Birdseye

Last weekend I was able to go spend the day in Birdseye, UT with my cousins to celebrate a couple of birthdays. Dar wasn't able to come with me because he was working studiously on his paper. Still. But it was nice for me to spend the day with my cousins and to give Dar the chance to work on his paper without me distracting him. I had a great time!

Robby & his Mr. Incredible goggles

Ben (& Matt in the background)

1 birthday boy

2 birthday boys!

The cute Toy Story alien cupcakes Martha made. They were de-lish!!
Some of the fam getting ready to go 4-wheeling

These girls love their cousin, Matt!

Remember those giant marshmallows I told you about from our family reunion? You have to eat it with 2 full graham crackers & a full chocolate bar--and it still gushes out the side!

Miss Abbie enjoyed her marshmallow too :)

Thanks for a fun day at the cabin, Lape's and Spencer's! We love you guys!

Silly Snail

P.S.

I forgot to mention that the other reason I love Skype is because I get to talk to my best friend who lives half a world away in Australia.

Good thing I get to see her in a couple weeks! Woot! Woot!

Today I'm Grateful For. . .

Text messaging and Skype.

Seriously.

I brought my sweet husband to the airport this morning for the final shebang of his Master's degree. He's doing field research in Minnesota and Wisconsin this week, the Lake Superior area, to be specific. Being a geologist he has to leave on trips a few times a year, and it's always hard for me to have him leave. This trip has been the hardest by far, and I just sent him off this morning!! Yikes! Yes, I cried when I left him in the security check line. I had to leave quickly so he wouldn't see me crying because I knew it would make it harder for him to leave, and he didn't have a choice. He has to get this degree!

Thankfully my hubby thought ahead and we bought a 2nd webcam last week so we would be able to talk to each other on Skype everyday while he's gone (as long as the hotel he's staying in has internet service). It's not even close to having him home with me, but it is wonderful to be able to see him and smile and laugh with him even though we're separated by several states.

He's been on trips before without cell phone service, and those trips are EXTREMELY difficult!! It's really hard for me to not be able to connect with him everyday. I feel like a HUGE piece of me is missing when he's gone, so today I'm especially grateful for cell phone service to be able to talk to him on the phone and to text him whenever I want. Skype is an added bonus.

And now a note for the hubby:
I love you sweetheart, of course you know that. :) I hope you have a wonderful time on your trip & that you have a blast with the people you're hanging out with for the next week. Just know that I'll be thinking about you constantly, and dreaming about you while I sleep. I love you Darwin! I can't wait to be with you again next week!!

Sunday Goodness

I decided we needed a nice, gooey Sunday treat today, so I made these little beauties. Mmm! Sweet, sugary goodness! Want some? Make some. Have yourself a nice treat of Sunday goodness.

(Is it just me or do desserts and sweets always taste better on Sunday than any other day of the week?)

I also just wanted to say how much I love the ward Darwin & I are in. Yes, I miss our old ward(s), but there's always something special about the ward you're currently in, ya know? One thing I love about our ward is that a lot of the older couples love Darwin & I like we're their own children, or grandchildren, depending on their age :) Our Bishop and his wife are the cutest couple ever & they both know so much about the Gospel. But our whole bishopric is awesome, along with their wives. Our Sunday school class is very supportive of us and are always very sweet & tell us that we did a good job (although whether we really did a good job teaching or not is sometimes questionable). We've made lots of great friends in this ward & we love having them over for dinner or Wii play dates. We love our ward & we're glad we get to be here with them for a while.

If anyone in our ward is reading this, thank you for your love and support. It really is a wonderful feeling to be loved by your ward family!!

Kudos to my hubby!!

He has seriously been a hermit all week long. A prisoner to our office, computer chair, and keyboard. Writing his paper for his master's degree project has been much more than a full time job these past few weeks, and I admire his determination to put as much time into it as he has been--mostly because I know how hard it is for him to sit in there and focus when I'm at home distracting him :)

At this very minute he's slaving away in the office and I'm supposed to be editing the work he's done so far. I'm really impressed with the work he has done and look forward to seeing the completed project.

As a side note, this part is mostly for the two of us, for memory purposes. As I sit in the living room with his laptop editing his paper, we both have Skype open and we've been enjoying random spurts of conversations and laughter as we leave little comments for each other. Comments either about the music we're listening to, or random thoughts that pop in our heads. For instance: I sneezed earlier, and rather than saying "bless you," because I can hear him from where I sit, he typed "bless you" over Skype. I told him our IMing conversations remind me of teens with their phones attached to their hands. I love that we are able to laugh with each other so much, even in times of stress and attempted focus. Laughter makes life so much easier. And WAY more FUN!!

Thanks honey, for making life enjoyable. Even when there's work to be done. I love you!

P.S. Remember how I confessed in Sunday School this past week that we've been guilty of texting each other while sitting next to each other? Funny. The older people in our ward probably think we have issues :)

4th of July Weekend

Because the 4th of July was on a Sunday this year, our normal festivities were strung out over 3 days. It was tons of fun!

Friday night we watched the Stadium of Fire fireworks. Unfortunately we forgot to charge our camera so Dar was only able to get a picture of the sunset, which was absolutely amazing but we didn't get any firework pictures this year. We sat with our friends, Wayne & Courtney, and Dar's family. It's always nice to be surrounded by great company!
Monday we were planning to go to the Balloon Festival, one of our favorite things to do for the 4th, but Dar had to fulfill a duty for his church calling by putting flags out for the people in our ward. We'll just have to catch the balloons again next year. But, we were able to go watch the parade with our Aussie family, the McSweeney's. It's always fun to have the chance to be with them and enjoy their enthusiasm for the holidays.

Sarah designed these shirts for everyone to wear

After the parade we went home and Dar worked on his MS project some more and then we had dinner with Dar's family. After dinner we met up with the McSweeney's again for some festive fireworks. It was a lot of fun :)

The fireworks are done by several police officers in their neighborhood. Last year they lit a bunch of confiscated illegal fireworks but they didn't get as many this year.

They do a ring of fire on the road and call their firework show "The Circle of Fire."

Thanks everyone for a fun 4th again this year. We love being able to celebrate with fun food, friends, and family!

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!!

P.S. There are 2 more posts below this one from today also, so make sure you scroll down and see some of our fun adventures from last week!

Laryssa's Wedding

Laryssa is a beautiful girl Dar baptized when serving his mission in Brazil 10 years ago. She was just a young girl then, and she lovingly calls Dar her "big brother."

Just a few weeks ago, Dar was talking to Laryssa's mom over Skype and let him know that Laryssa was going to be flying out here to Utah to get married in the Salt Lake Temple on July 2nd. Laryssa then invited Darwin to be a witness for the sealing. It was such a neat experience and enormous privilege for Dar to not only have the opportunity to see Laryssa again but to be a witness at her temple marriage. It makes him so happy to hear of so many members he was able to baptize in Brazil still firm in the faith.

I also enjoyed being able to attend Laryssa's sealing to her new husband, James, and have the opportunity to listen to the wonderful blessings of the sealing ordinance in English and Portuguese. It was a beautiful day, and we loved meeting James and his family too.

Laryssa & James

Beautiful Bride

These next couple pictures are for my mom since I was on the phone with her when we were taking these pictures.
While everyone else was taking pictures, Dar found this fake (unused) mustache, and because he already has a mustache he found a more appropriate use for it :) What a fake mustache was doing on the Temple grounds, I'm still not sure, but we had some fun with it!

I really don't think facial hair is my thing

And this picture is in honor of my older brother, Tayton, and the official Up-Side-Down-Mustache-In-Pictures Club :)

And these next couple pictures are for T as much as they are for me. Our favorite birds!! QUAIL!!
In the flower bed on the south side of the Salt Lake Temple, Dar found this adorable little family of quail. I was ecstatic because quail are my favorite birds, and I especially love seeing the itty-bitty babies!

Look how adorable they are! Seeing these little guys totally made my day THAT much better. I soo wanted to hold one, but I refrained.

Big brother and little sister :)

Thanks, James and Laryssa for letting us be a part this wonderful step in your lives!

(Oh! Another cool part about James & Laryssa's story is that they were introduced to each other by a man named Eduardo, who Dar also baptized while serving his mission. It was great for him to see some of the fruits of his labors!)

Rock Hounding

Last Thursday Dar & I went with our friend and favorite Realtor, Dan Cavan, out to Topaz Mountain and also to the geode beds in that area looking for none other than topaz and geodes. We were looking for rocks :). Or I guess I could say the boys were looking for rocks and I was tagging along. I didn't do a whole lot of rock hunting myself, I honestly don't get much pleasure from hitting rocks with hammers. I'd rather sit back and watch. But we all enjoyed ourselves anyway and tried to not get sunburned.

Looking out at the valley from Topaz

Dan & Dar getting ready to pound on the mountain

Nice big chunks of Topaz Dan found but was nice enough to let us keep them.

Dar breaking open a rock at the geode beds to see if it was a geode or not.

One of the pretty geodes I found--we ended up with a whole bucket full of rocks to bring home!
The geodes were much easier to find because they were lying in really soft soil. You didn't have to do a whole lot of digging or beating on rocks to find them. Looking for geodes was more fun for me than hunting for topaz.

A shot of the beautiful Utah desert

It was a lot of fun to see you again, Dan! And thanks to Paige for letting us borrow your husband for a day :)