Grateful Sunday

me and my friend, Chris, back in May (I'm holding Lauren's baby, I think she took the photo!)

This week has been great. Busy, but great. Today, I'm thankful for:

• great friends like Chris and all my other girlfriends here. I'm so lucky to have fallen in with such great women. I haven't seen Chris in a few weeks because of summer craziness, but she agreed to be my second counselor and I am so excited; she's awesome. My other counselor, Stephanie, did a great job conducting primary today, despite her nerves. I'm just grateful that I have learned from such great friends and will have great friends to work with in the future. Just overall, glad to be settled here!
• our trip to Sundance this week! Not happy that Neal can't come, but the kids and I will have fun with as many cousins as we can. And Neal can hug Trooper if he gets too sad. We'll miss the Elliott fam, though! Keep that little Henry cookin', guys!

sno cone time

Gotta love the new "spill stoppers" for 2010.

audrey on the fence

I was browsing my iphoto folders the other day, looking for a photo to fulfill an assignment from a fellow blogger, and found this little one of Audrey on the fence at the Kansas ranch a couple of summers ago. I love it.

stormy sky

We take a walk most evenings, down our street to the end, then turn around and come back. We're trying to wear out the puppy, but we have a nice time, too. Sunday night, the sky was just fascinating. We never got a drop of rain out of it, unfortunately, but it was pretty nonetheless.

We couldn't get over this cloud. It was positively BLUE. I hadn't ever seen a blue cloud, we guessed that it was somehow using the setting sunlight to reflect the blue sky to the west. Anyway, it was hard to take your eyes off of it. Miles said, "It's like we're on another planet!" And then we talked about imaginary planets all the way home.

weekend fun

I have lots of posts entitled "weekend fun", because we love to get out every once and a while and do stuff. Most weekends, we don't do much of anything, and those are still fun, but in a different, more relaxing way. Anyway, here are some shots from this weekend's fun in Dallas with cousins!

Miles and Caroline, the birthday girl! Her dad was kind enough to rent a room at the Hilton on the lake so that those of us who weren't out on the boat could swim! Because it was super, super hot.

Parker and Aunt Julie underwater, cool photo from Jeff!

Seeking shade, unsuccessfully.

Birthday dinner at Benihana. From left: Me; Caroline; her mom, Shawne; and Aunt Julie

In our pool on Friday with Claire

Grateful Sunday

We stopped at the temple on our way into Dallas this weekend. The kids had never been there (oops). Cousin Claire was visiting with her mom and brother, so we stole her for the ride into town.

This has been a fun week. I'm starting to freak out a little bit because summer is kind of almost over, but we still have a lot to do! Fun things, but, nevertheless, things that require planning. And packing. And driving.

Today, I'm grateful for:

• my religion. I'm glad that I was raised to be a religious person and that my faith plays a very large role in my life. It's hard to imagine my life any other way, but I am thoroughly convinced that without my faith and my dedication to it, my life would not be nearly as full or happy. I created my profile at the new Mormon.org site today, and can't wait until it goes live so I can start sharing it! You can create yours, very easily, here! In the meantime, you can watch this beautiful video about my friend, Rochelle, and her family.
• family fun. We had a great time with cousins and such this weekend, as we celebrated my niece, Caroline's 13th birthday. She's a lot of fun to be around, so her birthdays are always a party!
• support from friends and family. I was sustained as the Primary President in our ward today. It's definitely a big, deep breath moment in my life, but already, I can feel the love from the ward members. Although I've been in Primary for at least 8 years now, being president is a whole different ball game. I hope I'm ready, and I will do my best. And pray a lot.
• Audrey and her sensitive little self. She's not been feeling well this weekend, and is prone to worry and tears, especially when she's tired. She just needs love and patience, and lots of hugs. So we're here for her.

Surprise, It's Pa!

My dad called today from the airport asking if we could pick him up! We were so excited, jetted over to get him, and had seven fun hours until his flight took off. Thanks for coming, Pa!

Grateful Sunday

A photo that Jeff took of the campfire in Nebraska. We had s'mores and did some fireworks, then looked at the amazing night sky with Jeff's incredible telescope. What a great night!

Today has been nice. I had some great company, meeting with friends, old and new, and spending time with my little family.

Today, I'm grateful for:

• a supportive husband. I'm undertaking a few new occupations in the next little bit, and Neal's right there to make sure it's as easy as it can be for me. Love him. He also agreed that I should go to Sundance in a couple of weeks. Mostly because I just really wanted to.
• young children. I'm just glad they're still young enough to love us, to want to please us, and to want to be with us. I'm afraid for that to change one day.
• happy, fun friends.
• rain! We had so much rain this week; it was lovely, and our yard is as green as can be.
• eternal families. We had some friends who lost a child last week, and our hearts are just broken for them. What peace there is in knowing that our children are ours for eternity. Our relationships are never lost or forgotten. It's the most beautiful truth of our religion, and I'm so grateful to know it.

Nebraska Families

We snapped some family photos on the last day of the reunion. Neal has six siblings, and they were all there, with some or all of their own kids (or grandkids)! Lots of folks!

I told Charlotte I needed a picture of her with Audrey so I could show all my friends who she looks like!

Audrey and Claire.

Nebraska II

More Nebraska fun:

Audrey and Emmaline had so much fun exploring the ranch together. They'd go out on expeditions and return home with all sorts of goodies. They both found pet snakes (both girl snakes, according to Emma), and begged to take them home. Audrey won us over and now this little thing, named Almeria (after a nearby town; she wanted to name it something Nebraska-ish), lives in her room.

There was lots of crafting going on and lots of hair braiding as well. My sister-in-law, Julie, had some great reunion t-shirts made. Obviously everyone in the above photo is wearing theirs.

Miles and Oliver made some blocks into a ship. Or was it a castle. They had so much fun together.

And then there were some guns. Parker really wanted an air-soft gun for his birthday, but we opted out for another year. When we saw these laying around, though, we let him try it out (under supervision, of course). His big cousin, Ryan, helped in the ambush of Uncle Jeffie, by cocking the gun for Parker there behind the cooler. It was kinda hard to get the hang of. But, at the end of the trip, Jeff made the boys' entire life by letting them take the guns home. Oh joy.

Nebraska

We had a really great, really unplugged weekend in Nebraska with Neal's family. His dad purchased a ranch in the northern/central part of the state, about 15 hours from our home here in DFW. We took a couple of days to drive up there, enjoying the peaceful scenes all along the way. This photo above is of the North Loup River, which runs right through the front of the ranch property. I loved those big trees!

We took some time to explore the ranch in the Kubota, driving through meadows, gates and puddles, and even drove along the little old airplane runway just to the east of the main house.

I don't have many photos of the house, but this is a strange, sandy crawl space downstairs. The entrance looks like it was chiseled out of the wall, and the "sand room" as it is called runs almost the whole length of the old house. The ranch is situated in the "Sand Hills" portion of Nebraska; this is what the earth is like there. Needless to say, it keeps the kids well entertained. Here are mine digging around with Charlotte's boys, Oliver and Tucker.

Wading in the river.

Trooper nearly wore himself to pieces at the ranch, stayed outside except to sleep, and lived a dreamy doggie life. This spot on the porch was his favorite resting place. The wind blows almost constantly up there, and just put the puppy right to sleep if he ever thought to lay down.

More photos to come!