Short and Sweet Family Vacation

Grandpa, Aunts & Uncles, Cousins, Grandma and a mission reunion all in a six day road trip! Our first stop was at Abuelo's House! Penny made herself comfortable on Grandpa's couch on his front porch, enjoyed some ice-cream and she loved the swing in his backyard. Then we were off to see my Sister and stay at her new house. She does an amazing job with all her interior decor!! Beautiful! (we ran three miles together :) She's ready for the family 5k in August :) We even did a turbo jam workout together! Dallin had so much fun playing with his cousins! He got to ride there scooters, play at the park, learn to play new video games, pet there geico's. Penny liked playing in MJ's pretty girl room. They had a good time entertaining eachother while my sister and I did some sewing and craft projects. Then I had a wonderful time at my Sister Missionary Gathering!!!!! Then off to see my brother and his new house and location where they moved. They have a beautiful country home / lifestyle. My brother took me for a ride on his motorcycle :0 We spent about a day and a half with everyone and we would have loved to spend more time. Short and sweet was the theme for this vacation!! We spent half of Father's day with my Brother and my Sister-in-law made some delicious meals THANK YOU! Then we went to a park up in the Utah canyons and had a BBQ with Rolo's Dad and family. Stayed with my Sister again :) Thank you!! THEN we were off again to see Rolo's Mom and the Rocha cousins. Good Times! The best part of the vacation was watching the cousins play together. They had a GREAT time! Thank you everyone! I have over a hundred pictures from this road trip, here are just a few :)

Rolo's Dad with his six grand babies, all with blonde hair and blue eyes!

Cute Girls in there 4th of July outfits. I showed my sister how to sew the dress MJ is wearing. She did a great job!

Dallin with Grandma Wright

The kids roasting marshmallows at Uncle Ryan's

They have a cool tree house!

Penny with Uncle Ryan :) They have a gorgeous paint horse and Penny loved there spunky little goat!!

I was nervous to ride on Ryan's bike but he's a really safe driver and he took me for a scenic ride up a canyon. It was a fun new adventure to ride on a motorcyle! I can see now why people like to ride motorcyles. Especailly when you live in a beautiful country area!! It is way better than sitting in a car ;)

It was so nice to see my mission President and his wife. They are two special examples to me! Sister Packer is so kind and she was in awe seeing us with our little kids. She said " you were beautiful Sister Missionaries but look at how more beautiful you are now, being a Mom". My President said "Everything you were dreaming of in the mission is now happening" So true!!

Mandy was my first companion :) She is amazing and she taught me so much, and I will always be grateful for a wonderful trainer!

Shauna and I served together for 6 weeks. We had a great time together! It was a short time to serve together but it bonded a sweet friendship. After our mission we were college roommates together and had some more good times. Now eight years later we both have little girls. Who knows maybe they will be mission companions someday together. That would be neat :) Sharee in the purple is the one that organized the Sister get together! All of us LOVE Sharee! She is wonderful and we all are grateful that she keeps us close and in contact with eachother. I was able to serve in Sharee's area in St. Louis for six months and we even went tracting together. Lots of good memories with her!!

MEMORIES

I have a Sister Missionary gathering this weekend. My mission President and his wife will be there and hopefully most of my mission companions! It has been over five years since I have seen my Mission President. I am looking forward to our little reunion. The kids are excited to play with there cousins and see Grandma and Grandpa, Aunts and Uncles. . . Good times Ahead - - - See ya all later :)

Kids having a good time at the lake

This is the 4th of July outfit that my friend Candee taught me how to sew! It was neat to be able to sew something other than flannel P.J bottoms. I am hooked now and I really want to make some more cute outfits, endless possibilities :)

Father's Day Pictures :)

Dallin and Penny have the best DAD in the whole world! We Love you!

Look at these handsome boys!!!

Yesterday, was Spencer's Mommy's Birthday and my kids woke up bright and early asking "What are we going to do for Rosie's birthday?" My kids love Rosie!! So,we went out for doughnuts and cinnamon rolls, and enjoyed a yummy breakfast together! I just can't say it enough but Dallin is so blessed to have a BEST FRIEND like Spencer! And it is a double blessing for me to be friends with Spencer's Mom!


Yesterday was also one dollar day at the movie theaters so last night the kids got to stay up late and watch 'Horton hears a Who' The kids got some kicks and giggle out of watching it and it had a good theme too. We had a Great Day :)

CHOOSING TO BLOSSOM

And the day came when the risk (it took) to remain in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.

- Anais Nin

"Can you find one perfect rosebud, either in your garden or at a flower shop? Place it on your desk or night table. The Talmud tells us that "Each blade of grass has its Angel that bends over it and whispers, "Grow, grow' " So do we. - Sarah Breathnach

Monday Mornings

i start my monday mornings by running at least 4 miles, i come back around 6:15 am turn on the computer and check e-mail and blogs and then I usually make a new post! If i am lucky the kids will still be sleeping and i can post some thoughts. The past couple weeks I have been trying to at least make a lunch for my hubby before i turn on the computer ;) I've been needing to do better about that! I would like to share some thoughts from Sarah Breathnach this morning that i think is very fitting for how i feel after the weekend has ended and how i feel for the start of a new monday/week. I usually have a sink full of dishes to do on monday mornings and lots of cleaning! Fun Fun NOT :) Here is proof my friends that my sink actually has dirty dishes in it.

Here is what Sarah has shared in her book 'Simple Abundance'

Getting your house in order

My life will always have dirty dishes.

If this sink can become

a place of contemplation,

let me learn constancy here

-Gunilla Norris

leftover spinach that was not eaten ;) If only i could accept the fact that my life will ALWAYS have dirty dishes, the repetitive tasks of chores could possibly become more bearable. Maybe i need to have an affirmation about "I will always be washing dirty dishes" Maybe it will become easier! Is any of this making sense? Does anyone else feel this way?

O.K so Sarah continues writing and says this "Because we dread it, we put it off for as long as possible until we have to dig ourselves out. Many women approach the unrelenting, repetitive, exhausting, and unproductive work known as housekeeping like the torture of Sisyphus. After offending the greek god Zeus, Sisyphus was punished by having to roll an enormous stone to the top of a steep hill. Every time he managed to pull off this feat, the stone would slide back down and the poor soul would have to start over again. Women do the same thing, Simone de Beauvoir observed in her book "The clean becomes soiled, the soiled is made clean, over and over, day after day."

O.K I remember taking mythology and learning about Sisyphus and that is a perfect way to describe housekeeping :) The thought of just picturing me trying to push a stone up a hill made me laugh because that is how i feel cleaning my house day after day and especially trying to keep a clean house with kids!!!!!!!!!!!! I love Sarah Breathnachs thoughts, I can relate in a lot of ways. Then shes writes this about getting your house in order "Prayer and housekeeping - - they go together. They have always gone together. We simply know that our daily round is how we live. When we clean and order our homes, we are somehow also cleaning and ordering ourselves." Gunilla Norris tells us in her modern book of hours, Being Home. How we care for our home is a subtle but significant expression of self-esteem.

I agree with that too "daily work, including housework needs to become a sacred art"

Lots of food for thought!!

Cleaning, washing dishes, laundry are on my to do list for TODAY

One of my many goals in life is to not feel like Sisyphus while doing housework!

Here is a picture of Penny, monday mornings my kids are usually in there PJS until at least 11 am :) and Penny loves to unload all my utensils and play with them under the kitchen island while I do dishes and then I take the utensils she has been playing with and toss them into the dishwasher too.

HAPPY MONDAY

"Let me learn constancy"

Relay For Life

Out of all twenty (plus) of our running group, including our families, Penny had the BEST time!! They had a jumping house, puppet play, k9 dogs, lots of goodies and Penny did not want to stop running! She probably did about two miles worth. She loves to run and she is fast too. Dallin was tired after one lap :) The kids stayed up till mid-night for the hope ceremony, they loved there glow in the dark sticks they got, they were perfect for a night light and then the kids squeezed into one sleeping bag together and slept until breakfast! It was neat to be apart of the Relay! There were a lot of people, we raised some good money to donote by selling home-made cinnamon rolls! The cinnamon rolls sold fast. A gal in our group made us all matching t-shirts, our group name is the 'Morning mob' Because we run at 5 am and we look like a mob running in the dark ;) Our group ran the most miles, we have a couple determined individuals in our group! One wanted to do 50 miles which would of taken 12 hours at least and then another one wanted to do 26 miles. They both did great they almost reached there goals. It was way to chilly for being a June summer night! It was in the 40's, but our running group is use to running in the cold, we ran through the winter!

We had a great Relay for life experience and hopefully we will be able to do it again next year.

Yesterday we played at the park with some friends, went biking, I've also been working on a sewing project :) I'm learning how to make an adorable 4th of July outfit!

here is a sneak peak :) I'm excited to get it finished!

Also a friend and I are starting to plan a 30th birthday party. A group of us 1978 girls are going to have a girls night with an 80's theme! I can't believe I am going to be turning 30 this month! Turning 30 is definitely a reason to CELEBRATE :)

Well, this morning we have already taken Rolo to work, went grocery shopping, now I am going to go make some yummy cinnamon rolls for Relay for life. I am kind of bummed because a good friend in my neighborhood is moving tomorrow so we need to stop by and say good bye to them some time today. She has been a fun gal with two cute kids. There are not very many kids in my subdivision so it will be sad to see them go. Well, it will be interesting to participate in Relay for Life this evening, I will post pictures of the event tomorrow!

Have a fun weekend everyone!

Bedroom Decor.

I have these pictures in my little collection of ideas to use some day . . . I do not recall where i have found 'em. I feel bad not giving credit to who and where they came from, i will be better about it, i promise!! They are cute ideas that i wanted to share :)

I think this would be cute framed. I love little piglets!

love birds found at redstamp.com Adorable stationary!

CUTE! CUTE!

My running group . . .

is doing Relay for Life this Friday. We are Planning on having a great time! :) We are bringing our families for the start of the evening and we will have a little potluck & play games, there will be lots of activities. The relay goes all night until ten in morning. Yikes, i have not pulled an all nighter for a LOOONNG time. There will be a bunch of booths at the relay, a couple of us are baking cinnamon rolls to sale at the relay to help raise money to donote to the American Cancer Society. This will be a new experience and I am looking forward to having a fun time with our group. It will be for a good cause, The theme is . .

CELEBRATE.
FIGHT BACK.
REMEMBER.

Some days I feel like this picture below and yesterday and today have been 'A SNAP OUT OF IT" day. I wasn't going to blog about it but this is how I have been feeling. The reason why I feel this way is because a week and a half ago I went to the doctor to have a colonoscopy and it went well and I did great during the procedure. Well, the doctor took some samples and the nurse called back with the results yesterday and I am bummed about the results. I have been working hard to keep my body healthy but it still isn't what it should be and I have also been on a high dose of medicine and it is not working to the best of what it should. A year ago the doctor had to convince me to go on this medicine I have been taking and I am glad that I did because what I thought was normal for me was not at all. I have felt so much better since I started taking the new med and well I need to start taking some more. I keep on telling myself 'you do the best with what you can do and roll with the punches'. So, this i how I feel! I needed to vent!

I wonder what it would be like to live in a world where it is always June --- L.M. Montgomery

Rolo and I are both June Babies and we wouldn't mind living in a world that is always June ;)

• Dallin is his Daddy's little shadow. They had a good time at the Father - Son campout. I do not have any pictures of there little adventure because they were to busy hiking, playing with friends, cooking and eating lots and lots of treats. Lucky boys!

Doing Saturday chores together :0 Work before play! We went to a summer library carnival in the afternoon.

Yesterday was Rolo's Birthday! Dallin was excited to bake his Daddy's cake. He helped bake it and then Decorated the Angel Food Cake with "Vanilla" (Cool Whip) ---- Dallin wanted Whoppers on the cake and he said this about them "They live at Wal-Mart, you can go there and get some, they even have brown ones, we used the strawberry ones" ;) Sprinkled with fresh Strawberries and Blueberries. Mmmm Mmmm Good

Finger lickin GOOD ;)