Temples and Missionaries!!!

I don't know why exactly I'm posting this, I guess mainly for my own benefit and happiness :) Anyway, if any of you know my family, it's a pretty good size-I have 1 sister and 6 brothers. We definitely aren't a perfect family but we love being together (I hope I can say that for all of us - ha ha). Out of those 6 brothers, there has only been 1 brother who has served an LDS mission. Not all of them have gone in the direction of the faith that we have been brought up in, but regardless, I love to death. My sister also served a mission and that was one of the hardest times of my life when I couldn't just call her up and talk to her and get her advice for a hard time in my life that I was going through. For me, a person serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints is called of God, following the commandments, obedient, and basically serving the Lord in love. It is not only a blessing for the person serving, but also for family and friends. I have seen miracles happen in my life because of my siblings choosing to serve a mission. Now, my brother who is younger than me, has been out for over 2 months. Yes, definitely a greenie, but I cannot express how happy, joyful, blessed, grateful, for him choosing to make this decision. It hasn't been an easy road for him and he's gone out later than the regular 19-year olds, but his whole heart is in it. I have no doubt in my mind that he is out for the right reason, HE wants to serve the Lord. I think one of the greatest and precious moments of my life was when Clay and I got to go to the Temple with him, my parents, and my sister and her husband. We were late for the session but did other work, but when we met in a room, his face was just beaming with the Love of our Savior, Jesus Christ and never have I felt so close to my family than being in the Temple. A couple weeks after I gave a lesson in Relief Society about the Temple, the Bishop's wife had mentioned that they were just able to be together with all their children in the Temple for the first time. I pray and hope all the time that there will be a day that I can be in the Temple with all my family enjoying those blessings. But with another brother going through the Temple...that just gave me another glimpse of hope and faith that it is possible-with God, all things are possible. I have seen a complete 180 change with Jake preparing for his mission and cannot express how thankful I am for the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is perfect. None of us are, but with this fullness of truth, we can become perfect like Him through Him. I know of this. I love missionaries. I don't even have to know them personally but I know the sacrifices they're making and the blessings they're receiving for themselves and their families. Let us all be missionaries!!!

Here's my brother with his Mission President and his wife. He's serving in the New York New York south Spanish speaking mission.

We Survived Our Travels!

We are now Washingtonians. It's already been quite the adventure but I'm sure it will get better. Here's just a quick overview of what's happened, then I will post the pictures.

*We got a lousy Budget truck that wasn't a Diesel so on our way to Boise through the hills and passes, the truck was overheating so we were going oh, about 25 mph up the hill just chuggin' along while everyone's passing us. Embarassing. I hate being passed.

*While in Boise, we got to meet up with about 1/2 my family for Shay's 1st Birthday party!

*Left Boise/Nampa at 5:00 a.m. (4:00 Pacific Time) and didn't get to Tacoma until 2:00 p.m. which should have only been about a 7 hour or so trip.

*While driving to Tacoma, the truck overheats again going up the steap mountains so we have to stop several times to let it cool and once again we are traveling about 10 mph this time. Lucky for us we didn't get hit with cars coming around the corner or whatever.

*We unpack the truck in the blasting heat of the day at 104 degrees so we don't get much accomplished. Luckily, Clay calls up his old Bishop and he brings his family to come help. What a blessing. I started tearing up when I saw them pull up. We get the rest of the truck unpacked in less than an hour which would have taken us the rest of the night. THANK YOU!

*We also find out that our neighbors (the other side of the duplex) got "broken" into earlier July after the person couldn't get into ours. Our previous tenant actually used the security alarm therefore the burglar/drunk couldn't get in the window.

*Our 2nd or 3rd night we were watching a movie with our blinds and windows open around 10 p.m. Clay changes the water at 11 p.m. Our movie gets over at 11:30 p.m. Clay goes to shut off the sprinkler and it's GONE. Our neighbor rings our doorbell wondering what's going on. She got hers stolen too. She said it was probably the little punk gangstas.

*I have heard just about 10 sirens already around the neighborhood just today.

*Today is Clay's first day as an official Mortenson Construction Member, or whatever you want to call it. He has no office yet so he's using the Superintendent's while he's gone and is out on the site for a while!

*I'm glad we have an alarm system, yet I still have freaky dreams that people are getting in and stealing things from our room while we're "asleep". I'm trying to get over that and know that we're a lot safer with the alarm. Welcome to Tacoma. Definite culture shock for me.

Max, Gillian, Sydney, and Sadie enjoying the pool!

I'm Done!

We also visited one of the first and biggest REI's so that was a quick trip to Seattle.

Last Weekend in Idaho

I'm definitely late on some of these posts due to the process of packing, moving, and having no internet until now. Our last week/end in Idaho was quite an adventure and full of fun! Clay and I got to walk together at Graduation in which we were 1 of 40 married couples graduating together! Commencement was so blasted hot that I didn't even pay attention to the speaker who was Bishop Richard C. Edgley of the presiding Bishopric. I feel bad, but Clay took some notes. Convocation was pretty cool, didn't pay much attention either though but I was 3rd to last in walking and when I stood up I turned around and saw Janelle and Shay! I didn't think they'd make it in time but they just made me happy because Clay was in another building with his family and so I just had my parents and then they came, along with Tom and Jordan (my brother).

The next day we were going camping in Island Park...it rained all morning long while we were trying to get outta town but surprisingly the sun came out later and got hot. There were a total of 23 that were camping that weekend and so it made for great fun. We all got innertubes and floated down the river and just relaxed. Saturday morning/afternoon was spent in Yellowstone! I haven't been there since I worked in West Yellowstone 5 summers ago so it was great being able to see everything again. Here's some pics of the hot pots and geysers we got.

This was the only Buffalo we saw. We were on the wrong side of the park because my parents went all the way through out to Jackson and they saw a herd crossing the road and saw many Elk and a Grizzly Bear. Oh well. Scenery was still lovely :)

And of course, Old Faithful.

That evening when we got back into West we ate dinner at Buckaroo Bill's...such a GREAT place! I had 2 of my roommates work there during the summer I was there and then we HAD to stop at the Candy store (Rustic Candy Shop) where I used to work making taffy, etc. :) We got some great fudge and of course, Taffy. Next was Playmill. We saw Guys and Dolls which was pretty good. They didn't really have a comedy show this year which was a bummer, but I think we saw the best of the 3. President Clark (of BYU-Idaho) was there so it was interesting to see how he interacted with the performers. ha ha Sunday we packed up and stopped at Big Springs to see the big fish and feed them. Shay was so cute about it all. She ate the bread herself.

Janelle, Shay and Tom. So glad they came to camp with us as well as Jordan and my parents!