James Bond Date Night

While we were hiking Arches, Anne came up with the brilliant idea to have a James Bond themed Date Night.

The idea was to dress up all fancy, have some mocktails, do some sort of a murder investigation/mission and then watch a Bond movie. While we didn't watch the movie until Monday, we did do the rest of it this past weekend.

We went up to Anne's Aunt and Uncle's cabin for the event. Anne and Spencer and some of Anne's cousins had put together a murder mystery for us. At a few of the stops in different rooms we had the drinks that Emily Ruth had brought up and made. They were totally awesome! We had a Rosemary Lemonade, Peach Belini, and Cranberry Spritzer. Jack ended up being the murderer and he did an excellent job. And we had an awesome time exploring different parts of the cabin and property.

Emily Ruth and Jack looking awesome

Jordan playing Tristan in Chess

Emily making the Lemonade

Trying to get a good picture of everyone...

Again

Spencer and Anne, Jordan and Me, John and Emily, Tristan and Emily Anne,
Jack and Emily Ruth

Anne, Me, Emily Anne, Emily Ruth, Emily Knowles

Charlie's Angels...James Bond...Same Thing...

After we solved the mystery, we changed clothes and played a game called Commander outside under the full moon. Overall it was an excellent night. Such a great idea by Miss Anne Girl!

Our Awesome Clock!

Basically Spencer is the coolest ever. He is an industrial design major so he has access to a lot of really cool tools. So naturally when we semi-jokingly said we wanted to make a Weasley clock so we'd know where all of our roommates are he took the challenge and took it very seriously. 

We came up with all of the options and had a great time coming up with them! We think they are rather brilliant, actually. They are (starting at 12 o'clock spot):

Slave Labor--Work

The Old Country--Home/With Family

Brainwashing--School

Rising and Shouting--BYU Sports/anything not already on the clock (we are Cougars after all)

Watching the Bus Couple--Story time: We were talking one day when Emily Ruth pointed out that outside our window there was a couple making out on the main road. At first we thought they were saying a very long (as in 15-20 minutes) good-bye, but then the bus came and we realized that they were just killing time until their bus came. Yep. Yikes.

Prison--Anything that feels likes prison, like taking a test or such

Eating My Feelings--Nuff Said

On a Date--Pretty Self Explanatory

Mortal Peril--We had to keep this one from the original Weasley Clock

Traveling--Again, Self Explanatory

Forced Socialization--Events include Ward Prayer, FHE, Friend of a Friend's Parties, etc.

FS: Me, TOC: Brittni, RAS: Emily Anne, WTBC: Emily Ruth, OAD: Anne, T: Haley

Basically it's the coolest clock you've ever seen, huh?! I mean really, who else has a clock that has their faces burned into the wood? Only us awesome folks!

Currently Haley's is set to Traveling until she gets back from London and Brittni's is set to The Old Country since she's living at home until Fall. Once Emily Ruth moves out hers will be The Old Country and then Traveling when she goes to Jerusalem in the Fall. Personally, I think that Anne's should be on Mortal Peril while she's doing EFY for the next couple months. Pretty good, eh?

Thanks Spencer! You're the best!

"We Do Not Doubt..."

Today at church many people repeated the scripture in Alma 56:48 that includes the phrase "We do not doubt our mothers knew it." I have always loved the story of the stripling warriors and the homage they pay to their mothers. Like those young men, I have learned much from the mothers in my life.

My Mama!

First and foremost is my own Mom. My mom has taught me so much. Much, much more than I could ever adequately articulate. She has taught me to be independent, to love, to work, but most importantly, to have fun. No matter how busy she gets, she always finds time to spend some time with me and my siblings so we can relax and have a little fun. She showed me that people are more important than anything else and that we always need to be willing to do things for others. I am now and will be forever grateful for her love, advice, and support.

Grandma K. was one of the kindest people in this world. She loved her family more than anything and made sure they knew it. She taught all of us to be compassionate toward everyone, especially to show unconditional love to our family members. She was the best listener. She knew when her advice was needed and when all that was necessary was for her to lend an ear. 

Grandma Wendel was strong. She taught me that I can endure and overcome much simply by continuing to move forward. She had many tough things happen to her in life but she never despaired or gave up. She just kept moving forward and eventually overcame everything. She taught all of her children to work hard, too; skills they have tried their best to pass on.

Aunt Marie has been a mother to us all for as long as any of us can remember. She was always the one willing to tend us, and now she has taken up that role with the next generation. She teaches all children the importance of learning and has inspired so many children in her life, including me and all of my siblings.

Alicia, Mandi, Amy, and Me (just missing Shannon)

Although they are not my blood sisters, Amy and Mandi have been part of our family for so long, that I consider them to be my sisters. All of my sisters have mothered me throughout my life, as well as setting incredible examples of what mothers should be.

Amy understood her role as a mother quickly and has done everything in her power to fulfill it each and everyday. She prizes being a mother to her children with all of her beautiful, tender heart. Because of this she has a gift with children, especially those sweet babies.

Mandi shows incredible patience as a mother. Daxton can be quite the little stinker when he wants to be, but she is so patient with him. She has also showed great faith and courage in her desire to have another child, despite the difficulties she faced her last pregnancy.

Shannon isn't a mother yet, but through her job the past two years, she has been more of a mother to those children than you can imagine. She has come to love the children she teaches so much and has truly come to understand mother like love and affection.

Alicia isn't a mother yet either. But she has set an incredible example to me in her desire for children. She has shown amazing courage and willingness to sacrifice everyday as she expresses her surety of the importance of the divine role of a mother. There is nothing she wants more, and because of that she is going to be an awesome mom.

As much as I love the scripture stated above, today I want to change it a little bit. Instead of "We do not doubt our mothers knew it", I want to focus on what it means if you add a period: "We do not doubt. Our mothers knew it." 

This Mothers' Day, I think the best gift I can give my mother and all of those women (named and unnamed above) who have been mothers to me is to ensure them that 

I Do Not Doubt.

I know that I am a Daughter of God. I know that the Gospel is true and was restored by Joseph Smith. I know the Book of Mormon is the Word of God and that it works with the Bible to teach us the truth. I know the Thomas S. Monson is God's prophet on the earth today. I know that Jesus Christ lives. I know that he was the only person to live on the earth. I know he lived, suffered, and died so that we can repent and return to live with him and our Father. I know that because of the Atonement Christ can help us through everything and that he will. I know that through temple ordinances we can be sealed with our families forever. 

And I'm so grateful for that so that I can be with my amazing mothers always. 

A Quick Break

The break between Winter Semester and Spring Term at BYU is less than a week. So obviously you have to pack it full of exciting adventures.

Anne, Spencer, and Jordan decided we needed to make the most of the break. I'd been to Zion National Park before, but the rest of the crew hadn't and Jordan had been DYING to go, so Wednesday afternoon, once Anne and I finished our last finals, we packed up the car and headed down. We stopped off in Glendale, Utah (10 points if you know where that is) to meet up with some people from Jordan's mission that live there now, then headed into the park.  

Spencer, Anne, Me, Jordan, Naomi, Allie at the park enterance

 First we drove through this awesome tunnel and chatted a little at an overlook. Then we got on the shuttle and headed up to the Weeping Rock. It's a short, easy hike that was a ton of fun. Naomi, the little six year old, was adorable the whole time. Plus, she told me I am her best friend. Yep, that's right!

Anne, Spencer, Jordan, Me, and Naomi

Me and Naomi, we're kindred spirits

On the shuttle

At Weeping Rock

After Weeping Rock we got back on the shuttle and went to play in a little river. Jordan and Spencer had a good time exploring the river, but the rest of us were definitely too cold to do much exploring. We're wimps. We went along the trail a little longer and played with Naomi along the way. She was a trooper. She started bawling when we had to go. It was so sad! 

We went down to St. George to stay the night in a condo. We watched "Life of Pi" that night. I read that book in high school, but none of us made it through the whole movie awake. The conversation after in which we all tried to piece together what the story was about was rather hysterical.

The next morning we ran to the store to buy stuff for breakfast and lunch and then went to a random park to eat breakfast (and swing on the swings, obviously). When we got back into Zions we decided to head along the trail to the Emerald Pools. The lower and middle pools were cool, but not super exciting. That's when we decided to go off trail a little...okay, a lot. The trail we found to the Upper Pool was closed off, so we created our own; one that included following the stream over lots and lots of big rocks. Turns out the trail we ended up running into was one to the Upper Pool. Who knew. It's lucky we turned up when we did, though, cause the park rangers showed up right after we got there.

Spencer got this look from me a lot...

Our Trail

Upper Pool

Us at the Upper Pool

 We hiked a little more there, then decided to head up to an overlook. I wish we had taken pictures up there, but we totally spaced it. It's too bad because it was absolutely amazing!

Then we found another trail to go on...but only stayed on the actual trail for about 5 minutes. We found some cool rocks to climb instead.

Anne and Spencer (If you look really closely you can
see Jordan in blue on the top left.)

I have this weird obsession with the random trees that grow in the middle of the rocks

We headed home before it got too late. We were all super tired by the end, but it was a ton of fun!

Monday morning the four of us woke up very early and headed down to Arches National Park. Anne and I had been there before, but the boys hadn't. It really is in the middle of nowhere. We headed to Delicate Arch first. On the map it says it is an "Interpretive Trail" which we thought was funny. We got it once we started. It was actually a pretty cool trail. Lots of rocks to climb on.

Delicate Arch is SO BEAUTIFUL! The scenery there really was incredible.

We had to run back out of the park to get gas, then we went up to Devil's Garden so we could hike to Landscape, Navajo, Partition, and Double O Arches. This trail is pretty off-roady-feeling, so we didn't feel the need to go off trail too often (except for Jordan, man that kid loves climbing on really big rocks!). We loved the Landscape Arch a lot. The other ones were cool too, but the sheer size of the Landscape Arch can't be beat!

At Landscape Arch

Story: We met this cute couple from Arizona on the trail.
They commented on mine and Spencer's BYU shirts so we talked to them for a little bit.
Apparently they have a lot of Mormon neighbors in Arizona.
They asked if they could take our picture so that they could show their
friends and tell them about the nice group from BYU they met.

Having our "Anne of Green Gables"/"Pride and Prejudice" moment

This is part of the actual trail

Once we got to Double O Arch, the boys decided they needed to climb to not only the top of the lower arch but the top one too. They were SO high. It sort of freaked me out. Our only rule for the trip was no falling/doing anything that might ruin the adventure. I thought they were going to break that rule a couple of times, but it was all fine in the end.

Boys on top of lower arch

Anne

Boys on top of higher arch

Anne climbing a tree

We were basically exhausted by the time we got back Monday night, but it was a very fun weekend!