Women's Conference Thoughts

I love relief society. I attended my home ward  for a few months before the wedding and it is so good to be back. Being in their relief society made me miss my provo relief society so much!! So many of us have gone different directions but we all stay united through the organization of relief society.  I am now in a new ward and a new relief society, and it will be every bit as great.

Last weekend, I was blessed with the great opportunity to attend Women's Conference at BYU for my first time.  Melinda was on the board and she drafted Alisa and Rachel T to speak as well as their cousin Kori.  They all did a great job speaking and I learned a ton.

The thing that was most impressive to me was just how many women were there and how it was only a fraction of the entire church-wide relief society.  There was service being done left and right, literally, throughout the whole thing with a huge service project on Thursday night for everybody.  It was amazing to see all these sisters and to know that we are all united in the common cause of relief society.

It made me reflect a lot on the process of me adjusting from young women's to relief society.  When I first moved to provo, I didn't love RS.  It was ok, but it was 3rd hour and I was always so fidgety by that point and didn't have the brain power to stay focused on a lesson rather than talks.  Then the following year, I was called to be a counselor.  At that point, I liked it a little more, but I still didn't really understand the full purpose of it.  I was called again as a counselor under a different president about a year later, but the president counted down the weeks and days to being released which again, made it hard to really understand relief society.  I enjoyed serving, but didn't really understand.  And then I got called to be the RS President.  At which point, I immediately loved RS because I served in it day in and day out.  I had to study about each of the positions in the organization and the work of visiting teaching.  And I realized, every calling, from teacher, to literacy committee, to friendship committee, including visiting teaching, is absolutely crucial to relief society.  I learned that the President cannot do everything.  I couldn't talk to every sister and know every problem that every body was facing, I needed reports from all the visiting teachers.  I gained such a deep love for each of the sisters that I served and served with.

Every ward I attend, I can feel the spirit of relief society, knowing that we are sisters in Zion, committed to a true cause.  We are all blessed by this great organization in one way or another.  Women's Conference truly held the spirit of relief society and was such a great reminder of all that I am capable of as a daughter of God.

This song was sung and although it is sung frequently, it always get choked up when I hear it and try to sing along.  The words are so true.

As sisters in Zion, we'll all work together;
The blessings of God on our labors we'll seek.
We'll build up his kingdom with earnest endeavor;
We'll comfort the weary and strengthen the weak.

The errand of angels is given to women;
And this is a gift that as sisters, we claim:
To do whatsoever is gentle and human,
To cheer and to bless in humanity's name.

How vast is our purpose, how broad is our mission,
If we but fulfill it in spirit and deed.
Oh naught but the Spirit's divinest tuition
Can give us the wisdom to truly succeed.

Honeymoon

Ok, so we were gone for a week on the honeymoon so rather than write everything, I am using lots of pictures because a pictures is worth a thousand words.

We flew out the evening after our wedding so we stayed at the Little America Hotel in downtown SLC.  It was so fun to stay in a fancy hotel!!

We got to Long Beach Sunday night but the ship didn't leave until Monday afternoon so we drove down to see the Newport Beach Temple, it is gorgeous!!

This is our first view of the cruise ship, the carnival inspiration.  We learned that this is carnival's oldest ship and is 15 years old.

Brock and Me on the little boat that took us from the ship to Catalina Island.

A full view of our ship from the shore.  Notice the water slide on top, I loved it!

Brock hates this picture but it is the only proof we have of the fact that we went snorkeling!!  It was so fun, it was kind of scary for me since my  biggest physical fear in life is having my head under water, but I just had to tell myself that it was ok because I had an air pipe thing. :D  But it was tons of fun and way cool to see all the fish and coral and everything!!

We had to take one here.  If you know anything about my car, you'll understand.

Walking along the port in Ensenada Mexico.  This picture doesn't 

quite do justice, but that flag was the biggest flag either of us had ever seen.

A pretty view along our tour.

This is us overlooking the pacific ocean, it was a gorgeous spot!!

This is called La Bufadora.  It is a natural blowhole, it was pretty sweet to see.  

We stopped for drinks, I mean come on, we were in Mexico.  They were virgin of course.

Easily the best pina colada I've ever had, and it was huge!!  They also had great guacamole.

The guy that cleaned our room twice a day on the ship (not that we are that messy, but the hospitality is just that good) would make cute animals for us out of towels and leave them on our bed.

This is a little blurry, but we loved the dining hall.  it was like a 5 star restaurant every night, only with unlimited food and you didn't have to worry about price, hahaha!

Our waiter Jeffrey.  He was a CRACK UP.  Notice the Yoda napkin on his hand.  The staff did a song for us every night and it was hilarious.

Friday our lovely cruise ended early in the morning so we drove to San Diego to see the temple and to go to one of my favorite restaurants ever, Miguel's Cocina!!

And then....Dodger's game!!  After a four hour drive to LA from San Diego (because apparently people there aren't used to the rain. ;D)  Our tickets wound up being in the Dodger Dugout Club.  Which equals awesome.  We got to walk down special hallways with all the special pictures and trophies and such.

And this sweet little golf cart!!

It included an excellent dinner before hand.  A buffet of pastas, meats, vegi's, fruits, drinks, and candy and desserts!!

And this is the view from our seats.  We were on row 7 right behind home plate.

The Dodgers vs Padres, dodgers won.

After the game we drove up to Camarillo.  On Saturday we had the open house there and it was absolutely lovely.  It didn't rain and it was only a little chilly towards the end.  It was good to meet so many people that Brock knew.  The following day, Sunday, we flew back to Utah to face reality after the most relaxing vacation ever.  We went straight from the airport to pick up the moving truck and loaded it up and moved to Rexburg that night.  Stay tuned for the adventure of moving!!

Can You Hear The Bells?

Can you hear the bells? Cause I can. I am getting married in 3 days!! Hence, the absence on my blog. That is also due to the fact that I have no internet at my current home and because my computer gave up the ghost a couple of weeks ago. (Thank you geek squad for saving my files right in the nick of time.) I will back date posts just as soon as I get a new computer and finish all this wedding biz, cause it's been a fun time getting ready. Here is a little sneak peek of something I did.

The wedding dress shop wanted to make me pay $70 for the hair piece that I loved. Once they told me the price I literally laughed in their faces and told them I'd make my own for under $10.

So I did.

Theirs:

Mine:

Katherine Welch will be so proud.

City Creek

So there has been a huge project going on in downtown SLC for years.  It is called the city creek center.  Tons of shopping, housing, restaurants, etc.  They took the two old malls downtown and combined them in to one and it is owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Later Day Saints.  There are big name stores that Utah has never had so it is a big deal.

Mom and I joked that while shopping for dresses for the wedding that neither of us would have the dresses we needed in time and that we would wind up last minute shopping at the City Creek for our dresses.  Welp, that happened, but we had a blast!!  There were a lot of fun performers, it was a gorgeous day for outdoor shopping, the food was good, and we found some dresses, on sale. Mostly it was just fun to put all the wedding stuff aside and just shop with my mom all day.

We found these hats that we got a kick out of and had to sneak a picture.  Like mother like daughter!

Davy's First Snowboarding Trip

So last summer on our family camp out, we did a hike that went through Brighton Ski Resort.  Davy saw the runs, lifts and half pipe and thought it was sweet, so I made him a promise.  I promised him that if he saved up enough money to pay for his lift ticket then I would pay for his snowboard rental and teach him to board.

Well, he worked hard and earned the money so I had to come through.  This was not an ideal snowboarding season, the snow (or lack there of) didn't even really come until late February, at which point, life was a little busy.  But, I made a promise so I found a night when I could take him night boarding and we had such a fun time!!  He did great!  There was one point where he took his board off on the mountain and set it down, but didn't realize that it would slide, so he had to chase it down the mountain, it was hilarious!!  Luckily, a tree stopped it, so he didn't have to chase it too far.

It was such a blast!  Davy is my oldest nephew and I had so much fun hanging out with him and teaching him how to do something that I love and that he is starting to love too!!  Here are some pics of our adventure.

Davy Before we started.

Riding like a pro!

Say cheese!

Davy and Me on the slopes!

Temples

Last night, I had the blessing of going through the Oquirrh Mountain Temple. I picked that temple because my dear friend Katherine went through that temple and can't be a part of the wedding festivities due to the fact that she is serving her mission at the Washington DC Temple Visitor Center. I figured that would be a good way to let her be a part of the process.

The temple was incredible. To all those who have not yet gone through, keep yourself worthy, it's totally worth it. I loved having so much support from both my family and Brock's family and two of my great friends Marissa and Checko. What a blessing to have so many people that I love there with me. I missed my baby brother dearly, but was so proud of him at the same time. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is full of the greatest blessings you could ever think of and I am so grateful for all of it.

What A Surprise

I just remembered something fantastic that happened that I need to blog about still. This last weekend, Brock surprised me and came to town!! It had only been two weeks since last seeing each other, but I tell ya what, when you are engaged...two weeks might as well be eternity!! So here is the story:

Brock's sister in law Leanne had their second baby last week. He had said he was planning on coming down but then changed his mind and then was wishy washy on it. When all was said and done, he wasn't coming. Then, Friday night I called him after leaving work. I asked him approximately a gajillion times to come down, and somehow, it worked. He told me he was staying in Idaho and going to the temple. He didn't text me for the amount of time that he would have been in the temple and then texted me and told me he was done and going out to dinner with the guys. At this point, I gave up all hope on him coming down and surprising me. Soooooooo...we were sitting at Garrett and Leanne's watching movies from the hospital and when we were a few mintues from leaving, in walked Brock!!! I literally jumped out my chair and gave him the biggest hug ever and just started crying, what a lame-o I can be sometimes. Man I love that guy.

It was the best surprise ever. We snuggled the weekend away practically. Ok, not really, but it was so nice to be able just to snuggle and hug each other. We visited with his family, babysat my niece and nephew, went to my ward so I could finish temple prep, and just hung out together all we could, it was so great!! We are lucky that he gets to come down this weekend and I get to go up there next weekend to visit. And then we go back to limbo of not being sure as to when we will be seeing each other again.

I failed at taking pictures this weekend, as is the story of my life lately, so here is one of our favorite from the engagements. Enjoy. (**cough cough** SAV) I'll post more later.