Catch Up!

I can't believe it's already November. My has time flown! This has to be one of the fastest semesters of all my schooling. Teachers are already talking about finals. Maybe pharmacy school won't last as long as I thought :) It thought I'd write a little about what we've been up to since June, since that's the last time we posted.

In July, we visited Montana and had a blast. My superhero had only been to Montana one time in the winter and I couldn't wait for him to visit in the summer. It is so beautiful! One morning we got up really early and drove up to Glacier National Park to go on a hike. Then we got to go whitewater rafting with my family. It was freeeeeezing....but so fun.




Later that month we went on the Youth Trek for our stake. It was such a great experience. We got to know a lot of wonderful youth and they taught us a lot of great lessons. I had a couple favorite experiences. Most of heard about these experiences, but I thought I'd share them anyway. First, James and I were asked to act out the story of George and Sarah Padley. Their story is on the movie Seventeen Miracles, but many people hadn't seen the movie yet. We were able to talk to the youth about the importance of temple marriage.  I imagine we were asked to do it because are newlyweds, but regardless it was a good experience.  Second, each family was given a "baby" to take with them on their trek for the weekend. We were told we needed to take care of this baby just like any other baby. Many of the ma's had to carry their baby most of the time. We had several girls in our family would absolutely adored our little baby Niels. Niels was the baby boy that got to join our family for the weekend. Just as on the real trek to Zion, many of the babies died along the way. Our girls heard that some of the babies were dying and they were determined to protect Niels from suffering that fate. Unfortunately, at an expected time the girls were given the news that baby Niels had died. The trail boss/wagon master then came over and told my Superhero and I had our baby had died and our girls were crying. We were then instructed to go out of the way and have a small ceremony for the baby. We probably had the most spiritual experience of everyone. Many of the girls, and even a couple of the boys, were crying and requested that we sing the song "God Be With You 'Til We Meet Again." That song always has a special spirit about it, but it was especially strong during that moment. I couldn't help but think about the real pioneer mothers and how difficult it would have been to lose their children along the way. They had such great faith in the gospel. We were just carrying around a doll, but it really hit home that the distance between this life and the next is very short. Looking on the back on the experience, the trek was wonderful and I loved the opportunity that we had to go on it—even if we were considered youth sometimes!

After we got home from trek, we had to rush to a wedding reception in Salt Lake of one of my Superhero's best friends. They were both really into dancing, so their reception was a lot of fun. Unfortunately, as we were getting ready to leave I looked at my phone and I had missed a bunch of texts and calls. I opened them and it said my brother was in a serious accident and had been life-flighted to McKay-Dee hospital in Ogden. It was such a devastating moment. My heart sunk into my stomach. My Superhero was changing out of this tux when I received the news, but as soon as he walked out of the room he knew something was wrong. I told him and asked if we could drive up. My parents-in-law were with us and said they wouldn't mind going up. We arrived and got to go in and see Lars. I never knew I loved him so much, as when I saw him laying in the ICU depending on machines to keep him alive. It still brings tears to eyes when I think about that moment. Over the next week or so he made wonderful progress and continued getting better over the next month or so. I am so grateful the Lord was watching over him and my family as we went through that scary time.

The following weekend we got to go the wedding of our friends, Lyndsy and Andrew. It was a cool experience to get to go to their sealing and get to see how happy they both looked. The day after their wedding they had a reception in Boise. My sister and I were able to drive up to it and while on the way I was feeling all the love in the air. I decided I wanted to plan a surprise trip for my Superhero and me. We originally got snowed in for our honeymoon and thought it would be fun to go the opposite direction and go somewhere warm. We spent a weekend in San Diego. We got to go to the San Diego Zoo for a whole day. It was awesome! There are so many cool animals there. The night before we left we also went out to eat at a really fancy restaurant. They even had valet parking! It was a great weekend adventure. I'm glad we got to spend time with each other before we had to go back to school. Everyone knows how busy school can be.

Since that trip we have been in school and working. We are both really enjoying our schooling even though sometimes feel like we're drowning in everything we have to do. I always just tell myself that this is a unique time of life and we'll never get these moment back. Today we had a lesson about happiness and finding joy in the journey and that is exactly what we have to do every day. We have to choose to be happy no matter what is going on in life.

So this post ended up being WAY longer than I expected, but at least now you're caught up with our life to this point.