Another Chapter in my Love Story

The month of love has come and gone.  I've longed loved my very own love story - the story of Chris and I, but a chapter has been added.  

It started two Christmas's ago.  My aunt Kim prepared this very large family history binder, full of pedigrees, personal histories, photos and conversion stories from our family.  I read and learned things from my family tree that I had no idea about it.  It really made me appreciate my pioneer heritage and feel more gratitude for the sacrifices my ancestors made and for my many blessings and great life I enjoy today.  

For our Stake Pioneer Trek last year, we were asked to find a name to take with us on the trail, and a story to share.  I broke out the big blue binder to find my story.  Among the story I took, I found the history of Arnold Oscar Harris, my great grandpa who I never met.  

He was born in Indiana where the LDS missionaries met his family.   An elder from Ammon, ID, Joe Empey, was instrumental in his families conversion.   The Harris's had the desire to live by members of the church and attend the temple.  Elder Empey encouraged them to come out to Idaho where he would find them a place to live and help them find work.  The family sold everything they had except a few pieces of furniture, along with their homestead, pigs, chickens and a team of horses to raise money for the train trip to Idaho.  When they arrived they worked for the Empey farm.  

That's my side of the story.  

Now for Chris's side of the story.  

Chris received a Blatter family history book for Christmas this past year.  We already knew that his family was from Ammon because they're still there.  As we read about his own Great Grandpa, John Blatter there was an odd similarity.  In Illinois, bordering Indiana, we read about their own conversion, and the Elders name, Joe Empey.  Joe Empey, from Ammon, who encouraged them to move out west to be by the saints. 

And so the love story that I thought began in 1998 really dated back 100 years.  In 1898 - John Blatter's family made their way to Ammon, ID and began farming.  In 1899, Arnold Harris's family made their way to Ammon to do the same.  One missionary, changing the lives of two families.  I'm not even related to Joe Empey, but I feel a closeness to him.  I studied up on him and he was the first missionary to leave from the Ammon area.  I'm excited to thank him someday for his service, and to thank his mom who was probably lonely while he was away.  I don't know how many families he converted on his mission or if other families also came out to Ammon, ID but I know of two that did, the Harris's and the Blatter's.  Because of the selfless service 100 years ago, I'm happily sealed to my very best friend.  My own Idaho boy.

Now we are building a posterity of our own.  Someday our own descendants will have stories to share of us.  I hope they are ones where unselfish service and a commitment to love the lord will be seen as a blessing in their own life.     

The Princess turns 6!

Our sweet little Mallory turned 6.  Those were the fastest six years.  I just can't believe she's my baby, my baby is 6 - hardly a baby.  I got to have our first lunch together in kindergarten on her big day.  

We opened gifts that afternoon and she got all she ever wanted - a bow and arrow.  She was so happy, it has provided hours and hours of entertainment.  

Her birthday was on a Monday and we had to wait until Saturday to celebrate.  It was her first party, she was so happy!

Mirror, Mirror on the wall......who's the fairest of them all??  All things Snow White took over the royal day.

 It's party time - dress to the theme.  I love a theme:-) Sisters are the best helpers!

 We celebrated in the morning with a royal breakfast.  I loved doing it first thing in the morning, the party is over by 11:00 and we still have a lot of Saturday left.

 Usually we have no pictures of anything.  Chris was assigned his party role - photographer, he took it very seriously.  Yay - photos of the event:-).

 The entry way.
After breakfast we painted "apple" fingernails, then decorated magic mirrors and colored poisoned apples.

 The sweetest girls.  Love them all, I couldn't ask for a better group of girls for Mallory to grow up with.

 Wishes come true.  Mine did when she was born - another beautiful, healthy girl to join our family.  I can't put into words my love for this girl.  She's creative, energetic, full of joy, and always smiling.  Our family is full and happy and complete with our Mallsy Pal, Mally Jane, Janers, Malz.  Happy 6 years:-)

4660 Miles

One of my favorite road trip pics.

Our summer trip just wrapped up.  This was by far our most miles ever logged, and it was a blast.  I guess as the kids get older the road trip gets more enjoyable.  That many miles equals over 60 hours of laughs, games, movies, sleeping and snacking.  I'm so thankful that we traveled without complications (so so so thankful) and we even managed to stay healthy!!  This vacation deserves it's very own book but here is a brief synopsis of the vacation.

Pit Stop 1: Las Vegas

Handsome Brothers

Riding the High Roller downtown Vegas.

Lots of cousins and one big bear.

At every stop we made we got to see more and more family.  Living far away from any relatives makes us all treasure this time. It was so good to see  Mike and Stu's family.  Whenever the Grahams are together, there's lots of couch talking, lots of eating and really late nights.

Pit Stop 2: Zions National Park

The only disappointing part of going to Zions was to realize it's awesomeness and that we've missed out on it our whole lives until now!  It was amazing - such a beautiful place. Hymns kept running through my head like "I Stand All Amazed", & "How Great Thou Art".  I love being out in nature away from city noise to take in Heavenly Father's amazing creations!  Hiking the narrows was so much fun.  I'm so happy the weather held up, if it starts raining the narrows start flooding.

 Pit Stop 3: Provo
Oh Happy Valley - Chris worked some wonders with our soaking wet shoes, took out the soles, and let them sit under a fan all night to dry out (enough) for our hike up "Y" mountain.  The Y is a lot further up the mountain then it looks.  All of our kids were troopers in the hot sun.  We all made it to the top to take in the beautiful view of Provo, one of my favorite memory filled cities.  They were all rewarded with the much talked about and anticipated "Swig" drink.

 Pit Stop 4: Rexburg/Idaho Falls
From Raspberry picking lessons to the all you can cold cereal buffet - visiting Grandma's never disappoints.  It's always good to visit "home" and family.  Chris made me drive the GEO Metro around town hoping to see an old classmate or two - it entertains him so much, and I'm still awesome at it.  We ran around the river, went to the temple, BBQ'd and played games late into the night.  My favorite game was PIT, which Chris wouldn't play but agreed to "judge", seriously had us laughing so hard.  I love laughing so hard.

Angey showed me the jackpot, a little heaven right there.

We got to the visit the temple, the same temple where this happy family started.

Pit Stop 5: Yellowstone National Park

Look how cute the back seat view was. 

We didn't see a bear but we did see some random wildlife, elk, buffalo, mud pots and old faithful.  That night on our way out we stopped in West Yellowstone and saw "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" at the Playmill.  They always put on such an amazing show - the kids all stayed awake and loved it.

We stopped by Mesa Falls on our way to Yellowstone.  The rainbow over the falls was a sight to behold.

Grandpa is a good sport, nothing like a little hazing from some grandkids.

Pit Stop 6: Boise, ID
On the way to Craters we took the road less traveled and saw "Craters of the Moon".  I don't remember ever seeing it before.  The drive was a fun change-up from the regular scenery.
Boise means cousin time with Spencer, Derek and Lances families.  They all generously took us in and let us crash at their houses and fed us, entertained us and cleaned up after us.  Even Ang and her kids came down to add to the cousin fun.  Boise always feel like an unofficial mini-reunion.

Someday our kids can join our jumping pic, this try was a lot of failed attempts.  We finally kicked them out of the picture.

This is us pretending to walk on the moon.  Who knows why?

We hit the watermark with cousins.  Mallory had had enough, she's like a kitty taking a nap in the sun.

 Pit Stop 7: Salt Lake City
Chris was back in Dallas so I was on my own, I had to muster up enough energy to be the sole provider of the entertainment.  We headed to "This is the Place" Heritage Park and luckily my job was made easy.  Such a fun place, we stayed 3.5 hours but could have spent much longer.  We then went to temple square and toured the Conference Center, afterwards all the wanted to do was run around - thank you green space by the visitor center.  The kids took off their shoes and just ran around enjoying the cool weather.  Running around bare feet doesn't happen in Texas, we love Idaho and Utah grass.

Yay!  Chris made it back to us, we made a memorable visit to the Ogden Temple Open house and to visit Julie and Mark.

Mallory looks like a natural here, don't you think?

 Pit Stop 8: Colorado Springs, CO
Colorado Springs - How many awesome things can you possibly fit into one day?? We fit four.  Colorado Springs deserves it's own vacation, it's such a fun city.  Our stops included the Air Force Academy, Focus of the Family (random but really fun for the kids), the US Olympic Training Center (GO USA) and then the Garden of the Gods.

Air Force Academy Chapel.

Mason's expression, cracks me up.  He's such a ham.

I really, really love this team.

Pit Stop 9: HOME!!!
Our vacation was the perfect amount of time - we all really enjoyed sleeping in our beds and showering in our own showers when we got home.  It was so good to see so much family (all but 1 of my siblings, and all of Chris's), even though we're far away I'm glad the rest are all generally in the west and it's possible to see them all on one trip.  I'm also so glad that in addition to family, there is so much to see and do when we visit and it's such beautiful countryside to drive through.  Even after planting our roots here in Texas, even though Texas is all my kids know - Chris and I deep down will always be who we are because of Idaho.  Love that place!