Summertime smatterings

Justin got a new toy! He's been hemming and hawing about getting it and then one day he finally did! He got a nexus 7 tablet. It's basically an Ipad but with Google instead of Apple. ( Justin is kind of anti apple. ) 

He's been having lots of fun with it, playing games mostly but also doing some writing. I have been having fun with the games as well. Sometimes...Justin will even let me take it to work. 

This little bro of mine had a birthday and turned 15. He's is getting so big and tall. I used to be able to win any argument by taking him down, I don't think I can do that any more. =) He's a fun and energetic brother. We love him.

This was by our mailbox one day. I love it for so many reasons. The spelling of lemonade, the attempts at how to spell house, and the fact that I have no idea where "lizzy house" is. Got to love all the kids in the neighbor hood. Our neighborhood has been great. We've had our lawn mowed twice by secret service neighbors. We are so grateful. 

My sisters and I worked on one of my mom's summer bucket list items. To summit Mt Timpanogas! It's different then the cave hike, it's on the other side of the giant mountain. It was a really pretty hike, but very long about 6.5 miles round trip. I was surprised by how green everything was in July especially since it was when all the fires were happening. 

Yeah....we were going to go to the top of that bad boy.I was kind of being a wimp and had to take lots of breaks. I was sorely out of shape but we still had fun.

When we got to the almost top we saw cute little mountain goats. Just hanging out. In all my hikes around Utah and other places I have never seen a Mountain goat in real life. So I thought it was pretty cool. By the time we got to this part we were all so tired and really didn't want to summit. But the views were still pretty.

We had fun and were super tired. We came home to an awesome dinner made by Justin. We've been having fun this summer and hope that you have too!

Brigham City Temple

On Saturday we went to the Brigham City Temple open house. It was such a beautiful temple! All temples are beautiful but this one had some very pretty aspects. It was modern with a pioneer edge to it. One thing that I loved about it was that they had lots of windows in the rooms letting in this beautiful natural light. They had gorgeous chandeliers around and really pretty stained glass windows. 

Along with the beauty of the temple the peace and joy that comes from going to the temple was there, even with the noise from the other guests and little kids. It was really special to share it with the Messenger family. We were supposed to meet my mom and sisters there but they got detained behind a car crash on their way. However, we saw them heading into the temple as we were on our way out so we stopped to say hi and tell them how pretty it is. 

One thing that I really liked was in the movie they show you before explaining temples and what we do in them, Elder Holland talked about his version of heaven. How in his version of heaven his family is all there with him and his wife.

It really hit me and made me grateful for the opportunity to be together with my family forever. My family that I grew up with, the family I gained with marriage, and the family that Justin and I will someday have. That is my definition of heaven as well. 

It's a lovely place and I can't wait to go through it again and really soak in the beauty of it all. I encourage you all to go! You don't need a ticket or anything just show up and they'll get you through. It might take longer but it's worth it. 

I love going to the temple and know that no matter what is going on in your life, you can find peace, joy, and courage to face your trials. 

A trip down memory lane

After the Temple we had a TON of time to kill so we decided to go by our old house. We moved from Ephraim; to first Layton and then to Logan. It's been almost ten years since we moved. So we drove by to check out the house. 

We were a little sad that they painted it Trailer Park blue, before it was a tan all over with dark brown trim on the windows. This part cracks me up. We had a nice fence for the driveway, we saw that they took it off and made a makeshift fence. The nice fence was to the right where we had a big field to help them get to their horse. Ironically the horses were just chilling in the back yard. I don't get it.

Another view of the silly fence.

This was our across the street neighbors. Our only neighbors for a mile around. The original neighbors no longer live there anymore.

So this part was the park attached to the church that we'd go to. For the longest time it just had a two swings and a set of rings. Half the time the swings got wrapped around the bar on top so it was hard to swing. Now there is a jungle gym, better swings and a merry go round in the back. On the other side where our church "used" to be is now a pile of rubble. It's just nothing I don't know what the plans are. 

They also redid the Library! This is one place that we spent a lot of time. Both me and my sister worked there and we were good friends with the head librarian. They redid the outside and inside to make it more handicap accessible. It was so nice inside, it looked so new and exciting. It still had the squeaky part on the floor but it looked really nice. 

It was interesting to see what has changed and what hasn't. My sisters and I talked about what we remembered and everything seemed so much bigger before. It was also sad to see all the unkempt houses. There were houses that we thought for sure no one would live there but then found people there. It was hard to move, I was not happy about it then but now I can see that it was good to leave the small town. Small towns are great but you either get stuck there or leave.

Hikin'

Last week my work rearranged my schedule to give me a Thursday night off with the rest of the weekend off Justin decided to take Friday off so we could play. I have been wanting to do some hikes and other summer fun so that's what we did. We started out the day with a short little hike up to Ensign Peak near the Capital in Salt Lake city.

It was a fun little hike. It's really steep but it's short so it kind of makes up for it. 

The view from the top the southeast view

The southwest view. This one was fun because you could see the planes taking off and landing from the top.

Me checking out the peak.

Me trying to get Justin and the peak all in one.

It's a pretty cool landmark and story of how Brigham Young and other church leaders hiked up there to survey the land and to choose that spot to make it an Ensign to the city. As we were going around Salt Lake I was reminded of all the cool history of that town. How the city was founded by Brigham Young and other church leaders. I am glad that Temple Square is there to share that history with all the visitors.

When we got done with Ensign Peak we were all pumped to try another one. So we attempted to find and hike a trail called " The Living Room" near the University of Utah campus. We got kind of lost and didn't know where to turn and got an another trail. It was fun but really steep and I had to pee the whole time. But it was a fun view of the other side of the city.

That's the hospital and other buildings for the University.

This was a fun little jaunt. It's called hidden falls up the Big cottonwood canyon. It is seriously like 50 steps off the road. But it was fun and no body else was around.  We had to do a little climbing to get there so that was different.

To end the day we had a cool sunset show as we were driving to Logan. I thought this looked really cool.  

February Birthdays

  I have been slacking on the blogging. I could say that we've been busy but let's be honest....I've been a bit lazy. =) Anyways, we had lots of fun family birthdays in February. It started with this cutie and then a few days later my dad.

Justin's sister Jyana's birthday is a few days before mine so we got together to have a fun family party. There was delicious food.

Jyana requested a pineapple upside down cake that I gladly made. I love a good pineapple upside down cake and the recipe I found used a good portion of butter and sugar my two favorite baking ingredients. =) It turned out really good. 

Here we are getting ready to blow out our candles with our flowers. My flowers  are still going strong.=)

And just cause he's cute.=)

A picture of the birthday girls. I am so glad that I get to share my birthday month/week with Jyana. She is awesome and a really great sister. She is a hard worker and super smart and creative with her job. I've always admired her and all that she does even when Justin and I dated in high school. Not to mention that I think she's gorgeous. 

For my actual birthday day we went to Logan and spent the day with my family. It was fun and I always love to play with my sisters and nieces.We went bowling and took my little niece. She was super excited. 

Here she is showing me her special shoes.

It was fun to celebrate birthdays and to have fun with family. I feel so blessed to be a part of my family and Justin's as well. 

Valentine's Day!

It's almost Valentine's day! It's my favorite holiday I love it even more then Christmas. Something about all the hearts and the pink, red and white, oh and the candy is the best. Chocolates, conversation hearts and other yummy treats. All that aside I really love that it's a day dedicated to love. Yes it's mostly geared towards couples but who says you can't give your friends or co-workers a Valentine. Family members always love to be reminded of how much you mean to them. I love to make Valentines and to have fun decorations.

Since being married Valentine's is a little more special with my forever Valentine, and he's a gem and makes it extra special for me. The other day I got switched houses for work and had to leave at 8 instead of 9:30. Well my sweetie husband took that time to go and buy paper and cut out a bunch of heart that covered the biggest wall of the apartment. It took him a long time and he probably wanted to play computer games instead but he did something that made me smile. I love it and love looking at it everyday. =)

So I wish all my friends and family a Happy Valentine's Day! May you feel loved and important and have a little treat today. =)

This is a Valentine's tradition with my sisters. So funny. check it out but don't take it too seriously. My favorite part. " What are we going to get?!"  " Several boys!"  " How we gonna get them?" " Um....Vodoo is it vodoo." hehe....

http://www.homestarrunner.com/tgs12.html

Circus TIme!

We went to the Circus a while ago and had a lot of fun. We were the only ones around us without any kids but we had fun. It had everything a circus claims it has. Clowns.

Tight rope walkers. They were actually really cool

In this one they are on bikes with a stick in between the bikes. Then the girl is sitting on a chair on the stick. Then they rode the bike on the rope. Totally awesome.

Elephants! They were adorable and really good at their routine.

Tigers! They were a little more temperamental then the Elephants but they were so big!

This part was cool. They did this big show of bringing the crossbow out and getting the guy on it.

Then they lit him on FIRE! They shot him out to a big pad thing across the stadium.

He's still on fire! He's that hard core

We liked the Circus and had lots of fun despite the really annoying theme songs they kept singing.