Entering a New Decade

It's a couple of days after the fact, but I've finally joined the thirty and over group. My birthday was on Thursday (sorry, no pictures were taken), and as I said good-bye to my twenties forever, I thought about what that decade of my life yielded. Here are just a few things that came to mind:

Places Lived During my Twenties
*Ripon, Wisconsin
*St. George, Utah (briefly--for the two summers before and after my mission)
*Dominican Republic
*Salt Lake City, Utah
*Houston, Texas

Schools Attended and Formal Education Received During my Twenties
*Ripon College
*University of Utah
*University of St. Thomas
*Two Bachelor's Degrees (English & Political Science)
*Teacher Certification

Jobs Held During my Twenties
*Student
*Sales Associate (twice)
*Accounts Receivable Clerk
*Medical Records Clerk
*Spanish/English Interpreter
*High School English Teacher
*Stay-at-home Mom

Church Callings Received During my Twenties
*Young Women teacher (Mia Maids)
*Relief Society teacher
*Full-time missionary
*Primary teacher (twice--4/5 year-olds and 7/8 year-olds, which is my current calling and longest one I've ever had)
*Ward missionary
*Relief Society visiting teaching supervisor
*Counselor in the Primary presidency (twice--very briefly both times)
*Nursery teacher/helper
*Activities committee

Favorite Highlights of my Twenties (in order of their occurrence)
*Serving a mission in the Dominican Republic
*Graduating with my undergraduate degrees
*Getting married to Josh for time and all eternity in the St. George temple
*Having and raising my first child--my sweet baby boy, Eli

The lists could go on, of course, but these are just a few of the things I think about when I review the last ten years of my life.

Gig Harbor

Josh had to fly home right after the wedding because he still had a couple more days of school, but Eli and I flew from Salt Lake to Gig Harbor to be with Josh's family for about 4 days before Josh could rejoin us. Unfortunately, we ended up being sick for the first part of our trip up there. Eli came down with a pretty nasty cold and gave it to his mama. I didn't suffer quite as bad, though I suspect I have a sinus infection now with the way I'm feeling. Eli actually threw up, which was a first for him. Even as a baby he didn't throw up or spit up much. I'm glad it was only once, and I'm not sure what it was. Most of his suffering came from a head cold up in Gig Harbor, but last night he had a high fever, so I'm not sure what exactly he's been going through. I know his Grandma Pratt had a fever and was throwing up too, as well as his cousins. Whatever it was/is, it put a little damper on the vacation.

Still, we did have some fun. We went to a bluegrass festival where Eli loved people watching. We went to Wild Waves theme park, which has both water and amusement park rides. Eli went on a few rides, but he couldn't ride many, so we took him in the morning and got a babysitter for him in the afternoon. Of the ones Eli went on--the carousel, ferris wheel, and dry slide--he liked the dry slide the most. Basically, it's a huge slide in which you sit on a sack that helps you go down. Eli loved it. He sat on Josh's lap and would get up and clap when it was over. He didn't like the carousel at all, and he sort of liked the ferris wheel, but it ended up being too long of a ride for him. Josh and I enjoyed the water slides and roller coasters that we could go on when Eli was with the babysitter. Okay, honestly, Josh enjoyed them. I enjoyed some of them, and endured others so that Josh could enjoy. I don't really like roller coasters because I hate the heart-dropping-to-your-feet feeling. I mostly enjoyed the water slides, but some of the other rides were not quite as scary as I thought they'd be.

We also went to Remlinger Farms, which has a lot of kid rides. Eli could ride most of those, and he got a taste of his first roller coaster. I was hesitant to let him ride, but he was clapping and really excited to go. I think it looked more fun than it was, mostly because he wasn't prepared for the jerking around that roller coasters have. He didn't want to get off the ferris wheel though, and he loved petting the animals. He even got to ride a pony. Though it was an incredibly hot day when we went, Remlinger Farms was definitely a highlight of our trip, which is why most of the pictures come from there.

Again, that was the short version of our trip, but we really did enjoy being with family, sick or not, and we had an eventless flight home, which was an added bonus! :-)

Megan's Wedding

Though our trip to Salt Lake for Megan's wedding didn't start too well, it ended up being great because Megan's wedding was beautiful. Unfortunately, we tend to have flight problems lately, and we had yet another fiasco. First our flight was delayed because of airplane computer problems. We sat on the plane in Houston for 45 minutes before they told us to deplane and reboard another one. I'm grateful they were being safe, but 45 minutes just sitting on a hot plane not going anywhere wasn't fun stuff for a 16 month old. We finally got out of Houston and made our way to Salt Lake, but we couldn't land. I asked Josh why we kept passing the same landmarks, and it turns out we were circling the Salt Lake valley waiting for thunderstorms to dissipate. When they didn't and our plane threatened to run out of fuel, they announced that they had to refuel at the next closest airport, which was up in Boise. I'll tell you that being a few minutes from landing and then having to fly 45 minutes up to Boise and then back to Salt Lake again after refueling was not an enjoyable experience. But we made it safely and sanely enough even with a toddler on board.

My cousin Bryan and his wife, Noel, were kind enough to let us stay in their home. We feel bad that we didn't get to spend more time with them. Time seemed to be short everywhere. We enjoyed visiting some friends--Olivia, Juliana, and Tricia--though we didn't get to visit as long as we would have liked. We forgot our camera when we went to Tricia's home, so we don't have a picture of Lincoln with Eli, but she took one, which we hope to get soon. Even my dad didn't get very much time with us, but I'm glad he came and could at least spend some time with Eli while we were in the temple.

As I said, the wedding was beautiful. Megan and Matt had their reception on Friday night, and then they were sealed in the Salt Lake temple on Saturday morning. We only took a couple of pictures outside the temple with our camera, so we don't have any of the reception, but it was very elegant. It was held in an old meeting house that has been remodeled. Their colors were brown and red, and their cake had two flavors for the different layers. One was carrot, and the other was chocolate marble. They had a chocolate fountain with fruit and cream puffs, and there was dancing at the end. The temple sealing the next day was very spiritual, and the luncheon afterwards was held in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. That was the shortened version, of course, but it all turned out very nicely. We're very happy for Matt and Megan and hope they enjoyed their honeymoon in Hawaii.

Now we have my brother Nephi's wedding to go to in September!