3 Amazing Years

Nathan took me on a lift ride up at Sundance Ski Resort.  The scenery was beautiful and calm.  Being on the lift made us slow down, look around at our beautiful surroundings, and enjoy the completely un-rushed time we were giving each other.  We just enjoyed how in love we still are!

Afterwards we went out to eat at The Frontier Grill right by the lift...I wish I could say that the meal was amazing...it wasn't (maybe amazingly expensive) but the atmosphere is relaxed and comfy and again, just being with each other and not having to chase a toddler around the restaurant was very nice.  (*a big Thanks to Jessica and Brad (and Bailey) Johnson for watching Harlow so Nathan and I could enjoy some us time for our anniversary)  On the way down the mountain we played a game where we went through the alphabet and we each said something we love about the other that started with that letter.  (Nathan's a good sport to play my games with me...like the dice game the night before ;) - super liked that one)

We drove by a theater in Provo, but nothing sounded good.  Then we got a text from Jessica saying that Harlow had thrown up twice...we were already heading home so it didn't cut the night short but we sure felt bad that they had to deal with that.  We stopped at the Creamery on 9th for some yummy Butter Pecan ice cream and then to pick up Harlow.

We ended up borrowing 50 First Dates and watching it.  Super cute movie...wish it was more clean

The whole night was wonderful, just Nathan and I.  It's been a long time since we've been out just the two of us and it felt nice.  I am grateful for the love Nathan so freely and abundantly gives me!  He makes my world beautiful and bright...I'll save the rest of the mushy stuff for my Nathan to hear :)  But I will say that I am so thankful for this man who is my husband and my love, the Father of our Harlow and other children to come.  I don't know what I would do without him in my life! These truly have been the best 3 years of my life and looking forward to many, many more to come <3

Boating w/Kyle and Heidi

Kyle and Heidi have invited us out boating with them quite a few times this summer but we've always been busy until today!  We met up at their place and got the boat all ready.  I feel like I grew up on Utah Lake and dang, it honestly felt so good to be back in that green, dirty water!  I started off the trip by knee boarding, in memories of boating with Grandpa Ras.  Then we pulled out the wake board.  Nathan did great and is learning quickly.  It was nice to have Kyle and Heidi there giving advice on what to do different and improve.  Kyle was incredible to watch and Heidi was doing some sweet jumps by the end.  I even got up on the wake board!!!  A first for me!  I was so excited that first time that I started yelling and cheering, so much that I fell over...haha,  I quickly got back up and was going again.  I even got back into the wake!  I was thrilled!

Harlow had a good time on the boat.  We'd dip him in that water now and again to cool him off but the water was cold and he let us know that wasn't his favorite thing to do.  He did go swimming with Daddy for a tiny but and calmed down a little.  As it got later Harlow started getting sleepy but we made him a little bed under a shady spot (just like my mom use to do for me) and he took a snoozer.  Towards the end of the trip we wanted to get Harlow out on the tubes. 

Ended the day off with a relaxing picnic dinner out on the patio (Taco Salad) at our place and then watching The Ghost.  It's sure fun to have good friends.

Snake

Out doing yard work tonight and look what we found - a small garter snake!

Harlow's first encounter with a snake and he liked it.  "Be soft" was hard for Harlow cause he wanted to pick it up but when he did he'd squeeze the snake with his little fingers.  Poor little snakey!

Spanish Fork Reservoir

Nathan took us on a fun little family outing today - The Spanish Fork Reservoir.  He found it after attending a shotgun competition for his work up at the Spanish Fork Gun Range.  Spanish Fork has taken an irrigation reservoir and made it a multipurpose facility, if you will.  They made a sandy beach on one side of the water for people to relax on.  They also plant fish in it so that you can go fishing.  It was fun to feel some brush my legs when I was in the water.  The water was very cold today but Nathan did eventually braved up and swim across the reservoir lengthwise.

July was a month full of family and we absolutely loved it.  But it was so nice to just go spend some time together as Our Family.  Nathan's good at that, making special things happen and creating memories for our little family of 3.  There's nothing like being together!

Temple to Temple Run

a 5 Stake 5k

 Temple to Temple Run

from the Provo Temple to the new Provo City Center Temple

July 24, 2013

Nathan ran, pushing Harlow in the stroller.  He was hauling.  He said he wished he had got a better start and could have gotten out with the faster runners cause he was weaving in and out of slower people the entire time which he felt really slowed him down.  He still creamed me...oh well, it's not a competition...or is it...

My goal was to run the whole time.  As someone who ran a half marathon the entire way (except for having to stop to use a bathroom and getting locked inside) that shouldn't have been hard...but let's face it that was almost 2 years ago and since then I've had a kid and my running days don't come as often anymore.  But I made my goal, I ran (jogged might be a better word) the entire way without stopping!  Wahoo!  Silly, maybe, but I was totally proud of myself!  Go Me!!

We each wrote a name of an ancestor on our bib and were asked to think about that ancestor as we participated.  It was neat to think of Liela Wilkey as I ran and see so many other names written on all the backs around us.  As I ran with Whitney she told me about the name I chose and hers (Matilda Winkleman).  I am grateful for their righteous examples, their faith, and sacrifice.  I can be better, knowing who they were and what they've done makes me want to rise up to the call and be my best.

Dad Ras dropped us off at the Provo temple, drove and parked down town and started the race from the bottom.  He ran until he met up with Whitney and I then turned around and ran the rest of the race with us.  He said the first/lead person in the race was flying!  He couldn't believe how fast he was going.  Dad also said that the man had a motorcyclist going beside him and once he had to shout out to the runner cause he almost took a wrong turn.  That would have been fun to see.

Super fun to run with so many people!  There were over 5,000 people in this race.  Neat to just be surrounded by people the whole time.

Lunch with Good Friends!

Amanda Pinto and Scott England

Two of my close friends from Las Vegas and my college days

Scoot and Amanda were up in Provo (and other close areas) doing EFY this summer.  We planned to meet up on their lunch break at the BYU Creamery.  What are the chances of this but Amanda and Scoot were Co's this week.  It was so good to see both of them again.  Scott is getting ready to be married soon to a great girl named Bethany, who I am excited to get to know.  And Amanda is getting ready to move up here to Provo to attend UVU.  Super excited to have her close again!

Reminds me of my EFY days, 3 summers of EFY to be exact, and I totally loved them.  Loved working with the youth, learning tons about myself, getting to know other wonderful counselors and coordinators from all over, growing spiritually (I know it helped prepare me for my mission), having so much fun being goofy and living the gospel.

Rasmussen Family Reunion

Our family reunion started Tuesday with family pictures by Helga Laing (pictures to come in another post when we get them).  I love taking pictures and I think the other girls do too; the husbands and kids were good sports while we took so many pictures.  After pictures we went to our chapel parking lot on 300 south where we had a sort of "opening ceremonies" for the reunion.  That started off with a full on dance party in the parking lot.  Who knew you could bust some movies to 'Scripture Power'?!  We then sang songs like 'Here we sit like birds in the wilderness,' 'We're all together again,' and 'I love the Mountains'.  Dad and Mom presented our shirts to us** - we even made a tunnel for everyone to run through before getting their shirt - in memory of all the baseball games and such we did those for when we were kids.  Then Dad pulled out two firework bricks.  While those were going off Nathan flew his plane around and through the explosions.  (See the little blue and white thing just below the firework in the picture?  That's Nathan's plane - coll huh?!)  What a wonderful start to this week together!
And EVERYONE was HERE!!!
All 7 kids, spouses and children - 33 total
Blessings were being poured out already


Pioneer Day and the start of the reunion
(Nathan, I, Harlow, Whitney, and Dad all ran the Temple to Temple 5k together this morning...pictures are in the next post)
We had lunch together at Cafe Rio before heading up to...

 Heber City Camp

"Glamping!" -Brandi 

Mom Ras had to book this camp site a year and a half in advance to reserve it for all of us and goodness, are we all grateful she did!  The whole thing was wonderful!  Great spot, sleeping in warm cabins, bathrooms and showers close, running water, sinks, stoves right at our camp - Brandi was right when she called it "GLAMPING"!  Mom and Dad have been working and planning for a long time to have everything organized and ready and Wow, did they do an amazing job!

Three Cheers for Them, HipHipHooray!  HipHipHorrary!  HipHipHooray!!!!

**Our Rasmussen Family t-shirts had a number on the sleeve, the number marks when you joined the family.  Dad (1), Mom (2), Me-Lizz (7), Nathan (27), and Harlow (30).  There are 33 of us total right now - pretty neat!  Good job designing the shirts Papa!

I sure love this sister of mine!  It's been so fun to live close and get together often with our families!  She's been such an angel in my life and I love and admire her!

Thanks Becca for the incredible sister you are to me!  Kisses!!

Nicci, Sophie, Angeli, and Hailey

a beaver swimming out in the reservoir

I love this picture of Seth and Brandi

 So Beautiful!

Sweet little Graci Lynn and her butterfly

Rise and Shine Sleepy Heads!
Harlow seemed to take that literally; we were up around 6am every morning...it would have been nice to sleep in a bit but the mornings were beautiful and peaceful so I'll try not to complain

 Harlow found the granola...little sneaky

"Oh No, Whitney, You did not just photo bomb this picture"

"Why Yes, Yes I did!"

Nicci D and Uncle Nathan having a ball in the Canoe

Nicci thought we should row out to the yellow buoys across the lake.  She even got to touch it once we were there :)

Brayden and Ethan started a few different water fights.  They were just asking for it...yup, their canoe got tipped and they went swimming.

We got the have an hour out on the reservoir in canoes and paddle boats.

Shhh - Our last night there....Nathan had wanted to sneak out to the reservoir but no one would go with him so he and I snuck out on the dock and took a paddle boat out for a little spin.  We had to be super quiet.  The water was beautiful, calm and dark.  Our first paddle boat was all clanky so we switched it out for another one.  A nearly full moon came up over the mountain and it made us pretty obvious out there on the water.  We stayed out for a bit then headed back for camp where we ran into Ammon, Seth, Brandi, Paul, Stewart, and Emily.  The first 4 decided to join us out on the water, so out we went again.  We were giggling...we weren't very good at being quiet paddling the paddle boats either.  But it was fun...we're glad we didn't get caught!  A little fun "Harmless Rebellion" as Nathan called it.

 

We got to see a lot of deer...for some reason it just never gets old (at least when they're out here and not in your garden eating your stuff...not fun then, Not Fun!)

Here is a Mommy and her 2 fawns

In the picture above they are nursing

 Whitney and I cooking breakfast together 

What good sisters we are

Golly, I'm sure gonna miss this girl, I almost get teary eyed just thinking about it...but I'm saving that for a different post

 

Some nose picking action by our Harlow boy

Our Service Project:  shoveling, hauling, moving, and raking dirt/rocks onto the path.

"You're doing a great thing!  The groups before you moved the gravel in, the next group took the gravel back out, then the next group brought in the wood chips and the following group took the wood chips back out and now You, you get to put the gravel back in!" -our service missionary

 Great Grandma Larsen came up to visit us
We sure do love her!

 All the Air-Soft Wars were loads of fun.  I wasn't very good but they were still fun.  Heck, even picking up the 7,000 pellets Kolby accidentally spilled from off the ground was fun.  Just being together, that's what's really fun and makes everything that you do together all the more fun

 At the Cope Course
(*I was back at camp with a sick, had thrown up but now sleeping Harlow Boy)

 Harlow and cousins playing in the sand pit by the big swing

 Me on the big swing

Uncle Stew held Harlow the morning that Whitney and I made breakfast.  Thanks StewBug!  I definitely couldn't have helped Whit if you hadn't stepped in to help me.

Every night we sat around the campfire talking.  Dad told us Sam McGee, just like when we were little and camping.  He also brought up this super cool green laser pointer that points up into the sky; it feels like you're touching the stars.  With that, he pointed out constellations in the sky, again, just like he use to do for us when we were growing up.  Paul said "this is the first time I can actually see what he's trying to point out to me! All growing up he'd say "Look! there is Signus the Swan" and I'd be like sure Dad"  We all had a good laugh from that.   One night we did smores.  And another night we watch "Jennifer is a Party Pooper?!" on YouTube - took a while to load that one with us being up in the mountains.

 Playing Pit
Best part was when Kirsten suggested that we take the "corner" card and put it outside of the cabin so that when someone got pit, instead of calling out they just got up and booked it out the door.  The first one to find and get the card won the round. Brilliant Kirsten!  Brilliant!

 Play the Thimble Game

 haha, these kids crack me up...I love the ways they're all sitting

The boys cooking breakfast, what?!

Good job Paul, it was totally an awesome breakfast...well really, Amazing Job Mommy for planning all the meals, and being so stinkingly amazingly prepared.  Every meal was a hit!

Not only did Mom do a fantastic job planning meals, she planned and was prepared for everything.  Backpacks for everyone (particularly the kids), friendship bracelet kits, nail polish, card games, board games, snacks, treats, notebooks, crayons, color paper, time at the water front and cope courses, meal assignments distributed...She went above and beyond in every aspect!  She made this family reunion extraordinary!!  It wouldn't have been what it was with our Mommy dear!!  But that's the same for our whole lives.  She has made our worlds and lives truly remarkable.  She always made sure we were taken care of, taught and educated, disciplined, reverent, happily feed, nicely dressed, laughing and smiling, knew we were loved by her, Dad and the Lord.  She made special efforts to spend one on one time with each of us.  We saw her live her faith.  She took time to tell us what she loved and admired about us.  She testified of the Lords blessings in her life.  She let us see the joy that she felt and satisfaction she received in being a mother.  She was as excited as us when school was out for the summer and sad when school started again and didn't allow her as much time with us.  She was a listener.  Her wisdom brought me peace and never lead me astray.  She cried for my heartaches.  She noticed the small things we did and praised us for them.  She believed in me.  And she still does all these thing today!  She is a remarkable woman!  I feel blessed and honored to call her my Mother and wrap my arms around her, to cry on her shoulder and talk with her (even if it's just on  the phone) practically daily.  She is My Mommy and I Love Her!!!!

Harlow's helping Daddy pack up the car to go home, so we can unpack and pack up again to go down to Henderson for Whitney's last talk in church before leaving on her mission.

Addy and Nicci eating some breakfast before we take off

What Fun!!!

We've definitely got to do this again!!