Document a Day

Things are very, very busy over here.  There are so many wonderful things going on that my head sometimes feels like it is spinning.  As summer begins, so do all of the youth activities such as Oakcrest, Girls Camp, Trek and personal family fun that consumes all of my time. 

To be honest, I am really enjoying the craziness.  I know that these days are not forever, but I just wanted to take  moment to document one of my days so that when I look back, I will chuckle at all the things I had to do within a day. So here we go:

6:00 am - Wake up a little later because I do not have enough time to work out this morning.  Woohoo!
6:15 am - Breakfast
6:30 am - Shower and Clean up
7:10 am - head out the door to go to the Oakcrest registration and YW pick up
7:30- 8:30 am - Register young women, mark their belongings with purple duct tape, hug them, love them and send them away to Oakcrest camp.
8:45-12:15 pm - Work
12:45 - meet Brian at Rentmeisters to pick up Shae.  Found out Shaeler got perfect grades in all of her categories.  Congratulate her and offer her any reward she desires.  She proclaims she wants to see Madagascar 3 for FHE.  I can do that!
1:00 pm - Lunch with Shae.  Then Shae ditches me to have hours of play time.
1:30 - 4:30 pm - On the phone, sending emails, going over details and taking care of all Stake YW business.  Also go over my talk I am giving for this week.
4:30-4:45 - 15 minute power nap.
4:45 - get up and change clothes to work out because I missed my early morning workout.
4:55 - go back up stairs and change clothes back into normal clothes.  Brian is on his way home and ready for dinner and the movie.
5:30 pm - dinner at Rumbi's.  Not enough time to make something and eat before movie.
6:10 pm - Watch Madagascar 3 with Brian and Shae.
8:00 pm - Drive home with all 3 of us singing "Circus Afro" at the top of our lungs, laughing the whole way!
8:30 pm - Water trees and bushes with  Brian
9:00 pm - Begin preparations for bed.  Wash face, read scriptures, prayer, etc.  (Early bedtime for a 5:00 am rise the next day!)

My life is truly a blessing.  I love being active and serving.  When I have my not so busy days, I go into panic mode and start making things to do so my mind won't go crazy.  This is my season for this and I am going to enjoy it! 

Have a wonderful day!

Shaeler's Last Day of School

 Shae and I have started a tradition. 

We have a very special luncheon together on the last day of school.

I drive and pick her up and take her to Little America to celebrate her hard work during the school year.

 We always get ice cream!

I promised to take her to the new Disney Store!

 I showered her with flowers, a balloon, new sunglasses and some treats.

And why do you ask I go to all this trouble?

Because I love to hear "You're the Best Mom Ever!"

My life is a gift!

Adventures in Brigham City

Oh, the great adventures that await us!  We had a fantastic weekend together as a family and I wanted to share with you some of the highlights.  Forgive me for the blurry pictures.  We literally ran out the door to get away and I completely forgot my camera.  Oops!

Friday afternoon, Brian and I went to Shae's school to celebrate her unbirthday and embarrass, and highlight our AMAZING daughter.   We then checked her out of school early to bring her home to pack her bags on a overnight get away to Brigham City! Woohoo!

There are 2 things I have always wanted to visit in Brigham City.  First up:

Maddox Ranch House

Brian ordered the Prime Rib and I got a Sirloin steak.  We were both overwhelmed by the portions, but the taste of everything was delicious.  My favorite part were the rolls.  Oh, the homemade rolls with raspberry butter. 

The restaurant is GINORMOUS and it is an high end restaurant to go to.  So, I jumped on the opportunity to teach Shae how to be a lady at a fine dining restaurant.  She was taught about courses, butter knives and plates, why so many forks, keep your napkin in your lap, don't run around the table, say please and thank you, how to place your fork on the plate to let your waitress know you are done, etc.

After our dinner, we drove out to see the new Brigham City Temple which is still under construction.  IT.IS.GORGEOUS!

From the sides, it feels like the Salt Lake Temple.  We are so excited to go up to the open house when the temple is being dedicated.  So exciting!

Later that night, we tried to get some swim time in at the hotel, but it was very crowded with lots of kids and Brian became irritated.  So we went back up to our room to watch Bed Time Stories!

Saturday morning we got up early to go and visit the:

Golden Spike National Monument

As a child, the only thing I could remember about this place was GRASSHOPPERS EVERYWHERE!

I have a huge fear of the nasty insects and to return to a place where every step was walking on a grasshopper lined path just grosses me out!

We spent a couple of hours exploring the museum and the site helping Shae earn her Jr Ranger Badge.  It was so much fun to learn with her and the story of the Golden Spike is an incredible one to learn.  Lots of fun, lots of learning!

We drove out to see the Spiral Jetty in the Great Salt Lake, but unfortunately it was under water.   So to make up for the 35 minute drive out to see it, we stopped and talked with the cows that lined the gravel road to get there.  Brian mooed at them and I tried to coax them to come to the car with my soft animal voice, which none of that worked.  Meh, cows are weird, anyway!

Alas, our trip had to stay short as we have church obligations this weekend for Stake Conference. 

We had an amazing Stake Conference that focused on the temple, missionary work and perfecting ourselves.  Our YW "High On A Mountain Top" choir sang the opening hymn and I cried like a baby.  They were SO good.

Later on Sunday, we headed to Brian's parents for Michelle's birthday party. 

I loved that they served veggies, fruit and whole wheat rolls for the night, it was awesome!

Above is a picture of Brian and Shae at his parents house that I took with Instagram.  Kind of a fun photo app to play with.

I end with a picture of the National Park Service Sign.  When you study what the National Parks stand for and that everything has a meaning to each item, it is touching.  We are so blessed to have so many National Parks here in the state of Utah. 

2 thougths come to me:

1.  Every family should have their own Sign that represents them.  (Janice Kapp Perry also encourages each family to have their own family song, too!)

2.  President Longhurst taught us yesterday that God's greatest classroom is out in the mountains.  Let's get out and explore and learn more.  We have so many beautiful places literally at our fingertips. 

There is Beauty All Around

One of the things I love about Utah is our beautiful mountains.  The green trees and bushes that cascade down the rugged and jagged cliffs of the mountains are unbelievable. 

I also love the mountains because they remind me of how small I am and I am in awe of all of the creations that have been given to me for my enjoyment.  There is a spiritual feel in the mountains and I really enjoy the time that I can get up there.  Well, mainly in the Summer time because I made a deal with the mountains to  not come up in the winter time.  Remember the ski adventure?  We made a deal and I keep my promises. 

This last weekend, Brian had to do some work up at a cabin and invited Shae and I to tag along.  We packed up our bags and decided we would go for a little hike while we were up there.  I am so glad we did.

Scenery around dog lake

Shae is such a good little hiker.  I thought this little adventure would be a great preparation for the big hike this Labor day weekend.  She did a great job, plus no dad around to carry her if she got tired.  She had to do it all on her own.  Great job Shae!

Shae has this thing when we are out in the wild that she likes to collect "nature".  She forgot her "nature" zip lock bag and asked me to take pictures of her "nature." The following pictures are what a 7 year old sees as collectible "nature" items in the wild.

A Feather

Wild Flowers

Not sure what she saw here, but I had to take a picture of it.

????

Wild Dandelion to make a wish on.  I kept telling her to wish for an ice cream parlor at the top of the mountain.   She eyed me kind of funny and then closed her eyes and made a wish.

Funny thing is that when we made it back to the cabin after our hike, she ran to the freezer and shouted "My wish came true!! There are otter pops!"  Unfortunately, we could not partake, they were not ours.  For those of you who are feeling bad for her right now, don't.  She had cheesecake and cobbler later that night at the Cheesecake Factory.  Now we really know that wishes come true because Mommy is always wishing for Red Velvet Cheesecake!  Woohoo!

A butterfly

Shae on a rock!

More Wildflowers

We had so much fun on our little adventure.  She kept asking me what things were called and I had very little knowledge.  We set a goal to be like Shae's best friend Baylie and bring a nature book next time with us to identify things. 

Truly our mountains are so beautiful!  I am so grateful that they are all around me!

Adventures in BYU Education Week!

Hello my friends,

Just wanted to take a few moments to tell you that I am having the time of my life at BYU Education Week.  Day 1 has come to a close and my body is full of spiritual edifying.  I totally forgot my camera, so for today, we will have to make do without pics.  Sorry! 

Today is also the day that I drove up and came back home to spend FHE with my sweet family.  So I was very nervous to be doing a ton of driving by myself.  Clearly, I survived.  The construction in Utah Valley is crazy awful and I have a hard time with depths.  So when people start slamming on breaks, I begin to sweat.

My goal was to be able to see my favorite speakers so that if their classes were to become too full by the end of the week, I at least was able to attend one of their classes. I pulled into the parking lot we normally park at for Women's Conference and it was empty, so I continued to cruise up closer to find a great parking spot.  It was awesome!

Making a change of plans, I went to Hank Smith's class as my first class.  Hank is a friend of mine and I wanted to support him as he is becoming a Big Shot BYU Institute teacher.  Hank's class was on trust and it was really, really good.  Some of the things he taught were answers to questions I have been asking for years.  Hank is growing up on us and it is so awesome to watch him in the process.

Went to a second class about communication through the color wheel.  Not really my cup of tea, but it was very educational.

After that, I ran over to the Ballroom to squeeze into S. Michael Wilcox's class.  Wilcox is one of the best teachers I have ever heard.  His class was about turning negatives into positives and he gave me a whole new perspective on Jacob 5.  To hear him teach on how he is turning the negative despair from losing his wife into positive life altering lessons is inspiring.  He truly is a great teacher and a master scriptorian.

Last, I spent 3 hours with Brother C.  Well, President Christensen now, however he will be Brother C in my heart forever.  He taught on the Lecture's on Faith and it was U.N.B.E.L.I.E.V.A.B.L.E!!  What I love most about Brother C is that he not only teaches doctrine, but deep doctrine and then he will crack a joke in the middle of it that seems almost sacrilegious and yet he is so endearing and the combination of the two makes you fall in love with him.  I miss him and his Friday night classes that we use to go to.  One more year and he will be back teaching again.  I cannot wait!  The opportunity to hear him now was like a surprise treat.  He is just a great teacher!  Originally I was going to leave early to beat traffic home, but the spirit was so strong with his teaching that I stayed the entire time.  So glad I did!

Came home to find the family is doing well  the first day without me and Shae wanted to teach the FHE lesson on the trampoline.  Blessings do come from being obedient.  We had a great night together and I am so excited to head back up and continue to be taught, to study and to feel the spirit for hours on end. 

Words cannot describe my joy today.  I cannot wait to see and hear what happens the rest of the week!

Suzanne