Summer Vacations

At our last Stake Conference, our Stake President issued a challenge to do something extraordinary in regards to the temple. Mike came up with a great idea. He suggested that we visit each temple in Utah and do a endowment session. I thought this was a great idea. Mike and I decided to make these trips our summer vacations. Our first temple to visit was the Salt Lake temple. It was over Spring Break for Mike. We met our good friends Allison and Brad there to do a live session. After the session we went out to dinner at the Garden Restaurant on the top floor of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. It was really good food. When dinner was finished Brad and Allison headed home and Mike and I went to stay the night at the Anniversary Inn. We stayed in the Mississippi Serenade room. It was really quite fun and it even had a waterfall in the shower. The next day we went shopping, had lunch at California Pizza Kitchen and saw a movie all at the Gateway. It was nice to get away.

We spent almost every other weekend traveling to one of the Utah Temples. We did take pictures at each temple but there are probably too many to put on here. We decided to have Mike try and take the picture of the two of us because his arms are much longer. You will see it was not an easy task. I am kind of short and he kept cutting off my head. We would eventually get a good shot and call it good. I will share only a couple of them because there are so many.
In April we visited the Bountiful Temple and the Ogden temple and in May we visited the Logan Temple and the Jordan River. When we went to Logan Mike's grandma was very kind to let us stay the night with her.

In the beginning of June, we were able to go to the Monticello Temple. On our way down we stopped at Arches National Park in Moab and walked around to some of the different arches. When we arrived in Monticello we checked in our hotel room and as we were leaving our room we ran into Uncle Norman and Aunt Becky (Mom's brother and sister-in-law). Of all places to see them. We didn't get to talk much because they were in a hurry but it was great to see them. We wonder if they were doing the same thing we were (in seeing all the temples in Utah). They are in our Stake and were given the same challenge to do something extraordinary in regards to the temple.

At the end of June, we were able to take a trip down to St. George. We ended up staying the night at Mike's Aunt Sandra and Uncle Arlo's place. We were a little disappointed to find that they were not going to be there for the weekend. We were able to attend the play Tarzan at the famous outdoor Tuacahn theater. We thoroughly enjoyed our time there. The next morning we went to the temple and then headed home.

In July we went to the Draper Temple and the Vernal Temple and our last temple we went to was the Manti Temple. The Manti Temple would be our last Utah Temple to visit. We had already been to the Provo and Mt. Timp Temples before the challenge was issued so we didn't get them fit in. We had hoped to finish our quest before the baby came and we made it. It was a great opportunity to take the time to visit each temple and feel of the Spirit. We liked the fact that we had started with a live endowment session and ended with a live endowment session.

Pregnancy Photo shoot

For the 4th of July we had lots of family members come into town. This included Matt, Emily, Erin and Chad and their little girls. While Erin and Chad were in town Erin did a pregnancy photo shoot with me. I was almost 7 months by then and Erin said she usually did the photo shoot later in the pregnancy. That way you could show more of the pregnant belly. We did it anyway because she was only going to be in town for the weekend and would not be here again before the pregnancy was over. Here are a couple of pictures from the photo shoot. Thanks Erin for the fun times. This really has been a good pregnancy for me. I have not been throwing up or had any complications. The only things that I have been experiencing are heartburn, carpal tunnel syndrome, and numbing and tingling in my legs. This makes it hard to sleep but with some Prevacid, a cold rice bag and a wonderful husband, to massage my legs before going to bed, it has been a little easier to sleep. Only 7 1/2 weeks until my due date. I just can't wait for Brooklyn to get here. I have been sewing and getting ready for her. I will post pictures later when the room is ready. Mike and I are taking a prenatal class which is once a week for 4 weeks. We have gone over all the basics and have even seen the birthing video with 4 different scenarios. I am a little nervous about it but I know the outcome is all worth it.