What a weekend!

Griff had a week long work trip and got home Friday night. While getting gas at Costco on the way home he had the brilliant idea to bring me a dozen red roses! This is the first time ever! I am not quite sure how he got that idea, but I'm not complaining. I got my new Nikon D600 (full frame!) this week, so it was so fun to get to use it for this!

 Then on Saturday morning about 25 young women and several leaders met at our chapel at 4:50 am to walk the 13.5 miles to the Denver Temple. They got there by about 10:30 or so. I was pretty impressed that they had their own half marathon. It was quite the experience for all involved!

After we left the temple with Ashlyn we drove 1.5 hours down to the Peaceful Valley Scout Camp to see if there was any chance to get Aaron to his soccer game by 1:00. We got there about 12:30. They told us he was somewhere among about 2000 scouts running around in a 2 mile radius and we couldn't take our car in. It took about 30 seconds to abandon that plan and turn around and head out on a different adventure. So we found the local grocery store and got some food from the deli and headed for our favorite adventure park, Whispering Pines Park, for lunch. We discovered Whispering Pines Park during our first fall break here, about 4 years ago. Fall break here is 2 weeks in October and by the end of the first week I knew we couldn't just keep hanging around the house. We took off on an adventure armed with a Fall scavenger hunt paper which I had printed off the internet. Enter Whispering Pines Park. It takes almost 30 mins. to drive there, so that feels pretty adventurous all on its own. When you get there there is a line of pine trees in a gully. Whenever the wind picks up it sounds like there is rushing water somewhere nearby. It is pretty cool. However, the sound alone is hardly worth the 30 min. drive. It also boasts enough pine cones to fill several grocery sacks (great for fall crafts) and a pretty cool playground. Even though there are closer places with playgrounds just as cool (probably way cooler), it has become a fun tradition. As we drove up I heard Cyerra call from the back, "Oh, this place! I LOVE this place!" That alone made the whole trip worth it!

Then today we got to go to a special stake meeting with Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, an apostle of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It was amazing. There were several speakers that took up the first hour.  They chose three people during the meeting to bear their testimonies, including the mayor of Parker, David Casiano. He is not a member of the church, however he gave a powerful testimony of the good work that our church does and the influence that it has on our town, state, and country. He spoke quite powerfully and I was amazed to hear such a testimony of our church from someone who hasn't made any commitment to join with us. Then we got to hear from Elder Holland. He is such a kind, witty, and loving man. He had us laughing, and crying all at the same time. What an amazing experience! I just had to sit and ponder on what a wonderful course our lives have taken. I LOVE where we live. I love the people we have the opportunity to be with and live near. I love our community, the size, the location, the climate, everything. I just have to say, after this weekend I feel incredibly blessed!