Happiness

For Memorial Day we decided to take a trip to the beach. We live in sunny California and feel that we pay for the good weather, so we like to get out and enjoy it. Plus, we love going to the beach!  We arrived around 3:30, played in the sand and a little in the water (it was super cold) and then started a fire pit an hour later. You dig a hole in the sand, build your fire inside the hole and you've got a lovely place to keep you warm and cook your dinner. Good thing too because it's chilly!  It was a lot of fun! We found a perfect spot for our fire pit and had some great hot dogs and roasted corn. To roast it, we just wrapped the ears of corn in tinfoil and placed them near the hot coals for ten minutes. Perfection! So warm and yummy! The kids were impressed!

My account on blogger was blocked on my computer and now it no longer is! Yay! I can now blog from my desktop instead of my phone.  For Labor Day, we hiked up Battle Creek Falls. It was great weather- even chilly in the shade! Declan happily rode in the backpack on the way up and we let him walk most of the way down. He loved finding small rocks and throwing them into the waterfall and the river. Ethan and Jonah hiked along, trying to go off the trail, which we wouldn't let them do. They've done a lot of hikes for scouts so they are pretty good at it.  Update on Josh's job: He is still working for his brother Aaron and is finishing up a project for him. There is a job opening with the LDS Church that I feel is a dream job, but we'll keep applying for jobs that come our way!

These paintings are found in the Church History Museum in Salt Lake City. We went during Fall break and had a great time! They recently renovated it and included a children's play area and submissions to a recent art competition. Asher doing tanagrams in the children's area- focusing on light. He needed a haircut! Jonah building his house upon the rock.                    Ethan's house. Elizabeth speaking at a replica of the podium at the conference center. Asher compared to the statue of angel Moroni. A Piece of artwork submitted to the competition. I love the colors and the perspective the artist painted Christ with.❤️ Here's another. A replica of Liberty Jail, where Joseph Smith and several others were held prisoner for several very cold months and where Joseph received revelation. I really felt the Spirit with this one as I was really struggling with a prison-like headache at the time. Our trials can become like Temples to us and sac...

  Last Tuesday Morning, we had the chance, as a family, to go through the Gilbert Temple. The kids got out of school for a little bit and we got to go together. It is so beautiful! The kids especially loved the large stain glass windows, the long flight of stairs going from the baptistry to the sealing rooms, the very, very large chandelier in the Celestial room, the baptistry and the sealing room.  We had a Family Home Evening the night before about the purpose of Temples. I kept chatting about it during the tour and Jonah turned to me and said "Mom, we know!". Elizabeth was excited to see the sealing rooms where people get married and sealed together for time and eternity. She thought there would be an aisle to walk down, but loved the mirrors and the chandeliers in the room. It was great to finally see it completed after two years of waiting (since we moved here!).   Love this broken up waterfall! A lady explained to us that the architect saw t...

We got a Groupon for cheap ice skating in Phoenix and I took the kids on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. I've noticed that often with Groupons the places are small and kind hole-in-the-wall places looking to drum up business. This was no exception. I'm usually okay with it- except for the time we took Sadie the dog to a small place for grooming and they nicked her and she had a sore under her collar for a few months. Asher loved it the most and did NOT want to stop! I told him we could come back for a date. Ethan and Jonah were mostly cold and wanted to go home after a short time! I spent a lot of time tying and untying skates. Elizabeth liked it! There were some ice skaters doing some fancy moves and they were really impressed by that! Also, there was a casual hockey came going on on the other side of the rink, so it was a little noisy. A fun family outing though! **My sister Amy, had her sweet baby boy- Arthur Conan Ellis- on Sunday, Feb 2nd. Such a cutie! Welcome...

  Elizabeth The Riparian Preserve is located a 5 minute drive from our house. We like to go there on Saturday Mornings or Sunday Evenings and let the kids explore. It has large, green grassy areas, quite a few man made lakes, a stream and various wildlife- lots of different birds (thus called the Riparian Preserve), ducks, animals, fish, turtles. You can even fish there, although it is often over fished and not very many fish are left! It also attached to the Gilbert Public Library, so I will sometimes walk around the largest lake before going to the Library. It's nice that the weather has been in the 80's- although lately it's been 87 degrees. The kids are still often wearing shorts and a t-shirt and for Halloween Asher is just wearing a t-shirt, shorts and gauze- a mummy! You can't do that anywhere else!   E than and Jonah  Asher boy- a little blurry.  A Large Tree the kids like to climb Me

 All the kids, strapped in and ready for an adventure. Josh's boss owns a cabin in Pine- a community (not even a town) two hours Northeast of Gilbert. He had told Josh he could use it anytime and we had talked about going for awhile. Finally, I penciled it into our calendar and we were able to go! I was excited to get away from the 115 degree heat that hits July (so many people go on vacation here in July because of it) and to go camping, but be in a cabin.  It was gorgeous up there! We got up there Thursday night and spent Friday Morning exploring the small community. There was a thrift shop and a museum built in the very first LDS Church in the area (there was even an LDS church in the community. Not Wal-mart, but a church!). The people were friendly, the weather was downright beautiful. Even the thunderstorm that blew through that afternoon was lovely and refreshing! The kids took out the umbrellas and had a great time enjoying the rain! Josh's boss has two kids so th...

 Looking Down from Pass Mountain  Last weekend, we went camping at Usery Mountain. I've been wanting to go camping for a while now and we waited until it was a little cooler. The weather was in the 90's and it got cool at night so it was a good time to go! We drove a good 20 min. east and found our site. After camping in Maryland for 4 years, camping in the Desert was a little bit different! It was just dessert, full of cacti and bugs, with some dirt smoothed down and rocks put up as barriers between camp sites. As we were setting up for dinner, I found a scorpion in a brown bag of food. Luckily I did not get stung! We couldn't tell if it climbed in from the desert floor or if we brought it from home with us. Ugh! Later that evening, on a walk, we saw a big tarantula (pic on my big camera). I had never seen one in the wild and it was pretty freaky! We had dinner, smores, a story around the campfire and had lots of fun! In the morning, we headed out for what turned ...