Mommy

I love being a mommy. I love having things I need to get done that help my children to succeed. I love showing up at school and then being excited to see me. I also love listening about Minecraft and all the things they can build. I'm thankful for my own mommy and how she was always there for me and continues to be so. happy mothers day to everybody.

Lately

When I left for my mission my brother told me to stop and smell the roses! He really didn't give me much more info then, missions are busy and crazy but don't forget to see the amazing. I took this to heart as a missionary. 

Lately, I have been reminded that there are roses in my own busy and crazy life as well. Lately, I have really enjoyed smelling the roses all around me. For instance, today Vaughn rang his bell as he rode his bike on our walk. He was just so happy to be out there and pedaling. He was looking all around him and pointing out everything as we walked, even though we have walked that way a million times.

Another rose is the Gospel in my life. I keep hearing of strong people who are having doubts and falling away. I don't have doubts. I don't understand everything but I don't have doubts. I figure that Satan wants us all to turn away from the light of Christ and since he isn't going to get me with the normal temptations (drugs, adultery, pornography) he is trying something new. Something simply....Doubt. He is also using this with friends. He is sneaky. But the Gospel is a rose and I know that it brings me happiness. I don't understand how it brings me happiness (not completely) but neither do I understand how un-happy I would be without it. So for me and my house we are going to serve the Lord and listen to his Prophets. After all it was right after the Nephites stoned and denied the prophets that great destruction came. 

Here are some pictures of some of my other roses:

Utah or bust

For September we were fortunate to get time off to go to Utah to visit "Super" Grandma Jackson for her 80th birthday party. It had been a long time since we had visited with her, Chuck and Odie, and Sue and Dan. As a bonus we also got to see Grandma and Grandpa Jackson too! 

 Of course the big day it would rain! But, the garage provided ample space for a classic back east style party.

 Dan and Chuck were complete suckers, gladly accepting the invitation to "wrestle" with the kids every chance they got. The kids fight dirty, so it can be a perilous venture to play like this with them. The kids loved it though. They had so much fun with all the aunts and uncles that they had never met or didn't remember meeting cause they were too little last time. I think that we will have to make the trip out west more often.

 This is at temple square. So pretty.

 Silver lake up Big Cottonwood Canyon.

We also got to visit the Foote's! We made a trip up to Park City Utah and road on the Alpine slide which was so cool. 

 Lance and Stephanie opened their house to us. The kids seriously only got rest on the drives between the house and going to see their aunts/uncles. As soon as they would get back they would be playing with their cousins and enjoying the awesome toys like the one seen above.

Early morning at the airport. 

Thanksgiving 2014

So late we know.

 On our drive out to AZ, we stopped for a while at Roswell New Mexico. Rachel questioned the wisdom in exposing our kids to all of this, so I took a survery. "Preston, do you believe in aliens?" "No." "Spencer, what about you?" "Oh yeah, there is a place in New Mexico where they found an alien body and performed an autopsy on it." "Where did you hear that from?" "I read it in a book at the library dad." There you go, we decided to go to Roswell. We stopped for a day and a half in Show Low, AZ to visit Grandma and Grandpa Jackson, not sure why I have no pictures of this on my phone. But we had an awesome time there. Some of the highlights include, dinner at Denny's, staying with Rachel's brother's family in Snow Flake, the boys sleeping over grandma and grandpa's house, the kids learning to play chess, an awesome dinner made by Kathy, and so much more. IT was a very busy short trip.

 We met up with the Kimsey's in Phoenix and made it over to the newly dedicated Phoenix AZ Temple. It was beautiful.

After the temple trip, Dave and Garett drove up to the Sycamore Canyon Wilderness Area south of Sedona and hiked 10 miles into an old cabin where they stayed the night. The area is very remote to say the least. They started on the trail late and by about 6 miles into the hike ended up losing the trail after crossing a large dry riverbed. This made for a much more interesting excursion, but they made it.

 The weather was perfect in Phoenix for Thanksgiving Day. Rachel and Julie cooked a ton of awesome food (as did Dorothy and Kristi) (and only required about 6 trips to the store to pull it all off). It was actually too hot to sit in the backyard to eat so we sat in the front.

 Black Friday was spent climbing North Mountain with the kids. They only complained some of the time, but it was fun.

 I wish I had the original picture of us posing on our wedding day at the gates of the Mesa AZ Temple, but this is the re-created shot with all our kids.

 We were hoping to see Sister Rachel Krueger as well as catch the temple christmas lights, but Sister Krueger wasn't there that night. The lights were great though.

 Vaughn and Grandpa Moore.

Vaughn with Grandma Moore. 

 On our long drive home we stopped by Uncle Dan's Restaurant in Tucson and had lunch with Heather.

Little No More

Travel and then Travel some more

We took a trip to our favorite place...Canada. But this time we didn't stop there we just continued to travel. See if you can keep up with me as I explain our trip.
Day 1- Kids and Rachel travel to Canada, arriving at night. Get rental car(they upgraded us for free and it was an amazing car with 2 DVD players and satellite stereo and navigation) and go to Auntie Sues house. Sleep.
Day 2- Kids and Rachel wake up and drive to Buffalo, NY to pick up Garett from Airport. All Travel to Palmyra, NY. Joesph Smith farm house, Sacred Grove, Temple and the Hill Cumorah Pageant. It was amazing to see all these historical sites and the pageant was awesome. I totally recommend it to all. Then Travel south for about an hour to hotel. Sleep.
Day 3- Travel to Somerset, PA. Such a pretty place. Along the way we went Blueberry picking and had a picnic at a park. It was a great little road trip. Why middle of nowhere PA, well Garett is in a wedding of our friends. We got there just in time for him to realize he forgot a white shirt and run to Walmart before the rehearsal dinner while the Rachel and kids went to our vacation rental condo and checked it out. AWESOME! Then a bonfire and brides parents house, which also included firefly catching and rolling down grassy hills. Sleep
Day 4- Wedding at 1(right during nap time) Garett was at the front and I was stuck with all the kids. I thought they were the worst behaved kids of all time but after the wedding and at reception I had multiple people come and tell me how awesome they were. WHAT?!? Then to reception that was at a barn. Most memorable part was when Mallory convinced a friend to touch the electric fence. Mallory had boots on so it lessened the shock, her friend did not.  While we were at the wedding Auntie Sues flew into town and was waiting for us at condo. We dropped kids off and headed back to wedding for a little date night. Garett is a shy dancer but he really can dance. We have taken multiple dance lessons and he has found his beat but now I just got to get him to do it in public. It was still fun to be out with out kids. Sleep.
Day 5- Wedding Brunch at Brides Parents house, which included hunting for crawdads, baseball and rolling down more hills. Garett flew home this day cause he had to be back to work. Sad face. Rest of the day we just played at condo.
Day 6- Auntie Sues, Rachel and kids. Checked out covered bridges, mine survivor site, falling waters and got homemade pie.
Day 7- Went to Johnstown where all of Garett relatives came to when they immigrated from Welsh. Very interesting place. Home of Cambridge Steel company. Had a huge flood that killed 2200 people. Lots of history. We went to 2 museums, 3 grave yards, 3 old original houses that they lived in. It was a great day.
Day 8- Travel back to Canada. On the way we went to 2 more cemeteries. Return the amazing rental car.
Day 9- Went to the island!!! We have gone to the island every time we visited and every time it has rained on us. We have wanted to rent a 4 person bike but it was always raining. This time it didn't. We had so much fun with the bike and then the beach and then the playground and the ferry boats are always a fun little ride. Great day and we finished with fish and chips from my favorite spot.
Day 10- We went to the new aquarium in Toronto. It was a neat aquarium but so crowded that it was hard for me to enjoy. We made up for the crowds by having street meat for lunch!
Day 11- Wake at 315 to make it to airport only to have the airline mess up and miss my flight then they re-book me to another that didn't leave for 10 hours. It was the worst travel day of my life. Horrible. Want to cry just thinking about all that went wrong.

Swim Team

We switched swim teams this year and we are so glad we did. We loved our new team and totally adored our coaches, especially Mallory.  Even though swim team is a huge time commitment I love how much they learn. Mallory is a fantastic swimming now. Preston and Spencer are fast. Can't wait til next year!