Christmas Fun

I love Christmastime and the wonderful feelings that come with thinking more about the Savior. I know-I should think about him more through the year, but Christmastime seems to make His birth so much more real to me. When I think about all the things that the Savior did for us, I am truly in awe. I am so grateful for all of the blessings in my life-especially great family! Both the family that I was raised in and the family that I married into.

As a teacher I think that I get more excited for holidays simply because my students are SO excited. But this year seemed to be a little different. Every year we are supposed to give a list of students who need coats to the police department for a fundraising thing that they do. I had 1 student this year that didn't have a coat. I will never forget the look on that student's face when they came back into my classroom and told me that they had received a coat. It reminded me that there is so much more to Christmas than just getting presents. It's about being more of a Christlike person and trying to help others see how much Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love them. That is truly what Christmas is about. After that experience I was once again reminded how blessed I really am. I am so grateful for little tender mercies that help remind me what is really important in life.

As for Christmas itself, we spent Christmas Eve and Christmas with my family since Curtis' parents are on a mission. We had a good time with my family and enjoyed the time we spent with them.

The day after Christmas all of Curtis's brothers and sisters came to our house to celebrate Christmas. It was so much fun to watch the little kids open presents and play with their toys. They are just SO cute! We had a good time with them too.

Our little baby is still doing well. We find out if it is a boy or a girl on January 18th. We are really excited!

Updates on Exciting Things!

Well I haven't updated our blog for quite a while, but there have been several changes in our lives!

FIRST:
YES, you guessed it, WE'RE GOING TO HAVE A BABY! We are really excited for this new adventure in our lives. The baby (we don't know if it is a boy or a girl yet) is due on May 27. It was so fun at the first ultrasound to actually see that there was a little, living baby inside of me. The baby moved around so much! We asked the doctor if this was normal, and the doctor said that our baby was the most active one she had seen all day long. She told me to enjoy my sleep while it lasts!

SECOND:
Curtis' parents left for their mission last week. It was really hard to see them leave, but also exciting at the same time. My mission was one of the best experiences of my life and so in some ways I am a little jealous of the time that they get to serve the Lord, but on the other hand I'm excited for the new adventures that we have in our life here. We wish them the best on their mission and know that it will bring not only them, but us many blessings. We will miss them greatly, they are a huge blessing in our lives.

THIRD:
Because Curtis' parents are leaving, we are in the process of moving into their house. It will be a good experience for us.

Other than that, life has been really good to us. The other day one of my good friends posted a link on facebook to a youtube video that was about being thankful. It totally changed my attitude that day-because I was not in the best mood. I realized that I really don't have any reason to be grumpy. I have SO MANY wonderful blessings in my life! When I think about all the things that Heavenly Father has given me, I am truly grateful for all of the blessings in my life. My list could truly go on forever, but here are a few things that I am thankful for: my wonderful husband, my family, Curtis' family, the gospel of Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ himself, the atonement, a job, a wonderful class this year, the USA, a warm home, food, laughter...there are just so many things to be grateful for!

I hope that as Thanksgiving comes this week we will remember how blessed we have truly been. If you want to check out the link on being thankful here it is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tuwid8_O8dk&feature=player_embedded

Yellowstone Trip

We celebrated our anniversary a little early this year because UEA was earlier this year. (Last year we got married over my UEA break.) We decided we wanted to go somewhere, so Yellowstone it was! We had a great time, even though it was a little cold!

This is a picture of us near the lower falls. It was a lot of stairs, but totally worth the hike!


We didn't see as much wildlife as we would have liked to, but we finally did get a good picture of this buffalo!
It had snowed the day before we got there and so driving around was really pretty! We were glad that there wasn't any snow on the road.

This is a picture of an elk bugling. It was really neat to see that!

All in all it was a relaxing trip! We had a really good time.

Peru trip!

Our trip to Peru was so much fun! It was such a good trip and I can't believe that it has come and gone already! The first day we went to Lima.

I wanted to get a picture of the ocean, the cliffs and the sky rise buildings...so this is what you get...

This is us at the temple in Lima. It was really pretty!

This is in Cusco at a place called Qoriqancha. The bottom part of this building was from the Incas.

This is me trying to go down the rock slide. Curtis and Bill had gone down before and I was a little worried...so the tour guide told me to spit on my hands so I wouldn't go as fast. Well, I was a little dehydrated because of the high altitude and so it was a little hard. Mike offered to spit on them for me, but I told him I could manage without his help. :)

This is just before a little cave that we went through. It was VERY tiny and pitch black inside!

This is at Sacsayhuaman. It was a fort that the Incas used. They carried the rock behind us 4 km to where it is at now. Curtis kept saying the whole trip, "They are just good at stacking rocks...it's in their blood." and he was right because EVERYWHERE we went there were stacked rocks.

This is us hiking up Waynu Picchu. We had to get up at 3:30 in the morning to get in the bus line by 4. They only let 400 people a day climb this mountain. It was a very steep climb! The view was totally worth it!

This is the view from the top of Waynu Picchu.

After we hiked Waynu Picchu (yes it is that tall mountain in the background.) we went on a tour of Macchu Picchu.

Then we went to a petting/feeding farm to feed different kinds of llamas and alpacas. No, Curtis isn't kissing the alpacas, it just looks like it!

This is overlooking the Sacred valley.

These are some ruins at Pisac.

Curtis in time out at Pisac...(just kidding, he wasn't really in time out...)

This is our whole group at Ollantatambo.

If you look carefully on this mountain-it is straight across from Ollantatambo- you can see the storagehouses the Incas built. When the Spanish conquered the Incas, it took the Spanish 40 years to use all the things in the storagehouses. Now that is some good food storage!

After Cusco we flew into Juliaca and then on to Lake Titicaca.

Marianne, Bill, Deanne, and Curtis on one of the floating islands at Lake Titicaca.

This is the president of one of the islands. He is showing us that they use the roots of reeds to keep the islands floating and then they put sticks in each of the square pieces to tie them together so that their island stays together.

He also told us that they have to rebuild their homes every 5 months because that is about how long they last. They also have to lay down new reeds every 1-2 weeks. It was so fascinating how they lived!

This is a picture of Mike and Marianne riding on a tricycle in Puno.

After Puno we flew into Arequipa.

This is at the square in Arequipa. It was gorgeous!

Then we went on a tour to go see Colca Canyon-the deepest canyon in the world. This is on our way there. You can see the volcano Misti in the background.

On our way to Colca Canyon we went over some pretty high mountains. This is at the highest point we reached--almost 16,000 feet. It can be fairly hard to breathe that high up because of the altitude. However they stack rocks up at this point as an offering to nature so here Curtis is trying to stack his own rocks!

This is at a dinner show in a little town we stayed in that night. Somehow I was chosen to particpate in this show...(I blame it on Curtis.) They dressed me up and taught me a little dance.

This is Curtis at Colca Canyon. I couldn't get a good picture of the whole thing because it was too big!

This is us at Colca canyon again.

After we finished Colca canyon we went back to Arequipa and went on a tour through a really old convent. It was really neat.

Curtis standing in one of the courtyards.

While we were in a couple of different places we were able to see some of the members that Curtis worked with on his mission. This is Hermana Maxi. She was the sweetest woman ever!

This was the first baptism that Curtis had on his mission. When he was baptized he was in a wheelchair and when we saw him he was starting to walk again.

This is at the airport in Arequipa when we began our trip home. It was an AMAZING trip! We had a lot of fun, but it is always good to be home.

Fun Stuff!

So to catch up on what we've been doing lately...the last weekend in June we went camping with Curtis' family. Everytime we get together with his family, I am reminded how blessed I have been to have married into such a good family. We had lots of fun watching our nieces and nephews play with each other and play in the water.

Here's Justin just relaxin' in the sun.

Emily loved the water!

I thought this was the cutest picture of Max and Curtis. I think Curtis was trying to figure out what Max was looking for. But they do look like they are having a deep conversation!

Then on one of Curtis' days off we went down to Salt Lake and we went to the zoo! Yeah, I know, as my Mom put it, "you don't have any kids yet..." We had a good time anyway!

After the zoo, we went to go see the Joseph Smith movie at temple square. Every time I see that movie, I grow in appreciation of what Emma Smith had to go through and how much those early pioneers sacrificed. I am so grateful to be a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints!

This week my sisters came up to visit while my parents were back east on a church history tour. We took them over to Minnetonka Cave. I had a pretty bad sunburn from floating down the river on the 4th of July, and so the cave temperature felt great!

Now we are just getting ready to go to PERU! We are so excited! I just hope that we make it back in one piece!

Summer so far

So this summer has been so busy so far! I kept telling myself that when summer came, life would slow down because I wouldn't be in school. Unfortunately it just doesn't work that way!

After school got out Meghan, Amanda, and I all celebrated by having a cookout. Too bad it has rained almost every day since summer started. We had a hard time getting the fire started, but Meghan turned out to be a fire-making expert. Here's us just as it started to rain before we ran for the car!

I am going to miss these 2 girls so much next year! I honestly don't know what I'm going to do without them!

I also made a very short trip with my parents and my little sister to Las Vegas to see my cousin go through the temple.

This is us at the Las Vegas temple. I love that temple! It is gorgeous!

While we were there, we also went to the M & M factory in Henderson and saw a cactus garden. That was fun too.

It's Time

So I had a technology class this week for school and started a school blog, so I decided that I should start one for Curtis and I. Hopefully it goes well!