Oquirrh Mountain Temple

We have loved watching the Oquirrh Mountain Temple being built. Every week on our way to piano the kids and I couldn't wait to pass by and see all the progress that had been made. We love it so much and feel very blessed to have a beautiful view of it from our back window. Actually we can see the Oquirrh Mountain, Jordan River, and Draper temples from out our back window. In July we went with my whole family (except for Christy and Phil) to the Oquirrh Mountain open house. Hard to believe that it went from this....



To this.




This is the whole group. Such a great experience to be the temple all together. We spent time alone in one of the sealing rooms. Can't describe how I felt. It was really amazing.


Just our beautiful little family. We are so blessed.



We can't be serious for too long. Troy just had to have this picture. Nicholas was very concerned that we were breaking the rules, and at the temple no less. He is such a good boy!

Brace Face, Metal Mouth

BEFORE....



AFTER.

He is really growing up. I HATE it! But he does look cute with his braces. He chose blue and orange rubber bands to complete his new metal ensemble. He handled this new turn of events well until he found out that he can't eat corn on the cob this summer. Bummer!

Apple Pie and the 4th of July Part 2

I really didn't get very many pictures taken for all of our activities on the 4th for both families. I guess I was having too much fun and forgot. Just know we had fun!


Okay, again we didn't have apple pie. We did have some of this amazingly yummy cake made by my sis-in-law Angela.


We also had some more homemade ice cream. It was raspberry, made from the berries in Angela's garden. Yes, she is all that and a bag of chips.

Then there was the annual badminton tournament. Conner did pretty well this year. Troy of course stayed true to tradition and heckled his sister Angela something fierce. I didn't get too many pictures because my skills were needed in the game :)


Nathan is now a police cadet. For real! Isn't he handsome? He had to leave and go work the Murray fireworks directing traffic and fighting off the opposite sex. It's a tough job but he assures me that he is up to the challenge.


This is his Uncle Troy having a little "badge" envy.


We had our own little fireworks display and Nicholas loved every minute! Again Happy 4th of July!

Apple Pie and the 4th of July

Okay so we didn't have apple pie but I wanted to rhyme. I like rhyming so there you have it.

We had a lot of fun on the 4th weekend this year. I didn't have to work at all which was our own little 4th of July miracle. I always have to work so we tried to enjoy our little miracle as much as possible.

We started our weekend at the Millett's. Swimming was first. Troy spent most of the time throwing the kids in the pool. They thought this was fabulous. Troy spent the next day complaining of sore muscles. The kids are really getting big.

Nicholas got thrown the highest. Although he is growing, he is still a little bit of nothin'.
Look at the line up behind Troy




This was my attempt at getting a picture of the all the kids together in the pool.

Mom it's sooo bright.
Okay that's it. Photo shoot over.



This is Erik's "army talk" for let's wrap it up. Time for food!


We had a BBQ of course. What's the 4th of July without BBQ?

We had a very intense game of Bocce ball.




And then onto the homemade ice cream fest!

Even Grandpa and Grandma got in on the ice cream action. Because the rule is you have to help if you want to eat it later.




Uncle Rich really loves this rule.
Even the little peanuts pitched in. They were incredibly cute!














Here are the boys enjoying the fruits of their labor's. I did take a picture of the whole group but it turned out dark. Darn camera. We might not have had apple pie but the ice cream was sure yummy!


We then went to the front to let the kids throw "poppers" and watch the amazing fireworks display. Troy was concerned about what the neighbor's had growing in their side yard.


This is an attempt at getting a picture of the annual "robot" fireworks. The kids and Uncle Troy get up and do the "robot" to strobe fireworks. So entertaining! Wendi said that Maura practiced so that she would be good for the event. Oh yeah, this is serious business.



We had a great day. Happy 4th of July!

Angel Moroni

I am a little behind (ahem) but I wanted to share this little adventure we had in April before moving on to other more recent things.


Troy is the temple prep teacher in our ward. We have had some really neat blessings and experiences that have come of his calling. The DeSpain's are a fabulous couple in our ward that took the class, and it just so happens that his father is THE guy who does the gold leafing on all of the Angel Moroni's. Who knew? Such a small world! Anyway, this last April, he invited us and few others to tour the place where the statues of Angel Moroni are made. It is right here in the valley over in the Taylorsville/Kearn's area. It a warehouse building in a back out of the way place that you would never imagine, and they have made all the statues for the temples for years.
What made this particular Angel Moroni so special is that it is going to the Philippines to be placed on the Cebu temple. I thought this was really neat since we obviously have a interest in the Philippines right now. Mom and Dad might even go back to the Philippines (after the retirement is official) to attend the Cebu temple dedication.


A few fun facts that we learned about the Angel Moroni that day:
1- There are 2 sizes of statues. They started making a smaller size to
accommodate the smaller temples that are being built.
2- All gold leaf is put on by hand with a brush.
3- There is less than 1 oz. of gold that is put on the entire Angel Moroni. It
seems like it should be a lot more doesn't it?
4- They have to repair the statues in some places where it gets blasted by sand
more frequently. Or perhaps hit by lightening. They do a lot of the repairs
also.

The room is surprisingly small and Moroni pretty much takes up the whole space. It was a little tough getting a full length photo of him. On the right you can see the tip of his horn, which they gold leaf separately and attach when he is put in his rightful place at top the temple.


The detail is amazing! It looked so real. I really loved his feet.











The hole where his mouth should be made him seem a bit surprised. Of course this is where his horn will eventually go.










This is the cute little man, Mr. DeSpain, who does the gold leaf by hand. He started doing this after he retired. Just wanted to keep busy he told us.

Troy really wanted me to take his picture "shaking" Moroni's hand. They were really patient with him there. He was in true "Troy" form and he must have asked 100 questions about everything!


Just us with Moroni.



This is the whole gang. We had a lot of fun and learned a lot also. They do not do tours for the public so we feel very lucky to have had this opportunity.

Public Service Announcement(s)

WE INTERRUPT YOUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED PROGRAMMING FOR THE FOLLOWING PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENTS:

When you come home late one night after work,(extra late because of the 3 week's of symptoms that suddenly became an "emergency" at 2 minutes to closing) and you are thinking to yourself; "My husband works so hard and he gets up very early in the morning to get to work". So being the thoughtful person that you are you decide to not turn on any lights in the bedroom so as not to disturb his peaceful sleep. (And you know he is deeply sleeping from the moderately loud snoring you can hear from the hallway!) DO NOT DO IT! I know you want to be thoughtful and all, but you will trip over the clothes that your husband left in the middle of the floor and hit your hand on the dresser and your head on the closet door that has been left open. There might be some crying out and a swear word may or may not slip out, and your momma didn't raise no potty mouth girl! No sir! You will eventually turn on a light anyway and said husband will have slept peacefully through the whole experience, his snoring not even sputtering, and he will not even have the faintest recollection of why you have a large bump on your forehead in the morning anyway.

The next morning, (because you may be still a little "off" due to the mild concussion and the late night) you might realize that you need to change the water out in the garden. You will be tempted to just quickly throw on the shoes that are sitting outside the back door. Please, please I beg you NOT to! You don't have your socks on even, and there will be a spider in the right shoe that has taken up residence there. It will be sooo horrifying (as you are deathly afraid of spiders, second only to moth's) and well, really just plain ICKY! There may or may not again, be some screaming out, swearing, and/or, uncontrollable weeping that could take place. Trust me on this, I am just trying to help out here you know? And that's what I am all about. Helping others.


Your welcome.


WE NOW RETURN YOU TO YOUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED PROGRAMMING. HAVE A NICE DAY!

Philippines Part 5!

The last day before I left we took a trip to Pagsanjan Falls. It was very beautiful. It was so green and there were smaller waterfalls all the way because it had been raining. We had river guides that paddled us up the river and back down again. The were cute and kept asking us if we were having a good time.



Our guides literally "pushed" us up the river. They would hop out of the boat and push or just stick their feet out and push off the rocks.



People live up and down the river and these guys were out washing their clothes!







Me and mom heading up the river.





Dad and I in our lovely lifejackets in front of one the smaller falls.




When we got to the big falls you could pay extra to go up under. Wendi, Mom, Benny and I were brave enough to try. (Along with a cute Japanese couple who were intent on wearing their hard hats the whole time.)



Look how much fun my cute Mom had! (Look at the guide peeking over our shoulders. What a look!)


The brave crew in front of Pagsanjan Falls.

Trip to Banue (Philippines part 4)

This is the part of my trip where I almost died! Oh yeah! I was on the brink. Did I mention before that there are no straight roads in the Philippines? I know I did, anyway that's where my near death experience comes in. We took a trip up to Banue where they have 2000 year old rice terraces. It was an 8-9 hour trip. A lot of slowing down and speeding up, bumpy crazy roads, and of course some killer switchbacks! I don't do well with motion anyway but this was crazy! When we got to the hotel I couldn't even sit up, let alone walk. It was all I could do NOT to toss my cookies :( I was pathetic, it really wasn't pretty. I had to get help out of the car and up to my room. I was a lovely shade of green. I did however live to see another day, yay! After a good night's rest (and a lot of medication) I emerged in the morning for another day of fun and adventures.
I think Benny thought that I had a weak constitution because when I came down the next morning he was pushing for me to buy a walking stick from a cute little lady in the lobby. I'm pretty sure that he thought I was a huge wimp and that he would have to push me all the way. (BTW he wasn't pushing a walking stick on Wendi or Erik!) So in the pictures you can see the famous walking stick and the cute little lady who sold it to me also. (She jumped in the picture in front of the hotel. The Filipino's love to have their picture taken!)
It was an amazing place and I'm glad that I didn't die :) and was able to see it.

Part 3 WWII Sites

There is a lot of U.S. history that occurred in the Philippines especially during WWII. We were able to visit Corregidor which is where the Japanese landed and where MacArthur returned later. The POW's from Corregidor were part of those that endured the Bataan Death March. We were also able to visit the American Cemetery in Manila which is pretty amazing. These 2 days were the only days when the weather wasn't fabulous. It poured on us the day we went to Corregidor (which is why I have such lovely hair in all the pics), and the day we went to the cemetery it was really windy, (again, the lovely hair). However the weather didn't affect us too much and I am glad I was able to visit these places.