"what added more to [her] joy..."

I've been meaning to do this post for a while but I've been thinking of the right way to do it. I'm not sure I've found the right way, but I'm going to try to do this anyway.

The end of June, I went to Idaho and Utah for family reunions of sorts. It was nice to spend time with my family and to reminisce in the halls of my high school. Here are the five of us kids who went to Sugar being the "Student's of the Month."

It was also great to spend time with Bryce's family and see his sweet sister get married in the Logan Temple - my personal favorite :)

The time I spent away from my home in Santa Fe was filled with loved ones. I met up with old friends and was able to do a lot of catching up. Many had good news to share or trials to explain - but either way, there is something special about being with people you love and who love you - regardless of your current situation.

On Sunday, I went to my former ward. Since I had lived in the same ward in Logan for like 7 years, it truly felt like coming home. Many people embraced me as we came into the building. It was so great to see them in one place and get to visit. At the end of sacrament meeting, I saw my next door neighbor sitting in the chapel. We went over to visit with her. (She lived right next to us for the last 5+ years. She is a very sweet and fun woman. She was close to my parents ages and loved to give us good advise about our kids. She seemed like a woman who was very confident and comfortable with her life. She was a member of another faith and was sad that she was out of town for our girls' blessings. I admired her in many ways.) When we started talking to her and asked what brought her to church today, she exclaimed, "I got baptised! I'm a member now." We were thrilled! She explained that she got baptised in November and was loving being in the church - she really was so happy. (She said when Bryce went to Utah to fix our roof so we could sell it, she "wanted to shout it out to him on the rooftop" - but it didn't seem the right time:)

In Sunday School our lesson was on Alma and the sons of Mosiah. The part that has stuck with me for weeks since is this scripture - Alma 17:2
"...Alma did rejoice exceedingly to see his brethren; and what added more to his joy, they were still his brethren in the Lord"

(That is just a part of verse 2 - also verse 3 is really beautiful)

I know that, for me, there can be no greater happiness than I find in serving others and following the commandments of God. There is no greater comfort than that which is found through the atonement of Jesus Christ. There is no greater peace than knowing that someone who knows all (including my heart) is watching out for my best interest - even if I don't know what that is sometimes.

I felt that this scripture explained exactly how I was feeling. There is nothing so sweet as seeing loved ones. Knowing that they have the peace and happiness I have found in the gospel, just makes it that much sweeter.

It's been a while...sorry.

Hello, folks! I know I haven't written anything in a while, it seems like all I do is work, eat, sleep, and run. My family went to San Francisco this week - a lot of firsts for them. The girls' first time on a plane and seeing the ocean. Bryce's first time to San Fran. Eva was so excited to see the bridges in the Bay area. She loves bridges lately. When we are driving in the car, she gets so excited if she knows we are on a bridge. I'll let Bryce post about his experiences with the girls in Cali. I will be going to Utah this Thursday to meet up with my dear family. I can't wait!

So, I've been home by myself. My friend, Karen, is taking excellent care of me. Which is good because I've found that I don't take very good care of myself. When Bryce is here, he does the cooking and shopping and what not. Now that he's gone, I allowed myself to eat hot dogs for lunch. I know, it's disgusting. My stomach is complaining already. I just don't want to cook new things when we have lots of food in the fridge that, if I don't eat, it will all be bad when we get back from our trip. I did allow myself to eat the hot dogs, but I couldn't bring myself to eat the 5 day old mac and cheese. Like I said, good thing Karen has fed me at least one good meal each of the last few days!

I am excited to report that I ran 10 miles yesterday and it only took me 2 hours and 5 minutes! I was so thrilled! I wanted to call and tell people but then I remembered it was 8 am on a Saturday and my husband is in an earlier time zone. For those of you I called and woke up anyway, thanks for being supportive!

My other exciting news is that my sister LOVES me! She is flying from Utah to ABQ, just to ride back with me to Utah. I was going to have to drive alone (or make my brother or sister in law be alone with kids) and I was not looking forward to it. Share called me the other night and said she got a plane ticket that will arrive after 9pm on Wednesday and we'll get up and drive out on Thursday morning. She must really like my company because that's all she's gonna get from this trip!

Anyway, that's basically my life. My house is currently very quiet. It's boring. I keep thinking with my family gone I should be able to do all these projects... Turns out, I really like having my family around. :) Having a day alone is nice. Having a week alone is lonely. I don't like to stay at my house too long, although it needs a good cleaning before I leave. Oh, and for fun, here is a pic Bryce sent me from Eva - it's a flower for me :)

Silly girls

For those who've requested more of Eva's laugh.



Dum-ditty dum-ditty dum dum dum.

Appearances Can Be Deceiving

We went camping this weekend with G and KT's family to celebrate G's new found freedom! The Sheffers accompanied us, too - because we had to help Karen get over her fear of camping with kids ;) Love ya Karen ;)



Anyway, on the way home, Bryce took his hat off - which he'd been wearing almost constantly because it was cold. As I looked across the car to my darling husband, this is the lovely view I beheld.

We were devastated when we arrived at home and the apartment complex was without water. Man, I needed to wash. Since I couldn't, I just went for my long run this week - 7.5 miles in 2 hours! I was way impressed with myself! I ran outside for the first time. I ran on the Rail Trail - it was a fun, kinda hilly trail. I'm excited to do it again. Oh, and, I got brave and asked a couple people from church to go running with me (although I'm a turtle) and they said they would love to! Yeah. When I got home - all sweaty and stinky - the water still wasn't on. I waited about a half an hour and then called Karen to save me. She, being the saint she is, was very willing to offer her shower AND feed me dinner.

I took the girls with me over there but stopped to get gas on the way. Remember that I'm still gross and in my too tight running clothes that were stinky... Some little teenage girls in a Mustang were on the other side of the pump from me and one girl said, "she should not be wearing those pants" the other girl looks at me and says, "I know, huh"... You will be happy to know that I didn't resort to violence - although I would have momentarily enjoyed messing up their made-up faces - I just acted like I didn't hear. But, dang it! I was proud of myself for having just run 7.5 miles! When did they ever do that! Argh! Oh, well. It did remind me that I had said similar things like that when I thought people didn't hear. And, who knows, maybe they had just lost 50 lbs or something equally amazing. I need to be kinder. Even when I think the people don't hear me, God does and it hurts his feelings when we hurt his children.

When people are dirty and stinky, maybe their apartment was without water...

We did all get clean today and were ready for church on time. Note to self, find more space to put water storage. A water purifier doesn't count.

Happy 4th Birthday, Eva!

Eva's Birthday was last Sunday, May 4th. (Happy Birthday also to Kimberly, Marla, and Rachel!) I know there were many who were sad to miss this fun event! It was great. For Isobel's birthday last month, Isobel wanted to invite lots of friends to come to Chuck E. Cheese's with us and have a 3 layer checkered cake. Whew! Lots of work. Eva, being completely opposite of her older sister, wanted to go to the park and have coconut cream pie. Well, we didn't go to the park, but upgraded to Tent Rocks National Monument. It was a fun day of hiking and being with my brother G's family and our friends, the Sheffers. We had the same group join us on Sunday (the actual birthday) for pie and rhubarb crisp. Yummy!

Here we are, singing to the birthday girl!

Please take note of the pink Barbie ballerina dress that Eva is wearing in the video. Grammy bought that for her when she was here. She loved it and had to put it on before we could sing to her.

This is the little outfit that G and KT gave to Eva. Aren't the shoes great? I promise she didn't only get ballerina clothes, although, you've seen how skilled she is as a ballerina and is in need of encouragement ;)

Grandma Polly got Eva a kids cook book for her birthday while she was here. It has all kinds of fun recipes!

Eva has been loving it! She looks thru it to find what she wants to make. She loves measuring things. And TASTING them in the process!

She had a great time baking with Grandma Polly while she was here - and I had a great time eating their creations!

So, since Bryce and I don't really enjoy encouraging the Babie thing, we got her measuring spoons, cups, silicone spatulas, and a cupcake pan with fun shapes.

This is one of the shapes - Daddy and Eva made banana bread with her cupcake molds. (It's lips, if you can't tell ;)

After the cake and whatnot, we found the men dancing in the livingroom to Swan Lake with all the girls. Aren't they wonderful dads?

We are so happy to have our dear little Eva! Her laugh is infectious and her smile brightens my day! Thanks for joining our family! (I can't believe it's been 4 years - I feel old;)

The BIG 2nd Anniversary...after only 8 years!

I know, this post is way overdue. The point is, I am doing it. I am going to confess to a bit of cheating - I am mostly going to copy this verbatim from my journal. These are my personal thoughts - I am not posting this to win a Pulitzer. Ok, here goes.

Happy Anniversary! February 29, 2008
What an unexpected day. Last night we drove into Derry. We stopped at the B&B in Rick Steve's book - one of the few good things about the book - the other being current prices and open hours. The B&B is called Saddler's House. It was a nice place - tiny lou - but it was close to the wall. The people were SO friendly. The gentleman who met us; showed us around, asked us about where we're from, told us places to eat, etc - he was very chatty. Then we went to Flaming Jack's (hehehe) for dinner. After dinner, we walked all around the wall of Derry - it was so nice. Just me and Bryce on the wall - looking over the city. When we got back to the B&B, the woman came out and asked us about our dinner - etc. They were so nice. This was the first place with hot chocolate in the room (everywhere has tea in the room) - and kit kat's!

This morning we woke up snuggling - Bryce was so sweet. We ate breakfast with an American woman from PA and a Scottish guy. They had LOTS to say. We were planning on walking round Derry to see some monuments, shops, etc - but it was SO rainy and cold, we decided to try out luck moving on. It rains about everyday, but it's usually stop and go - sun and clouds - wind and calm. So, we hoped it would calm, stop raining, and we could walk around the other things we wanted to see. We made it to Portrush and realized the weather was getting worse. We stopped at a coffee shop that had sandwiches and Internet. Bryce was so disappointed in the way the day was turning out - he had so wanted to get me flowers or SOMETHING ... It was fine. It's nice to know he was thinking of things - Oh, he thought about going on a boat ride, too, but the weather was too nasty. After lunch he tried to get me ice cream at a treat shop but the man didn't have the ice cream because he thought it was too cold - and it was! But I love good ice cream :)

We went to Dunluce Castle and got blown into the ocean along with the servants and dinner in the 1630's.

(Here's the story: This castle is built on an island with a bridge out to it. One night during a terrible storm, the edge of the cliff where the kitchen was - fell into the ocean along with several servants and the nights dinner.)












(Here is a picture of Bryce holding onto his hat - which, although it is very tight, it felt like it would blow off - on the bridge to the island bit of Dunluce Castle.)

















(Here is a picture of me pretending that I am sitting in a beautiful bay window on a spring day reading a book. Did I mention it was freezing out?)


It wasn't rainy, though.













We decided to move on to Giant's Causeway. It was SO crazy windy and rainy that we spent several minutes in our car before it got blown over (you saw how little it was in earlier posts, right?) and we moved into the info center :) There we filled out and sent postcards. We finally decided to brave the wind since it wasn't currently raining. WOW! What an adventure. We got blown down the trail, into the rocks and into the ocean :)

Really, the wind pushed us down the trail and it felt like it was going to take my feet out from under me! It did start raining and with the wind it drenched my whole backside. After we went thru one particularly scary pass, I thought we should take some photos and work our way back up. So we did - try to to take some photos.

(As you can see from the waves, it was a bit windy)

It was so scary and windy - I slipped once on the rocks and got muddy and wet - but I was alive:)





(Basic story about the Causeway: The legend is that the Giant, Finn MacCool, was building a trail across the ocean to Scotland to his love. The geologic perspective is that when all this basalt cooled, it formed these crazy, almost hexagon shaped, columns. Pick your favorite story to tell people. Note in this picture how the shapes of the rocks are extending in a path out to the ocean.)

(Also, note the foam on the rocks.)




(I like to call these pictures: camera one and camera two. I was sitting on these columns that I was attempting to climb over - and yet trying to take some good pics. I was so nervous because of the wind that I kept just firing off shots so I could hurry and get down and safe. I just love how these turned out. First the waves in the background are getting blown backwards because of the wind. Second because in the first frame the wave is just reaching the columns and in the second they are having their second big crash. Beautiful. Too bad I was too scared to enjoy it at the time ;)

Some of the foam from the waves blew up into my mouth a couple of times - eww! We were now back on the path (the one pictured here) and getting pelted in the face with rain flying at 100 mph - OUCH - luckily Bryce grabbed my hand and we were able to push up thru it together.

Once the wind and rain subsided a bit - I started to laugh. "Happy Anniversary!" I said, "This is a romantic walk along the beach!" We had a good laugh at ourselves.

We went back, soaked thru to our skin, and drove to the Carrick-a-rede Bridge just to check to make sure it would be open the next day. The sign said it opened March 1st so we are praying there isn't too much wind.

We went to a restaurant in Ballintoy that also had a B&B. We sat next to the heater to warm ourselves. While we were eating, a group of guys, who apparently had just gotten off work - some kind of construction it seemed - came in and started playing pool and having a pint of Guinness. A man sauntered over to the jukebox to pick some songs. After several minutes of serious contemplation, a Tina Turner song came on! I couldn't believe it! Maybe he pushed the wrong button. I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. Next song: "Complicated" by Aviril Lavigne! This was too much. I was trying not to laugh and wondering if his comerades were going to come raz him or even beat him up for what he was playing - but they didn't even seem to notice! I got out an old recipt and started writing down the songs he picked. It got better. After some techno and that one song - "I wanna stand with you on a mountain..." - my jaw dropped to the floor.

"You raise me up" by Josh Groban! Who is this guy! I kept waiting for a Lisa Loeb song next. When I finally got my turn at the jukebox, I saw there wasn't any Lisa Loeb - maybe that was why. I was able to play "Sweetest Thing" for Bryce. I think this is one of "our songs" because of the "blue-eyed boy meets a brown-eyed girl" line. Love it.

We went up to our room (beware gorey details;) and got into our jammies and snuggled under the covers. We talked about fun memories and things we love. We watched a program on TV about a little region in Ireland. These cute little kids were telling folktales, acting out Viking stories, and singing traditional songs. It was so fun!

I do love my Bryce. He tried hard today - because he loves me. I love that he tries. I love that he likes to snuggle with me and say nice things to me. I love that he sang "I love you in the morning" to me this morning in bed. He is wonderful and I'm glad he is mine forever.

I Wanna Be A Ballerina When I Grow Up

I don't know if any of you remember this commercial - but here is a remake.

These are my girls dancing to their new movie: "Barbie in the Nutcracker" (thanks, Mom!)