Tuesday February 2nd
Garrett went out of town the day after he got back from the snow camp out. He flew to California for meetings. On the last day of their meetings, Intel rented out California Adventure and that whole group got to ride rides and eat for free. So Garrett sent us pictures to make us all jealous! :)
They even had Fallout boy come and put on a concert.
Wednesday February 3rd
Garrett got home this day and brought the kids Intel light sabers.
I started reading scriptures with the kids out of the illustrated Book of Mormon. I also found the idea to have them write in a scripture journal and have them answer one or two questions about what they read. I really love it and the kids really love it too. (I'm just doing this way with Bella and Noah. I have a different system going on for the older kids.) Anyways, I write the question and then help Noah write out his answers. (Bella can answer on her own without my help usually). I was really impressed with how well this was going and how much they enjoy doing it, so I thought I'd share.
February 6th and 7th
Since our anniversary fell on a Sunday this year, we went out to celebrate on Saturday night. We went out to eat at PF Chang's and then went to see the movie, "The Finest Hours" with Chris Pine and Casey Affleck. It was pretty good! He got me these flowers and card and balloon. We had agreed that we weren't going to buy gifts for each other since we were going to Mexico at the end of the month, but he bought these anyways.
Friday February 12th
We packed the trailer and headed out to go camping for the weekend at Mt. Hood Village. Someone took pictures of beautiful Portland as we drove by.
The clouds were beautiful as the sun was going down. When we got closer to Mt. Hood and the sun went down, it started pouring rain! Ugh!
So, we went to the little restaurant that they have there and had dinner there.
Saturday Feb. 13th
This was a really, really low-key weekend with swimming and playing games and reading books. I don't even have that many pictures!
Playing skipbo--one of our favorites.
Sunday Feb. 14th
Garrett's a saint and takes the kids swimming so I don't have to!
It was Valentine's Day, so I brought Valentine's pictures to color, but that was the extent of our celebrating.
Sitting out by the fire, out in the rain. Thank heavens for our canopy!
Monday Feb. 15th
This picture reminds me of the noise and chaos that is usually in our trailer. We were getting ready to go hike around before we left to go home. It takes forever to get ready because no one listens, they all do their own thing and they are either fighting or being silly and loud.
I love this shot and I'm not sure who took it.
It's the fam!
Looking at the river...pretty exciting!
Throwing rocks in.
It's hard to tell in this picture, but when Garrett was lifting up big rocks to throw into the river, he found this little crawdad. The kids thought it was interesting but they didn't want to touch or hold it.
Then we came upon this big old tree that had fallen down--so cool to see the root system and how they obviously weren't very deep.
then some of the kids took turns walking across it. We're so adventurous!
Sunday Feb. 21st
We spent the previous day packing and buying last minute things for our trip to Mexico on Monday. Funny picture of Noah with Garrett's scuba gear on.
I have to share this story about Lydia. When she turned 12, they asked her to speak in sacrament meeting. She agreed and we helped her write her talk. But when Sunday came and she was supposed to go and sit on the stand, she couldn't go up there. She was scared and crying and kept saying that she couldn't do it. I even offered to go up and sit with her, but the Bishop told her that he wanted it to be a good experience for her and if she was this worked up about it, to not worry about doing it. He didn't want her to feel this worried and scared about it. So, she didn't give the talk. So, it had been a little over a year since that happened and they asked her to give a talk again and she agreed (on the 21st). So, once again we helped her write her talk, prayed for her, encouraged her and she really felt like she could do it. So, Sunday comes and she had to go early for a meeting since she was Beehive president at the time. She was saving a row for us since we hadn't gotten there yet, and when we walked up to her before the meeting was going to start, she was crying and starting to freak out saying that she couldn't do it. We took her out and said a prayer with her and tried to calm her down and encourage her. But she wasn't going to do it. So, Garrett asked Maggie if she would give Lyd's talk for her and she agreed, so she went up on the stand and told the Bishopric. Before the sacrament portion, they confirmed a new member and gave them a blessing. Lydia had still been crying, so she went out to go to the bathroom to blow her nose while they were passing the sacrament. She didn't come back in until the sacrament was done being passed. The bishopric member got up to announce that Maggie was going to be speaking and at that point I saw Lydia walking up the aisle towards us, but then kept on walking up to the stand. The bishopric actually said, well never mind, Lydia is going to give her talk. My heart was bursting at this point and I'm sure I had the biggest smile on my face. It took her a few minutes to start and when she did start talking you could tell that she was trying not to cry, but she delivered her talk and got more confident as she got through it. I cannot tell you how incredibly proud I was of her. She has a legitimate fear and she did something that was extremely hard for her. I hope she remembers that experience and knows that she can do hard things! It was a proud parenting moment for sure!! I did ask her what changed her mind about speaking and all she told me was that she heard something in the blessing that helped her decide to speak. I thought that was pretty neat. I sure do love her!!
