Excited About

A temple is about to open in Kansas City, Missouri!

A Day Date

Yesterday, Aaron and I redeemed a babysitting swap and went to Oklahoma City.

We went to the temple and ate lunch at The Cheesecake Factory.

I know, right? It was a long drive, but wonderful nonetheless. 8 hours alone in the car to have uninterrupted grown up conversation does a marriage good. Aaron's love language is Quality Time, so making arrangements to spend an entire day together is a big deal. The scenery on the way to OKC is usually a little boring, but taking the trip during the peak of fall colors provided a breathtaking backdrop of colorful foliage. Occasionally, thousands of black birds would paint a ribbon across the grey sky, silencing our banter long enough for us to just watch and enjoy the beauty of the season.
I can't think of a better way for us to kick off this month of gratitude than doing a little service, renewing covenants, eating cheesecake, reflecting on our own blessings, and singing along obnoxiously to our favorite road trip jams.

{Ten}

Our 10th Anniversary was on July 7th. Yay us!

We went to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple in the morning. When possible, we love to do sealings on our anniversary and be reminded of the promises and covenants we made on our wedding day. Lynda, Janae and Jana were awesome and watched our kids for us. It was so nice to leave the house and be at the temple in 3 minutes, instead of driving for 4 hours. Rob and Lynda are so lucky to have one right down the street!

This anniversary was extra special because we were in Utah, so we spent the week visiting places we went when we were dating. We took the kids to see each of the apartments we lived in when we met, visited the BYU and UVU campuses, ate ice cream at the creamery, showed them the football stadium, the places we worked, the spot where Aaron proposed, the jewler that made our wedding rings,and our first apartment. It was quite nostalgic and the kids enjoyed hearing the stories about life before they joined our family.

Later, we took the kids and met up with our old roommates (yes! two of my roommates married two of Aaron's roommates!) and Dave and Leisha and their kids in downtown salt lake for dinner.

We ate dinner, walked around Temple Square, took the kids in the visitor's center. We felt like total tourists...especially when we posed for this picture. Across the street from Temple Square there were a bunch of water fountains and the kids had fun putting thier hands in the water while we visited with Dave and Leisha.

The splashing got a little excessive and the result was a group of soggy but happy little kids as we walked the few blocks back toward the restaurant where we had parked. We passed these giant fountains and they were just too tempting. The kids were already wet anyway, why not let them get soaked?

Look at that face. Totally worth it.

Happy Anniversary, Aaron!

I love you.

I love our life together.

Reservations

Oh boy, am I excited.

I just booked my flight to California!!!

At the end of January, Corbin and I are going to take a quickie extended weekend trip to visit my family.



On the agenda:

1) a stop at Pink Berries. Like as soon as we leave the airport.

I'm going to need it after 6 hours of flying with an angry elf on my lap.

I'll probably insist that we hit In-N-Out burger on the way to Hollister, as well. Since we'll be passing a few of them anyway.



2) Mi Familia! My parents (hollah!) just moved into a new house. I can't wait to get my hands on my mom's closets and cabinets and organize them for her. I love arranging other people's furniture. It's like playing dollhouse for grown ups. I'm actually planning to spend most of my weekend helping them get unpacked and tucked into their new place. I also can't wait to get my hot little hands on my Grandma Lawrence's antique iron and convex glass picture frame. I'm saving room in my suitcase for both of them, Mom. Don't worry.



3) RUN! It was freezing here, today. Freezing. And on Facebook, all of my Ca peeps are whining things like "dang, I can't run today. it might rain." I love to run in the rain. Know what's not fun? Running a 1 mile lap around a shopping mall 8 times, because that's all you could find that didn't have any ice on it. Ok...that's sort of fun, too. But I'm really looking forward to running in short sleeves. maybe even shorts, if I'm real lucky. Shorts! No gloves, no hat, no underarmour, no jacket, no tights under my pants. no water bottles that start to turn into ice by the end of a long run. Just gimme some California sunshine! Everything is super green in Ca at this time of year, because it rains so much. I'll take rain. I'll definitely take green scenery.
I'll take anything if my family is there.



We're running the Rotary Club San Juan Bautista Mission 10 miler.


The San Juan Mission and grounds are gorgeous, and I have some great memories singing there. I'm super excited that the start and finish line of the race will be this rockin' building. Fabulous scenery. And 10 miles is a perfect race distance for me. I'm stoked, and hope to hit a PR at this one. San Juan and Hollister friends, come run with us! Or come watch and cheer so we run faster. Or just come to show support for Rotary and their worldwide efforts to fight Polio.

4) Super Taq will be consumed post-race. I can't risk eating there beforehand, because....well I don't live in Ca anymore. Sadly, this means I no longer have the necessary tolerance built up for a pre-race super taco. I'll make up for it by eating there several times on Saturday. I'm sure this is also a risk, since I fly home Sunday...but I'm willing to sacrifice the comfort of everyone else on my flight home to get my carne asada on.

5) The Oakland TempleI've said this 1,000 times before, but I'll say it again.

Driving 4 hours each way to our closest temple is not easy. The winter months make it a particularly difficult trip to plan. Two of our temple trips that we planned last year were shut down because of inclement weather. At best, the drive to OKC is an exhausting trip to make, but once we attend the temple....wow. The service that is done, the Spirit that is felt, and the feeling I leave with confirms my testimony that any sacrifices I have made, and more, are worth it. I love the temple.

My family is SO lucky to live only an hour and a half away from a temple. Local friends, can you imagine?! That's close enough to go and be home with time to spare before the kids are home from school! Amazing.

The Oakland Temple was closed for renovation the last time I was there, so I really hope to go this time, especially since I'll have unlimited access to a fazillion family members who will be begging to watch little Corbin for me while I sneak away for a few hours. That alone is a huge blessing in and of itself.

6) Color my mom's hair.

I am 100% certain that this will somehow end up on my agenda, so I'm just going to add it now. Mom, you should be prepared to A) color my hair in return, and B) have your picture taken whilst your hair is full of solution and you look like CindyLou Who. I can't resist. Plus, you have a birthday coming up, and I'm out of embarassing photos of you to post on this here blog.

Correction: I'm out of embarassing photos of you that don't also include an embarassing photo of me in them. We need to work on that.

Yay for California.

The Big Dance

We're headed to Oklahoma City.
First Stop: The temple
Second Stop: Food. But where? Been to OKC? Have any suggestions?
Third Stop: The Ford Center for NCAA Basketball
Fourth Stop: Sadly, Not here. or here. Both were on our list, until we discovered that Baby Guy would not be welcome.
Soooo....no bedside turtle cheesecake and cocoa at 10pm, no cozy down comforters, no jetted jacuzzi tub, no late 1800's architecture, no fresh flowers on my nightstand, no fresh fruit and yogurt in bed wake up call and gourmet breakfast and OJ on the balcony.

I can't blame them for their no-kid policy. No one wants to hear a crying baby down the hall during their romantic getaway.

But my baby is pretty dang perfect.
and they allow PETS. PETS!
I don't know about you, but I'd SO rather hear a cute baby giggle in the morning than some yappy dog that needs to be let out to pee.

We're taking our sweet baby boy, and hitting a cheap Marriott instead. Not the same, but it's baby friendly, costs less, and that continental breakfast is mine all mine.

And it turns out that NCAA basketball is not very kid-friendly either. Unless you count $68 tickets per child as kid friendly. Reese and Quincy will be livin' it up at Hotel Kasey and Jimmie. They'll be in good hands. I've been lucky enough to stay at Kasey's "B&B" before...it's quite heavenly.

Enjoy your weekend!