Zion's National Park

We went on a 3 mile hike that takes you to the top of a waterfall and the kids kicked butt, none of them complained or whined, they were singing and cruising up the mountain. I was feeling tired and sweaty and they kept me going. Kerstyn started to say her feet hurt when we basically were done with the hike. We have decided to make hiking a more regular thing for us now that we know our kids can do a stellar job! I sat at the top of the hike with such an overwhelming feeling of gratitude for this Earth and all of God's creations. When you are in a place like that you don't have a care in the world. I had a hard time coming down. It was one of those "never forget it" moments.
The picture below is of us before we drove thru a tunnel that goes into a mountain, it is 1 mile long. When you go thru it is pitch black and you turn on your headlights, you can't really see each other inside your vehicle. When we came out Christian's eyes were huge saucers, but he didn't seem real scared.
We will miss this beautiful place!

Spring Break 2010

Lindi is the greeter at Costco, perfect job for her!

This year I told Curtis I wanted to be somewhere warm for Spring Break since it has been so cold here! We decided that St. George would be perfect since my sister-in-law Lindi lives there in a beautiful home and she is so gracious with having guests. We called her to say we were thinking of coming and she said for sure we could stay with her. We arrived late Thursday night and got up on Friday and headed to Zions Nat'l. Park. We knew that most of Sat. and Sun. would be spent watching Conference so Friday turned out to be the perfect day to be adventurous. The weather was very kind to us, sunny but cool. I enjoyed this getaway so much. We were away from everything, Curtis had no interruptions with work; the kids were in a fabulous mood aside from the daily rifts that brothers and sisters have. Christian kept up with the crazy vacation schedule like a pro, and I was just happy to be in a place where the sun was shining and it felt warm! On Monday before we came back the kids wanted to see the 3D movie How to Train a Dragon, but it was sold out, so I checked them out of school early today and we went to see it. We are definately heading to St. George more often, especially since Lindi is such a blast and a spoiler- we LOVED the chocolate covered strawberries and chocolate chip cookie pies!

Inspiring words

My mom, myself, and my Laurels and their moms went to the YW broadcast on Saturday and Elder Uchtdorf's talk was so inspiring to me! I really needed to hear the words he spoke. He talked about how we all have a fairy tale that we are living, it starts with once upon a time and ends with happily ever after. Also he mentioned that in every princess fairy tale the character goes thru some sort of adversity and has to overcome. He said that our Father in Heaven knows what our happily ever after is and how to get there, we need to go to him for guidance. I have not been receiving as much guidance in my life from my Father as much as I should so I am recommitting myself to go to him more so I can enjoy the REAL happily ever after that comes after this life.
My favorite quote from his talk said:
"It is your reaction to adversity, not the adversity itself that determines how your life's story will develop."

Goodbye our faithful Honda, we will never forget you!

I never thought i would be so sad about losing a car. Our '96 Honda Accord (it was goldish silver -that color that made every Honda in the parking lot look like mine!) was totaled last month. Curt headed off to work on a cold Monday morning and a sporty car with rear wheel drive started to spin on the freeway causing Curtis' car to spin and he got hit twice by the car in front of him and the car behind him, he wasn't hurt thank goodness! But our car was considered a total loss in that the cost of repair was more than the value of the car. Boo-hoo, I am so frustrated cuz that car never gave us any grief and we planned on having it till it died or go through our teenage drivers which ever happened first! So now we get to experience the grueling process of buying a new car which we were not planning on doing. Oh well, so is life. But I just want to let our Honda know that we will miss all the wonderful times we had in her, and to thank that car for being so good to us and saving us a lot of $dough$ thru the years!

Opinions welcome-cars we are looking at:
Kia (Optima)
Hyundai Accent or Sonata
Nissan Sentra
Accord/Civic
Chevy Aveo
*probably 2005 or newer on all these

Feeling sad today!

Some days go just fine and others are spent feeling a lonely, empty feeling in my gut. Everyday was spent taking care of my dad when my mom was on her bus routes and now when that time of day comes and he isn't here to spend time with and laugh with I don't know what to do with myself. He wasn't even hard to care for. Most of the time he was company and entertainment for me. Today is just one of those hard days and I just miss my daddy-o.

Reason for concern?

I had an interesting conversation with Kerst a few mornings ago. She came in the kitchen dressed for school and had my jewelry on which she has been begging to wear to school and I keep saying no. She mentioned that she likes "popular" and "rich" things, so I asked her "what are popular and rich things?" and her response was having cute clothes and cute hair and the most friends at school. Holy Moly she is picking up on this and it is her first year of school! Kemp and Cami have never really talked like that and I think they care less about popularity, in fact Cami says those girls "bug" her (yea for that). I told Kerstyn it is important for people to like you but not just for your clothes or hair but because of the way you treat them. Then we talked about being rich and the difference between being selfish or selfless with what you have. Let's just hope she marries the offspring of a Huntsman-Ha,ha! By the way we have come to a compromise with the jewelry, she can buy a little girls set of bracelets if she keeps her room neat for a whole week, she has 2 days to go and is doing a great job!

V-day and Curt's 35th b-day (Feb.21)

We had a great time celebrating Valentine's and Curtis' b-day. We haven't seen any movies in awhile, with the busyness of the holidays and my dad and so forth. I wanted to see Sherlock Holmes and Curt wanted to see Avatar, so we did my movie for V-day and Curtis' for his Birthday. On Monday Feb. 15 we went to see Paul Cardall (a pianist) in concert at the Abbravanel Hall, it was a very emotional performance. He almost died last year because of a heart defect. He received a new heart in Sept. 09. We were surprised to see Peter Brienholt and Mindy Gledhill performing at the concert as well. Mindy wrote a song for her close friend Stephanie Nielsen (nieniedialogues) and she performed it at the concert because it is about how we all have imperfections but it is really all about our hearts. I loved her voice so we purchased her cd, she is fabulous (she's on my playlist). Paul's newest cd is called Living For Eden, if you are a fan of John Schmidt then you will love him! Our kiddies were feeling left out so Curtis took them to see Percy Jackson and The Lightning Thief (they have read the books and LOVE IT!). On Sunday we had Curt's parents and my mom over for dinner (sweet n' sour chkn, Curt's fav) and a cookies n' cream ice cream cake, which we scarfed down, it was yummy! Curtis got new soccer gear for his b-day. He is playing on a team now, his first game kicked his butt, hard!

Food For Thought- I have been reading a book I found on my mom's shelf called Sunshine for the Latter-Day Saint Mother's Soul. There are various entries from different LDS members about motherhood. One entry I especially liked was from Joseph F. Smith, he says "A wife may love her husband , but this love is different from the love of mother for her child. The true mother, the mother who has the fear of God and the love of truth in her soul, will never hide from danger or harm, nor leave her child exposed to them. But as naturally as sparks fly upward, and as it is to breathe the breath of life, mother steps between her child and danger. She will defend her children to the uttermost. her life is nothing in comparison to her child. That is the love of true motherhood." I get chills when I read the phrase "the love of truth in her soul". That is the kind of mom I aspire to be, maybe someday, eh? For now my family is healthy and happy and church going and God loving, and that makes my soul love truth.