Sun Valley, IDAHO

Ok ok, it's a new year, I promise to blog more often. I know I have been extremely boring with my lack of blogs. SO SORRY!

Over MLK weekend we went to Sun Valley, ID with some friends. We left when I got off work Friday at 6 PM and drove the 5 hours there. We had a bright and early morning the next day, waking up at 7 AM so we could leave early to start our snowmobiling day.

I have only been snowmobiling a few times in my life, and they were all when I was still pretty young. Kory has never been.  It was so much fun renting snowmobiles for the whole day and just roaming the beautiful winter wonderland in the greater Sun Valley area.

We didn't get pictures of everyone, sad! But here are a few.

 Sammy accidentally threw Chase off the back of the snowmobile. This is her guilty face :).

 Kory was enjoying the thigh deep snow new Redfish Lake. He made the hike all the way to the picnic table where we decided NOT to eat our lunch.

Kory and I had such a great time! I love this picture.

During our day of snowmobiling we had some funny things happen. In addition to Sammy throwing Chase off the back, Kory accidentally got his snowmobile stuck in some powder. Cassidy, Joe and I were waiting forever wondering where everyone was (I was the leader of the pack at the time, and mid-pack lost the spotting of the people behind them).  Finally, about 15 minutes later they caught up. Kory had been having fun and the deep powder got the best of him.  Later in the day, Kory and I accidentally tipped on the of the double snowmobiles. He didn't believe me when I said they were top heavy and squirly and you really had to lean into the turns (I was driving at the time), haha.  We laughed a lot.

We spent the rest of the night playing games, and watching a movie. We were all pretty wiped out!  Kory and I had to leave after church on Sunday so that I could make it back to work on Monday. All in all it was a pretty short weekend, but we had a great time!! Thank you Ficklins for the invitation!!

Random Sampler

I noticed that there are some pictures I have not had a chance to post yet.  Kory and I have season tickets for BYU football.  We've been having fun going to the games.  We also have seats next to our friends Kyle and Mekelle, whom we love, so that's fun!  The first couple of games we actually had fairly good seats! Here are some pics.

The week before General Conference we also got to see my best friend Karly Jo, and her little sister Kimra.  Kimra was blessing her beautiful little baby.  Then after the blessing we got to enjoy some amazing homemade Cafe Rio pulled pork burritos and to-die-for desserts.  Here are some pics from that event.

In addition to those little picture updates, I can't help but add adorable pictures of other cute kids.  It's kind of funny how I always post pictures of Kelli's cute kids now that they are close to us.  It's just one of those things you can't help but do, I can't imagine what my blog will be like when I have my own children to post pics of.  Until then, I just love all of my nieces and nephews!  Here is Aubrey in my sunglasses, haha.

 

Hope you enjoy my little picture update! I think I'm finally all caught up...wait I never posted our Moab reunion... hmm... haha catching up on blogging is not fun!

Conference Weekend

I just spent a lot of time catching up on friends' and family's blogs. It is always nice to catch up. This weekend was really wonderful! As members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints we had the opportunity to be addressed by the leaders of our church as the semi-annual General Conference. The messages that the Prophet, Thomas S. Monson, and other General Authorities and Apostles shared with us were uplifting, inspiring, direct, and gave me the desire to be a better person. I feel so blessed to know that Heavenly Father hears my prayers, Jesus Christ is my Savior and Redeemer, and that the fullness of the gospel has been restored to the earth in our modern day.

Kory's parent came to town this weekend! I love it when family comes to town. On Friday we went out to dinner with some more extended family. Then on Saturday we attended the afternoon session of conference in Salt Lake. Stephen and Stephanie were able to come and enjoy conference with us and Kory's family. What a treat! It was such a beautiful day! I love fall when it is sunny but the air is kind of crisp and slightly cool. It's fun to think that Kory officially proposed to me around this time last year. We had already been engaged for a couple months by that point, we just didn't have the official "pop the question with the ring" thing yet. I also had my bridal shower this weekend last year! So many wonderful memories from that! I have such amazing friends whom I love very much!!! Saturday night Lynda, Kelli and I went to Rod Works (which is a super amazing home-decor store). We had no idea it was going to be crazy busy because of a "girls night" shopping event. Even though the line wrapped around the whole store, we had fun shopping and were happy with our finds.

This morning we went over to Kelli's for breakfast. Kory's dad made their famous family crepes, and they were delicious! All of us then enjoyed watching the Sunday sessions of conference from home in our comfy PJ's. Later in the afternoon we went to my cousins and enjoyed a Sunday dinner with them.

I love my family so much!

Northwest Summer Road Trip

This is another "catch up" blog post. Don't forget to check out the 2 or 3 others I have written below this.

At the end of July after Kory and I finished working at our old job, I was able to go home for a few days! The adventures of the next few days were very unexpected, however. When I flew in we loaded up the car and Mom, Stephen, and I started a road trip to Portland. We were going to see Stephen's freshman roommate and great friend's mission homecoming talk in church. Trent came to Boise to see Stephen speak in church before he left on his mission since Stephen was the first to leave. Stephen was on his own mission when Trent left for his. So he really wanted to go to Trent's hometown to see him speak when he returned. Trent is from a town in Southeast Washington not very far from Portland, OR. So our plan was to spend time there Saturday evening.

After a long drive, we got into town and had Chipotle for dinner. Then we drove around downtown to check everything out. I really like Portland a lot. After playing tourists downtown, we decided to drive out to see the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Portland, OR temple. We got there just before the sun started to set. The temple is surrounded by tall beautiful pine trees, and has lovely landscaping and fountains. Each of us notices immediately the peace that we felt from being on temple grounds. We spent a lot of time there just taking it in and pondering. I love spending time with my family.






The next morning we woke up super early and started driving North through Vancouver, WA to Ridgefield, WA. We attended church where Trent spoke and told about the lessons he learned while serving a mission in Hungary. He is such an amazing young man, and he and Stephen were both excited to be reunited after years apart. They both have such a fun sense of humor. After church, we went over to his family's home for lunch and had a great time! Trent even showed us how to use a whip (a little trick he learned from the Hungarians)!


Trent only lives 2 hours from Puyallup, WA where my cousins live. So we decided that since we were so close and we still had a few days before I need to be back in Boise, that we would go see them! Unfortunately, it took us 4 hours to get there instead of 2 because of the traffic near Olympia. But, we made it to the Fowles house just in time for Sunday dinner (we totally planned that, except not really). Jodi's sister's family was also there for Sunday dinner and they brought Puyallup Fair scones for dessert! They were so yummy. We always have so much fun with our cousins, we sure love them! After dinner we played a game in their backyard, I can't remember what it is called but it's fun. You toss these strings with golf balls on the end and try to get them to wrap around the pipes across the yard. Here are some pictures of Stephen and my cousin Nykele playing, and being very competitive I might add.




Since Puyallup is close to Seattle, on Monday we decided to go have lunch at Red Robin on the wharf. That is something we have always done when we go to Seattle. We had tons of fun spending a couple of hours around there before we left town.








On our way out of town we stopped at a Costco so that we could get some Puyallup Fair Scone Mix. Then we hit the road and headed to the last stop of our road trip, which was Priest River, ID where my mother grew up. I absolutely love going there! Northern Idaho is so beautiful, and it's nice to get away and relax.

The first night we were there we got in right before a big lightning storm rolled in. There was constant lightening from 11 PM until 4 AM in the morning! The power went out only about an hour after we had arrived. I was so tired I fell asleep, but Mom and Stephen stayed awake watching the storm. The next morning, we got to work to help clean the house and the yard. Here you see Stephen mowing the empty lot.


After we got some work around the house done we were able to take a short day trip to Canada! It was fun to drive up there to the little Canadian town just across the border for a round trip of only a few hours. The drive was absolutely beautiful. The further north we got in Idaho, the more blue the mountains were and landscape was breathtaking. When we were in Canada, we raided the grocery store to get lots of yummy chocolate! You know, the good stuff that isn't found often in the states like Kinder Bueno and Bounty!


On our way back home, we stopped in Sandpoint, ID for dinner. We decided to get Arby's and it's a good thing because they had the most amazing huckleberry shake there! The owner of that Arby's would buy gallons of fresh huckleberries from a local source. It was amazing! The fun thing though, was that we decided to go to the part to eat our fast food so that we could enjoy some beautiful scenery. Due to some construction, there was a little confusion about how to get to the park. It was a good thing though because we ended up sitting in the parking lot of a beautiful Sandpoint hotel and overlooking the river. This is the view we enjoyed during dinner.


By the time we got home from our little afternoon trip to Canada, it was dark. We went to bed not really thinking too much about the storm that had occurred the night before. The next morning we woke up and Stephen and I went to go get McDonalds breakfast. On our way we passed my mom's high school (now the Junior High) and saw the the big trees in front of it were totally uprooted. When I first saw it I was confused asking why they would take those trees out! Then Stephen quickly informed me that they don't remove trees like that, and it was because of the storm. "For real!?" I replied knowing that what he said made way more sense, but I still couldn't believe it. We brought breakfast and Tillamook ice cream back home to eat with Mom. Yes, we had ice cream with our breakfast because the Newport, WA McDonalds sells Tillamook ice cream and that stuff is good!

Anyway, I told Mom what we saw and then we jumped in the car to tour the rest of the town and see what other damage had been done. Mom has the rest of the pictures. But it was crazy because several trees had been taken out all over town. We watched the news and heard all about the crazy storm the hit Northern Idaho. Apparently there were hundreds of lightning strikes in the greater area that night. Then as we were leaving town we discovered that several trees had come down just two blocks from our house. Cars were completely smashed, trees landed on carports and the corner of a house was taken out. That is when we realized that we needed to say a prayer expressing our gratitude for how much our Heavenly Father watched over us that stormy night. We had no idea how lucky we were! I wish I had the other pictures to show you, but here is one of the trees we saw on the way to McDonalds.

Ultimately, that road trip was SOOO MUCH FUN! I am so glad that I was able to make it for such an unexpected and adventurous journey with Mom and Stephen. I wish Kory would have been able to come! This is what he was up to while I was gone (baking chocolate-chocolate chip cookies and surfing the flowrider.)

Salt Lake Temple

Kory and I were married in the Salt Lake Temple. Since then it has become an even more significant and special place to me. Kory and I were able to go on an unplanned little date together after seeing Britlynn. Since we were close to downtown Salt Lake City, we decided to go to Temple Square and walk around the beautiful Temple that we were married in. When you go there, they have a visitor's center that you can go through. One of the really neat things in the visitor's center is the statue of Jesus Christ. It had been a really long time since I had been there and seen it, so we went over there too. I love going to Temple Square because it is always so peaceful and beautiful.

After we walked around the Temple grounds we were able to go to Buca di Beppo for dinner. It was delicious!

I wanted to get a picture of Kory and me in front of the statue, so Kory asked a woman who was also there to take the picture for us. He chose to ask the woman who was already holding a camera, assuming she would know how to take a picture. Unfortunately, she was also French and didn't speak English haha. She did the best she could :)

I'm using my laptop because I am in Washington and obviously didn't want to bring my iMac all this way. My laptop has an older version of iPhoto though, so it isn't as easy to adjust the pictures. We were losing daylight quickly by the time we were taking pictures outside. You can't even see the picture with just me, I'll have to edit the brightness when I get back to Utah.

I know some of you don't know very much about LDS Temples. Since Kory and I were married in the Salt Lake Temple, and now that we are working on remodeling the Seattle Temple I thought you may be interested in knowing a little bit more about the Temple. Below is a short video that was made by the LDS church to explain the significance of them. I love going to the Temple, it is a special place that makes me feel closer to my Heavenly Father. I know that Kory and I are married and sealed together for eternity because of the covenants we made together there.

Manti Pageant

Manti was so much fun. Kory tells the story better than I do. But basically the Friday we went, it had been raining all day long. I called the pageant's 800 number and spoke to an elderly man who assured me that "it rarely rains on the Manti Pageant, so we'll see ya tonight!" It was adorable of him to say, but I was skeptical. But we met up with our friends the Palmers from our ward, and my girlfriends Emily and Debra in Provo. All of us rode down to Manti and it was pouring pretty hard before we got to Manti. However, as soon as we hit the Manti city limits it was dry and the sun was shining through the clouds. It was really a miracle. The rest of the night was beautiful and we enjoyed seeing the story of Joseph Smith, and the LDS pioneers played out on the Manti Temple hill.