Sleigh Races

What do you do with all the candy canes that Santa brings every year? You could eat them, yes this is true. Thanks to my sister-in-law Emily's creativity, we started a new Christmas tradition. We all made sleighs out of candy canes, gram crackers, and ... anything else we could think of. Many special tools were used to construct the sleighs, such as glue guns, knives, and well...Devin sucked on his quite a bit to make then ends of his sharp and spiky. We then put a very large piece of cardboard down the stairs to serve as the track. We first held time races to see which sleigh was the fastest and which sleigh would go the greatest distance. Then we got a big piece of insulation and raced all the sleighs at once. Zach my nephew was SO entertained. We had a lot of fun too. We even gave out awards. Big surprise Peter, the engineer, won for furthest distance. Devin won for fastest, according to him he didn't cheat by putting graphite on the candy canes to make it go faster. Emily won the straight shooter award. And I won for the most durable sleigh, mine is the only one that still looks the same as when we started. It was tons of fun. We can't wait for next year!

Giddy As A School Boy

Devin is a pretty happy fellow. That is one thing I love about him. He really doesn't get upset or angry. He's just a happy-go-lucky guy. So my daily quest as his wife is to try and find things that make him really happy. Christmas was hard. I'd ask him what he wanted and he would just smile and say, "I don't know, I'm just fine." AH! That makes it so hard! Shopping for content people is SO difficult. Well, I had a bolt of inspiration one night. We were over at my mom's house and Devin was playing some Christmas songs on her piano. Ah ha! I thought I'd get him a piano book of Christmas songs. I did, he loved it. He took his book over to my mom's house on Christmas and just played and played. It was then that I realized that something had to be done. The following evening as we were loading up to go look at Christmas lights as a family, I asked my little brother if we could take a small detour to our house. My mom months ago told me that we could have the small electric piano that she wasn't using. Before now, we just never had the time or means to do anything about it. Peter said sure he'd love to help. They took it apart, put it in the back of the suburban, and long story short, we now have a piano in our house. Devin is SO happy! He sat right down and just played and played. I'm glad I found something that makes him giddy as a school boy.
Oh, and I love playing it too. :)

Christmas Carol

What would Christmas be without going to see A Christmas Carol? This has to be one of my favorite stories. We started reading the book together over Thanksgiving break so that we would be done with the book before we went to see the play. Sadly, even through the book is only 70 pages, we are not quite finished yet. A week ago we went with all of Devin's Card Throwing Friends from work to see this great play up at the Hale Center Theater in West Valley. It was great fun to go and hang out with all of Devin's friends from work and their wives. It was a great performance! This has to be one of my favorite Christmas tradtions. It's no wonder why President Monson always quotes this story. Dickens was right on when he wrote this book!

Classic Skaing Christmas

What would Christmas be without Classic Skating? What? For those of you who don't know, my family has always had their Christmas party at Classic Skating. With a family as big as ours, it would be crazy to try and fit everyone into someone's house. It is more fun this way. The kids have plenty of room to run around, there is tons of space for tables to eat, and well...it's just fun. We had a great time! It is so nice to see my extended family. I wish we didn't live so far away so we could see them more often. Devin and I had a great time playing lots of games. I came out on top as the Air Hockey champion AGAIN! (Devin did beat me once 6 to 5, but that was after three straight games.) I killed my brother and that is all that really matters. I had a nice pony ride with my nephew Zach. I don't fit quite the same way as I use to. We also had a great time playing on the Dance Revolution thing. My cousins are experts, we ... are not. But we did have lots of fun. I really enjoy dancing around. Especially when it's free! Ah, to make a fool of yourself for free. We also got to play in the Pirate Cove with my nephew Tommy. I'm not sure what all this game playing has to do with Christmas, but it is tradition so it works, right?

That Was ...Different

Christmas is going to the Nutcracker. I love the music of the Nutcracker and I love the ballet too. One of my favorite memories of my Grandma Beth, is going each year up to see Ballet West perform the Nutcracker. I am amazed that as many times as I have seen the Nutcracker I never get sick of it. Each year I love the music more and I still get excited for my favorite dances.

If you have been reading our blog you will know that I ran in the Nutcracker 5k at UVSC this year. As part of this race you got not only a really cool long sleeve T-Shirt but you also got a free ticket to the Nutcracker at the Covey Event Center. I was really excited because we hadn't gotten around to getting tickets to Ballet West yet. We got a ticket for Devin and went to the Saturday matinée.

Well, it was no Ballet West. The music was still amazing. The kids were as cute as ever. There were some dances that were really great. I felt bad though, I've never seen so many dancers fall. It made the performance ...different than what we normally see. I don't say this to be critical. Could you imagine me trying to spin, leap, and twirl on little wooden blocks in my shoes? It was still a great performance, just...different. I'm glad we went, it was so much fun. Because we went to the matinée there were tons of little girls all around us. It reminded me of how excited I got when I went with my Grandma.

What a Pot!

To continue with my Christmas Chaos blog, that I think is going to become more of a "Christmas is" theme....Christmas is parties with food assignments. Every once and a while when we go to family parties or ward parties or any kind of party, I have the chance to help out with a food assignment. I like doing this, I like helping out. We have found a small problem though, sometimes we need to make a lot of food. So, for the last several months we have kept our eyes open looking for a nice big pot. I have a pot that came with our other pots, but it is too small. My canning pot is obviously too big. And like Goldie Locks we finally found a pot that is "just right." Thanks to Ikea, we found a great deal on a great pot that made my food assignment for our family Christmas party a walk in the park. It was wonderful making a nice big pasta salad and not having to clean up the mess of a pot that has boiled over because you are trying to cram too much in to a pot that is not big enough.

The Stockings Were Hung!

Yeah! They are finished. It has been at least two years since I bought the material for these Christmas stockings and they are finally finished. Now before anyone gets excited because there are three, let me re-emphasize that I bought the material two years ago. The pattern had three different stockings so I bought the material to make three --- two years ago. Sorry to disappoint anyone. :) But I figure this means that I am good for at least three years. I must admit though this project gave me a run for my money. I consider myself a fairly good sewer. The problem I faced was time. Saturday night I finally sat down and said, I've got to get these finished. At about 11:55pm Saturday night I ran out of thread and I had had it. Luckily Sunday gave me time to get over my frustration. So Ta Da! Monday, December 24th, Christmas Eve, with not a moment to spare the stockings are done. Now Santa will have somewhere to put .....???

Christmas Chaos

I would be lying if I said that Christmas time is the most peaceful time of the year. Maybe we are the only ones with this problem, but it seems like we try and cram way too much "joy" and "happiness" in during the Christmas season. I think we are not the only ones because everywhere we go there are tons of people out too. I guess perhaps it all starts with people saying, "You've got to have Christmas Traditions!" One of our Christmas Traditions is just being part of the Christmas Season Chaos. Chaos on the freeway, Chaos in the parking lots (the worst being the one in South Orem by Barnes and Noble and the Distribution Center--Yes, you take your life if your hands driving there), Chaos is the stores, Chaos at restaurants, and finally...Chaos in Salt Lake. To make it even better throw in some snow and everyone is in a jolly mood. :)
Surprisingly enough we are! How is it possible to be in the middle of so much chaos and still be happy. Devin says that if everyone would play Kenny G in their cars they would be happy too. Perhaps?
This last week's Christmas Traditions took us to the Conference Center to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert. It was great! Our two favorite songs were two we normally hate, The 12 Days of Christmas and I Saw Three Ships Come Sailing In. The 12 Days was great because they had people all over acting out the different parts. And I Saw Three Ships Come Sailing In was about the coolest organ solo I've ever hear. We were really disappointed that they didn't do that one again today on Music and the Spoken Word.
So what are all of your Christmas Traditions? We still have a few left so stay tuned!

"Tutu" Much Fun!

What do you get when you mix the fun of running, with the first real snow of the year, and the nutcracker? Give up? You get the 10th annual Nutcracker 5k. This race would have to be one of the most fun races I have run all year (and it will probably be the last race I run in 2007). Because it is the Nutcracker 5k, all the runners wear tutus. I was a little worried yesterday when it rained and rained all day. I was pleasantly surprised this morning to wake up to snow. Snow is great because that means that it is warmer outside. I braved the roads to drive over to UVSC for the race. We only did one good donut on our way. Luckily it was early enough in the morning that there were no other cars around. We all put on our tutus and ran, not with the intent to break any records, just with the desire to not slip and break our necks. It definitely was a different kind of race. Instead of trying to pass people, you tried to find the best path through the snow. It also was interesting trying not to get splashed too much by the cars that were driving by. It was SO much fun though. We got long t-shirts and a free ticket to the Nutcracker. I look forward to running this race next year. Maybe Devin will be able to run it with me next year. He would have run, but he got to go camping with the scouts in the snow. Fun. NOT!

Men at Work

I have been told that I work too hard. It might be true. With that said and done, I do think I work harder than some people. Today we have a classic example, my husband and all the guys he works with. This video was taken by my husband, at work, with his phone. Countless hours have been spent at Orange Soda "throwing cards." I must say they are getting pretty good at it. The video is impressive. I wish I had time during the work day to throw cards around at objects as hard as I could. Could you imagine..."Hang on kids, I know it's math time, but I want to see if I can throw this card hard enough to stick into the eraser on Bobby's pencil. It's ok Bobby, hold it up high, teacher isn't going to hurt you." I guess I've got the wrong job if that is what I want to do all day long. In all honesty, I'd rather read stories to kids than throw cards any day.

Christmas Music

Tis the season to be jolly! This is a great time of the year for really good music. I am one that feels very strongly that it is an abomination to listen to Christmas music before Thanksgiving, unless it is snowing. But once Thanksgiving is over I am ok with listening to Christmas music 24 hours a day. There are SO many good Christmas CDs out there. I try and fill my day with lots of good Christmas music so that I don't have all the cheesy Elementary School Christmas songs stuck in my head. You know classic songs like Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer and Must Be Santa. (It's ok to sing along, it's stuck in my head right now....Must be Santa. Must be Santa. Must be Santa, Santa Claus.) Each year there are new Christmas CDs that I fall in love with. This year it's Josh Groban's Noel CD. Who wouldn't want to listen to him sing all day long? All I have to say is it's about time he put out a Christmas CD. He even sings with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Way to go Josh! Other favorite CDs include: Jim Brickman, Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, Jewel, Lonestar, The Osmonds, Frank Sinatra (SOOO GOOD!), and Barbra Streisand. Oh, and don't forget BNL. What are some of all of your favorite Christmas CDs?

We're Famous!

We proudly announce that we are famous. And what better thing to be famous for, but complete insanity. What? You don't understand. One of my favorite traditions is going shopping the day after Thanksgiving. We strategically planned out our shopping this year. We woke up at 3:45am and by 10am we had been everywhere we had planned to go. The most excited part of our shopping trip of insanity was that as we were standing in line at Kohl's for our $1.99 deal, a reporter took some pictures of us. She took a ton of pictures and talked with us for a while. Then later, she brought over another reporter who talked with us for bit more. We laughed about how funny it would be if we actually "made the paper." Surprisingly enough, we made the front page! Fortunately for those of us who looked like we woke up at 3:45am our picture didn't make the paper. I would attribute this to the fact that we were reading the Book of Mormon while waiting in line and they wouldn't want to . . . well you know. For whatever it is worth we were quoted twice for being completely insane. It was SOOO much fun. No doubt we'll be there again next year.

Thanksgiving Fun

I think everyone knows that I HATE staying inside all day long. I love being outside. I've never made a good couch potato. Anyway, Thanksgiving day is a day that is typically one of those days that you spend a lot of time inside. We went to Idaho for Thanksgiving and it was lots of fun. We slept in Thanksgiving morning. We spent a fair amount of time looking through the adds for the after Thanksgiving Day sales. We helped make food. And of course, we ate, and ate. By the time we were done eating though, I was done being inside. We decided to take a walk around the Green Belt. For those of you who are not native Idahoans the Green Belt is this park with about a 2 1/2 mile trail that loops around the Snake River. It also goes right by the Idaho Falls temple. We spent about hour, freezing, walking around. It was SOOOOO nice to get out. And Mahon, Devin's brother, got some great pictures.

What an Example!

I'd like to dedicate this blog entry to my little brother Peter. He has always been an incredible example to me. He is one of those guys who not only knows what is right, but he does what is right too. I remember when we were younger, someone somewhere talked about music and how we shouldn't listen to any music that was inappropriate in any way. He went right to his CDs and got rid of any CD that had even one song that was inappropriate in any way. I will never forget watching my brother break the CDs out by the garbage can in the driveway. He could have sold them or traded them in, but he knew that if he shouldn't be listening to them, that no one else should be either.

That was a long time ago. Once again Peter did something that I am so proud of. Peter is one of those manly men, with his manly man toys. He use to have a bullet bike and a dirt bike. He has sold those over the past few years to help pay for college. This last Wednesday he sold his last manly toy. His truck. All so that they wouldn't have to take out a loan to pay for next semester. Wow! Way to sacrifice! Way to have your priorities straight! We were passing through Logan just as the sale was being made so we were able to take one last picture of the family with the truck. I am so proud of my brother! Not many guys would be willing to make that kind of sacrifice. I know someday he'll have another truck, bigger and better....and I bet he'll pay cash for it. :)

Check Another One Off

Devin and I have set a goal to go to all the temples in the United States. Yes, it is a lofty goal, seeing as they keep building more and more (which is a good thing). We decided that we would stop and go to the Logan Temple on our way to Idaho for Thanksgiving. It was fun to go to this temple together. Devin's parents were married in the Logan temple. We also had the chance to stop in and visit Peter, Emily, and Zach. It will be great to mark off another temple on our list when we get home.

What Do You Do When Your Husband Is Gone?

I am grateful that my husband is a hard worker. Not only does he work full time for Orange Soda, but he also works with his aunt Pam doing photography for horse shows. This has become the root of many jokes. If Devin isn't gone camping with the scouts, the he's working at a horse show. He actually hasn't done as many shows this year. The reason why I mention this is the fact that yesterday we celebrated with much enthusiasm the final horse show of 2007! YEAH!!!!!! It wasn't even a real horse show. It was the awards banquet. Devin got all dressed up (He looks good doesn't he?) and went up to the show at about 2pm on Saturday. This left me with most of the day to do???????? I was done with the wash, my lesson was ready for church, and I wasn't in the mood to do anything for school. So what was there to do?

Well, I ended up working on my quilt blocks and our Christmas stockings. The best part was not only could I spread all my sewing stuff all over, I could also listen to Anne of Green Gables all day. I did end up getting out of the house later to run a few errands, just to get a break and get out of the house for a while. I worked until about 11:30pm when Devin got done, and when my book was finished. As many times as I have heard the story of Anne of Green Gables I love it more each time. It's definitely a classic. Even though I enjoyed having time to get things done and to listen to a good book, I'd rather have my husband home. I just glad it's the last show for the season.

Hey Everybody! It's Family Night!

Family Home Evening is really important. Let's face it though, sometimes doing FHE just the two of us isn't as much fun. We usually do the same thing each week. We sing a hymn, read a talk from Conference or the Ensign, and that's it. We find that it is great fun to get together with our friends and do FHE together. That way we spice up the FHE experience. This last week I wanted to go up the the Church History Museum to see all their new stuff. We called up Megan and Ben who live minutes away from the museum, because we miss hanging out with them since they live SO far away (40 minutes, I know, it's not that far).

We had a great time. I LOVE church history. I never get sick of learning about the pioneers and the history of the church in general. If you haven't been lately you should go. They have stuff on the tabernacle. They have some really cool new displays on the prophets. (Benson, Hunter, and Hinckley) Ben had lots of fun practicing what it must be like to give a talk in the Conference Center. We also loved the new children's area. We spent quite a bit of time at the "Build Your Own Temple" table. Which one do you think is the best?

New Additions to the Family

We have had two new recent additions to the family because we have been saving up our "fun" money. I'm sure Devin has been going through withdrawals because he hasn't bought a new computer for a while. He REALLY wanted to buy a new computer. I'm just glad he's been converted to the wonderful world of Mac. Our other new addition, I guess is two things. Our old washer was ok, but the dryer made Saturday wash into a all day extravaganza. (2 hours to dry a load of wash was just....too much). So we when to "look" at washer and dryers, just to get thinking about it, and well, we came home with a new set to be delivered on Tuesday. I must say they are not perfect. How often to you have a washer that washes slower than a dryer drys. But they are super quite and, it took us half as long to get our wash done today. I still don't know how to work all the nifty buttons, but at least the wash is done, and my husband has a cool new computer for him to use...if I'll give it up so he can use it.

Ward Chili Cook Off

I would say that my confidence in cooking is not that high. Now that I am an old married woman, I am trying to branch out and try new recipes. So when the sign up sheet came around Sunday School for the ward Chili Cook Off, I thought I'd at least try. (There is always the back up of Nallys Chili in a can.) But as luck would have it, the good old internet led me to a chili chicken recipe that had the two most important ingredents that make any recipe good. #1 It had chicken. #2 It was a WAY easy crock-pot throw all the stuff in you don't even have to pre-cook anything kind of recipe. So, with the help of my husband who took a flying 15 minute break from work to come and chop up the chicken and turn the crock-pot on, I had my chili that I thought would at least be acceptable to bring for a food assignment for a ward function. I don't where I missed the important factor that this was a "Cook Off." This means that there would be votes and judging going on. Well, it turns out that my easy-cheesy internet recipe won! (Though I think my Young Women had something to do with me getting so many votes) The best part of it all was that the cute little German man in our ward came up to me after and said, in his German accent, "I just want you to know, that I wanted to vote for your chili, but my wife made me vote for hers." When I told him that it was my first time making chili, he laughed and said his wife has been working for years to perfect her chili recipe and it just isn't fair that a first timer could make such good chili. I attribute it to luck...and a wonderful thing called Google that let me to such a good recipe.

Happy Halloween!

Anyone who has ever been a teacher, would agree that Halloween is the most "exciting" day of the school year. If you can live through Halloween, the rest of the school year is down hill. This year was really not bad at all. We had fun doing "Halloweeney" things all day long, and yes we even got a lot of learning done (without the kids knowing it..I'm so sneaky). I dressed up as Pippi Longstocking. Unfortunately, most kids these days don't have a clue of who she is. They asked, "Teacher are you suppose to be a reindeer?" HONESTLY!!!!!

Arctic Circle Flashlights

Halloween is one of my favorite times of the year. Maybe it is because we all get to pretend to be something we are not. Perhaps it is because we get to write fun Halloween stories in school. (This year I am writing a story about a Vampire Penguin, I'll let you know how it turns out.) Whatever the reason, the candy corns, the pumpkins, or the fall colors...it is great!

One of my favorite memories of Halloween is when we would get the little coupons to Arctic Circle for a free ice cream cone. What an awesome treat! How can a tootsie roll stand a chance against an ice cream cone? Anyway, because of some traffic issues, Devin and I found ourselves driving by the good old Arctic Circle the other day. They had their big signs out advertising their really cool Halloween flashlights. We started talking about the really cool Halloween buckets that they use to give out with their kid's meals. One thing led to another and after two trips to Arctic Circle, we are now the proud owners of the complete 2007 Arctic Circle Halloween flashlight collection. I guess this is my way of getting over the fact that I never got one of the cool Halloween buckets as a kid.

Vampire Soapbox

Have you ever read a book that is so completely annoying, yet you can't stop reading it? This sums up my recent reading of the WAY too popular book entitled Twilight. I have had innumerable amounts of people tell me that Twilight is just the "best book ever!" That "sleep is 2nd to reading this book" That "I just couldn't go on with life until I finished them." And the most shocking, "I wanted to read more than listen to General Conference."

I was intrigued to say the least. Months ago I bought Twilight, with a gift card from our wedding (Thanks! That's my favorite kind of gift.). I put it at the bottom of my stack of books to read. Finally it ended up at the top. I must admit Stephenie Meyer is a great writer. No complaints about her writing style. I really enjoyed it....until the characters became so completely annoying that I couldn't stand it anymore! Maybe it's the "Tomboy" in me, that was craving some really good blood and gore. It is a book about vampires, so one only expects some good action. No! Instead I find myself reading a way to dramatic teenage romance that is somehow beyond my power to stop reading (I tried once but curiosity go the best of me). I am happy to report that I did not stay up ridiculously late reading this book. The characters were a little over the top. But I keep reminding myself that it is a teenage romance, so the characters are suppose to be dumb. The best part of the book was from about page 375-480. I'd read that part again, the rest... I'm not so sure. And what does the stupid apple on the front cover have to do with anything in the book anyway????

Ok, so I'm done with my soapbox on a really really really over the top way too dramatic cheesy yet way too addicting book. I don't know if it is healthy to read these kinds of books. Harry Potter was at least fulfilling. It had at least 100 great life lessons you could learn from it. Twilight had only one for me....To be obsessed with something is to destroy your very existence.

And why do I somehow want to read the next book New Moon....right now?

Happy 10 Years!

Do you ever wake up and think, dang where did the time go? How did I get to be this old so fast? Wasn't it just yesterday that...? The sad thing about life is that it never slows down. So today's blog is to celebrate the fact that 10 years ago I was a freshmen at BYU.

10 years ago I met some of my very best friends while living in the luxurious Helaman Halls. To celebrate this important time of my life we decided to get together with my very first roommate Megan Brenner (now Tolman). We went down to the good old Cannon Center to have dinner with our cute husbands. We spent way too much time reminiscing about what life was like 10 years ago. We ate our fill of the all you can eat buffet, we had to get our money's worth. It did not take us long to figure out why all freshmen living in the dorms gain 15 pounds. We never eat that good anymore, except on Sundays when we have dinner at my mom's. :)

We then went over to good old Taylor hall. That's were Megan and I were roommates. Good old 2200 floor is very different now. We were one of the last chosen groups of freshmen to live in this great building before they gutted it and made everything REALLY nice. Though I can't imagine that they have as much fun in their new fancy building as we did in our prehistoric one. They no longer have the ledges outside the windows, people can't crawl out there anymore. Now what are you suppose to do for fun??? I guess you can always slide down the hills on the cafeteria trays, write chalk messages up and down the walk ways, and well...Police Beat is still fun to read.

Anyway, yeah for the last 10 years! I am so grateful that I decided to live in the ghetto dorms and meet Megan, Nikki, Cheri, Sarah, and Janelle. What awesome girls! I'd do it all over in a heartbeat so that I could walk away with friends like them. I must say the six of us have done well over the last 10 years. 6 college graduates, 3 full time missions, 5 temple weddings, and well Nikki's kicking all our trash as far as kids go. Not bad, not bad at all.

Happy Conference Weekend!!!!

If you were to ask me what my favorite holiday is I would quickly respond...General Conference. Really! Think about it. Christmas comes just once a year, but Conference TWICE!!! There are so many great things about General Conference! Why don't we list just a few reasons why General Conference is by far the best holiday of the year. I will list only the top four.
1. You get to listen to the General Authorities of the church for 8 hours if you're a girl, and 10 hours if you're a boy. Talk about drink from a spiritual fire hose!
2. Thanks to the technological advances we can listen to Conference in our house, on our comfortable couch, in our pajamas if we so choose.
3. Priesthood Pie! This is the highlight for me. We get together with all the girls and make treats for the guys while they are at Priesthood session. Then when the guys get back we sit around the table and listen to what they were taught at Priesthood Session and eat good treats. Nothing is more fun then just hanging out with your family and talking about what is really important.
4. There are no holiday decorations involved. No presents to buy!
Just hang out with your family and listen to the Prophet's voice. Now I think you agree? It is the best holiday right? :) Even the ducks liked watching Conference.

So there might be a question about the picture of the puzzle. What does a puzzle have to do with Conference? Well, one of my favorite memories of Conference as a kids, was that the Friday night before Conference we would go to the store and we would each get to pick out a puzzle to do during Conference. It was a way to keep us entertained and still listen. So I was in charge of date night this week and I remembered about the puzzle tradition. We picked out an easy 750 piece puzzle and we worked on it Friday night while watching Music Man. Not a bad date if you ask me. It was really fun. We finished the puzzle on Saturday night after all the Conference Festivities were over.

I hope you all enjoyed Conference as much as we did. What was your favorite talk? Not picking just one is easy. :)

As Sisters In Zion

With General Conferences quickly coming, the "Henderson" women had the great opportunity of going to the General Relief Society meeting up at the conference center. It was really fun to get all the girls together. Emily was the one who got the tickets and planned the whole thing. (Many thanks to her!) So we all piled into the suburban, picked Marthe up at Ikea, and joined the thousands of other women who were trying to find a parking spot in Salt Lake. To make the adventure even more exciting, it was pouring down rain. It looked more like a Umbrella Convention was going on than a General Relief Society meeting. I never realized how many people own yellow polka dot umbrellas. I guess I'm more of a hood kind of girl. I haven't paid too much attention to umbrella fashion.The meeting was SO wonderful. Yeah for being a women in the latter-days! Yeah for caring about family! Yeah for Visiting Teaching! Yeah for giving service! Yeah for just being happy...because that's what women of God are.

Train Ride

Devin and I have the wonderful callings of being in the Young Men and Young Women organizations in our ward. This works out great. Devin works with the deacons and I work with the beehives. The best part of this is that once a month we get to hang out together because of the combined mutual activity. Last month we went to this new trampoline place called Jump On It. It was totally one of those crazy places my Dad and his brothers would have thought up. Who gets the idea to fill a warehouse up with wall to wall trampolines? Oh, and for fun, why don't we put a bunch of dodge balls in there so people can try to hit each other as they are bouncing around on the trampolines. It was a really fun activity. I think the deacons like me because they kept trying to hit me as hard as they could. That's what 12 year old boys do if they like you right? Either that or they were trying to get me back for hitting them. :)

Enough with the trampoline adventure, you all want to read about a train ride. This month's mutual activity took us to an amazing house in Lindon. There is this guy who has a really big house, lots of land, lots of toys, oh and a train that runs all over his property and a few of the surrounding houses too. Now this is not a little woosie train. It is actually big enough for 20 people to ride on it at once. There is about a mile of track that winds all over the place. My brother Peter would just die over this train. Apparently this guy went up to his wife one day and said, "I'm going to sell our cabin." "Why?" asked his wife. "Cause I want to build a really cool train." That tells you how much it must have cost. It was really cool!

The train was not the only cool thing at this house. There are several houses that share a yard, I guess they are all this guy's kids. There are batting cages, sand volleyball, a trampoline, a swimming pool with a slide (which one of the the girls decided it would be fun to slide down fully clothed) and my favorite....an indoor soccer court. We spent most of the evening there. Young Men vs. Young Women. I don't know who came out with the most bruises, and we actually lost count of the score. But overall it was SOOOO much fun. We all agreed over the next few days that we used all sorts of muscles that are not used for NORMAL every day activities.