Journal--My Wedding Dress (Bonus: My Wedding Ring)

I'm continuing with the journal writing assignments I was given in my ward a few years ago.  One of the writing assignments that was given was to talk about and describe your wedding dress.

I actually bought my wedding dress when I was engaged to my first fiance.  We only went to one store...Bridal Image up in Bountiful.  I had plans to go to many stores.  But I found my dress at the first place we went!

I had always thought that I wanted to look like a princess on my wedding day with a Cinderella-type ballgown.  And honestly, they did look good on me and some of them were absolutely beautiful.  But they were so heavy and so uncomfortable!  I really didn't expect that.

While I was hunting online, I found a dress that I thought was really pretty.  I sent the picture to my sisters and mom.  That dress really didn't stand out to them.  Well, they happened to have that very dress at this store, so I decided to try it on.  (cue the angelic choir music)  It was so comfortable, so simply, yet so beautiful.  It felt like...me.  It was the only one in the store.  Seriously, on the hanger, no one would have given this dress a second glance.  But on, it was perfect.  In fact, one of the other girls that was shopping that day asked to try it on, so I had to send it over to her and I continued to try on more dresses.  The more dresses I tried on, the more I realized I really loved that one.

I loved the 3/4" length sleeves.  I loved the two little ruffles on each sleeve.  I loved the ruffles on the skirt.  I loved that it wasn't what everyone was wearing to get married in at the time.

So, we put a deposit down on the dress and planned to come back another day for alterations.  Besides that, the dress was a steal--only $225.

However, my fiance broke off our engagement only about two weeks later.

I was heartbroken...and the least of my worries was what to do about my dress.  I would have been married on April 8th.  A week after what would have been my wedding, the bridal shop called me to see if I still wanted the dress.  I thought to myself "Hey, I love that dress.  That dress had nothing to do with him.  Heck yeah, I want that dress!"  So, I drove up to the store right after work, paid the remaining balance, drove home and played dress-up for a few minutes (only to discover by the fact that my blinds were open and one of my drawers was askew that our little basement apartment had been broken into while my roommate and I were at work!  We never found out who did it.  I wasn't missing anything, but my roommate's camera got stolen).

Above: Behold my awesome veil.

Above: I loved those sleeves!

Above: Look at those cool skirt ruffles!

So, when I got engaged to Jeremiah, I took the dress back to Bridal Image for the alterations.  It was still my dress and just as beautiful as ever.  And after all was said and done (after alterations), the dress only cost about $350 tops.  Can you believe it?

As for my wedding ring, something similar happened there.  My first fiance and I went ring shopping first at Shane Company.  I wasn't really wowed by any of the rings there, but we ended up picking something out anyway.  But then we canceled that order the very next day because neither of us were too impressed with that ring and we had buyer's remorse.

So, we went to Losee Jeweler's down in Provo (my fiance worked at a bank and had helped the owner a number of times).  The rings there were so much more impressive.  Hand crafted and hand designed.  So beautiful.  The owner gave my fiance a really good deal because of their past history.

Then, of course, my fiance called off our engagement and I returned the ring to him.

Honestly, once time had passed and my broken heart had healed, I felt more regret about the loss of that ring than I did about the loss of him!

When Jeremiah and I started talking about getting engaged, he asked me what I wanted to do about the ring.  I very sheepishly told him that I was still in love with the ring I had gotten the first time.  Jeremiah is a very bold and confident person and he simply told me that we would just get me my ring again.

So, we went together to Losee Jeweler's and spoke with the owner (seriously, the nicest guy).  I explained the situation to him.  He totally remembered me and thought that I had married my first fiance and we had simply neglected to send him an invitation because my ex-fiance never took the ring back and never said a word to him about it.  (I have since discovered that my ex-fiance got married about 2 years ago.  It makes me wonder if he gave her my first ring or if he tried to exchange it at the time he got engaged to her.  So, if you ever see a ring that looks just like mine on some cute little blonde gal down in Provo, just you remember that I was the one who picked out and designed that ring!  And it was mine first!  Ha ha!).

The owner of Losee Jeweler's simply looked up the past order so that he could exactly duplicate the ring...except that both he and Jeremiah agreed that something needed to be a little different.  They both decided that it needed to one-up the past ring by having a bigger diamond.  :)  So, my first ring was .90 carats and my second and final ring was 1 full carat.  The cut of my current diamond was somehow even more gorgeous too.  It had a cool geometric pattern and sparkled like you wouldn't believe.

When we left the store, I told Jeremiah "I hope that wasn't awkward for you.  I really appreciate you doing that for me, because I loved that ring and it had nothing to do with the other guy."  He said "You should be able to have what you want.  And besides, I got the girl.  That's all that matters."

I sure love that Jeremiah of mine.  It was a very sweet response and it made me feel very special.

And I still love my wedding dress and my wedding ring.  They were both just right for me.

Above: I took this picture just this week because Jeremiah took my ring in to be cleaned.  The owner of Losee Jeweler's still remembered him!  And my ring came back just as gorgeous, shiny, and sparkly as the day I first received it.

Journal--My First Car

The first car that I ever drove wasn't technically my car.  But it was still my car.  Does that make sense?

My Dad started hunting for a car that we could use once we hit driving age.  It was always strictly meant to be a family car for all of us kids to use during our high school days and to pass on from one kid to another.

When he initially started hunting for a car, he just wanted to get something that he wanted.  He kept getting really excited about these luxury cars that I would describe as "granny" cars.  Too old for a high school student to feel cool about driving.  We told him so.  In what was perhaps retaliation or perhaps compliance or surrender, without any of our knowledge (even my Mom's), my Dad went out and bought a car.  And then one day, there was simply a black 1993 Ford Escort sitting in our garage.

I don't know that it would have been anyone's first choice.  But do you know what?  That was one fun little car.  It was a stick shift.  So, we all learned to drive on a stick shift.  I honestly haven't driven one since that car (mostly because I feel that I need to own an automatic so that I don't drive like a race car driver!  It's sooooo fun to drive stick!).

I drove it all throughout high school.  I carpooled with my frenemy, Shauna Paulson during my junior year.  For my senior year, I carpooled with my brother, Clayton, and his friend and our neighbor, Joel Todd.

When I went off to BYU my freshman year, the car passed on to Clayton.  Then, and I'm not exactly sure what everyone else was driving, the car came back into my possession for my final years of college while Clayton was on his mission.  I believe my brother, Nephi, bought himself a truck and my Dad bought my sister a crap car, which she named "Prudence" which she drove.  When my brother, Clayton, returned home from his mission, he got his own car.  When I graduated from BYU, I bought my very first car of my own and the little black Ford Escort (which I had named "Baby") went back to high school to be driven by my brother, Sean.  And I'm pretty sure Sean didn't call that car "Baby."

My very first car that I bought all by myself was a 2001 white Toyota Corolla.  I bought it for $10,000 some odd dollars (after tax and licensing).  I put $5,000 down on it and still had to have my Dad co-sign on it because even though I had paid my way through college (with some much appreciated help from my parents) and graduated debt-free, apparently that wasn't good enough because I didn't have any credit because I had never taken out any student loans or had any credit cards.  Credit is so dumb.

I owned that car for a little over a year.  I paid it off less than a year after buying it (in October--I paid it off at the age of 24).

My new little baby car was totaled.  I got together with my good friend, Krissy Kidwell Smith, for a get-together.  I picked her up at Wymount (she was living in the married student housing at BYU with her husband, Kevin).  Krissy was pregnant at the time with her first child.  She was about 7 months along.  They had tried a long time for this baby.  They had been married for nearly 4 years. We were barely leaving Wymount and were driving through a green light (heading west) when a woman heading south ran a red light and side-swiped my car.  I remember looking over and having just enough time to see that car coming straight at us.  That memory still sometimes comes back to me while I'm driving.  The force of the impact threw my car into a car in the left-lane opposite me (the lane facing east...and turning north).  From what I know, it totaled all three cars.

I remember feeling a searing pain in my arm and my arm went dead.  It took a few minutes before I could use it.  The woman who hit me tapped on my window and asked if I was okay.  I still regret my initial reaction.  I said "No, I'm not okay!  You totaled my car!"  Then I looked over at Krissy.  I paid no more attention to the woman who hit me.  Krissy was holding her head and she was drooling.  When we left her apartment, she had been wearing a ponytail.  The force of the impact knocked the elastic band right out of her hair.  I tried to get Krissy to respond to me.  But she couldn't say anything.  A witness to the accident called the cops and told me he had done so.  I immediately called Kevin to let him know what had happened and where we were.  He came quickly.

They had to pry the door off of my car to get Krissy out.  They immediately put her in an ambulance with Kevin at her side and drove her away.  I sat there, dumbfounded.

I called my sister, Laurie, who came to pick me up.

The paramedics checked me for injuries.  My arm was hurt...but nothing serious.  I had a nasty foot-long bruise on my left arm for weeks afterward.  I remember them checking me to see if I was alright.  The paramedic asked me to tell him if anything hurt or not.  I shook my head no and he sassed me for shaking my head.  He informed me, very unfeelingly, that I needed to SAY if I was alright and not shake my head in case I had any head of neck injuries.  What a jerk.  He then went on to tell me that I had great abs and asked me if I worked out.  Are you kidding me?  My best friend was unconscious and being taken to the hospital in an ambulance and you're asking me if I work out?  Let me repeat: what a jerk!

A tow truck took my car away and my sister showed up.  She took me to her apartment.  I was so shaken up.

Kevin called me to say that he had given Krissy a blessing and in it, he blessed her to completely heal from this accident and that their baby would be alright.  I was so grateful for that comfort and that Kevin was so thoughtful to take the time to let me know.

At the same time, the doctors were saying that Krissy might have sustained irreversible brain injuries and that she might be brain damaged for the rest of her life.  They were saying all sorts of things.

But through it all, I held to Kevin's blessing that Krissy would heal completely.

Krissy was in a coma for nearly a week.  She remained in the hospital for about 7 weeks, if I remember correctly.  She was only home for a week or two before she went into labor with her first baby.  They had to perform a C-section in order to avoid a brain aneurysm that might have been brought about by her pushing during labor.  Krissy had to have physical therapy for months.

But do you know what?  Krissy DID heal completely.  She doesn't have brain damage.  She is completely healthy.  She healed faster than her doctors thought possible.  Her baby was completely healthy too.

Did that mean that Krissy came out of that experience without any challenges?  No.

But I gained a very strong testimony through this experience.  I learned that man is timid.  Man is afraid to make promises because man doesn't have all the answers.  Those doctors were saying all sorts of things.  Covering their bases to avoid liability.  But through the priesthood and the Holy Ghost, Kevin wasn't timid.  The Holy Ghost is bold.  The Holy Ghost is not afraid to make promises.  The Holy Ghost does have the answers.  Through Kevin's priesthood blessing, the Holy Ghost said one thing: Krissy would heal completely and Allie would be fine and healthy.  And everything happened according to Kevin's blessing.

I am so grateful for that experience.  Even though it was scary and difficult.  I learned so much from it.

And that lead me to my next car.  A car that has given me (knock on wood) a very uneventful experience of ownership!  My little 2003 white Toyota Corolla which we still currently own.  Jeremiah is driving that car right now while I tote my boys around in our 2011 silver Toyota Sienna minivan!

And again, this post ended up a lot longer than I meant it too.  I guess there are a lot of stories to simple questions!

But I'm not making any apologies.  This is my journal.  If you want to read it, you're welcome to.  If not...skip it!

Journal--How I Got My Name

In one of my wards, a very wonderful woman was called to serve in a family history calling (her name escapes me right now, but I will definitely hunt it down).  She told people about the importance of writing down our personal histories.  She said, however, that many people just don't know where to start.  As a fun way to go about this, she gave us topical writing assignments each month.

I always meant to do it, but never got around to it.  But I did save her list!  So, I'm going to do it now.

Her first topic to write about?  "How I Got My Name."

So, here goes (and if my Mom has any additional insights on this topic, I would greatly appreciate it!).

My full name is Sarah Elizabeth Mackay Washburn.

"Sarah" is a name that my mother always loved.  She loved it before it become a popular, trendy name in the 70's.  If I remember correctly, it might have even been a character name in a book (my Mom has always loved to read).  But it mainly comes from Sarah in the Bible.  When my Mom read the story of Sarah, she felt that she was incredibly selfless and faithful to give up her husband, Abraham, to Hagar so that he could have children as she could not give him any (at least at that time).  However, the Lord rewarded her faithfulness with the birth of Isaac in her old age.  My Mom grew to love Sarah because of her faith and sacrifice.  Originally, Sarah was named Sarai, which possibly means "contentions."  But her name was changed by the Lord to "Sarah" to signify that she would become the mother of many nations.  "Sarah" means "princess."

We later learned later that I have an ancestor named Sarah (Sarah Franks).  Though I was not officially named for her...the connection stuck and it has become somewhat of a post-birth significance that my name has taken on.  I'll go into detail about her in just a minute.

"Elizabeth" is another name my mother has always loved.  My mother thought Elisabeth in the Bible was another wonderful example.  But beyond that, I'm not sure if there is any further reason why I was named that.  "Elizabeth" means "consecrated to God."

"Mackay" came from my father, Clayton Grant Mackay (he goes by Grant).  His line includes many faithful people...family I look forward to meeting someday.  My great-great-something-or-other-grandfather was named Thomas Mackay.  He was Irish.  He was converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and emigrated to the United States.  He attended the School of the Prophets with Brigham Young.  The School of the Prophets was not only available to apostles, but to faithful male members of the church as well.  Thomas Mackay had three wives.  I am descended from his third wife, Sarah Franks.  Her story has actually become quite famous.  It is told in the movie 17 Miracles (you can find more information here).

Sarah joined the church and crossed the plains with her fiance, George Padley.  They were members of the Martin Handcart Company.  As we know, things didn't go well for the Martin Handcart Company.  Sarah became so sick that she was taken into one of the wagons.  Sarah's fiance, George, also became sick and suffered from exposure and hunger--which lead to pneumonia.  Sadly, George passed away.  Sarah was so heartsick at the thought of George being buried without any protection, that she wrapped him in her shawl.  I'm not sure of the timing of this, but she became the third wife of Thomas Mackay after entering the Salt Lake Valley.  It was only a civil wedding, however.  Years later though, Sarah's children begged her to be sealed to Thomas Mackay.  She did so out of respect for her children.  Many, many years later, Elder James E. Faust heard of Sarah's story.  Through his help, her sealing to Thomas Mackay was canceled and she was sealed to her fiance, George Padley.

Before this took place, I remember always feeling sad for Sarah Franks when I learned of her fiance's fate and her subsequent marriage to Thomas Mackay.  Now don't get me wrong.  I have great, great respect and love for Thomas Mackay.  But I always felt that Sarah must have longed for an eternal companionship with George Padley.  I often wondered why they hadn't married before the trek.  Hearing later of Sarah being finally sealed to George brought me so much peace.  I was sure that things were now as they were meant to be.

As for "Washburn," I gained that portion of my name when I married Jeremiah L Washburn on October 18, 2007.  I really loved all of my other names though and couldn't bear to part with them.  So, I kept them all!  That gives me one really long name!  "Sarah Elizabeth Mackay Washburn" is a total of 28 letters long.  Coincidentally, my first two names are 14 letters altogether and my last two names are also 1 letters altogether!  And darn it, my name is one letter too long to fit in its entirety on my driver's license.  So, the name on my license is shown as Sarah Mackay Washburn.  And that's also how you can find me on Facebook!  :)

Whew!

I really didn't think this post would be that long.  But I guess there is a lot of history attached to my name!

Journal--Gathering Memories

So, my brother, Clayton, gave a Family Home Evening lesson at one of our Sunday dinners on family history and the importance of keeping a journal.  He quoted a talk by Henry B. Eyring from a few years back (I'll have to search for the title of it).  He talked about our grandma's journal that she gifted to each of her children shortly before her death.  My father has also been generous enough to reprint this book to give to each of his children.

My grandma's journal is a priceless gem.  I seriously count it among my treasures.  She shares her mother and father's conversion stories as well as her own spiritual experiences and everyday life experiences.  I can't describe it, but every time I read this book, I feel her love and feel so close to her.  This is despite the fact that she died when I was only three years old.  The only memory I have of her is from one of our Sunday dinners at their house.  She sat me on the kitchen counter next to her and I just knew that she adored me.  That's it.  That's all I remember.  But as I read her journal, I know that she still loves me, cares about me, and watches out for me.

I have tried hard to document my life.  I kept a journal religiously for about 2 years during high school (I wrote in it every night).  But during my senior year, things got so busy and crazy with my AP classes, preparing for college and being in Concert Choir and Madrigals that I let my journal writing fall by the wayside.  I can't tell you how much I regret that.  Because my senior year was the most eventful of my high school experience!

But there are still places where I can go back and gather memories and journal snippets.  Yearbooks, letters to my missionary friends (I kept copies of some of them), old emails, Facebook posts, old birthday cards that I have saved, etc.  All of those things contain valuable information that I can go through and preserve.  Those things have valuable information that I would like to share with my children and my children's children.

And my goal is to do so!  I want to document the sweet, cute, and even maddening things that my children did.  As well as share my spiritual experiences.

I'm grateful to have this blog to document my children's lives.  But it is important for me to remember that it is a record of my life as well.

So, let the gleaning and gathering begin!

August 2012, Part 1

I really am going to try not to get behind.  So, rather than wait until the end of August to post my updates, I'm going to do what I have now and add the rest later.  :)

Above: Just hangin' out with Daddy and wearin' his hat.

Above: Daddy had a long day at work and passed out on the couch, but that didn't stop everyone from climbing on and cuddling him.

Above: I sure love that Spider-man Pete!

Above: He's fierce when he's crossed by his foes.

Above: He will protect the weak and innocent.

Above: And he'll have good times with his brother!

Above: And he'll do timed poses with his Mama!

Above: The boys LOVE to do timed poses.  They love to run into place in a hurry before the camera goes off.  The result is always a mixed bag though.  If the boys look cute, I look psycho (with a "crazy" smile and eyes).  If I look cute, the boys look mad, sad, or aren't looking at all!

Above: We went for another nature walk in our mountains.  This trail is right by the Draper Temple, less than 5 minutes from our house.  I love that look on Peter's face.

Above: We went simple on Jonathan's outfit and opted for a white onesie and jeans.  It makes him look like a 1950's rebel.

Above: Peter was "reading" the nature signs to us.  Ironically, he got this one right!  He was telling us that this was a picture of a chickadee.  And it WAS!

Above: While on our walk, a very nice man with a super nice dog ran into us.  He let us play with his dog and the boys were in Heaven!  As for me, I was just grateful that neither of them had allergic reactions to the dog.  :)

Above: Dogs are so fun!  But Mama is glad we can't own one because of the boys' allergies!

Above: What a cute guy!

Above: Ohhhh.

Above: We visited the Children's Gardens at Thanksgiving Point in the morning for our play group.  But unfortunately, my camera batteries were dead.  The boys hadn't quite had enough play time at the gardens, so I packed a picnic dinner and we went back there that night as a family.  Here, Jonathan is trying to find his belly button.  Darn it!  It's so hard to find because of my cute belly!

Above: We love getting wet at Noah's ark!

Above: Good times.

Above: Even better times when food is involved.

Above: My handsome husband saying something sassy to me.

Above: Very often, this is my expression and response when my husband says something sassy to me.

Above: Then Jeremiah told me to smile normally so we could take a regular picture.

Above: My little monkey saying "Cheese!"

Above: Peter jumping from log to log in one of the other sections of the Children's Gardens.

Above: A fun tunnel for kids to climb through.  "Mom!  Where do you think this leads to?"

Above: Peter's hair just looked way too shaggy while we were at the gardens.  So, we cut it that night.  Cutting the boys' hair is a NIGHTMARE.  They HATE it.  And it's always traumatic...for EVERYONE.

Above: But after a bath, Peter was right as rain.  He loved his new haircut.  I gave him my mirror while he was in the tub so he could look at it.  He lounged around in the tub for a luxurious amount of time.  Finally, Jeremiah said "Peter, it's time to get out of the tub."  Peter answered "Not yet, Dad.  I'm still yookin' (looking) at myself."  I love that guy.

Above: This has been summer of the reptiles for me.  We've seen three snakes (while hiking and at Thanksgiving Point gardens), a mama lizard, and two baby lizards.  I was less thrilled to see the snakes (I only saw two of them).  They still give me the shivers.  But I think lizards are cute.  I found this cute little rock lizard in our yard while I was watering the plants.  She was very cooperative for the camera.  At first, I thought she was a baby...and a he.

Above: But then we found one of her babies and it was soooooo cute and even littler!

Above: On August 11th (my brother, Nephi's birthday), we decided to have a carnival for the kids.  We have been having themed parties this summer since the girls (Maddie and Kinlie) have been in Utah and we wanted the cousins to have a lot of fun times together.  We had our Half-o-ween party, a Camping party, and most recently, our Carnival.  When my Aunt Theresa found out that we wanted to do a carnival, she donated some money to the cause.  She is so incredibly sweet and generous!  So we made this banner to commemorate our carnival to her! 

Above: Here's the whole family that was in attendance...except for Clayton who insisted on taking the pictures.  He hates being in them, but is very helpful about taking them!

Above: We served all sorts of carnival-themed food.  Kettle corn, mini funnel cakes, nachos and cheese, corn dogs, churro muddy buddies, carnival cupcakes, rice krispy treats on a stick, homemade watermelon cotton candy, etc.  Did we go a little overboard?  Yes.  Yes, we did.

Above: The kids got to play all sorts of fun games like: bean bag toss, ring toss, bowling, pictionary/art work, water games, squirt gun games, water balloon games, and whack-a-mole.

Above: The kids got to go to the fishing pond and they got all sorts of fun goodies there.  Maddie got this bee-yu-ti-ful crown.

Above: Jonathan got this cute train engineer hat...but he wasn't very happy about wearing it.

Above: Peter loved his shark nose.

Above: What a sweet guy!

Above: When we first talked about a carnival, we decided that balloons were a must.  Well, did you know that there is a worldwide helium shortage right now?  Zurchers (our local party store) had a limit of only 17 helium balloons per customer.  But sadly, when Mom got there to get the balloons, they had run out of their helium quota for the day.  Can you believe that?  How does one get a helium shortage in the first place?  And how does one remedy such a situation?  The balloons that we got for the kids came from the grocery store.  They were of the non-helium variety (the ones that have sticks in them so that you can put them in flower arrangements, etc.)

Above: Here are the kids playing whack-a-mole.  I bought this for the boys at Christmas time...and it was the perfect addition to our carnival!

Above: Here are the kids and Aunt Robin participating in a cupcake walk.

Above: After the cupcake walk was done, Jonathan and Kinlie didn't want the magic to end.  They continued to walk around and around in a circle on top of those colored footballs, without music, for a good 10 minutes afterward!

Above: Ta-Da!

Above: This was our third or fourth visit to the zoo this summer, but it was the first one where Dad was able to see the new Rocky Shores exhibit.

Above: Here are my boys pretending to ride a bicycle by the big cats section of the zoo.

Above: Just walkin' at the zoo with my Daddy.  Hands behind our backs, as leisurely as you please.

Above: It looks like my two monkeys measure up just fine!

Above: Yeah, yeah.  I know that these outlines are for gorillas and not monkeys.

Above: Peter wanted to take a picture by this gorilla with his Dad.  He pretended to be scared...but my sweet little actor took his method acting a little too far and then he became scared too.

Above: One morning I pulled out our train set stuff to play with.  The boys were in heaven.  The problem was that they wanted all of the same stuff at the same time and kept pushing each other out of the way and fighting with each other.  So, I figured it would be a good solution to simply build another track.  I built one on the floor and neither of them had any use for it.  So, I brought Peter's train table from his bedroom down to the basement and put the track that I had built on the floor on top of it.  So, then they had two super cool train tracks--one on the coffee table and one on Peter's train table.  I figured that meant that they had one each and they would stop wanting the same things at the same time.  What it really meant, however, was that the coffee table train got completely discarded and the train table train became the new train to be desired.  What can you do, eh?  At least they started playing nicer with each other and sharing more once the second train table/track was put up.  Go figure.

Above: We took a weeknight and went up into Timpanogas Canyon (at least I think that's what that canyon is called) and we roasted hot dogs/brats, made s'mores, and had watermelon.  The boys were too excited about being in the mountains and it took a fair bit of effort to get them to eat much (though Jonathan still managed to eat 2 hot dogs, of course).

Above: After going through all of our crap, I realized we had a ton of papers that needed to be shredded.  But then this bright idea dawned on me: why not bring those papers and use them as kindling and burn them in the mountains on just such a trip as this!?  My plan worked perfectly.  But we had a TON of papers and it created quite a hot and blazing fire.  It took awhile to get the whole fire to burn down and to put it out.  But while I tended the fire, the boys had a good time helping dad get a bucket of water to help put out the fire.

Above: The boys had a great time exploring and visiting the river with Dad so that they could throw rocks into it.  I have decided that throwing rocks into a river has to be the favorite past time of every little boy in the world.

Above: These sweet boys tuckered out their Dad that night!

Above: Jonathan refused to be carried and wouldn't let us hold his hand.  Because when he is in the mountains, he's a man and he can do it himself! 

Above: My sweet husband took my ring to be cleaned.  After nearly five years, it wasn't shining quite the way that it once had.  But when it came back, it looked just like it had the day I got it!  I kept looking at it all night long.  So shiny.  So sparkly.  

Above: This morning (August 22nd), we went to Farm Country at Thanksgiving Point for our play group.  Peter loves to ride the ponies (as you might remember, Jonathan does NOT).

Above: Here's a close-up of that sweet face.

Above: Aunt Shandie came with us and brought Maddie, Kinlie, Kash, and Jaden.  We were also joined by my good friend, April, and her kids and a few family members.

Above: Cute kids posing in front of the llamas.

Above: Wheee!  I'm in prison!

Above: "Cheese!"  I wish I had gotten a video of this.  I loved the sound of all 5 kids saying "Cheese" all at once in the same tone of voice and on the same note.  It was hilarious.

Above: I took this picture of me holding Jonathan while we went on the wagon ride to get a better view of Farm Country.  Isn't he the cutest guy?

Above: They have a fun section at Farm Country where you can go inside and learn a little about how farms work (planting, harvesting, and distributing the food).  But it's also set up as a play area for the kids too (where they can do the "planting," "harvesting," and "food distribution" themselves).  Here Jonathan is, I'm sure, thinking to himself "So that's how some bugs contribute to the farm.  I see."

Above: Here's cousin Maddie riding a tractor.

Above: Here's Jonathan planting some seeds.

Above: Here's Peter helping with food distribution.

Above: Here is sweet Kinlie riding a tractor too.

Above: Here's my sweet Peter riding a pony again.  He used Jonathan's ticket this time.  But he did NOT want his picture taken this time around.  Sorry, buddy!

Above: And HERE is the view out of my car window on my drive up the mountain to our house.  We are already starting to get colored leaves on our trees!  Whoohoo!  Fall is my all-time favorite season of the year.  I just love it.  I am more than thrilled to live in a place where fall comes earlier.  Now, if it doesn't start snowing too early, I'll be even more thrilled.  Because winter is my all-time least favorite season!  But I'm so excited for the fall!  I love it!