{Kissin' Sissies}

This is me on the left and my 22 month younger sister on the right. This was taken in the upstairs playroom of our Kaysville house. I'm guessing I was about 5 or 6 years old. We were showing the camera some sisterly love. That was then... the thing you need to know is my sissy is now a homophobic. Anything that resembles same sex affection sorta freaks her right our of her skin. If I even give her too long of a hug it really bothers her. I think this developed around late jr. high. And as her older sister I have made it my duty to freak her out whenever possible. Whaa Haa Haa Haa!! ;) So during our 2008 family Christmas party I mentioned the Katy Perry song "I kissed a girl". At one point her husband held her down while I got dangerously close to planting a kiss on her lips, and maybe I actually did, I cant really remember exactly. Later that evening I was resting my head on {Twinkie's} shoulder and resting my eyes. As I relaxed I could hear my sis start to whisper to her husband very excitedly and then I heard her feet quickly coming toward me. I knew what was about to happen so I just remained the same. She was wanting to prove something, so here was her chance. She bent over the couch and planted her lips against mine to kiss me, but was met with my tongue slipping quickly into her mouth. OH!! THAT WAS IT!!! She really freaked. She was dry heaving and wiping her tongue on her husbands sweater. I was laughing my head off. It was the best!! Not that I swing that way or anything, especially keeping it in the family, I just really love getting the reaction out of her. She said it was salty which I explained were the green olives I had been eating. And she tasted sweet to me, which she explained was the chocolate that she had just ate. I will remember this forever! It is such a great memory. I love you sis! You are so fun to mess with!!

{Gack turns 19}

My lil'-est bro turns 19 tomorrow. We are 10 years apart, but such close sibs. We really make each other laugh and have such a good time together. He was my roomie last summer on our church history tour back east. Happy birthday tomorrow, Gack!



I secretly wished that he was gonna be a girl when my mom told me that she was pregnant with him,... I had to dress him up.

{Vegas BABY!!}

Last week I went on a lil vacay. And it was SO NICE!! We (Twinkie, m'bro Cub, his gf Tay and Twinkies' friend Von) drove down, me with Dude (Twinkies pug) on my lap to St. George and stopped by Twinkies parents place to drop the Duders off. Then we headed into Vegas! WHEEW!! We had so much fun and relaxation. I was lovin' it! We went to visit my 92 year old Great Grandma Monnie. I got scolded by her for the holes in my jeans. It was pretty cute and funny. "Only poor people wear jeans like that". She was blown away when I told her I paid for my jeans to have holes in them. It was so good to see her and visit with her for a couple of hours. If I live that long I hope I stay as sharp as she is & look as good as she does. That night Cub proposed to Tay after dinner up on top of the Stratosphere. Yay! I'm getting a new lil' sis. I sure love Tay and I'm ecstatic that the two of them are going to be married. Von had a blast playing a super huge prank on me while we were visiting Grandma... let's just say I basically freaked out & showed a bit of my true colors by letting him have it.

{Sayin' G'bye}

My youngest brother (by 10 years younger) works for The Point Theater on 12th... well he did work there. They are officially closed. How I will miss the free movies and discounted theater food. He's gonna miss it too. He really enjoyed putting together the films. I had the opportunity to have a tour of the projection room and was shown how the film is put together and how it all works. So next time I'm sitting in a nice rocker chair at The Junction 13 eating my expensive and fully priced popcorn with extra butter and large coke, I will think... 'I know what is going on up there and what it all looks like'. It was really cool! Thanks Gack! I also was fortunate to be the one to take the official picture of The Point Theater Gang out front, all together at work for the very last time. We WILL miss it!

{Welcome Home N!}

My sisters husband is back from the Navy! It was a very emotional and heartwarming reunion (m'sis and her husband were stuck like super glue when they first embraced) at the airport the first Friday of the month. The Patriot Guard Riders helped us welcome him home along with extended family and friends. We are so happy he is home and safe and we thank him for all his service to our country.

{Travel Log - Day 9 Nauvoo, IL}

Today we had a free day of exploring this sacred city. Our bus dropped us off on the south end of the village at the Community of Christ sites. These included The Red Brick Store, The Joseph Smith Mansion, Visitors Center, other homes, and the Smith Family Cemetery. From there we continued on our own through the rest of the village for the bulk of the day stopping by the blacksmith shop (where we each received a diamond horseshoe ring), the Seventies Hall (where we found that we are direct descendants of 4 of the 70's from Nauvoo; Gardner Snow and his 3 sons, James, Warren & George Snow), the Trail of Hope, the site where the saints left Nauvoo and crossed the frozen Mississippi, the LDS Visitors Center, & even stopped to have a wagon ride pulled by 2 oxen. We then took the bus up to the temple and m'bro and I had a light lunch and did some souvenir shopping. Then walked back to the Visitors Center and relaxed on a couch in the refreshing A/C until our parents got out of the temple. We all went to dinner together and then went to a very cute "Nauvoo Review" inside the Cultural Hall put on by the senior missionaries. They were a crack up! I sure hope I have that kind of energy and wit when I'm that age. We then took a stroll up the road past a group of guys playin' the bagpipes and on to watch the dress rehearsal of the Nauvoo Pageant since they don't actually perform on Mondays. Storm clouds came rolling in pretty quick so we didn't stay to watch too long and we headed back to the hotel after an amazing day in Old Nauvoo.
Smith Family Cemetery


The Joseph Smith Mansion


Seventies Hall




Trail of Hope



Statue of Brigham and Joseph looking over the Mississippi





Nauvoo Pageant dress rehearsal


Threatening storm clouds

{Travel Log - Day 5 Niagara Falls & Kirtland, OH}

Today we made our way to the beautiful and breathtaking Niagara Falls area. Our bus dropped us off in the middle of the State Park and we took an extremely WET ride on the Maid of the Mist followed by a short hike up the side of the American Falls and took lots of rainbow pictures. We then made our way over to the Hard Rock Cafe for lunch. M'mama and I shared the HR Nachos... mmmmm! Our bus then picked us up to head over to, Ohio area where we traveled through beautiful rolling hills and Amish country. We stopped at an authentic Amish restaurant (Mary Yoder's) for dinner then on to the Historic Kirtland Village Stake House to see one of the local theatre productions called "This Is Kirtland" about the lives of the early saints in the area. This production has become a yearly event (5 years now) and was truly a fun evening.

I'm at the end of the rainbow!!

{Travel Log - Day 3 Palmyra, NY}

At 7:30 this morning we began our journey to Palmyra, NY. Our trip took us about 4+ hours during which we discussed the sights we were to see in Palmyra and catching a bit of shut eye on the way there. We stopped at the Whitmer Farm where we visited with the missionaries and walked around the grounds. We then continued our journey driving through Palmyra Village and the surrounding areas. From there we drove to the HIll Cumorah to visit the Hill, the Visitors Center and attended the famous Hill Cumorah Pageant. We visited the Monument at the top of the Hill first thing when we arrived and then ate a delicious BBQ chicken and salt potato dinner from the local vendors. SO GOOD!! "Moroni" came and spoke with me and my bro as we were relaxing. We had really good seats, 5 rows from the front. What a great production. The special effects were SO awesome! I thoroughly enjoyed every second of it.


me & m'bro

me & m'parents

{Travel Log - Day 2 Sharon, VT}

This morning we loaded up on the bus and departed for a drive through the picturesque countryside to Sharon, Vermont. It was raining this morning and so we all dressed a little warmer today. All along the way receiving such great commentary and lectures about the area from Dr. John Lund. He shared with us many of the historical facts and stories during the time the Smith Family lived here, and all by his fantastic photographic memory! (If you ever get the chance to talk with Dr. Lund ask him for his impression of Pres. Bruce R. McConkie and about his conversion story... oh, and his MTC story... all hilarious and wonderful.) On our way to the Joseph Smith Monument and Visitors Center we saw many historic sites, the place where Joseph Smith had his leg operated on when he was 7 years of age (the home is no longer there, in it's place... is a KFC... so if you ever go eat there at that location, be sure to ask for a leg), another home they lived in when men came and demanded money from Lucy Mack Smith out in front of the home for something they had already paid for, also, Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire (a lot to do with Nathan Smith who performed the surgery on young JS), West Lebanon, NH, Norwich, VT, Tunbridge VT, and during all those crossing the Connecticut River several times. When we arrived at the Visitors Center the missionaries greeted us and guided us on a tour of the birthplace of the Prophet Joseph Smith including the Joseph Smith Monument. We then had some time to walk around the area before we headed down to a picnic area to have our lunch. The weather was so nice, just a perfect nice warm temperature and a slight breeze every once in a while. We then were able to take a nice little walk/hike though the woods to the foundations of the homes of Solomon Mack & Daniel G. Mack. We then loaded back on the bus and took a short ride to a cute country shop to buy Vermont Maple Syrup!! Then on to the location of the store where Lucy Mack met Joseph Smith Sr. and also the old saw mill and Mill Bridge. Then we continued back home, had dinner on our own as a family and here I am relaxin in the room, about to get into the shower cause tomorrow is an early morning. The bus will leave at 7:30 for a 4+ hour drive to Palmyra. I will be in a different hotel tomorrow night and do not know yet if I will have WiFi Internet service... if I do, I will post again tomorrow. The Monument

On the front step of JS home

Standing on the cornerstone of the foundation where JS home was

me, Dr. John Lund and his dear wife Bonnie, and m'mama



me & m'daddy

{Travel Log - Day 1 Manhattan, NY & Sharon, VT}

Yesterday we began our exciting Church History Tour. We flew out of SLC in the afternoon and into LaGuardia International Airport around 9pm. Needless to say... LONG DAY SITTIN! We were so excited to arrive and spent the night at the NY LaGuardia Marriott, very comfortable and nice. This morning our travels through mid-town Manhattan and through the countryside began early (6:45 Utah time, SIGH, which means I woke up at 5:30 Utah time). We had the opportunity to view prominent sites in the Manhattan area (Empire State Building, Columbus Monument, Statue of Liberty, Ground Zero, Central Park, NY LDS Temple, Trump Towers), which usually doesn't happen on this tour, but because it was Sunday, the city was not as busy and we were able to navigate freely through. We then traveled north toward Sharon, VT. We stopped for a late lunch at the famous home of Yankee Candles. This cute little village was so charming and set on several acres of gardens and tons of "Quilted Bear" type shops. We then continued through the beautiful Vermont countryside, where we have checked into the Hampton Inn in Brattleboro. Tonight we had a fireside about the need for the restoration, & the atonement with Dr. John Lund as our speaker. It was WONDERFUL!! I've been to his marriage seminars before and I looked forward to hearing him speak on this trip. He is so funny and SO smart. 2 hours of him tonight was at least 8 hours of info because he talks so fast. We have him all day tomorrow on our bus as a guide. I really look forward to it.
My youngest bro and me... ROOMIES!!
Washington Bridge
Cool shot of clouds reflected in building.
Near Columbus Monument
B&H- A favorite photo equipment shop of mine Home of Yankee Candle

My cute parents!