Summer Fun at the Cabin

This week we headed to my parent's cabin for a few days.  The day we got there it was quite rainy outside so we spent some time inside watching movies.  We had 14 kids there.

 

But when the rain ended we took a walk around the property and had fun in the tree house.

 

We also enjoyed rides behind the four wheeler.

 

The horse swings were a lot of fun too.

 

Even in the rain Grandpa was able to get a fire going but we waited to more s'mores until the rain was gone.

 

Grandpa took almost all the kids on a ride behind his tractor.

 

 Nathan preferred to stay behind and play with sticks in the fire.

 

The girls worked hard to make a cute girls fort.

 

 At the entrance to the girls fort.

 

The boys had fun helping Grandma move logs with his tractor.

 

Today I am thankful that:

*church is only one hour for us so we can all watch the 3pm broadcast from Salt Lake City.

*Holly is giving a talk in church today about her experiences reading the Book of Mormon.

*My kids have gotten to ride the bus for the past 6 years which made life really easy for me.  This year due to funding issues the bus will be gone.  I will miss seeing these cute little faces waving to me out the window.

 

My Great American Novel

When I was in 8th grade I started a journal.  I wrote in it frequently and just kept writing year after year.  Recently I pulled out my journal box and started to read the journals.  I started with the first one and read for weeks.  It has been fascinating and quite addicting.  I had terrible handwriting and spelling in the first few journals so it was a slow start but over time I did learn how to write neater and spell. I’ve been reminded about myself as a teenage girl and it helped me to understand my own teenage daughters better.  I was always in love with some boy (although I didn’t tell my friends who) and I often felt lonely despite having lots of friends.  I would write little goals for myself in my journal and it is fun to see how I did eventually accomplish them.  My parents were always taking us on fun adventures and doing nice things to help me out.  My mom made several dresses for me including the one pictured below.  I am the girl in front.
This picture is of me and my 9th grade friends after the ninth grade dinner dance.

Here I am after one of my 4 Girls Camp 50 mile hikes.  I loved hiking.  I still do when I don’t have complaining kids with me.  My dad went on 2 of the hikes with me.  I can’t believe that he would take a week off of work to spend with me and some crazy girls in the mountains.

 
I had lots of sweet friends in junior high and high school but Amy was one of the best.  Here she is at the zoo with me and my brothers and two of the neighbor boys.
I was so excited when I found out I was accepted to BYU.  When I started as a freshman my cousins Kodi and Trevor were there too.  I took a few classes with Kodi (we had the same major) and would often hang out with Trevor and his roommates who lived nearby.  My older brother Aaron was also there and was always so willing to drive my around.  He was so kind to me and doesn't always make funny pictures like he did here.
I didn’t know any of my roommates (see me posing with them below) but they were all amazing and we are still friends today.   As a freshman I took a fun dance class and met lots of nice boys.  I joined a service club called Wright leadership and met more fun boys.  I got to go on several dates which was pretty cool. I didn’t date much in high school. 

 
My sophomore year I lived off campus and had RM’s in my ward and went on even more dates.  But with every date either I wasn’t interested in him after the date or he wasn’t interested in me. I got to learn how to make lots of friends and how to talk to boys without blushing.
I stayed one spring term at BYU at the Colony Apartments and there I met this awesome group of people that I would visit the temple with early in the morning and take fun bike rides to Utah lake
with.

During spring term I learned how to play the guitar.  Everyday I would walk past  condo row and often I would see this cute guy out on his balcony.  After several weeks we started up a conversation exchanged numbers and went on a few dates.  I really liked the guy (who I called X man before I learned his name).  But I went home for summer and he graduated.  It wasn’t meant to be.

But that short lived romance prepared me for my junior year of college when I moved to the Riviera Apartments.  I had new roommates and a new ward and it was awesome.  Our FHE group pictured below was so fun and that is where I met a special boy named Scott.
It was not love at first sight but after a few weeks of school I wrote in my journal  “I really like a boy in my ward named Scott”.  The very next day he called me and asked me on a date.  I had a great time and felt so comfortable around him.  We started walking to school together everyday, studying together, sitting together at church and doing fun things together.  Later that year we got engaged. It was cool to read all the details about our courtship as I had forgotten so many of them. He became my best friend (even replacing my mom –who I was really close to).  Now 18 years later I am so glad I made that decision to move to the Riviera.
While at BYU I saw my grandparents often.  Both sets of them lived nearby and they were always inviting me and my roommates over.  Reading about their kindness surely made me miss them.  One Grandma is still alive but the others have passed on.  This picture was taken when I took Scott with me to their house.  I like this picture because I am wearing a denim dress that Scott didn't like but never told me that until years later. He is such a polite guy.  It had black buttons covered in corduroy.
I still have quite a few journals to read and I can’t wait to read about all my exciting adventures (that I have forgotten about).  My life story truly is the great American novel to me.

Jury Duty

After years of postponing jury duty due to small children I was summoned again.  This time I had no excuse so I drove into Seattle for Jury Duty.  It was a sunny day and as I crossed the I-90 bridge I was reminded of what a beautiful place I live. 

 I love how the tunnel says Seattle Portal to the Pacific.

I had printed out driving directions to the courthouse and I made it there easily.  I even found safe parking nearby.  The courthouse is the tall one with the green roof.  It was built in 2004 and was really nice.

 This is what the courtyard in front of the courthouse looked like.  I found this picture online--I was not there at night.

Upon entering the building I went through security screening and then to the jury office and lounge.  There were 31 of us that reported on Monday.  After a 30 minute video informing us of our responsibilities and how selection takes place we broke for an  hour lunch.  Seriously, couldn't we all have just eaten before we got there and then started one hour later.  I didn't mind the break though since I had some good reading material.  After the lunch break we were given juror numbers randomly and we went to the 14th floor courtroom.

This is what the inside of the courtroom looked like.  The jurors with the lower numbers sat in the jury stand on the left and those of us that couldn't fit sat in the audience rows.  The cushions were very soft. We need soft bench cushions like these at church. :)  We were asked several questions as a group by the judge and both sets of lawyers and if they applied to us we were to raise our number in the air.  Then they would come back to each of us and hear how it related to us. 

Questions were like:

 Have you ever been a juror before, what kind of case was it and did you reach a verdict?

Have you ever been to court before and about what?

Do you know any of the people or lawyers involved in this case?

Have you ever been wrongly accused for a crime you did not commit? 

Then all the jurors were sent out of the courtroom to this waiting area on the 14th floor for about 20 minutes.  Pretty cool but not enough seating  for all 31 of us.  I had to sit on the ground.

 This was our view out the window.

Then we were invited back into the courtroom so they could tell us which jurors had been selected to participate in the case.  Because my assigned number was so high I wasn't selected but it sure was an interesting day for me.  I will definitely say positive things about jury duty to my friends in the future.  It is nothing to be afraid of.