Fall Break and Halloween!

Do you ever feel like even though there is nothing really going on, you are super busy? welp, that has been life lately. I am convinced that the school districts invented fall break so teachers don't go crazy! Our fall break we pretty planned out, and a blast! Thursday we went to Midway with Brandon's family. I ted at football (ha ha), we visited the crater and ate the best hot dog I have ever had in my life! It was a lot of fun just to play with Brandon's family.

Holidays are so much more fun with family. This year we played with my family the week before Halloween and spent the day with Brandon's family. My family puts on a annual party complete with all the traditional games. I think the best part was watching Brandon's competitive side come out and almost take down my uncle or get clobbered by a powdered doughnut. With Brandon's family we carved pumpkins and played some really fun games. Again, Brandon's competitive side is a blast to observe. He ted at musical pumpkins, creamed everyone at the toilet paper mummy game and randomly wrestled with this brother (pretty intense.) I love just hanging out and laughing with Brandon's family and my own. We are super blessed.
P.S. I haven't figured out how to cutely post pictures with captions and all that. In the pictures to the right grandma is showing off her "stroke pumpkin" and Brandon is just starting his masterpiece with sarah (Who calls herself the runner-up friend) in the background. To the left Grandpa is adding an extra challenge to Brandon's doughnut capture and we are showing off our Siamese twins, attached at the hip, tumor costume. oh, and the very top picture is of us in the crater.
Another amazing part about this holiday weekend was getting together with some of my favorite people. Thanks to Kaylee all the s got together for breakfast on Halloween. It was a fun to get together and quickly catch up. I love those s!

"Spending time alone with The Lord"

So conference was AMAZING! One of the apostles who spoke suggested we "spend some time alone with The Lord" because of this I decided to take a trip up to "my enchanted place" (please read the book Stargirl. It is by favorite!) My waterfall has become my own personal sacred place. My waterfall (yes, I call it mine even though I know it is just as special to many other people.) holds a lot of memories with some of my favorite people. It has been amazing to build friendships, laugh, cry, heal and vent on top of the falls . I am so grateful for the amazing people I have been blessed to encounter in my life and whenever I hike to my waterfall I reminisce about the amazing experiences that I have had with these people there. Though, most importantly are the incredible moments I have had with My Savior while meditating on top of the falls. I have been so amazingly blessed to have a place I can go to just be with him. This last time I went I was blessed with a special treat, a light rain... beautiful!










Of course another place that triumphs over my waterfall is the temple which I was also able to visit this week. I love the temple! This time I was inspired by the cutest temple worker. Another temple worker told me he was 80 yrs old and had been working in the font for the last two hours. Though it was apparent that he was starting to get sore he was still incredibly sparkly and loving every minute of his work. To me this was a small example of enduring to the end and finding joy in every minute. He will never know how he touched me, but he did. A-mazing!

In other less important news April finally fulfilled a goal she had planned to accomplish when she turned 18. I won something on the radio! Now those of you who know me know that I am not really a grown-up i just pretend sometimes, so this goal totally fits me! When I turned 18 I told myself that now i fit the "must be 18 years or older" description so I just had to utilize my new found power! I tried really hard to win something that year and have tried on and off ever since. Today my dreams came true! I called and....WON! I am now the proud winner of Lady Antebellum tickets! Who knows if we will go seeing how it is on a weekday and will require who knows how much walking, but Brandon is insisting that we will. He won a thermos last week which he decided that we will be taking to the concert to show off our wins! We must be the luckiest couple alive!