Life is Tough

Today was a somber day and we fasted for a family who experienced a horrific tragedy yesterday. Our kids don’t quite comprehend the situation and they seem confused to see their parents crying. We tried to maintain some normalcy for them and had them set up some Halloween decorations while we prepared a simple dinner of fruit and muffins. Our hearts and prayers go out to the family.

My original goal for the next few weeks was to journal something positive from the day and sometimes the positive can be extremely hard to notice in the face of an overwhelmingly sad day.

family

Posted on October 12, 2014

The Phoenix Temple

We started the day waking up at the Residence Inn next to the Mayo Clinic. After breakfast we hit the pool for a nice chilly swim. It wasn’t too cold and once you got it it was actually really nice.

Then we got cleaned up, had lunch in our room and headed over to the Phoenix Temple Open House which was our excuse for staying in a hotel this weekend even though it is only about 1 hour from our house 🙂

Parking for the tour was at a nearby water park and they had tour buses shuttling people back and forth to the temple. We were hoping to see the

temple from the road somewhere and we were a little surprised that we didn’t really see it until we got into the stake center parking lot and the steeple peaked out above the stake center. It was still a beautiful site.

Now here is the crazy part of the story. We got off the bus and walked into the stake center for a presentation. As I step off the bus there was a guy at the front of the bus who looked familiar. As we started the presentation I got another look at the familiar face and I was pretty certain it was a friend of mine from High School. As we filed out of the room I stopped him and asked him if he was who he thought and sure enough it was! We embraced and chatted (as reverently as possible) during the tour and come to find out he has been living in Arizona for the past 5 years. I had no idea.

Anyway, the temple was beautiful. Unfortunately, I can’t help compare it to the Gilbert temple which really is possibly the most amazing temple I’ve been in. We were glad our kids had another opportunity to be inside a temple. What a cool time to be a part of this church! Tomorrow we may try and catch a showing of “Meet The Mormons” after we do another morning swim, checkout and go to our Nephew Max’s baptism.

temple, vacation

Posted on October 10, 2014

Taking A Day Off

I’m not sure who reads our blog any more. It has been over a year since we posted. This week I started keeping a daily journal but then I couldn’t decide the best place to do it and said, “Hey, why don’t I blog it?” I guess this means I can’t get too personal…or can I? The point of the daily journal is to follow some advice I got to be happy. The task is to write about something positive each day. This way my focus is on the good stuff. I don’t think we have to ignore the bad but we should always try to recognize the good.

What was good today? After work we piled the family in the car and drove to North Scottsdale and now we’re in a hotel and I have tomorrow off and we are going to attend the Phoenix Temple Open House. Fun! We could have just driven there tomorrow and not gotten a hotel but we wanted a little adventure and change of scenery. The kids are on Fall Break and this will be the only thing away from home we’re doing this year. Plus we’ll have two days of not having to cook and clean!!! I guess I would say that is the positive.

Another positive for me is that I have an awesome wife that took care of getting the van in for maintenance today. We had to get the power steering fluid flushed and some other thing. And since I was I work when it was finished she walked to the mechanic with her 4 little kids to pick it up! What a woman! Did I mention she is almost 7 months pregnant?

This wasn’t today but another positive thing that happened this week is that we decided on a name for our baby. We always have the hardest time choosing names for our children. We were determined to find a name fast so we could have it done and start getting used to the name. We still aren’t 100% sure of the middle name but as of now it is Sierra Snowe 🙂

baby, vacation

Posted on October 10, 2014

Fall Break and Halloween

This year for Fall Break we decided to head out to Yuba City. The kids always love this trip, but we made it extra exciting this year by stopping halfway, staying in a hotel and spending some time at the beach on the way there. Then we loved the beach so much on the way there, we decided to stop at the beach on the way home too!

A cool roadside “zoo” at the foot of the Sutter Buttes.

Celebrating Carter and Brechin’s birthday at Bishop’s Pumpkin Farm.

Lost in a corn maze

family, vacation

Posted on November 11, 2013

Back to School and Micah’s Birthday Surprise

Summer break always ends too fast! Come on – we are going back to school way too early in August. We were all excited for the meet the teacher night. Jackson is in second grade and has Mrs. Long. Lacey is in Kindergarten and has Mrs. Carpenter. That was a fun night, but reality sets in about a week after school starts and although school creates a simple regimen to life, I’m still not convinced that I like it. I know, I’ve been fighting this battle since I was 5 🙂 Jackson seems happy and is doing very well in his class this year. Lacey is doing fine, but doesn’t want to go most days. She has become pretty attached to me, which is sweet, but hard for school every day. I love that she is in half day this year. I’m grateful this is still an option here. Usually sports would have started about this same time but because we were trying to cut back a little with Micah starting his own business and we needed a little break from the busy-ness of life, we decided to only do “Let’s Play Music” classes for this semester for Jackson, Lacey, and Rachelle. It has been heaven! I love watching Jackson play sports and to give all my kids opportunities to learn new things, but really when you get home from school at 4:00, do homework, maybe have a few minutes to play, dinner, baths, bedtime comes quickly! So this has been a positive thing for us to take a break from extras this semester, with very few complaints.

For Micah’s birthday, I was feeling like we needed a quick get away. Neither of us had been sleeping very well and I thought a night away would be good. It was! Thanks to Steve, Krista, and Lincoln for taking everyone for the night! I felt especially bad about it after I found out that Krista was having morning sickness! Poor thing. Thank you so much for letting us get away for a night! So I booked us a hotel in Scottsdale, worked out babysitters, and I was sure Micah was on to me. I’ve NEVER been able to surprise him with anything. He would rather have the thrill of figuring out what I’m getting for him than be ‘surprised.’ Anyway, I was trying to decide how to let the kids in on the secret, so they understood with out them telling Micah. The night before I think I let Jackson in on the secret and I think I let Lacey know the day of. Of course she was blabbing about it the second I told her, but she said all the wrong things and Micah didn’t understand what she was talking about. I slyly packed our bag, and finally about 30 minutes before Krista and Steve came over I let Lacey tell the secret! Micah was totally confused! It was funny to see his reaction. We had a relaxing night and came back refreshed! We made a fun b-day cake for Micah’s birthday and celebrated with the kids later that night. Happy Birthday – we’re getting old!

birthday, micah