See the Good

A little bit of wisdom from my sister Kristie, who is currently serving a mission in Finland:

"Over the past few weeks it seemed as though nothing was going our way. Sister Bruce and I just laughed it all off and kept working, but deep down it was still a little hard, then I realized a few things. First of all, things can always be better then they seem. When you are just waiting for the next thing to go wrong, and focusing on the negative side of things then of course it will seem like everything is going wrong!! So this week I started to focus on every good thing that happened, no matter how small it was and I realized that there are so many amazing things and little miracles happening right before my eyes every single day that I had been missing. This is the Lord's work and I can truly see his hand in things. Everything that I thought had gone wrong started making so much more sense, we needed to be in certain areas at certain times for certain people and if things had worked out the way I thought was right we wouldn't have been. We just need to trust in the Lord and try to see the big picture. "

So proud of that girl! And our brother Jason who is serving in Mexico right now. Can't wait to get them back but I know they are where they need to be right now.

Hiking in the Rain

Yesterday for FHE, we went hiking in the beautiful Red Rocks Canyon Park.

Except... we did it in a thunderstorm with rain pouring down. Believe it or not, it actually made it more fun haha. I wish I'd snapped some pics, but you know, I was trying to keep my cell phone dry. :)

A few of us decided to camp out under a tree for a while in a vain attempt to stay dry. From there we ran back and hid under the Red Rocks for a bit, before finally making a mad dash back to the parking lot.

We ended up hanging out in a car for a long time, using the heater to dry off, laughing and goofing around and waiting for everyone else to come back. It was really fun. Maybe I'll have to do rain hiking more often (although, maybe only when there's not so much lightning!).

Dog Stroller

So today, I became the semi-embarrassed owner of a dog stroller.

I know, I know. If you're like me, you've seen dog strollers in the store or out on the sidewalk somewhere, and you've been a little weirded out. Aren't strollers for babies? Isn't the whole point of walking your dog to, like, let it walk?

But my poor sweet little puppy is now a very elderly 15. He still wants to go on walks, but his body just isn't up for it anymore. It seriously took him half an hour just to walk to the end of the street the other day. For some reason, he's perky at home, but walks wear him out fast.

So... I caved. A dog stroller seemed like the perfect solution. It took me forever to find one that was cheap. It came in the mail today--fortunately in a camouflaged box so the mailman wouldn't think I was crazy.

Yeah.... I'm pretty sure my mailman thinks I'm crazy...

Shauna and I may have gotten a little bit too excited about it.  I took a break from work to help assemble it. As soon as we had it up, we woke Max up (um... not a great idea, in hindsight) and off we went!

I think we both had visions of Max being thrilled that he could go on a walk again. That's... not quite how it went down. At first he was looking around with an incredibly confused expression. What is this thing and what are we doing? But he stayed put, until I said, "I think he must like it, otherwise he would be trying to jump out." Yeah, he totally understood that because he immediately started trying to jump out.

So, we stopped, and let him out to stretch his legs. Immediately the little guy took off at a dead run. Our little dog... the one that took half an hour to walk down our street... running as fast as he could go. I took this as, "I don't need a stroller!!! I have four legs!" Eventually, though, he tired himself out, so we stuck him back into the stroller... until he got his strength back and we let him out again. It seemed like a pretty good system. He'd run, get tired, we'd stick him back in the stroller...

So, the jury is out on whether or not he likes it. I think it will grow on him. :) It better!

My first (semi) Pro Soccer Game

Highlights of my first semi-professional soccer game:

• The look on the security guy's face when he found a full bottle of ketchup in Lori's purse. He let her through. What was she gonna do with that? He did not find the hot dog in my jacket pocket. (It was all for a girl who was too late for the tailgate but she'd asked us to please save her food.)
• Saving seats for our group and realizing I have no clue which team was ours out on the soccer field.
• Playing frisbee with the adorable toddler in front of me. He kept throwing it at me and giving me the biggest grin until his parents finally distracted him with candy. :)
• After Lori told me we were the blue team, enthusiastically cheering for them until the white team got the first point and the crowd erupted and we realized we'd been cheering for the wrong team the whole time.
• At halftime, when five lucky audience members got to run in circles for 10 seconds and then try to kick a soccer ball past the mascot... and when it was a little kid's turn, all the other contestants tackled Ziggy (who is a goat by the way) so the kid got a clear shot.
• Oh, and the soccer playing was pretty good too. :)

Hello Again

Hello there, blog. It's been a little while.

Before my company dove into grant writing season, my boss warned me it would be all consuming for all 8 weeks of the process. I believed her, but I didn't really understand. Let me tell you, she was not kidding. And I apologize to all of you that had to listen to me talk about nothing but the grant app for the last few weeks.

But... we did it and we made the deadline and it's all over now! :) Let the celebrations begin!

Summer is Here!

Summer really crept up on me this year.

I think a big part of it was all the crazy stuff going on with the weather. First we have the warmest winter I can ever remember, then the coldest and wettest spring... and then boom! It's June 1 and it's in the 70s.

I went on a long walk that day to enjoy the sun, and I caught myself thinking how beautiful the weather was, just like summer. Then it hit me... oh my gosh, it's June! It IS summer! Where has this year gone?!?

Being back in the Springs has brought on a weird mix of nostalgia. Even though I always came back to visit here frequently, there were a lot of places I didn't go, and when I go there now I'm amazed how much things have changed.

I keep having flashbacks to my high school years, the last time I was living here full time, and to summers spent working here during my time at BYU.

And I keep having flashbacks to Provo too. There's so much I miss in Provo--people and places. I'd built a life there that it was hard to leave behind.

But, onward and upward! Even though life is hectic, I have a feeling the summer is going to be amazing. :) Which reminds me! I need to keep up my summer tradition of creating a summer bucket list. That's a little harder this year, since I don't know off the top of my head all the places to check out in Colorado... Anyone have any good suggestions?

Shauna's Graduation!

Today Shauna graduated from BYU!

Technically she graduated back in December, but December graduates come to the April graduation.

We are all really proud of her. It was fun watching it all sink in and watching the smile on her face get bigger and bigger. I know she has a very bright future ahead!

Being at the graduation was crazy. I had so many flashbacks to my own BYU graduations in the past. Then, we ran into some friends of my parents--apparently the husband was someone who attended optometry school with my dad. Watching them catch up after twenty years was like catching a glimpse of my future--someday when I run into BYU friends when we're old enough to have college kids ourselves.

Crazy how fast life ends up going. It's been 5 years since I  got my bachelor's degree. It'll be interesting to see where we all are in another 5 years!