10 Years

Every anniversary is special and should be celebrated especially in today's world, but we celebrated a milestone year of 10 years together this month. Stephen and I have built a wonderful life for ourselves. We still love each other and speaking for myself, I love Stephen even more now; my love for him grows each day and through each trial and triumph. We have three beautiful children, our dream home, our health, Stephen is successful in his work, we are literally living the American dream. I feel so blessed to have Stephen by my side to navigate through life with. He has an awesome family that I love and get along with really well, and he has a strong testimony of our Savior Jesus Christ.

Stephen is my rock. There isn't anything he wouldn't do for me and I know it. He cooks, cleans, mows the lawn, plays with our kids, takes me out on dates, sings and plays guitar, works hard at his job, and loves me for who I am. He is kind, honest, witty, and funny. I am so grateful to have gotten to know and fall in love with him when I did the night he kissed me when I got locked out of my apartment. I love you Stephen. Lets continue to celebrate our love and life together every day. 

Anniversary Week

Last week Stephen and I were able to celebrate our 10 year anniversary all week without kids due to a work trip he couldn't miss. I didn't want us to miss this important anniversary so I told him I was going with him, and it just so happened that I would be in Twin the week before so I asked mom and dad if they'd watch the kids for a week for us, and they happily obliged.

Our hotel was right in the middle of downtown Los Angeles so there was a lot to do within walking distance. Stephen really worked all day and didn't get back to the hotel until 7:00 every night so everything I did was on my own. Except on our anniversary I met him and his coworkers at the Santa Monica Pier for a nice, cold, windy stroll down the pier and then to dinner. Stephen got me a pearl necklace for our anniversary; I love it.

The two days I was there on my own I went to some shopping centers and to the Walt Disney Concert Hall. That place was amazing! I did an audio tour by myself and learned a little bit about the architecture of the building. You can see that the outside of the building is made up of over 6,000 steel panels and they are all different sizes and shapes so they had number each one to make sure they got put in the right place. The building also has an automatic cleaning system built into it on the top of the building. The inside is just as beautiful as the outside.

I also went to the Broad museum, the Grand Market, and Angel's Landing. I didn't know what to expect with this train ride. I rode up and down on the train, and the ride is only 315 feet to the bottom of Bunker Hill. It was built in 1901 and is the smallest working train track in the world. It is estimated that these tracks have carried more passengers per mile than any other railway in the world.

I had fun despite doing everything by myself. It was nice to get to sleep in and not wake up to kids yelling at each other or coming and jumping on me or on my bed. This trip was exactly what I needed to reset.

When we got home I took Stephen to iFly for his gift this year. I thought doing something we normally wouldn't do would be a nice surprise and get us out of the house and out of our comfort zone. So we did indoor skydiving for an hour, had dinner, and picked up dessert on our way home; it was the perfect date. Skydiving is no joke. My legs and back were sore. You have to be physically fit to do this; it is a workout without it looking like it.

Spring Break

A few weeks ago Becky and I met in Twin for a week for spring break to get the kids together and to spend some much needed time with mom. Here are some highlights of the trip:

Bowling with cousins. This is the boys' second time bowling. Can you tell their balls were heavy?

 Sunday was church with grandma and grandpa. Hannah looked too cute not to take a picture.

Snacks and a trip to Shoshone Falls

Swimming at 1000 Springs. I will admit, this was a little stressful for me to try and handle three kids who can't swim by myself especially when one has to constantly be held even though she didn't want to, and two boys who wanted my attention and help swimming too. I felt bad I couldn't help everyone, but I think they all had a good time.

While grandma and grandpa were camping over the weekend we ate out and went on some visits to see cousins during conference.

These kids bring me so much joy. They had a blast playing with and helping grandma and grandpa while Stephen and I were in L.A. for a week.

Antelope Island

I have been waiting to take the kids to Antelope Island for some time; I was trying to time it right with good weather, minimal bugs, and people and last weekend was such the perfect day to go. We really needed a day out as a family to enjoy ourselves and do something that we didn’t feel rushed in having to leave. I had no idea the island was so close to our house; it was only a 10 minute drive to the entrance of the island. It was overcast, but we could see some blue sky here and there and it was mid 50s. The lake was beautiful and parts of it looked like a glass mirror up against the mountains, just gorgeous!

As we entered the island the kids started to complain that they wanted to get out and walk around because they “had been sitting in the car for at least an hour” so we took them to the Fielding Garr Ranch first to stretch their legs and roam around. I wasn’t sure what to expect there, but we first had to have a snack, then the adventure began. We wandered into the barn where they raised sheep so the kids got to play in the sheep pens. Then we followed all the other people to the pasture where they had some old ranch vehicles like trucks and tractors and horse buggies. I was surprised how excited the boys were to get in and play on all the equipment. They had to get in everything they could and they pretended to drive and be  farmers. We were there for at least an hour playing in the equipment.

On the way out to the pasture there is manure everywhere and Lucas just happened to find a big ol' cow pie that was still somewhat fresh and said, “What’s this mom?” As he steps in it. A woman near by who witnessed this just busted out laughing.

We went to the other side of the barn and explored some of the other building that included the ranch house. The kids got into all sorts of things. Zander found some large nails and screws in what looked like a blacksmith building, then they found some deer antlers, more old tools, buffalo hides, toys, and pictures. They loved looking at all of it. There was a man there that sat outside of the smaller barn who used to be a professional photographer. He had an album of pictures he took of animals on the island. He let the kids each pick one picture to take home with them. Zander chose a buffalo, Lucas chose a rattle snake, and Hannah got some deer.

 Outside of the small barn was a place to practice roping cattle and metal horse the kids could sit on. Boy did they have fun on that! Lucas sat on one of the bulls with his rope and pretended to catch bandits that stole his gold while Zander sat atop the the horse and tried his hand at roping the other bull near by. Dad helped to show them how to hold it and swing it so they caught what they were after. At this point Zander kept saying "This is the best trip ever!" When we were done with that part we wandered into the old house which wasn't very big, but had a lot of interesting things in it that the boys kept asking about. The ranch was homesteaded in 1848 and was a working ranch up until 1981.

just outside the door of the house was a heavily wooded area that kind of served as a bird sanctuary. The boys ran down there while I was walking behind another mom who daughter ran after Lucas. She was trying to get her to come back so they could leave when she stopped dead in her tracks and said, "I hope that was a rain drop" as she looked up into the tree canopy. It wasn't. A bird pooped on her, so I offered her some wipes and tried to wipe it out of her hair as best I could. I'm just glad it wasn't me!

We did some more exploring and wandering around while the boys picked up sticks and played. It was starting to get cooler and darker so we decided to head out. Before we did though, the boys had to have a stick fight so they grabbed the longest sticks they could find and fought off their dad. It all ended when dad poked Lucas in the eye. Each child wanted to take a stick home, so they found smaller ones on the way to the car.

We were a little disappointed we didn't see any buffalo on the drive to the ranch; there were some we could see way out a ways from for the ranch, but nothing up close. Zander was sad we didn't see any, so we'll have to go back another weekend. The views were beautiful, we had some laughs, and everyone had a great time.

We picked up some pizza and pop on the way home for dinner. I asked the boys what their favorite part of the trip was. Zander first said it was the deer antlers he found then changed it to roping the cows, but his final favorite thing of all were the big, long nails he found. Lucas said his picture of the rattle snake he got to keep was his favorite, and I believe him because he wouldn't let me put the picture in my bag to keep it safe while they went exploring. He insisted on carrying it himself. Hannah just loved being able to walk and run by herself wherever she wanted. There was s stone path that went uphill that she would hop from rock to rock uphill then she'd run down on the grass and walk back up on the path over and over. What great memories!

 I love this picture because it captures all three of them with their usual looks: Zander with a half smile, grumpy Hannah (she must take after me), and Lucas like he has no idea what's going on or it's a "really mom?" look.