Egg-cellent

I decided it was time to make a trip down south since I haven't been home in a couple of months. I was lucky enough to have some co-riders with me this time. I took 2 of my nephews down with me since it was their spring break. I just want to share a few of the many cute & funny things that they had to share with me on our car ride.

Jaden: Hey Aunt Steph, do you want to know a true story?
Me: Of course.
Jaden: Okay, true story. Before the dinosaurs roamed the earth fairies & wizards existed and they became stars as well as some live on islands around the earth!

Me: Any song requests
Jaden: Ridin dirty (8 yrs old)

Me: Ridin what?! (P.S. I did find this song on youtube and Jaden was able to sing most of it!)

Tanner: Justin Bieber (6 yrs old): Aunt Stephy did you know that Justin Biebers voice is going to be lower on his new CD. Don't worry it's okay.

Jaden: Yeah its okay because like right now I scream & sing like a girl but when I get older I won't like Beiber.

Tanner: Jaden guess what? Carsen(a kid they know) said he doesn't like Justin Bieber but he likes his songs.

Jaden: That's close enough!

Jaden: Aunt Steph...I finally told Kyndell (his 3 yr old sister & my niece) that she was going to have a baby someday & that it was going to hurt, but that she would be okay!

Me: -insert laughter-(I had nothing)

Quick little side note. I might have had a mild anxiety attack with kids in my back seat with wheat thins, fig newtons, fruit snacks and a McDonalds happy meal. I just had to keep telling myself that everything is cleanable:) I figure when I have my own family I will get over this rather quickly. Right?!

Here is the breakdown of our Easter Weekend.

1. Community Easter Egg Hunt/Craziness

2. Our own Egg Hunt

Look at those beauties (My sisters)... Hiding the eggs:)

The Excitement!!

They all found their special eggs

3. The Easter Car Show

love the Camero's

4. Last but not least the first pool day of the season:)

To round out a pretty amazing & relaxing weekend my best friends (my parents) spoke in church on Easter sunday & both did an amazing job...such good examples! Can't wait for next time.

Before and After...

Have you ever experienced those moments where you feel like you've accomplished something. Those times where when you start a project you actually finish and then you stand back (gain perspective) and are proud of yourself because...well you did it! Sometimes it's the big things like high school, college or a mission that we really take notice of, but lately it's been the little things for me.

- Mowing the lawn with straight lines. (LOVE MOWING)

- Reading a vs or line from the Book of Mormon

- Workout everyday...even if it's only 10 push up's (IT'S SOMETHING)

- Taking time to be silent

- Smiling more often

I feel like all to often we find fault with ourselves because of all the things we aren't doing. Why is it so much easier to see the bad? I find it easy to notice the huge list of all the things that everyone "thinks" I should be doing, but what about the things I am doing?

I've been helping my brother up in Idaho with a project. I wanted to share the before and after pictures with you, but also want to share some thoughts that came to me as we worked.

I love physical work! I have since I was a child. As we began the process of remodeling, it was easy to see the improvements. It was almost instant results. Once we made a choice to change something we moved forward with that change and saw it come together in a week or two. The thought came to me that temporal changes & choices are so much easier to see then the changes that takes place in our hearts. A hair cut, color, or losing weight. What about the choices we make to change our character & personality. WHO are WE "before" we make the choice and WHO are WE "after" the choice is made? There is always a before and after with every choice we make in our lives. Our choices will either bring us into the light or away from the light.

Standing in Holy Places.

Sometimes I find myself having wondered to the 3rd floor of Noah's in South Jordan around sunset or just after; looking out of the panel of windows that line room 301. I love the silence that proceeds the events before they arrive. About 7 months ago as I was looking out on the valley a very peaceful & emotional feeling overcame me. I know this probably sounds really weird, but as I was standing there I realized that I could see 3 temples from one window.

I stood there and reflected on my first experience of going through the temple...in some ways that moment was more peaceful then the first time I attended. Since then I have been back frequently and not so frequently depending on how you look at it. I haven't gone every week or even every month in the last 5 years that I have been endowed. My mind immediately followed with all the stories told of saints who sacrifice for years to attend the temple once. The force of the guilt of having 3 right in my back yard & not finding the time only lasted a moment as I realized that even though I might not attend as frequently as I would like...I do attend, I do carry a current recommend and when I do go I focus on the moment & draw closer to my Heavenly Father.

I still stand in Aww as every now and again since that moment seven months ago I find myself at that same spot looking at these 3 beautiful temples & reflecting. If you are doing what so many others are & setting new years resolutions or goals for 2012, maybe put this one on the list:)

Remembering back to NOW...

Some say that life comes down to a few great moments. Often the key points in our lives pass by in stealth, leaving us to chase the shadows. We are left to question and evaluate the times we felt we've lost. Socrates once said "A life unexamined is not worth living."

I sometimes reflect upon the moments of my life that have come together brick by brick to shape the pyramid of my character.

The most prominent on my mind today is that of my mission. Today marks the 4th year that I have returned from the Ohio Cleveland Mission & Kirtland. I can't believe that it has been that long. You will never catch me saying the infamous statement of "on my mission", however, I can't help but express how much I grew while I was there... If you ask my family they will tell you that when I came home I was a little crazy/weird!!

I had an amazing Mission President who actually enter the mission field with me. President Peterson is one of many who helped shape a part of my character that assisted me in opening my mouth! I wasn't the best companion and often wish I would have been who I am today back then, but I also know that I wouldn't be who I am today without all the many wonderful experiences of back then. I could write a novel on all the memories I've been spending time in today, but to sum it up, my mission was definitely a brick by brick experience.

If I examine the surface or the materialist things in my life, it doesn't look like I've accomplished that much. You have to take a deeper look...In the last 3 years I have had some major shifts in the way I view life as well as how I view myself.

I get homesick every once and a while for the Ohio and I decided it's because a piece of my character(heart) was shaped there. Very real emotions surface as a sound, a particular sent, a song, or something that I see flashes me back to the past. I'm so grateful for all those individuals who showed up in my life to teach me, and help me remember who I am! I will forever love & miss the O.C.M

Confession: I don't like Halloween...

What is this Holiday? The only good thing about today being Halloween is that in 13 more hours I can now enjoy the fall weather & look forward to the "REAL" holidays of Thanksgiving and Christmas. I swear that everything I see has a tint of orange or black to it.

I know people who have been planning their costumes for weeks already, and I will never understand it. Don't get me wrong...I didn't always dislike Halloween. I loved dressing up when I was a kid, but I haven't worn a costume since I started middle school(last known costume was 6th grade & I was a Football player) hahaha. And when people ask me what I'm going to be for the holiday, I have to hold myself back from laughing. I'm an adult I don't have to dress up. What is it about dressing up? I have a hard enough time figuring out how to be myself & now you want me to dress up and pretend to be someone or something else. On top of that it's hard enough getting dressed everyday in normal clothes you want me to spend more time worrying about my costume.

And if I’m going to be honest, I have to admit that Halloween kind of scares me. There’s an ominous vibe to the season that makes me want to hide out in my “safe place”, curled up with a novel, ignoring the fact that the days are getting shorter and chillier and that the monsters, demons, and goblins are on the prowl. I admit that I have a vivid imagination that I don’t always use for good, but when Halloween looms on the horizon, I start to feel insecure. Plots of horror movies play out in my subconscious (even though I haven't seen any horror movies), and I become extremely anxious every time I find myself in an everyday situation like waiting in a car, or walking into my dark apt. answering a late phone call. I’m on edge, let’s put it that way.

If you are dressing up tonight then please enjoy yourself, have fun, go wild! Just, whatever you do, don’t mind me and please don’t try and involve me.

4 Weddings and My Funeral

Work is keeping me busy enough that I have no time to blog. The title says it all. Okay, maybe not all of it. Tonight @ work we have 4 weddings & this just might be a week that I die. I'm exhausted!! Being in charge isn't all it's cracked up to be. I have come to the conclusion that there will always be something to handle...Always. Life is still great though.

Just Another Day in Paradise

After 3 years of work, I finally decided to take a REAL vacation. Everyone has said that my trips to St.George didn't count as a real vacations. This being said I set my sights a little farther...HAWAII. This post is about to get semi-long okay really long so you can stop here OR if you want to see beautiful picture of paradise and some pretty bad ones of me not caring what I look like (I'm on vacation people) then continue on.

Day 1 June 9th: (Island of Oahu)

I arrived at 1:00 AM(which is 5 AM in Utah just an FYI) on the 8th so it was pitch dark & I was drained, BUT this is what I woke up to. In the far right of the picture you can see a little bench, this is were I spent most mornings:) Our place was about a mile from the PCC and the Temple.

The above photo was taken right before we left to swim with the dolphins. Instead of paying a huge amount of money to be on a boat and only see the dolphins on the surface some of our local friends took us to a spot where we swam out in the ocean about a 1/2 mile or so (I swam forever it felt like) it was totally worth all the effort to get out to where the dolphins were. We were able to swim with pods of about 20-30 dolphin's. For 2 hours we just followed them around the cove. The tour boats weren't so happy with us being in the way but it's free water so it's not like they could do anything about it. I actually was able to reach out and touch one...I was semi scared it was going to attack, but it didn't. It was AMAZING!

After the Dolphin's we went to the beach in Wikiki which is down by Honolulu about and hour & half away, but everyone says you have to go there at least once. We spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out by the beach and looking at the shops.

Quick side story... So we weren't sure what we were going to do before we decided to hit up Wikiki so we got showered and put on some casual clothes & packed our swimming gear and stuff to change into later. Well we ended up changing in our car! We didn't want to have to take all our stuff somewhere to change and then bring it all the way back to the car, anyway long story short it isn't easy changing from garments into a swimming suit in a car in a public parking lot that is busy with people (mid changing a guy walked up to the car to ask if we were alright) needless to say I wore my swimming suit 95% of the time from there on out.

My Sister Amber had told us about a restaurant that had a great atmosphere and wasn't to bad of a price so we set out to find it...Thanks Amber you were right, I loved cooking my own food & being right on the beach with a live band & cruise ship passing by in the background just made for a really fun night.

Day 2 (July 10th 2011)

We went to Pearl Harbor today. So many people both local and those who have traveled here tried to talk us out of going. Everyone said "there are way cooler things to do." Well, we decided to see for ourselves if it was a waist of time...I wouldn't concur! What a humbling experience to be on such sacred grounds. It made me reflect on a majority of topics and introspection. We spent the majority of the day looking around & learning as much as possible about the event surrounding Pearl Harbor.

Day 3 (July 11th 2011)

Today started out kinda rough...I received a phone call from work telling me that I had an employee not show up to work over the weekend. This was not a good thing!! Not only am I gone but so is another full time employee which already left us with a skeleton crew for the week. Needless to say I called the employee & talked to them & they just didn't feel like coming in, not a whole lot I can do from Hawaii so I called in some help and moved some people around and things were fixed. We headed over to the Temple to walk around for a bit since it was CLOSED!! I was more then a little mad that it closed the day before I got there and opened the day after I left! Lame...But it was still a beautiful temple and amazing grounds to walk around.

From there we headed to the PCC to enjoy the rest of our day. I loved seeing all the cultures there. I did learn a very important fact about myself, I may have already knew this but deep down I was hoping it wasn't true...I have broken hips which keep me from my true calling in life...HULA.

Just had to share the candid moment I caught

Just as the day was ending and we had been thoroughly entertained. I went to check my e-mail to make sure all the employee's knew the changes I had made to there shifts, do to the other employee quitting. Just when think things can't get worse at work...They can and DO. Another one of my Concierge decided that the work was just to hard and she was quitting effective immediately. YEAH for me. I spent most of that night as well as the next morning on the computer figuring things out. I didn't go to sleep easily that night.

Day 4 : July 12th 2011 (Flew to the Island of Kauai)

This is the view from our condo in Kauai...We couldn't have stayed in a better place. Kauai is one of the most beautiful places I have ever experienced. On our first day we just drove around the island (you can only see 20% of the island by car the other 80% of the island by boat & plane) It was so nice to just relax and enjoy the beauty all around.

Day 5: July 13th 2011

We had a million hikes that we wanted to do...So today we hiked around the island! Here are a few of pic's from our hikes.

QUEENS BATH

On our way down to queen's bath we saw tons of sea turtles! They are huge.

We hiked down to a private beach about a mile from our condo

I didn't get to go real surfing, but I think I rocked this wave:)

Day 6: July 14th 2011

So excited for this day!! I love to fly & since we couldn't see most of the island unless we were in the air or boat we had to do a helicopter ride. Sarah wasn't as excited as me, but we got her in the helicopter:) One of our tour guides was pretty crazy, If he was the pilot I'm not sure Sarah would have gotten on the helicopter. On our tour we landed on a canyon cliff and meet with Mr. Robinson who owns a large amount of Kauai it was pretty crazy taking off of the cliff...I loved it

A few pic's from the plane ride...

Day 7: July 15th 2011

(INSERT TARAZAN YELL) We just had to do a zip-line tour while we were in Hawaii...super fun for me. I love adventure!! The entire trip we had amazing tour guides and fun groups of people in our tour, we meet a couple from AZ on this tour and then ended up seeing them at Church on Sunday. Anywho, on the tour we were able to hike to a swimming area that had a waterfall running into it. So pretty!

After the Zip-line we went had just enough time to head over to the most popular hike on Kauai (Part of the Na pali Coast) it's 22 miles long but we only hiked 2 miles in because of time constraints. After 2 miles there is a water fall and river that run into the ocean. This entire hike was probably one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen even with a sore ankle.

Day 8: July 16th 2011

This was our last big day of adventures. Since Kauai has to be seen by boat or plan we had to do a boat tour. We had 2 crazy tour guides that constantly hit on us which was a little creepy, but I think Sarah might have enjoyed it:) We went down the Na Pali coast and then out to the Forbidden Island where we were able to go snorkeling. After we were done with our tour there were a few other place that we wanted to see before we left the island. Waimea canyon as well as spouting horn.

Day 9: July 17th

Today was really laid back. We drove around before our flight left for Honolulu. We walked along the beaches and enjoyed the scenery.

Last day in Kauai

Day 10: July 18th 2011

We flew back to Honolulu because it was cheaper to fly home from there. We stayed with my Cousin Dezaree who took us boogie boarding & also showed us some of the local cuisine. If was fun to spend time with her:)

Acai Bowl ( I crave one everyday now!!) They are so good.

Needless to say with all the work drama that went down while I was gone, I still enjoyed myself! I love you Hawaii and I will visit you again someday.