Puyallup Stake Conference & Saying Farwell

Since we were in Washington for the weekend, we went to church with my family and it happened to be stake conference. I knew several of the people who were asked to speak. The meeting was so wonderful, Andy and I felt really uplifted. 

The overall theme of the meeting seemed to be to keep improving the way you are living your life-- there is always room to learn and grow in the gospel. Such an inspiring meeting.

We had a few minutes to say hi to friends and former youth leaders after the meeting ended. So glad we made the time to go to church.

After church we headed back to the house and packed Andy's bag for his next adventure-Alaska. My uncle was at the house, so I was able to visit with him for a little bit--it was good to catch up.

Me & Uncle Robert.

Before I knew it it was time to say goodbye. The boys headed off on their Alaska adventure and shortly after that I hopped in the car and drove back to Eugene by myself.

We Went To The Puyallup Fair

When I was a little kid we sang a song in elementary school that went like this:

We went to the Puyallup Fair
And what  do you think was there
A little black pig dancing a jig
We went to the Puyallup Fair

We also sang:

You can do it at a trot
You can do it at a gallop
You can do it real slow
So your heart won't palpatate
Just don't be late
Do the Puyallup
Do the Puyallup

The Puyallup Fair has been a big part of my life since about the age of 5. I lived down the road from the fair, we took field trips to the fair for school, we even got a day off of school just to go to the fair, my mom was a vendor there, and I worked in the dairy barn for many years. I guess in short you could say, I love the Puyallup Fair.

Since I have been in Utah for the past five years, I haven't been able to go to the fair. This year we decided that we needed to make a trip to Washington and go the fair (Andy has only heard me talk about it for five years, it was time for him to experience it first hand).

We drove to Washington on Friday September 12th and crashed at my Dad's house. The next morning we got up and headed to my fair with Dad, Julie, and the boys. Later in the day we met up with Sadie and Megan. We looked at the art exhibits, saw the animals, ate ice cream from Lulu's and we rode some rides.

The white roller coaster is the first ride I can ever remember riding at the fair, I rode it as a small child with my Dad. Dad said he would go on the roller coaster this year with me, it meant a lot. Little did we know what kind of ride we would be in for.

Dad and I rode in the back of the roller coaster--the back in always the best! The ride operators came and checked our lap bar and we were off. We soon found ourselves a good foot and a half out of our seats. Yeah, they didn't have any seat belts in addition to the lap bar. It was a really scary ride! Dad and I hung on for dear life. Nathan was seated behind us and he got just as much air. I think we were all glad to get off that ride alive. I think next time I will stick to the swings and giant slide.

Here are a few of the photos we took, I still need to get a copy of the photos Dad took.

Russell was so excited to shoot the bow and arrow.

Brendan getting his archery on.

Nathan getting ready to shoot.

Me & Russell.

Ice cream is good!

The Miracle Of Forgiveness

I have been struggling recently with forgiveness-- I may share a little more on this later but I haven't decided yet. I decided to read The Miracle of Forgiveness by Spencer W. Kimball. I read this book with some very specific thoughts and questions in my mind. I didn't find answers to my questions but I sure learned a lot. This book is deep and it took me awhile to get through it but definitely worth reading.

** I need to read two more books by the end of the year to reach my goal **

Human Foosball

I played human Foosball with the Young Men and Young Women on September 9th. It was a lot of fun and great exercise!

To The Rescue

The elders were supposed to come over on September 7th. Just before they were supposed to arrive, they called to let us know that they wouldn't be able to make it because their air conditioning unit fell out of the window and ripped the outlet out of the wall. Andy offered to help them fix everything, we grabbed some tools, and headed to their apartment.

When we arrived at the apartment, one of their investigators was there. Their investigator happens to an electrician and was in the area so he fixed the outlet and Andy and I helped them remount their air conditioner.

While we were at their apartment we were able to sit in on a discussion, it was a neat experience. I love being a part of missionary discussions! I'm grateful for the opportunity we had to help.

Fulfulling A Dream: Skydiving

Skydiving is one of those things that I have always had mixed feelings about. I have always thought it would be really cool to go skydiving but I have a fear of falling so the idea of jumping out of a plane is utterly terrifying. I have also thought it would be really cool to experience free fall and to be able to look down on the Earth below. And then my thoughts go back to falling...what if the parachute doesn't work? What if I die? And then I convince myself that skydiving just isn't worth the risk.

Back in March I threw Andy a surprise party, in executing said surprise party I convinced Andy that he was going skydiving. In case you missed that story you can read it here. Recently I felt like it was time to conquer a fear, cash in Andy's birthday present, and get the skydiving bug out of both of our systems--skydiving is something Andy has always wanted to do. On September 6th we made the leap and what a leap it was.

The night before we went skydiving I couldn't sleep. I tossed and I turned and I dreamed about falling out of the sky. It wasn't a very peaceful night for me.

The morning of our adventure I could hardly eat. I was so nervous.

As we were driving to the airport we were listening to the radio and it seemed as if almost every song was about dying or falling. Andy just looked at me and we decided to keep the radio off the rest of the trip. When we got close to the airport I told Andy that if I died I wanted to be an organ donor--that kind of freaked him out a little bit. It was at that moment he realized that there is a large risk associated with skydiving.

When we arrived at the airport we checked in and signed our lives away and then we waited. We waited for what felt like forever, the longer we waited the more my anxiety built. Eventually they called our names and we went and took a brief skydiving safety/instruction class and then we waiting some more.

While we waited we met a few other people who were going to be skydiving that day including some BYUI students. We spent quite a bit of time talking to a woman named Gina and her husband. I would guess that Gina was in her 50s or 60s. She told me that skydiving was something she had always wanted to do so she was doing it today and her husband was there to watch. I sure enjoyed talking with Gina--she helped calm my nerves a bit.

Before too long they called mine and Andy's names to go suit up. Next thing I know I'm boarding a plane and jumping out of it at 13,000 feet (that's higher than Mt. Hood). As I looked out the door I saw a commercial airliner flying just lower than us--it was kind of a weird thing to see. Beside that there really wasn't a lot of time to think about what I was doing, it all happened so fast.

 

 

I absolutely loved the feeling of free fall, it is such a cool experience!The parachute was a different story for me, all of the banked turns made me nauseous.I remember sitting there watching other people coming in with their shoots open and thinking that looks peaceful, oh the irony. In case anyone was wondering, I did throw up after we were on the ground. My friend Gina threw up too so it made me feel a little better.

Andy loved the entire experience and can't wait to go again. I'm okay waiting a little awhile to go again though.

I still can't believe I jumped out of a plane. Crazy, right?