Summers Last Hurrah....

Back in August, the week everyone was going back to school......we were still playing! Summer felt really short this year, so we took everything we could from it, till the very end. Our 4 day Bear Lake camping trip with our family was a great way to bring summer to a end.

As usual, Katie took MILLIONS of pictures....and that's why it took me so long to post about our trip, I had to pick and sort through all of them.

Up at the Over look of Bear Lake.

The campground we stayed out was so little, it only had 6 camp sites in it, and our family took up 3 of them. The whole place was empty till the weekend, which was lovely for us....we had the ONE public restroom to ourselves almost the the whole time.

Doesn't that air mattress seem so comfy and just perfect for sleeping to avoid that hard rocky ground? Well it is.....but not so perfect in such a small tent! haha!
Oreos. Yum.

Ryan and I have a tent. We didn't use it much, only for sleeping. When your parents have a nice, warm, PLUMBED trailer....why not hang out in there more?!

S'mores....how I LOVE you! I ate so much junk (food :) on this trip. But you have to eat s'mores when you go camping ! It's a rule!

This is so cool! When it got dark, Katie told me to write my name in the air with my flashlight. While I did that, she did some adjusting on her fancy camera (I think something to do with the shutter?)......and this was how the picture ended up. She did have to rotate the image, otherwise my name would of been backwards. Man, I need a nice camera...look at all the fun stuff you can do!

Ryan did it too. Pretty cool, huh :)

The nephews.

She is just the cutest. Love her to death.

More junk food. Banana boats.....so very tasty.

The whole gang. Love them to pieces.

Minnietonka Cave.

Oh, Kaci. You're so funny.

The cave stays a constant 40 degrees all year around, so we were all bundled up cause it was COLD in there!
Fun fact: There is 444 stairs down ward to the cave. Then you get to the bottom, turn around and come back up 444 stairs to the top. So, there's a total of 888 stairs total to walk.

My nose was cold.

When you go up these steep, steep stairs.....they call it the stairway to Heaven. So when going down them....what's it called then? :p

Going up to heaven, one step at a time....that's where I want to be :)

Awww, boating...our happy place. We can't go to Bear Lake without playing in the water! Look, there's my Ryan in the background :)

Making sand castles.

This is priceless. Love it.

That Kennedy has been only wake boarding for 2 summers and she's already better than me!

All day boating, so fun...but wears you out. You sure do sleep well that night!

I'm not a big hotdog fan, but when their cooked over the fire, I'll eat one or two.

Packing up and going home!

We had so much fun, I so do love camping! From the care-free days to the smell of the campfire, camping is truely great! However, we didn't have a shower and I missed my own bathroom. I so do love my home too! :)

Day Dreams

This time of year is one of my favorites. Officially today.....Autumn begins. I've noticed, in a few select areas, the leaves are changing, which enhances my excitement for the holidays. I already have all my Halloween decorations up (started early, as usual, and had them up the 2ND week of September) . Now my home is filled with pumpkin smiles, wicked witches, and ghostly greetings. I love it, every night I am way too excited to turn off the normal lights and switch to the Halloween glow of all my cute decorations. And yes, that alone I consider one of my everyday joys, small and simple, but it helps out a ton.

This time of year is very bitter-sweet to us right now. So much fun and joy comes with the holidays, but there's still the memories of last year. September 1st was the beginning of some of the best days of my life, that day.....I found out I was going to a momma. I was beaming! Life was good! I remember thinking...oh how our life was finally going to change! The holidays were approaching fast, and I kept telling Ryan "I can't wait for next year! The holidays are going to be sooooo much more fun with our baby!" I remember looking at Halloween costumes and "baby's first Christmas" ornaments and couldn't even wait for May 4, 2011 to get here. Life didn't go exactly to plan.....and here we are. Those memories have been haunting me. It hurts, knowing that he isn't here with us, and we can't celebrate our first Halloween together.

I once read that grief is like a carrying a brick around in your pocket. Everywhere you go, everything you do,that brick is always with you. In happy moments of your life, you can forget about the brick for just a moment. But then, at some point...you put your hand back in your pocket and feel the brick again. Today, I am very aware of the brick in my pocket. I miss my Jason so much. I miss my belly. I miss his little nudges and kicks. I miss planning our future together. I miss happily day dreaming about all the adventures we would have. I often wonder what he would of looked like all grown up....would he have Ryan's BLUE, BLUE eyes and his long eyelashes? Or my totally blonde hair? I remember the day, all too well, when those dreams were taken away from me.

I'm sad I can't daydream like I used to....about our future here. But, on the positive side.....my day dreams haven't stopped completely. I do day dream of Heaven, where we are together. The day will come when we will be whole again. Until then, our prayers for peace and daydreaming will just have to do.

a little bit of randomness...

For the last month, I've tried to change my thinking...and I've set some goals that I think will make me happier. I've never read the Book of Mormon cover to cover, so one of my goals was to start reading it. I didn't want to overwhelm myself, so I am starting out small, reading the Doctrine and Covenants sections first. So far...I'm happy to say, I've kept it up...and still reading. I'm very proud of myself (pat on the back to me :) For some reason, it's not an easy task to read my scriptures. Thanks to my Ryan...he keeps me on track. We read together and he helps me understand what I'm reading. Ryan loves church history and he knows his stuff. Honestly, he is like the smartest guy, and remembers everything he reads, unlike me. Anyways...he's rubbed off on me, and I love it too. We just went and saw this new movie:

....which, we loved. It's more historically correct, plus puts the timing of events more in perspective. I bawled my eyes out. I have always had lots of respect for Emma Smith, but through our families life events, I feel closer to her and understand some of the pain she went through. I just love her and hope to meet her one day.

Back in August, we drove up to Clarkston, to see the Martin Harris Pageant, "The Man who knew." At the time, I'd had just read in D&C about Martin Harris, which perfectly fell with the timing of the pageant.

Elle Belle just got her hair cut (back in August), and I loved her pink bandanna.....I tired so hard to get a cute picture of her. She wasn't cooperating. It's like when she sees me pull out my camera, she runs away and won't look at me. I have to bribe her with treats...and still then, she's a stinker. She's like her daddy... always runs away from me whenever I pull out the camera. Jeesh, can't they see I'm making memories here! :)

Gosh, I love her. She is our baby girl. She brings us so much joy.

Yum! Raspberry Jam!

Just add raspberries, some kool aid, some stuff to thicken (??), and LOTS and LOTS of sugar (8 cups a batch, which makes about 5 jars...no wonder I love it so much) and "Wah-la...."

lots of raspberry yuminess! Nothing is better than homemade jam.

We're moving up in the world!

Look at these beauties! So shiny and new! Over Labor day weekend, we got a front loader washer and dryer for a steal!! Not to mention...their Bosch, and we got the two pedestals their setting on for free! It was basically buy one get one free...oh and then we'll add in those pedestals to make it better! I'm just still so giddy about it! Back when I was young, I nver thought of the day when I'd be excited about a boring washer and dryer, man...I'm getting old.

We didn't really need a new washer and dryer, but we couldn't pass up such a sweet deal. So now we have two sets. We don't know what we plan to do with the old ones, maybe sell them? If ya need some, let me know :)

We got spoiled this last weekend....not only did we spoil ourselves, but our parents spoiled us as well. It's Christmas in September! We got a grill! The Arnolds decided to give us our gift early this year, so we could enjoy it a little before the cold comes. We're pretty excited about it, Ryan has been wanting one ever since we moved into our house. We are so thankful for our family, we love them so much.

And that's it for now, we are happy and counting our daily blessings...in all of it's randomness.