Visiting the Parkers

Quill, the goat, feeling very excited about things.

Last night, we went on a walk to the library. Both of us were exhausted from a long (but good!) weekend and not enough sleep the night before. After a long day at work (and at the mechanic's and working from a coffee shop all day for me), we got home to tackle the housework we didn't get to over the weekend. (Looking at houses + baking all day for the Girls' Camp fundraiser + Father's Day with all the dads = not enough time for chores at home.) Stephen was AMAZING and fixed our bathroom sink. I washed ALL the baking dishes and made dinner, and just as we were getting ready to settle down, we realized our microwave was broken. After poor Stephen's frustration with the sink (did I mention how AWESOME he is for figuring it out??), we were ready for a break and decided to go on a walk to our local library instead of staying home. Fresh air and a change of pace is good for our grumpy souls, it turns out.

I checked out two new books (this one to help us plan our one-year anniversary trip later this year, and this one, just for fun). I'm super excited for both! AND I've felt a renewed appreciation lately for my local library. I have so many books I want to read this summer, and it's nice that I can do it for free through our county library. Thanks, Ben, for the books!

On our walk home, we passed by our friends, the Parkers. We go to church with them, and they live really close to us. They also have a lot of land, where they have.... chickens! horses! cats! a bunny! and BABY GOATS!! I heard bleating as we walked past their fence, and lo and behold, baby goats were approaching us through the gate!

We had to stop and play with them, of course.

The Parkers were finishing dinner, so hung out with the kids (Get it? Ha.) on our own for a while. The goats' names are Quill, Gamora, and Rocket. :) The grumps melted away almost instantly once we were playing with these little guys. :)

A few minutes later, the Parkers came out, and we met everyone else! (Except the second cat, which is fine by me, on account of I recently found out from one of those poke-you-in-the-back allergy tests that I am a 5/5 allergic to cats, 5 being the highest possible. But good news: I am NOT allergic to horses.)

It turns out that playing with animals is also therapeutic for our grumpy souls. I even got to RIDE A HORSE FOR THE FIRST TIME, and it was really fun!

I'm grateful that we went on a walk last night, that it is *basically* summertime and stays light out much later, that we have such nice neighbors/church friends, and that they let us play with their animals (and also sent us home with a dozen fresh eggs + freshly picked cherries).

The moral of the story is: when the grumps have you down, go outside and/or visit some friendly animals!

Snowshoeing: MLK, Jr. Day 2018

It's been a while since I've gone snowshoeing, but for Christmas this (last?) year, I got snowshoes for Stephen! That meant I also got some for myself, and we decided to take them out for a trial run on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

We haven't had much snow this winter, so we had to drive a ways to even get to snow (though we did get a lovely snowstorm this past weekend!). We decided to go to the area near Snowbasin so we could visit my family in Ogden after. Our goal was to snowshoe on the Sardine Peak Trail. We got a little lost, but we still had a good time enjoying the fresh air and being outside. :)

Here's hoping we can get some more snowshoeing in this winter! (And yes, I wore my ski goggles to go snowshoeing. 😁  Gotta be prepared for spontaneous snowball fights! Also, built-in sun protection. 😎 )

Death of a Prophet

The leader of my church, whom we regard as God's prophet and mouthpiece on earth, passed away recently, and today was his funeral. I listened to the hour-long service online, and then I felt compelled to stand outside, waiting for his motorcade to pass. (Luckily, I work about a block away from the motorcade's route, so it was really easy to just pop out and stand on the street.)

I feel a deep love for him. I got to meet him twice, both very brief interactions. But I could feel, both in person, and any time I heard him speak at a conference, that this man truly was the prophet of God. The first time, I was 16 (I remember I was wearing a peasant blouse I loved!), and he had spoken at our regional conference at the Dee Events Center. The second time, I was a college freshman at the U. It was Christmas break (December 2002: yikes!!), and I was shopping with my family at Nordstrom. We were in the men's shoe department, when lo and behold, who should also be there but President Monson!

We were so excited to talk to him, and it was even more exciting to get to take a photo with him. I pulled out my trusty disposable camera (I seriously never left home without it!), and some nice stranger took our photo. (My dad thinks he's hilarious and pretended to be the shoe salesman helping Pres. Monson try on a pair of dress shoes. Smh, Dad. Smh.)

One thing that was really lovely about being on South Temple today is that the Cathedral of the Madeleine, which was located on the motorcade's route, rang their bells today from the time the funeral ended until after the hearse had passed. Such a lovely sign of comraderie and co-mourning from our fellow Christians. It was also really wonderful to see other people lined up on South Temple to bid our prophet goodbye. I stood next to a young mom with her four kids (all of whom appeared to be age 5 or younger!) and marveled that she had brought them out on a crisp January afternoon to see our prophet pass by. I teared up a little at the two ladies who brought white handkerchiefs and waved them as President Monson's hearse drove past. I ended up being 20 minutes late to a work meeting, but I'm grateful I had the opportunity to say goodbye. I'm a little puzzled, having not known President Monson personally beyond two passing encounters, by how tender my heart felt today. I loved our prophet and am grateful to know the line of prophets will not end with him. How truly blessed we are!

Here are some more photos from today:

(Note the mom of four behind me)

President and Sister Uchtdorf

Our prophet <3 (aptly, in front of the Thomas S. Monson Building, which houses the Gardner Policy Institute)

God be with you 'til we meet again, dear President Monson. 💗

Swimming Lessons

Holy moly, I started swimming lessons this weekend! I am insanely scared of water (I learned what a panic attack was after having one before swimming at Zion National Park 5.5 years ago...), but two things: 1- Stephen and I are going to Hawai'i later this year, and it seems like it'd be a lot more enjoyable if I knew how to swim, 2- it is time: it is finally time to face my fears and learn to swim!

Stephen came with me, and -- bless him! -- stayed with me through the whole class. I'm really grateful he did! Having him there helped me feel a lot more confident. The instructor was late, which was a blessing, because I was SO nervous on the car ride to the lesson, and it was nice to have a few minutes to just get used to being in the water. Stephen gave me a headstart on my lesson (he's been swimming his whole life and did swim team back in the day), and by the time the actual lesson started, I felt ready and not panicked, which was a huge step for me.

By the end of the lesson, I was able to swim the length of a lap, I practiced kicking, I learned that water will get in my ears but will eventually come out, and I started practicing how to breathe out through my nose underwater. Stephen and I stayed at the pool after class and practiced some more. He helped me learn how to swim on my back, he taught me freestyle stroke, and he helped me kick better when I was going sideways or backwards (yes, somehow I managed to move backwards while swimming).

I'm nervous but excited for the next few weeks, but I can't overstate how grateful I am for my sweet husband and for his undying support. I might've made it through the lesson without him there, but it was so much easier knowing he had my back. Wish me luck and lots of learning in the next few weeks!

Oh! Not only is my husband a great swimming support; he took me to brunch at Cracker Barrel for doing so well at my lesson! I've heard Cracker Barrel is tasty but have never gone. I wholeheartedly recommend the wild blueberry pancakes. A+

"Married" Christmas 2017

Married Christmas... Merry Christmas. Get it? :) Happy New Year, everyone! Before I have to go back to work tomorrow, I wanted to make sure I documented our first married Christmas. :)

I tried to persuade Stephen to let us get a REAL Christmas tree, but, alas, it didn't work... But at least we got our faux tree on a Black Friday sale, so I suppose that's something. :) We didn't want to put up just any ol' ornaments, so for the first week or two, our tree just had lights on it. And then Stephen found a set of vintage ornaments for sale! We quickly scooped them up. I was a little wary, but they turned out to be much cuter in person. :) We also added a few special ornaments to our tree:

• a Hogwarts express ornament from our trip to Harry Potter World in early December
• a golden snitch ornament (that we made from a keychain) from the same trip (in honor of our golden snitch wedding cake ball toppers)
• a cute snowman made out of s'mores (because we had s'mores at our wedding)

And then, because, realistically, many of our coming Christmases will hopefully involve little Chatwinners at home, we bought a few felt plush ornaments from Target to round out our little tree. :) We also tried to make a DIY golden snitch tree topper, but we weren't able to figure out this year. We improvised with a Gryffindor beanie as a tree topper instead. (Thanks to my Reddit Secret Santa for the beanie!) The golden snitch will have to wait for Christmas 2018.

Oh, and please note on the photo above that shows our stockings.... You won't see a Y ornament. Why? Because Target is super LAME and doesn't sell them, that's why. I settled for a Z instead. Maybe next year... (Or maybe next year, we'll find cuter stockings elsewhere.)

Now for the actual Christmas celebrations. Christmas Eve was on a Sunday this year, and we started our day by worshiping with our congregation. The services were shortened for the day and primarily consisted of a musical Christmas program. The music was lovely, and my heart was touched by the Christmas spirit. After church, we came home and had our own little Christmas brunch. I made German pancakes with berry compote and fresh fruit on the side. I'd really love to have a dish that can become our traditional Christmas breakfast, and this recipe seems like a good contender, mostly because it's so easy AND delicious!

We drove up to my family's for Christmas Eve dinner. We celebrate on the 24th and open all our presents at midnight, and it was especially fun this year to celebrate with my baby nephew, who is now 15 months old and aware of what's going on around him. :) Christmas with kiddos is so fun!

The whole family! L-R: Daniel, Kim, Jasper, Stephen, me, Chris, Dad, Mom, Jason, Spencer (missing Jason's fiancée, Shirley)
Below: Mom's tree + Jasper with Tía Yándary y Tío Stephen

It started snowing while we were up in Ogden, so our drive home was slow, and we didn't get home until about 2:30am. We were high on Christmas spirit and opened our presents to each other when we got home. :) And we were maybe a little too excited, because we decided to open our Santa presents then, too! (Good thing Santa came to our house early this year!) My favorite thing about Christmas gifts is watching people open a gift I've picked out with such love and care just for them, so this part of our celebration was extra fun for me. And I must say, Stephen really knocked it out of the park! He's so thoughtful. :)

Christmas morning, we slept in until 10am. We decided Chatwinners stay in their Christmas PJs all day, so we bundled up and made our way over to Stephen's parents for Christmas Day celebrations. We also brought over our new ugly Christmas sweater, and everyone had fun taking turns to try it on.

We had Christmas breakfast and lunch, played lots and lots of board games, and once all the in-town grandkids had arrived, we opened presents. It was really fun to see the kids enjoying their gifts!

Other activities we enjoyed on Christmas Day included going to Walgreen's to get me some Lactaid (oh, the joys of adult-onset lactose intolerance...) and napping in our Christmas jammies.  Well, at least Stephen did. ;)

We ended the day at home watching one of our favorite movies. (I am proud to announce that we finished watching all eight Harry Potter movies over Christmas break AND Fantastic Beasts (Santa brought it for Stephen)!