Rodeo, Garden and Yellowstone

Lots of updates to post and I’m doing them all at once! First of all, we went to the Evanston Rodeo a few weeks ago and it was FREEZING. It is always colder up there, but that day was just insane and we almost froze to death. We weren’t super prepared because I didn’t realize how cold it was until we got to West Jordan so we borrowed stuff from Dan’s parents.

The rodeo was still fun and Dan can never get enough rodeo so it was a good time.

My garden is thriving! It’s insanely huge and everything I planted has done well. I harvested quite a few peas and they were really good. I will plant more peas next year and also trellis them. The parsley and cilantro was insane and I didn’t know what to do with it so I froze some and hopefully can use it for salsa later! My zucchini is huge and my onions are a few feet tall as well. We have had tons of lettuce and spinach all the time too! I have loved it and I can’t wait for fresh tomatoes!

We had our annual Yellowstone trip with the Hill family last week. This year we camped and had 3 trailers and a few tents. Almost the entire family was there for 2 days (except for Joe in Bulgaria and Ben was still in Mongolia). A total of 27 people with 3 more on the way by the end of the year! 13 kids 10 and under made for constant entertainment. Yee haw.

Setting up Mark and Carrie’s tent.

We stayed at a campground in Yellowstone this year and we were right by the river. We spent one day playing in the river. It was cold but fun!

Some of my adorable nieces and nephews. They were tons of fun and there was always someone doing something hilarious, crying, or arguing over something. I loved it.

My Sarah. She is like my little stalker. She always sits with me and I just adore her. She is the tiniest little girl but has a huge personality and we just love each other. Can’t get enough of her. We took this same picture but I had sunglasses on and she wanted another picture without my sunglasses.

We had lunch at Old Faithful and we parked ourselves by one of the walkways and enjoyed lunch.

This picture is so stinkin cute. Matt (the first kid) is obsessed with grandpa and was sitting on his stomach and then Mia, Addy and Sarah decided to join in on the fun. They are so dang adorable.

Dan and I rockin our matching wolf shirts (from our Labor day trip last year) at Yellowstone lake. Those wolf shirts summoned the wolves again this year and we saw some SWEET stuff!

Some of the kids played in Yellowstone Lake. The water was freezing and it was windy! I don’t understand how they can do that!

Some of the family at the falls.

A better view of the wolf shirts. You are welcome. I’m about 15 weeks along here and you can’t tell too much except that I just look a little chunky in the waist area!

We found an awesome area to have dinner and Julie busted out their camp chef and roasted some hot dogs. Julie is due at the end of July with a girl, and Carrie (just to the right of Julie) is due at the end of September with a boy!

Enjoying dinner in the forest. There were signs everywhere saying the trails around there were closed because of bears. Awesome. Luckily we didn’t lose any children to the bears.

There were some deer right by our dinner. Dave got really close to them.

The kids had a blast roaming around the forest and there was a huge dead tree that they loved climbing on and jumping off of. There were only a few minor casualties after this picture.

We had a blast in Yellowstone with the whole fam and Dan and are pumped to go back again over Labor day together. It will just be us and we had to go back after having a great time last year. It’s so gorgeous there and we saw a ton of animals including a pack of wolves hunting a huge herd of elk! It was so incredible to see them splitting up the herd and chasing them around. We also saw a bunch of bears! It was awesome.

Finally, we had a 16 week doctor appointment yesterday and my doctor does ultrasounds at every appointment so he can tell the gender. He was almost positive it is a… BOY!!! The umbilical cord was all wrapped up so he looked for a while, but he said he was pretty sure it was a boy. So things could possibly change, but we are super excited! I have no idea what to do with a boy, but I can’t wait!! Dan is just excited he will have a permanent friend to take camping and play with and a slave to mow his lawn. He is crazy.

Happy Happy Joy Joy

I don’t know why I thought of that or even where it’s from but there is some silly song that says “happy happy joy joy” over and over so I decided to go with it.

Anyway, the reason we are happy and joyous is because I’m pregnant! Weeee! So exciting and sorry I didn’t come up with some ingenius/creative way of posting it on the blog, but I figured it’s this or nothing…the picture below is when we found out we got our house over 2 years ago but still a good pic of us being excited!

I am almost 14 weeks along and I am due on CHRISTMAS EVE! Funny right? Kinda crazy but we are pumped. My mother in law’s birthday is the same day so that is kind of fun too. It’s really fun because our good friends Dustin and Kaley are also pregnant and just a few weeks ahead of us. Dan was more excited to tell them than anyone else! Now he and Dustin can share horror stories about how amazing their wives are :)

We have known for quite a while so it has given us some time for it to sink in somewhat although it’s still pretty crazy to think about. We are super excited and happy and can’t wait to have a baby. But we are definitely glad that we still have 6 months to figure things out and get ready because I have no idea what I’m doing! AHHH crazy-ness. We will find out in 2 more weeks (July 9) what the sex is! Our doctor does an ultrasound every appointment so it is pretty rad to be able to see the changes each time. I am partially hoping for a girl and Dan wants a boy, but we will both be stoked either way! I just love how you can dress up girls and do their hair and all that fun stuff! I have no idea what to do with a boy! But it will be exciting to find out soon.

So far I have not felt awful but definitely not great. Some people are constantly sick so I know I have it good in a lot of ways. Some days have just been blah but overall, it hasn’t been too bad. I don’t want to be a big complainer about being pregnant because I am happy to have this blessing and I am excited for the future so I’m trying not to focus on that (Dan may tell a different story). I’m amazed that there is something growing in my tummy and that my body can do this incredible thing.

I can’t even express how happy I am to be starting a family with Dan and I know he will be the best dad in the world. He is so awesome and fun and even though everyone teases him about being immature, he is really wonderful and I have no worries about him being a dad. He honestly takes care of me so much and I would not have survived the past few months without him! He is so patient with me and never complains when I’m being a bum or not doing anything at all. He just does it and makes sure I am okay. I just adore him. Happy day!

Memorial Day in California

 

Dan and I decided to go visit my family in Northern California over the long Memorial Day weekend. We left Wednesday after work and drove to Reno where we stayed the night. Then we drove the rest of the way on Thursday. We came home Monday morning so it was a pretty quick trip but a lot of fun.

Shock of a lifetime, I didn’t even fall asleep at all on the way there! I still can’t believe it. We had a lot of fun singing and talking and eating. We used priceline to bid on a hotel in Reno and got it for $40! We still had to pay priceline and hotel fees which totaled $24 but it was still a great deal for a really nice hotel. I was really impressed with the hotel and it was nice to not have to drive the entire way that night.

The main lady we wanted to visit was my Grams. My grandpa passed away last year and she has moved into an assisted living center near my aunt and uncle. It was so fun to see her and just visit with her a lot. She is so cute in her new place and everyone just loves her. It is so nice and it really makes me happy to see that she is in such a nice place where she can have her own little apartment and have some independence, but we don’t have to worry about her getting hurt or taking her medicine. And she gets gourmet food cooked for her every day! Not too shabby…

Of course I had a ton of fun with the kiddos. My cousin Seth has a new baby Emma and I adore her. She is the tiniest thing since she was preemie and now that she is 3 months, she is only the size of a regular newborn! She was kind of fussy but I got her to sleep twice! Score. I was the baby whisperer and got Rachel (below) to like me too! I think giving her food and helping her walk everywhere helped!

Dan was a hit with Reilly too! This kid is hilarious and never stops going. He is obsessed with baseball and would honestly play for hours if someone would play with him. Dan played a lot with him so he was constantly begging Dan to play. It was so cute to watch them and Reilly is amazing at throwing and catching especially being only 4 years old!

Basically all we did the whole weekend was eat and visit. Not too bad if you ask me. Unfortunately I gained a few pounds to prove it! My aunt and uncle have a beautiful home and they are the best hosts. It is so nice to stay at their house and they make the most amazing dinners every night!

Me and Jacob. He is such a smarty pants and so big!

The weather was awesome (70s) and we sat outside almost every night and ate dinner and enjoyed the weather.

Helping “ya ya” (that is what the grandkids call my aunt) and “grandma weezy” (great-grandma Eloise) make frosting for the cupcakes.

More family dinners and yummy food. Of course soda was involved….it’s my family after all and these people are soda addicts!

We honestly felt like we were back with Dan’s family since there were so many people and kids everywhere, it was so much fun!

Danny and Seth somehow ended up at the table with all the blocks and toys meant for the kids. They made some pretty good designs though!

Cutest kids ever. Rachel and Marshall playing.

Kallie with Marshal (her son) and baby Emma (her niece).

We had a ton of fun spending time with my family in California. We don’t get to see them very often so it was really important for us to get out there when we could. I loved hanging out and just visiting them and getting to see my cousins’ kids. Dan and I had a blast driving and chatting on our road trip and hopefully we can go back soon!

Garden and nasty stache

Dan had a big beard a few weeks ago and he kept it for about a month. I don’t mind the bearded look and I think he looks pretty hot, but I don’t like kissing him at all! And his mom hates it! But he finally shaved and decided to leave the nastiest mustache ever. He kept it for a day and everyone at his work said he looked like a porn star. Sickkkkkk.

An update on our yard. These were about 2 weeks ago and we added some more plants to fill in our backyard flower beds a bit more. You can barely tell, but there are a bunch of Petunias (where it looks like just dirt) so hopefully they fill in and bring some color.

These are all newly planted and already have grown quite a bit. They are looking good and supposedly will get pretty big.

The front gardens are looking good but I definitely need some color! I planted some petunias up here too so hopefully they will be colorful soon now that my tulips have died.

This is my garden about two weeks ago.

The pepper and tomato plants were just newly planted.

This is my garden as of last night and it looks awesome! So many things have just exploded and I’m so excited!

My tomatoes and pepper plant have grown a lot and the zucchini seed I planted a week or two ago has already popped up! I was amazed!

This is a close up of my spinch (middle two squares) and my beans (top four squares). My onions are huge and my cilantro and parsley are popping up like crazy. My peas are also growing really well so hopefully they turn out!

I am going to try to work out a trellis for my tomatoes and my zucchini so they don’t get out of control and take over my small garden. Hopefully it actually works and I’ll post pictures of that eventually. Hooray for gardens!

The Great Debate

 

This is going to be harsh. Just warning you. I’m about to get all political and controversial up in here. But it’s my blog and this is something that has been bothering me for a while now and I want to share my opinion. I realize I may offend some people or infuriate people but I’ve been offended and infuriated myself about it so whatev.

Anyway….gay marriage. Yikes. A hot topic for sure, especially these days.

Here is what I believe in a nutshell: Marriage is between a man and a woman. Period. Acting on homosexual feelings is wrong (as is acting on heterosexual feelings before marriage).

I have an unwavering testimony of the gospel and I 100% support my church and their stance on this topic. I do not pick and choose the things about my religion that I want to support. I believe it’s all or nothing. Obviously I have a lot of faults and things to work on, but I fully support my church and every single thing that my leaders (speaking on behalf of God) stand for. This is not to assume that all leaders are perfect and I realize that there are many in the church who make mistakes. That is not what I’m talking about here. You cannot be a faithful member of this church and choose which parts you like and which parts you don’t. It doesn’t work that way. We are a church that requires commitment and dedication and we believe that the Lord will bless us immensely for following Him and dedicating ourselves to His work.

Now here is the kicker: I think that members of the church who do not support the church’s stance on gay marriage should not be able to hold a temple recommend. During the recommend interview, we are explicitly asked if we support and sustain the leaders of our church. Luckily it is not my decision to make that judgment and the church leaders and the Lord will make the ultimate decision, not me. But the fact that people are actively going against the church is preposterous and outrageous and it breaks my heart. It shocks me to my core that these same people continue to go to church, bear their testimony, etc., but then they publicly support gay marriage and blatantly state that the church is wrong! That is total and complete hypocrisy.

My very dearest and best friend throughout my entire childhood is gay. He was basically family and we spent every waking moment together. We had so much fun growing up and we stayed close throughout high school as well. I never doubted that something was different about him. I always knew he was different but didn’t understand how until later in high school. I was absolutely not surprised when he told me he was gay. He was still the same sweetheart boy that I knew and grew up with. He wasn’t any different than he had always been and he is still a wonderful person that I love being around. I still see him whenever I can and although he knows exactly where I stand, he also knows that I love him and care about him.

Many gay people that I have met and interacted with are great and some are so flamboyant and hysterical and I absolutely love it. I still disagree with their lifestyle but I have nothing against them and enjoying their company. It’s no different than being friends with people who drink, sleep around or don’t believe in God. I can still enjoy their company and respect our differences. I love that people are different and we can all learn from each other. I don’t want to live a life where everyone is exactly like me because how boring is that? And how would I really appreciate the things that I believe are important? They would be meaningless if everyone agreed with me right? So I appreciate the differences in the world and it’s something I have always wanted to experience.

When I lived in Holland, I became much more open to a lot of things. I was forced to question things that I had never questioned before-why don’t I drink or have sex or do drugs? Why do I go to church every week and read my scriptures? What do I think about abortion and homosexuality? Why do I think that? Holland is an extremely open minded place. The Netherlands (aka Holland) was the first country in the world to legalize gay marriage. They have also legalized prostitution and soft drugs (like marijuana). It all sounds so awful and crazy but that place was amazing. It was beautiful and the people were wonderful and kind and welcoming to everyone. I loved my time there and it is something I will forever hold dear. I talked to people who had drastically different ideas and beliefs than me and we shared our opinions over coffee (hot chocolate for me) almost every day! That experience changed me for the better but also cemented in me the truths and values that I have. I don’t think I would feel as strongly as I do if I hadn’t spent time living in the Netherlands and traveling around Europe.

I hope that in writing this, people will have no doubt where I stand and what I believe. I also hope they know that even if I disagree with them on this, I don’t hate or dislike them. Not at all! I definitely have lost a lot of respect for the “faithful” members of the church who are blatantly and purposefully going against what the church teaches. With that said, I am not going to treat people differently just because I feel that way. If you know me at all, you know I love a good discussion and I don’t get upset or offended easily, but I also don’t back down and don’t hesitate to say exactly what I think. I just wish the rest of the country could agree to disagree instead of attacking and harassing the other side. It is unfortunate that it is happening. And as a side note, I don't understand how this managed to be at the forefront of the political scene. What about the state of the economy? Our disgusting national debt? The fact that Congress has not passed a budget since 2009? What about the housing and job markets? And gay marriage has managed to be the only thing people are talking about. Tragic.

But I feel a lot better getting that off my chest. I feel like the other side of the debate gets so much publicity and they make those of us who disagree with them out to be hateful and backwards. It doesn’t make sense to me how they cannot understand that I feel just as strongly as they do about this issue. We simply disagree and that will not change. I am not trying to hurt anyone or cause pain, but my feelings will never change. I believe God has spoken on this issue and I have no questions or doubts in my mind about it. Now I can rest easy knowing that at least those who read this know exactly where I stand.