My Birthday...

 We started off the day by Dan taking Courtney to swim practice so I could have an extra 30 minutes of sleep. Perfect way to start my birthday! McKenna and I picked up Taylor Davis and Alli Davis and met them at the pool. We then headed for Deer Creek Reservoir. McKenna and Alli dancing on the boat...

 Courtney and Camilla taking a turn in the tube...

 McKenna and Alli going for a ride...

 Taylor chillin' out....

 Kenna, Alli, and Taylor all floating around in the tube...

 All of the kids... Camilla and Courtney wanted to swim...

 Dan and Taylor dancing to the music while on the tube.... nice moves guys!

 On the way home we stopped for a little lunch...

 We cleaned up the boat and then Dan and I took it to Salt Lake to put it back in the storage unit. He then took me to Olive Garden for dinner. While we were gone the girls cleaned up the kitchen and attempted to make me a cake. Apparently, it didn't work out quite right, so they headed to the store and bought me one instead. What a wonderful surprise to come home to! An ice cream cake, the robe I wanted, a cold diet Dr. Pepper, and cards from my girls. Perfect!

It was a wonderful birthday... I loved spending time with the people I love most and enjoying a beautiful summer day.

July 24th Relay For Life Fundraiser

We will be participating in the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life this Friday and Saturday. Our   team needs to raise money by getting donations, so we decided to do some fundraisers this week. McKenna, Courtney, and I sold Laffy Taffy at Walmart on Monday (raising about $100) and then we as a family/friend group organized our "Extreme Slip-n-slide" on Tuesday, July 24th. 

 Tiffany Brown, Amy Floyd, Ellany Anderson, and Stephanie Floyd... enjoying a beautiful day and a great cause...

 Courtney taking a ride on our 130 foot slip-n-slide...

 Angie pushing Aimee down...

 Lexi and her cute friend...

 Dan and his sister Angie decided to try garbage bags to see if they would go faster...

It was a great fund raiser... we raised over $400 to help fight cancer! It has changed our lives... Taylor Davis is our team "survior"... and we will do it in memory of those we have lost... and are losing. A huge thanks to all of our neighbors and friends for supporting us...

Spanish Fork Swim Meet

This was a VERY early morning! Dan and McKenna were participating in an archery shoot at Snowbird this morning, so Courtney, Camilla, and I headed to Spanish Fork at about 5:45 am.

 When we arrived it was really chilly...so the two munchkins wrapped up in a blanket and tried to stay warm until it was time for Courtney to swim...

 Who's in the house? Frenzy's in the house!

 Our little fish enjoying some peanut butter and apples in between heats...

 Afterwards I took them to Red Robin for a little lunch and a BIG drink! Courtney did an amazing job! She took 2nd in her freestyle race... Nice work Courtney!

Swim Fast Little Fish

Every morning when Courtney and I leave the house for Swim Team practice at 6:30 am and Dan is leaving for work, he always tells her... "Swim fast little fish!" She loves it.

Today she had some pretty big news... She was moved to the next team up, the WHITE team! This is a HUGE deal! She hasn't been on the RED team very long, but she has so much natural talent that is a great reward for all her hard work.

She had her first swim meet last Saturday and did really well.  In this shot she is standing over by the adult in the white shirt... she is wearing the white swim cap and floral swim suit. The highlight of the meet was the 4 person relay she swam with older girls. She was the anchor and swam free-style. She came in a half a pool length ahead of the team that came in second. I tried to put the video on here, but it was too long. Boo. I will try to figure out how to do it if I can. It was amazing!!! We are so proud of our little fish!! 

 Lehi Frenzy USA swim team!

 I love Courtney's swim cap! She has so much hair she totally looks like a little cone-head!!!

We are so proud of her and so glad that she has found her passion. This proves to me as a parent that when your child finds something they love you never have to "make" them practice. They WANT to do it. Keep swimming fast little fish!

Nauvoo Vacation: Day 13 Heading Home!

This morning we had to get up REALLY early to head to the airport. We had to return our Tahoe... which we had put over 1800 miles on! We first flew to Minnesota and then headed for Salt Lake. It was a great flight, and went really fast because we were on the laptop the entire time trying to figure out Dan's family history. A beautiful shot out the window...

 Dan and Courtney on the shuttle from the airport to our car. We were exhausted... but in a good way! We could have flown home in the evening, but we wanted to get home early so we could unpack and Dan could rest before having to go back to work tomorrow.

We celebrated the 4th by going down to the Davis's (Thanks Jen) and having a hamburger. She realized that we probably didn't have any food in the house being that we had been gone so long (true) and that we probably couldn't stomach the thought of eating out again. (also true) We watched the fireworks from our deck... getting a little nervous at what some people were setting off in the park across the street from our house. HELLO! Had they not seen the fires all week... including the huge one burning up the canyon in Alpine?! It was a wonderful day... a wonderful 13 days... and we are so grateful to live in this wonderful country!

Nauvoo Vacation: Day 12 (Tuesday)

This morning we got an early start... we were all really excited... I know Courtney doesn't really look like it in this picture... but they were watching their first movie of the entire trip!

 Over the last couple of years I have been working on family history and temple work. I thought most of it had been done on my side of the family, so I decided I should start with Dan's Grandma Lou. She is his fathers, mother. (His dad is a convert to the church.) I started with one newspaper article, as there aren't any family records that have been passed down... and here we are a couple of years later playing out an episode of "Who Do You Think You Are?" I wanted to find records and graves to confirm names and dates, etc... before we started doing work. (And after what we found out about Dan's grandpa's family I am glad we did!!!)

We headed for Nelson, Nebraska where I knew many of them had lived and died...

 I was absolutely giddy at this moment! This is something I have wanted to do for so long!

 Downtown Nelson, Nebraska...

 Based on Census records, I knew his grandfather Major Fletcher Long had been a farmer, later a County Clerk (which he is in this picture) and later a County Judge. It was so fun to walk into the city building and see this hanging on the wall! His grandfather is the one sitting on the front left.

The ladies in the Clerks office were wonderful and helped us find so many records, including marriage records and property records. Come to find out, many of the "Long's" were quite the entrepreneurs when it came to buying and selling property for a nice profit.

 They also gave us cemetery records and we found all of the graves we were looking for. Francis (Frank) Asbury Long and his wife Lizzie...

 One of their sons....

 Major Fletcher Long, his wife Tina Long, and one of their sons Frank Long....

 And here is one of the biggest reasons this trip needed to happen. They had 2 infants that died. We knew about one of them that lived for about 2 weeks... but this baby was born and died on the same day. December 25th....

 This was one of those moments in my life that I will never forget. I feel so connected to these people. Although I am only related by marriage, my sweetheart and my children are their blood. I love doing family history! I was promised in my patriarchal blessing that it would be one of the greatest joy's in my life... and it is so true! I am so glad that Dan wants to help with it now too... like I've said before... if it involves "hunting" in any way... he is in!

 We stayed for a couple of hours and then headed to Omaha, Nebraska and the Winter Quarters Temple and visitors Center.

 Courtney asked for this shot because it was of William Clayton (the Cutler's relative) who wrote, "Come, Come, Ye Saints"....

 Inside this visitors center you can see the temple across the street.

 We then headed for Council Bluff's Iowa (about 20 minutes away) so we could get more information on the Mormon Battalion. At this point we still hadn't figured out the mistakes in Dan's line of the Session family.

 And now, for the rest of the story about Courtney and her Book of Mormon challenge. When we walked in to the visitors center, there was a man talking to the Sister Missionary working there. He was asking questions and told all of us that he had lived nearby for 10 years and had often thought about coming in to find out more about the Mormons. (He also said the Presidential election had him wondering and that he wasn't sure who he should vote for. He needed to know more about Mormons...) As he was talking and asking questions the Sister Missionary asked him if he had ever heard of or read the Book of Mormon. He said no, and that is when Courtney jumped into action! She pulled her's out of her bag and told him..."I have one for you! You need to read this!" He took it from her and told her thank you and promised her that he would read it! Courtney was beyond thrilled! He came in and watched a movie with us about the Mormon Battalion and kept commenting that he couldn't believe how much Mormon's had done for our Country.

When we had to leave for our appointment at the Winter Quarters Temple, we offered a prayer thanking our Father in Heaven for answering Courtney's prayer. This man had driven by here for 10 years...but today... maybe 5 minutes before we arrived... he decided that today was the day to stop. This was an incredible and testimony building experience for our entire family. Our prayers are heard and answered.

 My family pretending to check out the map for the trek West!

We were rushing so much to get to our hotel and change so we could make it to the temple on time, that I forgot my camera in our hotel room! No pictures of us in front of the Winter Quarters Temple! Blasted! It was a gorgeous temple and I sure enjoyed being able to watch McKenna be baptized. Dan did all of the confirmations. The spirit was so strong!

After we were done we went out for our final meal of the trip... We found an Olive Garden in Omaha. It was great to sit and reflect on this vacation and all of the spiritual experiences and blessings that had come because we were prepared. This vacation was so different than any we have ever gone on in the past, but will be one of our favorites forever! Everything about this vacation strengthened us, inspired us, and humbled us. None of us will ever be the same.

Nauvoo Vacation: Day 11 (Monday)

This morning Dan and I had made plans to go for a tour of Moly-Cop, a company that Metro Group does a lot of business with. We had told the girls they could swim and ride the water slides while we were gone. It's nice to have a 16 year old that loves to hang out with her little sister!

Before we left, we went down to have breakfast... the Great Wolf Lodge we had stayed at with my parents in Wisconsin had the most amazing "breakfast bar" with cook to order waffles and omelets,  along with lots of delicious breakfast foods, so we were expecting the same thing here. I even pre-ordered breakfast passes when I made our reservations. (and it was EXPENSIVE! But I thought it would be worth it.) I couldn't believe how different this whole experience was from where we had stayed before! I assumed that it would be the same because it was a chain... but I couldn't have been more wrong. 

After "eating" breakfast we went out to the front desk and asked if there was any way we could get a refund on the second days breakfast and why. We also asked if there was any way we could be refunded the second nights stay and leave early. They apologized and told us that this was the smallest property their company owns and that they understood why were disappointed. They agreed to the refunds and told us the girls could swim and we could check out at 2 pm. We were so grateful! And I was glad I wasn't imagining it being so different! It actually was!!!!

 So, the girls played while we drove to Moly-Cop...

 Nice outfit huh?! I hadn't packed clothes for this...but they hooked me up! They gave me some socks, steel-toed boots, a lovely orange "shirt", gloves, a hardhat, and safety goggles! Dan was loving this outfit and made me pose for this picture. It was a great tour and we both really enjoyed getting to see how grinding balls are made...

 A big scrap yard right next door...

 We got back, packed up and headed out a day early. It actually worked out better for us, and we would never have had time to do the things on the schedule tomorrow if we hadn't have left today. The girls had fun while we were gone, but they both said that they were ready to go, and that they would have been bored if we had stayed the rest of the day. We promised Courtney we would go to the American Girl in Kansas City...

 We then hit the road and headed for Salina, Kansas. I thought this church looked so beautiful out in the middle of a Kansas field....

 We got settled and then headed out to find some dinner... thought this sign was funny! And no, we didn't eat at the "Rubbing Butts" BBQ and Catering!

Tomorrow is going to be a wonderful day!