Thoughts

"Anyone who imagines that bliss is normal is going to waste a lot of time running around shouting that he's been robbed. The fact is that most putts don't drop, most beef is tough, most children grow up to be just people, most successful marriages require a high degree of mutual toleration, most jobs are often more dull than otherwise. The trick is to thank the Lord for letting you have the ride."

 -Gordon B. Hinckley

I love this and him. Kinda helped me to put into perspective my life right now. Life is wonderful. You can have some amazing people and happenings in your life. But not always is it going to be bliss. We have to accept the fact that we as human beings are not perfect, nor is life perfect. Things don't always work out the way we want them to. And that's okay. We have a tendency, especially with social media nowadays, to compare our lives to others and think that we have to live up to this illusion of the perfect life. Truth is, nobody has that. We see people in their best light. We don't always see what goes on behind the scenes. Don't compare your shortcomings to another's triumphs. It's not fair. Our Heavenly put us here to experience the good and the bad. And oftentimes we find ourselves living somewhere in the middle. Brigham Young said that every experience is necessary for our salvation. Instead of wishing our lives were paradise, we need to remember to thank God for all we face, even our trials and seemingly ordinary days. It can a strange concept. But if we humble ourselves and rely on our Savior and Father in Heaven, we find that we are strengthened through them. We are better able to endure these less than remarkable moments.
This is not to say that we're doomed to a boring life of mediocrity. Life is full of joy and happiness. And I live for those blissful moments. But unfortunately, not every moment in our lives is meant to be blissful. It can't be. We can't experience only the most exciting parts of the ride. We must endure it all. So next time you begin to think you are being robbed of that perfect life remember, you're not. You're simply experiencing the whole ride. 

It's beginning to look a lot like...not summer

Finally moving into the Wintry (and by wintry I mean no more 110 degree weather) months of the year, which also means time for my favorite holidays, namely Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years!

With such nice weather, Travis, Scott, Melissa and I decided play a little frisbee golf and enjoy the outdoors. We've been to several of the courses by our house and wanted to try something a little different so we drove out to a park in Chandler for something new. The course was pretty cool, had some fun aspects like culverts and hills and canals. Travis ended up beating us all. By a lot. Scott came close but I think he may have told me some questionable scores on some of the holes...regardless we had fun.

I also had the opportunity to go to the temple and do baptisms this past week. Originally, I thought I was meeting the relief society women there for temple night but apparently they decided to come later and somehow I never got the memo. Which meant temple night all by myself.  Don't get me wrong I love going to the temple with my friends and family but there's something special about being there all by yourself without any other people or distractions whatsoever. Just you, the temple workers and the Lord. I love being able to disconnect from the world for a little while and feel the peace that that Holy building brings. Seriously can't wait till I can finally go through the temple for myself and be sealed to my husband for all eternity.

Gone on lots of little adventures/dates lately with Travis. We went and explored downtown mesa yesterday and found this old bookshop with books on almost any topic you can think of. It had the fancy roll-y ladders, the old paper smell, the cute elderly store owner, pretty much everything you could want out of a little bookstore. Travis also took me fishing for the first time at a lake in Gilbert. Sadly, we didn't catch a fish. So that's still on the list. (We actually tried to go fishing before this a few months ago up in Payson but we had a fishing pole malfunction so that didn't exactly happen.) With Halloween so close, we decided to experiment with some halloween-y treats and settled on "poison" toffee apples. Basically they're caramel apples but we dye them black and the candy shell is hard. Neither of us realized that they were toffee apples instead of caramel apples until after we cooked it so they turned out a little harder than we thought. Like, I think it would've broke my tooth if I bit into it, hard. But they looked pretty cool so I'd say we succeeded. 

My cute pioneer..(hopefully he doesn't see this haha)

The phrase "shop til you drop"...yeah it's real. 

I like dress shopping and all but when it turns into a 5 hour ordeal, that's when I bow out.

Found some new playground equipment. "Is this how you use it?" haha

It finally stopped being 100+ degrees everyday. Hallelujah.

We're obviously pros. Just look at that form.

What?? These ladder things actually exist?

Summer Lovin'

Fun past few months. Crazy past two months. Sooo in July, Travis decided to go on a road trip for a week. Said roadtrip included a stop in Idaho to go to the dunes with a friend from high school. Long story short, he ended up in the hospital with a badly broken arm(both ulna and radius). That lovely accident led to a pretty intense surgery and a longgg recovery. Nowadays hes got two gnarly looking scars on both sides of his forearm and limited use of his thumb..which may or may not be fully mobile ever again. Great story huh? So for now I guess we'll see how his healing progresses and if he gets to have another surgery on his thumb or not..woohoo. Around the time of mine and Melissa's birthday, pretty close after the time of his accident, we both went up and visited him in Taylor(he was living there with his mom for the time being so she could "mother" him). We wanted to go on a little adventure as did travis (being cooped up 24/7 isn't exactly the happiest of times) so we planned a little day trip to see indian ruins and explore around Flagstaff a little bit. Ate some delicious bbq food and found some strange/interesting/cool shops. 

Also, Jake and Dalyn are both home from their missions! Say whaa?? Yeah I know its insane. Anyways, got to hang out with Jake and some high school friends with travis so that was fun. Went to Lincoln and marlee's wedding reception too. Yay for them. Aside from that life is pretty good. I'm meeting with a dentist tomorrow to talk about getting some observation hours and possibly even a job so that's exciting. Anyways, here's a few pictures..enjoy.

 At the indian ruins

Exploring with travis.

Took a trip with Jess to prescott for a softball tournament. This was our downtime between games.

Rode a horse. All by myself. 

Mexico..forgot my goggles so I improvised.

Yes we let her drive. Yes shes only 12. Yes it was scary.

Hikes, climbs, and cemeteries

Travis with his snake and barefootedness in Wal-Mart haha.

 

On top of the mountain with Sneph.

I took the little sisters and 2 of Stephanie friends hiking (elevated walking) up brown mountain. Super pretty, cold, and easy.

Family selfie with everyone, including brandon.

Precious picture of father and son. He really loves and misses him.

Another selfie with grandma stradling on mother's day haha✌

Playing bingo at the old folks home. This lady was 103 and hilarious.

Rock climbing class with my best friend.

Of course we had to race up this route.

2015. Starting off with a bang.

Learned to cut hair for the first time. Travis made me do it even though I had no idea what I was doing. It was terrible. 

Before...

After.

Traffic sucks.

Batting cages with travis.

Jessica's first prom...  :')

Zachs finally home! We've got half of the gang now.

Quad riding in Mexico! We were practicing wheelies.

Knows how to sweep a girl off her feet...

Camping at Seneca.