Our Beautiful Adventure: January 2014

Sunday, January 26, 2014

Dino Museum

Quick little update. Trevor and I had a blast yesterday going on an adventure to Thanksgiving point's Museum of Ancient Life. AKA - The dinosaur museum. :) When I was in about 5th grade, I was convinced that I was going to be a paleontologist. I loved the dinosaurs and loved the idea of digging and finding things in the earth. I had books on it, I knew all the different kinds of dinos and their names and what they were known for like attributes and such. I knew the different time periods and when each animal appeared where.

Obviously, I grew out of it, because now I'm studying to be an accountant. But it was fun to go to the dino museum and bring that "little kid" back out in me. The history of the earth has always fascinated me. Yellowstone is another one of those passions. (I know quite a bit about it too.) Anyway, Trevor loved going and learning as well. Here are a few pictures. Enjoy!

Wants to fight with a dino.

Trev enjoyed himself. :)

He's eating out of my hand!

It is cool to see just how big these dinos were. Standing next to one of these big dinos, we only went up to about the first joint in the leg. Kinda crazy! We are up on the second story in this picture.

Trevor's getting "eaten" by the...herbivore. HAHAHA.

-SamiMae

Saturday, January 11, 2014

Pict Highlights from Christmas!

These are some of my favorite. Had to share them. :)

I love this girl, she almost made me baby hungry! ;)

This is my brother. HAHAHA. He is the greatest kid EVER!

We enjoyed watching Duck Dynasty together. Good times!

-SamiMae

Twin Falls Temple Trip

Since we had everyone home, we couldn't miss an opportunity to go to the temple together. It was so amazing to be in the temple with my husband, mom and dad, grandma and grandpa, and aunts and uncles. All of them were there. It was so amazing to go through a session and make it to the celestial room, and see everyone there, standing in a circle. We are an eternal family. Because of the temple, one day, we will all be together in Heaven. In the temple, we are a little closer to heaven. It was so special to see everyone there. At the end of the day, all we take to the other side is our knowledge and our relationships. I have an amazing family where love abounds. We all take care of each other and would be there for one another in a heart beat. Trevor and I are the first of our generation to go through the temple, so it was so special to be there with our aunts and uncles and grandparents.

For me, seeing everyone in the temple together, was another testimony to me of the truthfulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I looked around at my family, all were smiling and happy, at that moment, we were all a little closer to God, he was in our mist, because we were in His house. I felt God's approval and happiness for our family. We have participated in the ordinances preformed in the temple which will one day, allow us to walk back to the presence of God, where we will dwell together as a family.

I feel so blessed to be born into this family. All are active members of the Church, all are righteous and striving to do the best they can. We are there for each other in hard times, and in good times. We are a tight knit family, a family which will be together forever. :)

Enjoy our pictures!

Grandma and Grandpa's family.

L2R: Trevor, Sam, Jason, Hollie, Rob, Lyndsay, Grandpa, Grandma, Mom, Dad, Heather, Steve

After the temple, we went out for gyros. YUM!

-SamiMae

Fire Ceremony

So, every New Years and Fourth of July we have a Fire Ceremony. We start a fire in our awesome fire pit. While it's getting started, everyone writes down things on a piece of paper. It can be goals, positive things. It can be things we want to let go of and leave in the past. It can be negative things we want to leave behind.

It's an Indian tradition. The ashes of the good things, the things we want or desire, float up to Heavenly Father and he hears them. The ashes of the negative things that we want to leave behind in the past year, float away in the wind and leave us. After you write your list, you put your paper in the fire. Then, you take a glass of sparkling cider, Martinellis, and drink it up. It's been a fun tradition that has helped us individually in many ways.

For me, last fire ceremony, which was the 4th of July, right before I got married. I burned notebooks worth of papers that helped me release some of my "baggage" before I got married. It was very helpful. Everyone has things they want to leave behind in the past year. But we also have things we desire and want to have to look forward to in the coming year. It's a spiritual ceremony and can be as serious as you would like. And hey, it's cheaper then therapy. :)

A toast to another year!

Hands on Pottery

So, the ladies took a trip to Twin Falls and went to Hands On Pottery. We had a blast painting pottery together.This is one of our favorite things to do. Pottery is so relaxing and fun and everything turned out so cute!

-SamiMae

Minute to Win It.

So, Hollie did a great job planning out our family Minute to Win it games! This was so freaking fun! Every kid was able to participate, and even the adults participated. It made for some great laughs! I think some of the best was Grandma "shaking" it to get the ping pong balls out of the kleenex box. HAHA. Enjoy the picts!