in paradise...

For Spring Break this year we are in Hawaii with Brian, Kimber & Ryan, baby Van, Lindsay and her fiance, Darren. Taylor will join us for a few days later this week. We are staying at the Waiohai on the island of Kauai, one of our favorite places.
We had a great time on Saturday swimming at Luma Hai and Queens Bath even though the North Shore is really crazy this time of year. The waves were spectacular and the kids had a fun time getting tossed in them.
I enjoyed watching them get tossed.





We went to one of our favorite beaches and baby Van had a great time tasting the sand. He would scoop it out of his beach pail then stick it in his mouth... it was everywhere but he was happy!








On Saturday morning we still had our tutor session and it was great. What a great place to have a tutor session! Robert and I really enjoy our sessions because we learn so much and we have an opportunity to share ideas and thoughts regarding principles of the gospel.

A Wonderful Weekend!

This past weekend, Robert and I, Richard & Nickie, Larry and Brian drove up to Utah to attend the sealing of our oldest daughter, Kelli, and her husband, Adam, in the Timpanogos Temple.  We stopped along the way in Aurora to get my mom, who came with us, too.  There were lots of family members there and dear friends… Steve & Kathy Thurgood… and we so appreciated everyone being there.  It made it that much more special.  Afterwards, we celebrated at their church building with a yummy soup and bread dinner where more friends and family joined us.  Our trip up and back was easy and quick.

We have also been in the process of finding new homes for our many animals.  On this trip we took our cat, Chloe, to my mom and my sister, Cindy, who will be caring for her while we are gone on our mission.  She will get lots of love and attention there and we feel so good about her new home!  We will miss you Chloe!

Aprendiendo Espanol es muy dificil...

I just finished my tutoring session for today. Actually, we both had tutoring today, Robert this morning and me this afternoon. I have to say that this session went really well and Robert loved his session! I usually am so nervous that I'm going to say something wrong, or I won't know an answer to a question, or I won't know what my tutor is saying. I'm feeling a little sick and I think that helped me not to care as much if I made a mistake. Maybe I should always be sick...

Also, I did something on Tuesday that I've been wanting to do for awhile and I'll probably post a picture next week sometime... what could it be??

April 17, 2011 Well, it took me a little longer to post the picture than I thought it would take... I decided to finally cut my hair. I've really loved having it this short and it's been much easier to care for than I thought it would be...

La Bienvenida!

Wow, how time flies when you don't have time to write on the blog! The funny thing is that I didn't realize that many people actually read my blog. I got to thinking that I was writing it for me, but then some of you that actually read it will say things like, "you haven't posted anything new for a long time!" So, I apologize. I hate it when other people don't blog for awhile, so I guess I need to do better.


Our big news is that Robert and I have been called to preside over the Mexico Puebla Mission and will leave in July for that assignment. Talk about a life changing event! We are very excited and humbled by the thought of being in charge of a mission and being responsible for 150+ missionaries. We are excited at the opportunity to learn Spanish and to re-learn Spanish! We are excited for the opportunity that Brian will have to go with us and experience another culture. So many things to think about... We will miss our family, but we understand that some of them plan to come visit us. We will hold them to that.
We will try to post regularly and keep you informed of all the wonderful experiences of the mission, and we hope you will also feel welcome to share your experiences with us! We love you all!

Continuing the Saga…

After we left Ron & Dee’s we headed East across Montana, heading for Yellowstone National Park. Ron & Dee suggested that we travel through the Beartooth Pass in Montana. We followed their advice and saw the most beautiful country ever!

We drove across Montana and then down to a place called Red Lodge. From there we went through Rock Creek Vista Point and could see for miles in every direction.

We started climbing up over the Bear’s Tooth Pass and saw the most beautiful mountains, lakes and wild flowers. We thought we were in the Swiss Alps!

the entire side of the mountain would be covered in flowers like this…

It was July but there were still many pockets of snow and it was very cold!

If you look past the sign, right above the “E”, you can see why it’s called Bear’s Tooth Pass

Then, as we were coming down onto the other side of the pass, we saw them… the most beautiful pair of mountain goats. You can’t see the other one, but there were two. We got out of our car to look at them and were standing about 20-30 feet away from them. We watched them for quite awhile until they wandered down the mountain side. They were amazing!

You can see both of them in this picture…

this was a river that we crossed over on our drive. We had to get out and hike to see it

standing on the bridge above the river…

And then, we finally made it to Yellowstone…

We were hoping to see some animals when we got into the park, and we weren’t disappointed… almost immediately we saw a couple of buffalo and it just got better from there. The following are the animals we saw and one that we didn’t get a picture of was a bald eagle.. enjoy the pictures!

we saw hundreds of buffalo… everywhere…

above… standing above the falls, looking down

below… standing in front of the falls where we had to hike down to get to this spot. It was a long hike back up!

who would’ve guessed that there are pelicans in Yellowstone Park?

This was another elk that we saw a little later. Look how big his antlers are and the crazy guy in the bottom of the picture… we stayed safe in our car the whole time!

As we were about to leave the park, we felt like we had seen just about every animal that we had wanted to see. Except a Moose. We were heading over a bridge and there was a big crowd of people. They were looking at a couple of large moose that were eating grass along the rivers edge. Success!!

We had a great time in the park and loved all the beauty of this amazing place. We were in time to see the sunset over the Tetons and then stayed the night at Teton Village

We made our way back to Provo to pick up Brian from EFY and had such a fun trip. We loved seeing new places and travelling new roads. It was all a great trip!

Montana here we come…

After the family reunion Robert and I had planned to visit our friends in Montana, but figured since we were going that far, we would make a few stops along the way… On Saturday, Robert, Brian, Mom and I headed up to Aurora to spend a couple of days with my mom and my sister, Cindy. We went to church with Mom on Sunday and then Robert, Brian and I travelled up to Provo after church. We stayed with Robert’s brother, David and his wife, Vicki, Sunday night. On Monday, we had a great breakfast with David and Vicki and spent some time visiting with them. We then headed over to BYU to drop Brian off for a week at EFY. Brian goes to EFY and usually doesn’t have a roommate planned ahead of time but he always has a great time. checking in outside of the stadium at BYU

He stayed in the E. Richards dorm in Heritage Halls, which is the same dorm that I lived in when I was attending BYU. He almost stayed in the same apt. as me… just two doors down! I got pretty nostalgic… that’s his window on the bottom right..

After we dropped Brian off, Robert & I drove up to Idaho to see Sister Sue, Robert’s Mission Mom from when he served in Spain. She lived in SLC for many years but recently moved to Idaho. It was great to visit with her again and get caught up on all the news.

After visiting with Sister Sue, we headed to Rexburg to see our good friends from California, Ross & Kathleen Baron. Ross is a teacher at BYU-Idaho and this was our first trip to visit them. We went to dinner at the hot spot in town, "Wingers" . Ross & Kathleen took us on a tour of the campus after dinner and we loved it. It really is beautiful there and we really enjoyed the cooler weather. This picture is taken from one of the buildings on campus and overlooks the valley and part of the campus.

The saga continues… after leaving Rexburg, we traveled to a little tiny town and were lucky to find lodging at one of the motels in town. There were only three… and they were all full. This place did have a couple of vacancies. I guess Idaho is a pretty popular place in July with all the fisherman and hunters, etc. We were lucky to have a place to sleep! We did love the accommodations, though, it was very picturesque.

The next morning we headed out again, slowly making our way to Montana… We had been told to stop and see Upper Mesa Falls if we were able and it was right along our way, so we did, and we were so glad! It was so beautiful!

The whole drive through Idaho and into Montana was so beautiful and we enjoyed it so much… even the potato fields were beautiful because they were different for us.

the potato fields… they were endless!

the Tetons from a scenic point in Idaho…

fields of horses grazing (my personal favorite…)

beautiful scenery of mountains and rivers in the Gallatin National forest

and then, finally, we arrived in Montana and to our friends, Ron & Dee Helling’s, home. I think it looked just like I thought it would! Dee and Ron have their own distinct style and their home and everything there reflects their love of animals and flowers and nature.

This is the backyard, where we had lunch, in the gazebo, and their garden is in the background.

We loved meeting their dogs, Harry & Hermione. We took a couple of hikes while we were there, we visited the museum where Dee works as a docent and Ron & Dee volunteer at a living farm exhibit. They dress up in period attire and play at the farm! Actually it’s a lot of hard work, but it seems like they’re having too much fun for it to be work.

walking across a foot bridge and standing in a field of flowers. the picture doesn’t do justice to the beauty of this place!

We also went to a farmer’s market and to a local concert in the park that was so much fun… and the music was even good!

We hope to make this trip again someday and bring some of our kids with us. It was a blast and we saw so many pretty things and had such a fun time with good friends.

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