The Seasonal Slowdown

I have been feeling so much happier lately

Yet, not much has changed in my life.

I guess I have been trying harder to make

time to do the things that I am supposed to.

You know, like personal prayer and spending

time reading the scriptures.

I guess I am just seeing the blessings that come

when I do what I should.

Seriously, I feel ridiculously happy.

For No apparent reason.

I mean, I know I have been blessed beyond measure when

 it comes to my family, but that doesn't mean things are always

 hunky dory.

 In fact they're usually not.



I think it may also have something to do with this glorious time of year.

 I just can't get enough of Autumn. 

 The light!

 The trees!

The sky!

 The leaves!

If it was a food I would say,"YUM!"

The seasonal slowdown may not happen on the calendar,

 but I see it in nature all around me.

.

I see it in my garden and feel it in my body.

It must be something that goes back to the beginning of time-

 that desire to preserve, to hunker down with a fabulous book

 and a snuggly blanket, to just take life at a slower pace.

Winter can stay far away,

but Fall, you are welcome to visit

as long as you like.

Love, Mom

This weekend my roommates and I went on our first road trip!!! How exciting! We went down to Salt Lake and saw conference in the conference center! How awesome is that?  Way awesome! Before such an awesome weekend though, It was a crazy week.  Jennie has mono, so there was a lot of scrambling and unhappiness in the horn section.  Brother Klein was really crabby because of it and it made for a stressful sectional and lesson.  Hopefully he is better this week?  But some other highlights of the week included eating dinner in the Snow elevator, and going to twizzleberry and playing with the Kinects ( think that's how you spell it?)  Anyway it was awesome!  So back to the awesome weekend...

 

 This first couple of pictures were from the saturday afternoon session.  Disclaimer! I didn't take any of these pictures! So no blame on the fact that they are blurry!  In this picture you can see Sister Dalton, in the white suit.  I bumped into her Saturday afternoon, but it was such a mad house I didn't even realize it until it was too late to say anything.  So sad :(

 These next pictures were from Sunday morning.  Much better pictures :) We were way closer this time, I  was actually close enough to make out some faces, almost... But I was in the conference center, with the prophet and all of the apostles! Crazy? I think yes!

 The Couple in the background were being really obnoxious...there were a couple pictures with them kissing in the background...At this session we sat by a girl from Australia.  She pretty much had the coolest accent EVER!!  This was her first time to the states, and she was going to spend three weeks in Utah.  I told her to get out of Utah and go somewhere awesome...aka Minnesota.

 This is right outside the conference center, we figured we had better get a roommate picture, except we were looking at the wrong camera...

Here is all of us who went...Disclaimer!  I don't know the guy on the far right, he was just with Erich.

 I had no idea that the Christus (I don't actually know how to spell it and neither does spell check...) but I had no idea it was so big! It was so beautiful!! I wanted to sit up there forever.

Here we are outside the temple! I have a picture with the whole temple in it, but I couldn't find it on my computer, but it's my facebook profile picture...so go look at it!  It was so awesome.  Seriously, this was on of the best weekends ever!  I think it was really good for us as roommates too.  

And...I actually did this Friday night, before we went to conference.  This is like the coolest puzzle ever! I found it at DI and I did it in like 5 hours.  I unfortunately had no where to do it except on my bed, so I moved my mattress and slept on the floor, and this is what my room looked like Friday night...

 But, don't worry, My mattress is back on my bed now, but my puzzle is still under my bed until I figure out what to do with it.

FALL, GLORIOUS FALL

It was Saturday, conference weekend. And it was a glorious Fall day

We decided (well, I decided) to go hiking at the Ney Nature Center.

And I dragged everyone else with me.

It was 38 degrees when we left home so we bundled up a bit.

We got brave and decided to bring Lucy. Not necessarily the best call.

There were too many other dogs there for comfort.

On more than one occasion we had to wrestle her to the ground

 so as to avoid an unpleasant altercation. Yikes!

Mia said the above picture looks like Sam's a crazy, Dad's a sicko,

 I'm sleepy and Lucy is saying,"Can we go now?"

She kept going into the weeds and rubbing her face on the ground trying to

get rid of her gentle leader. She finds it really annoying.

Gorgeous Birch clump!

It was so beautful there. The trees! The sky! The leaves!

Just all of the colors were so brilliant.

Sorry about Lucy's butt. She wasn't being really

 cooperative with the picture taking...

Look at this fantastic tree! It is part of the original "Big Woods" of Minnesota.

Love it so much! I might need to get a couple of these blown up and framed.

This looks like what I picture The Sacred Grove to look like.

I really enjoy how Sam is kind of hidden in this one.

Sammy had to try out the natural bridge.

Dad hiding behind the tree, Haha.

Look at the wave pattern in the sand. It looked really cool.

Plus, it's a tiny creek. Why are there wave marks?

I almost stepped on this creepy frog. Yuck!

I screamed like a little girl and jumped to avoid him.

And he jumped to avoid me.

Which is what startled me in the first place.

Pardon the weed in our face. We were using the timer

 and didn't see it at first.

This one is better.

We picked the weed.

I know... Nature shot after nature shot.

I hope you're not too bored.

I couldn't seem to help myself...

We picked up a pile of pretty leaves too.

We're hoping to wax them.

Even the algae is pretty. Go figure.

I hope you all had a wonderful, relaxing, fun, uplifting weekend.

We are so fortunate to live in a time when we can hear a prophet and

 apostles speak directly to us.

I hope you are as motivated as me to be grateful, to be better,

to do better, to let the world matter less.

I think you are all the best in the world.

And I love you to the moon and back.

Love, Mom