Y Not?

Jonathan and I have tried to climb to the a couple of times and we totally underestimated what it means to climb 1,000 ft in a little over a mile. One day while Jonathan was at school, I was determined to make it to the top. I am not an exceptionally good hiker, but when I want to I can be a persistent one. I take lots of breaks, but I keep going.

The view from the parking lot below.

The view from the top made the struggle worth it.

I love living so close to so many different places to hike. Now, I need to go back with Jonathan!

Spring Has Sprung

On Saturday, Jonathan went to a Big Data Conference in Salt Lake. While he was nerding out, I explored Temple Square and enjoyed the spring weather.

I took a tour of the Conference Center. (Don't worry Mom, I didn't get lost this time!)

Everything was so green and lush. I've really missed this.

The flowers smelled heavenly as I walked around. I love all of the tulips, dafodills, poppies, and English buttons. I told Jonathan when we grow up and have a house we will have all of these wonderful flowers.

You can't see it, but there were people EVERYWHERE! I can't blame them. It was a gorgeous spring day.

 I am so grateful that it's spring!

When I saw the ducks, I thought of Jonathan's brother Thomas. He likes to go duck hunting. These ducks were lucky he wasn't around.

After Jonathan finished up, we did a session in the temple. This was my first time ever in the Salt Lake temple. Jonathan can tell you that I was giddy to be there. It is such a unique experience in this temple because it is live. In the vast majority of temples, there is a combination of video and audio instruction. The video was just recently updated and is amazing, but there is just something about being in a live session. I can't find the words to describe it.

Jonathan was sitting next to a man and shared that it was his first time at a live session. The man said that he almost always goes to a live session and that he hasn't even seen the new movie. He wished he lived closer to a temple that had the video. When Jonathan told me I couldn't believe my ears. From our apartment in Orem to Salt Lake, we pass by 5 temples in the 40 minute drive. Apparently that's just too far away!

Anyway, it was a wonderful experience. I can't wait to go again.

St. George

On our way down to visit Hannah in Vegas, we stopped off in St. George to visit the temple. This was my first time in southern Utah and I must say it has stolen my heart! I still can't get over the beautiful colors in the stone. I've seen some pictures of places around there, but they don't do the colors justice. I hope to move there some day.

I still can't get over the beautiful colors in the stone. I've seen some pictures of places around there, but they don't do the colors justice. I hope to move there some day.

The temple was amazing. So far, we've been to 5 temples and I really love this one. When you first go into the temple, it feels like it's just another temple. It's beautiful, but nothing special beyond that. Then when we were in the ordinance room, you started to get a better sense that this was a unique temple. This temple was the first one completed after the pioneers left Illinois and so there are still much of the pioneer workmanship in this building.

One of my favorite parts was the celestial room. There are windows that let in the beautiful desert sunshine in. The details in the room were in some ways overwhelming.

The thing that I remember the most is the feeling that I had in that room. I just felt an outpouring of love. I was grateful to see such a beautiful temple. I was grateful for all of the labor that went into it. I was grateful that I could be there that day to do the temple work for someone I didn't even know. I felt a much stronger connection to this sister that I went through for than I usually do. 

Temples are such wonderful places. I love the feeling that I have when I am there. Things are just more clear.

We love to see the temple!

It was such a wonderful experience to go to the temple as we started our trip to visit Hannah.

Vegas Baby!

We finally made it down to Las Vegas to visit Hannah! We started planning a trip in August, but things got crazy until now. It worked out perfectly because she needed to come up to Utah for a job fair, so Jonathan and I went down and played and then brought Hannah back with us.

This was Jonathan's first time in Vegas and my second time. My first trip was a whirlwind trip with Sac State Marching Band. We didn't get into the city until like 3 am and had to check out of our hotel by 9. I literally only laid down for 6 hours in a 52 hour period of time. It was crazy!

My first Vegas experience.

The first thing we did in Vegas was meet up with Jonathan's trainer from his mission. This was the first time they had seen each other for about 10 years. It was great to see them catch up on all that has happened and remembering some great mission stories.

Thanks to Pinterest, I was able to find more things to do in Vegas than just hang out on the strip. First thing we did was head over to Hoover Dam. It was amazing and overwhelming how big it really is.

This is the spillway on the Arizona side.

I love how you can see how high the water level can be.

Jonathan's in Nevada and I'm in Arizona. After this picture Jonathan said he didn't like long distance relationships and jumped back on to the Arizona side of the dam.

After being at the dam, we headed back into the city so Jonathan could visit Fry's. There aren't any in Utah and he has seriously been missing it. Then we visited Hannah's classroom. It is so cool that she is a real teacher! Jonathan was able to better align her projector. She showed us her favorite spot to watch sunsets on campus. It was so gorgeous!

Then we headed down to the strip for dinner and to see some of Hannah's favorite spots. She took us to a secret pizza place inside the Cosmopolitan for dinner. There's no signs for it, so we had to search for it for a little bit but it was worth it! After dinner, we watched the fountains at the Bellagio. They are magical at night. We walked around Caesar's Palace and then headed back home because Hannah had work the next day.

The three of us taking on Vegas!

I pretended to be Buddy the Elf moment with the moving sidewalk.

On our final day in Vegas, we went to Red Rock Canyon. The scenery was stunning! We drove through the loop to get an idea of what the park would actually be like. We thought that it was a closed loop, well we were wrong. We were back out on the highway and a little upset that we didn't get the receipt to show that we had already payed to get into the park. We were prepared to pay the $7 fee again because it would be worth going through the park to take pictures. We pulled up to the same gate that we had initially paid at and explained our situation. The man was nice enough to let us go without paying the fee twice. We stopped off in the visitors center to get a better idea of the park and then we took a lot of pictures.

We each took turns wearing bunny ears.

Thanks to the visitors center, we learned that various people that lived in the area and left drawings in the stones. We were able to see a grouping of hand prints.

There are 4 hand prints in this picture.

Sorry Ty! That rock was too big to bring home.

It was interesting to see the layers of stone.

This looks more like a martian landscape.

I love how it looks like these rocks were painted.

I am so grateful that Jonathan and I were able to visit Hannah before she leaves Vegas. After finding all of these cool places to visit in Las Vegas, I can't wait to spend more time exploring the natural wonders in Utah!

I Don't Know Idaho!

This weekend, we made our first of many trips up to Idaho. Jonathan had a crazy week with tons of stuff due and late nights of getting everything done that we decided a weekend away was in order! Thankfully, my brother's family was prepared to indulge us.

The last time we spent time with them was back at Thanksgiving, so I wasn't sure how well the kids would remember us. Before we even got all of our things out of the car Seth came out and gave us big hugs. Clara and Annie were out running errands and when they got home, Clara ran right up to me and gave me a cuddly hug.

Both Seth and Clara have grown up so much since Thanksgiving. Seth absolutely loves everything Star Wars, with the exception of the Emperor who he calls the boss. Clara is just a little chatterbox! She repeats just about anything that she hears.

Clara in her Sunday best!

It was also a lot of fun spending time with Chris and Annie. We haven't lived close to them for over a year and so it was nice being able to talk with them. They taught us a card game they learned from their sister-in-law and we ended up playing it for about 3 hours.

We also had a tea party with the kids. I love having nieces! In the 10 years I've been an aunt, this was my very first tea party.

This trip, though quick, was so much fun. I can't wait to go back for another visit!

It's Spring Time

I love spring time. It has been so nice having the change in weather and blooming flowers.

(Even though my allergies have been going crazy!)

My mom started getting strawberries and a lot of them were weird looking.

Doesn't this look like a foot?

 Spring is a wonderful, colorful time of year!

My Favorite Part of Rainy Weather

I love stomping through puddles in my rain boots. Luckily, Garrett does too! A few weeks ago we found an awesome puddle by my parent's house and boy, did we have fun!

Garrett liked having his car drive on the water. Then we found a worm. Garrett tried to kill it by stomping on it, but that worm was too tough for him.