House of the Lord

This first week back to work has been pretty awesome, partly because we got to attend the temple this weekend. The last time we did a session, we were in the Salt Lake Temple which was a beautiful experience. It's amazing to think that in todays world structures are built with the help of machines, tractors and forklifts.. yet this beautiful Temple was built before any of that machinery came into existence. After walking the temple grounds I would have to say this temple is one of my favourites.

Yesterday Tuks and I were able to attend a moring session in the Hamilton New Zealand temple. It is something I have grown to love and I now look forward to our monthy visits. Following our session, my family  (and my extended family) gathered to support our cousin Lane and her husband Josh as they were sealed to their baby daughter for time and all eternity.

How fortunate we are for temple blessings! As I watched my cousin kneel at the altar, I was reminded of our own sealing two years ago. I couldn't help reflecting upon my love for my husband and all he stands for in my life. I am greatful, every day, that I had enough sense to marry this loyal and loving man. And I am even more greatful that I get to keep him for eternity!

On Saturday we will be privileged to enter the temple again to witness the sealing of our friends Ben and Tracy to their sweet daughter Aley. I am looking forward to celebrating with them but also being able to be in the temple again. At the end of a busy week nothing brings the same amount of peace as entering the House of the Lord.

Sin City

Some of my friends told me that I wouldn't enjoy Vegas because I don't gamble or drink. I mean isn't
" Nevada Mormon" an oxymoron?

Now that I have been there I understand their apprehension, but I still loved it. It was a totally different experience and something that everyone needs to do. The energy in the city reminded me of Hong Kong, and after a week of visiting I still got a rush driving down the strip on our final night.

The streets were a great place for people watching- families with small children, guys out on stag nights, kids on spring break. And you can't forget those who hold the lowest position in the employment ladder: the people who hand out the cards for escorts and strippers. ( Is there any job in the world that requires less skill???)

Part of what made Vegas so wonderful was visiting Tuks' family that live there. The Snow family took us to an exotic zoo where I actually held hands with and fed baby kangaroo's and Tuks cuddled a monkey. We spent an afternoon swimming in the creek at Warm Springs and ate summer BBQ food. We never would have been able to experience these things if we were just typical tourist visiting Vegas, so I am grateful to the Snow's for their hospitality.

While Vegas was not my favorite city on our travels I still loved the experience and am glad we went.
Have you been to Vegas? I would love to hear your thoughts!

I :/ NY

Have you ever loved something, but also totally not loved it at the same time? 
 That's how I feel about New York. I would like to "heart" it, but i'm not quite ready for that kind of commitment yet.


Let's start with the Empire state building. I don't understand what the big deal is- Alica Keys named a song after it, it has special mention in the Lonely planet, but it's just a tall building. It's not the tallest in the world, or United States so why do people line up for hours to see it. Awkward. 


The Statue of Liberty is a symbol of freedom, and the American dream. For us she was a symbol of sweating tourists elbowing you out of the way for a spot in line to catch the Ferry. What's worse is you can't even go up the statue, so your $20 will get you a nice view of her feet. Conclusion- we did not take the ferry but instead admired her from afar. 


If you want to get anywhere in New York for very little then the subway is the best way to go! We paid $29 for a 7 day unlimited pass which I think is a pretty reasonable amount of money to pay to get all over the city. The downsides are 1. There are rats 2. It smells like urine 3. Crazy people will use the subway as a captive audience to collect " money for the homeless" 4. These said homeless people will moon you as you get off the train and then proceed to light firecrackers in their anal region. 

Street food is a New York must have. Nuts 4 nuts was my personal favorite, roasted almonds with a sweet and crunchy coating.. hmmmm. Pretzels are a filling and inexpensive snack, if you don't mind being hit in the face with a case of ultimate dry mouth. Tuks decided to get a Gyro from the Halal cart. All I am going to say about that is that's a lot of trust to put in a stranger with a metal box full of meat. 


There are trillions of cabs in New York trying to run you over as your cross the street, or honking their horns while you try to sleep. But, do you think we could find ONE cab at midnight while we were in a dodgy area. Of course not. When we managed to track one down, he didn't listen and drove straight past our street. Excellent.


The Phantom of the Opera on Broadway was the best experience of the whole trip. The set blew us away, the music was incredibly touching and nearly every song brought us to tears. That could be because we are both pathetic or the performers were very talented. I liked to think it was the latter.




Central Park was a real treat- we rented bikes and cycled around for an hour. The downside was we didn't see one dead body like they always seem to do on SVU and Law and order. One morning we even managed to wake up early and go for a run through it.

 Walking. New Yorkers do lots of walking, which is wonderful. I like that physical activity and fresh air is a part of the cities daily routine, but do they have to walk so fast! Where are they all going? Why don't they just leave a few minutes earlier? With all the walking we did, our feet killed every night. 

MoMA was amazing. Tuks and I are still glowing knowing we stood next to pieces by Van Gogh, Henri Matisse, Andy Warhol and Picasso. They even had a DJ pump out funky tunes as we worked our way though the galleries. 

The Magnolia bakery. Nom nom nom... sorry can't talk my mouth is full of cupcakes and snickers pie.

" The city that never sleeps". Really? Not ever? Hmm like not even when you're really, really tired? I guess the benefit of this is that there was always something to do. The downside was it was always happening right outside our bedroom window! 

Ok so did we hate New York? No. Did we love it? Occasionally. I think we fall somewhere in the middle which is why we :/ NY or feel neutral about it. There were a lot of wonderful things in New York that we know you can't find anywhere else. And there were a lot of things that we could have skipped and just watched on Youtube or on a post card- like the Statue of Liberty. So in conclusion the Big Apple was pretty o.k.    

The land of the Prophets

 Tuks and I have been in the land of the free for seven days now. We spent our first night in Inglewood, LA and didn't get shot or mugged.

The rest of the week we spent in Utah with our good friends the Summerill's. My wonderfully talented friend Erin who shoots weddings when she's not too busy taking care of her four kids or going to Harts to refill her Big Chill, has shown us all around the town.

We worked out every morning at the Pleasant grove rec center where Erin teaches Aerobics.  We went to Park city to see the ski fields and strange Moose sculptures,  shopped at the outlets and toured around BYU Provo. We did a live endowment session at the Salt Lake temple and looked at the muesums around temple square. We got special tickets to the Utah Jazz game, that came with a meal before the game, unlimited snacks during and sat only 12 rows back from the court!!



We went to General conference, and later that day met John Bytheway at the Deseret book store who signed my DVD's and books. Last night we watched "Unicorn city" at the $3 movies and did more shopping at Walmart. Can I also mention that I have done a lot of driving here and there is not one scratch on the car nor have we had any near accidents.

In between those things we have filled up on candy, frozen yogurt and Mexican food. Which takes me back  to the Big Chill. People here drink so much soda, and I know because the cup sizes are massive and every time we go to Harts men, women and children are all loading up on their gallon of soda. Like this guy who thought it was amusing that I thought his drinking habits were amusing enough to take a photo:

I have had a few favorite Utah moments, the first was a conversation I overheard at Ross between a mother and daughter.

Girl:  How about these Mom? ( points at a pair of jeggings)
 Mom:  Uh uh.. jeggings are NOT ok

For obvious reasons I had to have a conversation like this while I was here:

Sister: Are you visiting with your family?
Me: Just my husband and some of his family.
Sister:  Oh, how long have you been married?
Me: About two and a half years
Sister: Neat! Well, how many children do you have?
Me: Oh I don't have any yet, I'm only 26!
OK so I purposely did that to get a reaction from her... and she was suckered in and produced just the reaction I was expecting.

Tomorrow we leave Utah, and I am a little sad. Farewell trips to Harts to buy the Big chill, and Walmart to buy all 7 flavors of M&M's. Goodbye late night conversations, midnight corndogs, early morning aerobics, thrift shopping, awkward singing girls in public bathrooms, healthy smoothies made by Mark, embarrassing unintentional insults towards Erin's mum, running into people you haven't seen in years and laughing endlessly at jokes that never get old.

Onto the next chapter of our adventure, here's hoping it's just as fun.