State Fair

I love the State Fair as much as the next girl. I like the displays, the people, the crazy new inventions, and especially the food (who knew they could deep-fry so many different things?) So although I think $9 is pretty steep for an entrance fee, when some of my friends invited me to join them at the fair this past Tuesday I couldn't turn them down.

The first thing we did was peruse the booths of "new inventions." Some of the most interesting ones we found were beads that swell with water and then water your plant for 3-6 weeks, a box of fish you grow yourself (seriously...they come in a tea bag and in 4 hours you can already see them with a magnifying glass--included in the box), and an indoor grill that you just put on the burner of your stove. That last one really caught our attention, especially the free samples of chicken he was passing out. Allison was really excited, and made us promise that we'd go back before he closed so she could buy one. We ended up returning with some more of our friends and purchasing 4 of the little beauties. It was designed to steam-marinate your food for you! Yummy...now we need to have a grill party!The next stop was the funnel cake stand. Fair food prices? I don't think so... (yes, pun intended...) but where else can you get funnel cakes? It's a Fair must, and so we each got one. Almost immediately we regretted our decision, but hey, it will take us until next year to forget how disgusting we felt after eating it and buy another one.
Next up was to check out all the stuff for sale. We got free samples whenever possible, and of course had to try on all the cool hats and sunglasses. Don't we look awesome?


This live band was cranking out some sweet country music, so we enjoyed singing along and dancing like idiots. We can now probably can be found somewhere on PeopleoftheFair.com :)
We also got our pictures taken in a bushel of apples. Aren't we cute?

















The best was the booth for the KSL TV station. We got to sit in the chair and read the teleprompter. We were sure they were secretly recording it to play it later on the news as evidence of the kind of crazies that show up at the fair, but so far we haven't seen anything...

This picture seriously makes me laugh so hard every time I see it. We had no idea they were taking a picture of us lol...















We ended the evening by visiting the photography displays, my favorite by far. I love to see how creative other people are, and get some ideas for my own photography. I seriously have no clue how the judges decide, especially at a fair this big where there were literally 1,000s of photos. They started turning out the lights, so we figured we'd better leave. All in all it was a great way to spend a Tuesday night, and thanks to Randi, Anjilee and Allison for making it so fun!

Road Trip!!!

I was so good at keeping this up for a little while...then my job as a nanny ended, and there went my afternoons dedicated to blogging. Not that I'm really up to much lately, but it was easier when I had that time set aside specifically to write. But, I don't, and I haven't, and...well, there went August with only one post, right at the beginning.I will try to repent, and do better, but I can't make any promises. Guess it's not really repenting then, huh?

So the biggest thing about August was probably the road trip to Houston. Talk about a kick-in-the-pants! (By the way, for those who don't really know me, that's a good thing...) The only sad note in the trip was that at the last minute Corrinn decided she didn't feel good about going, and had to back out. Well, chose to back out. Good for her for following promptings. But we missed her :(

Friday:
As for the rest of us, we loaded up the cars (mine and Chris's) at about 9am on Friday the 13th. We figured it was a lucky day to begin anything, especially a road trip of over 1500 miles and 25 hours :) The group included Braden Piggott, Chris White, Dontrell Morrow, Mitch McBride, Me, Karen Johnson, and Cindee Perry.

Our destination that day was Albuquerque, New Mexico, where Chris's oldest sister lives with her family. They were going to let us stay the night there so we didn't have to pay for a hotel, and so we didn't have to drive all night. It was very generous of them, and much appreciated. And by the end of the trip I think we all learned how to spell A-L-B-U-Q-U-E-R-Q-U-E. It's weird.

The first day we stopped in Moab, UT for lunch, and to fill up. We entertained ourselves by using the walkie-talkies that Mitch brought to play a sort of "musical word association" game. One car would sing a song over the walkie, and then the next car had to sing another song that used a word the first car had sung in their song. Got it? I promise it's not that complicated. Mitch wasn't a huge fan of the game, but the rest of us liked it! We got to Albuquerque just in time for dinner with Chris's family. They had bought two enormous pizzas for all of us to share. Seriously, these things were 2 feet in diameter! It was great! Then we played with nieces and nephews and visited. We crashed for the night in two separate play rooms, one for the boys, and one for the girls.
Saturday:
We optimistically planned to leave at 5am, so when we actually left at 6:30am we were all anxious to be out of there. The route we took was the "road less traveled by" you could say, so it took a little longer than anticipated, but boy was it beautiful! We drove right through the "heart" of Texas and the green, rolling hills about took your breath away. It wasn't the Texas we knew from serving in Houston, and it was fun to see. We stopped in the middle of the day to fill up again, and what a shock--getting out of the air-conditioned cars into the muggy, humid, central Texas heat was....well, shocking! It was over 100 degrees and we wanted to hurry and get back on the road and out of the heat. However, Mitch and Chris wanted to look at the map and determine the best route. The heat prompted a quick decision, and further discussion was cut off by my shout of "It is HOTTER THAN HADES OUT HERE!" Everyone laughed about that for a while. It was true! And I didn't want to stand in the heat and discuss something we had already decided! :)

That night we stopped at Denny's for dinner and our waitress was hil-aaarious. Highlights of the meal were when Braden got too friendly, Chris said Mitch's apple juice looked like beer, Perry commented on how everything was covered in gravy, and we had a total stranger take our picture--which turned out nice! See?

We got to Houston about 12:30am, and rolled into Gaby and Neftaly's around 1am. They are saints and had everything all ready for us. I forgot to mention that on Friday we were driving and it occurred to us that no one had been specifically assigned to tell them when we were coming. Oops! Luckily they are amazing, and when we talked to Neftaly he said they were up for whatever. Turns out that Corrinn had told Gaby, and we had worried needlessly, but still... That night we went straight to bed because we had early church the next day.

The next few days are a bit of a blur...of visiting, eating, singing, laughing, crying, attempting to speak Spanish, and lots and lots of memories. I will post a few of the pictures on here, and try to get the highlights of the trip, but I doubt I can do it justice.

Sunday:
In the morning between church and lunch we stopped to see Monica and her doggies. It was so fun to see her and she was really surprised. The picture on the right is after the fireside that night, of us with Hermano and Hermana Avalos, and Fernando. Nancy is cut off on the right lol...
After church we ate dinner with the Velasquez family until we were completely "brisketeado" as Chris put it, and then we hurried and took a picture...I say hurried both because we were late for a fireside that we just found out we were doing a musical number at, and because it was SO hot and humid outside that we had to hurry before we melted! After the fireside (where I sang and Chris played "Senor Me Has Redimido"--a little throw-back to the mission) we went to the Tenorio's for dessert and lots of laughs as we tried to recount the stories of the past few days in our very broken Spanish.
















Monday:
This was our "free day" meaning we had no group plans, and were free to visit old areas and people we loved. Luckily, Karen, Cindee and I had served in all the same areas, so we had no problem deciding where to go. We headed out to Broadway 3 and visited Maximino, Rebecca, and Edgar, had lunch with the Marun family, and stopped by Cesar and Rosio.




































Of course we also had to get some Blue Bell and Sonic. What would a trip to Houston be without those two things?

That night we had a HUGE FHE at Nancy and Fernando's, complete with dozens of members, all the missionaries from the area, water fights, games, and of course lots of food! We played volleyball (and got sweatier than I ever remember because it was a billion degrees outside even at 10pm), Perry tackled me for teasing her, and Chris got attacked by a "Spiderrrrrrs Nesssst!!!" as he screamed while running across the lawn. I think the members decided that they either didn't know us at all while we were serving there, or that going home makes perfectly normal missionaries go crazy. Maybe a little of both....;) At any rate, it was a fabulous night and tons of fun! Sadly, no one took pictures :(

Tuesday:
We planned to go to the 9am session at the temple, so we planned to leave Gaby and Neftaly's at 7:45am. However, we encountered a few problems: no one woke Chris up, and when someone finally did, he couldn't find his keys. We ended up working it all out, and getting on the road about 30 minutes late, but there was no way we were going to make the 9am session. We all decided there must be a reason we needed to be in the 10am session, and changed our plans for that. Turns out, we saw a couple from a ward we all served in, Hermano and Hermana Suazo; Elder Steltsy, the vehicle coordinator for our mission; a friend of mine from college; and three members from the Kingwood 3rd ward. Think we were supposed to be in that session? I think yes.














After a beautiful session we headed off again in separate directions, the girls back to Broadway 3, and the boys to their different areas. We saw more members, like the Perez family and the Guajardos.















Then we headed up to Kingwood to have dinner and chat with President and Sister Moldenhauer. It was so much fun to see them, especially when President explained to us all about the new program for Preach My Gospel, and how things were changing and were so exciting! It made us all miss being missionaries! :(















Wednesday:
This was supposed to be our last day in Houston, but after being so busy with things all week we decided that we would stay Thursday as well. That we we had time to spend an evening with Gaby and Neftaly, something we had not yet really had time to do.
So, Wednesday was spent, you guessed it, visiting more members and old investigators! Among those we saw were Monica (again...she fed us lunch and told us her secret recipe for enchiladas!), and Vicky and Raymundo. Also, Perry and Johnson went on "splits" with the Sisters in Broadway 3 because Johnson is friends with Hna. Case. And Hna. Harris is my granddaughter! Fun!















That night was a big party thrown for us by Mario, at the Martinez family's home. The pictures make it look like we were all sweaty...but that's just because for some reason the AC wasn't working, and we were dying of heat. And so we WERE sweaty. No worries, it was still fun with tons of food, friends, and good music!






























Chris even got in on the karaoke with "Ahi Viene la Plaga" complete with dancing, as seen here, and the use of a new word: rocanroleando.

Thursday:
We decided to use this day to do something we rarely got to do on the mission unless we were sick or broken--we went downtown!!! We got to go to the top of the tallest building in TEXAS, (the Chase building), play with a giant chess set, play with ducks and sit in trees in the park, walk through the underground mall (where we also ate lunch) and see the city from a whole different angle (okay, a few different angles haha)! It was pretty fun, though whenever we were outside we were sweating to death. Seems to be a theme from this trip. What's with 106 degrees? Oh well, I guess it was August...


















































That night we headed back to Gaby and Neftaly's for a chill evening at "home." We ate home made empanadas (yummy!) and sat and visited. We played "Wii Dance" which is hilaaaarious, and it was fun to play with the Neftaly Jr. and Aliah. We also started to watch a movie, but by the time it got started we all needed to head to bed--we planned on leaving the next morning very early, since we had the longest part of our drive to do that day. Sadly, we didn't get ANY pictures with Gaby and Neftaly. We decided that it was because all the other times we took pictures during the trip we were usually leaving someone's house. And since we weren't leaving yet, we didn't take a picture. Piggott got a picture with their family later that night, but the rest of us are lame and didn't take any. Here is a picture of the family anyway, from when they were here visiting Utah.
Friday and Saturday:
These two days are somewhat of a blur. We drove through Dallas on the way home so that we could drive faster the whole way. Seemed to be a good idea until that stupid motorcycle cop clocked us going 82 in a 70.... :( Guess it was a little too fast. Unfortunately he caught us during the ONE time we were actually speeding the whole trip. We had been passing some cars just to get out of the congestion, and since we were trying to stay together both cars were speeding when BAM there he was. I wasn't driving, but that's all I'm gonna say ;) OH well, one day it will make for a good story, right?We stayed with Chris's family again that night, and though we got there late and everyone was in bed, we were able to have breakfast together in the morning since the shorter leg of our trip was left. Perry was my angel and that night she worked the knots out of my hip that had somehow formed during the sitting portion of the trip thus far...what is 25 hours plus 15??? Yeah, it had been quite the drive...and it wasn't even over yet! With her help I could actually sleep that night without pain! Friday and Saturday we stopped in Texas to take pictures of the windmills that I love (they are so iconic) and in Colorado to take pictures with some sunflowers, but mostly we just made a beeline for home.

It was great to be with people we love in Houston, but we were ready to be back in Utah.
We pulled in to Sandy around 9pm on Saturday night, worn out, happy, and ready to rest. I don't know the exact numbers, it was around 3,000 miles, and 50 hours of driving, but the memories we made, the people we saw, and the laughs we had made all the tiredness worth it. I don't know about anybody else, but I'm ready for next summer's trip!

Unconditional Love

I feel like yesterday at church I learned something that I already knew. If that is confusing, what I mean is that I learned something that I always thought I knew, or something I always say or that I have always believed but I didn't really understand it until yesterday.

This is what I knew before: In The Family: A Proclamation to the World it says, "All human beings--male and female--are created in the image of God. Each is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, each has a divine nature and destiny." In the Young Women Theme that I recited every Sunday as a teenager it says, "We are daughters of our Heavenly Father, who loves us, and we love Him." In the New Testament, Romans chapter 8, verses 35, 38-39, it says, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakeness, or peril, or sword? For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

And I love what Sheri Dew says: "You did not come to this world to earn your worth. You brought it with you."

So that is what I knew. But what I learned is that this love from God, this divine nature, this divine worth that we have been given, is not something determined AT ALL by us. God's love for us is not connected to our actions. It's not determined by how many people we serve, how many times we've been to prison, how many visits we make as visiting teachers, or how morally clean or unclean we are. Now, this might sound contradictory to what you've always believed, and at first I had a hard time reconciling it in my mind. But it is true. We always say that God loves you and wants you to be happy, He wants you to return to Him if you have strayed, He is like the Father in the story of the prodigal son, and loves us constantly no matter what. But do we really understand what that means?

He values us because we are His, not because we are righteous, or unrighteous. Not because we do good things or do bad things, and not because we have at all earned His love. He just loves us, unconditionally. That word really hit home yesterday. It doesn't matter how pretty, smart, talented, good, or spiritual I am, I can't make Him love me any more than He already does. And by the same token I can't make Him love me any less. To us humans, that kind of love seems a little incomprehensible, even if you're a parent. (But it's probably easier to understand if you're a parent.) Often seeking for the love and appreciation of your peers can seem like an impossibly frustrating task in this life. I get discouraged as I seek for approval from the world, in areas that the world deems important. But really all that matters is what God thinks of me. And even when we realize that, we are all so flawed in the way we view one another that we begin to skew the love of our perfect Father in Heaven.

What we often confuse with love is blessings and punishments. Because we have to suffer the consequences (good or bad) of our actions, we often think God is punishing us, and that He therefore doesn't love us. Not true. He has laws He must follow, and when He says something, it has to be fulfilled. So if He puts forth a law, and consequences for that law, He has to follow through. That's just how it is. But commandments and laws are not given to us to give us a way to EARN God's love. They are a way to make us happy. He loves us enough to show us exactly how to be happy, but He also loves us whether we decide to follow His advice or not. My actions determine my happiness, not my divine worth.

It's something I want to ponder some more, because I think it will make us change the way I view sin, repentance, my fellow imperfect humans, and many other things in life. But at any rate, it certainly was a message I needed to hear yesterday. Seeking to better myself, and become more like my Father in Heaven by keeping his commandments, is a good thing. But God won't love me any less if it takes me a while.

Idaho is a Wonderland

This past weekend was Pioneer Day, the day that the Mormon pioneers entered the Salt Lake Valley in 1847. In all seriousness, am very grateful for my pioneer ancestors, and the things they sacrificed to come to Utah so they could worship as they pleased. I love to hear the stories, and see the pictures of those who crossed the plains so many years ago. I thank and admire them.

I am also grateful because it means I got a three day weekend.

I used this weekend wisely, and went home with two friends from my mission: Corrinn Aune, and Mitchell McBride. When we started out the trip, I admit I thought it was a slightly odd combination of people, but I knew it would be fun. Mitch was planning to come up to Idaho to help work on his grandma's house, and get it fixed up and ready for her return from her mission in a few weeks. Corrinn and I had been talking for several weeks about making a trip to Idaho so she could see "where I'm from" and spend some time with my family. So, we decided to all go up together.

We left Friday morning, and even though we got stuck in traffic (going so slow that Corrinn got out of the car, stood by the Corrinne, Utah sign, Mitch took her picture and she got back in all without holding up traffic) we still made good time, and got there by 1:30pm. We first got some Wendy's (good stuff) and then headed over to Mitch's grandma's house to do some work. We had originally planned to work on Saturday, but since we had time we decided to knock it all out on Friday afternoon. His uncle had told us a few things that needed to be done, and then told us to just do what we could, and not worry about coming Saturday. We ended up getting almost everything done: cleaning paint off of wooden chairs, painting the bathroom, cleaning the tile, and even a few things we weren't asked to do, like fixing the toilet and putting shutters back up (okay, so obviously Mitch did those things...) Who would have thought that cleaning would be so much fun? Well, with this group, it was.

Time flew, and before we knew it we were heading to my house for dinner. Dad had cooked fajitas, and we got home just in time. Most of my family already knew both of my friends, but it was fun to see them all interact. Especially with the dogs! (Which they loved...I think.) Clayton read a "Break-up Letter" from YouTube (he edited it) and had us all in stitches. Then between him, my dad, and Mitch we pretty much couldn't breathe that night. Or most of the weekend. After dinner the men went into the living room for "man talk" and us girls chatted in the kitchen. It was just a chill and fun evening.

Saturday was "Pioneer Day" and even though Clayton and Melissa both had to work, the rest of us still had a really fun day. It started when we went to the parade in St. Anthony, Idaho. We got there pretty early, so I had time to walk Corrinn and Mitch around town and show them where I lived before, and see a few of the "sights" lol...okay, so there aren't too many sights in St. Anthony, but it's a fun and quaint little town, and we had fun walking around. We even ran into Mitch's aunt! Once the parade started we stood most of the time, watching the horses, military men, and floats. It's probably the best parade around the area all year. The weather was perfect, and we had fun!



Then we headed straight from there to Mesa Falls, where Corrinn and Mitch were amazed that Idaho is actually beautiful. Okay, just kidding. But the falls are amazing, and we got some great pictures. Mitch even inspired dad to try a new way of wearing his hat.






































Here's one of Mitch with water all over his face...it must have been hot. Or maybe Corrinn sprayed him in the face with the drinking fountain. Something like that, the memory is a little fuzzy....





We left the falls and headed out to eat lunch. For lunch we brought hot dogs and cookies (the essentials) so we drove out to a campsite and built a fire. The "men" went and got the wood, and started a roaring blaze. Well, it would have been, if they had found more wood. And if it hadn't taken us forever to cut some willows for roasting the hot dogs. Corrinn and I waded across the roaring river to cut some willows on the other side. Okay it was a big ditch, but the rocks were slippery, and there were a few seconds there where it was touch and go! The biggest problem was that the knife was alittle dull...but we got 'er done! Again, we all laughed til our guts hurt and really enjoyed ourselves!






From there we headed out to Big Spring where the water bubbles out from under ground, and trickles out of the mountain. It's beautiful, see?

We put our feet in the water, and realized that it must have been snow about 10 seconds before...it was so cold! So, we had a competetion to see who could hold their foot in the longest. I was winning, so Mitch cheated. Well, I sprinkled a little water on his face (cause he looked warm) and he decided it was war. So he splashed the whole right side of my body! I jumped back to escape and he shouted "I Win!" So I took his hat and soaked it in the river and put it back on his head. Things got ugly after that... okay, not really. But he threatened to throw me in if we ever go back. I'll take a mental note...








We drove home after that, going through Ashton, Idaho where we stopped for ice cream at Dave's Delicatessen. You get tons of ice cream for your buck so we had to stop.

When we got home we changed from shorts and flip flops to jeans and tennis shoes and headed out to the horse pasture. Corrinn and I followed on the four-wheeler, with dad and Mitch in the truck. As we rode she kept saying "I can't believe you live here! This is so beautiful!" Which it is.

Corrinn and Mitch were the first to ride, and after a brief riding lesson, they were off. After one lap around the field Mitch decided he wanted to be a cowboy. Well, I guess he had always wanted to, but now he said he KNEW he wanted to. They both rode well, and even got stubborn Chevy and Disco to gait a little! Dad was impressed cause Corrinn got Disco to ride away from Chevy and be on his own! Maybe we should start calling her the "Horse Whisperer." Oh, and Mitch is working on his cowboy pose. What do you think?

The rest of us took our turns, and while we did that Corrinn and Mitch took their turn on the four-wheeler--going REALLY slow, and then it got too dark to keep going.

Mitch came back with me on the four-wheeler, and I showed him how you're REALLY supposed to drive them. At one point we pulled onto a main road where the speed limit is 40. "You can only go 40 on this road," he said. I can only assume he thought that meant I'd slow down. But, you see, 40 feels a LOT faster on a four-wheeler than in a car. "You want me to go 40?" I asked. "Okay!" So we did. It was hilarious. When we got home I let him drive once around the subdivision, and we parked it for the night. "I'm gonna move to Idaho..." he sang,"...and live here for the rest of my life!" Haha, both he and Corrinn said it was the most fun they'd ever had. Probably not true, but hey, it's Idaho, it rocks!










Mom, Melissa and Corrinn had gotten Subway, so we all had a late supper before heading to bed.
Sunday we went to church, and came home and had a dutch oven dinner. Dad made chicken, and Corrinn helped make the potatoes. She had never seen a red potato that big before. The things these non-Idahoans miss out on! It's incredible haha... there was a little down time during which we talked and played with the puppies.

Dinner was obviously delicious, but the best part was after we ate when we sat around and shared our most embarrassing stories. Mom laughed so hard she was crying as she described the time she wore her mom's wig to school in 5th grade. The rest of us struggled to think of really embarrassing moments, but Mitch had to narrow his down to the "top three" which he shared with us in such detail that we were all gasping for breath through our laughter. It was great. But all too soon the weekend was over, and once again we loaded up the car and drove home.

Driving back to Utah brought even MORE funny moments, if you can imagine, as well as lots of great conversation. By the time we got back to Utah I felt like I was traveling with my two best friends. It was a great weekend, and as Mitch put it "the best road-trip ever" and I am so glad that we got to go! Thanks mom and dad for letting us stay and for showing us the high life in Idaho!