So Long, Farewell

The Andy Patterson gang headed home today, except for Ryan. 

It's been a lot of fun with these kids, even with the screaming and the occasional tears.

 It will be about 5 months until the next time we will get together again. I will miss Lyla's happy greetings, Kyle's long winded songs, and Ty's large vocabulary. I am so blessed to have such wonderful nieces and nephews.

Our Trip So Far

I seriously love Idaho in the summer! We've had a thunderstorm, cloudy afternoons, and lots of wind! We play long and hard, though Chris probably plays the hardest out of all of us. Yesterday we were all tired and everyone except Ryan took a nap.

These two girls are so cute together!

We used our fireworks on the 3rd and saw an amazing firework show on the 4th.

There is always a few different things going on.

Today we're going to head up to the farm and play there!

Family Filled Week!

When it rains, it pours! We had so much family coming through all around the same time. First was my grandpa and Uncle Wess. Uncle Ed got my grandpa to tell some stories about his parents and some of his own childhood.

My personal favorite from the night was when he described his dad and shared that he never really got mad. The few times when he would though, he would say "Thunderation!" I'm going to teach that word to my nephew Tyler because he loves big words and I have a feeling that he will like this one a lot!

It was weirdly cold and so Ashley and I were wearing coats to stay warm!

On the next day, Hannah and Jonathan's mom came into town. Hannah's going to be teaching in Roosevelt and so she moved all of her things from Vegas. We're so excited that she will be a quick 2 hours away instead of 5 1/2 hours!

To celebrate their being in town, we had Taylor, Kenzie, and Mercedes come up and spent the evening with all of us.

I missed out on the picture because I was at work... Lame!

The next day, my parents drove into town! I was seriously so excited! I haven't seen them in over 5 months. My dad ran around town trading books and was able to get all of the books that he was hoping to get on this trip. My mom and I got some shopping in.

My mom got this gorgeous chair and I'm debating whether or not I'll let her take it back to California.

On their last full day with us, I took them down to the Manti temple. (Poor Jonathan was stuck at school!) It is such a beautiful and amazing building! We were able to see one of the spiral staircases. The incredible craftsmanship of the pioneers is just stunning.

This is the original entrance of the temple.

My adorable parents.

That same night we went out to dinner with my uncle Ed and aunt Terry. Jonathan could barely handle the similarities between my dad and uncle. It is very obvious that they are brothers from the way that they talk to how they sit.

These brothers are nothing alike...

The following morning they flew out to Tennessee and spent about a week in Kentucky. Tomorrow I'm going to pick them up from the airport and we're going to head up to Idaho for about another week.

My Favorite

It's been a while since the last time I bragged about my wonderful Jonathan, so get ready!

I seriously can't say enough about how sweet, thoughtful, giving, and forgiving he is. I don't know how I got so blessed to marry such a great man! Since we moved to Utah, Jonathan has been at school full-time. His first semester was rough simply because he was taking general ed. classes that he didn't really care for. He was still diligent in making sure he was prepared for each class session and earned good grades. This summer, he has been in heaven. His classes are still demanding, but he is learning things that will help him as he starts a career that came from a favorite hobby. In about a one week period, Jonathan was doing different projects in 4 different computer languages and he was successful in completing all of them! It's been wonderful to see his confidence boom in knowing that he really can handle learning all of the various things he needs to in order to have a career in computers.

Jonathan has also ensured that I continue to develop my own talents. He supports all the projects I come up with (even when it takes me forever to finish them). He steps in and helps around the apartment, especially when I start getting overwhelmed with everything that needs to get done.

I really did marry my best friend. He finds the time to go and do fun things with me, even when they don't sound like fun things to him. He truly is my favorite!

We Did It!!!

Since moving to Utah, Jonathan and I have been without callings. It was nice to have a break, but after awhile it felt like we weren't contributing to the ward in any real way. A few weeks ago, we were invited to be assistant nursery leaders. I was really surprised and excited because this would be the first time we would have a calling together.

This past Sunday we gave our very first lesson. I was confident in the lesson part, but a little worried about doing singing time. Thankfully there was another couple in nursery with us the entire time and they were able to help us as we needed. Everything was great! Only one child cried when her mom dropped her off and all of the little 18 month olds were so sweet and good!

I have a feeling that we are going to have a great time in nursery!

Oh Utah!

My parent's came to visit last week and we had the weirdest of weather for them.

It was in the 60's and we had a storm roll through and add more snow to the mountains...

Yeah, snow in the middle of June.

As soon as they left, we went back to our normal summer weather.

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!

source

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.

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!

My Birthday

This was my first birthday without my family and it was kind of weird. I still remember how adorable Garrett and Kyle were singing/yelling happy birthday to me last year. It was a wonderful day thanks to Jonathan though. He was able to get ahead on his homework so we could spend the entire day together in northern Utah. It was really nice, on the drive my mom called and since the family was all together I got to talk to my funny nephews for a little bit.

Here's a couple of instagram posts from my family.

One of my favorite gifts!

Here's Hannah's caption:
Back before even this ancient photo (the YSA conference where my brother first asked for her number....), BJ and I met as 12 year olds at Treasure Mountain girls' camp! Didn't know then that I was meeting my sister, but I am grateful the addition of this crafty, smart, cute lady to our family and for her birth 24 years ago today! Happy Birthday BJ!

The first order of business for me was to have some authentic Mexican food. Since moving to Utah, I haven't had any and I was dying for it! So we stopped of at a place just south of Ogden. It was heavenly! Then we went to Hill AFB to check out the planes they have as part of their museum. Even though it was my birthday, I wanted to do something that I knew Jonathan would enjoy. Jonathan was so excited, it was like he was a little boy all over again.

After checking out the planes we headed up to Logan to see the temple. It's the fifth one we've been inside of and the ninth one we've taken pictures of. (There's a lot of temples in Utah!) This temple is so beautiful! It seriously looks like a castle.

My favorite tree was in bloom!

Love this man!

Jonathan did a wonderful job of making my birthday a special day.

We Love Idaho!!!

We love going up to Idaho and spending time with Chris, Annie, and the kids. People probably think we're kind of crazy for how frequently we go there, but it's really not a bad drive considering we used to drive there from California!

Seth and Clara only shared that chair for about 15 seconds before they went crazy again!

Seth and Clara were pretending that they were at a beach.

Our other favorite part of Idaho is spending time on the farm. It's perfect for flying kites!

I love our frequent trips up there and can't wait for our next one because Andy's family will be there too!

Draper Temple

In late March, Jonathan and I went up to Draper to take pictures of the temple. The weather had been very springy and the trees were starting to bud. I can't describe how happy I was for spring to get here. 

Unfortunately, Draper didn't get the memo.

We were bundled up like it's still the middle of winter. I forgot my gloves and it didn't take too long before couldn't feel my hands. 

I absolutely adore the stain glass windows. They follow a similar pattern that the pioneers used to make quilts.

I love how unique all of the temples are on the exterior and with how the interior is decorated, but the message is the same. Every single time.