Wahoo! Back to School

My oldest starts pre-school this next week. I know it is just pre-school, but it is 2 1/2 hours 3 times a week that I know she will be gone and engaged in educational things that I don't have to do!!(insert celebration dance here) It is also during nap time for my younger cutie. So many options suddenly open up before me as this new stage begins. I adore my girls, but I do think this will be good. Summer is fun, but the structure the school year provides is wonderful. Besides preschool there is music class, dance class, story time, and toddler playtime. That means a lot less of my time will be spent trying to think of fun educational things for my little ones to do. I'm very excited and the best part is, so are the girls!! Win-win. I plan to clean, nap, scrapbook, or make calls for my calling. I might even be able to leave the monitor with my neighbor every once in a while and run a quick errand. Such possibilities!!

What do you plan to do with all your "extra" time now that school has begun again?

Wow, 10 years flies by!

10 years ago on Aug. 18th I entered the MTC very afraid, but ready to serve. I was a missionary in the New York, New York South mission for 20 months. I was called English speaking, but 11 months into my mission I was switched to American Sign Language. I grew to love the people of New York and especially the hearing impaired. I spent most of my mission in Brooklyn, but some in Queens and a short 2 months out in Long Island. I had such a great experience. I made many great friends, and learned so much about the gospel of Jesus Christ, and conquered several fears. Sometimes I can't even believe some of the things I did while there. I grew so much and can attribute a lot of who I am to those wonderful (but very hard) 20 months.

What is an experience in your life that largely shaped who you are?

Enrichment: to meet or not to meet

I was recently made the enrichment counselor in my ward. The presidency has heard from many sisters in the ward asking for a monthly enrichment night again. Honestly it was becoming a problem trying to attend all of the different enrichment classes. They were almost every night!! So, after a lot of discussion with the RS presidency, the bishop, and the RS stake presidency we decided to hold a monthly enrichment night. The quartly meetings will remain the same. For the activites we will meet and have a little something to eat (part of the recipe class) and then break off into classes. One night, everyone gets to see eveyone else. When I presented this idea in Relief Society, we of course got a few murmurs of "that's going against the brethren". So, what do you think? Is this going against the brethren, a great idea, or just not going to work? I'm curious what others think, and how other wards do enrichment.

Despain family reunion

We had a Despain family reuinion on Friday and Saturday. We went to the Heber Valley Camp. It is a beautiful camp near Heber for the Young Women. On the weekends though they rent it out to other groups. President Hinckley commisioned it, so it is a new facility and very nicely kept up. Lydia loved the bunk beds and getting to sleep in a cabin with a lot of cousins.

Ali and Lizzy were joined at the hip through the weekend. They each thought the other was hilarious. Here they are enjoying throwing wood chips into the fire.

We did a challenge course on Saturday morning. This part we climbed the tree, walked across on a cable to another tree, and repeled down. That was one of my favorites. There were also challenges like getting our group through a "spider web" without touching the rope and unity builders like that. I got dropped a couple of times. So much for trusting my family. :)

Later we went to the lake and rode in paddle boats and canoes. Ali loved helping Tim paddle.

We had a great time, and it is always fun to see so much family!! My sister and her 4 kids are staying with us this week, but at least we're home now. Stay tuned next week for those adventures.

Washington Week 3: Spokane

I had a wonderful time visitng my mom. I really wish I could live closer to my family. They mean so much to me and I just enjoy being with them. Isn't my mom lovely? Our trip was winding down, but we had one more stop before heading home.

On Tuesday we went to visit my sister Noelle in Spokane. Noelle lives on Lake Spokane, so of course we went to the beach. They had a great time except when Alissa pulled Lydia and Haley out to a floating dock on a raft. There were several teenagers on the dock playing. The girls got out to also play on the dock. One of the teenagers pushed Lydia and she fell on the dock and rolled into the water. Lydia was hurt and terrified. Needless to say she was done for the day and I was saying a prayer of thanks for life jackets.

On Thursday we headed out for our 13 hour drive back to Utah. Can you see how thrilled the girls were about this trip? Noelle and I were even less thrilled, I can tell you that. At least we had Edward and Bella to keep us company.

Washington Week 2: Moses Lake

We went to Grandma's house in Moses Lake, WA this week. Moses Lake is on the desert side of the state. It is a beautiful lake in the middle of nowhere with a little town. No worries though, it was still big enough for me to get my Breaking Dawn on Saturday.

One of the highlights of Gradma's house is the myriad of pets she has collected from various children moving out and the pets remaining. Sky is a very old golden retriever, Cocoa is an affectionate calico cat, and this is Larry the bearded dragon. The girls love to watch him eat crickets. Ali follows the animals around all day exclaiming that she is "so happy to see you!"

There is a great water park in this little town. This is me boogie boarding at the surf area. We always have fun going here in the summer.

Zachary loves dinos, and the girls like to play with him. They've been stomping around growling a lot this week. They have really enjoyed having so many cousins around to play with.

Moses Lake really is a great recreational lake. Too bad we don't have a boat or jet skiis. Mom has a canoe, that's close right? We spent one day at the beach playing in the sand (which is black) and floating around. That's just Lydia's kind of day.

Ali doesn't get in the water much, she prefers to play in the sand. That's fine by me, she's easier to watch that way.

We had a great week. I love being close to my family and miss them terribly. I wish we could live closer to them. So far it isn't in the cards for us though. We miss dad and we're all getting really excited to see him again. We head back to Utah on Thurs, but also have a reunion in Heber over the weekend. Then we're all vacationed out. I'm exhausted.

What do you do to unwind from a vacation?