Recent Happenings

Yesterday I officially turned in my last assignment for my online Shakespeare class through BYU - and the peasants rejoiced!  Although I still have the final to take next week, two more lessons to finish for the Creative Writing Class and about 20 lessons for the Intro to Lit class (how did I manage to put that off until after my Senior Capstone I'll never know) I am still pretty stoked to see the end in sight.  Then I will be OFFICIALLY graduated and I can finally get my teaching license for real.  

Between taking care of Daphne, trying to let my body recover and these classes I haven't had time to journal, so this is my reward to myself!  Here are some recent happenings in our life.

We went on an afternoon drive and got a Veyo Pie.  It was incredible!

I made this slightly dorky poster for Burke on Father's Day since I was still moving like a turtle from the c-section and couldn't muster the energy to make it farther than the candy isle at the store.  Good thing he loves things like this!

I mentioned in my last post that Chels, Dixon, Gabe and Ellen came down for a brief visit.  These are the only pictures I managed to snag while they were here which makes me super sad since Chelsea and Dixon probably won't be coming back to the states for another 2 years and Gabe and Ellen leave for the East coast in a month.  Sad!  At least Daphne got to go to her first birthday party to celebrate Auntie Chelsea's big day!

On Friday, June 24th, Burke's family got together for a mini-reunion.  It started out in St. George on Friday morning with baptisms at the temple.  I stayed home with Daphne, but Burke had a wonderful experience being in the temple with his family, fulfilling a life-long dream of his parents to have all 7 children in the temple together at the same time.  That evening we headed up to Parowan where the kids played on a sweet water slide and we enjoyed the beautiful sunny weather, followed by amazing dinner Kevin and Danelle made for us all where they even let us "order" our dishes off a little menu.  Very cute.  

The next day I stayed down in Parowan with Daphne while the rest of the fam headed up to Co-Op for a day of four wheeling, horseback riding, clay pigeon shooting, and sitting by the campfire.  Although I would have loved to go with them, I was exhausted and the thought of driving on that bumpy road with my aching incision made me cringe!  Burke took this awesome picture of his little brother Brett up at the mountain and I think it's worthy of the "Man From Snowy River" ballad!

On Sunday Alan and Kevin gave terrific talks at church about being service minded and Daphne made her debut to her first sacrament meeting.  After church Wes took some pictures of the family all together and then as individual families in our black and white outfits.  I can't wait to get the pictures from him, but here are a few from my point-and-shoot camera that turned out nicely.  We always have to get a picture of Alan with the  granddaughters and you can tell how happy he is to have all these dotting little ladies!

When Chels was down she laughed at Burke and I one night, remarking how funny it is to watch parents who are obsessed with their kids.  Clearly, we can't get enough of her!

On Sunday night we had an opportunity to have a family meeting where everyone expressed something they had learned since Christmas time.  Many tender and heart-felt emotions were expressed, along with some incredibly testimonies of the Lord's hand in our lives.  I felt spiritually uplifted and overwhelmed with gratitude that I married into such an incredible family.

 It's been a lovely couple of weeks, but we are pretty tuckered out in these here parts!