"This is OUR time! It's OUR time down here!"

Being underground always makes me think of that quote from Goonies.  :)

A while back (as in, a couple of months ago) we took advantage of a groupon deal and toured the Crystal City Mines. No, they were not mining crystals. They're these old sand mines (who knew people mined sand?) and they're ginormous! As in, if we took the canoe tour they offered, we would be there for 4 hours and still not see everything. I was wondering if the town was going to cave in on us. Actually, it seemed more like the size of 3 or 4 towns, so I don't really know how it works, but it was awesome. As it is, we took the 30 minute barge ride and only saw a teeny tiny portion of what the caves have to offer. It was super cool. Cool as in cold. We kind of wished we'd waited until the hot summer to go down there to get a break from the heat - but Dan loved the cold temps and we both loved the fun date night.

 Crystal-clear water. The white stuff on the wall is the sand they were mining.

 The barge had a heater on it. Blessed day! While we rode around the lake on the barge, I kind of felt like we were in the Underworld with Hades. Dan felt like he was in Lord of the Rings. Take your pick.

To the left are bunch of sand volleyball courts. To the right is a glow-in-the-dark frisbee-golf course. And behind us is laser tag. Yes, this place is awesome and if you come visit maybe you'll get a tour!

CAMPING!!

 We are campers. But camping in the midwest is different. There are no mountains, but luckily there is plenty of camping-approved foliage places. However, without going up in elevation to pitch a tent, the temperature is the same in the campground as it is at home. Which means unless you have a fancy trailer with air conditioning, no one camps between Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends. So of course we took advantage of the long weekend in May and LOVED it.

We found this place in Illinois and it was even better than we thought it would be. If you look hard in the picture you can see the lake through the trees beyond our tent. Pretty cool!

I've always wondered why everything tastes better camping. The extra dirt? The extra labor? Not sure.

Hiking. My definition of a hike is to find a trail in the mountains. Remember, no mountains here. So Dan and I kind of laughed when we saw a sign for a hike. It was definitely pretty, and to be honest, I kind of liked that I didn't have to climb up a mountain. And since we got lost it was REALLY long, so it seemed a little more like a "hike." (Note to self, all roads do NOT lead back to the campground).

Um, squirrel hunting? Gross.

Suddenly we came upon this place. It looked like something from Lost.

 This is what it said on the door. Of course we went in. But it actually did smell like death, so we promptly turned around and left.

 Yay for love! And for camping by yourselves so you don't care what you look like (don't judge).

 Literally, the second we made it back from our "hike," the rains started. We hunkered down in the tent to ride-out the storm (thank goodness for Dominion). It let up for about 30 minutes - just enough time to get a fire and dinner going. I was bound and determined to have delicious dutch oven chicken (I did) and peach cobbler (I did). But it took some TLC to keep the coals dry and hot.

The end.

Oh SNAPple

I am the worst blogger ever. In my defense, I work full-time and I'm the rsp in our ward. It doesn't leave much time for blogging, but I'm committing to be better. Rather than give a huge photo dump from the last several months, I'll just give you a highlight of this last weekend and eventually I'll catch-up. Promise.

After surviving the St. Louie tornado Friday night (it was about 25 miles away . . . right next to where I work. Please don't judge me for hoping that the power wouldn't come back on before work started Monday morning. I was "this" close to having the day off. Sigh.) So after surviving the tornado, we headed out Saturday morning for some Dragon Boat Racing. No, we've never done it before. Dan's new MBA program (did I mention husband is now getting an MBA concurrently with his bLaw degree? Talk about over-achiever.) Anyway - his program was competing in this corporate Dragon Boat competition and he signed up to be one of the rowers. And since I'm the wife I went along for the ride. Well, due to some post-tornado bad weather, the races were postponed and a few of the female team members had to leave early, which meant they were desperate for another girl rower. Good thing the wife came along!

Remember how when you go skiing for the first time in a long time you get really sore and find out you have muscles you didn't know you had? Welcome to Dragon Boat racing. Talk about an upper body workout that would make Jillian Michael's proud. I'm still sore. The cool thing is that we took 3rd place and I am now the favorite among Dan's new MBA friends.

We think we're cool.

Oh, and I promise the title to this post has meaning. Due to my awesome couponing skills, Snapple's were on sale for 18 cents each. Husband "made" us buy a LOT of them (I'm too embarrassed to tell you how many we really bought. Don't judge.) If you come visit, I promise we will have an ice-cold Snapple waiting for you in the fridge.

Home is Where Mom Is

I believe it was at my mom's funeral that my sister said "Home is where Mom is." Yesterday I was feeling a longing for Home, and that phrase came to my mind. Home IS where Mom is (and my sister, and my daughter). That deep longing for Home always grows this time of year. It was 5 years ago this weekend that Lindsey died. The ache of Mother's Day is only compounded this year without Lydia to hold. And with Mom's birthday next week it's a lot of aching and longing and remembering crammed into a few days. But I know I'm going to be ok. I've got an incredible husband at my side, an amazing family, and my Heavenly Father who knows and loves me.

Yesterday I decided to listen to my favorite music artist - Cori Connors. She's a Utah local and Lindsey was bff's with her daughter growing up. Linz introduced her music to the family and we've been hooked ever since on her down-home, folk-music (ish) style. She even provided the live music at my wedding reception (it was amazing). The first song that came on was one of my favorites. It's an old gospel tune that she adapted. Its message is as simple as its melody, but I fell in love with it when I first heard her perform it several years ago. It's a gentle reminder of how to get through hard times.

In the morning, when I rise,
Give me Jesus
And when I am alone,
Give me Jesus
And when I've come to die
Give me Jesus

You can have all this world,
But give me Jesus

As I listened to the words I had tears streaming down my face as I thought of how I've grown in the last 5 years. There have definitely been growing pains, but the Lord has been abundant with His blessings to me.

Happy Mother's Day, Mom!!

23 minutes

After my mom was diagnosed with cancer she bought a little saying that was carved out of wood, and put it in the windowsill above the kitchen sink so she would be sure to see it often. It said, "Every Day Matters." It was, and still is so true. But now I appreciate even more that sometimes Every Minute Matters.

Due to some crazy mis-communications, we finally got Lydia's death certificate today. (I told Dan if we have to go through something like this again, it's his turn in figuring out the death certificate - it was not fun.) It is such a final document - the paper it came on is almost twice her size. As I looked it over and read the details, I was sad when it asked for her age. If she was still alive the answer would be 8 months and 9 days. But there was no year. There was no month. There was no day. There was no hour. Only 23 minutes. She was a fighter, my little one - all the doctors and nurses said so, and you can see it in her face. But God had a plan for her. A plan that involved only 23 minutes in her fragile, little body. And I love her all the more for fighting for those 23 minutes, as reflecting on them has taught me more than a life-time of study ever could.

As we celebrate Easter, let us for a moment on Sunday, put aside the candy, the colored eggs, and the bunny, and truly remember what makes that Sunday so wonderful. Let us offer up a little prayer of gratitude to the God who gives us the blessing of life, the minutes in our days, and the ability to be with our families forever.

1 lawyer + 5 law students + ME!

While Dan and I were dating, we took advantage of the summer and made a few road trips. From Utah, we went to Veil, Colorado; Newport, Washington; Cape Lookout, Oregon; and then I drove with Dan when he first moved to St. Louis. In a matter of 2 months time, we counted 11 states and 4,373 miles on the road together. Anyone that can make it through 4,373 miles of travel (without a gps, mind you) and without wanting to kill each other, should definitely get married. So we did. :)

Obviously, we are fans of road trips, so when the opportunity came for a road trip to Washington DC, we were all over it. The J. Reuben Clark Law Society (basically a group for LDS lawyers) was having its national conference, so a bunch of other law people from the ward decided they should all go, and since they were staying with my aunt and uncle in Virginia, I got to come along as well. Lucky!

Somehow it didn't dawn on me until we were on the road that I was going to be stuck in the car with FIVE law students and one lawyer. That's SIX law people. In the same van. In no particular order, the conversations during the first leg of the trip were: law, politics, public eduction, law, politics, action movies, law, politics . . . I think you get the idea. Dan says the second he starts to talk law, my eyes glaze over in a look of complete stupor. He's right. I was never one for politics (poor husband). But even amidst all the intellectual talk, we had a GREAT time. Here's some pics to prove it.

Do we look crazy here? We should. It was 2 something in the morning, we were in the middle of Maryland at a complete stand-still for over 30 minutes. Some of the boys had to run to some bushes to "take care of business." (Apparently a car was on fire.)

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Oh heEy!

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Dan's most-quoted line since we got married, "You didn't marry be because I'm smooth." This was taken not too long after he killed a rabbit (poor little guy) and right after he knocked our food box on this very dirty gas station floor. Since I'm a klutz as well, our kids are in for it.

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On the metro (after only a few hours of sleep). I learned that lawyers are generally not map people. Yours truly took care of all the navigating.

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Dan and Coulter and some judge dude. This is where I left them for their conference so I could have fun!!!

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Proof that I did something patriotic. My 3rd time to D.C. and I figured it was time I went to the National Archives. Very cool.

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One of the trip highlights was hanging out with my Tina! (Does my face always look this awkward?) Yay for old roommates who live in cool places! Don't worry, her kindergarteners pay more in private school tuition than I made in my entire 1st year of teaching.

Somehow we left without getting a picture of the best hosts ever! Pretty sure the boys are still drooling over uncle Brian's man-cave (it really is that cool) and Ann wins extra bonus points for putting us up only 3 weeks after having her knee replaced. (And I must give a shout-out to cousin Shelly!) I have the best.family.ever. Amen.

And I couldn't end this post without saying HAPPY 28TH BIRTHDAY tomorrow to my Linz.
Sigh.
Sigh again.
Love you like crazy and miss you even more - thanks for taking care of Mom & Lydia. :)

The Boring One

It is a well-known fact that most families have a "fun" parent, and a boring - I mean "practical" -  parent. Tragically, I am the practical one. Someone has to be practical, right? Someone also to have the sleeping habits of an 87-year-old grandma, and I win on that one as well (no offense to the 87-year-old grandma's out there). This makes a bad combination for any sort of late-night fun.

Sometimes Dan gets to stay up late studying - I'm the practical/grandma wife who doesn't stay up with him. So the other night when husband came in at 12:30 in the am from studying and announced that it was snowing, he was lucky that I cracked open one eye in acknowledgement. Usually I just roll over and go back to sleep, but we got chatting about something and before I knew it husband was BEGGING me to go play in the snow with him. Wasn't.Even.Tempted. He did get me to take a peek out the window at the "beautiful" snow. To my dismay he was right - it was gorgeous. But still not enough of a draw to get me out into the cold - especially because we both had to be at church at 7 am for meetings. But he kept begging and his persistence paid off and before I knew it I was pulling out the snow clothes and getting bundled up.

It was beautiful and SO peaceful. I've never seen more than a dusting of snow out here, so getting 4-5 inches was a big deal. And it was so quiet - usually we can almost always hear some sort of police/fire siren going off, or some gangstah driving by with loud music playing, but not this night. It was the quietest St. Louie has ever been and I loved it! Of course we had to make a snowman. Guess what? Missouri snow is WAY better than Utah snow for snowman building. Very wet and packable, unlike the dry powder back at home. Stu the snowman was created in just a few minutes - isn't he cute?

 See . . . pretty!

 Dan and Stu

 How Embarrassing

Even though we didn't get back in bed til after 2 am, it was well worth the good times. Maybe I'm not so boring after all. :)