Summer Re-cap: Part I

It's Sunday.  Colin banished me from church so that I could come home and rest.  I have a really unpleasant cold brought on from lack of sleep, no physical exercise and STRESS from finals week last week.  I may be sick but at least I aced my finals, phew.

Another one down (semester) and only 5 more to go.  Sort of depressing actually, I have 2 more years left of school.  Now that I have the first year out of the way I get to actually start learning about the things that I am really going back to school for, women's health and nurse midwifery.  We start clinicals in the fall which I look forward to.  Has this year been hard?  I would say, yes.  I have had some great lessons in time management, which I am still working on.  But I think the greatest lesson I have learned this past year has been that even though we are doing the right thing, it still doesn't guarantee that it will be easy.  One step at a time...

Despite being in school, we have had a full and fun summer.  We went to trek with our ward, I had a girls reunion in Park City, Spencer (Colin's twin) got married and we made cherry jam, swam a lot, played outside everyday, played with grandma's when mom had to go to lab (so nice both grandma's are off in the summer's so Eliza didn't have to go to "school" she just got to have fun with them) and have eaten lots of popsicles and ice cream (my new favorite: Ben & Jerry's greek yogurt blueberry and graham cracker).

Trek:  Our ward did a family trek.  I am not sure I will ever go again ( I despise camping and outdoor toilets) but it was a unique opportunity to go to Wyoming. We got to trek in Martin's Cove and visit Independence Rock and Devil's gate.  It wasn't until the drive home though as our daughter slept in her car seat, exhausted, that I really felt the spirit of trek as I read to Colin the pioneer stories we were given.  I always used to think that the pioneers had it hard physically but we have it hard spiritually, until I read about a mother who lost her baby, and a husband who lost his wife, and a mother who lost both limbs and on and on.  They sacrificed it all for their belief in the restored gospel.  Amazing!  I think saints in years past and today are all connected in that regardless of our wordly circumstances, we strive to do the right thing and endure to the end.  I am grateful for the experience as it gave me a new perspective.  BTW Eliza has an extremely nice and talented grandma Thomas who outfitted her whole wardrobe.  Isn't she the cutest pioneer you ever saw?  She did amazing and so did Colin, they both seemed to love it, I just muddled through.

Girls trip:  I was lucky enough to have a girl's reunion in Park City this summer with all of my closest girlfriends that I have known all my life.  It was so fun!  We ate, we talked, we talked some more, we swam, we went on the alpine slides etc. There is something about being around the girls who have known you since you were little that was so edifying.  Hopefully it is not 4 years until we get together again.  Eliza got to hold Mel's baby and it was all she could talk about for a few days.