My Brother the Missionary!

Last Wednesday, July 8th, Trevor and I went with my parents to drop off my brother at the MTC (Missionary Training Center) just a couple blocks away here in Provo. It was such a bittersweet (but more sweet than bitter) day. We are all so excited for Mike--now known as Elder Hopkins--and for the good choices he has made to get him to this point.

Here's the family picture by the entrance sign:My sweet hubby and my wonderful brother, smiling for a minute right before Mike left to enter the MTC:
To find out more about what Mike will be doing over the next two years in Boise, Idaho and for his address, check out his mission blog at http://elderhopkins.blogspot.com. I sure love my little bro... who's just not so little anymore!

Sunday Hike to Timp Caves

Last Sunday, the 5th of July, Trevor and I drove up to American Fork Canyon to hike up to the Timpanogos caves. When we arrived, we realized the cave tickets were all sold out and we missed the last tour. But, we decided to do the mile and a half hike anyway. From bottom to top, we climbed a whopping 1,000 feet up in elevation. I definitely had moments where I had to stop and breathe.

This picture was taken at a little tunnel in the rock at the 1/4 way point:We were getting high, and the scenery was getting beautiful!
See? There's the valley far in the distance:
We saw a plethora of wildlife on the trail including curious chipmunks, buzzing bees, and lightning-fast lizards! I caught this little buddy on film:
And after about an hour of hiking, WE MADE IT! Unfortunately, like I said, they had just finished the last tour and one ranger lady was locking up for the evening. Fortunately, she was nice enough to snap a photo:
Well, this time we really did it wrong, but we got lots of good advice from friendly rangers. Next time we'll be going early in the morning so the sun hasn't reached that side of the mountain yet (we went during the hottest part of the day--5:30--and the sun was beating on us the whole time) and we won't go during a holiday weekend. I'm really excited to see the caves next time! :) Woo hoo!

Independence Day 2009 :)

For the fourth of July, Trevor and I celebrated in style. It started with a wonderful breakfast of fluffy pancakes and then a quick morning of checking for illegally parked cars near the Provo Parade. :) After checking cars, we walked over to join Meghan and Mical and their families watching the Provo parade. Apparently there were over 200,000 spectators this year. That's an insane amount for such a small-ish town!

From L to R: Caden, Cole, Ryan, and Pirate Trevor:
Pirate Alex and Pirate Trevor! :) Apparently the Pirate Island place was passing these hats out to the kids, but they were way too big to fit on the kids' heads!
After the parade, Trevor and I went back to our place for a bit to spend an hour or so together before he dropped me off at work. He went to Meghan's for hamburgers and hotdogs while I slaved away at the Buckle. But it was an interesting shift: I caught my first shoplifter! :) Woo hoo! That's an extra 100 buckeroos for me!

Well anyway, when I got off work at 7, Trevor picked me up and we joined the family at a park up in Springville Canyon so the guys could play homerun derby and the girls could chat. Here's Scarlett and Meghan, daughter and mom, having lots of fun :)
All the "kids" were out in the far field ready to catch the pop flys. It's funny because all the little kids just love to play with Trent! They tend to gather around him.
Here's my sweetie hitting the ball. I'm proud to say he was the winner of home run derby this year! :)Trevor and Maddi out catching balls. I was glad that Trev finally wore the new shirt I had bought him from Buckle.
After home run derby wore off and all the kids were soaked from playing in the nearby creek, we headed back to Meghan's house for some streetside fireworks. Everyone enjoyed playing with their sparklers. Here's little Scarlett again:I just had to take pictures of the typical "fountain" fireworks that are legal here in Utah. Fortunately, we got brave and Steve shot off a few big illegal ones that were pretty sweet!
Just another fireworks picture. I like the smoke in this one:
Overall it was a pretty fun day. I enjoyed the company of friends and family and I am glad to know I live in a country where I am completely free to choose to do whatever I want and to believe whatever I want. God Bless America! :)

Happy Father's Day!

Since today is Father's Day, I wanted to take a minute to write about all the different fathers in my life and how special they are and have been to me.

First and foremost, of course, is my Daddy. There are about 100000000 things I could say about my wonderful father (like how musically gifted he is and how he taught me the joy of playing piano and singing), but there's one thing thing that will always come to mind first when I think of my Dad: He is absolutely the most caring, kind, and emotional father any girl could ask for. Although it used to make me roll my eyes and say "Daaaaaaaaddd!", he hugs and kisses me like there's no girl in the world more special than I am every time he sees me--no matter how old I get! :) He has been such a wonderful provider for my family and always worked so hard to make sure we could afford the things we needed. I really miss his delicious dinners he would always make and the fact that his steaks and hamburgers really are the BEST in the world. I love him so much and will always have a very large place in my heart for him. I love you Dad!
Second on my list is my wonderful, handsome, sweet, and hard-working husband. Like my Dad, he has done an amazing job taking care of me and making sure I am happy. He's got a smile that can light up any bad day that I'm having. He's so smart too, and loves reading all kinds of books. He encourages me to be better in everything that I do (including being a more spiritual person) and never lets me whine about anything. He's more than willing to clean up our often-messy home and helps out so much with dishes. I love the way that he is as excited about life and the little things as I am. It makes for fun, reflective conversations. I know I am so blessed to have found such an amazing guy to be my husband, and I am thankful every day for the fact that he loves me too! And even though he's not technically a "father" yet, I know one day he will be such a fantastic father to our children! I love you, sweetheart.Third up is my Granddaddy Frank (my Dad's Dad... on the right in the picture below). He is one of the sweetest Southern old men in the world, who's greatest joy in life is to fall asleep in his blue leather recliner while reading the paper or watching TV. I will also always remember how, at every family Christmas gathering, he would silently insist that the ripped-up wrapping paper be put immediately into his large black trash bag after opening gifts instead of laying on the floor. He is such a kind, gentle, and funny man and I am so glad that I got to be his first granddaughter. What a wonderful family I have! I love you, Granddaddy.Fourth is my wonderful Granddaddy Van (my Mom's Dad) who has since this picture (Christmas 2006) passed on to a better place. I remember so many things about him like the way his eyes squinted when he laughed and the way his hands were strong and worn and a little rough. I remember exploring his old "shop" out back from his house where he spent lots of time upholstering furniture. He loved poker, blackjack, etc. and therefore loved Las Vegas. Also, I admire his patience and perseverance in caring for my Grandmother for years as her health deteriorated. Although I can't consider him to be a "teddy bear" granddaddy, I know he really did love all of us in his own way. We are sad to have him gone for now, but I am so happy that his temple work was completed just a couple weeks ago. I truly believe he was celebrating as his name was taken through the endowment. I love you Granddaddy!And finally, I wanted to mention how grateful I am to have a Father in Heaven who also loves me so much and has blessed my life in so many ways I cannot even begin to count them. I am grateful for the love I feel from Him and the way He has manifested that love through the other "fathers" of my life. I am grateful to be able to speak to Him in prayer and receive answers to guide me through my life. I love you, Heavenly Father.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Sunday and an even more wonderful Father's Day! :)

Brand New Kitchen Floors!

So, on Tuesday (my day off of work this week), Wymount decided it was time for us to have new kitchen floors. These new floors would look nicer as well as hide dirt better (YAY!). So, I was home on-and-off during the day between going to the pool with Chris and running errands.

I had the opportunity to take pictures of the process so here they are! This first picture was when they had taken my fridge out to plug it in on the porch as well as start to take apart my stove and remove the water heater. There were two very nice BYU maintenance girls there to do this part.
This next picture is of the hole in the wall where they took out my stove. Um... gross huh? Good thing they change the floors once in a while so this stuff can be cleaned out! They also found some interesting items under the stove, including a record-shaped metal wall hanging about Tennessee country music! Haha (you can barely see half of it on the counter on the right side of the picture - it's red).This one is of the nice guy who put the grout over top of the old floor and installed my new floor! This part smelled SO bad that I had to leave and run my errands. I don't know how he has his face in that stuff all day - talk about a serious headache!!
So for your viewing pleasure, I thought I'd show the basic before-and-after pictures! :)

Before:
After:
What do you think? Do you like the new floors better? I think I do... I just kind of miss the warmer color of the old floors! Let me know! :)

Best Experience of My Life Thus Far!

Or at least, pretty close! :)

Tonight, I went to the gym for my usual 9pm Tuesday night class. When I arrived, I saw to my dismay that there was a sign on the door of the yoga classroom that said "John's Yoga Class has Been Cancelled Tonight". Frustrated but shrugging it off, I turned around to leave the gym. On may way out, another girl was arriving for the yoga class and I told her it was cancelled. Then, a second later I said, "Hey wait! You want to stay and we can kind of have our own class together?" She liked that idea so we went into the room where there were a few people with yoga mats, another couple people doing a few yoga moves, and another few just lifting weights and doing crunches. The lights were on and the fans were going, so we found ourselves a spot in the back to do a bit of yoga. Soon, I realized there were about 6 other people in the room who were there for yoga and I just stopped and said out loud, "Does anyone mind if we do a bit of student teaching?" My friend Kathryn Merriam was there and she liked the idea and she also had an iPod with some music. So, with a little help from the Gold's Gym guy, we got the sound system running, the microphone ready to go, and I just grabbed a little courage and my pink mat and started TEACHING a yoga class! :) I got up in front on the raised "stage" area of the classroom and just started! I told the 10 or so people who were there that I may not go the whole time because it was my first time doing it, but we'd see how it went. At first, I wasn't sure what to do, but I started with the normal yoga Sun Salutation Series A and slowly let my mind think of all the other things I could do. After I knew it, I was completely comfortable and having a BLAST teaching yoga!I am SO SO glad I chose to go to yoga tonight, because I almost didn't! I'm also so so glad that I just had the guts to get up and try my hand at teaching. I learned that I felt quite comfortable doing so, and that I still got my workout!

After, I got a couple comments from the students like "Good job! That was great!" or from my friend, "Wow! You sounded like you had been doing it forever, like you knew what you were talking about the whole time! Awesome!" or my favorite from a guy in the class, "Yeah. You gave me a workout! I was sweating!" :) Hooray for learning that I am capable of doing something new. Now I'm flirting with the possible idea of actually certifying to become a real yoga instructor!

What a fantastic night and an even more fantastic experience!

Late Spring Showers Bring June Rainbows!

Well, it has been raining non-stop here in Utah for about a week. By non-stop I mean every day with downpours and then breaks in the clouds. Still, the news reported that so far we are around 3 times wetter this month than we usually are! Normally we get 1.13 inches in June. This June, only halfway through, we're up to .85 inches! Also, last June we reached a total of .32 inches for the whole month! So really, yeah, it's been raining a lot. Anyway, this beautiful rainbow we spotted on the 11th is the product of a wonderful evening rain with a clear sky in the West where the sun was setting:


I took the pictures from our bedroom window, where we had a fantastic view! The camera, as usual, really doesn't capture how pretty it was. Also, at one point a second, faint "double rainbow" formed above the first one, but my camera is not sharp enough to catch it like a human eye is. But enjoy the pictures anyway. It really was a beautiful rainbow and a great end to a wonderful day! :)