Thanksgiving in Orlando

Last Spring we planned a family reunion to Orlando, Fl. I have looked forward to this for months now and knew it would go by WAY too fast, which it did, but it was so FUN!! We haven't all been together for 6 years (missing some son-in-laws). We rented a home through VRBO so we could all be together. Russ and I arrived a few days before everyone else and stayed a few days after everyone left. One of the advantages of this was we got to stay with Cari and Hutch a couple of nights and get to know their sweet family better. Their kids are so cute and friendly! Cari went out of her way to make us feel right at home. We also benefited from one of her many talents by having a much needed family picture taken. I want to thank her for our new family photo and header for my blog!!

                                We were able to go to the Orlando Temple while we were there.

A couple of pictures Cari took.

As if Cari didn't have enough to do she fixed us ham & swiss cheese sliders in between our photo shoot and church. 

We celebrated Lindsey's birthday:)

On Monday we headed to Sea World

This was a real mime!

Tuesday was going to be our day at the beach, but it just poured so we hung out at the house.

Wednesday we went to Magic Kingdom and it was still drizzling in the morning. We got there early and was able to get on a lot of the rides within minutes. By afternoon it stopped raining and the park was very crowded. By that night we had some very tired kiddos….and adults. I caught a bad cold and was pretty miserable there, but enjoyed watching all the kids have fun.

On Thanksgiving day we went to Animal Kingdom. We've never been there, but really enjoyed it a lot. One of my highlights was going to the "Finding Nemo" show. It was like a "mini" broadway show and was so good and the costumes and props were awesome!!

We took a safari ride at Animal Kingdom that lasted a  good 20 minutes and were able to see lots of cool animals. The kids really enjoyed that.

This was "the tree of life" with all kinds of animals carved in the trunk (its not a real tree) but it looks like it.

This was the Mt. Everest ride, it was pretty wild. All the kids went on it, but the two littlest ones. They weren't to keen on it.

This was at the end of a long day. These 3 guys fell asleep during the "Lion King" show, which was amazing as it was really loud. On our way home we had our big Thanksgiving dinner at the China Buffet.

 Kristy had a hard time saying good-bye to Halter as this was her first time seeing him. He was so cute. As she was hugging him good-bye he gave her a slobbery kiss on the cheek. He is 6 months old now.

Everyone left to go home on Friday. It was the BEST Christmas present I could have had….to be with my kids and grandkids!! After everyone was gone Russ and I went to Hollywood Studios.  They had a light show at night that was amazing. Along with all the lights they played music and would have the lights go to the beat of the songs. It was really cold that night though so we didn't stay real late.

Our good friends, the Bells use to be in our ward and are serving a mission in Florida. We were able to go to breakfast with them and it was so fun to catch up.

Russ and I spent all day Saturday at Epcot. It was a beautiful day and it wasn't overly crowded. I have to say the best food is at Epcot of all the Disney Parks and we ate way more than we should have.

I'm not sure what this tree is, but the blossoms were so pretty and then it had these big pods on it???

I loved all the poinsettias all over the park. 

Sunday after church Russ and I drove out to Ponce Inlet. Its about 1 1/2 hours from Orlando on the coast. Wayne Douglass in our ward who got baptized a couple of years ago has a twin brother there, Spencer who we went out and met. We had such a nice visit with him and was so glad we'd made the effort.

We visited the lighthouse while we were there.

I'm so thankful for my wonderful family who were willing to take time off from their busy lives and spend time together with us. I'm grateful for my two son-in-laws who work hard so my daughters can stay home with their kids. My cup runneth over!! Thanks for all the memories:)

Visiting Teaching

Do you ever wonder why you visit teach? I think I was on my mission when I gained my testimony of visiting teaching. Like any principal of the gospel you have to live it, in order to gain a testimony of it. I have visited many different sisters over my 35 years or so from all facets of life. Many times I'm the one learning from them. I have become friends with women I never would have, if I had not been their VT. Let me share one example with you.

Last March I was in RS and noticed a young mother I hadn't met before. They had been in the ward several months, but I had been attending all of our Stake's Ward Conferences and hadn't met her yet. She had just had a new baby and when I questioned her if anyone had brought her dinner she said, "no." I immediately told her I wanted to bring her dinner and she kept saying, "no I live too far." I told her I was going to bring it anyway. To make a long story short Russ drove out to her house with me. She was right, I had no idea our ward boundaries even went that far. It was an 82 mile round trip on a two lane highway on curvy roads. It took an hour each way to get to her house. Upon visiting with her she told us this was her 5th child, her oldest being 6!! Her husband does maintenance on a damn up on a lake out in the middle of no where. I asked her if she had a VT & she said no one had been there to visit her. After I returned home I talked to the RS President and felt very strong that I should volunteer to be her VT. If anyone needed one it was Jessica living out there all by herself. Every time I go visit her, her kids are so excited to see me and so cute. I had her to my house in October to teach her how to make applesauce. She brought her 5 year old daughter, Heidi & her 8 month old daughter. The week after we made applesauce was our Primary program at church. Heidi, the 5 year old got up to do her part and right in the middle of it she spotted me sitting in the audience. Her eyes lit up and she started waving at me. Everyone got a good chuckle out of it & didn't know who she was waving at. I was missing my grandkids Primary program that day and feeling bad about that and when Heidi waved to me it MADE my whole day. When I saw Jessica in RS she told me Heidi had said, " I saw her mom, the lady that taught you how to make applesauce."

Sometimes it can be frustrating to try and get all your visits in, but when I have experiences like I did with Heidi it makes it all worth it!!

Barbara Thompson said: The beauty of visiting teaching is not to see 100 percent on the monthly report; the beauty of visiting teaching is seeing lives changed, tears wiped away, testimonies growing, people loved, families strengthened, people cheered, the hungry fed, the sick visited, and those who are mourning comforted. Actually, visiting teaching is never done because we watch over and strengthen always.

Jessica and her kids on one of my visits.

Heidi is the one below in the blue shirt. They had picked dandelions for me.

Stake Conference

I really want to write about our past weekend, but I feel like Moroni in Ether 12:23 ….but thou hast not made us mighty in writing…

Saturday morning Elder Hamula of the First Quorum of the Seventy arrived at our home around 10:00 am to preside at our Stake Conference. His wife was going to come with him, but they are moving this week and she had a lot to do to get ready. He went on a few home visits with Russ and then at 3:00 at the church we had Stake leadership meetings. He talked with all the R.S., YW and Primary Presidencies of our Stake for about 15 minutes before he went in with the Priesthood. He explained the whole process of calling a new Stake President and it brought back a lot of sweet memories of when Russ was called four years ago. He said when they call in the wife and ask her several questions, one of which is can you support your husband if he is called to a significant calling? He said (his main point of this whole story) that if the wife says, "no" they don't call him…."that's what kind of veto power you have." He related another story about a ward Primary President that through a ward Halloween party help bring MANY people into the church. He talked about the power and influence we have as women.

After our leadership meetings we had a dinner in the High Council room with 17 of us, which I was grateful to be able to make. Next was our evening session of conference. Russ spoke on "Hastening the Work" and did a great job. He challenged everyone to pray daily for a missionary experience.  Elder Hamula spoke on the Sacrament and the significance of it (he spoke on this in the Sunday morning session of General Conference in October also). He said, "the way to rescue ourselves is to rescue others and that we need to keep our eye more fixed on the Savior."  After the evening session we came back to the house and Elder Hamula sat around and talked with us for a couple of hours. It was such a sweet experience as he shared some personal stories with us about his family and some of the apostles. He is so down to earth and so gracious and appreciative of everything you do. One thing I can tell you is he LOVES chocolate chip cookies. I was so glad I had made some!

The Sunday morning session of conference was so good! Russ gave an excellent talk on parents teaching their children the gospel, setting a good example for them and teaching them to work hard. Many members said it was a "timely" talk for them. Elder Hamula shared with us how he gained his testimony of the gospel and then what the call of someone in the "seventy" does. He called a few people up to bare their testimony, one of which was me. I was grateful to publicly tell my Savior how much I love Him and thanked Him for how much he has blessed me in my life. He has given me EVERYTHING  and all He asks me to do is keep His commandments. I had just went to the temple and ask the members, "how many of us really keep that last covenant we make in the temple?"

Probably the person who "stole" the show was a little nine year old girl who spoke. She spoke on love and sang, "My Heavenly Father Loves Me." Russ and Elder Hamula said they looked out at the audience and EVERY eye was glued to her. She was adorable!!  We had some other youth speakers also. Many members said it was one of the best Stake Conferences they could remember. The sad thing was that our attendance was way down. I feel so bad for members who missed out on a "spiritual high" weekend.

The icing on the cake was having Elder Hamula for dinner one more time in our home and then driving him to Federal Way where he will be touring a mission for a few days. Our home and lives were truly blessed this weekend by a servant of the Lord.

Nepal Disaster

This past week I have felt so bad hearing about all the trekkers and Nepalese people who were killed in a horrific snow storm in Nepal around the Annapurna Circuit. Thus far they have recovered 43 people, 21 foreigners and 22 Nepalese. This is the exact time we were there last year, but did a different route (we were going to do that one). After spending over six weeks there the past two years we really feel for all those involved! Our first concern was for the guides and porters we had had, but after emailing them have learned they are fine. This is such a devastating event for the people of this country. They are such a poor country and events like this really effect their economy. We learned first hand how humble and how hard working they are, especially along the trails in the Himalayas. I wanted to include a few pictures of some of these people and how they have touched our lives.

The Nepalese are very religious people with Hinduism being about 90%. However, members of the Buddhist faith are often so closely linked to those of the Hindu faith that it can be difficult to tell them apart. Here is a young girl praying close to one of the large Stupas (temples).

Around the Stupas you see many youth that are Monks. These two below are girls.

All of them shave their heads.

This person is throwing paint onto the Stupa in remembrance of a beloved ancestor.

There are lots of open markets in Kathmandu. It amazes me how they can squat like that for hours!

These are our faithful porters and guide.

Amrit, Ram (guide), Kumar & Min

Behind them is Dhaulagiri 26,795 Ft. 

We would trek right through these small villages and stop and eat at one of the local tea houses.

Makes you appreciate your stove!

Dal Bhat is pretty much what all the locals eat. It is basically rice and lentils with some kind of sauce. They mix it all together and eat it with their hands. They will eat 2 or 3 plates of this.

We were surprised when we arrived here to spend the night and they were cutting up a yak they had killed that day. Guess what we had for dinner? Yak momo's.

These were carried by porters who would be delivering food or other things to the locals in various villages, not for trekkers.

They were fluffing up the cotton for bedding here.

Ram was our guide and normally didn't carry a pack, but sometimes he would relieve one of the other porters to keep in shape.

Amrit and Min washing their clothes.

We saw soooo many women harvesting crops in the fields.

I could never make it to places like this without those faithful guides and porters.

Annapurna Base Camp

I just want to say God bless all those humble, happy Nepalese who lost their lives the past week.

We have grown to love Nepal, the people and the mountains.  That's what keeps calling us back and why Russ and I keep talking about going again! We love you!!