Happy 15th Anniversary to US!

 

  15 Years!  It is hard to believe it!  I can't imagine life without David.  As I sit here and reflect on the last 15 years, many feelings and thought fill my mind.  First of all, my deep love and admiration for David.  His constant love, companionship, example to me is remarkable.  He truly is my guiding star to help me to be better.  Second of all, 15 years together might not have happened.  It was September of 2013  (David's Miracle)  that David's life became very fragile.  We almost lost him. It was only due to the Lord and His Mercy, and Power that David's life was spared.  I will be forever grateful to the Lord for allowing David to still be apart of my life here on earth.
     We were given a gift certificate to Ruth's Chris Steak House so we decided to use it for our anniversary.  It was probably the best steak we have ever had.  I am sad the picture turned out a little dark but it was a fun evening.

     The greatest joy that has come to our marriage is becoming parents to our sweet daughter Clarissa.  She is our everything.  We love her dearly and could not imagine our lives together without her.
    We celebrated with a day trip to Snowbird Ski resort.  It was a really fun day.

 We rode the tram to the top of the mountain--11,000 feet.  The views were spectacular!

   

Other activities we did at Snowbird

  

The Alpine Slide

The Mountain Roller Coaster
We went on this ride four times.  Clarissa kept saying, "Again, again!"

Memorial Day Weekend

Memorial Day Weekend

     We took a trip to Yellowstone over Memorial Day weekend.  We had such a fun time.  We left on Friday and went north through Idaho Falls and stopped at the falls and the LDS Temple.  It is a beautiful place.  Standing in this beautiful park by the Idaho Falls,  I am reminded of a talk Elder Shayne M. Bowen gave about this place in October 2006 LDS General Conference.  The talk was about how this land use to be a garbage dump but was reclaimed to now be a beautiful park. 

      It was really powerful to stand in such a beautiful place and remember the significance of the history of the park.   "Just as a garbage dump can be turned into a beautiful park, a life of sin can be cleaned and changed through the Atonement of Jesus Christ." 

Reclaimed

     We continued our drive and stopped at  Yellowstone Bear World, which is right outside of Rexburg, Idaho.  It was such an incredible place.  We had so much fun there. They have this wildlife drive through.  It is an enclosure where all the animals are free roaming.  We saw this beautiful white elk. We also saw lots of bears.   

This picture we actually didn't take but it gives an idea of what you experience at Bear World.  The bears didn't get this close to us but they were pretty close.  It was really remarkable.

      

Along with all of the animals Bear World has, they have some really fun "bear" carnival rides.  Clarissa just loved them.  She just kept going on them again and again.  

It was another story for David and I.  They have this one bear ride that you get in and it spins around.  David and I went on it once and that was enough for us, but not Clarissa.  She went on it by herself several other times.  

     We stayed in Jackson Hole, Wyoming at this darling cabin.  It felt like we were in the "wild wild west."  

     During our stay we visited Yellowstone and The Grand Tetons.  They were so both so beautiful.  

 Old Faithful erupting 

 We were able to see some bison.  They were really neat.

  

Clarissa was so excited to see this limo bus at Old Faithful Inn

 One of Clarissa's favorite things she was was a wild bunny.

On our way home we saw the Star Valley, Wyoming LDS Temple under construction.  It is going to be a beautiful temple when finished.

Every Day Moments

Mother's day was special.  I love being the mother to my precious little princess Clarissa.  She is the joy of my life.  I can't imagine life without her.

We were given tickets to Hogle Zoo over Mother's Day weekend.  We had planned to go Saturday afternoon.   David was in Salt Lake at a class.  Clarissa and I went to Salt Lake to meet him and were waiting in the car to pick him up when it started to rain.  It looked like it was going to rain all afternoon.  I told Clarissa that if it rained we probably wouldn't be able to go to the zoo.  She started to cry.  She then said, "I'll pray and then it won't rain."  She then prayed that it would stop raining so we could go to the zoo.    David  came out of the class and it was still raining.  I didn't really want to go to the zoo in the rain but we decided to head towards the zoo hoping that maybe it would clear up.  It seemed the closer we got to the zoo the more the sun came out and the clouds dispersed.  It was remarkable that the clouds parted and the rain stopped by the time we arrived at the zoo.  We were able to go to the zoo.  We had a great time all because of a little girl's faith.  

 The lion exhibit was amazing.  The lion's growl is really quite frightening.  I would hate to be in the wild and hear that noise.

 For family home evening on Monday, David planned a lesson on the Tree of Life from the Book of Mormon.  (1 Nephi  8)  He tied a rope from the trampoline to the tree.  The trampoline represented the great and spacious building because it had no foundation.  The rope was the Rod of Iron.  The tree he put a picture of Christ in it.  It was a fun way for Clarissa to learn about the Iron Rod and the Tree of Life.

Our ward had a bike parade for the kids.  Clarissa loved it.  She literally was the last one riding her bike around and around the church.  

 Clarissa is already making her Christmas wish list.  I think Santa maybe in trouble this year.  It is a little over the budget.

 Clarissa loves to have parties.  This is her tea party she had for David and I.  It was quite the feast she prepared for us.

Fun Moments

  I think Clarissa won!