Aunt to number 24!

I have a new nephew - Daniel Kent Ashton (Kent is the name of his paternal grandfather). I now have 18 nephews and 6 nieces, and love them all. I love being an aunt. Daniel is my second sister, Mindy's, 6th kids (she has 5 boys and one girl). I am hoping to have lucky number 25 for our family. Since the time Ryan and I started trying we have had 5 nephews born, all my sisters got pregnant after we started trying - had we been able to get pregnant right away we could have had number 20 - or any of the numbers since then. But we are now hoping to have number 25 - but if one of my sisters beats me to it again, that will be okay too. I am just happy to have a new nephew for now. Welcome to the world, and our family, Daniel.

Army of Angels

We just had an amazing day at the temple. In October the Dallas Temple will celebrate its 25th anniversary. To celebrate this occasion, a stake from a few hours away had a temple day. They came on buses, and in cars. We had to secure parking at the Health Center close to the temple to accommodate everyone that came today. Also to accommodate everyone, we had tons of temple workers volunteer to help us out. It was amazing, like an army of angels, all in white. I would say there were around 30 sisters and 30 brothers working. They had packed sessions every 20 minutes. And it all went surprisingly smoothly. What a blessing to be part of that.

3 Down - 10/11 Left to Go - States That Is

I had a training to attend in Chicago for the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R). So I left for Chicago on the 9th in the evening. Monday was my first day of training, and I learned a lot. After we were done training I walked over to Lincoln Park. It is a really nice park, quite large, but everything contained in the park was closed, including the free zoo that I really wanted to see, so that was a disappointment. I got my first view of a great lake (Lake Michigan), and even walked on the beach. Tuesday I had training again – again I learned a lot. After that I went with a couple of the girls from my training to the downtown area. We went on the Magnificent Mile – went in a couple stores, and then out to dinner. We didn’t have a whole lot of time so didn’t get to see much of it, but I guess it is good to say I have been to the Magnificent Mile, even though I’m not much of a shopper. A little after I got back to the hotel Ryan arrived, so that was nice. Wednesday morning Ryan and I went out to breakfast, then he walked me to training. While I was in training, again learning a lot, he went to The Museum of Science and Industry, then to Wrigley Field to walk around the outside, then to the Lincoln Park Zoo. He got there just a half hour before it closed so many of them animals had already been put away – but he did get to see the lions and the tigers, so that was nice for him. I think he really enjoyed all that. We then met up and went to downtown to get some pizza (which wasn’t quite as good as we expected because we made a poor ordering choice, but still good), and then to Navy Pier to look around, get some fantastic popcorn, and watch fire works. It was a good time. Thursday we packed up our room and then started heading out to go on an architectural boat tour. I don’t know that I would ever go on it again, or strongly recommend it, but I did enjoy it. After the tour we went out to pizza again, but at a different place, and we really enjoyed it. Then we went and picked up our rental car, got our luggage from the hotel, and headed out of Chicago.

We headed to Green Bay, Wisconsin. Other than my ADI-R, the purpose of this trip was to work towards our goal of getting to all 50 states. Neither Ryan or I had been to Wisconins, Michigan, or Minnesota, so we went to each. (I now have 10 states I haven't been to, Ryan has 11). Our friends, the Gunnels, (Brian Gunnel moved into my BYU ward my 4th year at BYU and was there still when I left on my mission. He and Ryan had lived together at the Riviera before Brian moved into my ward and were still good friends. That next school year while I was on my mission Ryan moved into the ward to live with Brian, which is when he got to know Maggi and Jenny, my sisters. When I came home sick from my mission I went to visit Maggi and she told me about Ryan – she had a crush on him – and introduced us. I was still set apart as a missionary at the time so I wasn’t thinking about Ryan as someone I could date – but was super impressed with Ryan even just from the few minutes we talked, knew I wanted him in our family, and told Maggi she should marry him. She said he was too old for her. When I came home from my mission and decided to do another year at BYU I remembered Ryan and Maggi and I talked about him on our way back to school. We tried to visit him the second day of school but he wasn’t there. He came the next day to visit us and we have been together ever since. Why do I write this story now – because it is because of Brian and Maggi that Ryan and I finally found it each other. So we owe a lot to them – but why Brain didn’t introduce us as soon as he got to know me is still a mystery, as we are clearly perfect together,) live in Green Bay now. On our way there we stopped a couple places for cheese – yum – the best string cheese ever, plus some delicious curds. Then we had a fun evening with Brian, Mel, and their boys. Brian and Mel are the kind of friends that no matter how long it has been since you have seen them, once you are with them you are immediately at ease and feel you could talk about anything. I’m grateful for those kinds of friends.

We left Green Bay the next day and headed to Pictured Rocks National Lake Shore in the Upper Peninsula in Michigan. So, we had seen Lake Michigan in Chicago, and it was impressive just by its size. But Lake Superior was incredible. If you did not know better you would have sworn you were at the ocean – turquoise blue water (like the Caribbean), sandy beaches, and amazing cliffs. It was just so beautiful. We did an amazing hike as soon as we got there, walking along the cliffs, but mostly through this incredibly gorgeous forest, and to a waterfall. It was shaded the whole way and temperatures were in the 70s – just much more pleasant than hiking in Texas.

The next morning we went scuba diving in Lake Superior. There have been tons of ship wrecks in the Great Lakes we learned. We have never done a wreck dive, and have never been that interested in it, but that is pretty much the only kind of dive you can do in the great lakes. Despite the water being super clear, the Lakes are too acidic to support much animal life. But we figured it would be kind of cool to dive a Great Lake, and that it would be neat to have the new experience of a wreck dive, and since it had been more than a year since our last dives, it was time to get some in. So we did a two tank dive at two different wrecks. We learned we really aren’t big fans of wreck diving. Maybe in the ocean where wrecks attract animal life it would be exciting, but in the Lakes you see the wreck and it is cool for about 5 minutes as you explore (they are well preserved because the coldness of the water and lack of animals), and then you have seen all you care to see – but you still have about 45 minutes of bottom time left. Our first dive we figured since we still had air we should swim around and see what else we could find. I guess that is not what most people do because we scared our boat captain and he was about to call the coast guard. We still had half tanks left when we got to the boat, but he insulted Ryan’s navigation abilities thinking we had gotten lost and that is why we took so long to get back. Why do a two tank dive if you are only going to stay down 5 minutes at each place? At our next wreck we just came up after we were done exploring, we had 2/3 – ¾ of our tanks left. The captain was happier with us.

Later that day we did another hike along Pictured Rocks – it was about 10 miles so it took us a few hours, but it was an ideal hike – shady most of the time with tons of amazing view points. Ryan and I hike together very well. I never feel like either of us is slowing the other down or that one of us is more daring or desiring to do more strenuous hikes than the other – we are just evenly matched.

The next day we left Michigan and headed back for Wisconsin to the Apostle Islands National Lake shore, also along Lake Superior. It was fairly similar to Pictured Rocks, though the water was a little rougher. We did a hike that evening after we got there, also very pretty.
We had planned the next day to kayak out to the islands, but the water was just too rough, so we considered taking a boat ride, but the only seats they had available were on the inside. We didn’t feel like it would be worth the cost to not even be able to see very well. So instead we went to various farms to look for jams and berries. We had bought some blueberries at one farm, some jam at another, then we came to a farm where you could pick your own berries – so we picked raspberries – so fun and so delicious. At one of the farms we stopped at we met the coolest dog in the world - a black lab. As we were pulling up he ran to the car and just was wagging his tail so hard his body was shaking. As soon as Ryan opened the door he took off running. We thought it was odd since he had been so excited. A few seconds later he comes back with this rag in his mouth which he drops right at Ryan's feet, ran a little ways off, then looked back at Ryan expectantly. So Ryan threw it up in the air, and the dog jumped up and caught it right out of the air, brought it back and dropped it right at Ryan's feet. This went on and on. When Ryan delayed picking it up one time he nudged it on to his feet. Every time he would catch it in the air. He never played tug of war, just dropped it and waited. It was so hard to leave him, we wanted to take him with us. Do you think his owners would have minded?

We headed on our way to Taylors Falls, Minnesota. Along the way we stopped at some more cheese places, and also at a National Parks information station. While there the ranger lady suggested kayaking along the St. Croix River – and so we did. I’m so glad we stopped there – it was amazing. I could kayak like that every day. There were cliffs on both sides with trees all along so you were always in the shade, it was cool out, the water was crystal clear so you could even see the fish swimming along side you, and there was enough current that you didn’t even have to paddle if you didn’t want to. The only thing disappointing about it was that the ranger made it sound like you were guaranteed to see a bald eagle as you went down, and we didn’t, although we did see a really cool falcon.

Once we got to Taylors Falls we did a little hiking, which was fun.

The next day we had to fly out of Minneapolis/St. Paul - so we headed that way. We stopped to see the temple, but it was closed so we couldn’t go in. We went to the state capitol and were quite impressed. Then we went to Mall of America just to experience it – and it was amazing. Our trip then had to come to an end- too bad, it was a great trip.