Oquirrh Mountain Temple

This is our new temple here in the valley. It is beautiful, and oh so close to us! Paul and I had a chance to volunteer and be ushers last Saturday for part of the open house for the contractors and their families. I ended up stationed in the mechanical room of all places. Pretty cool...none of you will ever see it, I'm sure! It was only open that afternoon so all the contractors and construction workers could show their families where they had been working. It was fun to tag along with their little private "tours" and learn a lot of interesting stuff about all the machinery. It's amazing to me what it takes to run a small temple! Oh, I almost forgot that thanks to a friend of mine that was also working down there, we stumbled upon the "secret" door to the bottom of the baptistry. It was cracked open just a little, and being curious to know where it lead, my friend opened the door and found herself face to face with one of the oxen! When she looked up, there were people on the regular tour looking down at her from the baptistry waiting room! Needless to say, she closed the door very quickly! Pretty funny! When we finally figured out the latching mechanism (gotta be smarter than the door!), we opened it back up at the end and took a little look and stroll around. Pretty cool. On a final note, another cool thing happened on Sunday when I was invited to sing in one of the choirs for one of the temple dedication ceremonies with the prophet and apostles. I am honored to be asked, and I am really looking forward to it! I hope those of you around here get a chance to attend the open house! The temple is very unique and beautiful!

Mother's Day Surprise

So, I know Mother's Day was almost 2 weeks ago, and I am a little late with this post, but I would be very ungrateful if I didn't give a belated shout out to my 4 cute boys! (The 5th one is pretty cute too, but he didn't get home until the surprise was made!) Saturday night I jokingly said to Justin, "So what are you making me for breakfast tomorrow since Dad will be gone to meetings?" He looked a little startled and said, "Umm.....toast?" You see, none of my boys know how to cook much of anything. I think the closest they could come would be throwing some pizza rolls or chicken nuggets in the microwave. There was one time they actually tried to cook cup of soup in the microwave without any water (not a pretty sight or smell!). I don't think that actually qualifies as cooking! Anyway, he said, "If you show me how to make an omlete tonight, I'll make it for you in the morning." I didn't show him anything, but I did mention how to do it. The next morning, I woke up when Paul got home from his meetings and told me to come out as the boys had a surprise for me. They had a full on breakfast prepared that each of them had made part of. It included an omlete (though creatively cut so we all had a piece, it was one of the lightest and fluffiest I've had!), toast, sausage, waffles, and juice. Pretty cool. They were so proud of themselves. I figured it required documenting it in photos, and definitely a spot on the blog along with a big thank you!! When I got up last Sunday to see Justin making omletes again, I began to wonder why I have never taught him to cook sooner!!

After breakfast, the surprises continued with a dozen beautiful roses, some of my favorite treats, a couple of fun gift cards, and a new phone to replace the one I've been yelling about for weeks. Thanks guys! You are the best!

After church, we met up with my family and Paul's folks for dinner. It was a great day! I hope all of you mothers out there had an equally fabulous day! I know you all deserve it!

Paul with his mom and dad.

My brother, mother, and myself.

Girls' Week in Nashville

Right after my fun weekend with the girlfriends, my mom, aunt, and I flew out to Nashville to visit my sister for a week! It was a great couple of weeks for me in April! Many thanks to my hubby for being a good sport and playing Mr. Mom so I could get away! Our girls' week started a few years ago when the three of us flew out to D.C. to visit Denise while she lived there. We try to do it every year, and luckily, Denise always lives somewhere that is fun to visit. Besides D.C., we have gone to L.A. and now Nashville a couple of times for a week of total fun and laughter! This trip was no exception! We had a few new people who joined us, and it was a lot of fun. My Aunt Pat joined us as well as my sister in law Michelle and her mom. We also were able to meet and probably terrify Denise's boyfriend, Dale. Great guy, and such a good sport to hang out with and chauffeur a bunch of loud, crazy women around for a week! Our week was busy and full of fun outings. Here are a few highlights:

Visiting 2 plantations dating back to the civil war...

Browsing the booths and eating yummy funnel cake at the street festival in Franklin...

Enjoying yummy meals--many of which I didn't have to prepare...

Rocking out at our very own private concert featuring Dale of the "Stupid Dogs" band...Oh yeah...

Competing in some serious foosball games (note the intense look of concentration on my face!!)...

But most of all, enjoying time with my sis! Can't wait for the next girls' week!

Girls' Weekend

Back in high school....oh so long ago....I was one of few LDS girls in our school. I counted myself extremely lucky to find 4 amazing and beautiful gals that surprising liked hanging out with me. 3 of the 4 were also LDS, making for great fun at all of our church meetings and activities. We even tried our hand at some missionary work with the 4th. I look back at all of the things going on around me growing up in California, and I count my blessings often for these wonderful friends who helped me have a total blast in high school while making good choices along the way...most of the time!!! =) We had our share of ups and downs as girls typically do, but in the end, we always knew we could count on each other and be accepted for who we were.

Over the years we have kept in touch, some years better than others. A few years back, we decided it was time to get back together for a little reunion. The 5 of us hadn't been all together since high school. We had a fabulous time and decided it needed to be a yearly occurrence! A couple of weeks ago was our 3rd annual high school girlfriend reunion. We spent the weekend relaxing at the spa, eating yummy food, watching movies, shopping, and laughing a lot! It is extremely therapeutic for us all!

This is the first place we usually stop when everyone gets into town to grab a little snack and catch up. We get a kick out of all the little divas who work in the Tea Room, with all of their rules and signs posting said rules all over. I'm pretty sure they hate us there, as we are not very quiet!

We always have to hit the breakfast buffet at our hotel (above) at least one of the mornings! Another place we like to go for dinner is the Melting Pot! So yummy and fun! But we also like to try out new, fun little places that Krista comes up with. She lives downtown and knows all the best places to go. Here we are at a great little Italian place called Trio. (And just in case you are wondering...only one of those yummy little drinks is fully loaded!)

It's amazing that after so many years of living our separate lives, we all mesh together as well now as we did back then! True friendships should be cherished. They are sometimes few and far between! Thanks for a great weekend, gals!