The Grotto

On Saturday morning we hiked the Grotto with another family in the ward. The Grotto is about 20 minutes up Payson Canyon. The trail is only about 15 minutes and it really isn't much of hike. However, it is beautiful. As you can see it is a waterfall cascading from a huge rock. It was especially pretty this time of year. The leaves are just starting to turn colors. I was just talking with my mom a few days ago about nature and I mentioned that my two favorite things about nature was rainbows and waterfalls. We are lucky to live in such a beautiful place.

This is Aaron and Molly at the beginning of the Grotto Trail.

Despite the chilly weather, Molly had a blast. She giggled the entire way down.

Our weekend

This weekend was so much fun. On Saturday we started our day by going to the greenhouse in town. My mom pulled out all the shrubs in her front yard this summer. She isn't exactly sure what she wants to put back in but something low maintenance. A lady in our ward was working and she showed us different things and then said she would come to the house and design my moms yard. So that will be our project next weekend.

After that we went to Spanish Fork for the first ever kite festival. I was so mad because when we left the house I changed the batteries in our camera and I even turned it on to make sure it worked. Apparently the batteries weren't completely charged because when I went to take pictures the camera was dead. They had a lot of different booths and different things to do. We started by test riding the trikes. They have two wheels in the back and one in the front and you sit low to the ground. Then we sat down by the reservoir and watched people flying kites off the back of the jet ski's doing all kinds of tricks, while we enjoyed an Italian ice. Then over at the gun range they had HUGE kites they were flying off of 4-wheelers. It was fun to see all the different kits like a giant octopus, a scuba diver, turtles, and fish.

We then had to come home because we had regional stake conference and Aaron had to go to priesthood leadership. Then that evening we had the adult session. Our Stake President set a goal that we needed to have 80% sacrament attendance. I didn't realized the lack of attendance but I guess we are only at 52% right now. We have a lot of work to do. On Sunday we were able to hear from Elder Jensen from the Seventy, Sister Dib (President Monson's daughter,) President Packer and President Uchtdorf. It is always uplifting to hear council from the leaders of our church. I am grateful for their love and sacrifice. My favorite was Jensen's talk. He told a story about his brother who is handicap or "different" and he talked about how some people are not always nice or they make fun of him. In the Celestial Kingdom Gary and others will be made perfect. It made me think about friends I know who have had four of their kids born with severe handicaps and three of those children have passed away. There sweet parents will get a chance to raise them and see their kids be perfect. I also thought a lot about my aunt. She was once a very active person. She played many different sports, clogged, was a cheerleader, and at the age of 23 was in a car accident and was left paralysed. One day she will be made perfect. He then shared with us the primary song "I'll walk with you, I'll talk with you." This is such a sweet song and teaches us that we are all Children of God and that Jesus loves EVERYONE. I am grateful to have the knowledge that He loves me and knows me. My goal is to be less judgemental of others and love everyone.

Labor Day - Onion Day's

Yes that is right the Golden Onion Days were last weekend in Payson. It is one of my most favorite times of the year. My entire family gets together to enjoy fireworks,carnival,lots of deep fried foods including pickles,oreos, onion rings, curly fries,and funnel cakes, we also have a parade, booths, and entertainment at the park. It is very exciting. It was both Aaron and Molly's first experience of Onion Days. We started the weekend off by entering Molly in the baby contest. The theme for this year was "When I Grow Up" That being said and with the Olympics fresh on the mind we dressed her up like a USA Olympic gold medal swimmer. She didn't win but we thought she looked pretty dang cute!

We then headed over to my dad's house to watch the fireworks. Below is a picture of Molly with Grandpa J. He was visiting from Nevada. We gave Molly a little light stick to keep her occupied and after a few minutes of sitting with Grandpa she was fast asleep.
On Sunday afternoon we went to my aunt Christeen's house for dinner. Above is a picture of Molly playing on my dad's shoulders. The next is with the two grandpas.
On Monday morning we went to our usual parade spot. In had rained all night but the sun was just coming out as the paraded was starting. By the time the parade got to us it was not only windy and rainy,but it started to hail. Molly didn't seem to mind the rain at all. It was cold and I was trying to keep her covered up but she wanted to be free. Needless to say we didn't last long before we headed home to get warm. I just had to get a picture of Molly at her first parade.After the rain went away and the sun came out we went to the carnival. I couldn't resist and just had to put her on a few rides. She liked the Mary-go-Round, and the little train that went in circles.

Despite the cold, and rainy weather we had a fantastic Labor Day.