My Parents come for a Visit

Yes, we did just go to Las Vegas two weeks ago, but my parents wanted to come visit anyway. Actually, they planned their trip before they knew we would be there. They were only here for a long weekend, but we had a good time. We went to the Amon Carter art museum, to dinner, to the temple (they accompanied us on our shift), to the Texas State Fair (my favorite part was the petting zoo where they had a kangaroo with a baby in its pouch - so adorable, a giant tortoise, a baby giraffe, and tons of baby goats that were super cute and super soft, plus lots of other fun animals), and down to Waco where we met my dad's brother Randy's family for a picnic. It was fun having them here - I'm so lucky to have the best parents in the world.

Amazing Weekend - Over 1500 Young Single Adults in Ft. Worth

When Ryan and I were first asked to serve in the Single's Ward we were told about the upcoming Young Singe Adult (YSA) conference that would be in September, and which we would be helping with. Our Stake President (who had asked us to serve in the YSA Ward) told us he was going to ask someone pretty high up in the line of authority in the church to some speak at the fireside for it, although at the time he didn't tell us who. A few months after being in the ward we learned he had asked President Dieter Uchtdorf(the second counselor in the first presidency) to come speak with us, and he had accepted. Before President Uchtdorf was called to be a general authority for the church he had been a pilot, one of the most respected pilots in Germany. Our stake president, President Jon Beesley, is the chief test pilot for Lockheed Martin - I think this connection helped. Well, the word got out the President Uchtrdorf would be coming, and the around 300 that we had been expecting would come grew to over 1500. It was amazing - our whole stake helped to get things ready for this, our ward was especially involved, and our stake president’s wife and two members of our ward worked on it as though it were a full time job. We found housing for all the people that came from out of town - which was well over half. We had 5 girls stay with us. It started Friday night with activities, Saturday were workshops, activities, and a dance, and Sunday there was church, and a little later the fireside. The theme of the conference was iServe, so throughout it all there were tons of service projects going on. President Uchtdorf also spoke on service. It was amazing seeing so many young people together - we heard over and over that is was the best YSA conference ever. I would have to agree - thanks to all who made it happen.

Las Vegas - Take 3

Yes, that's right - I went to Las Vegas again - the third time this year. Since I was last there both Luke and Daniel had been born so I needed to go meet them. My sister Molly had given me two Southwest passes when I took care of her kids in April. So I had another nice trip, and this time Ryan came and met me over the weekend. We pretty much just spent time hanging out with my family –which is what I love. When I am there my family makes a special effort to have Taco Tuesday. It was fun hanging out with my mom and sisters – unfortunately Jenny wasn’t there. I found this especially unfortunate because her son Jesse wasn’t there – I have had 5 nephews born in just over a year and I would have liked to get a picture of them all together. But that will have to wait. I did get to hold Daniel and Luke quite a bit, so that was good. I also got to spend time with 2 of my very best friends – Wendi Burnson Stewart (who I have known since before I can remember – she grew up across the street from me) and Steve Roberts (we met the second day of our freshman year – 13 years ago – and have been good friends ever since). Also, our brother-in-law, David, who is a first year dental student, cleaned Ryan’s teeth, so that was good. I also had my teeth cleaned, but by our hygienist Sue, who is awesome. Anyway, it was a good trip – I am so lucky to have grown up in Las Vegas and to have the greatest family and friends.

Me holding Luke (Emily was busy talking to one of her kiddos), Molly with Timmy, Maggi with Jack, Mindy with Daniel)

My cute nieces and nephews

Awesomeness

Ryan and I attended the BYU vs. OU game at the new Cowboy stadium. Ryan wanted to go super badly but tickets were kind of expensive and I’m always reluctant to spend money. I think the tickets went on sale the end of March or beginning of April, I decided to get Ryan tickets, but by then the tickets allocated to BYU were already sold out and they had a waiting list. I kept checking TicketMaster and eventually tickets went on sale to the public. That day, the instant they became available Ryan and I both tried to get tickets. We got in the system and both of us were in the process of buying some – we decided to go with Ryan’s tickets but then there was technical glitch – an error page popped up. I tried to get more but they were sold out, just a minute or two after they had gone on sale. Ryan did a back page and had to re-enter information, he got it all entered the exact second his tickets would expire, but we got the tickets. So, we got to go to the game, our friends the Palmers also went and sat by us. We fully expected BYU to lose, but when half time came, even though BYU wasn’t ahead, they weren’t getting killed. As the end neared and BYU pulled ahead and kept it we were still skeptical but they did end up winning – which was just amazing! We were so happy to have been there to experience it, and it was fun to see the new stadium.