BEST ANNIVERSARY EVER!

August 11th, 2012

Cade and I have been married for 5 whole wonderful years! This year it was Cade's turn to plan our day and let me say....it was PERFECT. I loved everything about it. It has got to be one of my favorite days we have had together since being married.

First we started by going on a beautiful bike ride together up Provo Canyon. The morning was beautiful and it was the first time we have been on a ride just he and I.  We rode to the place where he proposed to me- Bridal Veil Falls.

After the bike ride, we went home to shower and get ready to attend an LDS temple. This is one of our absolute favorite traditions. Every anniversary we pick a new temple that we have not been to and do a session and sealings. My mom came to watch the girls for 8 hours so we could have a wonderful day out. She is so great! We drove to the Jordan River Temple and it was so wonderful and so peaceful; a very great time to remember the day we made covenants with each other. 

Then we drove to dinner. Cade knows how much I LOVE steak. We had never been to a really fancy restaurant in our 5 years of being married so he took me to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. The place itself was beautiful, the service was incredible where everyone tells you "happy anniversary" when they walk by and call you "Mrs. Close" the whole evening, but above that the food was INCREDIBLE. The steak melts in your mouth and the taste was so incredible. I don't think I have EVER been that full in my entire life. Even Thanksgiving wouldn't compare :). It was worth it!

After dinner we walked around Salt Lake for a bit until our show WICKED started! We have seen it once before, but man it is absolutely amazing. And the two that played Elphaba and Glinda were so incredible and SO funny! My favorite Broadway show and so worth every penny.
 

The whole night was ABSOLUTELY amazing! I am so grateful to my incredible husband for all he continues to do for me. He is an amazing husband and father and does more for me than I do for him. I am grateful he goes to work all day and still comes home and helps with dishes, bath time, getting the girls ready for bed, and cleaning the house. He is the most wonderful thing in my life and I am forever grateful for him and all he does. Most of all for loving me and my imperfections. He is very patient with me and my mistakes. I love him! I can't wait for the next 5 years!

A Week in Complete Paradise

Lake Chelan, Washington...complete paradise. It's true! It is one of the most fun places we visit. Part of that is because of the childhood memories, but even for Cade, Jennie and Andrew who didn't come here as a child they absolutely loved it too! It is SUCH a beautiful, clear lake, the house is incredibly beautiful, there is tons to do and the lake is right in your backyard! We had such a wonderful week and it was incredibly hard to go back home. The only thing that would have made it perfect is if Nathan and Steph's family were able to join us. Then we would have had everyone there! But with Steph's neck problems, it was no very possible to have them there. We sure missed them!!!

On the way there we left Friday night and stopped in Boise to get some sleep. Well, we learned that it maybe wasn't the best idea to stop because Reese cried every hour at the hotel so we ended up not getting enough sleep. On the way back, we drove all the way through- 14 hours. Painful towards the end, but better than paying for a hotel that we wouldn't get any sleep at anyway. Once we got to Chelan we put some things away, threw everything else into our room and ran to the lake as soon as we could :). Kristen and Andrew got there that night and it was SO fun to see them! Jaxon has gotten so big and has learned so much since the last time we saw them.

Sunday was really low key but still way fun! We went to church at the LDS ward in Chelan. In the afternoon us girls did glitter toes together while the guys all played Pickle Ball, Ladder Ball, and Cube (which we played lots of evenings). We had a good time doing glitter toes- some of us were better than others :).  A good phrase for the whole week would be "chill, relaxing, and amazingly fun!"

 

One thing I loved about this trip is each couple was assigned a day of cooking and that night you also did a spiritual thought. Everyone's thoughts were amazing and it was so good to have a time where we could talk spiritually. It's those moments where I am reminded how grateful I am for my parents and siblings who are such amazing examples to me. A few of the nights we played games together too. One game was a couple's game where everyone in the room asked the couple in the middle questions and you had to raise your own shoe or your spouse's shoe for the answer. It was pretty funny to see the answers and the reactions to the questions. And we go to know more about each other.

As you can see, we had a great time...too much fun sometimes :)... 

My cute girls :). Emma called this "The BIG House." She LOVED being there! She loved playing in the water, tubing behind the boat, playing in the little playroom with toys, climbing the big ladder up to their loft, and having attention from so many people all the time! We prayed and prayed every single night that they would be safe and nothing would happen to them. Having the lake RIGHT in the backyard is scary when you have a toddler. Emma wore a life jacket every time we went outside and that helped us to be more at peace.

One day we spend a couple hours walking around down town Chelan. It was a beautiful little town. 

We rented a wave runner two different days and I loved that! Kristen and Boose and Bud liked going on it together to try and throw each other off. I liked going on it when I could be the driver cause I'm not quite a dare devil like them :). Then Tuesday to Thursday the Murray's came and Mike took us out on the boat those days. It was so good to see Uncle Mike and Aunt Joyce. They are such an amazing couple and it was fun to catch up a little. We did some tubing, wake-boarding, and a really fun night cruise in the moon-light. It was SO much fun and we are extremely grateful for them letting us use the boat. When we didn't have the boat or wave-runner we spent time swimming, laying out in the sun, playing on rafts and tubes, and kayaking. 

 

 So amazing and worth every minute of travel time! I can't wait until we can go back again. The house is beautiful, the lake is beautiful and amazing, but most of all the memories we create are priceless. I love my family and I feel so grateful to have each one of them in my life!

GOING PRIVATE

Yes, it is time. I am going to go private with our family blog now. If you would like an invite and would like to keep following please send me your email and I will send a link so you can keep updated. Thanks!

Girls Camp 2012

Finding Light in a Tangled up World

I don't even know where to start. First of all, I can honestly say that girls camp could not have gone better than it did. No drama. No homesick tears. No back biting. No unprepared moments. Seriously- it was All fun, laughter, good talks, spritual moments, nature, staying up getting to know each other, and loving each other! As a leader, that is a miracle! I love these girls and we had such a good time together!

The first day we met at the Bishops house and drove to Duchesne to tr Bullock's cabin. We got there and it was a beautiful place! We had a low key start and played a bunch of get-to-know-you games such as "I've never" and a candy bar game that you told about yourself according to what candy you had. It was really fun to learn about each other!  That night after dinner we had a speaker that introduced our theme for camp. Then we played games until all hours of the night and talked and talked.

The second day we spent most of the day at the beach at a lake called starvation. We were blessed to have two different boats they're so all the girls could have fun doing boating activities. We also played watermelon football on the beach which was hilarious to watch!  After the beach we went back to the cabin and we ate dinner. The girls all seemed exhausted so we thought we would get an early night sleep. Jokes on us! We didn't go to bed till after midnight because the girls got a Second wind!

The last day was really fun. We drove to Brother and Sister Preece's cabin and went on a short hike. After the hike we played on their zip line and then we had a spiritual thought a couple more games and ended with solo time. Solo time is a beautiful time where we can contemplate life, read scriptures, pray, write in our journals or anything else you want to do with time in nature. It is always one of my favorite times at girls camp!

We went back to the cabin and had Dutch oven cooking for dinner that the bishopric made for us. After dinner we played some games with the bishopric which were hilarious. We got to know some funny things about them! Then at night we ended with testimony meeting which is definitely one of my favorite parts. The bishop gave a thought about sharing our light with the world and then we each had a turn to share testimonies about Gospel.

I am so grateful for each one of these women who teach me so much. They're great examples to me of sharing their lights with those around them. It was so fun to have a girls camp where we could have a lot of downtime to get to know each other! Everything seriously went so perfect and I'm so grateful to my leaders and camp directors for all the wonderful planning and help with camp! It was so much fun!!!

 

   

Beach day! So fun!

Watermelon Football- I got the honors of covering it in crisco :)...

 

 

Games, games, games- a huge part of camp and so fun to just hang out together and get to know each other.

 Okay, okay...I admit we were completely spoiled. The cabin was beautiful, we didn't have to set up tents, we had a kitchen to cook in and the leaders all had beds to sleep in. Not really "camping" I will admit, but they were going on a pioneer trek three weeks after and could get the WHOLE outdoor experience :). And it was much easier planning with it being in a cabin. It was completely wonderful!

Our wonderful Bishopric! We love them! They have been in their callings for almost 6 years...so this most likely was their last girls camp and we are very sad about that!