It’s been a fun summer so far! In between planning sessions for the new house that we’re building, we’ve managed to fit in some fun with the kids. And now that most of the house planning is done, we should have lots more time to hit the canyons and other activities in our area this summer.

Last week, we went to Lagoon. Bryce’s employer pays for everyone to go and it’s become something that we look forward to every year.

We took all 4 kids this year. Definitely a little crazy, but also a lot of fun.

Best. Picture. Ever.

Pilot Calder.

Cruising on the boats. None of our children tried to jump in the water this year. I count that as a success.

Don’t ask why everything is pink. Bryce?

And this past weekend we headed over to Bridal Veil Falls for a little picnic lunch and some nature time.

Gorgeous.

There’s a fish pond right at the base of the waterfall. This cute little girl had a big container of pond pellets to feed the fish and insisted that we all take some. The kids were in heaven.

Happy Summer!

Today’s prompt:

If you could have 3 wishes, what would you wish for?

This is surprisingly hard for me. I don’t want to sound ungrateful. I have a beautiful healthy family, we have plenty for our needs, and life is good. But this was the prompt, so here are my answers.

1. Money. Isn’t that horrible? But if I could have 3 wishes, I’d probably wish for a bunch of money. This would mean: Bryce could stay home and do all the stuff he wishes he had time to do, we could take the kids and travel around the world, we could buy a great home on a great piece of land somewhere, I could hire a personal trainer for me and a chef for our family, and more. And pay lots of tithing! It’d be great to share the wealth.

2. The Gift of Endless Patience. This would come in very handy as a mother.

3. A Photographic Memory. Because, you know, that would just be awesome. Seems like this would enhance a lot of areas of life.

Ok, so she’s convinced me to start writing about these prompts, 30 Things My Kids Should Know About Me. I must admit, Raven’s are pretty good. So we’ll see how we do here. The first is “List 20 random facts about yourself.”

1. I love the temple. Since my first visit I have had a fascination with the temple, with everything that is taught there, with what is experienced there, and what we can become in the temple. I blog about those great things at TempleStudy.com.
2. Friday nights are the best. Aren’t they? I mean, you’re at the end of a long week, you have the entire weekend ahead of you to relax and do other things, and you’re at least 48 hours away from the dreaded Sunday night.
3. I once capsized a sailboat in the middle of a lake, had to be rescued, and felt immense embarrassment. It was Camp Steiner, and no, it wasn’t my fault. My friend said he had taken the class, but, of course, he had not. And so it wasn’t more than a minute or two before we had flipped the thing. Nothing like hopping into a freezing cold lake with all your clothes on.
4. I’m a technophile. I love everything to do with technology, and improving our lives through innovations in technology. Things are going to amaze you in the next ten years.
5. Trivial things bother me. I think too many people get caught up in the things that don’t really matter in life. Life is too short for that. Do what matters!
6. Hugh Nibley changed my life. One of my favorite books of all time, Approaching Zion, completely changed me and my outlook on life. Nibley gets down to business. What are we here for? What should we be doing? How do we build Zion? What really matters!
7. I don’t care for fashion. Not at all. Could care less what I wear, or what others think of what I wear. One of those trivial things. I go clothes shopping about once every 5 years when its absolutely necessary.
8. The old chocolate encrusted New York style cheesecake at Olive Garden was heaven. Too bad it’s been replaced by the raspberry cheesecake. It’s just not the same.
9. I was financial secretary for eight months on my mission in El Salvador. I experienced things on my mission that most missionaries never do. It gave me a great perspective on things, and gave me leadership skills.
10. I was a Utah state winner in the 1999 KSL/Deseret News Sterling Scholar competition in the Computer Technology category. I still hold this as my claim to fame. There are only about thirteen students in the state that get this award every year, and somehow I was one of them. Gave me a scholarship to BYU.
11. I almost drowned when I was little. The story goes, I’m told, that we were swimming or boating someplace, and my mom turned around to do something, and when she turned back, I was face down in the water. They say that’s why I had a phobia of the deep end of the pool, but I’ve gotten over that now.
12. I can remember an event when I was about three years old. At least I think I do. We were on the beach in California, playing in the surf, building sand castles, and we found a live crab and put it inside the sand castle. Oh, and the hand shovel was green.
13. I almost got my degree in Animation. It was a toss up between Industrial Design and Animation. Both had the qualities of a degree I was interested in, and there was a lot of overlap in those days. I finally decided that I didn’t like drawing/sketching all that much, and preferred the solid 3D modelling rather than the animation.
14. I have a Ballroom Dance minor, and have toured all over the world with the BYU Ballroom Dance team. Some of the funnest experiences I had growing up were in the ballroom dance world – the friends I made, the places I went, the competitions I was in, and the skills I developed. It is probably the reason I met Raven, since she asked some ward friends if they knew a guy who could dance that she could take to Preference. That started it all.
15. I’m a member of the Executive Board of one of the premiere Mormon scholarship organizations, The Interpreter Foundation. I hobnob with some of the greatest scholars in Mormondom including Daniel C. Peterson, William J. Hamblin, and, well, take a look. That interest in Hugh Nibley led me to this point.
16. I’m very much an introvert, proud of it, and I like quiet alone time. Thank you Susan Cain and Bose. Her book Quiet taught me that I don’t need to be ashamed of my introvertedness, and that it can actually be a great blessing in many ways. And those noise cancellation headphones are amazing.
17. Someday I would like to build a kit car. Yea, like one of these beauties. Not necessarily for the fashion (see #7 above), but for the sake of actually building a car.  A car! Yea, that incredible and most complex machine we take for granted every day. It’s not bad that it also looks great.
18. I conceptualize, design, develop and manufacture dozens of products in China for sale in the USA. I make a lot of cool stuff, which makes my employer loads of money. See here. Trying to see if I can work daily on more things that really matter.
19. I’m a runner. Going on 4 years now, one of my favorite physical activities is going for a run, long or short. It takes you places, gets you out in the fresh air, pumps the blood, strengthens the legs, keeps me slim, releases endorphins, makes me just a tiny bit social, and gives me races to look forward to and train for. See my log here.
20. I have never been water skiing. It’s just never happened. I’ve been snow skiing plenty of times, but I never hit the water. Seems too hard to “get” and “stay up.” Never knew anyone with a boat, really.

You’re all probably getting tired of hearing about me. Too bad. I am enjoying writing these and I really do think my kids will get a kick out of these some day. Today’s prompt is:

What are the 5 things that make you the most happy right now?

1. Raising my children. This is a tricky one, because raising children is exhausting and has its frustrating moments. But motherhood has so many moments of joy, too. Some that stick out to me:

• Meeting my children. Those first few minutes and hours after birth are just amazing. There’s nothing like it. Seeing this little person that is such a part of you, of your whole being. It’s overwhelming in a wonderful way.
• Watching my children play together. When they are playing nicely, or helping each other, it brings such happiness to my heart.
• Watching my children grow and learn. What a privilege to witness that day in and day out.
• Laughing with my little ones. They remind me how fantastic life is–the clouds, sprinklers running, how their bodies can run and jump, a tiny bug crawling on the sidewalk. And they’re also just silly sometimes. Easton is at a particularly funny age and I get lots of laughs out of watching him experience life.

2. Being with Bryce. I think I pretty much covered this one in an earlier post. I just adore this man and being with him lightens my heart and makes me smile.

3. My Church responsibilities. I am currently serving as the Relief Society President in our ward. This is a demanding calling in many ways, but it also brings a lot of joy. I love interacting with my sisters, learning alongside them, watching them serve and love each other, and witnessing God’s hand in their lives.

4. Sweets. I admit it. I love dark chocolate. Bryce and I just took a chocolate tasting class with fine artisan chocolate. Oh, my. That stuff is amazing. And I love looking forward to an evening treat with Bryce. I’m not sure if it’s the treat that makes me happy, or the anticipation of spending time with him and eating something sweet.

Amano chocolates–one of the world’s premier artisan chocolates and they’re based in Orem, UT! We’re planning to go tour their facility soon.

5. Anticipating. My mom and Bryce can tell you–I love to anticipate things. I’m much happier if I have something on the horizon to look forward to. A family trip, a date night, our new house. I enjoy the experience of anticipating these kinds of things. I have to watch out, though. There’s a quote I love from Marjorie Hinckley, “Don’t wish away your days waiting for better ones ahead.” And I get that. I’m trying to enjoy the moment more. But I do love me some good anticipation.

Tired of these yet? We still have 26 prompts to go, so just settle in and get comfortable.

List 10 Things You Would Tell Your 16 Year-Old Self 

1. You are a precious daughter of God. Don’t ever forget that.

2. When you start at BYU in the fall as a 16 year-old, you’ll take Intro. to Chemistry in hopes of pursuing a nursing degree. That class will be hard. You will get a B. But don’t give up on yourself so easily. Take it again, or don’t take it again. But don’t throw the whole idea of nursing (and nurse-midwifery) under the bus just because that one class is hard.

3. Take some home economics classes at BYU–cooking, sewing, etc. These skills will come in handy.

4. Be true to yourself and don’t change yourself to make other people happy.

5.  In a year or so, when you’re at BYU, you’ll be accepted to study abroad in London. Go. Your parents will get worried about your safety because of the various wars in the Middle East and will encourage you not to go. Go anyway. You’ll regret it if you don’t.

6. And on that note, nice work getting into BYU! Way to take initiative. Deciding to take the ACT early and apply for early admission to BYU while you were living in Honduras took some guts. I’m proud of you for doing that.

7. Get used to Utah. Turns out, you’ll spend way more time here than you ever thought you would. Like, WAY more time.

8. Take some cash and invest in Apple. Just trust me on this one.

9. You can do hard things. Take some risks and see what happens.

10. Some wonderful things are headed your way. I am so excited for you.