Family

For our combined fifth sunday meeting yesterday The Bishop, and a few others he had asked to help, talked about family home evening and different things that have worked for them. Several of them had such great ideas that I thought I'd share and if anyone has things that have worked well for them please leave a comment.

Mary Shumway had a great way to get her teenagers excited about fhe as well as include all of her kids who no longer live at home. I won't be able to do this quite yet because my kids are too young and cell phoneless (I know I'm so mean) but I thought we would try to do a version of it without the phones. Starting last spring the Monday after conference she started a trivia game to see who learned the most from conference. She texts all her kids (including the two in her house) a question about conference. They all then text back and anyoen who gives the right answer gets a point. They continued the tradition last fall and are planning the third round next week. I thought it was a great way to include your whole family when they start moving way to college.

Derek Bethea said that they always do a lesson on Sunday night and an activity on Monday night. Sunday after the lesson they decide as a family what the activity will be so that makes the kids excited for the Sunday night lesson because they know they will decide what they'll be doing the next day.

After the meeting I got thinking about the fact that my kids still LOVE doing things as a family and in a few years they probably won't be quite as excited so I need to take full advantage of this time before it's gone. I decided to take both of their ideas and change them a little to work with my family. If anyone else has good ideas for things that have worked for them, or if you have certain family activities that your kids love, please leave them in a comment.

Broken heart

Last night as we sent Logan to bed he started the normal whining and trying to get out of it routine. I told him if he kept crying I was going to throw away his bionicle guy so he stopped and started walking to bed sniffling. I asked why he was still sad and he said "I think my heart is breaking". I asked why, he said "because I don't even have my own pony". Seriously, how could we be that mean.

Viva Mexico

We just got back from a week in Mexico and other than missing my kids I was not ready to come back to the real world just yet. We had such a good time. My parents and Stacy and Taylor came with us. We boarded the Princess Sapphire last Saturday and began eating immediately, and unfortunately it continued until they made us get off the ship yesterday. We spent two and a half days at sea and got to Puerto Vallarta on Tuesday. In PV (which is what all the locals call it and pretty much after 12 or so hours there we now consider ourselves local) we went on an awesome "adventure" which I would recommend to anyone going there. It started off with a boat ride followed by a very bumpy jeep ride. When we got to the "base camp" in the heart of the Sierra Madres we each mounted a mule and headed up the mountain. At the top we began the exciting trip down which included several zip lines, rapelling, hiking and the most beautiful scenery I've ever seen. It was awesome, if you're going to Puerto Vallarta any time soon see this link for details.

The next day we went to Mazatlan. We decided to do a little more relaxing tour this day so we went to an island called Stone Island and did sea kayaks, road a bananna boat and then just relaxed on the beach. It was also lots of fun.

Thursday we went to Cabo San Lucas. We only had a few hours there so we just shopped and hung out on lover's beach. It was gorgeous and I really want to go back.
Friday and Saturday were spent on the boat getting back to L.A. It was nice to catch back up on sleep, it was really rough to not have time for naps on the three days we were at ports. We basically napped, ate, napped some more, and of course ate some more. We then spent two some what miserable days in the car to get home. The kids were very excited to have us home- thanks to Kera, Nicole, Cristi, Shantil, Rebecca, Cathy and Bryce we didn't worry about them while we were gone. We knew they were well taken care of and they all had a great time with everyone.

Jeremy on the Mule ride, there is some cowboy in him after all!!

Rappeling down the waterfalls.

the zip line race- I lost.

Free fall rappel.

seriously, how cute is he??

In case any questions arise with this photo I need to clarify that the drinks were all on the table when we sat here- at least that's our story and we're sticking to it.

Thanks again Mom, Dad, Stacy and Taylor. We had a great time, can't wait for next time!!!

Finding Joy in the journey

I loved Pres. Monson's talk in this last October conference entitled 'finding joy in the journey" and this morning I was reading it again. It came back to mind as I sat in Relief Society and listened to the announcements which included the status of several ward members who are very sick and nearing the end of their lives (one of which being my Aunt). It made me think how important it is to really enjoy every minute that we have. I have selected a couple quotes from the talk that I especially liked but I recommend reading the whole thing here.

"If you have children who are grown and gone, in all likelihood you have occasionally felt pangs of loss and the recognition that you didn’t appreciate that time of life as much as you should have. Of course, there is no going back, but only forward. Rather than dwelling on the past, we should make the most of today, of the here and now, doing all we can to provide pleasant memories for the future.
If you are still in the process of raising children, be aware that the tiny fingerprints that show up on almost every newly cleaned surface, the toys scattered about the house, the piles and piles of laundry to be tackled will disappear all too soon and that you will—to your surprise—miss them profoundly.
Stresses in our lives come regardless of our circumstances. We must deal with them the best we can. But we should not let them get in the way of what is most important—and what is most important almost always involves the people around us. Often we assume that they must know how much we love them. But we should never assume; we should let them know.

Despite the changes which come into our lives and with gratitude in our hearts, may we fill our days—as much as we can—with those things which matter most. May we cherish those we hold dear and express our love to them in word and in deed."

I am grateful for my life and to all of you who have been an influence in my journey. Please know how much I love and appreciate you.