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.

The Mormon Miracle Pageant

So I have been slacking on blogging and that's ok it just means there is more to catch up on! Justin and I have been trying to make this summer more fun and do some of the activities we've been wanting to do. Well both me and my sister Suzanna really wanted to go to the Mormon Miracle Pageant down in Manti. So...we did. We went down and stayed a while with my brother in Lehi and then made the trek to Manti. 

We left pretty early in the day because we wanted to go to the temple and do some service work there. It's a special temple for our family since we lived in the town right before ( Ephraim) for about 10 years. I grew up always seeing the temple out by my house, I went by it everyday going to High School. It was always just there. 

It was really neat to be able to go through more of the temple then just the baptistry which is really cool but the other parts are cool as well. 

Bright during the day. It was a beautiful day when we were there. Hot...but really pretty.

I love when the temples are all light up at night. 

This is us waiting for forever for the pageant to start. I was kind of excited to see the Pageant because every summer after I was 12 I was in the Pageant and sometimes when the moment is right I quote it and Justin never knows what I am talking about. 

The Pageant goes through the Joseph Smith story very quickly with a few scenes from the Book of Mormon, then wraps up with the Saints traveling from Missouri to Salt Lake. It goes through all the history really fast. They have been doing it for I want to say 50 years, we got a newspaper about it but I don't remember hehe. So the lines are sometimes really cheesy and the performances are pretty good. It was a fun little trip down memory lane, remembering the cues for certain parts and spending the summer nights with friends on the temple hill. 

We had fun but would probably be ok not seeing again for another 10 years. That's how long it's been. 

Check one for our summer bucket list!

Bee's game!

On last Monday for family night we went to a Bee's game. It was a lot of fun! I have only ever been to one other major baseball game and I had no idea what was going on. So Justin willingly answered all my questions and helped to explain what was happening. I told him I don't know about baseball. I grew up in a golf/football/basketball family. 

We had pretty awesome seats right by first base. This is a shot of the catcher and pitcher warming up.

Getting ready to play!

It was a pretty exciting game after a few innings when I finally caught on. At one point the Bee's had two people on base then a guy hit a home run. Crazy! I was amazed at how fast they throw the ball. I would be afraid to attempt to hit it. 

We left after the 7th inning because the Bee's were up 7 runs and Justin had a headache. We had lots of fun and even thought about getting tickets again. I thought it was kind of funny how close we were and the players on the Bee's would just walk right by. I was thinking...man in New York people would be going crazy if the players were that close to them, ah the joys of minor league baseball. Hopefully next time we can go when they shoot fireworks after the game. Ah good ole summer fun.

Next on the summer bucket list: The Morman Miracle Pageant in Manti.=)

Bear Lake Half

After our Friday hikes we made our way to Logan to get ready for the Bear Lake Half Marathon with my sisters. Justin was our chauffeur/picture taker/cheerleader. We got there super early so we were pretty loopy by the time the race actually started. 

Here we are so ready to go! Well Natalie is at least. =)

Here I am bringing it in.

To the finish!

Here comes Suzanna.

Almost there.

Last but not least Natalie! I love this picture of her, check out those muscles! She looks like an athlete.

So happy to be done. It was really fun to run this with my sisters. None of us really trained that hard. Natalie got up to 9 miles and that was the highest. At times we ran together, at times one of us would be ahead. I am actually the most proud of this race because I didn't train very well but I felt awesome! I got a major burst of energy about mile 10-11 because the song "What makes you Beautiful" from One Direction came up on my ipod. hehe.

It was a really pretty race going around the south west corner of the Lake. The weather was great, a little bit cold in the morning but after we started running it warmed up. It was warm but not to hot and had the cool breeze from the lake going by. It was a nice course the only bummer part was that traffic wasn't stopped as we ran along the road so we'd have to slide to the edge whenever a car came. It usually wasn't bad unless you were trying to pass someone. 

As always it was fun to do something with my sisters and we had fun talking in the car at 4 in the morning, dancing to stay warm before we started the race, and making fun of the people who run with a whole bunch of gadgets. 

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.  

House stuff

So, some of you  may know that we are buying a house. Yes a house! We are a little bit crazy hehe. It's a really nice house in west Layton, by the Swan Lakes golf course. Well we put an offer in on March 7 and just now we are making more headway. We got a "verbal" acceptance from the bank last week and we are still waiting for the official one. The banks keep saying this day or that day so we've learned to be patient and to not get our hopes up to much.

It's exciting to think about and also really scary. I really don't like change due to the fact that I have had to move so many times but this one will be good. We can't live in an apartment all our lives. I do love our place but there are some things I will be glad to leave.

Things I am most excited about our house:

- More counter space! I will be able to put my mixer out on the counter and use it more! More room for cooking and baking.
- A garage for all the things I don't know what to do with....they get to go in the garage.
- Our own yard- It's a big yard and I am excited to plant flowers and a garden.
- Being able to do what we want with the house, i.e. paint, pictures on the wall, and someday maybe an addition.
- Having family over. We are excited to have lots of visitors. Now that we can. Our apartment has some funny rules about people staying and parking problems so that will be a nice stress relief.
- Being able to move on in life. There is a somewhat stagnant feel to living in an apartment. It's great to save on space and money especially if you are going to school but as we both just work it will be nice to feel a little more adult with a house and eventually being able to fill it with our own family.

So here's hoping that this house stuff happens soon otherwise I might have to send the bank something to speed this process along. =)

May Madness

Wow! May went by way too fast, which may be a good thing. Between the babies, birthday's, mother's day, and a wedding we were pretty busy with family stuff. I also had to work a lot more often this month instead of 3 shifts a week I was averaging 5 or more. Doesn't make for a very happy camper.

We were so excited to have another Nephew join our family on May 4,2012. He's a cutie and has the biggest hands I have seen on a baby. Then on the 30th (I think....)Justin's cousin had an adorable baby girl. She had a ton of hair!

We were also excited to be a part of my cousin's wedding on May 12. I have never been to a live sealing session before. It was fun and they got married in the Bountiful Temple so it was fun to be reminiscent about our wedding day. There were so many other brides there which made me super glad that I was the only one there that day. There was a couple coming in as we were going out but that was it. Thus the beauty of getting married in September. =) 

Then we had birthday month with my brother, sister, mom, niece and grandma. Whew. It was fun and good weather to celebrate in. 

Since I have been working so much I have been on the lookout for good books. I have been wanting to read this book for a while and it's never been at the library and then it finally was!

It was an easy and exciting read about a group of aliens from another planet and they were sent here because their planet was getting destroyed. The aliens who destroyed their planet are here on earth trying to take over and destroy it. But the alien kids that got saved have powers that can help them fight the other aliens. there were 9 kids that were saved and then 3 died. But the kicker is that they have to kill them in order or else it doesn't work. So it follows the story of number 4. So there you go. I am now waiting for the 3rd one to come out to see what happens. They are fun and easy, good for work because it keeps me awake. Some other books have a more sonorous effect and I can't take them to work. =)

I also had a job interview for a really awesome job at the Bountiful hospital. The interview went really well and I LOVED the manager. She seemed super nice and easy to work with. I am still waiting to hear so I am guessing that no news is good news??? Hopefully so, I called her this week to remind her that I am still very interested. 

That's about all we've been up to. We have some more plans to have fun this summer and this month. Hopefully we can take more pictures and post more. Happy Summertime!