Bethlehem Revisited

So Saturday night we enjoyed our latest Christmas adventure. I guess every year the town of Waxahachie puts on what they call Bethlehem Revisited. I have never heard of it before but we decided to go this year and I am so glad we did - so worth the drive. They have set up this whole fake city enclosed in a city wall. Inside there are all these people in character, fully playing their roles. There are tax collectors, money changers, Roman soldiers, tons of different types of merchants, inn keepers, etc. Every half hour they have Mary and Joseph come through the city, with Mary riding the most adorable donkey. They talk withe inn keepers not just reading the Bible story but actually having conversations. They are eventually led to the stable where Jesus is born. They have 3 live camels that are really nice looking. Wise men accompanied by a group of people. Shepherds with sheep. All of them asking along the way how to find the Messiah. It was super impressive. We were there for at least an hour. It is free, too, though they accept donations. I so recommend going. They make flaxen and let you feel it, pick seeds out of cotton and let you feel that, have wool to feel and furs, herbs and oils to smell, scarves and turbans to try on, chickens for "sale", the tax collectors encourage you to pay your taxes and the soldiers praise Caesar. The only thing is that I would recommend eating before going to Waxahachie as restaurants are limited. But go, you won't be disappointed.

President Bush's New House?

Ryan loves to be part of current events. Or at least he loves to visit places where current events are happening. So when it came out where the Bush's are most likely moving in a few weeks he wanted to drive-by. After the temple we headed over - it is only about a mile from the Dallas Temple. It is just at the end of this little culdesac and it quite modest looking (although it is worth $2,000,000). Welcome to the neighborhood, W.!

The house next door where it is speculated the secret service will live.

Arlington Nativity Exhibit

Well, the next holiday adventure we had was this past Friday night. We took a date to the Arlington Stake Nativity Exhibit. It was quite interesting. They set up all the nativities in the classroooms and the theme for the year was angels, so each room had a scripture of a quote either from and angel or about an angel and then the room was decorated around that scripture. For example, there was the scripture where the angel tells Joseph to take Mary and Jesus into Egypt, so the room was decorated all Egyptian. Their displays were quite impressive and I always enjoy nativity exhibits. They had a choir singing in the chapel and if I were to guess I would say they were from perhaps a Southern Baptist Church. Anyway, it was well done and enjoyable.
After, we tried heading to Interlochen. We have never been before and the light display isn't really supposed to start until next weekend. But Ryan has heard horror stories about the crowds so we thought we would beat the rush and go early. Well, surprisingly only a handful of houses have their lights up already - but at least it wasn't crowded.

Trains

I am not sure who, but some amazing person put together this incredible list of all the holiday happenings in our area. I got this list the Sunday before Thanksgiving and the week after Thanksgiving I got out my calendar and marked all the dates of the things I wanted to do. Well we started out our holiday celebrating the Saturday after Thanksgiving by going to see the Trains at North Park with Ryan's parents and his sister. It only costs $5 for an adult and all the money goes to the Ronald McDonald House. It was totally worth it. Not only did they have tons of trains, many of which were BNSF (which we are obviously partial to), but the details of the surrounding landscapes and all the people around the trains were just amazing! I think probably our favorite was this school yard were the kids were playing and the swings moved and there were a bunch of kids playing tug-o-war and the rope moved back and forth, and there were just a ton of things going on and it was impressive. The whole thing was impressive. I think we probably spent an hour walking around looking at all the trains and such. They had San Francisco complete with Lombard street, Downtown Dallas, New York. It was just a lot of fun and I would recommend it!

Temple Workers

Ryan and I were set apart as Dallas Temple Workers at the end of September. Our first day as temple workers was the second Saturday in October (the first Saturday was conference) and so we have now been working there about two months. We work the Saturday mid-day shift (11:30-4:30) and although it basically takes up our entire Saturday we are really grateful for this experience. We have already done a little bit of everything and we have learned a ton. We are amazed at how much there is to learn. The temple is such an incredible place to spend your time and serve. This past Satruday was somewhat sad, though. We had to cancel at least two sessions and in at least three session there were only three patrons. We have enough temple workers to accomodate a large number of patrons but instead we are using our temple workers as patrons. We would love more people to come to the temple. I know it is hard if you have young children to get to the temple, and I obviously would not be available on Saturday's, but Wednesday mornings and pretty much any time Friday I would LOVE to watch children for anyone who wants to attend the temple! Even if you want to go on a Friday night date to the temple, I will watch your kids, let me know! I'm so grateful to be able to have this time in my life to serve in the temple!

Thanksgiving

When my oldest sister got married19.5 years ago a cycle was set up such that she switched off spending Christmas and Thanksgiving each year between our family and her in-laws (one with each family.) It was another 7 years before any of my other sisters got married, but when my next sister got married her husband's family didn't have a plan for holidays really established so they just went along with the same plan as my oldest sister, spending the same Christmas's and Thanksgiving's with us as she did. All 7 of us have kept the plan since then. None of the families we have married into had established plans already so there have never been any issues. Well, this year is an in-law Thanksgiving and my family's Christmas. So we were with Ryan's family for Thanksgiving in Grapevine.
Ryan and I started out the day with a run (I am not a runner and hate running, but we figured we needed to do something active if we were going to spend the day eating and sitting around.) After we'd gotten ourselves ready we loaded all the food I prepared the day before and headed to Grapevine. We had an enjoyable day. We ate (of course), played crouqet, went on a walk, watched some football, played some card games, looked through ads, and just spent time together. It was a good day and I was grateful for Ryan's great family and all their kindnesses to me.


Some of our pies: Top - apple pie made by Ryan's mom, center - pecan pie made by me (it was Ryan's aunt's recipe and it was amazing), bottom - pumpkin pie, from Central Market. I also made refrigerator cake (a family recipe created by my grandma - yum.)

It's A Beautiful Day!

So after our crazy cold front that caused us to save all our tomatos from freezing, we are back to beautiful days. Monday was perfect! I spent about an hour and a half outside on a blanket doing some reading in the sun (I may have got a slight sunburn, but I don't think so.) At one point when I was driving the car thermometer read 79! It was awesome. Ryan and I had to take advantage of the great weather, and we got our cars all cleaned up.





Yesterday wasn't quite as nice, I think it only got into the 60s, but heck, it's November. Today is another beautiful, warm, sunny day and I am about to head outside to lay on a blanket and do some more reading (I put my sunscrean on just to be safe.) So Texas weather is crazy, but on 79 degree days in November, I will not be complaining about the craziness.

Blue Skies Smiling At Me, Nothing But Blue Skies, Do I See...

Tomatoes, tomatoes, and more tomatoes

So, mostly we have had really nice weather lately. In fact, two weeks ago I tried to take pcitres of Ryan and me flying kites. It was such a beautiful day, I think it got up into the mid 80s that day. Unfortunately when I got my camera out and focused on the kites, it shut down - battery dead. So my great plans of blogging that adventure were foiled. Well, that was just two weeks ago and most of the days since then have been the same. High's in the low 80s or 70s, lows inthe 60s or 50s. Well, for some reason the weather decided to change on us yesterday and it got super cold. Highs in the 40s (I guess it is possible we broke into the low 50s but I don't think so) and lows below freezing. Luckily we had warning of this drastic change so we were able to take precautionary measures. So yesterday morning we did our best to rescue all our tomatos from possible freezing. We plant a garden every year. We are not fantastic gardners. We learn something new about gardening every year. But, if we are ever living ina community where we need to grow our own food, Ryan and I volunteer to grow the tomatos (as long as someone gives us started plants - we've never tired from seeds). We are excellent tomato producers. Tomatos are our one crop that has never let us down. We do have one problem though. We don't get them in great abundance until the fall (Texas summers are just too hot for htem I guess.) So we picked tomatoes for an hour yesterday, until we had to tear ourselves away to get ready to leave, and still hadn't picked them all. We were out in our jackets and stocking caps, freezing - our hands were so cold it took a half an hour for them to stop tingling after going inside. But we have TONS of tomatos, in all different stages of ripeness. Luckily we learned a couple years ago that you can pick tomatos green and put them in a box in your garage and they will ripen, so that is what we will do.


All the tomatos we picked yesterday divided into their different ripenesses.

Our sad tomato plants after they were frozen.

But, with all these tomatos, we are going to need some good tomatoe recipes. I am particularly interested in creamy tomato soup recipes. And recipes that call for cherry or pear tomatos.

Also, if you are interested in partaking of any of these tomatos please let us know because we are mor than happy to share. We also have mint, rosemary, oregano, and thyme that could use a trimming if any one wants some fresh herbs.

Ward Halloween Party - October 2008

Last night we attended our ward's trunk-or-treat. It was fantastic. There was a chili cook-off so we had some great chili for dinner. There were bounce houses and carnival-type booths, and then trunk-or-treating. All the kids seemed to be having a blast and Ryan and I really enjoyed ourselves as well. We have a fantastic ward and the activities committee is amazing!

I was going for the hippee look and Ryan sported his new gear from his intermodal bootcamp and was a railroad worker. That reflective stuff really works!

A Tailgate Party and a Football Game

We attended a tailgate party at which we were able to meet Ty Detmer (1990 Heisman Trophy Winner) as well as get his autograph and a picture with him. Unfortunately we had camera trouble (I forgot to put our battery in) so we had to use our friends camera so we wouldn't have to keep Ty waiting too long (he was really patient with us though.) But, I don't have the pic yet, I'll post it when I get it.

After the party there we went to the game.


Teams ran on the field and we cheered!


And then there was kickoff and we cheered some more!


At half-time they released balloons in honor of breast cancer awareness.


We enjoyed time with friends...


And with each other.

And then we went home.

My first "tag" - October 2008

Even though I have not yet come out of the closet (honestly revealed to anyone that I have a blog,) people are finding out and I have been tagged by my good friend Andrea. She actually tagged me two weeks ago, but as I have just been trying to get my blog up to date and do things in order, I am just now getting to it - sorry Andrea. So, here goes:

10 years ago I...
1-was 19 years old
2-was a junior at BYU and had just switched majors from animal science-prevet to biology composite teaching
3-living with my sister, Emily; nephew, Matthew; and good friend, Lisa Ure
4-had made awesome friends in my ward who I lost touch with while I was on my mission and I miss so much (where are you Alisa, Melissa, Sherral, Chad, Quinn?)
5-was writing to over 30 missionaries - how many of you wrote me while I was on my mission?

5 things on today's "to do" list...
1-finish getting caught up on my blog so I can tell people about it
2-list my families beach condo for rent (anyone planning a vacation to San Diego?)
3-clean some bathrooms (and other things that have been neglected)
4-make some phone calls
5-start doing my geneology

5 snacks I enjoy...
1-fresh fruit
2-dried fruit
3-ice cream
4-candy
5-cookies

5 things I would do if I were a millionaire...
1-pay my tithing
2-pay off our house
3-pay off my parents mortgages
4-pay off Ryan's parent's mortgage
5-invest

5 places I have lived...
1-Las Vegas
2-Provo, UT
3-London
4-Northern California (Eureka, Middletown, Santa Rosa)
5-Burleson, TX

5 jobs that I have had...
1-babysitter
2-dental assistant
3-biology teacher
4-research assistant and TA
5-tutor

Rules:Each player answers the question themselves. At the end of the post the player then tags 5 people and posts their names, then goes to their blog and leaves them a comment letting them know that they've been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Let the person that tagged you know when you've answered the questions on your blog.

Okay, I never forward mass forward emails, it's just a rule I have - I don't think I will do the tag thing either, but if you want to be tagged and answer these questions, I would love to read you answers so let me know you've done it. Thanks!

Ryan's the Best! - October 2008

The first day of General Conference there is an evening session that is just for the men of the church. Ryan went to this and returned that evening with these:


Yellow is one of my two favorite colors (purple is the other). Yellow flowers make me happy, and when they are given to my by my fantastic husband they make me even happier. Isn't Ryan the best? The answer is yes.

General Conference - October 2008

Every 6 months the leaders of our church speak to the entire church. It is broadcast throughout the world so that those of us who can't travel to Salt Lake where they are actually speaking can still watch and listen. I always look forward to these conferences. Not only do the prophet, his two counselors, and the twelves apostles, all speak to us, teaching us the things they have been prompted by the Lord to say, but many other great leaders as well. It is a spiritual feast. It lasts for two days, Saturday and Sunday, and that means I get to be with Ryan during all that time and share that experience with him. Soemtimes in conference there are recurring themes in many of the talks. One theme I noticed was that as we get closer and closer to the Second Coming of our Lord and Saviour it is becoming increasingly important that we develop Zion-like attitudes and build unity in our communities, our church families, and our families. My parents have always taught us how important it is to live this type of lifestyle, and it was just interesting to hear so many church leaders stress it so much.

I know that it is important to reach out to those around us in a spirit of unity and I am going to try harder to do this. I also recognize that it is not one of my gifts to automatically recognize the needs of those around me, nor is it one of my gifts to be extroverted. It is extremely hard for me to make phone calls - even to my family who I love talking to. The ONLY person that I call easily is Ryan. EVERYONE else I have to prepare myself to call. I am not a drop-by kind of person, meaning it is not easy for me to drop by someone's house. But I love to talk to the people I care about (or more jsut listen because I am not much of a talker) and I love visiting with people, either at their house or mine. I am social, I am just not good at making the first move or thinking up conversation topics. I also LOVE doing service. I LOVE to babysit. I would love to help people run errands, or whatever. My point being, I would love to help any of you, am more than willing, most likely have time, and am probably available, but am bad at approaching you about helping you. So please HELP ME build unity by letting me know when I can HELP YOU. Thanks so much.

Anyway, all the conference talks were great and I would recommend listening/reading.watching them.

Somewhat Northern California - September 2008

Having lived in Eureka as a missionary, and that still being 2 hours from the northern California border, it is hard for me to consider the Bay Area as really being Northern California anymore, since it takes so long to get to the border from there - but I know it's way north of San Diego.

Anyway, Ryan had a work trip to Stockton and then Richmond that was going to last from Tuesday-Friday. One of the benefits of not having any kids, nor a "real" job is that I don't have a lot of commitments at this point in my life. So, after Las Vegas, we met up in California. While he went to intermodal "boot camp" and learned all about the running of a rail yard, I got some journaling done my first day, headed to Sacramento my second, and got some more stuff done in the hotel the third. His work was super nice to us and took everyone there out to dinner our second night there to this super nice resteraunt. It was pricey, but it was tasty. Ryan got the prime rib and I got the halibut - mine was covered in king crab and was so yummy. Our hotel was nice - a Hampton Inn - it was nice to stay in a nice hotel, we generally get the cheapest place we can find when we're paying.

The first thing I did in Sacramento was go to the temple. As I have said before - I really love to go to temples, and I especially enjoy going to temples I have never been to before. I decided to list for you all the temples I have been to - both those that I have actually been inside and done something in as well as those I have only been on the grounds of.

1. Las Vegas
2. Salt Lake
3. Jordan River
4. Mt. Timpanogas
5. Provo
6. Manti
7. St. George
8. Albequerque
9. Portland
10. Bountiful
11. Oakland
12. Logan
13. Dallas
14. Nauvoo
15. Houston
16. San Antonio
17. London
18. Anchorage
19 San Diego
20. Monticello (only walked around)
21. Vernal (only walked around)
22. Atlanta (only walked around)
23. Washington, D.C. (only walked around)
24. Preston, Englad (only walked around)
So adding Sacramento to the list, I have now been to 25 temples, and been inside 20. I am pretty sure that we were just told there are currently 125 opperating temples, so I have been to 1/5. I would love to go to all of them, but it seems unlikely in this life. Maybe I can keep up a rate of 1/5 though.

I really enjoyed my time at the Sacramento temple. The grounds were HUGE. They have their own road to get to it and then when you do there is a church as well, plus 2 or 3 houses, and a park complete with restroom and some other building. It was really quite nice. And the temple itself was very pretty and the members are so excited to have a temple and not have to drive to Oakland any more.












Next I headed to the state capitol building. I thought it was quite impressive, inside and out, though there wasn't a whole lot of direction inside (usually someone wants to help you find your way or offers you a tour in capitol buildings, don't they?) One interesting thing - Arnold Schwarzenegger was there while I was having a meeting with the "Big Four" (whoever they are - some senators). I was hoping to get to see him, but no such luck. After the meeting was over he snuck out a back door, but the "Big Four" all came out to give a report to the press, so I did see them. (If you know who the "Big Four" are, let me know :)).

I thougth the capitol building was really pretty


Ryan really enjoyed working in the rail yards - I think "running the train" may have been his favorite part, but I couldn't say for sure. He also go to check the trucks in and operate some other equipment - they had fun.

After Ryan was done with his intermodal boot camp we headed to Richmond. After checking into our hotel we went with the other guys from Ryan's work to Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco and ate at this really nice seafood restaurant that is right by the water, Scoma's. It was so yummy - we each had clam chowder and lobster tail. Yes, his company treated us very well.

The next day Ryan went with the guys to tour an automotive yard while I headed to the Oakland Temple. I had been to the Oakland Temple with my parents a few months after my mission, so about 5 years ago, but I think we were rushed or something, and I really don't remember it very well at all from that experience. The Oakland Temple is AMAZING. I know all temples are, but I really enjoyed the Oakland one. I like going to older temples because they are all so unique. Well, the Oakland Temple sit high up on a hill/mountain so you can look out over all of Oakland to San Francisco, the view is just amazing. And the grounds are huge - there is a large visitors center and also a cultural building that looks like a large stake center - I didn't get to go in this, but it is where they hold they Oakland Pageant. Anyway, I was meeting one of the ladies who I had taught as a missionary and was baptized, and got there early, so I went into the visitors center while I waited. They currently have a really great exhibit of sculptures depicting the miracles of Christ - I can't remember the artists name, but it was quite moving and I would recommend anyone in the area go see it. By the time I was done in the visitor's center my friend, Paula, had arrived and I was so excited to see her - it had been 5 years. We walked around the temple grounds and talked for awhile. And then enjoyed a temple session together - which was really a neet experience for me to get to share that with someone I had taught.

Paula and Me

Isn't the temple gorgeous?; Paula and Me closer up; the stunning view of the city from the temple grounds

Paula and I had to say goodbye after that (it was so good to see you Paula!) and Ryan and I met up in Richmond then headed on to San Francisco - no more work for us, (well, for Ryan, I had just been playing for weeks.)

Our brother-in-law Bruce is a Southwest flight attendant and had an overnight in San Francisco that night, so my sister Molly came to join him and us. We all met up at their hotel. After eating we headed to Muir Woods. None of us had ever been there and we got a bit lost on the way, but weren't too frustrated because our detour enabled us to drive down Lombard Street, something Ryan and I had been wanting to do anyway.

We did make it Muir Woods an hour before dark and had a great hike - except that we did not take the trail we thought we took and ended up having to hike for about half an hour to an hour in the total darkness, with a cliff on one side of us - thank goodness for the light of cell phones. Anyway, Muir Woods is beautiful, a coastal redwood forest, it reminded us of the Redwood forest up in my mission area, although the trees are not yet as tall. And we had the trail mostly to ourselves, which was also nice. And we enjoyed just spending time together.

So, it was raining and pretty dark the whole time we were there and we were in a hurry to get our hiking in so we didn't get a lot of great pictures, but here are a few, with some rain drops - Molly and Bruce (who we are so grateful to not only for letting us stay in their hotel with them so we didn't have to pay for one ourselves, but also for more standby passes - THANK YOU!)

Unfortunately, we also got lost on our way back to the hotel - so we saw even more of San Francisco, haha.

When we did make it back to the hotel I got to talk to my cousin Jessica who lives in San Fran so I could make plans for the next day. Jessica is one of my favorite people, she is just pleasant to be around. Even though she is 6 years older than me, we have always been close. She didn't live in Las Vegas when I was growing up but would come to visit a few times a year it seemed like, and whenever she did I always felt like she chose to spend time with me. I don't know if that is true or not, but that is how she made me feel. She would be staying at our grandma's (Grammy's) house and she would have me come spend the night, and she would spend the whole time just pampering me - washing my hair in the sink, putting it in curlers, that kind of thing. She has always been so good to me. And it wasn't when I got older that she started being nice to me, I remember running out the door from pre-school on the day she was to arrive for a visit and her having run over to the pre-school to pick me up. So, I guess I would have been maybe 3 or 4 and she would have been 9 or 10. And it's not like I didn't have sisters her age that she could have been spending time with and probably prefered the company of. She was just good to me. Yes, I love my cousin Jessica. Anyway, when we were talking on the phone that night she told me that she did something every day that Grammy had taught her. I have to tell you, I was blessed to be the granddaughter of two of the most incredible women EVER! EVERYONE loved GRAMMY and GRANDMA LISSA, you couldn't not. And Grammy was everyone's grandma, everyone called her Grammy - she was very special - both my grandmothers were, are.


Grammy, isn't she beautiful? Don't you just love her too?

Okay, so back to Jessica's story. She told me that when she would come to visit and they'd be one their way back to Grammy's house from my house in the evening (Grammy came over almost every day to help my mom out around our house - very nice of her and helpful with our houseful) she would sing "Count Your Blessings". One day Jessica was not in a very good mood and asked her why she was doing that and Grammy said she did it so she would always remember how blessed she is. So now, every day when Jessica is driving she sings this song to herself and starts listing her blessings. I love this idea - I to think of blessings I receive everyday and it not only helps me to be grateful for my blessings, but helps me remember I am loved. I am grateful for such a great example in a grandmother and for Jessica for sharing this story with me. So, for those of you who don't know the words of the song, here's the first verse:
When upon life's billows you are tempest tossed
When you are discouraged thinking all is lost
Count your many blessings; name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord has done.
Count your blessings; Name them one by one.
Count your blessings; See what God hath done.
Count your blessings; Name them one by one.
Count your blessings; See what God hath done.

Today happens to by Grammy's birthday, she'd - I'm glad I got to remember her by posting about her great teachings - she was amazing and I miss her so much. But I am also grateful to have an amazing angel watching out for me. I love you Grammy, Happy Birthday!

The next morning Bruce had to fly out super early, but Molly, Ryan, Jessica, and I got to enjoy a super yummy breakfast together at one of the local places.

Molly, Jessica, and Me (unfortunately Jess is blinking, hopefully Molly or Jess will send me their copy so I can replace this)

Molly had to leave after that and Jessica had to study, so Ryan and I headed down to San Jose and the Winchester Mystery House. It was built by Sarah Winchester, one of the heiresses to the Winchester fortune. There are several theories as to why the house turned out the way it did, but one is that she was trying to confuse the ghosts of the people who died by the weapons made by her husband (Winchester Riffles). There was construction going on on the houe 24/7 the entire time she was alive. And a lot of it doesn't make sense, like doors and staircases that lead to nowhere. But a lot of it is just beautiful. Anyway, it was really interesting and fun to go on the tour. Another interesting thing is that because she was alwayshaving things built she had tons of store rooms filled with stuff, such as hundreds of windows, regular and stained glass, rooms filled with wallpaper fabric, and more. It was crazy. Anyway, we recommend the tour.


After we were done at the mansion we headed back up to San Francisco and to Jessica and her husband Troy's place. Troy just got a new job and wanted to celebrate - they were so nice, they treated us to a super yummy dinner and this awesome restaurant right on the water. They ordered these great appetizers, and then I had this tasty meatloaf that was topped with bacon and hollandaise sauce and Ryan had seafood linguine (with shrimp and scallops) - they were both excellent. And then we had peach cobbler for dessert, which was also tasty - and if that wasn't enough, Troy and Jessica weren't going to finish their creme brule, and so we helped them out, and it was amazing. Do you think we overate and were a little bit spoiled on this trip - yeah, I think so too, but it was so good. Jess and Troy were so good to us and let us stay with them that night. We visited with them for a while before bedtime, then had to say goodnight because Ryan and I had EARLY flights. Thanks Jess and Troy for everything, we had so much fun and it was so nice of you.

So, we enjoyed all that great stuff on that fabulous vacation and only had to pay for one flight, two meals, and two tours of the Winchester House - how awesome is that? Yes, we are blessed.

Las Vegas - September 2008

My nephew Matthew, my sister Emily's oldest son (he just turned 14), surprised and delighted my whole family in August by telling Emily that he wanted to be sealed to her and her husband Mark - yay! For all of Matthew's life he has been switching off going to church with Emily one weekend and his dad, Jeremy, the next. He has never been pressured to be sealed to our family and so it was totally his decision to do this and we were just so excited. Of course I wanted to be there when my family would finally all be sealed together (Matthew was our last piece), and so I headed to Las Vegas (Ryan unfortunately couldn't make it.)

Anytime you get to be at a sealing is special, but the Spirit seemed very strong as they brought my sister's family in to make them an Eternal Family. I am so grateful for the opportunity we have to be with our families forever, and I am grateful Matthew chose to be part of our family forever.

My sisters forever family - Seth, Mark, Sammy, Emily, Andy, Matthew

After the sealing we all gathered at my parents house to eat (of course - what would else would you expect of a big LDS fmaily?) and I was talking to Matty (Matthew) and asked him what he thought of it all. He said "Indescribable". I agree, it was so amazing that it was beyond description.

I had a great time in Las Vegas. All my family was there, other than Ryan (and some of my brothers-in-law had to leave to work part of the time after the sealing - why is work always getting in the way?), and I took advantage of my time with them. Jenny, my sister just younger than me, and her two boys, were also staying at my parents house, so I got lots of time with them. But I pretty much got quality time with one or two sisters every day, as well as most of my nieces and nephews. I had a tea party slumber party with Lissa and Ellie - they are only 3 so that was an adventure - they are adorable. I attended my first cross coutnry meet where Michaelanne and Zander (my sister Missy's kids) competed. Michaelanne came in about a minute before anyone else - yes, she is amazing. I went swimming several times, loved it. I spent quality time with my parents as well. And, I got to see several of my closest friends, which doesn't often happen for me. I even spent time with my Uncle John. It was a great trip!

One of the fun things I did was have a slumber party with Maggi (sister) and Mike (niece). My best-friend since before I can even remember, Wendi, (she lived directly across the col-de-sac from me all our lives), also came over to spend the evening with us, even though she opted not to spend the night. (Wendi, Maggi, and my sister Jenny are all pregnant and due in January so that is fun.) I had so much funjust hanging out and talking to 3 of my favorite girls. It had been a long time since I had had that much quality time with Wendi so it was a special treat to have her there.

Mike, Me, Wendi

Through Facebook I learned in August that one of my favorite roommates has lived in Las Vegas for over 2 years. I learned this right after returning from my last Vegas trip. I couldn't believe that she had lived there so long and I had missed so many opportunities to see her. So, I made sure to see her this trip.

Keira, Me, Kaye Starr Mak (Lam), Emma - It was so good to see you K-Starr!

Anyway, I fully enjoyed my ten days in Las Vegas (except that I really missed Ryan.) And so I headed off to meet him...

To the zoo with Sasha and Sara - August 2008

Even though I was raised in Las Vegas, surrounded by ALMOST all my extended family (which I LOVED), I actually have 4 cousins that live here in Texas. Three of them are the sons of my dad's oldest brother and have pretty much always lived in Texas (at least for all my memory). They live about 3 hours south of me in the Austin area. My other cousin that lives in Texas, Julie, is the oldest daughter of my dad's youngest brother. She also grew up in Las Vegas, and she lives just about 45 minutes to an hour from me. I don't see any of these cousins nearly as often as I should for how close they live to me. But I was super luck in August to have the oldest of my 3 Austin cousins, Sasha, bring his family up here for a vacation. One of the things on their itinerary was a day at the Ft. Worth Zoo. As that is one of our favorite activities as well, and because we like Sasha and his family, we decided to join them, and had a blast. And luckily, despite it being August, it wasn't even that hot.

Top left then clockwise - Ryan feeding a parakeet; Sasha feeding a parakeet; Maya, Talia, and Sara; a parakeet doing splits; Me feeding a parakeet; Ryan feeding 2 parakeets at the same time - can you believe it?

Cabin - June-July 2008

My family all gathered to my family's cabins for a week and a couple days at the end of June. And when I say my family I mean not only my parents and all their descendents and sons-in-law (minus one niece) but also my uncle Gerry, his wife and their descendents (minus one son-in-law). We didn't all get to be there the entire time - in fact, Ryan only got to be there over the 4th of July weekend, but we had a great time. My awesome brother-in-law and sister gave us free stand-by passes on Southwest so that we could come and spend this time with my family and we were so grateful - Thanks Molly and Bruce! It was a lot of fun hiking, dune buggy riding, celebrating the 4th of July (which was also my oldest nephew, CJs (he likes to be called Chris now) 16th birthday - can't believe he's so OLD), spending time with my cousins (I was glad Ryan got to know them better - he really enjoyed playing frisbee golf with some of them at Brian Head), playing games, watching movies, all our favorite things to do at the cabin.

Top left then clockwise to center- I took my two youngest nieces, Lissa (Melissa) and Ellie (Elizabeth Kate) on a hike up behind the cabins; Ryan and Me huddled up to watch the fireworks at Brianhead; Mike (Michaelanne - my oldest niece - olest of the grandkids), Maggi (my youngest sister), and Me; Seth (my 3rd to youngest nephew - Emily's baby) driving the doon buggy; Ryan and Me at the fireworks; Ellie and Lissa still hiking; Matthew (my second oldest nephew - Emily's oldest son) and Seth; Ellie, Me, and Lissa at the end of our hike; Seth hanging out; Ellie and Lissa; sunrise over Cedar Breaks, about 15 minutes from the cabins - what we saw on our way back to Las Vegas - so gorgeous - yes we know we are spoiled.
Thank you Grandpa Sam for thinking of us ahead of time and building our family a vacation home, Mom and Dad for keeping it going, and Mindy and Brian for building another one to fit our growing family in and sharing it with us.

Alaska - May-June 2008

Right after my graduation we headed off on a grand adventure - a two week trip to Alaska! The first week of it was a northbound cruise on Holland America, leavign from Vancouver, British Columbia. On our way to Vancouver we had a layover in Toronto. Toronto was not really on the way but I didn't complain because it allowed me to see my MTC (missionary training center) companion who is currently living there. Crystal is actually a Canadian, but from Alberta. Our layover wasn't very long and I only got to spend about 40 minutes with Crystal, and she had to travel about and hour each way to see me, (so nice of her,) but it was so good to see her. It had been about 5 years since the last time we had been together. Not only were we MTC companions, but we served in the same branch for our first 3 months in the mission field while we were being trained and also the next 3 months while we trained new sisters. Sharing all these experiences brought us very close, and she is one of my good friends and I love her a lot and wish she lived closer. Anyway, it was so much fun to see her, and Ryan got to set foot in Canada for the first time (and I saw Ontario for the first time.)

Me and Crystal in the airport.

Then we made our way to Vancouver. We LOVED Vancouver. I think we will have to go back there one day as we didn't get to see all of it since we were really only there for a little more than 24 hours. But it is quite clean for a big city - we loved the mountains and the water and all the old houses and the plants. It is just a beautiful city.

We did a lot of walking while we were there, through neighborhoods and parks and by a botanical garden. The tulips were enormous and all the flowers were just really pretty.

Animals in Stanley Park - a white rabbit, Canadian geese, peacock, and a black squirrel

Totem Poles at Queen Elizabeth Park, a house we saw in one of the neighborhoods we walked through (we got lost on our way to Queen Elizabeth park and so just walked through neighborhoods which was really quite pleasant because the weather was awesome and all the houses were different, mostly huge and old - kind of Victorian - with these great yards and beautiful flowers. This wasn't actually my favorite house I saw on the walk, although I do really like it, but the reason I took a picture is because I liked the way they combined the stuco and stone), does this LOVE statue look familiar to anyone else - it made us laugh, view of Vancouver from Queen Elizabeth Park - the highest point in Vancouver (if you are only considering the city itself, not the surrounding mountains)


Just some views of skylines and surrounding mountains, both from on land and also from our boat.

Vancouver is the site of the next winter Olympics - I think it will be a great location. We had so much fun during our one day there and if we hadn't been so excited to start our cruise it would have been really hard to leave so soon.

Our ship, the Zaandam

We had a couple days at sea to start off our cruise, during which time we were entertained with movies, shows, the library, the gym, walking the deck, the naturalist,...

discovering each night how our cabin boy folded a towel for us each night as well as enjoying the chocolates he would leave for us

attending dinners (there were 2 formal dinners held, one they called the Master Chef's night when the chef prepared his specialties and crewmembers kind of put ona show for us and danced about and htey had us wear chef hats, a night where they made sculptures out of food, and a lunch where the Indonesian crewmember dressed in native clothing and served native foods - it was actually a tea party and it was funny to tell them all we weren't there for the tea)

Since we knew we would have another week on land once our cruise was over we never paid for any shore excursions, but we still really anjoyed our land time. We stopped in Ketchikan, Juneau, and Skagway. In each place we did a several hour hike as well as walked around the city. Each place was beautiful and we would leave exhausted.

Mendenhall Glacier outside of Juneau - it was so beautiful - our first glacier, ahh. On our hike up behind Mendenhall Glacier Ryan spotted a bunch of mountain goats, which was pretty cool. They were too high up to get good pictures of though.

Us with Mendenhall Glacier

When we were hiking at Skagway we had gone to this waterfall and on the way back were walking through this kind-of dried up river bed thing or maybe it was just a overflow-zone, I'm not really sure. Anyway, while we were walking we came across these bear tracks and were pretty excited as they were our first encounter with anything bearish.

I can't tell you how many waterfalls we saw in Alaska, hundreds I would guess - literally. Most were like the one on the bottom row, second from the right - I think they probably dry up towards the end of summer, but if you get there when snow is still melting they are all over and when we were on our boat we were always seeing them, so beautiful. We also saw a ton while we were hiking and they were just so pretty we often had to stop for pictures.

Just a few of the pretty views we got to see from our boat. I don't know for sure that I would like all cruises because I generally like to be out doing stuff while on vacation. But you got to see so many pretty things while on the boat in Alaska that I think the cruise was definately a good way to go.

We were super lucky when we were in Glacier Bay National Park - we saw 4 coastal brown bears (this is the second largest type of grizzly.) That is a mom and 2 cubs and 1 medium-sized bear. I don't remember how many thousand pounds the ranger with us estimated the mama bear weighed, maybe 4000 - it was really big. He said we were super lucky, they rarely spot bears from the boats in Glacier Bay, we agreed - very lucky.

Some of the beautiful glaciers we saw while in Glacier Bay. Notice the color of the water - it is this color because of the glaciers - when they melt they bring minerals from the earth with them that give the water this distinct milky color, kind of weird.

This was the biggest glacier we saw while in the bay (well not technically because there was one that was bigger but it was completely brown so it didn't look like a glacier) - I think it was Margerie Glacier

One of the things we really enjoyed about being in Glacier Bay was watching and hearing the galicers calve - when big chucnks of ice will "frac" or crack off - it is really loud and cool - you can kind of see it happening in this picture.

We saw a ton of bald eagles while we were in Alaska, which was really cool - and many of our sightings were while we were in Glacier Bay. (The center picture was taken on a beach in Homer - the southern tip of the Kenai Peninsula.)

We also got to see whales from our boat. While we were in the Bay we saw 4 humbacks, a minke (which looks like a small humback but the hump and the tail are shaped slightly different - they are the most rare to see so we were pretty lucky again) and an orca.

We also got to see several sea lions, seals, and sea otters. These I think are seals, just hanging out.

Our last day on our boat we crusied through College Fjord, named such because all the glaciers are named after Ivy League universities. I don't remember which ones we saw, but it was beautiful and we spent pretty much the whole day watching the water and landscape.

It was a great ending to a fantastic week at sea - we loved our cruise.

So these are some pics of various towns we visited. Top left corner (then going clockwise and end in center) - Alaska State Capitol building - where we first learned about Governor Palin's oldest daughter; the town of Skagway; also Skagway; a pretty stream running through Ketchikan that has trails along it and houses and other buildings off the trails (we were exploring the trails and ran into a couple of missionaries - they were lost, they had both just been transfered into the area the day before - haha, love those experiences); the church we attended in Seward (where we disembarked) - I liked the log cabin structure of it; just a train we saw in Skagway, used to clear snow off the tracks in the old days; Junea, Alaska; the Arctic Brotherhood Hall - one of the most famous buildings in Skagway because of its all wood fromt, I think it was done with drift wood or something, anyway, it was kind of neat to see; me, across the bridge with the same river in Ketchikan

After we disembarked we met up with Ryan's sister Heather and went to church in Seward and we started on our new Alaska on land adventure, which inluded staying in hostels and eating a lot of PB&J and other low budget foods (a big change from our previous cruising lifestyle - eating crab and lobster and steak and halibut and chicken and ice cream on demand and an assortment of desserts each night and omelets and various other scrumptious foods as all you can eat for a week.) It was probably a good change though, considering we had gained 5 pounds each, even though we did some pretty major hiking during that time. Yes, we enjoyed our cruise.

We started out our land time by heading out to see Exit Glacier.

I have read on people's blogs a list of things you are supposed to check off if you have done - one of them is touching a glacier - here is proof that Ryan and I have touched a glacier.

That evening we saw these cute sea otters playing in the ocean, right upclose to the shore, they were totally putting on a show for us. There were actually 3 of them, but the 2 playing together was awesome. When we had been on the boat watching them float on their backs while eating had been one of our favorite things so it was fun getting to see it up close (before we'd been at least 100 feet away).

The next day we did some hiking up on the northern Kenai, then headed down to Homer. We did enjoy our time in Homer (though I was quite disappointed to learn that the eagles only land on teh beach in droves in the winter and we also learned that while the king salmon were running while we were there, they swim so deep that you can't see them - so we missed seeing the salmon run while in Alaska - which has all sorts of effects on other animal sightings as well.) Anyway, on the way back from Homer to our hostel we had our first moose sighting.

One of the reasons you can't see the king salmon, beyond their deep swimming, is the water in the Kenai - it is all glacier fed so has that same milky tint that was in Glacier Bay. But it is also torqoise colored so quite beautiful - the whole Kenai was beautiful, so we still enjoyed our time their despite our disappointment of not being able to see salmon.

Our last day on the Kenai we went to Portage Glacier outside of Whittier. Unfortunately it was a really cold, windy, rainy day so we didn't get to hike around it and actually out to the glaciers like we would have liked to, but it was still pretty. In the bottom right picture you can actually see a glacier right in the center of the picture. The rest of the pictures are just of iceburgs. I think 90% of iceburgs are under water (I may be wrong about the statistic, but I know it was the large majority.)

Since we couldn't hike we decided to head over to the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center - it was kind of like a drive through zoo where all the animals were native to the area and had been rescues (if you couldn't figure that out from the name). It was really quite cool. You could get out of your car whenever you wanted to to get a closer look at the animals as they were all kept in enclosers. Our favorite thing was the black bear. At first we couldn't find any in the enclosure and were close to giving up when finally I spotted a weird shaped blob high up in a tree and started wondering if it was possible if it could be a bear - yep it was, just taking a nap or something. This wasn't actually our first black bear viewing. Earlier when we were on a hike in the Kenai Ryan stopped me, maybe 40 feet ahead of us on the trail was this super cute black bear, I think it had been eating something. It looked at us for a minute, then walked down the mountain. Too bad we didn't have our cameras at the ready because it was adorable, curest face ever - looked like you could have cuddled right up to him (or her.)

We really enjoyed the vegetation in Alaska - here is just a small sampling of some of our favorites.

Far left and center right - Devils Club, just an interesting plant we saw on almost all our hikes; center - Skunk Cabage, we also saw this on almost all our hikes and thought it was really pretty; right, center and top - I am not sure what their common name is but they are in the same family as Blue Bonnets and look just like them except they are 5-10 times as big. Flowers up there are just bigger than here - remember those tulips from Vancouver, tulips in Alaska are just as big if not bigger. Dandelions are 2-3 inches across. Everything is big there. You may think everything is bigger in Texas - you are wrong - Alaskans make fun of the size of Texas.

Mt. McKinley (or Denali as some people prefer to call it) is so tall (the tallest mountain in north Amaerica) that it creates its own weather around it, and so most people never get to see the top of it. Again, we lucked out, seeing the tip from several different views. It was magnificent. When we first spotted it we stopped at a hotel, thinkinf it was as good as it would get. Then we drove farther and saw more of it and the tip and were in awe. Then we drove on to get to the park entrance and got to see it from the other side, still with the tip, also breath-taking.

We did so many great hikes and just saw gorgeous things - every where we went was amazing, both in Denali National Park, the Kenai, and while on our cruise. Here's some of our favorite pics.

So, when we first got near the Denali National Park entrance we decided to drive in and get our barings so the next morning when we had to be there early we would feel more prepared. On our way out a bus stopped ahead of us, and then we realized they had spotted a moose. Not just one moose, but a mama and her baby. Mama mooses are very protective of the calves and can turn quite aggressive and be quite dangerous, but dang it, I wanted to see them and that calf was cute and I don't often feel fear and so I followed them until I got close enough to get the pictures I wanted. I scared Ryan half to death, enough so that he had nightmares all the next night. In truth, it was quite foolish how close I got to them, but I got a great picture - I hope you enjoy it too.

Once again, we were unbelievably lucky while in Denali in that we saw all the major large mammals - fox (3), dall sheep (?), caribou (?), wolf (1), grizzly bear (2), lynx (which was one of the most exciting things because almost no one gets to see them and we saw 2 - one from the bus and one on a hike, about 10 or 15 feet from us), and moose (3).

Top row - the 3 differen foxes we saw; below the right fox is a herd of caribou (an interesting fact we learned is that a reindeer is just a domesticated caribou); left center - the first grizzly; cetner; the first lynx - so cool; right center - the second grizzly; bottom left (and then moving right) - a herd of dall sheep; a snow shoe hare (we really liked these; a single dall sheep I will tell more about; a ground squirrel (these are the very bottom of the food chain inside the park - they are super cute).

The third fox we saw, but also the one we saw the closest, we thought their coats were so pretty.

We were hiking along in Denali and noticed these other people looking through some binoculars and a camera at something. We asked them what they had spotted and they said there was a sheep in the rocks up a ways. He was just lying down on top of the formation. At that point we were quite a bit aways from him - you can tell from the picture in the upper right corner - he is on the rocks in the middle of the picture but you can hardly see him. We decided to go in for a closer look. As we got closer we realized we were on the wrong side of this ravine thing from him and were trying to decide what to do when he got up and got off his pile of rocks and started walking toward the ravine and up the mountain. So we walked up the mountain more and it ended up that he crossed the ravine maybe 20-40 feet from us. I am not a good judge of distances, but he was really close. He didn't seem to be bothered by our presence at all, it was pretty cool.

One of the fun things we did our last day in Denali was go to where they keep their sled dogs. They let you pet some of the dogs and then do a demonstration. They had just had a litter of puppies and I got lucky enough to hold one. SO cute.

After playing with the dogs we did one final hike. While on this hike we saw a couple moose. I didn't get as close as I had with the mom and baby, so it is harder to make out the moose in the picture with me, but it is the brown spot next to my right sholder.

After we left Denali we headed back south, down to Anchorage. We needed some fuel so had to make a stop. We could not believe the cost - OUTRAGEOUS - we put in as little as we thought we could get away with and headed on our way.

One of our favorite things about going to new places is going to temples we've never been to. So we went to the Anchorage temple while we were there and did a session. I really liked the temple, I like how many of the temples reflect the area. The first ordinance room was painted with glaciers and seaguls and was really pretty. It is a mini-temple, but really quite beautiful.

Another great thing we did in Anchorage was visit the Alaska Native Heritage Center. I have never been to the Polynesian Cultural Center, but I imagine it is kind-of the same idea (without the luau). They have an area outside where you can walk around and see what all the native tribe's living conditions would have been like and inside they had a lot of canoes and kyaks. They also had shows of native dances as well as native games. The native games were pretty fun. They developed these games to keep themselves busy during the dark winter months as well as to signal each other while hunting. They do all sort of things - if you are interested you can ask us. The main feeling I came away with from there is that the natives were super resourceful, I was very impressed with them.

Top left then going clockwise until center - totem poll, used to record family history; their houses were these dome-shaped things to keep the snow out and the main entrance was through the top but they had these tunnels out the side that were too small for bears to get through for emergency escapes; the homes of some of the tribes - where people get the idea that the natives lived in igloos because when covered in snow they would look like and ice house; whale tusks; one of the native games is the one-handed kick - they start seated and then kick up from one foot and touch an object with that foot and then land on the same foot - the object gets higher and higher; a whale skeleton; heather wearing snow glasses - they keep out the snow; another native game - the two foot kick - start from a standing position they touch the object with both feet; a buoy made from a seal

Maybe 5 miles from the Heritage Center we spotted a moose and stopped to take pictures and watch it. A minute or two later there was another one across the road. Then the one crossed the road and we were amazed that two bull mooses would get so close together (they're very territorial). Anyway, we enjoyed watching them for about a half and hour.

All good things must come to an end and our Alaskan adventure was no exception. This trip was AMAZING! We did and saw so much and had a wonderful time.