Dec 1: had a few “must be doing something right” moments. Kenzie bore her testimony (she wants to every month) and she is just very wise. She knows how to testify better than some adults do. Linda commented how mature her testimony is afterwards.
Kids happily wrapped gifts for eachother. Kenzie afterwards couldn’t wait to go spend her money on other people she could get gifts for.
Tuesday: We opened our home to 4L. During devotional I was overcome by a strong sense of the spirit confirming that we are doing a good thing by gathering together as families in Zion. Grateful we can open our home to have that spirit here and these people here.
That evening we put together cookie packs and went knocking on neighbor doors to meet people. It was totally out of my comfort zone; Ryan wasn’t home so I totally could’ve backed out; we met 3 neighbors and invited them all to Follow the Star this weekend! Ended up being a great experience for me and my kids!
Thursday: I love living outside of Utah! I love being close enough for family to visit us but I love living among different people. Met our next door neighbors yesterday and she is cute and bubbly. Busy with 2 toddler boys (4&2) and she was open about how she loves Jesus 😊 invited her to follow the star. We’ll see if they come. But so fun to make a connection with another SAHM with little kids right next door.
Also at FTS choir—new seating arrangement for the performance and I got to sit by Sandy. Turned out she isn’t a member of the church but wanted to sing in a choir, knows the director, and therefore came to sing with us. Super nice! Loved chatting with her thursday, Friday and Saturday. I hope we keep in touch!
Kaysen lost another tooth and he got a dollar coin. He was excited about it that morning. Then that afternoon I heard him say to Ryan “here dad, you can have my dollar” Ryan asked why? Kaysen said “I want to give it to you because I already have one.” How sweet!
Friday: studied for my lesson in RS this Sunday. Got some things done—ordered Christmas cards, did school with kids, picked up so we could clean Saturday
Saturday: felt so sick from my period and possible illness that I wasn’t sure how I was going to manage. I fed my spirit and things looked up.
Got to go on a date in the mustang with Ryan that afternoon and Kamryn babysat. It was nice to get some things done and to spend time with Ry.
Sunday: the Lord helped me teach HIS way today. I wasn’t nervous bc I had the talk down solid. I didn’t have a lot of extra “stuff” in order to facilitate the discussion. The spirit was strong. I followed promptings to share how I have reached above myself to Christ and to become more than I every expected to be. That I have felt so much love in those hours of stillness, and gained so much knowledge that I just never realized I was missing out on. I received a lot of feedback after the lesson that I made people think, they felt the spirit and my lesson flowed very nicely. All good things. It made my spirit soar. I’m grateful for my ability to trust in the Lord and grateful to be his mouthpiece a little bit today.
Most of my Christmas cards are addressed today! Need to finish tomorrow and get them in the mail! Phew!!
Monday, December 9, 2019
Sunday, December 1, 2019
It’s December!!
It’s December 1st!
Time just keeps going faster and faster! Can’t even believe it!
I’m wanting to keep this blog as a record...not really sure what kind of record.
Our daily happenings?
My personal journal?
My small plates with spiritual insights and stories?
I think I’d like to make this a place to record the small tender mercies the Lord shows to our family every day. The things the spirit helps me to notice every day.
This past week:
Sun Nov 24: the girls and I have been singing in Follow the star choirs this year for our stake Christmas event. Excited to perform this next weekend. I love the people in this choir. Such a fun spirit about people coming together and volunteering their time to speak the language of the spirit. This Sunday I also found out that the choir director’s husband is going through severe cancer treatments right now—unexpectedly during this time of holidays and business. How grateful I am for my health and the kids health. And I’m grateful for people who show faith and keep pressing forward in service even when they have every reason to back out.
Mon: went to Disneyland in the morning—the kids and I got off a little later than I wanted to but we did pretty well. I was nervous we wouldn’t get the earlier WOC passes but Got to the park in time! I was so happy. Then we went to the redwood trail to see the Christmas things and to meet Santa—it was a 2 hour line!! Ugh! I told the kids we’d have to come back another time...then I decided to ask the CM when is best to come. She said “well, since you asked, I can just give you a return pass to come later today and we’ll let you right in!” 🙌🏻 So great! I love when CMs can just make your day magical. Later when we came back to see Santa, he was so good with the kids. He spent a solid 15-20 mins with us! It was so fun for the kids and Kobe was enchanted with him. It made my mama heart happy. That night we came back to the park and enjoyed Eorld of Color-season of light. I love when Disney will use religious Christmas songs as well as secular Christmas songs. It is proof to me that our world hasn’t totally lost all good and morals. Always a reason to keep fighting for good.
Tuesday: kyler and Kenzie and Kaysen had some friends over to play in the morning. Kamryn got to go ice skating with some friends. I’m grateful that we are making friends and getting to know people well so quickly. We’ve lived here almost 6 months now and it is going well. We love it!
I went on a mom’s night with Athena that night. Was so fun to catch up with her. Love being to talk all things Disney and spiritual. Love how humble she is and so loving no matter what. And always so happy even if life isn’t perfect. She just never complains.
Wednesday: Athena invites me to go shopping at Company D! (Discount merch from Disneyland!) it was so so so fun! Spent way too much money but it was quite a fun experience.
Mom, Dad, Eric, Kylie and Austin arrived that night. We watched the Mandalorian with them. We love having them here. Enjoyed dinner and just catching up.
Thursday: happy thanksgiving. I woke up early to study scriptures—ended up just writing a huge list of everything I’m thankful for. It was a good exercise. So many things we take for granted living here, and in this time, and in our circumstances. I should do a gratitude morning more often.
Got ready and we went to see frozen 2. We loved it! I cried. As we have listened to the music and talked more about the movie since, I love all the parallels to our journey and the gospel. I love the messages of enduring love and hope and faith and family. It’s all in there—yet again, not all good is gone from the world. Not all the world is corrupt.
We had a wonderful thanksgiving dinner and enjoyed time with my family.
Friday: pretty low key day. Got up to study scriptures—had a great study session. Decided that my theme for this upcoming year is in Isaiah 55:8-13. “My ways are not your ways and neither are my thoughts your thoughts.” This Last year I focused on Prov 3:5-6 “trust in the lord and lean not thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths for good.” I’m excited to take it a step further and really ask for things, sacrifice for knowledge and insight, and act on revelation in all aspects of life—to live His way because it will bring more good than my ways will.
Ryan and I got to go do sealings at the temple together while mom and dad watched the kids. It is was really nice. It was fun to hear the new phrases in the sealing, fun to see the sealing power at work for people beyond the veil, fun to take my own family names, and fun to “renew” our covenants we have made together again. Ryan and I are such a good team. We’ve really been putting time and study into our relationship more lately, I’ve been studying more about the sealing power and when it was restored to Joseph Smith, so it was neat to go participate as proxy with it today.
Saturday: Disneyland day with my family! Got up to read scriptures in the morning before getting ready...quick study but it put me in the right mood for the rest of the day. I love just soaking in the words of the Book of Mormon every morning.
Sunday: had a hard time getting up today. So tired. Hard time feeling motivated and ready for “real life” again...kids were needy—was fast Sunday—I just wasn’t feeling it today. But I did what I knew was right and important—we got ready for church, we fasted, we went to church. And then when the Bishop was bearing his testimony my heart just started pounding! It was amazing how fast I felt the spirit and I knew I had to get up to share my testimony. I had the thought to share about Elder rad bands talk from oct 2019 (which I haven’t been able to revisit again much yet). I remembered him saying that the work of gathering Israel is our work and the Lords work—a partnership. I bore testimony about the power in the temple and the power in the Book of Mormon. I am grateful to watch the Lord hasten his work in our day and that we have privilege to join in the work with him.
Light the world started today: I bore my testimony and tonight we did the “true meaning of Christmas story and tree” as a family.
The Lord is a part of all of our lives! He lives! He loves us. We sacrifice in order to come to know Him.
Time just keeps going faster and faster! Can’t even believe it!
I’m wanting to keep this blog as a record...not really sure what kind of record.
Our daily happenings?
My personal journal?
My small plates with spiritual insights and stories?
I think I’d like to make this a place to record the small tender mercies the Lord shows to our family every day. The things the spirit helps me to notice every day.
This past week:
Sun Nov 24: the girls and I have been singing in Follow the star choirs this year for our stake Christmas event. Excited to perform this next weekend. I love the people in this choir. Such a fun spirit about people coming together and volunteering their time to speak the language of the spirit. This Sunday I also found out that the choir director’s husband is going through severe cancer treatments right now—unexpectedly during this time of holidays and business. How grateful I am for my health and the kids health. And I’m grateful for people who show faith and keep pressing forward in service even when they have every reason to back out.
Mon: went to Disneyland in the morning—the kids and I got off a little later than I wanted to but we did pretty well. I was nervous we wouldn’t get the earlier WOC passes but Got to the park in time! I was so happy. Then we went to the redwood trail to see the Christmas things and to meet Santa—it was a 2 hour line!! Ugh! I told the kids we’d have to come back another time...then I decided to ask the CM when is best to come. She said “well, since you asked, I can just give you a return pass to come later today and we’ll let you right in!” 🙌🏻 So great! I love when CMs can just make your day magical. Later when we came back to see Santa, he was so good with the kids. He spent a solid 15-20 mins with us! It was so fun for the kids and Kobe was enchanted with him. It made my mama heart happy. That night we came back to the park and enjoyed Eorld of Color-season of light. I love when Disney will use religious Christmas songs as well as secular Christmas songs. It is proof to me that our world hasn’t totally lost all good and morals. Always a reason to keep fighting for good.
Tuesday: kyler and Kenzie and Kaysen had some friends over to play in the morning. Kamryn got to go ice skating with some friends. I’m grateful that we are making friends and getting to know people well so quickly. We’ve lived here almost 6 months now and it is going well. We love it!
I went on a mom’s night with Athena that night. Was so fun to catch up with her. Love being to talk all things Disney and spiritual. Love how humble she is and so loving no matter what. And always so happy even if life isn’t perfect. She just never complains.
Wednesday: Athena invites me to go shopping at Company D! (Discount merch from Disneyland!) it was so so so fun! Spent way too much money but it was quite a fun experience.
Mom, Dad, Eric, Kylie and Austin arrived that night. We watched the Mandalorian with them. We love having them here. Enjoyed dinner and just catching up.
Thursday: happy thanksgiving. I woke up early to study scriptures—ended up just writing a huge list of everything I’m thankful for. It was a good exercise. So many things we take for granted living here, and in this time, and in our circumstances. I should do a gratitude morning more often.
Got ready and we went to see frozen 2. We loved it! I cried. As we have listened to the music and talked more about the movie since, I love all the parallels to our journey and the gospel. I love the messages of enduring love and hope and faith and family. It’s all in there—yet again, not all good is gone from the world. Not all the world is corrupt.
We had a wonderful thanksgiving dinner and enjoyed time with my family.
Friday: pretty low key day. Got up to study scriptures—had a great study session. Decided that my theme for this upcoming year is in Isaiah 55:8-13. “My ways are not your ways and neither are my thoughts your thoughts.” This Last year I focused on Prov 3:5-6 “trust in the lord and lean not thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths for good.” I’m excited to take it a step further and really ask for things, sacrifice for knowledge and insight, and act on revelation in all aspects of life—to live His way because it will bring more good than my ways will.
Ryan and I got to go do sealings at the temple together while mom and dad watched the kids. It is was really nice. It was fun to hear the new phrases in the sealing, fun to see the sealing power at work for people beyond the veil, fun to take my own family names, and fun to “renew” our covenants we have made together again. Ryan and I are such a good team. We’ve really been putting time and study into our relationship more lately, I’ve been studying more about the sealing power and when it was restored to Joseph Smith, so it was neat to go participate as proxy with it today.
Saturday: Disneyland day with my family! Got up to read scriptures in the morning before getting ready...quick study but it put me in the right mood for the rest of the day. I love just soaking in the words of the Book of Mormon every morning.
Sunday: had a hard time getting up today. So tired. Hard time feeling motivated and ready for “real life” again...kids were needy—was fast Sunday—I just wasn’t feeling it today. But I did what I knew was right and important—we got ready for church, we fasted, we went to church. And then when the Bishop was bearing his testimony my heart just started pounding! It was amazing how fast I felt the spirit and I knew I had to get up to share my testimony. I had the thought to share about Elder rad bands talk from oct 2019 (which I haven’t been able to revisit again much yet). I remembered him saying that the work of gathering Israel is our work and the Lords work—a partnership. I bore testimony about the power in the temple and the power in the Book of Mormon. I am grateful to watch the Lord hasten his work in our day and that we have privilege to join in the work with him.
Light the world started today: I bore my testimony and tonight we did the “true meaning of Christmas story and tree” as a family.
The Lord is a part of all of our lives! He lives! He loves us. We sacrifice in order to come to know Him.
Tuesday, October 9, 2018
We’ve arrived in Florida!
Monday October 8:
We drove all day long from Cincinatti to Orlando! 13 hour drive. Pulled in around 8pm. We were exhausted but we made it!!!
We unloaded the van and the trailer and had a MAZE of stuff and boxes to maneuver through! Ryan and I looked at each other and exchanged looks of “are we going to fit in here??” But he left to park the trailer and I set to work. And within an hour, things were more put away and things were feeling better.
My motto for this first week here is “we’ll figure it out!” Because we will.
Less stuff—we’ll figure it out.
Less space—we’ll figure it out.
How to go places—we’ll figure it out.
Getting groceries—we’ll figure it out.
Here we go!!
Thursday, October 4, 2018
Our month back in utah
August 18-Oct 3. This is the 6 week period of time we spent in Utah. I didn’t post anything all month long because we were so busy. Here’s a synopsis of our month:
Housing: we lived with my parents for the 6 weeks. My aunt and my brother were also living there right now, so Ryan and I and Kobe has a room upstairs and the 4 kids were in my dad’s office. It’s eoles out well. During the day everyone went to work, Ryan worked from home in my parents’ office and we homeschooled and played in the main living area. Needless to say we made it a disaster every day but got pretty good and cleaning it up every night. My mom, Tami and I tried to take turns cooking through the week.
We started our homeschool year on Monday August 27. We are using my tech high this year and we are loving it. We are also using The Good and the beautiful curriculum this year for Languafe arts and history and it is awesome! (We haven’t actually started history yet but I have high hopes to!) 😆 I love how consistent and easy language arts is! And the kids like the one on one time I think. We are using prodigy and some math fact books for math. Then we have nature books for science and we are doing unit studies for social studies. Kamryn has a photography class online and Kyler and Kenzie have a Minecraft class online. We try tonhomeschool in the mornings and then spend the afternoons playing with friends, going sonewhere or letting me unpack/pack boxes!
Packing and unpacking boxes:
Our goal for the month we are in Utah was to go through all our stuff—decide what to keep, what to get rid of, what to store in Utah longer and what to take to Florida with us. We are living in a furnished place in Florida so we just wanted to take a little trailer behind our van to get out there. We went through EVERY SINGLE BOX while living in Utah those 6 weeks. We cleared all our stuff out of parents’ houses and sold a ton of stuff ($2,000 worth of stuff) and now all our stuff is either with us in Florida or in our storage unit in Utah. There were seriously days that I thought “this is never going to end!” And yet, we did it!!
Sprintwell:
Ryan has weeks over the summer that he could work but they didn’t get any sprints all summer. Too hard when people are traveling more in summer. So September brought more opportunities for sprints again. Ryan is still thoroughly enjoying this job and gets along with Charbel so well. We are confident that this is what he needs to be doing right now. I’m 100% behind him and our decision to do this right now.
Sports:
The kids all participated in a different sport over the month of September while we were in Utah.
Kamryn tried volleyball for the first time. She had a practice and a game every week. It was fun to see her try something new and enjoy it. She enjoyed the girls on her team even though she didn’t know any of them beforehand. She didn’t win a bunch of games, but she was never discouraged.
Kyler played flag football and LOVED it!! He had such a good coach this season and actually Ryan ended up being an assistant coach so that was fun. Their team won most of not all of their games. At the beginning of the month, Kyler came away from games put out and sad even if they won. It was because he didn’t understand how he was helping if he wasn’t touching the ball. But after a practice and 2 games each week for 4 weeks, he began to understand the team sport part of football better. He sure loves football and loves to win! So this was a great experience for him.
Kenzie was part of a singing group for the month. She enjoyed it a lot and was kinda sad to not be able to perform in a couple months. I feel bad about that too but it is what it is. I was grateful her teacher was happy to have her for a few weeks at least.
Kaysen played soccer again this season. He loves soccer—but didn’t seem to love it as much this year as last. He was more hesitant now that he’s older. Still excited but more thoughtful. I guess that’s a good thing 😊 unfortunately because of wildfire smoke all month, most of his games and practices were cancelled. Luckily he’s only 5 and doesn’t understand schedules much yet so he didn’t notice that he missed out on a bunch of games. He was a great little goalie and defense player this year.
We also had 2 weekends “away” while in Utah—went camping at bear lake over Labor Day weekend. And then Ryan and I went to Ogden for the night on my birthday. It was a good getaway.
Needless to say, with all that, it was a very very busy 6 weeks!! Phew!!
Housing: we lived with my parents for the 6 weeks. My aunt and my brother were also living there right now, so Ryan and I and Kobe has a room upstairs and the 4 kids were in my dad’s office. It’s eoles out well. During the day everyone went to work, Ryan worked from home in my parents’ office and we homeschooled and played in the main living area. Needless to say we made it a disaster every day but got pretty good and cleaning it up every night. My mom, Tami and I tried to take turns cooking through the week.
We started our homeschool year on Monday August 27. We are using my tech high this year and we are loving it. We are also using The Good and the beautiful curriculum this year for Languafe arts and history and it is awesome! (We haven’t actually started history yet but I have high hopes to!) 😆 I love how consistent and easy language arts is! And the kids like the one on one time I think. We are using prodigy and some math fact books for math. Then we have nature books for science and we are doing unit studies for social studies. Kamryn has a photography class online and Kyler and Kenzie have a Minecraft class online. We try tonhomeschool in the mornings and then spend the afternoons playing with friends, going sonewhere or letting me unpack/pack boxes!
Packing and unpacking boxes:
Our goal for the month we are in Utah was to go through all our stuff—decide what to keep, what to get rid of, what to store in Utah longer and what to take to Florida with us. We are living in a furnished place in Florida so we just wanted to take a little trailer behind our van to get out there. We went through EVERY SINGLE BOX while living in Utah those 6 weeks. We cleared all our stuff out of parents’ houses and sold a ton of stuff ($2,000 worth of stuff) and now all our stuff is either with us in Florida or in our storage unit in Utah. There were seriously days that I thought “this is never going to end!” And yet, we did it!!
Sprintwell:
Ryan has weeks over the summer that he could work but they didn’t get any sprints all summer. Too hard when people are traveling more in summer. So September brought more opportunities for sprints again. Ryan is still thoroughly enjoying this job and gets along with Charbel so well. We are confident that this is what he needs to be doing right now. I’m 100% behind him and our decision to do this right now.
Sports:
The kids all participated in a different sport over the month of September while we were in Utah.
Kamryn tried volleyball for the first time. She had a practice and a game every week. It was fun to see her try something new and enjoy it. She enjoyed the girls on her team even though she didn’t know any of them beforehand. She didn’t win a bunch of games, but she was never discouraged.
Kyler played flag football and LOVED it!! He had such a good coach this season and actually Ryan ended up being an assistant coach so that was fun. Their team won most of not all of their games. At the beginning of the month, Kyler came away from games put out and sad even if they won. It was because he didn’t understand how he was helping if he wasn’t touching the ball. But after a practice and 2 games each week for 4 weeks, he began to understand the team sport part of football better. He sure loves football and loves to win! So this was a great experience for him.
Kenzie was part of a singing group for the month. She enjoyed it a lot and was kinda sad to not be able to perform in a couple months. I feel bad about that too but it is what it is. I was grateful her teacher was happy to have her for a few weeks at least.
Kaysen played soccer again this season. He loves soccer—but didn’t seem to love it as much this year as last. He was more hesitant now that he’s older. Still excited but more thoughtful. I guess that’s a good thing 😊 unfortunately because of wildfire smoke all month, most of his games and practices were cancelled. Luckily he’s only 5 and doesn’t understand schedules much yet so he didn’t notice that he missed out on a bunch of games. He was a great little goalie and defense player this year.
We also had 2 weekends “away” while in Utah—went camping at bear lake over Labor Day weekend. And then Ryan and I went to Ogden for the night on my birthday. It was a good getaway.
Needless to say, with all that, it was a very very busy 6 weeks!! Phew!!
Monday, September 3, 2018
Synopsis of summer 2018
we left Utah on Tuesday June 26, 2018.
Wed.-sat. : Nebraska with cousins. We played and played and played! We went to the winter quarters temple, we went fishing for the first time in our lives!, and we swam in the lake at a nearby campground.
Sun-Thurs: Grove city Ohio to visit family. Quick trip to Cincinatti to see my nephew’s baby blessing on Sunday and then spent the week of 4th of July with Ryan’s Aunts and Uncles and Grandma and cousins. So great! Some fun things: the kids love Aunt Karen’s house and Unle Neil’s cooking! We had a water fight on the 4th that the boys still love talking about. Loved having soda at almost every meal at Grandma’s House. And they loved riding bikes and scooters with Dean’s kids.
Thursday: kids and I went up to Columbus to meet up with a former roommate of mine back in college! So fun to see Adria and her family. It’s been a long time! The kids had fun getting to know new friends. I really enjoyed catching up and hearing what their ward is like in Toledo. We went to a library and then went to Kristyanne Keene for a treat! Yum!
Friday and Saturday we spent touring Kirtland Ohio and then Palmyra, New York. It was a long way to go and a lot to see in just two days, but I’m so glad we went. The kids were able to know more about church history and we enjoyed it. I think the Kirtland temple has greater meaning to me now than when I was a kid. Can’t imagine the sacrifices that were made to build that building—but also what glorious things that happened there too! I also loved going to the sacred grove again and being able to teach my kids more about Joseph Smith and prayer. They enjoyed seeing where the Book of Mormon was printed. We also got to see the Palmyra Temple. I’m glad we went all the way up there!
Sunday-Sunday: Cincinatti Ohio to visit my sister and her family
We LOVE being with cousins again! The kids had a great week and the adults did too! The dads worked and the moms and kids played! 😊 we went to splash pads, parks, the zoo, out to eat, chick fila day, etc. 💕 the week went by too fast. Kels and I looked nuts sometimes out and about with our 9 kids altogether! Ha! But it was sure a great week of memories and adventures!
Sunday: we drove through Pittsburgh to NYC! Stopped in Pittsburgh briefly to see downtown and then to see where Ryan grew up. It is a spectacular city! Fun to walk by the river, go through the tunnel and take some drone footage. Then showing the kids where he grew up was awesome for Ryan. We have done that with some of my childhood houses in the past in Utah, so it was cool for us to imagine life for Ryan there 20+ years ago!
Monday-Tuesday-NYC!
I think this was definitely a highlight of our summer for the older kids. They talk about Nee York—Times Square and the Statue of Liberty and a restaurant we went to called “the melt”. It was a lot of walking but neat to go see some things that were meaningful to the kids. We also learned while there that we do not desire to live in big cities anymore at all! 😆. Met up with my former roommate Calli while there too!
Tuesday evening through Wednesday morning we drove out to Long Island to see some MBA friends who we haven’t seen in almost 3 years—the Bennett’s. It was sure fun reconnecting and the kids hit it right off again even though they didn’t remember each other. Man! The MBA feels like a lifetime ago! We went to a yummy ice cream place with them called ??? (I’ll have to go look it up again! Ha!)
Wednesday-Friday we drove through Philadelphia to see the temple (very neat temple!) and then went to Washington DC. We saw the DC temple first—the visitors center there is a lot like on temple square. Unfortunately we couldn’t get very close to the temple itself because it was under construction. We tried to pace ourselves a little bit better after quite a lot of walking in NY but it’s so hard to do! Everything is very spread out in DC. We went to the national archives which was awesome because we had showed the kids the movie “National Treasure” just the week before! Only downside there was kobe fell off a kid size chair and bit his tongue—screaming and blood everywhere! 😕 We also explored the smithsonian museums and the air and space museum. We saw the national monuments from afar and the Capitol building as well. Our Airbnb here was nice but felt weird to be living amongst other people’s stuff instead of an empty space. But it’s ok. It worked!
Friday we drove down to Wrightsville beach for a family reunion trip with some of Ryan’s family. It was an amazing house in an amazing location! We were in heaven all week! Harbor with a dock right out back and then a 5 min walk to the beach. It was a little squishy to put all 7 of us in a room for the week—but that didn’t stop us from enjoying ourselves and making memories. We collected all sorts of shells, went boogie boarding, kayaking, paddle boarding, boating (Kyler even tried water skiing!) and eating lots of yummy food and enjoying time with family we rarely see!
We stayed in NC for a week and then drove down to Sanibel Island Florida. We drove half day to Savannah Georgia where we stayed overnight at a very nice Airbnb. Then we drove the next day to Sanibel island. There was a Perkins restaurant near our lodging so we had that for dinner. Kamryn still asks to go there again! Haha! Ryan took the older kids out to the beach on Saturday morning to find cool shells. They were successful but it was tricky because we found out there was toxic algae in the water called “red tide”. So, We just enjoyed a weekend of relaxing in the airbnb in Sanibel instead. There was a hot tub at the house that the kids loved swimming in on their own. So fun to have a “pool” to use as we want! 😊 we went to church there on Sunday and had a lot of people ask us to move there! Very friendly people.
By this point we had been mulling over where to live after the summer was over and weren’t feeling all that desirous to go back to Utah. We kinda had tentatively decided to move to Florida—Orlando. Experience what it would be like to live near Disney. 😊. So we drove through some neighborhoods on our way to the Randall’s house on Tuesday. We didn’t really feel great about the places we drove and weren’t really sure what we should do. We drove right through Disney world which nearly killed the kids that we weren’t going in! (Ha!) but we made them feel better when we told them it was over 100 degrees outside and crowded! It would be miserable!!
Tuesday night we stayed overnight with some friends—the Randall’s. They live in Orlando. It was fun to catch up with them again. They have 2 darling boys. We went swimming with them and had dinner and just chatted. It was good.
Wednesday we left around noon and drove 12 hours up to Cincinatti again. It was a long drive but actually went alright. The kids were asleep by about 9. Then Ryan and I stayed up together as we drove and we talked and laughed and reminisced. We ended up finding all of our old songs from high school and making a playlist in Spotify. It was fun! A night I will Long remember.
We spent a couple days in Cincinatti and then both our family and carter’s drove out to Independence Missouri. We saw the visitors center and the community of Christ temple. Then the next morning we went to church and liberty jail before heading up to Iowa to meet up with the Moe clan for our Lakehouse reunion!
Sunday through Friday we spent in Iowa with the Moe clan! It was a Greta week. Spiritually uplofting, fun activities, and good laughs and memories. The kids loved the lake with the trampoline and the deck that you could dive off or fish off. I loved the devotional every day. We taught the kids how to play concentration that trip. We liked playing nerts and shuffleboard and pool and spikeball. We went on one field trip to the winter quarters temple and visitors center.
Friday-the Utah Moe’s headed back to Utah. We and Carters headed to Nauvoo. When we got there it was almost dinner time and it wasn’t hot. We weren’t really sure what to do first. But we went to the temple grounds for a picture and then headed to Joseph and Hyrum’s graves. Then we went to the brick Smith and blacksmith. Both were pretty neat to hear about. We also went to the pioneer pastimes where the kids got to play as pioneer children would have. I love that they have that for kids. The Airbnb we stayed in overnight was close and our only option—nauvoo is seriously in the middle of nowhere! ☺️
Saturday—we headed back to Omaha! Our last stop before our summer was over!
We spent almost an entire week at the Rose’s. We went to the zoo with them (amazing zoo!!) we also went to the lake to swim again, spent time at home, went to the park. The kids were having a good time with cousins again but all of them were a little edgier this week and I’m sure the exhaustion of the summer was the reason. It was time to go “home” again.
Saturday August 18, 2018 we drove back into Utah valley again. Saw the beautiful mountains we missed all summer!
Stats from our trip:
Drove over 10,000 miles
Saw 6 temples (wanted to do more but had to cut a couple for timing purposes)
Didn’t get a single ticket!
Found the best Chick-fil-A ever just outside Kirtland Ohio!!
Learned how to love out of a van and a suitcase
Kids learned to be more responsible for their stuff and I learned how to let them
Listened to a few audiobooks
Kids played plenty of hours of iPad games and movies and books!!
Read the Book of Mormon almost every day we were gone. Made it work with whatever the plan was that day—reading at home, in the car, listening to the audio version, etc.
realized we love the trees and rain and don’t mind humidity.
We HATE bugs! (Kyler gets eaten alive!)
Wed.-sat. : Nebraska with cousins. We played and played and played! We went to the winter quarters temple, we went fishing for the first time in our lives!, and we swam in the lake at a nearby campground.
Sun-Thurs: Grove city Ohio to visit family. Quick trip to Cincinatti to see my nephew’s baby blessing on Sunday and then spent the week of 4th of July with Ryan’s Aunts and Uncles and Grandma and cousins. So great! Some fun things: the kids love Aunt Karen’s house and Unle Neil’s cooking! We had a water fight on the 4th that the boys still love talking about. Loved having soda at almost every meal at Grandma’s House. And they loved riding bikes and scooters with Dean’s kids.
Thursday: kids and I went up to Columbus to meet up with a former roommate of mine back in college! So fun to see Adria and her family. It’s been a long time! The kids had fun getting to know new friends. I really enjoyed catching up and hearing what their ward is like in Toledo. We went to a library and then went to Kristyanne Keene for a treat! Yum!
Friday and Saturday we spent touring Kirtland Ohio and then Palmyra, New York. It was a long way to go and a lot to see in just two days, but I’m so glad we went. The kids were able to know more about church history and we enjoyed it. I think the Kirtland temple has greater meaning to me now than when I was a kid. Can’t imagine the sacrifices that were made to build that building—but also what glorious things that happened there too! I also loved going to the sacred grove again and being able to teach my kids more about Joseph Smith and prayer. They enjoyed seeing where the Book of Mormon was printed. We also got to see the Palmyra Temple. I’m glad we went all the way up there!
Sunday-Sunday: Cincinatti Ohio to visit my sister and her family
We LOVE being with cousins again! The kids had a great week and the adults did too! The dads worked and the moms and kids played! 😊 we went to splash pads, parks, the zoo, out to eat, chick fila day, etc. 💕 the week went by too fast. Kels and I looked nuts sometimes out and about with our 9 kids altogether! Ha! But it was sure a great week of memories and adventures!
Sunday: we drove through Pittsburgh to NYC! Stopped in Pittsburgh briefly to see downtown and then to see where Ryan grew up. It is a spectacular city! Fun to walk by the river, go through the tunnel and take some drone footage. Then showing the kids where he grew up was awesome for Ryan. We have done that with some of my childhood houses in the past in Utah, so it was cool for us to imagine life for Ryan there 20+ years ago!
Monday-Tuesday-NYC!
I think this was definitely a highlight of our summer for the older kids. They talk about Nee York—Times Square and the Statue of Liberty and a restaurant we went to called “the melt”. It was a lot of walking but neat to go see some things that were meaningful to the kids. We also learned while there that we do not desire to live in big cities anymore at all! 😆. Met up with my former roommate Calli while there too!
Tuesday evening through Wednesday morning we drove out to Long Island to see some MBA friends who we haven’t seen in almost 3 years—the Bennett’s. It was sure fun reconnecting and the kids hit it right off again even though they didn’t remember each other. Man! The MBA feels like a lifetime ago! We went to a yummy ice cream place with them called ??? (I’ll have to go look it up again! Ha!)
Wednesday-Friday we drove through Philadelphia to see the temple (very neat temple!) and then went to Washington DC. We saw the DC temple first—the visitors center there is a lot like on temple square. Unfortunately we couldn’t get very close to the temple itself because it was under construction. We tried to pace ourselves a little bit better after quite a lot of walking in NY but it’s so hard to do! Everything is very spread out in DC. We went to the national archives which was awesome because we had showed the kids the movie “National Treasure” just the week before! Only downside there was kobe fell off a kid size chair and bit his tongue—screaming and blood everywhere! 😕 We also explored the smithsonian museums and the air and space museum. We saw the national monuments from afar and the Capitol building as well. Our Airbnb here was nice but felt weird to be living amongst other people’s stuff instead of an empty space. But it’s ok. It worked!
Friday we drove down to Wrightsville beach for a family reunion trip with some of Ryan’s family. It was an amazing house in an amazing location! We were in heaven all week! Harbor with a dock right out back and then a 5 min walk to the beach. It was a little squishy to put all 7 of us in a room for the week—but that didn’t stop us from enjoying ourselves and making memories. We collected all sorts of shells, went boogie boarding, kayaking, paddle boarding, boating (Kyler even tried water skiing!) and eating lots of yummy food and enjoying time with family we rarely see!
We stayed in NC for a week and then drove down to Sanibel Island Florida. We drove half day to Savannah Georgia where we stayed overnight at a very nice Airbnb. Then we drove the next day to Sanibel island. There was a Perkins restaurant near our lodging so we had that for dinner. Kamryn still asks to go there again! Haha! Ryan took the older kids out to the beach on Saturday morning to find cool shells. They were successful but it was tricky because we found out there was toxic algae in the water called “red tide”. So, We just enjoyed a weekend of relaxing in the airbnb in Sanibel instead. There was a hot tub at the house that the kids loved swimming in on their own. So fun to have a “pool” to use as we want! 😊 we went to church there on Sunday and had a lot of people ask us to move there! Very friendly people.
By this point we had been mulling over where to live after the summer was over and weren’t feeling all that desirous to go back to Utah. We kinda had tentatively decided to move to Florida—Orlando. Experience what it would be like to live near Disney. 😊. So we drove through some neighborhoods on our way to the Randall’s house on Tuesday. We didn’t really feel great about the places we drove and weren’t really sure what we should do. We drove right through Disney world which nearly killed the kids that we weren’t going in! (Ha!) but we made them feel better when we told them it was over 100 degrees outside and crowded! It would be miserable!!
Tuesday night we stayed overnight with some friends—the Randall’s. They live in Orlando. It was fun to catch up with them again. They have 2 darling boys. We went swimming with them and had dinner and just chatted. It was good.
Wednesday we left around noon and drove 12 hours up to Cincinatti again. It was a long drive but actually went alright. The kids were asleep by about 9. Then Ryan and I stayed up together as we drove and we talked and laughed and reminisced. We ended up finding all of our old songs from high school and making a playlist in Spotify. It was fun! A night I will Long remember.
We spent a couple days in Cincinatti and then both our family and carter’s drove out to Independence Missouri. We saw the visitors center and the community of Christ temple. Then the next morning we went to church and liberty jail before heading up to Iowa to meet up with the Moe clan for our Lakehouse reunion!
Sunday through Friday we spent in Iowa with the Moe clan! It was a Greta week. Spiritually uplofting, fun activities, and good laughs and memories. The kids loved the lake with the trampoline and the deck that you could dive off or fish off. I loved the devotional every day. We taught the kids how to play concentration that trip. We liked playing nerts and shuffleboard and pool and spikeball. We went on one field trip to the winter quarters temple and visitors center.
Friday-the Utah Moe’s headed back to Utah. We and Carters headed to Nauvoo. When we got there it was almost dinner time and it wasn’t hot. We weren’t really sure what to do first. But we went to the temple grounds for a picture and then headed to Joseph and Hyrum’s graves. Then we went to the brick Smith and blacksmith. Both were pretty neat to hear about. We also went to the pioneer pastimes where the kids got to play as pioneer children would have. I love that they have that for kids. The Airbnb we stayed in overnight was close and our only option—nauvoo is seriously in the middle of nowhere! ☺️
Saturday—we headed back to Omaha! Our last stop before our summer was over!
We spent almost an entire week at the Rose’s. We went to the zoo with them (amazing zoo!!) we also went to the lake to swim again, spent time at home, went to the park. The kids were having a good time with cousins again but all of them were a little edgier this week and I’m sure the exhaustion of the summer was the reason. It was time to go “home” again.
Saturday August 18, 2018 we drove back into Utah valley again. Saw the beautiful mountains we missed all summer!
Stats from our trip:
Drove over 10,000 miles
Saw 6 temples (wanted to do more but had to cut a couple for timing purposes)
Didn’t get a single ticket!
Found the best Chick-fil-A ever just outside Kirtland Ohio!!
Learned how to love out of a van and a suitcase
Kids learned to be more responsible for their stuff and I learned how to let them
Listened to a few audiobooks
Kids played plenty of hours of iPad games and movies and books!!
Read the Book of Mormon almost every day we were gone. Made it work with whatever the plan was that day—reading at home, in the car, listening to the audio version, etc.
realized we love the trees and rain and don’t mind humidity.
We HATE bugs! (Kyler gets eaten alive!)
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