Thankful Thursdays

I am so thankful for this past week.

1. I am thankful for girls camp and for the Spirit that is always there. I just got back today around 11 am. It was so fun and made me remember how much I love going to girls camp. I will tell you all about it in another blog.

2. I am thankful that Gary had a great time in his travels to Indianapolis for work despite the delay in his flight back. I am glad he got home safely and that I am able to see him today.

3. I am thankful for the gospel of Jesus Christ and for the knowledge I have of its truthfulness.

4. I am thankful for my best friend, Jilian Colwell. Her daughter, Melanie, is getting married tomorrow and I am so happy for her. Her daughter, Arriana, just took out her endowments today. I wish I could have been there. Jil is such a wonderful friend and always makes me feel special. I love her to death.

5. I am thankful for all of my children. They are the best.

6. I am thankful for my love of reading. I love to read so many different types of books. Right now I am trying to read all the books in our library and I have a list of books that others tell me I should read.

Well I guess thats it for this Thursday. I will show pictures of girls camp as soon as I get them on my computer.

Thankful Thursdays

Lizzie started doing this because a friend was doing it. I have loved what she has said yesterday. It touched my heart, so I decided I would do it. I know today is Friday, but I just wanted to start.

1. I am thankful for a wonderful husband, Gary. He loves me for the way I am and encourages me in everything I do. He has been selling some of his things because he wants to downsize. It has been amazing to watch him as he has let go of some of the things he has love. He sold his camera, the tv and just last night his beloved scooter. He sold the scooter to a young man who has just come to Utah from Hawaii. He just became of member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Gary put his scooter in my work truck that I was borrowing and took the young man and the scooter back to Salt Lake. He said it was such a wonderful experience to speak with this young man on the drive to Salt Lake.

2. I am thankful for my youngest daughter, Sara. She is moving out today and back to Salt Lake with some friends. I am so proud of her. She is taking a big step in her life. She will still commute up here to the Dairy Queen until she can find a job down there. She has grown so much in these last few years. She is so amazing. She cooks, she is an artist (she had a drawing of hers turned into a mural), she is a great friend to so many. I love her and will miss her.

3. I am thankful for my other daughter, Lizzie. She started soccer this week. She is the undergraduate assistant coach at UNLV. She can't play soccer anymore, but she is great at coaching and helping the coaches do what they need to do. She is a good wife and loves her husband, Luke, dearly. She is a great example to me.

4. I am thankful because I got the castle painted on the flag for Girls camp done last night. I am thankful that the Lord has given me that talent. Now I just need to finish sewing it and adding the words.

Well that's all for this week. I head to girls camp on Monday. It's going to be fun.

This weeks occurances

Saturday was a great day. We had an 51st anniversary party for my parents and 70th birthday party for my mom. It turned out really well. They had many family and friends who came. I was so happy because I had all my children, Doug, Lizzie and Luke, and Sara there. They were such a help, especially Lizzie, Luke and Sara. Lizzie helped decorate the tables. In fact, she did most of the the table decorations. Luke made the best video from pictures I had scanned in. I think it was the highlight of the evening. Sara and her friend, TJ, played for us.

Lizzie and Luke made it home safely on Saturday night or should I say early Sunday morning. Gary and I are so happy they took the time to come up. We look forward to seeing them again soon.

Gary's family had a surprise birthday party for his dad on Sunday night. It was fun.

During the party, we found out that Sara is officially moving out on Friday evening. She has some friends in Salt Lake who have an extra room that she is going to rent. She got to see it yesterday and loves it already. She and I are planning on loading up the big truck from work on Friday and taking all her stuff back down to Salt Lake.

It will be really fun, but weird to be empty nesters. We will miss Sara, like we do Lizzie and Doug, but we know that she will visit us and we keep in touch. I mean, I talk with Lizzie usually once a day and I love it.

I am also working on getting the flag and secret sister stuff ready for Girls Camp. We leave a week from today. I think it will be fun. The closer we get, the more excitement I have about going.

Logan Days

Gary and I just got back from a trip to Logan, UT. We had to cancel our trip at the beginning of the month because of work, so we took a few days off. We had not been able to spend much time together and this was a chance to be just the two of us.

We left on Thursday afternoon. On the way we stopped at the American West Heritage Center.

This is a place where we saw a Shoshone encampment, a Mountain man camp, a pioneer settlement and a 1917 farm. We love history and it was really fun. Gary learned how to restore hats. Now he is going to go to the DI and find a couple of old hats and make them look great.

After that we went to the hotel and to dinner. We spent the rest of the night in the pool.

On Friday we drove to Bear Lake. On the way we stopped at Rick's Spring. This spring was discovered by some of Gary's relatives. It is a neat place.

We stopped at a place called the Limber Pine Nature Trail. It was a great trail. They had a warning about a mother moose and her baby. We did not see them, though. At the back of the trail there is an old Limber Pine that is 560 years old (it is actually five pines that grew together). A really cool tree.

Our next stop was the Minnetonka caves near St. Charles Idaho. We love to go into caves. We both find them fascinating. We actually saw some of my young women at the cave who were there for the weekend with their family. That was fun and coincidental.

In the evening we went to the Pickleville Playhouse to have a chuckwagon dinner and see a play. We saw "Crazy for You." It was such a fun time. Especially spending time with Gary.

We wanted to go to the Temple on Saturday morning, but found out it was closed. What a bummer. Our alternative activity turned out to be a disappointment. We went to the Oregon/California Trail Center in Montpelier, ID. They said they had a railroad museum (which Gary loves-railroads), but it was just a few artifacts and no trains. However, we did get to dress up as mountain men in a buffalo hat and coat.

All in all it was a fantastic and fun trip, but any time I get to spend with Gary alone is great. He is such a wonderful husband and I love him so much. I am so grateful to be blessed to have him in my life and to have celebrated our 6th anniversary this month!!!!

Losing Weight

So, in April, Gary and I decided that we needed to get into shape. We somehow finally got the motivation to start. For me, I think it was going to our new doctors office and stepping on the scale and realizing I weighed 151 pounds. I like my office scale better because it said I only weighed 145 pounds. Either way, it was a wake up call for me. I was not happy with myself and really wanted to do something about it.

We have a recumbent bike that we got with our points from our credit card. Here's what it looks like.

We started riding 40 minutes a day. It was really hard at first, but now I am enjoying it. We also started working to get our garden in and get our yard fixed up. This helped us get more exercise each day. We also cut our calories.

For me I have not given up some things; ie chocolate and popcorn, but I am just careful about how much I eat. It makes me feel good to exercise and know that I am doing something great for my body.

Gary and I go hiking and biking on the weekends now. This is so much fun!

Anyway, I have now lost about 15 lbs, but best of all I have lost a couple of sizes. I was wearing a size 12 when I started. Last Friday I went shopping for a few things because nothing fits. I thought I was down to a 10, but that is not the case. I am now in a size 8. I was so excited and for once I found it easier to find something that fits me well.

Then Now

I am so excited for the accomplishment that I have done and feel so good. I look forward to continuing in helping my life to be better.

On another note, Luke and Lizzie got safely home from girls camp. We were a little worried about Lizzie, but she said things were great. I am starting to look forward to going to girls camp in August. I think it will be fun.

Well thats all for now.

Biking Fun

Last week for our anniversary, Gary and I bought bicycles. We have wanted to get us bikes since we moved to our new house, but just kept putting it off. We decided that bicycles would be the best anniversary present we could get each other.

We bought these bikes at walmart.

On the 4th of July, Gary, Sara and I rode down to Layton park to participate in the breakfast. However, the line was way long, so we ended up eating somewhere else. Then we rode back to our house. It was a fun ride.

Today, Gary and I took our bikes and rode on the Legacy Parkway Trail. We went from the Farmington Frontrunner Station to 2400 south in Bountiful. then we turned around and went back to 500 south in Bountiful. From there, we took 500 south to the Woodscross Frontrunner Station. It was about 12 miles and we were very tired when we got to the train station. Well at least I was. I am not sure that Gary was as tired. All in all it was a very fun day!

We have been loving spending time with each other and in nature. What a great way to spend our Saturday mornings.

Anniversary

Six years ago today, Gary and I were married. What a wonderful day that was!!! I still remember the ceremony. It was in our back yard in Sandy. Family and friends were there.

These are our rings. They are Celtic. It's kind of hard to see the symbols on them, but there is a heart with a crown on it being held by two hands. The heart stands for love, the crown for loyalty and the hands for friendship. That is what marriage is all about. His ring is gold inset with silver symbols and my ring is silver with gold symbols. It has been a wonderful six years. In that time we have become the best of friends. We love to spend time together. Which is good because Gary works at home, so we are together more than most people.

Gary is such a wonderful person and I am so grateful that I found him. He leads and guides our family and honors his priesthood. He supports me in all that I do. He encourages me in all my endeavors and I love him for that. He treats me like a queen and he is my king.

Many things have happened in our six years. We had Lizzie and Sara get their driver's licenses at the same time. We had three graduations; Lizzie and Sara received their high school diplomas and I received my Bachelors Degree. We sent Lizzie off to UNLV to play soccer, get her degree and of course to find Luke. We married Lizzie off to Luke on June 6, 2009. It was such a wonderful day! The temple was amazing and Lizzie looked beautiful. Luke looked really good, too. We are so glad they found each other and are so proud of them.

We moved to Layton in November 2009 and love it here. We were finally able to get Sara a job (well I took her to put her application in at Dairy Queen, and she did the rest). It took her about 9 months to find, though. We gave Sara a car, which unfortunately she crashed, but she was okay and she is more important than a car. Now she rides her bike to work, at least until we can get her a new car. She has her own room with her own bathroom. She spends much of her time with friends in Salt Lake. She is a joy to have around.

We have been able to spend more time with Tasha and Jared and the grandkids. This has special for us. We love them as well as Anneke (who is an amazing women), David and Doug (who is such a great young man). We have such great kids!!!

We have traveled to many places in those 6 years. Hawaii, Seattle, Portland, Yellowstone, the Oregon coast, Colorado Springs, Las Vegas, Moab, Disneyland (Gary for the first time. We went with Luke and Lizzie), and Nauvoo (This was one of our favorites. What a great place and the temple was beautiful).

The best thing to happen next to our wedding was being sealed together in the Mount Timpanogas Temple on October 25, 2008. That was a special day.

We are going to go to Mimi's Cafe for dinner. This is where Gary asked me to marry him. We love it. So far it is a great day.