Friday 17/9/10 - Memory lane...

Well I spent the whole day doing my photos from the States. It was hard, but I managed to pick the top 20. I had them printed and bought new frames yesterday and they are all now up on the walls. I LOVE them. All the memories, I've been smiling and crying over all the great times I had. It's not helping with missing Utah and everyone, but I figure its like a massive goal chart. Everytime I wake up I'll see everyone and remember where I'm headed :)

Yes every piece of wall space was taken up doing it - overkill? Nahhh :) I had a great time doing it all but like I said it has literally taken my whole day. Katie, this is what you occupy yourself doing when you don't have two kids, a husband, family and work :P. I wonder if it was a waste of my day, but something I realised in Utah was that sometimes, good things take a little longer to do, and it is worth the extra time you spend doing it. It gives the task value. And it gives me patience :)

Since I wont get to talk to alot of you about my trip straight away, here's some of my story...

Photo 1 of the Top 20

(in no particular order, in fact if truth be told I probably have a top 100 rather than 20)

This is me and Lily. Lily is Katie's eldest daughter, Katie is Michael's sister and Michael is Elder Nielsen, the missionary that baptised me. Here we were in Washington, at a little cabin just outside of Forks (yes as in Twilight Forks). So this night was amazing! Not only had I spent all day with Kemy (Michael and Katie's other sister) exploring Seattle, travelled through the most amazing forests and spent another few hours driving and chatting with Katie, now I was literally experiencing dreams coming true. See these where some of things I dreamed of doing in the States...

• Sit around a Campfire


• Spend the night out under the stars


• See a real forest


• Stay in a cabin with a fire


• See farm animals


• Try Smores


• See something related to Twilight


• See an Indian Reservation

Now all of these came true this night. We arrived at a cabin to stay in for the night, which was in the middle of a forest, outside of Forks (Twilight), we'd already driven through Port Angeles (Twilight) and we were heading for La Push (Indian Reservation and Twilight) tomorrow. Not only that the house where the owners of the cabins lived was the house they based the Cullens (Twilight) home on in the movie.

Now after we arrived and Kemy and Chris (Kemy's husband) went to check in, Katie was with the kids in the bathroom and I had a chance to sit down and take it all in. That's when I realised there was a real fireplace in the cabin! Then a knock at the door and the owner was giving me some bread to feed the cows and horses with in the morning! And he said if we were interested that they put on a campfire each night for the guests and they supplied...Smores! You bet I was interested! Off we all went to sit under the stars!

So that was tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick off my dream wish list. And the amazing part of it was that I had totally given up on all of these things because I had tried to plan a tour to Yosemite which would have covered parts of the list but it was cancelled due to overbooking. So I'd put it out of my head and thought, you know, too bad. And I had totally given up on the Twilight part because I knew I wasn't going anywhere near Washington. Oh how things change :) See no matter how hard I had tried to set it up, it hadn't worked, but something bigger than me was at work and setting up something even better than what I could do. Sometimes that's the way life is.

But the most amazing part was the two beautiful friends, my "sisters" Kemy and Katie, that organised the whole thing without even knowing about my wish list. I am truly blessed to have them in my life! (and not just because they took me to Forks lol xox). So because of them I have the memory of all of the above and the photo of me and Lily is my fave and reminds me of all of this. It is dear to me because I had so many photos with Lucy (Lily's little sister) but for some reason none with Lily. And so I'd asked her to have one with me this weekend, and she said she would. But this kiddo must have been soooo tired by this night, but you know you never hear her complain. Must be the good influence of her family because she just takes life on, head on.

So we are all sitting around the fire and I asked her again and she comes over and we pose and Kemy or Katie I'm not sure, someone takes the photo and I was fully expecting her to just run off and play again, but she didn't. She snuggled in and sat with me. And I cuddled her back. And we sat looking at the fire in silence. And I loved it. Because I don't have kids, but I wish I did. And that's exactly something I would want to do with my daughter (or son, I'll take either, or both to be more accurate ;P) . Snuggling in front of a campfire, under the stars, surrounded by beautiful people, my family, feeling the love. I treasured every second of that moment, and felt very blessed to know this family and little Lily who brought me such great joy.

It makes me so very grateful to know of the Gospel. Literally if you were, interested, had the time, and or patience, I could link you back from this treasured moment to the day I met Michael on my front doorstep. Without the Gospel, I wouldn't have the hope I have for the future. The hope that one day I will experience that very same thing, with my own child. And then my joy will be complete.

Temple tomorrow! Perfection!