Tales of the Traveling Tote 48 and a Giveaway

Welcome to the 48th 

Tales of the Traveling Tote, 

where women who love 

MacKenzie Childs and 

love to travel, take their 

totes all over the place. 

Come explore with us!

As many of you know we 

are serving as camp 

missionaries for the 

Church of Jesus Christ 

of Latter-Day Saints in 

Heber, Utah, high up in 

the mountains.  

It is an 18 month 

mission where we serve 

for six months in the 

summer and then are 

off for six months and 

then a second summer 

here at camp.  

We spend our days 

climbing up 30 and 40 

foot poles while hooked 

on.  I have to admit I cried 

the first time I had to 

climb.  Heights and high 

adventure are not my 

things, but we have 

learned to love it and 

especially to love the 

people we have served 

and the people we serve 

with.  There are over 

100 missionary couples 

who work up here and 

more than a dozen 

singles. 

We get a day and a half 

a week for Preparation 

Day, and since we live 

just an hour away we 

have been able to go 

home and spend time 

with family and friends.  

This was our Lindon 

Days event with a 

concert in the park and 

fireworks.  I made smoked 

mixed nuts and smoked 

cream cheese to snack on. 

Of course, when you are 

at camp, you have to do 

some pranking in the 

porta potties!  Miss 

Madi K got in on this 

one with a little chocolate 

frosting on the seat.

It came from this 

wonderful chocolate 

cake I purchased 

at Kneaders for 

a going away party for 

one of our young single 

missionaries who had 

completed his mission.

We regularly see big 

moose around camp and 

on the roads, and deer are 

everywhere. 

We have church on Sundays 

in an open air pavillion and 

there are deer constantly 

distracting us.  One day 

a squirrel tried to hop on 

the Sacrament table and 

get some bread!

There are lots of beautiful 

hikes up in our mountains 

and we go on side by side 

rides to beautiful places. 

This is our district. 

We decorated our 

high ropes course for 

the 4th of July and 

kept it up the rest of 

the summer.  

I found the perfect 

lilac dutch oven to 

bring up to camp and 

it fit in my tiny trailer 

oven to make my 

sourdough bread.

We also got a pizza

oven attachment for 

our Camp Chef and 

so we made lots of

pizzas for dinner.

Here we are preparing a 

group to climb.  I have my 

harness on and my sun 

protection.  This is how we

look most days at camp.  My 

kids laughed that I could 

only wear gray and dark gray 

and navy. I wear colors to 

church and on Prep Day!

Trailer living has been fun. 

We have two bathrooms, 

this and another 

one with a small tub.  

Since hubby is in the 

bath business we just had 

to remodel and put his 

product in the baths. 

We also have two bedrooms. 

 When people ask me about

 living in the 5th wheel, 

I tell them 

I love it 

because I always 

know where hubby is!!!

Thanks for coming along 

on a small part of my 

missionary experience.  

I haven't done a lot of 

blogging because we are 

so tired when we come 

home from 9 hours 

outside, but maybe I 

can do a little catch up. 

Now on to the giveaway!

Give Emily at 

The French Hutch a 

visit and leave a comment.

Then visit our other lovely 

ladies to see where their 

totes have been traveling.

Jackie and Miss Madi K @ Purple Chocolat Home (you are here)

Debbie with Miss Aurora @ Mountain Breaths

Patti with Miss Kenzie and Miss Taylor @ Pandora's Box

Linda P with Miss Lola @ Life and Linda

Rita with Miss Luna C @ Panoply

Sarah with Miss Merri Mac @ Hyacinths for the Soul

Ricki Jill and Countess de Monet @The Bookish Dilettante

Emily with Miss Courtney Childs@ The French Hutch

Then join us January 15th 

for another 

Tales of the Traveling Tote.

Woah, that means Christmas

is just around the corner.  

We finish September 25, 

so I will have to run home 

and decorate for Halloween!!!

Come explore with us!

Tales of the Traveling Totes 47 and a Giveaway

Welcome to the 47th 

Tales of the Traveling Tote, 

where women who love 

MacKenzie Childs and 

love to travel, take their 

totes all over the place. 

Come explore with us!

As many of you know,

we are serving as full time 

missionaries for our church, 

The Church of Jesus Christ 

of Latter Day Saints.  

We are serving just less than 

an hour from our home at 

Heber Valley Camp.  The 

camp serves 40-50 thousand 

youth each summer and 

another 75,000 visitors on 

the Faith Walk each summer.

We were chosen to work 

on the Challenge Courses, 

so we have been training 

since the first week of 

April to be certified 

Challenge Course workers. 

The camp has 125 missionary

couples.  Others work as 

Camp Hosts, Greeters, 

Mountain Maintenance, 

and Building Maintenance.  

At the end of the season 

we will help build two 

more Challenge Courses 

like the one above. 

This is our home for 

the summer and we will 

return again for another 

six months next summer. 

We are at a high elevation 

here so we have had to 

climb the courses twice 

while snowing. 

(Let's just say I am not 

a thrill seekers, so this 

has stretched me, but I am 

growing!)

Once a week we get a day 

off - our Preparation Day. 

We usually come home 

and see the family and 

get things done at home. 

This week my son said 

we should go visit 

Ballerina Farm and do 

their farm tour up in 

Kamas, Utah.  

They also have a store 

just down the mountain 

from us in Midway, Utah. 

I grew up in Wisconsin 

and my aunt and cousin 

had dairy farms, but I 

have never seen one like 

this.  The stalls you can 

see on the left are 

"waterbeds" so that 

the cows don't get sores 

from laying down. 

The cows freely walk around 

the barn and decide when 

they are ready to go into 

the milking stall.  They 

line up and it is all 

automated.  The manger is 

a 29 year old woman and 

she told us that one cow 

likes to be milked 5 times 

a day and another 3 times!

They also had Rhumba type 

cleaners that automatically 

muck the floors.  It was so 

fun and educational.

The grands got to pet the 

new babies.  

At birth the manager 

decides which cows 

will become meat cows 

and which will be milk 

cows. 

I love how these kids 

wore their western hats!

Another P Day we went 

to visit a local cheese 

place.  My favorite cheese 

that we bought was a 

Lemon Sage Variety.

Speaking of cows, just 

before we left on our 

mission our daughter 

who lives next door and 

our son and their families 

decided they wanted a milk 

cow.  She has wanted one 

for years.  Ballerina Farms 

has convinced a lot of 

young moms that they 

want a cow!!!

Ruby is a Jersey milk cow and 

is expecting.  She was 

very unhappy being all 

alone so we also got a 

Black Angus for meat.  

We are renting a neighbor's 

pasture for them.  

And my daughter also got 

these ducks and my son 

got six Runner ducks. 

It is turning into a menagerie!

Thanks for visiting, 

now on to our giveaway!

Pop on over and visit

Ricki Jill and leave a 

comment to win this 

great bag.

And then 

visit these other ladies to 

see where they have been 

off to lately!

Jackie and Miss Madi K @ Purple Chocolat Home (you are here)

Debbie with Miss Aurora @ Mountain Breaths

Patti with Miss Kenzie and Miss Taylor @ Pandora's Box

Linda P with Miss Lola @ Life and Linda

Rita with Miss Luna C @ Panoply

Sarah with Miss Merri Mac @ Hyacinths for the Soul

Ricki Jill and Countess de Monet @The Bookish Dilettante

Emily with Miss Courtney Childs@ The French Hutch

Tales of the Traveling Tote 46 and a Giveaway

Welcome to our 46th 

Tales of the Traveling Tote 

where lovers of 

MacKenzie Childs tell 

you a few times a year 

what they have been up 

to and where they have been.

Miss Pansy and I had a grand 

time shopping for 

Valentine's Day 

decor, especially at 

Hobby Lobby. 

We walked in and saw 

this garland and the 

pink velvet bow garlands 

and filled our cart - 

all at 40% off!!!

I left the garland on 

from Christmas to 

give the banister decor 

some weight and I also 

left the lights.  Then I 

topped it with the tinsel 

garland and the velvet 

bow garland, using 

zip ties. 

The only ribbon I used  

was this double faced 

satin ribbon in a soft 

bow.  

It really turned out so 

Pretty In Pink!

Then I moved this 

pink tree into the 

entry and decorated 

it with all things I 

have had from the past. 

Notice my beautiful 

Queen of Hearts 

card that I saved from 

our dear Jenna.  I 

have so many of her 

beautiful pieces of art 

around my house.

Then keeping with the 

pink theme, 

Miss Madi K and I 

traveled to Salt Lake 

for the Harry Potter 

exhibition, and I 

did my best as 

Professor Umbridge 

in pink!

Miss Madi K made 

it through Platform 9 3/4 

just fine.  We had a great 

time and it was an 

amazing and interactive 

exhibition. 

We even met up with 

Snape while we were 

there.  

I enjoyed it so much 

I went twice.  This time 

was with my middle son 

and his wife.  They 

are working on potions. 

But I cannot tell lies, 

I loved sitting in 

Umbridges office 

probably the best. 

The same exhibition 

hall now has 

The Titanic.  It is 

also a walk through 

experience.  I have 

to fit it into my schedule. 

The day after Christmas 

we were off to 

Cabo to celebrate 

New Years and 

my birthday.

We tried a new pizza 

at Wicked Pizza - 

we had seen this one 

before, but hadn't been 

brave enough to try it. 

It is a 

Peanut Butter and Jelly 

Pizza and has bacon 

and jalapenos on it.  

We loved it so much 

we had it a second night.

We had fifteen of us 

there, so we did a lot 

of take out.  This was 

our New Year's Eve from 

our favorite Italian place, 

La Dolce.  They have 

the best Gorgonzola Steak. 

We have robes for 

the adults in each 

room, so I brought 

down robes for the 

kids for our iconic 

pool side picture. 

We also treated them 

to our ice cream on 

the beach at sunset. 

The family was all gone 

by the time it was my 

birthday.  We went out 

for steak and lobster at 

Solomon's Landing.

And it was a very 

Happy Birthday. 

Thanks for tagging 

along for a couple of 

my travels. 

Now for the giveaway:

Pop on over to see 

Debbie and leave a 

comment to enter 

to win.  

Then visit our other 

wonderful members 

of Tales of the 

Traveling Tote. 

Jackie and Miss Madi K @ Purple Chocolat Home (you are here)

Debbie with Miss Aurora @ Mountain Breaths

Patti with Miss Kenzie and Miss Taylor @ Pandora's Box

Linda P with Miss Lola @ Life and Linda

Rita with Miss Luna C @ Panoply

Sarah with Miss Merri Mac @ Hyacinths for the Soul

Emily with Miss Courtney Childs@ The French Hutch

We have changed and 

now will be posting 

three times a year 

instead of four, so 

look forward to us 

on May 15, 2026.

We are so excited 

to have you in May 

that we have two

reminders!