About Me

I'm a mother of four girls and one boy and I've got the greatest husband in the world-and I'd bet the farm on that one. We're a great team although he says he's moving out of the house as soon as all our girls are teenagers. We're very strong in our religion which is in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I draw strength from my religion and my family. I love life and am grateful to be surrounded by such great family and friends. I am gently reminded daily of the love and blessings that our Heavenly Father has for us. I live the life I always dreamed of having. I don't know how I was so blessed. Sometimes I feel undeserving to have the perfect life I always wanted. But I'm not complaining! I'm the luckiest girl in the world. Life goes up and life goes down, but even during the lowest so far, I'm still happy. Still know that I will have my family forever. Still know that my husband adores me and I him. Life is so good.

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Our alone day hike in Lake Powell.

At the end of August we went to Lake Powell again. My parents watched the girls for us while we went on an amazing (scary) hike. We rode on the wave runner over to Lost Eden then crawled up the sandstone. This is usually impossible because of how low the water normally is. But this year it was high enough to venture to unknown places. These pictures are very deceiving. In the first one we are about 15 feet up from the water. The wave runner is down there, you just can't see it.
The rest of this post is more like a journal entry. You're welcome to read it but it is just thoughts and feelings of mine.
We hiked through a bit of sand once on top. There were jagged cliffs around us and we could tell the water carved through here during flash floods.
We had a rope to pull one another up ledges (Aaron is not light FYI). A couple of different times we had to scoot across v-necked sandstone. 15-20 feet below us were large holes filled with water and rocks. We waded through ponds and at the end Aaron swam across a very cold pond. He could not see nor touch the bottom. He encouraged me to come but I said I had had enough adventure. Looking at the other side I didn't think we'd be able to get up the wall, which ended up being the case. The pictures of Aaron straight up and down in the rocks was as far as we (he) went. I was happy that I hadn't gone because when he came back across the abyss I had to pull him up with the rope. He had nothing to stand on and there was about 3 feet of sheer rock to get up. There were no hand-holds and it was smoother than smooth. I began to think later what would've happened if I would've swam across too? He never could've lifted me up onto the ledge to get back out. Have you ever tried lifting something real heavy out of the water when you can't touch the bottom? All you do is sink. Scary to think of. If that was the worst thing that happened though I would stop right there. It gets worse. On our way back we had to cross the same chasms. I remember thinking while going across the first time "Crap, I've got to come back over this on the way back!"
We came to the final big V-neck (or H-neck if you will since it had a large opening at the bottom) to cross. Aaron went first (thankfully in hindsight). I'm not that tall 5'3" to be exact as you can see from the first time crossing I am stretched to practically fingertips and that wasn't the widest part. My ankles were at a painful angle and my shoes were slipping. At one point I just couldn't go anymore. I've never felt the way I did then at any other point in my life. I looked at Aaron standing 4 feet away and then looked down at the jagged cliffs and rocks 20 feet below. It wouldn't have been a nice straight down fall. I was sure I would've banged my head several times before ending up at the bottom. I'll tell you what, when people say your life flashes before your eyes before you die they're lying. I honestly thought I was going to die and I was only worried that Aaron would try to save me and die too. I've had a couple of near death experiences before (almost rolling our Ford Bronco down a ravine when I was 17 and one other time on my mission while we were hiking around with heavy backpacks on slippery rocks above a waterfall-the angels were with me that time) but they happened in a split second and I never had time to actually think about dying until afterward. This time was different. I didn't think of my loved ones and their futures, I just thought that it was really going to hurt like heck and I was scared. I was shaking and sweating and couldn't move. All I could hear was my heartbeat rushing in my ears. Aaron could see that I was scared and panicking. He calmly told me to look at him and asked me if I could move. I tried but I really think I was in shock at that point. Then my loving husband leaned as far as he could on tippy toes and put his hands on either side of the wall just under my feet. "Use my hands as a foot hold," he said. I was scared his hands would slip if I put any weight on them but I had no other choice. I inched my way the remaining few feet and finally got down. I hugged him, shaking like crazy. I told him I thought I was going to die. He kind-of smiled. I don't think he really realized how close I was to letting myself fall because I had no strength left. It was so scary for me and pretty stupid too, I shouldn't have pushed my limits that far. Anyway, it's over and I'm still here but I won't be doing that ever, ever again.








Here's our second trip to Lake Powell for the year. Out of my entire family only my parents came so we only needed one house boat. As you can see it was a blast as usual. This is one of our favorite places on earth!


Family Picture at a place that we named "Witch Wart Bay". There were little round rocks stuck to the sandstone that looked like warts.






Early morning sunrise. This was our last day.















Olivia with the wind blowing through her hair.






























My mom with Makell and Jocelyn
















Makell on the knee board.














Aaron doing a back flip off the wave runner.














My dad on the knee board.














Sweet cheeks Macey.

Makell and those tomatoes!

Have you ever met a four year old who loves tomatoes as much as her? She eats them like apples. Although she always makes me cut her apples. Silly girl.

I finally got around to adding some more wedding pictures. The first one is right after we got engaged up at Bear Lake. Do you think I could be happier? Life just kept getting better from here on out. I love this man!






Thursday, September 11, 2008




I obviously need to put some better pictures on this post but that will have to wait seeing how I'm already a few days behind on it.
We had our 7 year anniversary on Sept 8th so I wanted to do a small tribute to our marriage. I think we have the best in the world. My husband is amazing and I still find myself questioning why he picked me. I'm the luckiest girl on earth. I am so blessed to have such a kind, funny, humble (surprise, surprise to those of you who think you know him, it's a front, he's actually very humble), loving, giving, wonderful man. I know he's the best husband in the world and best father hands down. My mom said to me once, "I don't know how you ever lived without him." I said back to her, "I didn't." Aaron has brought "life" to my life and has filled it with love and kindness. I adore him and am so blessed to have him forever and ever. These past 7 years have passed like 7 minutes, now I know why our loving Heavenly Father lets us be together forever. I'm so glad eternity is a long time! I love you Aaron!