We're Back...

Today was the unsettling first day back to work since our week vacation to visit our families in Utah. I have to admit, I had a fabulous time. Utah was like another world than the one I live in daily. There was nothing there to remind me of work, bills, house cleaning, cooking, etc. It truly was relaxing. The best part of it was being with family. We were able to spend quality time with family members that I haven't seen in a long time. The best part of the vacation was being with family. The second best part of the vacation was the mountains. How I missed you! The third best part was Cafe Rio and Bajio. I missed you too. Here are some pictures of our trip:

Here we are hiking Stuart Falls with my dad. We made it to the falls but had to turn back early because of rain and hail. It was a lovely hike anyway.



We were able to spend time with my brother, Tom, and his family. We stayed in their beautiful house, ate Bajio, amazing chocolate chip cookies, bread and jam. It was wonderful. We went up to Logan to the American Heritage Farms. It was crazy to be in Logan again--we were able to walk around USU campus a little and we ate at our favorite Logan restaurant, Iron Gate Grill.

Here I am with my niece, Allison, at the farm.



Here are Kam and I at the entrance to the corn maze. We all got very seriously lost in that maze and had to cheat to get out of it. Kam realized a few hours later that he had a map of the maze in his pocket all along....


Here is a picture of Kam and Allison in the corn maze:




Here is a picture of Tom and Emily's family and a picture of my niece and nephew, Allison and Dallin:



Here is a video of Kam doing a flip off the hay jump (isn't he amazing?):




Kam and I hadn't had our fill of the mountains yet so we decided to go hiking up Rock Cannyon. It was very beautiful up there--I love the Fall so much. It was great to be able to spend some of it in the mountains.




Here is Kam standing in front of the cliff that he fell off of when he was a teenager:



We wanted to spend some quality time with Kam's brother, Kart, and his family. Guess where we decided to go? The farm at Thanksgiving Point. I had no idea we loved farm animals so much. Here are some pics of us at the farm with our adorable nephew and niece, Aiden and Emma.




Although we don't have many other pictures, other highlights of our trip included my mother-in-law's birthday party and a huge BBQ with Kam's side of the family. My side of the family went up to Vivian Park and enjoyed being in the mountains. It was a very relaxing trip full of LOTS of food and good times. We were also able to watch the season premiere of the Office. The Office, we missed you too. It's great to have you back.

So here we are, back in St. Louis. It was actually stranger to walk back into our apartment after our vacation than it was walking into my parent's house at the beginning of our vacation. Why is that? Anyway, being around family got me excited about moving closer to home (no, sorry Mom, not to Utah). There is something about being around family that reminds you of who you are and what is most important in life. It was a great vacation--it's not terrible to be home, but I think I wouldn't have minded just a few more days...

Oh yeah, my sister-in-law, Laura, took my family's pictures when we were in town. She has a few of them posted on her blog if you want to check them out.

Time Out!

So this weekend I went to Time Out For Women--a conference for LDS women sponsored by Deseret Book. I'm not usually into this kind of thing but when I saw that the theme of the conference was, "Joyful Life," I decided to go. Not that this will be a surprise to any of you, but life can be full of stress and disappointments. Who doesn't want to have more joy? So I paid my $50 and went--not really knowing what to expect. I actually enjoyed Time Out for Women for the most part. There were some great music presentations by Michael McLean, Cherie Call, and Hillary Weeks. The speakers were also really good. Some of the messages I really needed to hear-- especially the ones about trusting God and striving to be happy even when your life isn't going according to plan. There also was a fair amount of emotional manipulation, or "cheese". For example, Michael McLean was making everyone laugh or cry at his will (we were all in the palm of his hand) and at the end he even had everyone hold hands and sing "we can be together forever someday"--I didn't play into that one--it was a little much. It was also fun to ride up to the conference in a big van with some ladies from my ward--I didn't know any of them very well but they were all so welcoming and fun to be around--a great weekend over all! I probably won't go again next year--but maybe the year after that. Also, bonus, I got a really cute Time Out For Women tote bag!



Well, hopefully all that spirituality will stay with me because they cancelled church today! In my whole life in Utah, church was never cancelled. In the two years we have been in St. Louis, church has been cancelled twice due to weather issues. St. Louis is getting some storms from Hurricane Ike. It was raining pretty hard last night and apparently all around our church is flooded and a lot of the roads that people would take to church are flooded and closed. Around my apartment everything looks fine...oh, well. I'll enjoy spending time at home with Kameron (eventhough he is out right now doing his home teaching--he knows how to make the most out of the break!)

Elephantitis

Since we know our days in St. Louis are numbered, Kam and I decided to try to do everything in St. Louis we wanted to do. Chances are, we will never be out here again so we might as well make the most of it. Since we have been missing mountains, we decided to go hiking at Elephant Rock which is about an hour and a half away from St. Louis. Elephant Rock is an old granite quarry that has some amazing granite formations--there are lots of huge boulders that, if you really stretch it, looks like elephants lined up in a row. It was fun to climb around on all the rocks--even if Kam often had to help me leap from boulder to boulder.





Here is a picture of Kam showing the span of one of my death-defying leaps from one boulder to another (yes, he wanted me to take this picture to mock me):




This is a picture of me on a rock that I climbed up all by myself (with a boost up from Kam--and, okay, some help down too).


We had a fabulous time! On the way back, we almost hit a little turtle in the road. We decided to pull over and move him off the road (I named him Snappy).



After we got home, our thirst for the outdoors was not satisfied so we decided to ride our bikes along Grant's Trail in St. Louis. Here is a picture of Kameron riding; isn't the trail beautiful?



The weather was wonderful today--it is finally cooling off. I get really excited when the leaves start turning and falling. I am absolutely in love with Autumn! We had a great day together (the evening will probably be spent doing laundry).