General Conference Weekend

I love General Conference! Twice a year we get to hear from prophets and apostles of God during this special conference. I feel grateful that God is so aware of us and reveals his words through our prophet.

I was especially grateful for Mom C. this conference, as she offered to watch our kiddies so Mike and I could actually go to conference. Usually we watch it on TV or the internet, but this time we were able to go to all four sessions and enjoy listening to every word! Because I wasn't taking care of children and trying to watch, I felt I had no excuse for not hearing everything. It was lovely! I felt like we stepped out of our normal busy lives and for two days we heard uplifting and inspiring messages, like this one. I came home Sunday night feeling renewed and excited to get back at it again!

Dad C. had a few extra tickets, so our friends, Gretchen and Eric (who happen to be moving to Michigan with us!) joined us, as well as April and Glenn.

Saturday was warm and kind of breezy, but Sunday we pulled into SLC and this was the scene! It was beautiful to see everything covered in a light blanket of snow.

Date Night...or Fireside Night?

Forgive me, but upcoming posts will probably include lots of pictures of our MBA friends. As we finish up our BYU experience, there are lots of closing socials, parties, and gatherings. These are people who have endured two years of very hard work with us and they are dear friends. I can't help but plaster the blog with pics so they'll be in our blog book to remember.

At the beginning of April, Mike's parents hosted a date night for a lot of our MBA comrades. Dad C. lead a great conversation about life, parenting, marriage, career, being leaders in our homes, etc. It was a lovely evening! Mom C. made a delicious brisket sandwich and some salads and I made a few desserts. We had a great evening with incredible people and fantastic conversation. James and Mejkin, Sarah and Edgar

Arrion and Jay, Jake Jarvis (Jake's wife was in CO house hunting, but he came anyway to enjoy the evening!) and Mike.

Natalie, me, and Jasmine

Melissa and Mark

Our fun neighbors, Broc and Joanna!

Last Minute Splash n' Dash!

A few weeks ago, Meghan texted on a Thursday afternoon asking if I wanted to participate in BYU's annual Splash n' Dash that Saturday. I had kind of hurt my knee over Christmas and had been swimming all semester. My running partner, Natalie, is a dream and has been swimming with me (she's never swam competitively, I'm so impressed that she's been meeting me at the pool at 6 a.m. to swim!). I had just reintroduced running into my morning workout, so I felt like I could probably do the race and it sounded so fun, so why not?

We decided to compete in the Elite division-- 1 mile swim, 10K run!

Natalie couldn't make it, but Meghan, Melissa, Tressa and I went for it. I think we were all a little nervous, it was kind of a big last minute race, but we had such a great time! We loved it!
My stroke looks pretty sloppy in this picture, but I actually felt great about my swim. I've never swam a solid mile in a race, but I did it in about 27-28 min. The race wasn't huge, in fact it was very small. There were zero spectators, except for these adorable kiddos and one delightfully supportive husband!It was a pretty chilly morning, so we changed our clothes after the swim and headed out for our 10K. I probably could have been more aggressive with my run, but I felt fine about it.
Here we are at the finish line. Such a fun race! If you're in Provo next Spring, register!

Of course I have to post about the Rex Lee Run. I'm so proud of Whit! About seven weeks before this race, April and I asked Whit if she wanted to run it with us. Whitney has never run for exercise before in her life! She started small, walk, run, walk run. She worked herself up to three miles and did awesome in the race! Her smile when she crossed the finish line was priceless! Whit's now registered for a 10K next month, so impressive!

Liz and Alisa come to Visit

We were so excited to hear that Liz and Alisa told us they were coming to town! Between our three families we have six little boys and little Amelia. We had a great time hanging out at grandma and grandpa's house, visiting BYU, and swimming at the rec center. I love these girls!Owen was adorable at the rec center! H had so much fun running around and exploring.Amelia on the other hand, cried most of the time until I pulled her out and wrapped her up.

Liz, Calvin, and Miles.



We love cousins! It was so great to see some of our boy cousins and we look forward to hanging out again this summer at the family reunion!

Amelia...and her brothers

Amelia is at such a fun age! Below are a few pictures of our sweet girl!

One day, Amelia kept carrying around the Spiderman costume. Finally, I put it on her and she loved it! It was so cute to see her toddling around as Spiderman!

I have to include this picture of the boys, it makes me laugh! These boys love playing together (for the most part). Am I crazy to let them do this?

Lunch with Dad

Over the last two years we've joined our daddy on campus for lunch numerous times. At points it was once a week, other times we averaged once a month, but it's always such a fun outing. I decided we need to capture some of our favorites of BYU, so here's a glimpse at lunch with dad.

Once the elevator doors open we always have to find the Y on the mural of BYU/Provo. So sorry to the students who happen to be walking by and are quickly cut off by my running boys anxious to be the first to find the Y!Lunch is fun because there's usually some entertainment in the WILK while we're there- you know, mid-evil swordsmen, strumming guitarists, dancing students, karate demonstrations, etc. My kids love the entertainment.The best part of lunch with dad comes after lunch at the candy counter! Each kid gets to pick their own candy and for less than $1 our kids are thrilled with the outing!We head home by way of the Law Building parking lot where the boys usually hide in the huge pine trees, hang from the limbs, and eat their candy.

We've really loved having lunch with dad and tried to do it often. I hope my kids remember going to BYU and having lunch with all the students, fun times!

Girls Weekend

So the weekend after Island Park, I hopped on a plane to California to meet my college roommates for a weekend of fun. These girls are some of my favorites! Jen was a wonderful hostess and had great things planned for us to do. First, we attended this crazy TRX exercise class. It was so fun, intense, and hilarious! We were doing all sorts of crazy things with these contraptions.

What's a girls' weekend without manicures and pedicures? It took a while to get us in and out with eight of us there, but we were very content to wait our turn and talk talk talk while waiting.We decided to go into SF for a day to go to this amazing fabric store. As we pulled into the city it seemed like there was some kind of event happening. Roads were closed off, stadium seating set up, police everywhere. We asked an officer what was going on and he was shocked that we weren't coming for the Chinese New Year parade, second largest to Hong Kong! Ha! It was pouring rain, so we passed on the parade, but thoroughly enjoyed this three story fabric delight!

The weekend was lovely, yet there was a void. Our gathering was just a couple days shy of the year mark of Catie's passing. We missed her. We cried. We laughed a lot, she'd want that, but we also cried. It was nice to be together. I love these women! I met them at such a pivotal time in my life and I am forever grateful for their friendship.

Dreamy Island Park!

We love the Meikles!! While in Nebraska the Meikles became our family, and we were excited when they moved West shortly after we started school. We've seen each other here and there over the last two years, but in February were finally able to get together for a lovely weekend in Island Park, Idaho. First of all, Island Park is beautiful! I'm a Colorado girl at heart and getting in the mountains like that truly feeds my soul! So, combine gorgeous mountains (I now aspire to own a cabin in Island Park) with great friends and you've got a perfect weekend!

Amelia and Amelia getting acquainted while pulling all the playing cards out of the drawer. The hot tub was a vacation destination for the kids! They loved being out there whenever they possibly could. Mike was crazy and jumped out to do snow angels and then jumped back in. He's such a kid at heart.We spent most of our day time in and out on snowmobiles. There were kiddie rides and there were adult rides, if you know what I mean! I loved flying on these machines, so fun!I loved seeing this side of Suzanne! Usually I see the mothering, cooking, home decorating, fashion, shopping side of Suzanne, but this was the "back to her roots" Suzanne, love this girl!We took a drive down by the Snake River and saw these two beautiful moose. Andrew loved getting to see them in the wild, the other kids were fast asleep in the van.Every night, after kids were in bed we'd stay up late playing games, eating gourmet food from Costco, and talking. The Meikle's never disappoint! We had such a great time and we left feeling uplifted, feeling like we want to try a little harder, we want to be a little better. Thanks for a great weekend!