The Grand Canyon!!

This past week I went on a vacation with my parents and aunt Cindy. We drove to the Grand Canyon! It was probably the longest drive of my life! But totally worth it!! :) We stayed at the Grand Canyon Inn and our shower had no water pressure. I tried to move the shower head up and it just fell right back down it wasn't the best showering place, but I didn't have to make the bed, that was the best part!!! They had beautiful sunsets there. The moon came out when it was still light I love it when that happens, that is probably my most favorite thing to look at:) The reason we went there is because Tanner works at Maverik and he does Helicopter tours! It was so amazing!!!! we were in the helicopter just flying away and all you could see were trees and then all of a sudden it dropped and the Grand Canyon was right underneath us. I couldn't believe it, it was so amazing!!! Tanner showed us this river that was turquoise. It was pretty cool i guess it isn't turquoise for very long so we were pretty lucky to be able to see it. Also the best part I turned off the helicopter, it was just a push of the button but I still did it!!:) I almost got eaten by a bear while I was there too, it was pretty scary! Then on the 4th of July Dad Val Wes and Trav ran in the 5K I was so proud of them, they all did very well!!:) Good Job guys, to bad I had to work:) But I did have time to stay for some of the parade and Canyon wasn't very happy about it, Kayli liked it and Erin was pretty excited too!:) Mom always enjoys the parade and Oaklee is okay with anything. Derek was able to catch up with an old friend, so I decided that no matter how boring the Tooele parade can be you can always take something good out of it, even if it is just exersice:)

The Weekend

This past weekend I went home for Easter. Well on Saturday it was so warm that my mom decided we should paint the hay bells so I was pretty excited. Once we found what we wanted to paint we got started. Well this is what she starts with.

Just plain ol' haybells and a picture to paint from. Mom gets the outline and then everybody get to fill in. My aunt Cindy usually helps a lot to. It really is kind of fun.

After you get the affects of all the fumes you start doing crazy things and everything becomes funny!Well when it is finally finished then Grandma has to come out and check our work to make sure it is sufficiant enough. Love you Grandma Then we admire our work and I have to have proof, so with enough convincing I got mom to take pictures with me:) (Dad and his picture taking you get more of the background then you can see of us. I guess beggers can't be choosers:) Love you to Dad)
Then on Sunday we had a big dinner over at grandmas. A lot of people came. But good old Erb went and got the horses and gave all the grandkids rides. Then Val and Wes came with Oaklee. Derek of course gets her, she loves him A LOT!!! Derek really shines when he is around her I love to see him with her, its like his heart just melts. You can tell that he loves every minute that he holds her. It is so cute, this is the only time that I can get pictures of his face because he isn't paying attention to anything else but her. Then Kayli came with her beautiful white easter dress and green jacket, but the best accessory she had was her umbrella. It was soo cute! Then when they were getting ready to leave megan needed to be changed into her pajamas and of course nanna volunteers to do that. Megan is the happiest baby I have seen for a long time. (besides oaklee) She is so cute and Canyon is right there helping every step of the way with his candy right next to him:) and of course Brady is possing for the camara. It was such a great weekend being with all my family!!! Love you guys!!

Colorado!!!

So for spring Break I got to go to Colorado!!! It was amazing, the drive was really long but I didn't have to drive so it was ok. On friday night we got there a little bit later, so we just got settled in. Then on Saturday we went to Denvers museum of Nature and Science, there was all different kind of exihibits. My favorite one was a natural disasters, it showed you how tornados and stuff happen. There was a part of it where there was a whole cirlce of screans and there was a fan going and it looked and felt like you were in the middle of a tornado, it was way cool. Then Heather got sick, I felt way bad for her. But me and milly got to get to know her family really well, they are so great. Then on Monday we went to Garden of the Gods and Heather took Brock and Aubreys engagment pictures. It was so pretty there!!

Tuesday we went shoping, they have an amazing mall, and they have the Buffalo wild wings and they are .40 cents on tuesday and they are amazing. I could go and tell you every detail but it wouldn't be very fun to read. But we also went downtown shopping I felt like I was in New York or something. It was so amazing!!

then we went to the aquairium and it was way cool.

On Friday we went to the Denver Temple. It is just so amazing no matter where you go the church is still the same.

I didn't want to leave. The Taylors are amazing people I love them so much. I miss them already. I Love Colorado!!!

Dinner

Today Meredith cooked me dinner. It was amazing!!!! We had sticky chicken with rice and then we made chocolate chip cookies for desert. UM UMM GOOD!:) This is what it looked like before we put it in the oven. Meredith somehow got a picture of me puting away silverware:) Then putting it in the oven. Then we had to wait 45 minutes!!! It was a really long time but making the cookies made it better. But in the end the wait was worth it, I mean look at that doesn't it look delicious?

Wednesday

Today I woke up and relized that I had to go see a movie for class but the only showings are at 6:00 and 9:30 the only problem is that I have work from 4:00 to 7:00 and 7:45 to 9:30 so I decided that I could run home inbetween work and grab my car. So at 9:35 I sprinted to my car just to get to a 2 hour long movie I had 2 minutes to spare before they locked the doors. Well after watching that long movie trying to stay awake and walking out into the freezing cold I was so frustrated and wanted to just go scream! Well I got home and all my roomates were all laughing and having a good time in the kitchen so I got in the shower. By the time I had gotten out they had baked me a cake! It made everything better. How sweet are they? I have the best roomates ever!!!!!! Love you all.

Institute

Today was my first day at institute and my teacher mauled me as I entered the room. He would not leave me alone. Hello what is your name? Were you here last week? Where is your home town? I didn't think that the questions would ever stop coming. But finally they did! I was a little worried at first because when we started there were probably about 10 - 15 people there and I was afraid that he was going to call on me a lot. He started off by asking if anyone had any scriptures that they studied and wanted to share. There was a girl who shared Alma 53:10 and she read it but emphasized "by the power & word of god they were truly converted" then we looked up truly converted in the bible dictionary and she summarized it as a complete conversion comes after lots of trials and hardship. Then there was a cross reference from Alma 53: 10 to Alma 23 and in v. 6 "... if we are converted unto christ we will NEVER fall away." In D&C 6:33-37 "...if hell and the earth are combined ye will not prevail IF you build upon his rock. Be faithful think of him and keep his comandmets and ye shall inherit the kingdom of heaven."
Well that was quite lenghthy but I thought it was really interesting of how far you can go if you really study the scritpures. Also another little thing that was said was when you read the scriptures you can hear the voice of christ because you are reading his words. In a talk there was a little exert . . . whatever Jesus lays his hands upon lives. If Jesus lays his hands upon a marriage, it lives. If he is allowed to lay his hands on the family, it lives.
I challenge all of you to build upon his rock and become truly converted. Work towards getting him to lay his hands upon your life so you can live!
I think that the Lord gives a helping hand a lot like today I saw it a bunch! Maybe these are really silly thing but I feel that it is Lord in my life...... Going to intitute and having the teaching just so excited I was there was really what I needed, I made it sound like I didn't like it but it made me feel that I need to go to intitute...... When I got home there was a little note on my bed from one of my roomates just saying how thankful she was for me and it made me realize that I really need to be doing a lot more...... Those are just a few of examples that happened in my day.
I really truly believe that the Lord works through other people and we all need to listen to the spirit and sometimes you wont realize it but you could change a persons day by acting from the spirit.

ROOMATES!!!!!

So today after waking up at 11 all of us decided that we should go take pictures up in the mountains. It was acutually Heathers idea but we all agreed and she got Jd to take them for us it was so great. I was the one that took our room key of course and once we got back from the freezing cold i realized that I didn't have my key so me, heath, abi, and mere went back to help me look for it. We took pictures on a tractor crane thing and that is where we looked first but it wasn't there so we went to the other place and as we were walking it was right on the ground. Thank goodness for that one! Well after that scare was over we came back home and got in the house and Jd was getting all the pictures together for all of us to have. Here is a little preview of what happened.