Reese's Pieces Day 8: Sunday July 29, 2012

On Sunday Kristy and her family went to church with my mom.  Spencer came with us and we went back to our old ward to for Eddie's homecoming from his mission.  It was so nice to be back in our old ward and see so many people that we love and care about.  Here is a picture of Steve with some of his old scouts.  (Above: Eddie, Keven, Spencer, Steve)

After church we all met back at our house and we made breakfast for lunch.  We had yummy waffle scones. I could really go for a waffle scone right about now, come to think of it...

Addy performed her usual gray hair check on my mom.  

Then it was time to take Zac back to scout camp.  He worked at a scout camp all summer.  Spencer was leaving us to go back to Kentucky 2 days later, so this was the last time he and Zac would see each other.

Saying goodbye

Steve and I drove Zac to where he needed to be.  Then we came home and said goodbye to Kristy and her kids since they would be leaving extra early the next morning to go back to Virginia.  And we also said goodbye to Granny Snow who would also be leaving in two days to go back to Washington.  We had a fun visit with them all and it was sad to see them all go.  How thankful we are for family and for the chance we had this summer to spend so much time with so many people we love.

Reese's Pieces Day 1

Reese's Pieces Day 2

Reese's Pieces Day 3

Reese's Pieces Day 4
Reese's Pieces Day 5
Reese's Pieces Day 6
Reese's Pieces Day 7

Flashback/Flashforward Friday - I Love To See The Temple

Flashback: Summer 1985

 Dallas Texas Temple

(People didn't take as many pictures back then as they do now, otherwise we probably would have known to turn around so the Temple was behind us instead of the parking lot.)

Flashforward: August 2012

Brigham City Utah Temple

Yesterday we had the opportunity to go to the open house for the brand spankin' new Brigham City Temple.    It was a great experience to take the kids and show them the inside of the Temple and explain to them what each room is used for.

(Apparently there are still some people who don't know how to take pictures.  I guess that's what you get when you ask a random stranger to take a picture for you and then don't check the image to make sure it is decent.)

Temples are different from our regular chapels that our congregations meet in each week.  After this Temple is dedicated, only members who hold a current Temple recommend are allowed to enter.  One of the things that happens in our Temples is when a man and woman are married there, they are sealed together for eternity.  This means that after they die, they are still married and their children are still their children.  We believe that through the sealing ordinances that take place in the Temple, families can be together forever.  

 “And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Matthew 16:19)

To learn more about Temples of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, click here.

To see Pictures of the inside of the Brigham City Temple, click here.

To watch a video about why Mormons build Temples, watch here:

It's What Fun Is

We spent the day yesterday at Lagoon.  We had a blast.  Here are some pictures as proof.  Addy and I spent most of the day together riding rides while Steve took the older 3 kids on all the rides Addy was too short to ride. (It had nothing to do with the fact that I'm getting old and have no desire to spin at ridiculously high speeds.  And don't even get me started on how claustrophobic those restraints are!)

We all met up for a little lunch on the lawn.

  Then the girls and I decided to beat the heat by going to Lagoon-a-Beach.  We couldn't have timed it better.  Just as we were getting in the water, it got very cloudy and windy and FREEZING!

After our jaunt in the pool, we met up with the boys and rode some

 rides together that we could/would all go on. 

Addy had been begging all day to play a game so she could win a prize.  She really wanted one of these big giant scary looking things.  Since we were all alone again and I didn't have to fork out enough cash for all the kids to play a game, I gave in and let her play.  Unfortunately she didn't win and we were not able to bring such a lovely prize home.  But she wasn't going to give up.  We passed a horse race thing and it said, "The first one to get their horse to the finish line wins a prize!"  There was not another soul in sight so I thought, SURE!  I'll let her play that game for $2 and win a prize.  But the girl in charge said that we couldn't play with just one player.  I was like, well, if there's no one else that wants to play your dumb game...But I said fine, I would play too.  I could waste $4.  After I said I would play she then informed me that since it was just the 2 of us playing, she had to raise the price to $3 a person.  SAY WHAT???  This is why I so strongly dislike carnival people.  So I forked out my 6 bucks and received an assurance from the carnival chick that one of us, Addy or I, would be taking  home a dang prize.  So we played the game.  One of us won.  She pulls out the prize which is this little frog, but she doesn't give it to us.  She says, "This is your prize for playing this round.  If you want to play another round (and here she pulls out a giant koala bear and places it next to the tiny frog) you win this".  Oh, you evil little carnival spawn.  I know you are just doing your job, but how can you sleep at night?  I said, "We'll take the CUTE little frog, thanks..."  

 Addy was happy with it!

 A visit to Lagoon wouldn't be complete without seeing a few old and dear friends there.  

We saw our friend Collin and his son.

Aubrey saw her friend Indigo

And Emily found her BFF from our old neighborhood, Rylee.  

Unfortunately they didn't find each other until about 20 minutes before the park closed.

It was an awesome day, we had a blast and we made some fun memories.

Monday Morning Musings - Epic July

I was writing a check the other day for a small fortune to register my 2 children for Jr. High, and I had to ask what the date was.  The girl told me and I couldn't believe that August was already 1/2 over.  I feel like I am still recovering from July.  We had the BEST July ever around here. I have been trying to get all caught up on all my July blog posts.  When I open the July picture folder, I have to scroll through about 1,000 pictures to get to the pictures I need to post.  When I look at my pictures from the beginning of July and then the pictures from the end of July, I can't believe that they were all taken in the same month.  So much seems to have happened in between.  It has to be the most epic July ever, so I sat down to make a list.  These are some of our July highlights:

• Went to a parade
• Went to see fireworks
• Finished painting/decorating 4 bedrooms
• Had the missionaries over for dinner
• Made melted crayon art
• Went on a major grocery store shopping spree that spanned 2 days
• Hosted 3 different sets of house guests
• Hosted a Beauti Control spa
• Hosted 4 dinner parties and many smaller dinners
• Had a family reunion with some of Steve's cousins
• Learned how to do a Katniss braid
• Saw Hunger Games for a second time in the theater
• Saw the new Batman movie, Chimpanzee and Joseph Smith Prophet of the Restoration Movie
• Went to Hill Aerospace Museum
• Went to the Tooele Pioneer Museum
• Went to the Church History Museum
• Went to the Children's Museum
• Went to the Great Salt Lake 2x's
• Went on 2 Nature Walks
• Saw a water and light fountain show
• Toured Temple Square, both Visitors Centers, The Assembly Hall and Tabernacle
• Toured the Conference Center
• Went to the observation deck on top of the Church Office Building
• Toured the Beehive House
• Toured the Joseph Smith Memorial Building
• Spent a  day riding ATV's
• Had someone threaten to call the Sheriff on me
• Saw actual explosives exploding
• Helped a guy who was stuck in the mud
• Went shooting 2x's
• Went to the Salt Flats
• Saw an old friend and met his family
• Went on a weekend trip to Idaho
• Ate 1/4 of a giant hamburger
• Went to a college graduation
• Ate Jack-n-the-Box tacos
• Helped someone pack up their house
• Gave away all my baby stuff
• Found a snake in my yard
• Sent Zac off to work at Scout Camp 2x's
• Sent Emily off to her first year of Girls Camp
• Visited 2 Cemeteries
• Toured 4 log cabins - 2 in Rush Valley, 1 in Tooele, 1 in Salt Lake
• Visited 3 monuments that are dedicated to my ancestors
• Went on a picnic
• Locked my kids up in a jail
• Visited with my Granny Snow and had her and my mom and sister over for dinner several times
• Splatter painted shirts with 6 kids
• Went to a spa hosted by my girls and my niece
• Threw a Birthday Party for my mom
• Went to a Missionary Homecoming
• Played Football and Soccer
• Formed and headed up a new committee

Low Budget Movie Making At Its Finest

For real.  When I say I live in the best neighborhood ever, I mean it.  See that picture above?  That is just a normal day in the hood around these parts.  I am the Relief Society Secretary in my ward.  We have a newly formed Relief Society Emergency Preparedness Committee that I oversee.  We like to call ourselves the Preparedness Heroes.  Thank you very much.  It is one of our duties to deliver a preparedness message to the sisters in our ward each month.  We decided that instead of some boring 5 minute lecture on food storage, we would make a 5 minute highly entertaining movie.  We made our first one last week.  It was so much fun.  Above, my neighbors April (The mastermind behind this whole thing) and her mom Veronica (AKA: Doom-n-Gloom).

Here is our fearless Relief Society President making her cameo appearance

She is also known as Alicia-n-Spandex

Our ward seems to have an unnatural relationship with spandex as seen at our Relief Society Abba party

But I digress.  Here we showed up on Lori's doorstep in our superhero costumes.  These kids are looking at us thinking, "Is this really my mom and grandma?"  We went to Lori's to ask her if she could watch our kids while we were filming on location.  She looked at us like we were stupid (the costumes had nothing to do with it) and said, "Aren't I already doing that???"  We just wanted to make it official.  Oh, and we needed them to star in our movie.

Yes.  We really are that awesome.
The 3 A's: Amber, April & Allyson

After April made me jump in Tricia's pool against my will.

My girls just HAD to jump in too!

The next night we filmed our sponsor message.  We were sitting around the church with our best thinking caps on and Tricia noticed that I had a sunburn.  She started twitching.  Apparently she cannot sit in the same room with a sunburn and just let it be.  She must peel it.  What a good friend.  After she did this arm, her need to peel was satisfied, but I was left feeling rather uneven (we all have our own little things that make us special) so she did the other arm too.

So where is this movie, you ask?  
Well, it is right here, I answer.  Enjoy!

Can't see the video, click here.

Wanna order some sprouts?  Our ward is doing a sprout order this month.  I can give you the info of the lady we are ordering it from.  Just let me know you are interested!

Reese's Pieces Day 7: Saturday, July 28, 2012

Since Kristy and her kids were in town we decided to have an early Birthday party for my mom, whose Birthday is August 7th.  We invited my Aunt Verdene and Aunt June and Uncle Buck over for dinner.  My Granny Snow was still in town from Washington.  It was a good excuse to get everyone together.  And a good excuse for Kristy to make her fantastically fabulous Burnt Sugar Cake.

Allyson, Steve, Lauren, Kay, June, Buck, Verdene, Zac, Kristy

Addy, Irene, Emily, Aubrey, Owen, Tia, Baron

June is my maternal grandfather's sister.  Irene is my dad's mom.  So even though they are from different sides of my family, they go back a long way.  June and Buck were good friends with my Granny Snow in the Dallas 1st Ward when both of my parents were growing up.  Verdene is my maternal grandmother's sister.  We are just one big happy family!