Reno!

Last July, Josh graduated from BYU-I. The very next day, we packed up our cute little house into a gigantic moving truck, and waved goodbye to Idaho! 

We were on a adventure. One that would take us away from everything we knew and loved, and propel us into a different world! We were excited and anxious to call Reno, Nevada our new home!

Reno!

I don't think we had any idea just how much we would fall in love with this town! Since we've been here we have done so many things... there is always something to do here! 

One of the very first things we did when we got here, was go with our ward and the activity days girls on a day trip to Lake Tahoe. If you've never been I suggest you do!! It's breath taking, and luckily we live just a short distance from one of the most beautiful places ever!

Seriously..... if you haven't been... plan a trip... right now! Its that awesome. Something everybody should see! We love it!

    Another awesome thing that happens every year here in Reno is the Great Reno Balloon Race. Now, i've seen hot air balloons... but nothing like this. We woke up at 3:30 in the morning, loaded the girls in the car and parked off the side of the road, waiting for dawn patrol. It sounds crazy I know. But it was worth every second of the tired, whinny, grouchy kids that followed. 

     There was something almost magical as we watched the hot air balloons rise in the dark sky. We watched them flicker to music, and to the announcers voice... we were in AWE!!!!

And it wasn't long before the sun came up and hundreds of balloons were floating in the air. The girls and I tried to count them... but lost count :)

The girls loved it!

Massive amounts of Hot Air Balloons

Lifting off! 

So these are just a few of our first memories of Reno. I thought I'd better right them down, before I couldn't clearly recall all the we have done :)

Part 2!

      So after the overwhelming feeling that this was finally the one I've been searching for, our story took off. We couldn't stand being away from each other. He lived about a hour away, was working full time and going to school full time. It was hard to see each other, but being apart was even harder. So we spent alot of time and money traveling back and forth. Sometimes we'd meet in a town in between, to lessen the the time we had to be apart. One snowy night we decided to do just that. It was mid-week and since we both had busy schedules, and things to do early the next morning, we decided to meet in the middle. I remember sitting in my car waiting for him. As he pulled up the butterflies in my stomach went crazy! I was crazy! Crazy about that boy who had fully stole my heart.

     We went out to a delightful dinner, and had the most amazing time. Everything just clicked with us. The food was amazing, they sat us in a cozy dining room with the fire roaring, as the snow outside gently fell. The tiny twinkling lights that adorned the street outside just added to the perfect night (though in April, the big fat snowflakes, were NOT welcome)! After finishing one of the best meals of my life, we trekked outside to the truck. We still had a little time before my coach turned into a pumpkin, so we stopped at a near by gas station, grabbed two piping hot, hot chocolates, and headed up the mountain. Once we got to the top, we parked the truck, and looked down on to the twinkling lights of the city. Everything was still, silent, perfect. We turned on some of our favorite tunes, and I snuggled up to him. Taking in the beautiful sight of both the town and the man of my dreams.

       It wasn't long til we had to head back. We both needed to get home, and my babysitter had school the next morning. We decided to stop one more time, in the parking lot of the Idaho Falls Temple. The Temple was glowing in all its glory, and the feelings I had had at the beginning of our relationship were only intensified. This is where, one day, I knew I would marry for time and all eternity, my best friend! The feeling of peace, and understanding filled both of us. Both not needing to say a word, cause we felt the exact same. After a few minutes, we headed back to my car. To end our perfect evening together. What was to come next, was completely a surprise to me, and nothing in the world could of been better.

      As we pulled up next to my car, I looked into his eyes and he was giving me this completely astounding look. I didn't know why and as I opened my mouth to ask, he blurted out... "I can't let you go, just yet. There's something I need to tell you." I was kinda shocked and a little unprepared but knowing I trusted him completely, I answered slowly... " ok, what is it?". He put the truck in drive, and pulled out of the parking lot. Now it was a Wednesday night, it was snowing, so not many people were out and about. The quiet streets, now blanketed in snow, were empty. He took off down them and started talking.... "I know we haven't been together very long, and I know this is going to sound crazy. But I can't get you out of my head....." As we drove he talked. He let his feelings all come out. He told me how he felt, how he'd gone over it again and again, to make sure his feelings were real and not just the excitement that comes from the start of a new relationship.

     What he said next I'll never forget.... he almost drove off the road when he looked down at me and said... "All I know, is that I love you. I LOVE YOU!!" My heart did a complete flip and my smile reached my eyes. I had been longing to hear those words, and though at that time, I couldn't say anything. If I could of, I would of said "I love you, I loved you since the first date we went on. I love the way you tease, the way you laugh, the way you make me feel like I'm the only girl in the world. I love the way I fit perfectly in your arms, the way you smell, the way you drop everything and anything to go dirt biking or fishing. I love the way you not only think about here and now, but how you think beyond our earthly lives. I want you, all of you, forever!" Those words did not come out of my mouth. But my heart said them. He knew!

      After that oh so perfect evening, things really took off. It wasn't long before we were both taking each other home to meet our families. My girls, immediately loved him. My extended family did too!! We spent long weekends doing exciting things. Trips to Utah, Jackson and Boise. Camping trips, fishing trips, Sunday drives, lots and lots of dates, family reunions together.... and before you can even blink.... a little under 2 months from our first date.... we were engaged! We didn't want to waste anytime!

     I guess the saying is true. "Once you find the one you want to spend eternity with, you want eternity to start as soon as possible"!

Our Love Story!

A little background. We've known each other since we were 10. In our school district, when you went to 5th grade, two elementary schools combined. I didn't know him, and he didn't know me. But soon we were just kids who went to school together. So from 5th grade to 12th we went to school with each other. I wouldn't say we were friends, but we weren't enemies either! He always watched out for me.... and I always knew his name. He played sports, and I was a cheerleader who cheered at his games. There was multiple times we were in the same class, same play, same sports bus rides together. But never in a million years would I of guess we'd end up together.... he hoped so!

 After high school we went our different ways. Without a single thought. A few years after high school, my child had locked me out of my car in the Wal-mart parking lot... and my battery died. I can't remember what happened but I do know that I saw him and asked him to help me. He did. And we were on our separate ways again. Fast forward 6 yrs. I had been a single mom for about a year and a half. He was recently divorced. When I say recently... I mean like brand newly divorced.

We started chatting on Facebook.... and I couldn't help but giggle at the silly things he said. He was honest..... a huge thing for me. He was honest, funny, smart, adorable....etc. But and the BIG BUT was, Yes he had been married and divorced, BUT he did not have children. In my mind I would NEVER go out with someone who didn't have kids of their own.

You see I can't have anymore children, and I would never want to take that opportunity away from someone else. Up until that point in my single life, I had only been dating men substantially older than me. I'm talking anywhere from 7-11 years older than me. In my mind, at that time, older men that were done having kids... meant stability. Boy was I wrong.

 So we started chatting, and it wasn't long til our chats became the highlight of my day. I would fall asleep thinking about him, and the first thought in my mind in the morning was, you guessed it, him! I wouldn't admit this to myself. I've always been super independent. And that thought that someone was taking up space in my head, space where he shouldn't be because things would never work with us... bugged me! Big time!!

It wasn't long until he started to ask me out. I would politely decline. I didn't want to, but in my head I had to. But he was persistent and would ask all the time. All the while I was falling, falling fast and had no idea.

 I remember one afternoon, right before I started dating him, my best friend and I sat down at my kitchen table and wrote a list. A list of things I had to have in the next guy I dated. I was sick of dating losers! So we started a list.... It went something like this:

Things I HAVE TO HAVE in a MAN!
 1. HONEST!!!!
 2. Hot
 3. Stable- Emotionally and physically and financially
 4. A great sense of humor... with a tad bit of sarcastic humor
 5. A deep spiritual connection.... temple worthy
 6. Hard working
 7. Some one who LOVES ME and MY KIDS!!!

 We wrote it down, with markers on a green piece of construction paper and taped it to my fridge. So i could see it everyday and keep myself in check. So back to our story. After he asked me out a couple times and me declining... He asked once more. I don't know why but that time I agreed. In my head I remembering thinking to myself. It will be good for him to get out, to have a conversation with someone who knows what its like. It'll be like old friends catching up. Boy was i wrong, again!

 It was a Friday morning when he asked me to go out with him that night. I lined up a babysitter, and got ready. I told him to honk when he got there... I honestly didn't think he would do it. But sure enough at 6:59, you could hear someone laying on the horn right outside my apartment. I couldn't help but laugh hysterically. I remember giving my girls a quick kiss, grabbing my purse and jacket, and walking up the stairs. And there he was. Sitting in my parking spot. I took a deep breath. Put on my best smile and jumped in the passenger side of his truck.

Then it hit me. HIT ME HARD!!!! Their sitting in front of my apartment, in a truck I'd never been in, with a boy I barely knew... it hit me! This is it!! I almost laughed out loud. Our heavenly father has a great sense of humor. After 11 years of struggling, 3 kids, a divorce, a broken off engagement, two boyfriends who cheated, and too many dates with too many people to count.

THIS IS IT!! The boy who was the class clown at school! The boy who stood up to my boyfriend in 9th grade! The boy who helped me in the wal-mart parking lot..... THIS IS IT!!! The boy who was born one day after me, in the same hospital, the boy who's parents went to school with mine, the boy who didn't have any of his own children.... still I knew... at the very second. The second I jumped into that truck. I knew... THIS IS IT! The one I've been looking, waiting, praying for my whole life. The one who was made for me. The one who would understand me, love me and love my girls unconditionally. The one who is always honest with me. The one I can depend on. The one who feels like home. Back to that list.... He not only had everyone of the things I HAD to have, but he had many many more qualities that I didn't realize that I needed. He's my one. My only. My FOREVER!!!

 

Its been six weeks. The pain is still there... it feels like it happened yesterday. I woke up this morning from a beautiful dream. Not a dream so much as it was more of a beautiful memory. It was exactly how it had been and reliving it (or sleeping it) was magical. Its something I need to write down because I never ever ever want to forget the sweet details that played over in my mind last night... so here it goes. Its was early morning, the faint morning sun was trying to peak through the tightly pulled blinds. I was laying on a hide away bed, and oddley enough it was the first time I slept soundly in over a year. A comforting smell prickled my nose and I remembered... I am here. I turn my head to my left and snuggled up to me, sleeping soundly was my tiny 21 month old baby. Not two feet away, snuggled in her favorite blanket, dreaming away, in between two rocking chairs pushed together to make a crib, my three year old lay. As i turned my head back straight I see one lone light on. Its above the kitchen table... where 3 piping hot bowls of cracked wheat are waiting to be devored. Huddled over the stove, stood two of my most favorite people. As i quietly watch, trying not to make any noise, i see my hero walk over to the fridge and pull out what looks like summer sausage, and a carton of mocha mix. I decide to to wake my sleeping children and get ready for the day. As i woke them up, and they wiped the sleepyness out of there eyes, i saw excitiment fill their faces as they also realized... we are here. They werent to excited about the cracked wheat, but I know that a few heaping spoonfulls of sugar and the right amount of mocha mix will make it delicious. Not a second after we are done eating our cracked wheat, a plate full of fried eggs, fried summer sausage, and bread with jam and butter is placed before us. We havent eaten like this in forever... and it feels good. After breakfast I walk outside into the warm Arizona morning. As I make my way to my car, to grab our bags, I am stopped by my two great aunts and my great uncle. They are just getting back from their morning walk around the park. I quickly give good morning hugs and couldnt be happier than I was at that morning. Once back inside I try to get my babies cleaned up, and ready for the new day. Once we were ready we head out to the covered porch, where my grandfather waits to take us around the park. He shows the girls the club house , where he and my grandma go dancing a couple times a week and also meet friends for card games, parties, and basically a place where everyone one in the park can get together. As we walk through the streets of the park, we stop at basically every park model to say good morning to the neighbors. My grandfather cant help but to show off his great grand babies and me... hes proud of us, and tells everyone we come to. We walk by one park model thats familiar. Its boarded up, but I know who it belongs too... my other grandparents who happen to be serving a LDS mission. I show the girls and soon we are on our way back to the house. As we walk to the dusty road back to the house, my grandmother and her sisters are waiting for us. They have decided that today, because it was a beautiful day, we would take the short drive, over the state line into California. We would go to their favorite orachard to pick grapefruit. We followed my gradparent's white buick out of the park, and on to the free way. The men are in the front, while the three sisters are jammned into the back..... never mind that two of them are in their late 80s. The sky is the bluest i've ever seen. And its not long before we are driving on a back road, through rolling hills. We arrive at the orachard, the excitment is welling up inside the girls.... they can barely stand it. As i pull in, put our little SUV in park, hope out to unbuckle the kids... the heavenly scent of grapefruit and oranges washes over me. Its like magical world. Where everything is beautiful and nice, happy.... lovely!! I get the girls unbuckled and they take off running, as fast as their short little legs would carry them... straight towards my grandfather. I shut the doors and relaxed against the car. Taking in the lovely smell... the sunshine warming my bones.... and at that moment, when I opened my eyes, the sun was shinning down through the leaves leaving perfect streaks of sunlight cascading over my daughters (both now in one of the arms of my grandfather), reaching high over their heads, yanking with all their little might to pull a perfect grapefruit from the tree.... heaven! So there it is.... five years ago... we were in Quartize, visiting my then healthy, happy grandparents. Its amazing how fast time flys. Even though my Sweet Grandpa past away 6 weeks ago.... these memories are etched on my heart and i still feel him here. Thank Heavens for that!!!