One Extraordinary Fella

This weekend Erich and I went down to Idaho Falls for my nephew, Robert's, mission farewell. All of my sisters made it as well as my brother and his family so it was a blast. A bit chaotic and loud, but a blast nonetheless. While my family was all together we also celebrated my dad's retirment and my sisters threw me a surprise baby shower. Unfortunately I kept forgetting my camera so I don't have too many pictures to capture all the fun moments. It was a pretty jam packed vacation. We went swimming, played kickball, volleyball, and round after round of cards. We also went golfing a few times and got completely soaked and hailed on, but I had my best round ever and Erich literally got a birdie...He was pitching his ball, he sent it through the trees and literally hit and killed a bird...only Erich would go hunting for birds on the golf course :) Anyhow it was a great vacation, and I am glad we were all togehter for one final hoorah before Robert leaves for two years. He is an extraordinary guy, and I will miss him tons. Family vacations certainly won't be the same without him, but I know he'll do amazing things as a missionary in Argentina. He's just the kind of guy you want representing the church!

(My whole family at church after Robert's talk)

(This is Robert and a few of his sisters. I posted this picture so you could see the big rug burn on Robert's forehead that Erich so kindly gave him the night before in a wrestling match, Robert and Erich were a hoot together between all of their roughousing and pranks. They may have been outnumberd by the lady folk but they certainly weren't out-energized)

(My sisters and I with Robert at the Idaho Falls Temple)

(The Idaho Falls Temple after our session)

(These are my adorable neices (Robert's sisters). My sisters and I had a lot of fun taking them shopping and embarassing them with dance parties in the car)

Memorial Day

I was listening to a talk radio station and they were interviewing a Colonel who just came out with a book called American Hero's. What was interesting was that he conducted a little test that went like this:

Finish the name;

Britney....

Harrison...

etc..

What about these names;

Paul.....

Woodrow..

Bruce....

Jason L. ....

These names are a couple of the Medal of Honor recipients in 2007 and no one knows who they are. Why, most likely because of the media, the controversy of the war, and less than 2 percent of the American population actually knows anyone in the armed forces.

I just thought that it would be fitting that we take a little time and look at what these brave soldiers did that made it possible for us to enjoy our freedom. Many of these soldiers gave their lives and there families are receiving their medals. Visit http://www.cmohs.org/recipients/most_recent.htm to learn more about what exactly they did for us.

Thanks to Ben, Dad, and Stephen for doing what it takes.

A description of American Hero's if your interested:

What is a Hero? New York Times best-selling author Oliver North says, “Real heroes are selfless. Those who serve America in harm’s way in the war against radical Islam have that quality in abundance. And so do their families and loved ones at home. Yet, they rarely get the attention or coverage they deserve.

“Despite the way they are presented by too many in the press and politics, the men and women in uniform today are overwhelmingly good. I never cease to be amazed at the self-discipline of these brave young Americans. They can endure the adrenaline-pumping violence of an enemy engagement, and then, just minutes later, help school children get safely to their classes . . . No nation—ours included—has ever had a military force better than the one we have today. I’m proud of them. You should be too.”

Climbing and Refinishing

Right after Erich got home, he took the scouts up to the climbing wall in Moscow. I tagged along as the photographer. It was a very fun trip, some of the boys were pretty impressive climbers.

Last week was devoted to refinishing the wood floors. It was quite the endeavor ... lots of long, hard, late nights of work but it feels great to finally have them done.

We finally got some hot sunny days. We took a little break and headed down to the river thinking we would chill out on the beach. When we got there the beach was completely submerged so we hung out on the grass instead.

A little Road Trip

Erich got assigned to another detail down in New Mexico so I headed down to Utah to spend some time with friends. It was a long drive but very worth it. The first few days I spent with Di (my roommate and best bud from the BYU days). Then I headed up to Kaysville and spent a few days with the Law school crew. It's convenient that so many of my law school friends live within 1 mile of each other!

(Di and I on a little camping adventure. We tried to camp at Mount Timpanogas but there was too much snow still so we just headed up one of the lower canyons.)

(Di and I found this little waterfall to hike up to)

(Di and Chris tried teaching me how to play tennis. As you can tell it turned into more of a game of chase the balls!)

(The weather was absolutely gorgeous so I spent a lot of time in the park with the law school ladies. You can tell I'm the only one from Idaho as I am still brilliantly white with no sign of a tan!)

(One of my favorite things was going to the Bountiful temple with Lauren and Jamie. I went to the Bountiful temple open house several years ago but I've never been through a session. It's a very gorgeous temple and it's always special to attend the temple with close friends and family).