Bucket List - Winter Style

I realize that nobody's reading this because, well, I didn't blog for like 900 years. However, I'm going to post none-the-less. This past week hasn't been all that exciting but there are two things I'm going to post about.

First - Kerri and Olivia and I have created Bucket List - Winter (Jan to end of March). On this list are a variety of exciting possibilities that we (either individually or collectively) will hope to accomplish in the near future (by April General Conference weekend). Can't wait to see what we'll get done this time!

Winter Bucket List...

Second - Near Christmas time, Paige and Adam had us over for an FHE. We each chose to give a "gift to the Savior" that we'll look at next Christmas. My "gift" was was to spend at least 15 -30 min each day reading from the scriptures. So far I have worked really hard to make sure that I do this daily, and I have REALLY loved it. This week as I have read, I have thought about my testimony. I've been reading about Ammon's mission to the Lamanites and King Lamoni's conversion. It's really made me think about my desire to gain a testimony. Why am I not more like him? He was so willing to give away all he had to come to know the Savior. I also read today about the Anti-Nephi-Lehi's who literally gave their lives, because they didn't want to sin and risk loosing eternal salvation.

I love how reading from the Book of Mormon helps me to desire to be more like those righteous examples who have such solid testimonies and relationships of/with the Savior. So grateful that Heavenly Father knows us so well, and that he gave me the amazing gift of scriptures.

Birthday Trip 2011

The gorgeous gals, waiting for the adventure to begin...

I'm turning over a new leaf, and have set a goal to blog on Sunday mornings, since my church starts so late...

Recap of the best "birthday vaca" ever! Well, this one was "FUN", last years trip to NYC was just plain cool. Both were enjoyable for different reasons... anyway.

For the big B-day celebration this year (and yes, it looks like we would like to make an annual B-Day vaca trip... at least until one of the 3 of us get married) we decided to go to DISNEYLAND!!! Luckily Kerri has an Aunt and Uncle that live near Disneyland, and were kind enough to let the 5 of us come crash at their place for the 5 days. Here's what we did.

Flew in Friday night, got to Claire and Jim's and I basically passed out, while everyone else chatted (don't really know why, but I was WASTED!)

Saturday we got up, Kerri made me run up and down the hills of Cali at 6:00 - which kicked my behind, but was good for me - and then we headed home to get ready to go to the temple in Long Beach.

Quade, Tricia, Olivia, & Kerri at the temple

We did a session, and then picked up Preston from the airport, had lunch with the Cosby's

and headed to the Santa Monica Pier.

We played on the beach for an hour or so, and then headed to Hollywood to see WICKED! Love, love, love it! Following this wonderful experience we headed home and hit the sack at a very late hour.

Sunday morning we got ready for church (yep, K-dawg and I had to run to Kohls, because she left her skirt in her parents car... and though she could have pulled it off, the shirt pulled down to the knees wasn't going to quite cut it), headed to meet up with Olivia's mission president, and then Preston and I went over to the beach, while Kerri, Quade, and Olivia had dinner with the pres. Ended the night with a little Disney Trivial Pursuit (which we weren't too hot at, ironically) and a game of picture emotions.

Monday meant another grueling run up and down the wet hills of Cali, and then we prepared ourselves for a day of DISNEY in the rain! Had poncho's and all of our warm layers on, and despite getting SOAKED, had a blast, running from ride to ride and basically walking onto anything we wanted! Oh, and Preston and I got birthday badges because well, it was our birthday week! By mid afternoon I'd finally dried out some, and was finally comfortable. The only bad thing about the day is that we found out (too late) that the park had closed early. NOOOOO! So we found a place to eat dinner and headed home.

Tuesday we got up, packed up and went back for another day of running around the park. We were happy to find that the sun was out to stay, and yet the park was still EMPTY compared to any other trip I've been on. Ran to any ride we wanted and never waited more than 7 min to get on it!

(So this is the awesome "Squatch" statue in front of Claire and Jim's = we've recently become interested in the idea of squatches due to a great television program on the Animal Planet Channel)

BEST DISNEY TRIP EVER!!!!!!!!!!

(This is us being really sad that it's all over!)

Pushed it to the limit, and still made it to the airport in time to make our 7:30 flight home. Wednesday was a blur, but it was sure a vacation to remember!!! LOVE MY TRAVEL BUDDIES!!! See ya'll next year! (Olivia, Quade, Kerri, and Preston - you guys are the best!)