Such a Stud

I really wanted to see the Easter Pageant this year, but the only night I could see it was the night I drove down which meant that I would not be able to get a seat before it started, let alone a parking spot. So, this guy drove down there early to save us seats. He got us amazing seats and sat and talked with me for the hour that we sat there waiting for it to start. It's so fun to have him to talk to now that he is older and we have more in common!

The pageant was wonderful like it is every year! Afterwards, as we were walking back to his car, many people I know said hi to us and then asked who this stud with me was. I was pretty darn proud to say he is my brother.

Oh, did I mention this kid just got a perfect score on his ACT?!?! Yeah, that's right, he got a 36. He worked dang hard for that score and we are so proud of him! Go D!!

6th Grade San Diego Trip

Last week, I packed up my stuff, and drove home the second I got out of school on Wednesday. Yes, I bailed halfway through the week.

Why?

To chaperone for A's 6th grade field trip to San Diego.

Yes, this is the second time I have chaperoned for this trip (I went with J too!) and many parents asked how in the world I got conned into going. How? Because it is absolutely some of the best one-on-one time I can possibly get with my siblings! I'll be honest though, it's an exhausting trip that left me stiff and burnt and worn out. I handled it much better when I went with J. I chalk it up to getting old.

Thursday night, we got on a chartered bus and "slept" on the bus while we drove to California. Friday, we woke up from our oh-so-comfortable bus seats and enjoyed breakfast on the pier as the sun rose.

And then the fun began. We went to the beach and saw lots of seals and sea lions up close and almost personal. Next, we drove over to Sea World to spend the day playing. I and another chaperone had a group of 8 girls and the second the gates opened, we were off and running.

We rode the roller coaster twice and then spent the day fitting exhibits in in-between shows. We were blessed with the most perfect weather. It was a little breezy but sunny and warm. It was PERFECT (so perfect, I didn't even realize I was frying in the sunshine! Oops!) The new dolphin show was absolutely amazing and Shamu was awesome as always!

That night, we got on a boat and sailed out to the middle of the ocean. The kids got to cast out a deep sea net and then reel it back in full of sea life. They caught some pretty rare things... probably because A was the one nominated to kiss the net for good luck.

Needless to say, her first kiss was a little... fishy! :)

And this was the view from the boat...

Absolutely breathtaking!

Friday night consisted of one the best nights sleep I have had in eons, despite the fact that I was sleeping in quite the nasty motel. Goes to show how tired I was!!

Saturday included the aquarium and shopping at the outdoor market mall. It was so much fun! I am so glad that A let me go with her! Not to mention, it was the greatest reason to get out of school and check out of all my responsibilities for the weekend.

Love you A!! Thanks for taking me!!

Easter with an Apostle

Our stake happened to have stake conference on Easter Sunday this year. For our speakers... Elder Russell M. Nelson accompanied by Carl B. Cook of the 70 (just sustained earlier this month) in person!!

Unfortunately I did not get to see them "in person" (we were assigned an overflow building) but I got to hear them speak for our specific stake. It was a wonderful experience!

Here are a few of the things they talked about...

-We all could use a little good news. Repentance is good news. Share it with others.

-Trust in God. Have hope. Look up.

-Repentance brings about change in us.

-Teach children about what being a child of God means.

-Teach children about the atonement, the sacrament, the importance of church,

about prophets, about the scriptures.

-All prophets have developed the gift of receiving and acting on revelation.

-Education is a religious responsibility. (I especially liked this quote!)

It is no doubt to me that these brethren are called of God. Along with all these things, both talked a lot about the Savior. As special witnesses of Christ, that is their calling. It was especially neat to hear them bear witness of Him on Easter.

Christ lives. He is our Savior and Redeemer. I am so grateful to have this knowledge!

Schultz Creek

We finally got to go hiking this past weekend. It was such an amazingly perfect day! We started looking up hikes to go on. Um... I found about 50 different hikes I want to do! There were so many choices, it was really hard to decide, but due to time, we chose Schultz Creek.

Look at how gorgeous...

We saw lots of mini waterfalls...

and ran across huge fallen logs...

and trekked through snow...

and yes, we did indeed make a teeter-totter and played on it WAY too long! :)

I cannot get over how much I love living here!!!!!! To know that a 15 minute drive can get me to tons of places that are as fun and beautiful as this just blows my mind! I now have a list of a million hikes that I will accomplish before I leave this place! Don't be surprised if you see so many more hiking posts.

Signing off, from God's beautiful playground :)

Much More Precious Than Gold

To continue on with my goal to trust God more perfectly, I have been studying faith since I finished studying trust in the scriptures. (Yes, I am telling you what I have learned as a way to make myself accountable for keeping at my goals!)

I came across this scripture the other day:

1 Peter 1:7-9 - "That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of glory."

In other words, those times when you feel like your faith is really being tested, although those moments are really difficult to handle, are worth more than anything the world could give you.

Elder Richard G. Scott said, "As you walk to the boundary of your understanding into the twilight of uncertainty, exercising faith, you will be led to find solutions you would not obtain otherwise. With even your strongest faith, God will not always reward you immediately according to your desires. Rather, God will respond with what in His eternal plan is best for you, when it will yield the greatest advantage. Be thankful that sometimes God lets you struggle for a long time before that answer comes. That causes your faith to increase and your character to grow."

I testify that this is true. I have had my run-in with faith-trying times in the past year. They are hard. I didn't enjoy them all too much at the time, but looking back on them, I can't even begin to express how much I treasure those times now!!! I view them as true treasures: treasures of testimony and greater faith. Treasures of learning that I am a literal daughter of God. Treasures of a deeper relationship with my Savior, Jesus Christ. Those treasures don't even compare to getting a new iPod, going on vacation, or even graduating from college.

If you want to feast on the topic of faith, I absolutely LOVE this talk from October's General Conference:

• Elder Scott's Talk, "The Transforming Power of Faith and Character"

The more I learn about faith and trust, the more I realize I have a LOT more to learn! It's like that saying, - "the more you know, the more you know you know nothing!" So true!!! I have a LONG ways to go! I guess I can't complain though - just think of how many treasures I will have when I'm done!?

Send To: Mother Nature

Dear Weather,

You have it all backwards. You are supposed to snow on the weekdays since I have to be inside anyways (or better yet, cause snow days) and then be sunny and beautifully perfect on the weekends so I can hike to my heart's content. Quite frankly, I'm sick of daydreaming of hikes when I'm supposed to paying attention in school... and I'm sick of digging my car out of the snow in a skirt and heels! Ok?! Ok!

Sincerely,

Did I mention it is April?!

(Confession: I check the weather multiple times a day - and in cities

I've never even been to!! I'm obsessed with it.

Don't ask me to explain it... because I can't! It just makes me happy!)

Randominity

• I absolutely LOVED not being "plugged into" the media this past week.

• I enjoyed my last day on the mountain with my snowboard and almost shed a tear as I drove down the mountain (hopefully there will be time for fun again next winter!)

• I miss strawberries more than you can imagine... darn those small seeds!!

• I parked my car on the I-17 last weekend. We (meaning everyone traveling south with me on the interstate) moved 3 miles in 95 minutes!! Gotta love major wrecks that cause Interstate closures!

• I still made it to the temple before it closed despite my 2 1/2 hour traffic delay. :)

• General Conference is the BEST!! - How cool to have living prophets and apostles speak to us!

• Late night chats with siblings make for the best ab workouts!

• The King's Speech is now re-released in PG-13!!!!!!! (but mind you, it says the "sh-word" 42 times).

• When we do our best to provide for ourselves AFTER paying our tithing, the Lord provides miracles! - I found a job that fits perfectly in my schedule! :)

• I have missed my orange blossoms, but I love pine cone smells too! I'm torn between the two places... again!

• I only have 5 1/2 weeks of school left!!! ... this semester.

• Napping on the hammock only to wake up with some actual skin color makes me want summer to hurry up and get here!!!

• I finally got to see my cousins' babies! Gosh, they are stinkin' cute!!

• I loved eating LOTS of yummy (aka: real) BBQ and Mexican food all weekend!! - two things they don't really have in Flag!

• Has a new music love - the Nashville Tribute to Joseph Smith. It's different but awesome!

Um... that ended up being more random than I thought!