock and just rested for awhile knowing that he was probably going to just have to try in the morning. He was very dehydrated and had nothing with him that he could eat. It was very cold and he tried to keep warm the best he could. He tried to keep the circulation going in his legs the best he could as well. Search and rescue had been out looking for him now and they finally found him around 2 in the morning. 

That is his side of the story. On our side it was a little different.   Here at home we were worried sick. All we knew (and we only heard things every 2 or more hours from a leader that was there or dispatch unit with very spotty reception and signal) all we knew was that he had been separated from the group, they tried finding him and yelling for him, no answers, and that search and rescue were looking for him. He was missing for several hours and it was so scary. We didn't know if he had passed out of exhaustion, hurt himself, had a heart attack, etc. Even when we heard they found him we didn't know his condition or if they found him dead or alive; they wouldn't give any details. Well in those hours our family (along with the Stake President and some others from the ward and stake that had come over)  knelt down many times in prayer just putting everything we had out there to pray for my dad and those looking for him. We were planning search parties for morning, etc and it was very stressful and scary. But at the same time we were all comforted that whatever happened he was in the Lord's hands. 

We finally got the good news that he was okay and waited for him to get home. When he got home we quickly gave hugs and talked for just a minute because he needed rest and sleep and so did we. Derek and I finally got home to our apartment around 6:30 in the morning and both of us weren't doing too good. It was a lot of stress on my body and that is not good when you are pregnant. I felt really sick and tired but after sleeping it off I got up and felt fine. Derek felt a lot better after some sleep too but was still very tired. 

I have learned a lot from this experience. Its sad how sometimes it takes tragedies or experiences like this in your life to bring to realization the things that matter most and the relationships that you have in your life and how important they are to you. My family was able to unite in prayer and faith and I know prayers and miracles happen. My dad is doing great and my family has all recovered fine. Moral of the story: Never separate from your group when hiking or anything else.