Boston Memorial Run

I signed myself, Kiersten, and Nate up to participate in a fun run put on by Salt Lake Running Company to honor the Boston Marathon. Katie and Ang (and Jacob and Makayla) tagged along too because that's what we like to do.

Here's a tale of two runners as it seems to appear in the photos. I'm in the red, looking at the camera, and my sister, Katie, is next to me in gray. Things seem okay here. Chugging along at the start, trying to get out of the corral.

Now notice her sneer!?? Not sure what I did. Cut her off maybe? Give her an elbow :)

Now she's proceeding to tell me off. I think I'll just ignore her . . . and keep looking at the camera. I didn't REALLY think he was taking pictures or maybe I would have smiled at least once.

Okay, this is totally a made up story. But those looks she was giving me sure made me laugh. I'll have to get her side to my "tale of an angry racer."

Personal Progress - Faith and prayer

Faith is not just a nice principle; it is a POWER.

Alma 32:21

Hebrews 11

Ether 12:27

The world's view of faith: You can have faith in anything and if you believe it long enough, it will come true. That is not true faith. It is simply being a good guesser.

True faith resides in things as they really are, in conjunction with the spirit. It is not second guessing the Lord. You know it's right even though you may not know how it is all going to unfold.

Jacob speaking of Sherem, a faith-shaker:

 And he had hope to shake me from the faith, notwithstanding the many revelations and the many things which I had seen concerning these things; for I truly had seen angels, and they had ministered unto me. And also, I had heard the voice of the Lord speaking unto me in very word, from time to time; wherefore, I could not be shaken.

Regardless of our own unique situations, what we want to try to create, what we need to establish, is a faith like that of Jacob, a faith that cannot be shaken.

Faith is about is about wanting what God wants. And how do we know what God wants? We pray. We don't just say prayers. We pray. As Enos prayed. With mighty prayer. Mighty prayer is sincere, focused, not necessarily long, is real and not rote or trite. It commands some energy and thought. And it's work.

Beginning my 3-week journey of praying morning and night, I had not been as consistent in the mornings. I usually would jump out of bed in a rush to get kids up and going and out the door. And before I knew it it was noon as I rushed about my day accomplishing the tasks I had outlined. That had to change. I made a goal to pray every morning before leaving the bathroom. That way I had started my day on good footing.

As I prayed during these three weeks, I prayed more earnestly that I would have the spirit with me throughout the day and that I would recognize it's promptings more. What I learned is that faith is not passive, a good feeling, or even wishful thinking. It is a real power that requires real work. And prayer is the means to tap into that power. I cannot even begin to describe the peace that comes from knowing that as I pray with real intent there is a God who hears me, who loves me, who knows my name, and knows exactly how I feel when life is either good or hard.

P. S. One of my most favorite "church" songs is called He Hears Me by Hillary Weeks. As a 17-year-old girl it touched me deeply the first time I heard it. The spirit was so strong as it quietly whispered to me that prayer is real, God is real, and answers do come . . . eventually.

California Dreamin', Part 2

Wednesday was our Alcatraz day.

When I was lamenting to my friend that it was going to rain on us and that maybe we should cancel our trip (yes, I was being an Eeyore), she kindly lent us her ponchos they used on their Florida trip. And it was a good thing we had them because it soaked us as we waited in line to get on the boat. That was ironically the only real rain we had to endure. Once we were on the boat and on the island, the day turned out sunny and clear.
This was inside one of the jail cells.

Looking out a window in the prison toward San Francisco (above) and looking toward San Francisco while outside (below).

Both times I've been, I've found it fascinating and think they have one of the best audio tours ever. Each person got a headset that narrated you through the prison with the narration told from the prisoners' viewpoint.

After returning to the mainland, we stopped at Fisherman's Wharf for some yummy chowder and garlic fries while Alex and Ash enjoyed chasing the seagulls.

Then on to Pier 39 to check out the sea lions, get lost in the Mirror Maze, and play some tunes on their piano stairs. Seriously! Those stairs actually played music. A musician's dream come true.
On our way out of San Francisco I convinced Tyler to drive until we found Lombard Street. It's one of those iconic San Francisco sites you either have to see or actually drive down. We chose to view it from the bottom as we drove by (this picture was snagged off the WWW since we couldn't find a place to park).

But getting there involved several very steep hills we had to navigate. Cruising down one street, Tyler cautiously approached the top of the hill, stopped when he couldn't see over it, and backed up to try another street. I seriously felt like I was on a roller coaster just as you're hitting the top and ready to plunge over the edge. It freaked me out. It freaked my kids out. And it freaked out our driver. He wasn't taking any chances of lost brakes. Maybe next time we'll be brave and actually experience Lombard Street the way it's meant to be experienced.

Thursday we headed for one last night in Reno, stopping in Sacramento for lunch at a nature place and making one last must-see stop at the Donner-Reed State Park in the Sierras. Despite my diligent weather watching, we still got caught in some snow as we headed over the pass. It only made the whole Donner-Reed story more authentic. The statue they have outside the visitor center is 20 feet tall from the base to bottom of the people which is as much snow as those poor pioneers got caught in that winter.
And our California adventure came to an end Friday. I loved every minute of it. Even the messy van. Next time I'm going to remember to get a picture of what my kids live in as we travel. And actually it's only a couple of them that like to spread their stuff EVERYWHERE despite bringing a bag to contain it all.

Our favorite snacks to eat when we travel: 
apples (cut up and soaked in Sprite -- this keeps them from turning brown)
Sour Patch Kids or licorice
crackers and cheese in a can
bagels and cream cheese

Our favorite entertainment in the car:
Books and books on tape. We didn't quite make it through Peter and the Starcatchers on CD, and I finished Escape, a riveting book about escaping the FLDS faith. That book had my mind reeling for a good week afterwards. Sadly, vacations seem to be the only time I have large chunks of time I can devote to reading, one of my most favorite hobbies.

California Dreamin', Part 1

"People who collect experiences are happier than people who collect things." 

This little saying popped up on my Facebook feed from a friend and I totally agree. Money spent on vacations either with just me and Tyler or with the entire family has been absolutely worth every penny. Some days I sure wish I had more pennies to spend on seeing more of the world.

Way back in January we decided to head to northern California for spring break. Ever since we announced it to the kids, Alex was on the countdown.

"Ashie's birthday, bowling, California."

We've been home two weeks and he's still looking for California on maps. Funny boy!

I am a weather watcher and definitely missed my calling in life. If I were going to do college all over again I would be a weather gal. Not sure what I'm ever going to do with my BIS degree.

Okay, with that out of the way I was watching the weather for our vacation. I knew I did NOT want to pull a Donner-Reed party fiasco and get caught in the Sierra's. There was some stormy weather forecasted for our vacation so instead of using Monday as a travel day, we left immediately after church and used Monday as a vacation day, the warmest day of the week.

Monday we left Reno and our first stop was the Jelly Belly Factory: free tour and free jelly bellies at the end.

Next stop was Muir Woods and hiking among redwoods. I'll admit this was my reason for our vacation. I wanted my kids to see these tall, beautiful trees.

This vacation we branched out and tried an Extended Stay America after our botched attempts at securing a vacation rental. But you can read all about that here. We ended up about 20 miles north of San Francisco which meant we got to cross the Golden Gate Bridge every day. Our hotel was on a bay, with a fabulous walking trail that led to a Super Target. I considered that our best find for the groceries we would be needing. It was the ideal place to stay and if we ever went back, we'd definitely stay there again. I loved that we only ate out a handful of times during our 5 1/2 days we were gone. It was still an adventure to eat out when we did.

Tuesday was Chinatown and The Exporatorium. Rain was headed our way so we headed out early and managed to find an open meter in Chinatown. Our first experience was when we stumbled on a truck unloading pigs.

Somehow we ended up in the market section but eventually made it to the little shops to purchase t-shirts, hats, sweatshirts, and trinkets.

As the rain began to fall our final stop for the day was an indoor, hands-on science place. I can't really describe it other than there are so many exhibits to try out that we paired the kids up and told them to explore where and what they wanted and meet at the front in a few hours. I felt it was a great way to spend a rainy afternoon.

Nate was the only brave one to try the toilet bowl drinking fountain.

To cap off our Chinatown experience we ate dinner at real Chinese restaurant that night. Our kids only know Panda Express as Chinese food. I was a little nervous when they set us around a table with glass goblets and a lazy Susan in the middle. There was only one mishap when that turn table hit Kiersten beverage glass.

Stay tuned for more.

Oh happy day

For this girl
Because . . . 

Okay, the treats were a bonus. Notice anything different?

SHE GOT HER BRACES OFF!! About two weeks shy of two years.

She made her yummy chocolate chip cookies for one of the assistants who patched her chipped front two a several months ago. I love that they sent her home with a fun goodie basket filled with all the "forbidden" orthodontic foods like pop and popcorn and Skittles and anything chewy. They should've included a caramel apple in there.

Oh, she's growing up.

Read about getting them on here.

March . . . In like a lamb and out like a lion

Oh man, where do I start. March for us came in more like a lamb and went out like a lion and I'm not talking about the weather either.

Alex's naps are getting fewer and farther between. Most days I lie down with him only to discover that I'm the one that needed the nap and he's off exploring the world.

I thought I was in need of a new mixer, but I think that's a post for another day.

We celebrated a couple of birthdays, one with a visit to The Leonardo to see the Dead Sea Scroll exhibit and the other with bowling.

I found The Dead Sea Scrolls quite fascinating. I'm sure my children were plenty excited to stop looking at vases and move on to something else. They wouldn't let us take photos of the actual scrolls, but this vase, similar to what the scrolls were found in, was something we could. It was very dark so the picture is quite grainy.

We did move on and found that The Leonardo had a fun area for the kids. They loved playing with the green screen at the weather forecasting station and seeing parts of themselves disappear. Has anyone seen Nate? He's been swallowed up by Monday.

There was stop motion animation with 2D and 3D objects.

There was a cool concave mirror.

There was digital coloring. Thankfully no one else was really there since we occupied the entire area for quite awhile.

And many other things we didn't get around to experimenting with.

Let's see. There was spring break to beautiful San Francisco. That warrants a blog post all by itself. Kiersten claims its the best vacation yet and is determined to move there one day.

I received an additional calling to be Assistant Young Women Camp Director. To steal a line from the musical "Into the Woods" I'm excited . . . and scared. We had our big kick off for camp this week. Our theme is B.R.A.V.E. (Being Righteous, Adventurous, Virtuous Examples) and has to do with superheroes, so I donned a purple wig, wore our red camp flag which is in the shape of a cape, put a crest on my red shirt, and pranced into the room singing the theme to The Greatest American Hero, a favorite superhero show I grew up with. Well, the older ladies knew what I was singing and the girls all got a a chuckle at my expense. But hey, I had their attention.

Erik surprised Kiersten and came to dance class, a ballroom-type class that is held on Saturday mornings. It's kind of a free-for-all and the instructors are just local college-age kids. Frankly, I'm surprised it keeps going. Erik thinks he doesn't want to go back, but we'll see. I think he's finally starting to take notice of the girls. He's begun to actually comb and style his hair with gel in the morning, and here they are on the deck checking out all the cute girls in the yearbook.

The weeding parties have begun. Weeds, like children, grow when you're sleeping. And I hate that both do it.

March Madness brackets are always a favorite in our house, especially when there are Oreo's riding on the line. I think Nate's favored to win this season.

We almost decided to recreate Ash's birthday from 7 years ago. That year we left on her birthday to travel with Tyler on a business trip to Reno. We stopped in Elko at the Arby's and had "birthday cake."

This year her birthday was the start of spring break and we were so tempted to leave for San Francisco, stopping in Elko for a repeat birthday cake. The decision was made instead to spend the weekend at home before heading out.

The movie Frozen was a big hit this past winter and we were the mean parents who didn't take our children to see it opening night. Or even the second night. Heck, we didn't even take them when it was at the dollar theater. But it did hit the mass market on DVD a few days before Ashlyn's birthday.

Do you think she liked her present?

When we watched it that night after bowling (and Did I mention that she was the last bowler in our group, we were on the last frame, and she had a split. This girl nailed it and knocked them down. Happy Birthday to her.) she quoted every line, sang every song. She pretty much memorized the entire movie watching short clips from YouTube. The girl liked her movie . . . and her DI roller blades. She is the roller queen around here. Sure makes her dad proud.

One day Alex overheard me and Tyler talking about going shopping and wanted to come with. I told him we were going on a date to which he replied, "I want to go on a date . . . but I am not 16." WHAT!?? I'm not sure where he's learning this stuff, because it doesn't get talked about at our house. He also told me one day after noticing some green apples in the produce section, "I want green apples and ham!" Guess he's been reading some Dr. Suess.