Catch up and Thanksgiving

Uh oh--It's been two weeks since I have updated!

We had a great Thanksgiving weekend. We traveled to Idaho Falls and stayed with Mike's family from Wednesday through Sunday. All of his siblings were in town so it was fun to see them. Thursday's dinner was great. We (6 of us) went to the IF Temple Friday morning and Mike, Kaye and I saw Enchanted on Saturday afternoon. I recommend it--cute movie. (OK--so I really liked it--it appealed to my romantic-sentimental-cheesy-and-a-bit-corny side.)

One of my favorite things about our little trip up to Idaho was Abby riding the little token rides at Leo's Pizza Place. They really don't look too exciting from an adult's perspective, but for a 13-month-old--wow! These were a hit!!

Abby also enjoyed Lara's (Mike's sister) dog. I'll have to post the "dictionary according to Abigail" some time with some of her favorite words, but suffice it to say that whenever she hears a dog bark, it is "d-d-d-d-d" or "diggy".

A couple other things. A Friday or two ago (the 16th) one of my best friends, Haley, got married! It was fun to spend a good part of the day with her. She was sealed to Jason in the Salt Lake Temple with her dad (isn't that great) officiating and we were able to go to a nice luncheon and a very fun reception. It was great to see friends that I hadn't seen in a long time. I am very happy for them!

me, Amy, Summer, Haley, Holli, Shana

Sunday before last, we attended a farewell for my mission president and his wife who are returning to Chile for the third time--this time as temple presidents. They have had a great influence on my life and I appreciate the love they showed for me at such an important time!

Zion National Park

We took a little trip down to Zion Thursday through Saturday. Here are a few thoughts:

• November is a great time to go to southern Utah. The weather was beautiful! I think that it might have been a bit warmer than usual, but it was very nice. We wore sweatshirts in the mornings and short sleeves while we hiked. Also, we didn't even need reservations at the campgrounds. It wasn't empty, but there were plenty of available sites.
  
• I am afraid of heights. Several years ago I went to Zion with a group of people I didn't know very well and hiked Angel's Landing having no idea what it entailed. It was a terrifying (maybe that is an extreme word) experience and although I am happy to say that I have done it I don't really have any desire to do it again. (If you don't know about Angel's Landing, I'd be happy to tell you about it sometime.) So when Mike suggested the Hidden Canyon hike and I found out it had chains along parts of the trail, I had memories of those awful chains along Angel's Landing. I am brave so I agreed to do it with the understanding that there was a very good chance that when we got to the chains, I might plant myself and wait for Mike. Well, I finished the hike and I will say that it is nothing like Angel's Landing. I didn't even worry about Abby being along for the ride (still won't let her on that other trail). It was high up and there were big cliffs, but it wasn't too bad. The Hidden Canyon was nice, too.
• I am much better at planning for long camping trips than short ones. (I actually pride myself in planning pretty well for most vacations.) I forgot the dish soap, wash cloths and my hair brush.

Enough of my musings. Here are the pictures:

Happy Fall!

I Got Tagged...

So Lichelle "tagged" me. She posted 7 things about herself in her blog and now I have to post 7 things about myself. Here it goes:

1. I love family history. A year or two ago I came across a couple hundred names that extended what had been a real dead end. It was/is pretty exciting and has provided me with plenty of research and temple work for us to do!

2. My all time favorite vacation was to Tahiti for our honeymoon. It is an amazing place with the clearest, bluest beaches anywhere and the snorkeling was fabulous. (And what better person to spend it with than Mike!)

3. So before I decided to be a teacher, I planned to get a degree in Human Biology with the hopes of moving on to med school. I loved my science classes at BYU and looked forward to more, but I am glad I switched to teaching. It was wonderful and developed into something I passionately enjoyed. (On a pretty distant stretch of a tangent, I just read a really interesting article on Yahoo about how the medical care in Afghanistan has improved since the war began. It was really interesting! It is pretty amazing (a miracle) to see the changes that have been made but still sad to see how far they have to go...

4. I love to travel!!! It is kind of hard to get enough of it--except in the month of July when it seems like we are never home and I kind of ache for my own bed. But anyway, I do love to travel. And so does Mike so I'm happy we're compatible in that regard. I like hotels and tents alike--a bit of each is always nice.

5. One of the qualities that I admire in other people is to see (and look for) the best in others. It is something I'd like to/I try to emulate.

6. I think that gardening is fun. I will admit that I am a pretty good gardener about March through June, but a dismal one during July and August (way too hot). I worked at a nursery throughout high school and college (Wasatch Shadows) and I have a difficult time visiting without picking up a few flowers.

7. Being a mom is the greatest! I think that Abby is fabulous and beautiful and I love raising her. I love my girl, Hope, and look forward to being with her (and all my children) someday!

So there are my seven things. I think that now I am supposed to tag some other people. How about Monica, Anne-Marie and Shana? Now it is your turn...