Sunday School Enthusiasm

This year has been the first year I have attended Sunday School in 3 years due to callings in the Primary. Now, in the past, Sunday School has not been my favorite meeting and I was often glad to stay home with sick kids or teach in other callings that took me away from Sunday School. I also used to try to talk Justin into going to the Gospel Principles class instead of Gospel Doctrine because the class was often taught by old men who were gospel scholars and I had a hard time relating to them. He usually talked me into going to Gospel Doctrine though because we really should be in that class.

Well, that has all changed! I went into the Gospel Doctrine class at the beginning of the year and knew that we would be taught by two teachers who are young and interesting and really enjoyable people. The first is my neighbor Kim who is just lively and interesting and opinionated and just fun to listen to! The other is a really humble cop who is married to a wonderful woman and has 5 going on 6 kids. Both are probably in their 40's and I can definitely relate to both of them.

However, the teachers are not the reason I have enjoyed Sunday School. The reason has to do with some advice Kim gave at the beginning of the year. She told us that she too had not enjoyed Sunday School in the past but decided the classes would be more interesting if she read the lesson ahead of time and was prepared to discuss the topics in class. I took this advice to heart and started reading the assignments for my evening scripture study with Justin and it has made the biggest difference! I now look forward to going to Gospel Doctrine (especially with no kids and Justin with me) and the classes are full of discussion and conversation that I have missed out on in the past. I am really enjoying the whole experience!

The funny thing is, Justin is now trying to convince ME to go to Gospel Principles because it is held in the R.S. room and has soft chairs, ha ha ha!

Update!

I haven't been very diligent in updating my blog so here goes! At the end of May, I had another piano recital for my 5 students. I currently do recitals at the end of the school year in May and again at Christmas time. Here are some pictures:

Brynn playing

Elissa playing

Emerson playing

Dan playing

Zoe playing

Me with my students

All of my students

On Memorial Day, we decided to go hiking to Waterfall Canyon, along with EVERYONE ELSE in this entire valley! Seriously, it was so crowded that it wasn't very enjoyable although the kids did great! It's a great hike, but not with so many other folks and is really pretty in the winter.

Family photo at the waterfall

Our family at the waterfall, attempt #2 with Timmy pretending to be asleep!


Me with snugglie Allie



Me with Allie


Allie fell asleep on the way back, so sweet!

Allison LOVES her blankie and loves to get snuggled in like this :)

Justin and I went hiking up Adam's Canyon with some of his coworkers. Here is a picture of Justin and I in front of a small waterfall and then a picture of the end waterfall.





One afternoon Justin and the kids were bored so he filmed them jumping and posing on our bed! As you can see, my room needs some decorating but I need an idea above my bed that isn't heavy since Justin has banned anything heavy!

This one is hilarious!! A cheerleader in the making!

Happy Anniversary!

Justin and I celebrated our 7th anniversary on June 7, our golden anniversary! The Saturday before, Justin and I went shopping to buy me a gift. I really wanted to get golf shoes/ ladder ball and I had a $10 off $20 coupon at Kohl's plus a 15% off coupon so we headed there. We found it and instead of it costing $25, it was $13, woo hoo!

On Monday, I told Justin I was going to switch snow tires to regular tires so I could have his car for the day, but really I had made an appt to get his car detailed for my gift to him. I got it detailed and barely had time to switch out the snow tires and made it home 10 minutes before he got home! He liked it, but feels his car is still old.

We got a babysitter and went out to eat at Applebee's, we love that place. Then we drove over to Boondock's and went miniature golfing (the course was not that impressive, cool scenery but lacking as a golf course). We were going to go bowling also but earlier in the day Justin cut his finger on the metal track in his work desk drawer so bowling was out. We drove around and checked out new homes that were being built and then headed home and watched Runaway Bride.

Overall, it was a nice day but I kept having to wrap my head around it being a Monday night instead of a Friday or Saturday :)

Happy Anniversary Justin, I love you! Here's to another 7 great years!!

Friendships

This post has been something that has been on my mind a while and I want to preface it by saying that I don't mean to sound judgmental in any way, I am simply curious.

I have several friends from my past that have decided to not live gospel standards any longer. Many of them were really good friends in elementary, junior high and high school and some even past that time. Now, while I don't agree with the choices they are making right now, I still love them and want to continue being their friends. However, many of them seem to feel that I will judge them and have distanced themselves from me. There actually haven't been very many instances where they have ignored me, but there have been a few pointed times. I just wish they would understand that I would like to be given a chance to still be a good friend, even if we have different values now.

Anyway, that's all for now. Have any of you ever experienced similar experiences with past friends? I hope not but if you have, I completely understand what you're feeling!

Trips, trips and more trips!

Justin was fortunate enough to go to the Middle East for school and was gone for 17 days. Because he was gone for so long, I decided to break up the time and go on my own vacations. The first vacation was to Zion National Park with my Mom that I blogged about already. Then I was home with my kids alone for a whole week and then I went to San Diego with my sister-in-law Liesl for 4 days. It was a great trip. Here's a run down of our trip:

On Monday, May 10th I dropped my kids off to my sister-in-law Andrea and went shopping. I bought some cute skirts at Maurices and my sister Liz took me to the airport. Liesl and I flew to San Diego, got our rental car (I highly recommend Midway Car Rental in Cali) and drove out to La Jolla. We walked along the beach and ate at the Poseidon Restaurant. Good food but a little fancy for my taste. Then we checked in our hotel and watched "When in Rome" and laughed a lot, what a good movie!

Me on the beach

Beautiful park on the beach

Playground on the beach. Lucky kids!

On Tuesday we woke up at 6 AM which felt like 7 AM in Utah, our normal wake up time. We hit the gym, had breakfast and headed finally to Sea World at 10 AM. The dolphin show wasn't up and running since they are doing a new arena and show with the cirque du soleil performers. The others shows were great although they did not swim with Shamu which makes the show truly spectacular! Overall, I thought Sea World was good but not as excellent as the last time I went 6 years ago. We were done by 4 PM so we went to dinner and then headed to the Carlsbad Outlet Mall. Not really our style, too ritzy and expensive stores. Then we headed back to our hotel and watched The Blind Side, also a great movie!

Liesl through the aquarium

All 4 whales

Sea Lion

The waving walrus

On Wednesday we went shopping all day, it was great! We first hit the Seaport Village which reminded me of Gardner Village but seaside. Then we went to Old Town and enjoyed the ambiance and shopping there. Then we drove around the Gaslamp Quarter but realized it was just a place to go out to eat and party at clubs at night. Then we drove up to meet with some friends of mine for dinner and had a few hours to kill. We got pedicures (this was my first ever and I'm not really a big fan) and went to a shopping center that had tons of booths, it was awesome! Then we had dinner with Ryan and Christin and it was nice to catch up with them. Then we went down to the ocean to see the Red Tide where several plankton were growing and when it's really dark and they crash in the waves, they streak like lightning. We didn't stay late enough to see it but got some water in a bottle to try at our hotel in the pitch black and it worked, it was cool!

Me at Seaport Village

Me in the middle of the Seaport Village

Liesl at Seaport Village

Wednesday night was rough as I wrote about in my last post since I was missing my family and ready to go home.

By Thursday morning I felt better so we headed down to the outlet mall on the Mexican border and it was a much better outlet mall with the stores we like. We did a ton of shopping, ate at IHOP and headed to the car rental place. We forgot to get gas so we took the car to fill it up and drove to a Shell, waited in line and then it didn't even pump gas! We drove around for another 15 minutes before finding another gas station, filled up and were finally on our way home. I was happy to see my kids but sad to see Allison so lethargic and sick. She was sick until Saturday night when she finally started acting like herself again. Justin got home on Saturday night and it was really nice to have life go back to normal.

Thoughts.....

So, I am vacation with my sister-in-law Liesl in San Diego and this trip has been great but right now I am feeling down. My poor kids have had a very rough week and have not been easy for my sister-in-law to take care of. Timmy has refused to eat most of the food she has made, had issues going to the bathroom and Allison is throwing up today. Then I read an article about this couple that abused and ultimately murdered a 4 year old boy and my heart just feels so sad! Especially since I have a 4 year old boy that I can't imagine doing anything bad to and love so, so much!

I miss my kids, I miss my husband who has been gone for 14 days and won't be back for a few more. This trip has been nice, but I am ready to go home and have my family all back together again.

Zion National Park

This weekend I was fortunate enough to go with my Mom to Zion National Park. We left on Thursday afternoon and stayed in Springdale just outside of the park. We actually had a trip planned to Bryce Canyon but realized it was going to be highs in the 30's and snowing so the day before, we switched trips! I called and transferred out nights in Bryce to August and got a hotel on Priceline.com spur of the moment!

We did all of the easy hikes along the main bus shuttle line and it was fun. When the kids napped, my mom was able to go shopping. The kids were really fun troopers and really did good hiking until the last hike of our trip and the kids had to take turns while I gave them piggy back rides. We really could have taken a stroller on the last hike but we forgot! We even saw some ward members there and it was really funny seeing them when it wasn't even a holiday weekend.

On Sunday I was going to take my kids to my mom's ward but Allison had a pretty good sized cough throughout the night so we just came home. When we got home, our house was freezing because I turned the air off. It was 54 degrees and now after a few hours, it has warmed back up. I love vacations and I have another vacation coming up soon to San Diego with my sister-in-law and without my kids, yay!

(My mom took most of the pictures since I forgot my camera on day 1 but here are the few I took on day 2.)

Me with my kids

Grandma with the kids

The kids at the end of the River Walk and the start of the Narrows. The water was really high and you had to stay up on the platform.

The kids on the River Walk. Allie, what a cheeser!

Racecars are Adorable?

The other day Timmy was playing his racecar game and he just kept saying over and over that something was adorable. I decided to stop him for a moment and ask him what was adorable and he told me that when he doesn't hit anything and just drives smoothly that it's adorable! He also told me that when he does a really tight curve it makes a skirt. This kid cracks me up! I now hear the word adorable several times a day, it makes me laugh and I'm not going to correct him! You can ask him about it and he'll act all shy and tell you the same thing, it's really funny.

Another Timmy situation happened today. For the first time I noticed Tim was wearing different pants and when I peeked, he had on new underwear too. Please note that Tim has NEVER ever gotten dressed alone and has always asked for help. Apparently he wet himself and didn't want to tell me, so he finally took the initiative to change his clothes himself and did a great job! Now hopefully in the future he can stop playing and actually go potty without having an accident :)

Why oh Why???

Why do all of the big black furry black spiders come in my house! It seems I always have the same type in my house and I am terrified of them!! Give me the little black grass spiders and I'm fine, but furry is where I draw the line!!

Happy Easter

Our ward did our Easter program yesterday, so I dressed my kids up in their Easter outfits and took some pictures before church. I should've had Justin take a picture of the back of Allie's dress, it is sooo cute!