MAYLIN2007

In April Austin proposed to Jessica Nichols. He had been dating her since December. She is 20 and from Meridian, Idaho. He was born in Idaho, so it was fitting. He took her that Saturday to all these romantic places trying to get her to think each stop could be "the one." Finally at an amphitheater behind the Utah State Mental Hospital......funny I know, but gorgeous, he proposed. He had our family go early and set up candles, flowers, music, a table and a sign we all worked on that said Marry Me. He had the ring in a log box that he had Alex had made together.  We had everything set up when they arrived. Alex and his friend were hiding and taking lots of pictures. We were hiding with dinner. Austin walked her down this long staircase to an area by an old castle like structure where we had the marry me sign. He got down on one knee and proposed and she saw the sign. The hugged, kissed, cried....... We took pictures and quietly celebrated. Then they walked down the rest o...

I love spending time with Maylin. She loves it too. Its nice to have someone who still appreciates being with mom. The other kids are at the ages were they are too busy or too grown up for me. I am the leader in our church over the girls who are 8-9 years old. We do activities twice a month at my house and I teach them cooking, cleaning, painting, fitness, health, how to serve others (we do great service projects), how to study better etc. Maylin loves it. Even though she turned 10 and is in another group, she just can't stop coming to mom's too. I love it! Here is the activity where we made baths salts with essential oils and cookie bouquets for our moms. I also am Maylin's room mom. She loves that I do all her class parties. She loves it that I just come hang out sometimes. I am a substitute teacher for the local public schools and for her private school. She loves it when I sub for her school. I even got to sub once for her class! She was over the moon. The pictures...

I love to change my hair color. It is kinda a running joke with some family members that every time they see me my hair is a different color. So true. The way I look at it is, it is one thing about yourself you can change quickly and easily. This year I have been dark brown, really dark brown, brown with blonde ends, and now, I just went red. I love it. Just wish the before and after shots didn't look like mugshots, but it was weird to smile at the salon. I don't know. Maybe it is weirder to have the mugshots.  Anyway, we also took the kids to mini golf, boats and go-carts for family night. It was weird, but easier to only have two kids their. It was pretty fun. Jay lost at mini-golf and Maylin and Alex tore it up. I was mediocre. The two kids did the boats and squirted each other. They had so much fun. Of course, Maylin ended up the wettest. Oh yes, we also played some arcade games. I am terrible at them. Afterward, we went to Leatherby's and got our favorite ice creams...

After our big hike, we started to head home, but we were so close to the Devil's Garden that I wanted to stop and check out the HooDoos. No one wanted to get out of the car with me. They were too hot and too tired. That was okay. I got out and spent about 10 minutes looking. It was amazing how the Lord created such incredible things. Austin finally got out of the car and looked around with me a bit. We got in the car and drove home and the kids were out in a second. We stopped for food on the way and then ended our trip. It was a great trip! Jay may say differently because he couldn't walk for a few days. I really enjoyed my first real camping trip. Everything about it was fantastic.....except Kenzie couldn't come. We will definitely do it again.