San Francisco

i had such a fabulous weekend with mary and shawn in san francisco...i got to bike ride across the golden gate which was such a dream. just being with marry was such a treat. we sat on a bench by a little dock in salsalito and talked and ate snacks and talked about what a perfect moment it was.

we rode back on the ferry, rode through all the piers, had a fresh crab salad sandwich while listening to a sidewalk singer, then ate ice cream at giradelli's, walked the gardens around a golden dome, drove down lombardi street, got to see the oakland bridge sparkle and finished the day by getting charros on treasure island at charlie's. 

perfect day.....all of it!

 saturday shawn joined us and we drove down to capitol in their fun little mini cooper..top down of course! my favorite part was singing old songs together....beach boys, huey lewis, michael jackson, yes, we were definitely in the mood by the time we got to the beach.

 lunch was right on the beach and d-e-l-i-c-i-o-u-s!!! onion rings to die for....i definitely didn't want to share them. (but i did)

then after playing on the beach, watching surfers and getting ice cream cones we cruised home to watch....

'what's up doc'.....or course! 

sunday was so good. shawn sang in a quartet in sacrament meeting, then i got to hear shawn teach the 15-18 year olds, (he's a fabulous teacher) and then mary's lesson in young womens (equally as fabulous). we watched the last game of the world cup and had a wonderful discussion in the evening. pure bliss.

monday was sadness...
i had to leave. 

can't wait to go back.   

i hope it's soon!

BELIZE - part 2

 belize is the only central american country that has english as it's offical language although they speak spanish everywhere. it's a very poor country that's major industry is tourism and growing sugar cane. i loved the bus trips we had so i could see the countryside and how people live.

our weekend excursion was off to go zip lining through the rain forest. we got to go on 8 different zip lines and rapell down at the end. it was incredible!

then we hiked through the rainforest to go cave tubing where we had to wear headlamps since the caves were pitch black.

the next day we took a boat trip down a winding river (where we saw a crocodile in the river) to lumania, some ancient mayan ruins.

                        the view from the top of the ruin

these stairs were soooo steep!

making good progress

the students were all so sweet and loved playing soccer with the hefy kids. i loved hearing their clapping songs and handing out candy to them.

 

my favorite part of the ride

 

last reflections on the dock before we go

view from the top of our hotel....good bye humidity, good bye bottled water and bug spray but most of all good bye to a fabulous experience - one that i will never forget!

BELIZE!

time to finally catch up!! it's probably been over a month since i've written. 

so... i went of this fabulous trip with H.E.F.Y. which stands for Humanitarian Experience for Youth. mary was the trip leader and we had 20 kids, 2 team leaders and 3 adult coaches.

this is part of the group in the salt lake airport

on the first day we went snorkeling which was my first time. i was amazed at the beautiful fish and especially the sea turtles

we got to sail on this big catamaran and were serve the best pico de giyo i've ever had...plus grilled bbq chicken, potatoes and coconut tarts....sooooo good!

we came from all over the country to help build a school, which would be a one room cinder block room. we started with shovels and pick axes to dig trenches

the first day we all wore our hefy shirts....mainly for pictures!

we dug buckets full of rocks and sand and then mixed them all in a cement maker. we dumped wheelbarrows full of cement into the trenches, cut and wrapped rebar and mixed mortar with shovels.

my first graders had donated books that i gave to the students there

i spent time each day helping kids to read

snack time was spent here where we could fill our water bottles and have our beans, rice, chicken and cole slaw lunch.

 after we had the bricks three high we filled in the area with dirt, watered and pounded it down and then covered it all with more cement to establish a foundation.  

i loved spending time with mary. she was a great team leader.

 

camille crawley was our other team leader...who was a lot of fun to be with.

conversation

colleen asked me to write about a conversation we had the other morning...i'm not sure if this was the one, but it's what came to mind. although this morning we talked about how when you have conversations that touch you, it's probably not exactly the words but maybe the spirit that teaches you through their words at that moment. i believe my friends are full of wisdom and experience, but also they are good righteous women who teach me each time we are together. they bring the spirit to any conversation and truly are 'examples of the believers.'

people often feel that our church is complicated. but it isn't. i believe that being a mormon means first and foremost that i am a christian. by saying that, i mourn with those that mourn, help lift those who feel trodden down, bear the burdens of others, and try to daily see others the way Christ would. i convenant each sacrament meeting to do that.

simply put....i love.

that was His message in everything he said, everything he taught, everything he did.

and so when talking with someone of another faith, i see our commonality. we are both christians. we both love others because we love Christ. and because of His love, his teachings and his atonement my love can be greater, should be greater, because i feel his love. 

when all is said and done in this world, and in any of my relationships 

love is all that is important. 

i am grateful for this knowledge. i am equally grateful for the love my Savior showers upon me whether i deserve it or not. because i usually don't.

and i'm grateful that He trusts that i will try to do the same.

beginning of an adventure

today i spent most of the day packing for my trip to belize. i'm so excited to head out and see mary, meet all the kids who i'll be working with and help build a school. this is definitely out of my comfort zone but i've vowed to experience it all and not fear new things. 

i've been reading david and goliath by malcolm gladwell and i read about how in world war 2 the germans bombed england daily in a blitz with the idea that it would cause the people to become afraid and chaos would reign making overcoming england much easier. (well that's in a nutshell.) but that didn't happen. those who survived the bombing actually were in a sense exhilerated that they survived and it actually helped them feel a bit invincible and much more courageous. it was found that people are often more afraid of being afraid and when they have to face that fear head on they actually come away courageous and even energized because they have conquered. 

i'm hoping this experience will help me in that way. i'll report back.
 

                      

memorial day

we started the day doing the fun run in woods cross and got to enjoy great weather this year.

they always serve a great breakfast in the park after the run

we headed up to the cemetary in bountiful to place flowers on dad and don's grave site.

               

we finished by going to mom's home to work together in her yard. we pulled out bushes, trimmed, mowed, pulled weeds and covered up her grown out garden to kill all the weeds so we can put sod down instead. we ended with pizza. great team effort everybody!

my talented neice

i went up to logan to see lexie in the shakespear play 'a midsummer's night dream'. what a terrific job they did...kids 14 to about 18. i was absolutely blown away. i don't know how they could memorize all those lines especially during the end of year tests, papers, church activities, etc. 

it made me realize again how remarkable this generation of youth are.

it also made me think about how i use my time...and how effort brings it's own reward. i don't really push myself like i used to. that's something i need to work on more. 

doing hard things. 

i teach it....i need to do it.