I'll love you forever, I'll love you for always; as long as I'm living my Grandpa you'll be!!!

For those of you that don't know, my grandpa passed away yesterday, August 29, 2010, at around 4 am.  He went peacefully in his sleep.  I wish I could say that he didn't have to suffer, but that would be a lie.  As hard as it was to watch him suffer and be in pain I am glad that I was there to help.  I wouldn't have traded it for the world!  It is amazing what you will do for those that you love!  I have had the chance the last couple of days to just be able to sit up in his room with him, I was able to give him water when he wanted it and I was able to give him a good night kiss and tell him how much I love him! On Friday night, he told me, "I love you sweetheart", and I really think that was one of the last things that he ever said.  It meant so much to me!  I have always been a grandpa's girl, and I think I will always be one!  And on Saturday morning, I went to check on him and I gave him a kiss and he smiled for me, I was able to express my love for him and tell him that I will always be my grandpa's girl. 

I am so grateful for the Gospel and the Plan of Salvation!  I am so glad that I get to be with my Grandpa and my Grandma again!  I am grateful for eternal families!  I am so grateful for the family that I have and the love that I have for them!  I don't know where I would be without them!  I am grateful that my grandparents raised such a wonderful daughter, my mom.  I am so blessed to have my mom!  She is a wonderful person!  And I want to strive to live as how my Grandpa would want me to live!  I am so grateful for his testimony and what a wonderful person he was!  I will never forget him or his love for others!  I love my Grandpa so much!  I know that I will miss him so much, but I can't wait until the day that I get to see him again and where we will get to do all the fun things that we used to do!  I love you Grandpa!!!

"I don't speak eyes!" and "Do I need to tighten your smiley screws?"

Okay, so these are some of Nick's new sayings to me.  Today he was giving me a hard time, and I was giving him "the eye" and all of the sudden he was like, "I don't speak eyes!", with his fingers up by his eyes.  I'm pretty sure you can picture what it looked like.  I couldn't help it, I started laughing way hard!  It was hilarious!  And I have to hand it to Nick, whenever I am having a hard time or if I am having a bad day and I'm not smiling he'll ask me if he needs to tighten my smiley screws.  About 99.9% of the time I tell him no, but does that stop him, oh no it does not.  He will reach up to where my dimples are and sure enough he will tighten my smiley screws, and I always end up laughing or with a big smile on my face.  I am so grateful that I have Nick!  He is such an amazing husband, and best friend!  I don't know what I would do without him!!!  I love you Nick!!!

Pioneer Children sang as they walked and walked and walked...

...Or as they watched their bus burn, like they did in our ward yesterday. They were on there way to Martin's Cove to go on trek. Here is the following story from KSL:

RAWLINS, Wyo. -- A handcart pioneer trek got off to a scary start when a tour bus taking some South Jordan teenagers to the starting location caught fire.
The real challenges for this group of young men and women from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints weren't supposed to start until their bus reached Martin's Cove. Instead, they found themselves with seconds to escape the burning bus.
"Within minutes our bus is engulfed in flames. Within literally 12 minutes the bus was completely burned to the frame." - Jeff Raditz, trek leaderFor many LDS teens, a handcart trek in Martin's Cove is a rite of passage -- a way to honor the pioneer experience. It's an example of faith and endurance.
"A lot of people died there. The people left Winter Quarters too late. They got stuck in the snow. It was 18 degrees below zero [Fahrenheit]," explained Susan Harker.
Harker's two kids, Avrielle and Craig, are on the trek with the young women and men of the South Jordan 1st Ward. The real danger, though, was in getting there and getting out of a bus on fire.

It all started with a flat tire outside Rawlins, Wyo., a couple hours away from Martin's Cove.

Trek leader Jeff Radditz said then entire bus burned in 12 minutes.  "Shortly after the first flat tire, we immediately got a second flat tire," said trek leader Jeff Radditz. "They fixed that within a half hour, and another half hour passed. We were on the road, and another tire went flat and caught fire." Radditz took home video of the bus burning on the side of the interstate. He took a cell phone picture of the end result.

"My daughter said there were flames coming through the floor of the bus as they were exiting," Harker said.

While the teens lost all of the supplies, some even their shoes in the fire, no one was hurt. The bus company sent a new bus, and the youth group stopped in Rawlins to take a vote on if they should continue. The decision was a unanimous "yes."

"All sorts of bad stuff happens in life, and you can't just lie down and die. You have to keep going. I think this is an important lesson for them," Harker said.

The group says they've been overwhelmed by the generosity of the people who stopped to help them, providing water, blankets and supplies.

I can't believe that this has happened, I'm just grateful that everyone is okay.  They are supposed to be on there way home today, they will definitely have stories to share with everyone.  It really brings a new meaning to "Please bless us that we will travel home in safety."  After I heard the news last night I couldn't get my mind to settle down, it felt like it was going a million miles an hour.  All I could do was think of them, and that I would have been one of the people on that bus.  I am so grateful for my ward!  I love all my young women!  And I am excited to see them!

Donut Falls

This last weekend we went on a hike up to Donut Falls! It was absolutely gorgeous, and a ton of fun! We went up with Amy and her kids, as well as the visiting Brazilian exchange students. We played in the water, which was absolutely freezing, but so refreshing! It was a nice way to spend our Saturday morning! If you haven't done the hike, I highly recommend it! All around it is about a 3 mile hike, with quite a steep incline. So be prepared with plenty of water! And don't forget your camera to take some pictures! Here are some of our pictures, I'm still waiting to get a copy of Amy's pictures.

Here I am starting to hike up the fall, and then there I am about half way up.

I am the one in the green shorts. :)

Nick really liked this piece of wood, it was amazing! When I was up there a couple of weeks ago for mutual I also noticed how amazing it was! It was so smooth and it looked like it has been there for a very long time!

I think that one of the reasons the wood is so soft and smooth is from the water that rushes over it.

Here's cute Nichole, she was throwing rocks into the water and she would start laughing! She was a good sport keeping up with everyone. I just had to keep telling her that it would just be one more hill.

I just really like this picture that Nick took. That is Matheus in the background, he is one of the exchange students.

My Country Tis Of Thee...

Happy late 4th of July! It was such a fun weekend!!! Full of a lot of things, parties, bbqs, fireworks and more parties! It was way fun! I think my favorite part of the whole weekend was doing fireworks! I love to light them and watch them, or I like to watch the ones that different cities do. So we started off Saturday morning having our pancake breakfast at Steven and Diane's. It was way fun, and super delicious! Diane makes the best buttermilk pancakes and buttermilk syrup, although I have to give credit to Steven for making the syrup, with just a little help from me and Diane. After breakfast we met Amy and Manny and the kids at Sandy Days. Which for me has always been a highlight of the 4th. I have done it since I was a little kid, and every year that I don't go I feel like I am missing something! But it was way fun, me, Amy and Nichole all got our faces painted, so much fun! It made Nick think I was a little kid, but who isn't a little kid at heart? And I proudly wore the paint on my face for the whole day! It was great to see all of the people's reaction to it! I got quite the compliments.

After Sandy Days, we went home to rest for a little while and so I could work on making dessert for Nick's family party that night. I made a patriotic ice cream cake, and firecracker bites, it was all so delicious! Then we went over to the in-laws house where we had lunch and then we went and bought fireworks! Then we came back and had an awesome dinner! After dinner we all went outside and started playing with some of the fireworks. Nick's brother brought him some firecrackers and he was in heaven! He also brought his potato cannon and we shot candy out of it for the little kids, it was great, we would shoot the candy out and they would all start yelling, "CANDY! CANDY!" and run after it like they had never seen candy before in there life! So that pretty much sums up Saturday, it was a very busy, but fun day!

On Sunday, we went over to my parents house, because they have Brazilian exchange students living with them for the month, so we had another big party over there! I again made dessert, which turned out to be heavenly! I made carrot cake, which I had never done before but it tasted so good! If I do say so myself! Then me and Nick,went out to the front yard and started playing with more fireworks. Eventually, everyone came out and started watching them. It was quite the day!

We both had the day off on Monday, so we didn't do a whole lot of exciting things. We did do some cleaning that I have been wanting to get done for a very long time, so that was nice. But other than that, it was a nice relaxing day! I hope you all had a great holiday weekend!

St. George adventures

The last weekend of June we had the chance to go down to St. George for a couple of days and watch my brother play basketball in a tournament. It was quite fun! I loved the heat and the sun! And the team was way fun to watch! They came in 2nd place in the tournament, they won 11 games out of 13. And they sadly lost to Copper Hills, who is one of the rival schools, but at least they beat them during the actual season. So, I guess it is okay. But while we were there, we stopped by the St. George Temple and took some pictures, and we also stopped by the Jacob Hamblin house. We also got to see a gorgeous sunset! It was absolutely beautiful, it made me so grateful for the beauty of everything around us. I think there is something so majestic about the redrocks in St. George! I can't even begin to describe the beauty of it! Here are a couple pictures of our adventures!

Grateful...

So, this last week I have been pondering a lot of things about life. I am so grateful for so many things. I just wanted to share some of them.

-Nick, and the wonderful person that he is and that he loves me no matter what! I have loved being married to him! We have been married for 1 year and 8 months today, I can't believe how fast the time is going! I'm so grateful that I get to be with him for the rest of my life and for the rest of forever!

-Simba, the fact that he is sitting at the door every day when I get home from work and he is so excited to see me, and that he shows me so much love! Who knew I would ever love a cat this much?

-Matthew, I don't know about you? But I'm pretty sure I have the COOLEST little brother! He is my hero! I look up to him in many ways, and not just because he is now a head taller than me:o). He always knows how to make me smile or laugh! I hope he knows how much I do love him!

-My sweet Grandpa! Me and Nick are so lucky to be able to live with my grandpa. It really has been a blessing. I will always cherish this time that I have spent with him. I think my favorite part of the day is tucking him into bed and giving him a kiss on his forehead! He truly is a wonderful person!

-My job, I love my job! I love the people I work with! I especially love the environment! To me it is the closest thing to working for the church. Earlier this week, I woke up feeling all stressed and I was having some anxiety and I just couldn't get it to go away, until I walked into work and it automatically went away. It was so neat! I am so blessed to work where I do!

-The Gospel, this week I am teaching YW's and my lesson is on how to receive personal revelation. So I have been pondering it a lot this last week, and it hit me really hard just how important prayer is in each of our lives. I have no idea where I would be with out it! I am so grateful for the gospel, especially the Plan of Salvation! I am so grateful that we can be with our families for forever! I am also eternally grateful for my Savior! I know that on the days when I feel so alone and lost that I can always call on Him and He will be there for me, and He will wrap His loving arms around me!