Sun Valley in the Fall

I know this is a long post, but there are pictures at the bottom!

This weekend my Dad, brother Chris, and sister Tiffany went to visit our grandparents in Sun Valley, Idaho. (Jenna couldn't come, and we missed her SO much!) Sun Valley is one of my favorite places on earth, and after this trip I love it even more. It's a quiet little ski resort town in the middle of the mountains in central Idaho. There are large fancy homes with well groomed lawns and a dog on every porch. The town is made up of tiny little shops and independent local businesses. There are no chain restaurants or large department stores. Everything is expensive and fancy. The weather never gets above 80 degrees in the summer and everything is green. In the winter they say they usually have about 3-4 feet of snow in their yard at any given time. I've never been there in the fall, and it was just how I imagined it. Absolutely gorgeous.

On Thursday, Daddy, Chris and Tiffany drove out from Colorado and picked me up in Salt Lake. I am the lucky one and only had to sit in the car for 5 hours, instead of 11 or 12. We arrived in Sun Valley at around 9pm. We got out of the car and the air was pretty chilly and smelled of dozens of fires burning inside the neighboring homes. We came inside, said hello, hugs all around, and then we went to bed pretty quickly.

Friday we slept in and then I went with Daddy and Grandma on a little walk. Sun Valley is in the mountains, and so there are aspen trees everywhere and the colors are amazing! The sun was shining that day and I took tons of pictures (see below). It was quiet and cool, and the fresh, clean air was wonderful. Later in the day we went to town and went to a ski swap and The Gold Mine, which is the local thrift store. I found a barely used copy of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in hardback for a buck! We ate lunch in a cozy little sandwich shop and then went to the local movie theatre (4 theatre's total), and watched Secretariat. It's a pretty good movie! Then we met Daddy and Grandpa at the Sawtooth for dinner. It's a little tavern-like restaurant with candles on the tables and soft lighting. We ate upstairs at a cozy little table in the corner. It reminded me of something out of Lord of the Rings or something! I had roasted chicken and garlic mashed potatoes. BEST mashed potatoes of my life. What a wonderful day!

On Saturday we slept in and woke up to cold and rainy weather. Lovely! Grandma took Tiff and I to get manicures, and there was misty clouds hanging low over the tops of the mountains. Daddy, Chris, and Grandpa met us in town and Grandma and Grandpa bought us all Sun Valley hoodies and t-shirts. We went grocery shopping at the local bustling market, and then headed home to get ready for dinner. Grandma had no idea that we were going to a surprise birthday dinner for her! We arrived at the restaurant (a bit fancier than the previous night's) and a man dressed in a Gumbi costume walked up to grandma with a cosmopolitan and offered her his arm. She said "ohhh, what is this???" and took his arm and allowed him to lead her upstairs, where family was waiting to surprise her! Aunt Shari and Uncle Doug were there with their two kids Mac and Cate, and Aunt Shelby and her daughter Jodi were there, and Uncle Rod was in the Gumbi suit. Grandma was floored. She was so happy to see everyone, and was completely surprised! We had a lovely dinner with great food, laughter, our very own personal waiter for our table, and chocolate cake. When we left the restaurant, we could see our breath in the air and we were so excited that it was cold! What a great night.

Sunday Tiffany and I got up early to get ready for church. It was very cold and rainy as we drove to the next town for sacrament meeting. We enjoyed the meeting very much. Then, we drove home and were elated to see snow falling! When we got back to the house, breakfast and the whole family were waiting for us. We had breakfast casseroles and fruit, hot chocolate and toast. It was nice to sit and talk with everyone and enjoy being inside the cozy warm house. We spent the rest of the afternoon just being lazy, having fun with the family, and enjoying the warm fires blazing in the fire places. We made some pumpkin pie and played cards. Our cousins and aunts and uncles left by around 3 or 4 and Chris, Tiffany, and I got bundled up and went for a walk/hike in the rain. It was wonderful to be out in the cold rain! We laughed and got very silly as we walked around the beautiful neighborhood. Smoke from wood fires was coming out of almost every chimney, and it smelled so good! We hiked up a little hill and could see all of Sun Valley from up there. We took some pictures and then headed back home to dry out for dinner. We had an amazing dinner. Music was playing and candles were burning as we ate off of fancy plates and drank sparkling cider out of wine goblets. We had Cornish game hens and some weird fancy pear and blue cheese salad. Chris and Tiff and I all picked around the blue cheese, but everything else was fantastic! We cleaned up and had pumpkin pie with homemade whipped cream for dessert. What a perfect, warm, happy way to end our trip! We packed everything up that night and enjoyed our last night of sleeping on pillow-top mattresses in quiet serenity.

I'm so grateful for my generous and giving grandparents. They paid for EVERYTHING on this trip without a question. They made sure we were always comfortable, always had enough amazing food, and had everything else we could need or want while on this trip. They always did all the cooking and preparing without ever wanting much help, and they washed every dirty dish afterward and didn't let us help! I can't believe how amazing they are. What good people! I'm very blessed to have them in my life.

Here are some pictures of the trip! They hardly do Sun Valley justice, but that's all I got!

Relay for Life

Last night I participated in The 2010 Relay for Life of Salt Lake City, an event put on by the American Cancer Society. I signed up with my team from Bright Horizons, the center where I teach, and we worked together to raise over 3,000 dollars! The entire event raised around 24,000 dollars. You can still donate until August 31st by clicking here. I had a great time at the event! We arrived at This is the Place Heritage Park at around 6pm, and started walking. They set up a walking path that goes around the edge of the site (its about a quarter mile distance), and the idea is that someone from your team is on the track walking at all times throughout the entire night, because cancer never sleeps. The evening didn't start out so well for me.


I was SICK! Good thing there were good bathrooms close by, that's all I have to say. However, after a LOT of that lovely pink pepto and some lying on the ground time, things started to look up. Below is a picture of my wonderful co-teacher, Sarah, and I. LOVE her.

So, we started to walk. I felt pretty weak and tired for the rest of the night, so I didn't put in as much walking time as I would have liked, but I still did some. When we weren't walking, we were sitting at our camp site, chatting, eating junk food, and watching the sun set. When it got dark, they did an Luminaria presentation. They light luminaries that people have purchased and decorated in honor of the people in their lives that have either survived cancer, are currently battling it, or have lost their lives to it. They then showed us a video presentation about a little boy who battled cancer for about 7 years, and is now a healthy 10-year-old. It was truly inspiring. Then they went through a slide-show of pictures of people who had struggled or were struggling with cancer, or who had lost their lives. Everyone in the slide-show was someone close to those in attendance at the Relay. It was quite sad.

At around 2am, we decided to go to bed. Most of us "slept" until around 6am. (The ground was very hard and lumpy, and it was SO WINDY.) There were 2 girls from our team that walked the track from about 1am til 4am without ceasing. They were awesome! At 6:30 we did a few more laps, watched a beautiful sunrise, and had a very nutritious breakfast of McDonald's sausage biscuits, hash-browns, donuts, and orange juice. Mmmm, so good. The sunrise was just as spectacular as the sunset. I so enjoy being up early enough to see the world wake up. It's one of my favorite things.






The event ended around 9 and we headed home! I slept from about 10 this morning until 3pm. Weird! It was a good time, and I hope I can do it again next year.

MoTab Rocks!

Last night Heidi and I went to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Pioneer Commemoration Concert at the Conference Center downtown. It was amazing! They sang many of their popular/traditional songs, and talked about their recording history over the past 100 years. They have some amazing stories! We were blessed to hear them sing the "Hallelujah Chorus", "The Battle Hymn of the Republic", "Amazing Grace" complete with bagpipes, and many more, including "Come, Come Ye Saints." The technology and the beautiful buildings that we are blessed with in this age is wonderful. And it is all because of the people who suffered as they walked across the plains to escape persecution and find a place where they could worship freely. I am so grateful for the immense struggle that the pioneers went through over 150 years ago, so that I can go to the beautiful (air conditioned) Conference Center and listen to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, in person. Of course that is not the only thing that I am blessed with because of their sacrifice. There are many, many other blessings that I couldn't list here in this blog post, even if I tried. But the blessing of music is what I thought about last night, as I sat there and marveled at the beauty of the choir, the building, the structure of the organ, the sound ringing through that great assembly hall. How blessed we are to live in this day!

Rain Falls

"Why is it raining...AGAIN?!?" "I'm so sick of this weather!" "I was REALLY mad when I woke up to rain AGAIN this morning" "WHERE is the sun?!?"

I have heard (and made) many of these comments often each day during these past few weeks as the weather has been...shall we say...questionable. I have come to realize that I actually LOVE rain. Well, I've always known that I love rain, but recently I've given it a bit more thought.

I love rain when it's cold, and I love it when it's warm. I love it when it's fall and colored leaves litter the wet ground. Right now, I love that everything is green, and when it rains, the green grass and trees almost seem to emit light as the rain falls. I love rain at dusk, when it's not quite dark, and street lights, porch lights and the headlights glow softly in the wet pavement. Spring rain makes sound, but its a quiet and soft, it almost seems to hush the world. It's steady, and cool. I LOVE it.

I must admit that last week I complained over and over again that I wanted the sun to come out. I was sick of taking the kids out into the gross mud; I was sick of being chilly and not being able to get some sun. I wanted to be warm, hot even. I wanted the flowers to stretch up to the sky, and stop bowing to the ground under the weight and cold of the rain. Saturday my wishes came true, and I was more excited about the sunshine than I have in a while...BECAUSE of the rain that came before it! The rain helped me to appreciate the sunshine so much more than I would have if we had been given sunshine all week long.

So, when the rain came back today, I took the time to smell the clean air, to feel the coolness, and to enjoy watching the water fall from the sky...because I know that when the Summer heat comes, I will only be longing for that cold rain to come back to the world!

26 years and counting...

26 years old...that's me today! I originally thought that sounded quite old...but after contemplating it for a while (and talking with others who are older), I've come to the conclusion that I'm still young! (I decided that I had better come to this realization and share it quickly before someone older punches me in the face.)

When I woke up this morning I had a great feeling of gratitude to my Father in Heaven for blessing me with life, with the opportunity to have been on this earth for 26 amazing, light-filled years so far, and for the people that I've had in my life. I LOVE my family and friends, both old and new, and I wouldn't want my life to be any other way! My experiences are tailored just for me, and how grateful I am for that.

I had a birthday dinner party tonight at Red Robin (did you really think I'd try somewhere NEW?) and it was great fun. A bunch of my friends came, and the love of my life, baby Sammy! I'm completely happy and content to just sit around talking and laughing with people I love (and a raspberry milkshake). It was wonderful.

This past weekend my sister Tiffany came to visit. We had a blast! We slept in, went to a movie, had dinner with Aunt Shelby and Jodie, slept in, went to a gathering at Aunt Bonnie's house, went to see Grandma and Grandpa's old house and their graves, went to dinner at Macaroni Grill to celebrate Tiff's birthday with Bonnie, George, and Heidi, slept in, went to church, went to a fireside and listed to Sister Bednar speak, slept in, went to hang out with Ryan, Kara, and Sammy, went to Red Robin, and went to the Garden Park Ward. What a great time!
I am pretending that it is spring. This morning was so nice outside in the sun, and I just can't WAIT for warmer weather (she says as it is dumping snow outside...lame). I always thought that I loved winter more than summer, and I loved snow more than rain or sun. BUT I've realized this year that I am much more of a warm-weather girl than I ever thought I was! So bring on the heat, because I'm READY!!! Too bad we've got a few more months to go. Winter is boring. Summer is fun. And there are more colors...like green! The end.