CapitOl Reef

Ryan and I wanted to get away so we decided to take a quick trip down to CapitOl Reef National Park. I've been going there for years now and I wanted him to partake of its greatness! My first time to CapitOl Reef was for our Senior trip. Oh, the memories! Adie's family has a summer home in Teasdale and that's where we decided to go to celebrate our graduation. In fact, I'll have to post pictures from that first trip. Since then, I've been fortunate enough to travel there many, many times and it holds a very special place in my heart.

For Ryan and I the weather was overcast and rainy most of the time, which was good and bad. Nice, because it was cool. Bad, because we couldn't go down CapitOl Reef Gorge due to the possibility of flash floods. Nevertheless, we went to Fruita, the waterfall, Gooseneck overlook and drove all over seeing the sites. It was relaxing and wonderful to spend time together!

I forgot my camera so I turned to my trusty-though poor quality-cell phone camera and produced these masterpieces:

Isn't this beautiful country?

Notice how red the river is.

At the top of the waterfall. Can you tell I cropped myself into the pic with Ryan? We took pictures of each other in the same spot, but I wanted us together. Ha ha

Some kind of craziness going on.

Ryan at the Gooseneck overlook

The Fremont River. I've never seen it this red!

Serious driving going on.

I'd also like to thank Melissa, who I have been with MANY, MANY times in Capitol Reef, for pointing out my error in spelling it wrong. I mean, seriously...can anyone tell me why it is Capitol and not Capital?!

It's August?

Where has the summer gone? I never got around to blogging about our time at the cabin, but rest assured we had a wonderful time! As always, we swam in the river, rode the four-wheelers all over, went tubing, body floated from the bridge, played bacce, went into town to get ice-cream at Dave's (who has incidentally raised the price from .79 cents to .99 cents! As much as they pack in those cups though, it is WELL worth it!), went to the Ashton City 4th of July parade (which is a pretty awesome parade since they go through town once, then turn around and go back through again! They threw out candy, t-shirts, balloons, toys and even walked around giving out chocolate milk cartons), went to Rexburg to shop at the scrapbook stores, went to Mack's Inn Theater and saw a satirical musical called The Phantom of the Grand Ol' Opry, and of course, I did my fair share of reading (The Twilight series)! It was nice to go for 10 days, but it still didn't seem long enough.

Since then, life has returned to normal, which translates to busyness. Luckily our KSS rehearsals have ceased during the summer, but I'm still working at LDS Hospital, putting in almost sixty hours a week. Young Women's is rather busy as we are coming upon the ever-exciting Girl's Camp next week! I really love the girls in the ward and can't wait to go, but I'll blog more about that when I get back!

Here are a few pics from the cabin:

The whole fam goin' floatin!

Bracken, Dallin, Brookie, Kellee, Tayson & Nicole on the cabin lawn

Ryan-getting reading to go float the river

Beautiful view of the Snake River





Me, Hollie & Cola






Baby Tayson. I love him!





Nicole, me, Hollie & mom enjoying our prime rib dinner





Dallin & Bracken begged Kellee and I to take a midnight dip in the river. We finally agreed after they said they'd give us a foot massage for 40 minutes each!






Bro's Ryan & Weston at the Ashton parade

The watermelon eating contest in town. Weston & Ryan

Go Lexie, Bracken, Dallin and Alisha!

Takin a Stroll Down Memory Lane...

I'm jumpin on board!

1. As a comment on my blog, write about a memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next (if you choose to), re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you.(Even if you don't want to re-post this on your blog, leave a comment anyway.)

Three Whole Years!

It was three years ago today I met Ryan. I remember what he was wearing and the first thing he said to me. He was witty, quirky, sweet and all of twenty-three years. We eventually had our first kiss, and the rest is history.

Today was our day to celebrate our time together. He arrived at my house around 6:30pm with a beautiful bouquet of spring flowers. From there, he took me to one of our favorite restaurants, Tepanyaki. As always it was delicious! Oh, and I only spilled on my shirt about eighty-four times! Sheesh! (At least it wasn't as bad as the time Laura spilled a plate of cheesecake in her lap though.)

Anyway, we thought about going to the fireworks in Ogden but decided to go buy our own. We went to Smith's and spent approximately $15 (big spenders) on fireworks we never even lit. We got back to my house and opened the gifts we got each other. I got him the game of Bacce, and he gave me a new MP3 player and wrote me a beautiful letter. Wow, he is the most amazing writer I know. Gosh, I wish I could post the letter for the world to see! He really is just so intelligent and creative and I don't know how he puts his words together. I could say the same thing he says but it would be so plain and ordinary! So, after reading his sweet letter (and shedding a couple tears-cause I'm a sap) we layed on the trampoline, watched the stars, and talked for hours. It was such a perfect night!

I love you Ry!

Pretty flowers!

Happy Anniversary to you!

After several attemps at taking our own picture, this is the best we could come up with!

The Manti Pageant

Warning: Ranting/Raving Blog Ahead!

After spending a rather uneventful day working at LDS Hospital, I was excited to meet up with Ryan and head out to good ol' San Pete County. I left work with an expectant giddiness as I made my way westwardly on North Temple. As there are several different possible routes that would take me to meet Ryan, I called him to ask which one he'd suggest. He concluded that during rush hour traffic, they would all be bad. I made the decision, and chose very, very un-wisely. Let me just say to anyone traveling in the Salt Lake Valley, don't ever take the 201 westbound to Bangerter around 5pm. HUGE mistake! I was so anxious to get on the road that the terrible traffic and a slight miscommunication with Ryan almost resulted in a near meltdown for me!

By 6:20 we'd finally made it to I-15 and were well on our way. Things, by now, were going much smoother! We went to Manti by way of Springville, Indianola and Mount Pleasant. Once in Mt. Pleasant, (which is also where my mom grew up) we made a stop at the cemetary to visit my grandparent's grave. I wanted to show Ryan where they were buried, but I also wanted to visit myself, since it had been several years since I'd been. I found it right away and it was nice to take a moment to think of them. I hadn't realized, but they had both passed away 20 years ago. Time sure does fly!

Shortly after, we were back on the road in hot pursuit of our destination! Ok, it wasn't a hot pursuit, but we were both pretty hungry and wanted to get there in time! We arrived in Manti and since it was a Wednesday night, saw that it wasn't too crowded. We found a great parking spot only a couple hundred yards or so from the action and headed to the seating area. We found great seats right in the middle section on the seventh row. What luck! We put down our blankets and went to seek out some food. They had a "food court" area with several different booths offering various "cuisines." We settled on some very healthy choices and shared home-made curly fries, "famous" marinated turkey, and a funnel cake with caramel topping. (By the way, while standing in line, I noticed how terrible the mosquitos were. I'd already gotten six bites at this point! Luckily, I brought bug-spray along, unfortunately, it wasn't seeming to work!) With ten minutes to spare before the pageant started, we sat down and started scarfing our food. About the time I was shoving curly fries down my throat, I noticed a woman and a young man walking aound the table at which we were sitting. They walked slightly past, spoke to each other, and then came back and asked if the seats next to us were taken. (Clearly, they were not, along with the four empty tables surrounding us.) The first thing they asked was if we had ever been to Manti before. I knew immediately they were not from the area and was immediately put on guard because I'd already seen all the protesters in front of the temple grounds. The next question they asked was if we were LDS. We, of course, said yes, and then I asked them what religion they were. They said they were Christian. I said, "Oh, are you here to protest the pageant?" (Ryan later told me he thought that was pretty bold and slightly rude, but hey, I said it in a nice way, AND I've dealt with protesters before and didn't want to get into it with them!) Anyway, they said no, they weren't prostesting, they were there to find truth. I got a little excited for a minute because I thought, "Wow, maybe they really want to know!" Needless to say, they pulled out their copies of the Book of Mormon and began to question different principles and beliefs. I thought it was so strange, the young guy kept bringing up the scripture Moroni 10:32 that talks about being perfected in Christ and denying ourselves of ungodliness. He kept saying, "How can we be perfect? How can we deny everything ungodly? So you have to be completely perfect to go to heaven?" Of all scriptures to choose to contest, I was confused as to why that one. I think it is a wonderful scripture that talks about giving all we can, and THEN by God's grace we can be perfected in Him.

By now, the show was about to start soon. I didn't "bible bash" with them, but just tried to bear my testimony that if they truly were seeking the truth then they should really read the Book of Mormon with a sincere heart and the desire to know. I told them I didn't want to be rude, but the show was starting and I didn't want to miss it! We got up and started walking and they walked all the way back to the temple with us. It was clear they weren't there just to "find truth!" In their defense though, they were actually quite polite and not too pushy, but it was still not the way I was hoping to start my Manti Pageant experience, nor for Ryan!

We got to our seats right as the prayer started and got settled in. I was praying that it would be a great show and Ryan and I could feel the Spirit. At this point, however, I couldn't help but notice the relentless pain/itchiness of the dozens of mosquito bites I now had! Grrr! They were everywhere, including several on my butt! I tried to ignore them and focus on the show, and it worked for awhile. There were a lot of cool effects, and if you haven't been in several years, they've updated a lot of things technically. It seems to be a bigger production too. About the time I started forgetting about my "protester" encounter, and the mosquito bites, I became aware of the four young teen boys directly behind us. At first, they were only making rude comments now and then, and mocking some of the narration. Soon after, it was more giggling and whispering. Not wanting to put a damper on their "fun," I let it go for awhile, but eventually turned and gave a quiet, "shh." It quieted them for awhile, but before long, one of them farted and they all started laughing and making farting noises! Are you kidding me?! By this point I was starting to get mad and I was worried cause I really wanted Ryan to get something out of the pageant. I kept telling myself, "It doesn't matter, just ignore them and focus!" But it was so hard! At the most climactic part of the play, (when all the angels appear in white on the hill and the couple reunites) these dumb boys were full-blown talking. I turned directly around and went, "SHHH!!!" It finally shut them up, but by this time I was so angry and the closing prayer was being said. After the prayer, I just wanted to turn around and say, "Don't you know how rude you were being?! Don't you know the person directly in front of you is trying to find answers about the church and all you did was talk, and laugh the ENTIRE time, therefore ruining it for the rest of us?!" Ha ha! I didn't say anything to them of course, and I know they were just young boys having fun. Even though there were some mishaps, it really was a fun night and I was happy to spend it with Ryan. The funniest part about it all is that Ryan thought nothing of the "protesters," nary complained about a bite, and he didn't even notice the talking-boys.

Go figure!

A Little of this and that!

For the past three weeks I've been working a lot of overtime. I've been working down at LDS Hospital in the Maternal Fetal Medicine Department (my old job) twice a week. It's nice because anything I work over 40 hours, I get paid time and a half. I've been trying to save up as much money as I can since I've lately been on a big Dave Ramsey kick! For those of you who haven't heard of him, he is a financial guru who has had several books on the New York Times best seller list. He also does a radio program on 570AM every night from 7-10. I may be a nerd, but I love listening to his show! He is a Christian guy who believes it is important to not only save, but to give (as in tithing). The biggest points he tries to make are, get debt-free, don't use credit cards, and don't finance anything. During a portion of his show, he has people call in who have used his program and have become debt-free. They count down from three and yell, "We're debt free!" It sounds pretty cheesy, but it's actually really inspiring and I always get choked up because you can tell how "free" these people have become. Anyway, I've been following his plan for a few months and have become slightly obsessed. I'm completely debt-free and have saved over three months worth of income, on top of paying the maximum on my 401K. Another bonus, he's funny and has a cute southern accent. HA!
In other news, my brother Jed and his wife Hollie just bought a new house. They moved back here to Utah from Las Vegas almost two years ago and still have been unable to sell their house down there. Imagine paying a mortgage (a big one, too!) on a house you haven't lived in for almost two years! The market in Vegas is terrible and I guess there are hundreds of empty homes down there. BUT, at least they finally were able to get some renters, which has enabled them to get a home here. On Wednesday, the entire fam came together again to help them move in all their stuff. Ryan and I were also there tonight putting on doors and doorknobs. We also got to hang with Becky and Caleb for a little bit too! Becky is Hollie's sister and her husband Caleb looks rather similiar to Ryan. She must have good taste! Anyway, I'm really happy for Jed and Hollie, and my adorable niece Brookie!

This is what happened to Brooke the last time she spent the day with Aunt Becky. She was goin to town on that ice cream!

After MUCH Anticipation...

...I have finally posted a blog (Ha ha). Unfortunately, I don't have anything too exciting to blog about! I haven't had a lot of things happening lately. My average week consists of church, work, mutual, KS Singers, and Ryan. I suppose I'll write a little about each of those.

Church: Church is always great, right? About four days before Mother's Day, the 1st counselor in the bishopric asked if I would speak. He informed me they usually ask people two weeks in advance, but somehow I'd slipped through the cracks. What?! I told him I'd prefer to sing, he said no. He also told me my topic would be on Mary, the mother of Jesus. Oh sure, no problemo. I have to admit, I was less than thrilled, but only because speaking is hard enough, let alone when you have four days and have to speak on someone as amazing and divine as Mary. I got to work and did a lot of studying. I learned so much about our Savior's Mother and what an example she can be to all of us. In the end, it was a wonderful thing for me to learn and even though I cried through 1/2 of my talk, all went well.

Work: Oh boy! Where do I start? Let me just say this; for the past year our supervisors have been telling us about some BIG scheduling changes coming to our department. Every one of the employees have been up in arms over these huge "life-changing" events! LONG story short, after months of worry, fighting, anticipation-and maybe even some excitement-my shift stayed the same. Thanks for nothin.

Mutual: This week we went to the Family History Center in SLC. Holy cow! What an amazing place. There is endless amounts of information at that place. The info on the microfiche alone goes on forever! I have never really been into geneology, but I've heard how people get so into it that it almost becomes an addiction. Before now, I've never really understood that phenomenon, but after going there, I can! I may even start doing some family history work myself!

Side note: Not everyone was as thrilled to be there as me, i.e. some of the 14-year old girls who shall remain nameless!

P.S. Did anyone else hear that the Catholic church will no longer allow names from their archives to be turned over to us for temple work. I think that is such a shame!

KS Singers: Making a commitment to rehearse every single Tuesday is often hard, but it's worth it. I feel so blessed to have music a big part of my life. I also feel blessed to be able to sing with this group and sing such beautiful songs about the Book of Mormon. We've had so many amazing experiences from singing in St. George to San Jose, to Hawaii! One day I need to write about our trip to Hawaii and how amazing it was!

Last, but certainly not least, Ryan: I love spending every last minute with him! We spent the last 9 of 11 days together and it was wonderful! Living over an hour apart from each other makes it hard to see each other more than 3-4 times/week so I'm feeling a bit spoiled. Things are going very well for us lately and I appreciate him so much. He is such a kind, patient, loving guy. He supports me in any/everything I do whether it's work choices, church callings or singing. Over the last two years and dozens of KS performances, he's probably only missed five. I love that about him. He is such a constant in my life and I know I can count on him for anything. In his kind, subtle ways, he helps me to be a better person. He's quiet and calming and reassuring. I love him and feel so lucky to have him!

Well, I guess I had more to write about than I thought. Life is great. :)

P.S. I want to give a shout-out to my BFF Celeste! (I just want to make sure she doesn't give me a hard time for not mentioning her in my post!)

GNO!

I get together with a group of my close friends once a month. It's kinda funny cause we were all in the Ogden University 11th Ward together. Chris, Carrie and I were roommates for a couple years, and once Carrie got married, Kathy moved in. We all always had a great time together. And aside from Chris not doing her dishes on occasion, we got along beautifully! (I know Chris won't read this, so I can say that. HA.) The other girls in our group also live(d) together, Kim, Cassie and Marisa. Actually, at one point we all lived at good ol' Christopher Village. Ah, the memories! Anyway, about a year ago we started doing a monthly Girl's Night Out (GNO.) We even have a symbol of our friendship! :D I think it was Chris who came up with the idea to get these Pandora bracelets for birthday presents for each other. You can buy charms to put on the bracelets and that's what we've done for birthday's and Christmas so far. (To avoid confusion, sometimes I just call them my bracelet friends!)

Kim is getting married this month so we pitched in to get her some lingerie and other fun things for the honeymoon. I think it's funny cause you have Chris, Kathy, Carrie and I who are SO not shy about things like that, and then you have Cassie, Kim and Marisa who tend to be more private and reserved about things like that! Nonetheless, I don't think Kim was too embarrassed and we had a fun time! Here are a few pics from our night out:

The whole gang: Carrie, Krista, Cassie, Kathy, Chris, Kim & Marisa

Carrie, Baby Owen, Cassie, Kathy & Marisa

Best Roomies ever! Chris (did you know we were taking a picture?) Kathy, Me & Carr!

Ha ha, Carrie hates this pic cause of dub! I love it!

Hooligans! Cassie, Me & Kim

My bracelet. I got the music note for Christmas (which I love), and the heart one for my birthday this year. Thanks guys!

Awesome Quote

Not to sound overly dramatic or picked on, but the past six months or so I've had a rough go of things. It sometimes seems like almost everything that could cause stress, anxiety or worry has hit me. I won't go into any detail, but I think the past six months may have been the hardest to-date for me. I know we all go through trials, temptations, and tribulations for a reason though. I remember when I was a young woman hearing a talk by President Benson (I think that's who it was), and he talked about how he prayed every day for a new mountain to climb. He said every time he conquered a mountain and overcame trial, he came out a better, stronger, more faithful person. I remember thinking, "I don't think I could EVER pray for that!" I'm still not sure if I would, but I know it's true. As I continue to work out the things going on in my life, it's quotes like this that make me happy and hopeful!

"The challenges you face, the growth experiences you encounter, are intended to be temporary scenes played out on the stage of a life of continuing peace and happiness. Sadness, heartache, and disappointment are events in life. It is not intended that they be the substance of life. I do not minimize how hard some of these events can be. When the lesson you are to learn is very important, trials can extend over a long period of time, but they should not be allowed to become the confining focus of everything you do. Your life can and should be wondrously rewarding. It is your understanding and application of the laws of God that will give your life glorious purpose as you ascend and conquer the difficulties of life. That perspective keeps challenges confined to their proper place--stepping-stones to further growth and attainment."
– Elder Richard G. Scott –

Friday Fun at Temple Square

Last Friday was a fun evening. Nancy and Michael invited Ryan and I to attend a concert with them on Temple Square. Nancy's brother Ben ended up coming to town from Vegas so we decided to set him up on a date. We lined him up with my old roomie Chris and hoped it would be a match-made in heaven! We met up at the Lion's House for a quick bite before the show. After we ate we headed over to see Joseph Smith the Prophet, at the tabernacle. (A funny side-note, we ran into Phyllis, one of my friend's from high-school. I probably hadn't seen her in four years prior to our lunch yesterday, and and now again on Temple square the next day!) Anyway, Ryan was running late because he got out of work late and I hadn't told him it was best-dressed (oops), so we ended up going in without him. I was excited because Presidents Monson and Uchtdorf came in and we had a perfect view of them the whole time. On top of that, the concert was amazing!
As for the match-made in heaven? Well, no numbers were exchanged, but I guess ya never know! It was a fun night. Thanks for the invites, Martins!