Reaves & Lincoln

Kenny & Cleona drove down to Snowflake on Sunday night. I love watching Reaves & Lincoln play together. They love each other! Reaves was so excited about his new Hulk sleeping bag...he & Linc took turns making each other into burritos in the sleeping bag. We left the next morning & got home in time for Lincoln to go to school. It was such a nice trip!

Labor Day

For Labor Day we decided at the last minute to go up to the cabin. We left Sunday after church with Steve & Erica & their girls. That night we built a fire & sat around & talked, & the kids made smores.

We had a lot of fun that night. The best was playing "What If" until the wee hours of the morning with Lincoln, Steve & Erica, & Charlie. The game got pretty crazy...talking about naked goth people falling from the sky and all sorts of cool stuff. I know you wish you could have been there. :)

Our New Buddy

This guy was hanging out on the deck with us. The kids quickly made friends with it...it was so funny. They kept touching the bug and laughing their heads off when it would rear up on its back legs. As you can see, Lincoln didn't get enough dessert after dinner. :)

Welcome Home Gift

This is what we came home to...nice huh? Luckily Brandon & Christa called us and told us what they had found before we came home, so we were prepared for it. Lincoln's mom's wedding ring was in the truck! I am SO thankful that it wasn't stolen...that would have been such bad news to give to someone! Why we were stupid enough to keep it in there, I have no idea. Anyway, nothing was stolen. I guess maybe the culprits got scared off or something. Lincoln had a lot of fun cleaning up the glass that was all over inside!

Initiation

Lincoln decided that the truck needed to be "initiated" on our last trip to Snowflake so he drove through the mud on the road to Da's house. This picture doesn't do it justice. Linc was SO excited when he saw how dirty he got the truck...he was literally jumping up & down.

All Ready To Go

When we were in Snowflake a couple weeks ago, Lincoln, his dad, and brother Matt helped get the foundation poured for Jackson's headstone. It was actually more work then we thought it would be, but it turned out great. Now we just need to place the headstone & it will be finished!

How do you moms do it?!

This week I've been lucky to get out of bed before 11am. I've had a sore throat all week & have felt pretty crappy, plus I've been on Vicodin the past 2 days for some dental work I had done. Needless to say, I haven't gotten much done at all. When I woke up this morning, I had the thought, "What if I had kids? I would feel EXTRA guilty because they probably would have been watching movies all week." So now I am feeling guilty that if I had kids right now, I would feel like a horrible mom. Wow, who does that? I'm already worried about what I am going to do when I don't feel well (which I can't really control) when I have kids (which I don't have)...& actually, now that I am writing this, I am assuming that you just take care of your kids because it's your job and you have to...and that they probably wouldn't mind watching movies all week anyway. Hmmm.....well, I guess the point of this post is...I have a lot of respect for you moms who can't sleep in until 11am when you're sick and who get through a week with kids stuck in the house and everything falling to pieces while you are feeling like your head might fall off, or in this case that you may never be able to eat or drink again without your throat screaming out, "NO MORE!!!" (Lincoln loves me because I'm never dramatic.) BUT I do get to sleep in & I am only hypothetically feeling guilty that my "kids have to watch movies all day". So I guess I'll take that for now. P.S.-Lincoln started school so I won't have nearly as many fun pictures to blog. So now you get my random thoughts on random things! Enjoy! :)

Inspiring

Through a few friends' blogs I found this one, & thought that many of you would enjoy reading it. It talks about a couple in Mesa (Stephanie & Christian) who were in a plane crash a few weeks ago & were badly burned. Stephanie's sister is constantly updating her blog with news of their recovery. She has her sister's kids living with her & writes about them also. I don't even know them, but love reading this inspiring blog. I'm sure they would appreciate lots of prayers and good wishes.

Man of My Dreams

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VICTORY!!!

I have an extremely exciting story to share! We took a trip to Snowflake earlier this week. On Tuesday night I walked the mile or so to Lincoln's brother Matt's house & Lincoln rode his bike there. On the way home I had some energy & decided to jog back to his parents' house. First a little background though: A couple years ago, Linc made a comment about the way that I run. Let's just say that it wasn't a nice comment & he REALLY regrets saying it. He's apologized a million times for it, so don't hold it against him. :) I wouldn't even say anything about it, but it's a key part to this story.

So now fast forward to Tuesday night. I am jogging back to Lincoln's parents' house & he is riding his bike behind me. He says, "Holy cow! You don't run weird anymore!" I asked him what he was talking about & he said, "You look totally normal now when you run!" He asked me what I was doing differently & I told him "nothing". When I ran into the house, Lincoln's mom asked me, "Were you just running? Didn't it hurt you?" I stopped to think about it & realized that it hadn't hurt even ONE LITTLE BIT!!! Also, usually when I stop exercising my lower body just throbs...this time there was NOTHING AT ALL!!! I cannot even explain how excited I was!

We realized that the reason I ran "weird" before was because my body was trying to absorb the impact. I would kind of lean over & bend my body over...& this time I didn't have to do that because it didn't hurt! I'm sure some people would consider this a small victory, but for me it was HUGE!!! I haven't jogged without being in pain for 8 years! Yeah, yeah, yeah for me!!!

Trip to Shawn & Stetson's Mission

A few weeks ago we took our second big trip of the summer to visit Shawn & Stetson's mission. There were a total of 19 people & 5 rental cars in our little caravan. We flew into Portland on Sunday night & my family went to a baptism with Shawn. It was really neat because my brother Aaron actually got to do a week-long mission in Washington with Shawn in June, & they tracted into this lady whose baptism it was. Her husband was baptized also. Funny story...while we were waiting for Shawn to come out after the baptism part of it, his old companion poked his head in & told Aaron to come out in the hall for a minute. Aaron comes in a few minutes later with Shawn's shirt on & the sleeves are totally wet. I guess Shawn forgot an extra shirt to change into....it was so funny.We met all the missionaries at Wingman. The boys loved it, but I wasn't as big of a fan. Just a word of advice...if you are ever in this area & drive by a Burgerville....GO THERE! They have the most amazing raspberry shakes I've ever tasted. The raspberries are picked fresh from across the street & they use Tillamook ice cream. So, so good!!!
A guy who Shawn helped teach & who later got baptized (Sean) is a manager for Nike. He got all 19 of us in to the Nike Employee Store & we felt like we were in heaven! They check for your id at the door & will only let people in who are friends or family of employees. A bunch of celebrities & sports teams go there too. Everything in the store is 50% off!!! It was so nice of Sean to totally hook us up! I definitely wished that Lincoln was already a doctor so that I could spend as much money as I wanted there. :) I ended up getting Hurley shorts & a shirt (Nike owns Hurley) & the most comfy Nike sandals ever. Linc got a jacket, push up bars, & a few other things. SO FUN!!!!! P.S.-Just ignore the cell phone in Lincoln's hand in this picture.
We remembered that Bekah & Michael live near Portland so we called them to see if we could pay them a visit. Linc & I ended up hanging out with them from 5pm-midnight. We had SO much fun!!! We ate at Red Robin, then went & got some delicious Tillamook ice cream.
Funny story...Bekah & Lincoln grew up in the same town & were good friends in high school. After high school, I met Bekah & we became good friends. Her husband Michael & I grew up in the same ward. After Lincoln & I started dating, we realized that we both knew Bekah. Michael & Bekah lived in the same ward as us after we were married. So we definitely have a lot of connections to them.

After we ate, the boys played video games & Bekah and I talked for a few hours. She is the easiest person to talk to. I always feel so comfortable around her & we seem to just "get" each other. I never feel like I have to explain myself when I am talking to her. She has so much insight into life and I really admire the principles that she embraces and stands for. THANK YOU MICHAEL & BEKAH FOR A GREAT NIGHT!!!