Autumn Evening

Last night we spent a beautiful night outdoors.  We set up the camping chairs in our back yard and roasted marshmallows on the bbq grill.  We made smores.  Since I very rarely eat sugar any more- I didn't have one.  At first that made me sad- I love smores- eating them reminds me of so many good memories.  Then it hit me that it's not the smores I love as much as the memories.  It was so nice to sit together with our family and talk.  I told them about President Uchtdorf's talk from Women's Conference.  Man did I love that talk. One of the things that stood out to me was when he said "Forget Not To Be Happy Now".  That is something I have struggled with in the past and I see my kids struggle with now sometimes.  Waiting for something (A Golden Ticket) that they think will make their life better or complete, instead of enjoying all of the every day wonders that each day brings.  There were so many wonderful and inspired teachings in his talk.  I will cherish his words forever.  I don't know if my family understood so we'll have to all sit down to watch it soon.  You can watch it too by clicking on his name above.

The night was so perfect and crisp.  When it got dark we played ghost in the graveyard before we headed inside to get ready for bed.  I love nights like this. 

Carving the Mountains (longboard)

Whitney can not stop talking about wanting a skateboard. It reminded me of this video that I saw on Design Mom a while back. I think these girls are the coolest ever and I absolutley love the music by the Decemberists. I could see Whitney doing this one day-in fact if she did I'd probably want to tag along.

B "Y" U

We hiked Y mountain again this year.  I have looked forward to this all year.  It was a beautiful day.  We went in the morning and hiked it before lunch.  The kids did great.  It is a pretty strenuous hike, but since we did it last year we knew we could do it.  Ethan is afraid of bee's and  flipped out every time we saw one.  He is so funny and kept saying how much he hates the out doors.  Half way up the trail Bronco Mendenhall- the head coach for the BYU football team passed us.  Jeff yelled out Hi Bronco and he waved at us.  It was very cool.  He was booking it up the trail so then he passed us again on his way back down (yeah we are slow)  Jeff wished him good luck on the game they were playing that night.  We made it up to the top and got to see the amazing views of Provo and Utah lake.  Ashtyn made up a pledge that all the kids took that states that they will promise to go to college.  The whole point of this tradition is to instill in the kids the desire to go to college and get their degree some day.  Not finishing my degree is by far the biggest regret I have in life.  I went to Utah State for one year, but never finished.  I hope to one day- but even more I hope that my children will do it right away and get it done. 

After the hike we met my friend Joidee and her boys for lunch at a park.  We played and ate and then took the kids to the creamery for BYU icecream.  We weren't able to tour the campus like last year because Whitney had to get back for her tumbling class.  Jeff and Ashtyn stayed in Provo for the football game.  It was a really really great day!

Animals, Alzheimers, Hollywood & 10-54

We have been going all weekend.  Here is what we've been up to.....(sans pictures unfortunately)

My sister and I took our kids to the zoo.  It has been a few years since we have been there.  It was a really perfect day weather wise and crowd wise.  A few of the exhibits were closed for construction, but there were still lots of animals to see and lots of animal sounds for Brody to imitate.  We rode the train and the carousel and enjoyed a great almost Fall day.

On Saturday me, Ashtyn, Ethan, my mom and my sister headed up to the capital to participate in the Walk to Fight Alzheimer's.  The rest home my grandma lives in put together a team that we joined.  My grandma doesn't have Alzheimer's, but Jeff's grandpa does.  I did not know this but 1 in 6 people will get Alzheimer's.  The kids had a blast collecting all of the free things they were giving out.  The actual walk was two miles.  It was very fun to support such a great cause.

When we got back from the walk I took the kids to Hollywood Connection with a few of our neighbors.  We had all purchased one of the daily deals from th internet.  The kids had a blast riding the rollar coaster, bumper cars, carnival rides, playing miniature golf and getting to see a magic show.  It was well worth the $5 it cost for the tickets. 

Jeff and I went to the now imfamous BYU- Utah game on Saturday night.  I don't care about football- but I actually really like going to a game.  I got to spend ten hours with my best friend.  The drive down was even fun because every car we passed was full of people wearing blue or people wearing red.  It got me so excited.  When we got to Provo we went to the bookstore first.  I love walking around BYU with Jeff because that is where he earned his degree and it's cool to see all the places he spent his time.  Then we went to dinner and headed over to the stadium.  The streets were packed with fans for both teams and everyone was so happy and excited.  I love that feeling of camaraderie.  When we walked into the stadium and out of the portal next to the field the sights and sounds were amazing.  Footballs being thrown, people laughing and having a good time.  The smell of popcorn and peanuts and cotton candy filled the air.  The smells are the best at a football game. The sky was so blue and clear.  The air was crisp.  It was really really fun.  We were there pretty early so we walked down to the field and sat and watched the players warm up.  Then we went and found our seats.  I don't understand a thing that goes on in a football game, but boy were people passionate about this game.  The fans were up and down, cheering one minute- then groaning and yelling at the refs the next.  It was really exciting......until the third quarter when BYU started to get beat down.  People started leaving they were so mad and disappointed at how badly we were playing.  That's probably my favorite part- the expressions on peoples faces.  Jeff had said at the beginning that even if we were losing by 70 points we were staying to the end.  And we did to the 54-10 end.  I loved every minute- but I am disappointed that it wasn't a closer game at least.  It took us forever to get home with the freeway construction.  A huge thank you to my mom for watching our kids.  Better luck next year Cougars. (Interesting side note- I read that years ago they used live cougars as their mascot- they would roam the sidelines during the games.  They had to stop after they escaped one day and killed some animals- then they were donated to the old Salt Lake Zoo.)

9/11

I would be really ungrateful if I didn't post about 9/11.  I know that today is the 12th- that the anniversary of the worst act of terrorism the United States has ever seen has come and gone.  All week we watched documentaries of the events of that day.  All week I had nightmares reliving the horrific images of that day. 

This is a picture of Ashtyn taken Labor Day 2011- A week before 9/11

On September 11th I had just woken up to get ready for work.  I was working at Moore North America in downtown Salt Lake City.  I had a rolly polly 4 1/2 month old baby that I was getting dressed so Jeff could take her over to his moms to be babysat for the day.  I turned the news on like we always did.  It was on CNN.  There was a picture of a tall building with smoke and flames billowing out the side of it.  They kept saying that some sort of bomb had just gone off at the World Trade Center.  I went into my room and asked Jeff what the World Trade Center was and where it was.  Then I came back out to check on Ashtyn who was sitting on the floor in our small little apartment living room.  I watched as an airplane, as plain as day, flew into the other identical building next to the one already on fire.  I remember yelling to Jeff that an airplane had just flown into the building.  It was shocking and they showed it over and over and over.

We watched the news for a while longer, but then it was time for us to leave and to go about our day.  When I got to work the news coverage was all over the radio.  People were buzzing about it.  People were crying.  As I learned more and more about exactly what had just happened I grew very scared and fearful.  I don't think we did one ounce of work that day.  Pictures poured in over the internet of some of the most horrible scenes I had ever seen.  Literally people dying right before my eyes. 

The LDS Church held a huge prayer service in the tabernacle that several of us went to.  Then our boss told us to go home and to be with our families. 

That is all I remember.  I can hardly believe that it has been ten years.  That little rolly polly baby is now ten.  She has no recollection of anything that happened that day.  We have talked about what happened that day and they have seen pictures- but I don't think they really understand- how could they. 

I've been reading the stories of heroism online all week and one that stood out to me was of a man named Rick Rescorla- who had spent years preparing his company for an event exactly like 9/11.  You can read the story here.  It made me think about how prepared we are for a major event and the thought "If you are prepared, you shall not fear." 

Our 9/11 was very uneventful.  We had meetings all day.  We went about the day as normal- 9/11 was barely mentioned.  But when I hugged my family I hugged them a little tighter.  Prayers were said for the survivors.  I will never be able to forget what happened on 9/11/01.  No one will.

Watch this.

Labor Day

Labor Day marks the beginning of our official hiking season- we don't do a ton in the Summer, mostly because it's too crowded and hot for our liking- but after Labor Day we go all the time.  So of course today we went for a hike.  For Jeff's birthday we got him a book called 60 Hikes Within 60 Miles- Salt Lake City edition and we have every intention of completing all 60 eventually.  Today we did number 22- Neff's Canyon.  Neff's Canyon is located at the top of the Olympus Cove neighborhood just south of Mill Creek Canyon.  I love the drive through the neighborhood- the houses are awesome and hidden behind all kinds of trees and rocks that make them look like they are smack in the middle of the mountains.  Plus the streets have all kinds of cool Book of Mormon names like Zarahemla and Hagoth.  The book said that the trail went up about 2.5 miles to a beautiful meadow.  We followed the map and instructions but never found the meadow and found ourselves instead on a very narrow heavily wooded path to who knows where.  The book said this was possible because there were several trails off the main trail that you could end up on.  It would have been fine except that earlier on in the hike I mentioned the word "tick" and it freaked Ashtyn out that we were in the middle of so much vegetation.  She just knew that there must be tick's burrowing into her entire body.  Needless to say she had a major melt down- which made me on edge, so we ended up turning back and decided to retrace our steps and see if we could find the right trail.  We never did, but ended up taking a different and more beautiful trail back down to our car.  After a lengthy explanation about ticks and what they do and how we had never ever had problems with them before, Ashtyn finally calmed down and started to enjoy herself.  It was a good hike despite the fact that we never reached the meadow.  We will have to try again another day.  Here are some pictures:

 

No Sugar Documentary

Here is another reason not to eat sugar- You'll be laughing too hard :)