Memorial Weekend

Memorial weekend was simply wonderful this year. I'm still getting used to the fact that Jonathan no longer is working retail, so I get to spend so much more time with him!

On Saturday, we spent the afternoon with Taylor, Kenzie, and Mercedes. We started out at the Sacred Gifts Exhibit at BYU. It was such a powerful exhibit. The amazing stories behind each piece of art. I saw details in the paintings that I never noticed before. I found my new favorite piece by Carl Bloch called The Mocking of Christ. The emotion that comes from Christ's expression is simply powerful!

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After the exhibit, we gathered up our guns and went shooting. Mercedes was the first to shoot and boy was she excited! After pulling off one round, she was done for the day. She played in the car while the rest of us played with the guns.

On Sunday, we had dinner with our friends from our first married ward in Citrus Heights. It was so fun to catch up with them and see their kids after about 2 years. We played Apples to Apples and their 5 year-old, Nancy, ended up winning the game! When it was time for us to leave, Nancy wasn't going to hear it and decided that we were going to move in with them! Instead she settled for walking us out to the car after giving us a tour of the play equipment by their apartment. We still had to convince Nancy to go home, but she eventually did go home.

On Monday, I got Jonathan to go on a hike up Rock Canyon before he did more homework. It was so beautiful and green. There were a number of people there to do some rock climbing, and even more to go hiking.

The creek helped keep us a little bit cooler than we would have been.

I can't wait to go back and go even further!

I am so grateful for the men and women who have fought throughout every generation to preserve our free land. It is such a blessing that we typically take for granted, but need to remember that life hasn't always been like this and there is work required to keep it.