Why is all the Spring Gone?

I am SO ready for Spring. Heck, I'll even skip right to the 100+ degree Summer for crying out loud. No more rain. No more tornadoes. No more snow. I'm ready to move to St. George. 

We had Stake Conference last weekend. I really enjoyed the Saturday night adult session. A woman played Joseph Smith's First Prayer on the piano and it was absolutely beautiful.  I closed my eyes and saw the last 3 years of my life flash before me. I only saw the good stuff. I realized just how much Heavenly Father has blessed me with, and it made me more grateful. The blessing I feel most grateful for in the past 3 years is that I got to marry my dear Watson. Happy 11 months tomorrow honey! 

Our last bunch of pics from  D.C.

Up close at the Capitol

The tiny Washington Monuement

The White House.

The Reflecting Pool at the Lincoln Memorial is being renovated so it was completely drained. I was so sad.

Vietnam War Memorial. When we walked up to the memorial everyone was so quiet and respectful. It almost felt reverent. Neat.

Isn't it beautiful? I was most excited to see the Lincoln Memorial. He was my favorite.

Jefferson Memorial off in the distance.

World War II Memorial -- look at the cool sky!

The ghost's on the Korean War Memorial

See? No reflecting pool. :(. Ugly.

Lincoln. 

More D.C.

Days 2 and 3 of our vacation were spent with Rob and Tina (Kam's brother and family). We did some hiking, some walking on the boardwalk, visited the Naval Air Base (where Rob works), played games, watched American Idol, ate good food, and visited a muscle car shop. Thanks to Rob and Tina for such a great time!

Me and Tina at the Chesapeake bay.

Muscle car.

My dear Watson, Me, and Kale!

Hiking.

A little frog we found along the way. 

The boardwalk at Solomons Island. That's the Patuxent river.

Washington D.C.

I love vacations. Most of the time when I go on vacation I say it’s nice to be gone but nice to come home; not this time. I did not want to come home.  Washington D.C. was so cool. We walked the same path as some of the most influential people in American History.  It almost felt like I already knew the city well because of all the movies I’ve seen that were filmed in D.C.

Day One:

Take Metro into the city, White House Tour, Union Station, Lunch, Natural History Museum, American History Museum, National Archives, Ford’s Theater, Dinner, Take the Metro back to Branch Ave and drive to Rob and Tina’s in Lusby, Maryland.

This was our expensive transportation day because it was a weekday which meant we had to pay for parking. We also had to travel during a peak rush hour time in the morning which they charge you extra for. We waited around in D.C. until 7:00 pm when the other peak rush hour time ended so we could save a little money on the way home.

My favorite museum was the American History. I loved seeing the flag that inspired Frances Scott Key to write the Star Spangled Banner, and the dresses worn by all the First Lady’s at the Inaugural Ball.

The Declaration of Independence and Constitution were AWESOME! I saw John Hancock’s John Hancock!

Dinner was at a place called Austin’s Grill. Tex-Mex, and kind of nasty.  Our weird waitress told us that they offer a free Queso dip to all their first time customers. Of course when we heard free we said bring it on.  I asked her if there were any beans in the dip because my dear Watson is allergic. She said no and brought us the dip a few minutes later.  We tried two chips worth and thought it tasted gross—like melted Kraft Singles or something.  She comes back a few minutes later and the first thing she says is “But it is made with our Picadilly Beer”  I don’t know if she said Picadilly but something that sounded like that.  I was shocked. My dear Watson smelled it and sure enough, we could smell the beer. It probably wasn’t cooked out either, just poured in. I was surprised she didn’t say anything before because people with religious and moral standards are not the only people who can’t have alcohol. I’m sure there wasn’t much beer in the dip and we had a good laugh after the initial shock wore off.

I'll post more pics later!

Inside Union Station

Outside Union Station

That's THE Capitol in the background.

Archive building behind me. It was my favorite building as far as architecture. So Greek.

Ford's Theatre (where Lincoln was shot)

Outside the Natural History museum.

I'm there, kind of small at the top. National Archives again. 

I ran a 1/2 marathon on Saturday. It was at Thanksgiving Point and it was much, much harder than I expected. They advertised it as being a beautiful run through their tulip gardens, right at the peak of tulip season. Unfortunately, when I woke up there was 3 or 4 inches of snow on the ground. Hannah (my sister who also ran the race) and I had to shovel snow off my car in order to drive to our race. Yuck.  It turns out I think I saw like 4 patches of tulips and they were covered with snow. My romantic vision of tulips completely engulfing me as I ran on the cobblestone walkway was a bit grandiose. Oh well, the few tulips I saw were beautiful. I've never walked through those tulip gardens but I learned that there are some p-r-e-t-t-y steep hills all along the gardens, and don't get me started about the golf course. Hill after hill after hill after hill after hill (are you wondering when this is going to stop? So was I) after hill after hill after hill after hill..... It was 8 or 9 miles of hills up and down. Not just little baby hills, GIANT hills--I felt like I should have brought rock climbing gear so I could get up and down safely.

I enjoy going up hill when I run because I like the challenge. It feels so good to reach the top.  After hill 20 the 'feels good' feeling was gone and I was just trying to see the end.  Luckily the race went pretty fast because I was just focused on getting to the part where the hills end, that before I knew it I had run 12 miles.  I tried to push myself up and down the hills (hoping again, that at some point it would end) so by the time I was finished with the race I was VERY tired and sore. Day after the race I felt sore in my calves, hamstrings and quads, but not as much as I expected.  I finished in 1:57:31 which turned out to be 7th out of 65 in my age group and something like 238 overall (out of 912).  Hannah finished much faster than expected as well considering she is a mom of 4 boys with a husband who works full time and is getting an MBA on the weekends. She didn't have as much opportunity to train but she ended up doing really well, especially considering how rigorous those hills were.

It was fun though, and that is why I love running. It was really cool to have my dear Watson there at the finish line waiting for me. This was the first race he has seen me run, and it was really cool to have him feel so proud of me for what I accomplished.  So, I've added another medal to my collection of race medals (you know, the ones they give everyone just for finishing) and my single trophy (that I actually won for placing 2nd in my age group). I hope to continue to add to my medal collection throughout my life.

Here are some very beautiful pictures of me and my double chin. I don't usually have a double chin but I guess running brings it out in me.  That's a little backwards.

Here I come.

Here's where I catch up to this lady and start booking it. So does she and I gave up last minute. I wish I wouldn't have but I was way too tired to keep sprinting!

Double chin. There was a worse one but I couldn't bear to put it on the internet. Ugh!

Here I am having an idea in the form of a blue balloon; drinking chocolate milk of course. The best after run drink.

So happy.

Easter and Moving Onward

We are very busy these days. To make it worse we were both sick last week and now my dear Watson is sick again. 

My dear Watson decided to major in Exercise Science. I'm really excited about that. I had been hoping all along that ES would be his choice.  I think he will really like it and he'll be so good at it.  He's not sure yet the exact direction he wants to go, but we'll figure that one out a little later. 

I got a temporary calling from the Stake Presidency to be a Stake Girls Camp Specialist. It should be a really fun,  busy calling. Girls camp is the first full week in July and they go to a place in the mountains nearby called Camp Shalom. I went there when I was a Young Woman every year for girls camp.  I never loved girls camp, but I'm already feeling like I'll have a much better experience as a leader.   

We decorated some Easter eggs with our nephews and we hid each other's Easter baskets around the house to celebrate. We also attempted to give a really great lesson about the Resurrection in primary, but our 3 year old Sunbeam's must have eaten way too much candy because they were definitely NOT interested.  

I'm ready for a vacation. Hey! We've got one planned a week from Tuesday. Washington D.C./Maryland: HERE WE COME!

This is what we look like.

These are monsters. 

Luke made a really scary monster.

Being a little weird.

Have a Dream

I had a strange dream last night. 

I was with my mom, dad and little bro in Pocatello, ID visiting my sister Hannah and her family (who actually live in Logan, not Pocatello). For some reason I was driving back early with my little bro in our Toyota Corolla. I came to a fork in the road and realized I forgot to ask mom and dad how to get home.  There were two signs at the fork telling where each road led. I drove past the sign and couldn’t see it good enough so I just backed up on the freeway so I could get a better look.  Provo: Left.   So I turned left, only to find another fork in the road about 100 feet ahead.  This one said Ohio on the right and something else on the left. I didn’t know what to do so in a panic, I took the road on the right (thinking maybe Ohio was the final destination and Provo was somewhere along the way).  It was dark and snowy and I was having a hard time seeing the road. There was a lot of construction that completely altered the normal road-path.  Finally I got into a situation where I could NOT see whether the road curved or went straight or anything, and I couldn’t see the cars in front of me to just follow them.  I let go of the wheel and drifted in to the middle of the road and hoped I wasn’t in the way of oncoming traffic. I heard semi’s honking their horns, but I didn’t get hit.

I was anxious to find out the end of the dream, but then I woke up.

I’ve been thinking about this ALL day long and what it might mean. My dear Watson and I are kind of, well, directionless right now. My dear Watson is trying to decide on a major and possible career path and it's a slow process. We’re not sure which way to go or what our future will hold. Sometimes I feel like I’ve had enough; I can’t possibly keep my foot on the gas pedal any longer because I CAN’T SEE what’s ahead. That’s all. I’m just frustrated I can’t see what lies ahead for us. I really believe it’s something great, but I’m impatient to know the answers.

Like I said, I wish I could have seen the end of the dream to know if I was able to gather myself and keep going and eventually find my destination.  But I guess maybe the lesson in this is I need to press forward even though I can’t see—because that’s  the very definition of faith and hope. We had a family night lesson on hope and the thought came to me that faith is knowing the Lord can do something—knowing he has the power to answer prayers, make miracles happen etc..; hope is believing and having an abiding trust that He WILL do those things we ask of Him.  How many blessings have I missed out on because I didn’t have enough hope that if I asked for it, Heavenly Father would really give it to me?

Just some thoughts.  On another note: I got a sewing machine! Isn’t she a beauty?

My machine and the 'start-up' kit my mom gave me from all her extras!  I've already used it 2 nights in a row!

Everyone's a Fool in April

Some of the fam came into town to hear dad speak last week. Betsy and Russ stuck around for a whole week! It was really fun, because of course, they are really fun. Everyone knows it…and so do they.

This is their little girl, Afton. She is so cute I couldn’t stand it.

These are Afton's older brothers, Porter and Reid.

 Everything she said or did just made me want to keep her forever. She is 2 and although her vocabulary is small, she can repeat anything and give you a clear understanding of what she wants or doesn’t want.  A dorable. One night while Betsy and Russ were here, we followed my 16 year old brother around until he parked our mom’s Mazda Tribute at a friend’s house. Then we turned the car on as far as it would go with the spare key mom hides on the outside, put it into neutral, and I steered while my dear Watson and Russ pushed. I thought we were going to die when they pushed me into the road and a car was coming. Don’t worry though, I honked my horn several times to make sure they saw us J.

We pushed the car to a neighboring cul-de-sac and went back home to wait. Maybe 20 minutes-ish later, little bro comes home and says (as worried as we’ve EVER seen him), “Um, I’m pretty sure someone stole the car.”  We played around with him for a while and told him we should probably call the cops, but the call should come from the place the car was last seen. Mom and dad were in Vegas with Donny & Marie so we couldn’t call them at the moment—and that made little bro very happy. My brother-in-law took little bro back to his friend’s house so they could call the cops.  When given the direction to turn at the cul-de-sac “up here”, Russ turned the opposite direction “on accident” and they drove right passed the car. It took little bro a minute to catch his breath and settle in to the fact that the car was NOT stolen, just moved, and by us.  He was relieved—to say the least—and we all had a grand ole’ time.

For April Fool's day I put honey on the doorknob, saranwrap on the shower head and candy in my dear Watson's medicine bottle. He fell for the honey, saw the saranwrap and I had to show him the medicine bottle because he forgot to take his medicine. It was a fun day. This is a picture of my second cousin and I waiting to say the prayers when my dad spoke at devotional!