.:Oregon:.

Reece and I flew up to Oregon this past Monday to go visit my family! My sister had a new baby at the end of July. The original idea was for me to go help with the brand new baby since she was only due about a week before I came! But Taytum decided to come early, so it was more just a fun trip for playing with everyone! I tried to help where I could, but Dani is pretty efficient with three kids already! Here is a quick recap - with pictures - of what we did while we were there!

Here is sweet little Taytum - the reason we headed up. She is such a yummy little bundle!


Monday we got in in the morning. We headed back to Dani's house to wait for Jefferson to get done with his clinicals. Then we headed down to Salem to Ben and Sharon's house. My mom and Alli were coming up from K-town to spend a couple of days with us. We let the cousins run around at Ben and Sharon's, and then headed to this orchard where there was a shortcake stand. The shortcake, fresh fruits, and milkshakes were delicious! After that, we went back to Ben and Sharon's for a little bit, and then it was off to Red Robin for dinner with everyone.
Tuesday morning, we got up and went to VooDoo Doughnut. They have crazy doughnuts that are really tasty! Everyone got a maple bacon bar (don't knock it until you try it) which was delicious! And we picked a few other random ones to share. The kids all loved their M&M doughnuts!

Here is Dani and I at VooDoo Doughnut.
Me enjoying my maple bacon bar.
Everyone else enjoying their doughnuts.

After we had all made ourselves sick on doughnuts, we headed out to check out the animals at the zoo. We saw some interesting sights there! We also went on this little train ride. It was apparently very relaxing for Reece, and she fell asleep in my arms. That never happens!

Reece spent a lot of time doing this while we were at the zoo.

Pictures from our train ride:

Me with Gray and Carter.
Me with Andi. Dani and Reece. Grandma Z and Reece. Alli, Cal, and Sharon.

Reece was obsessed with Taytum. She always wanted to be around her, touching her, and pulling her socks off. It was really sweet!

Reece with Taytum.

Get those socks off!

Sweet Taytum.

Wednesday afternoon we headed over to Canon Beach. It was Reece's first time at the beach, and she loved the sand! She ate a ton of it, and by the end, got brave enough to crawl off the blanket onto the sand. Once she discovered that she was all over the place!

Reece's first taste (of many) of sand.
The nasty jellyfish that were washed up.

Dani's cute family.
Dani and I (Taytum is hiding in there somewhere).

Mommy and Reece.

For dinner that nite, we went to this seafood place and had the best halibut fish and chips ever! Delicious!

Thursday morning we got up and went for a walk on this trail. There are tons of blackberry bushes and we stopped to pick some along the way. Reece enjoyed them on the trail and for lunch!
Saturday we ended our trip by heading to downtown Portland to the Saturday's Market. We met up with Ben and Sharon and their boys there, and bummed around for a little bit before Reece and I had to head home.

Reece and Mommy in front of the river.
Snuggling little Taytum.
All the cousins!
All the ladies.
All the guys.
And Reece having fun looking out of the windows on the plane. She was such a good girl!

We had such a fun week with everyone! We really appreciate everyone rearranging their schedules to spend time with us! I'm pretty sure Reece is going to be way bummed when she is stuck with just me tomorrow morning to play with!

.:Trouble:.

This is what happened when I was un-loading the dishwasher and it got very quiet.

.:Piggies:.

Reece's hair is pretty long on top, and so we've started wearing piggies every once in awhile. When I first put them in, they usually curl pretty cute! But after a little while, they start to flop a little bit! But she is still cute no matter what they are doing. I think it makes her look so much older. Where did my baby go?

And then there is the aftermath of the piggies the next morning... (equally adorable!)

.:Released:.

Today I was officially released as Young Women's President in our ward. I've known it was coming for about a month, and I knew exactly who was going to be replacing me. (She's going to be AMAZING!) I have to admit that I thought I would feel relieved to be released, and have more of a celebratory attitude about it. Being YW president has required a lot of my time, and I thought I would be so happy to have that time back! But I surprised myself when I had my meeting with our Bishop and first counselor by tearing up and feeling so sad about being released. I'm sure it will be nice to have some of that time back, but at the same time, I'm going to miss my girls so much. I have seen many girls graudate and off to college, and have also seen girls come in as eager Beehives that are now Mia Maids. I've seen them through so much, and it kind of makes me sad that I won't be there for the rest!

Our Bishop and first counselor were so complimentary, which I'm sure I didn't even deserve half of it. But it was validating to have them share their feelings with me, and feel that hopefully I did make a little bit of a difference in some of these girls' lives. I've been so impressed with these girls, and hope that I am able to raise Reece and any future daughters that we have to be as strong and incredible as they are. I know that they have probably all taught me far more than I have taught them, and I'm so grateful for that.

As of now, I don't have a new calling yet, but I'm sure it is in my near future with the size of our ward! I'm kind of nervous to see where I get put, but kind of excited, too. It will be interesting to serve in a new capacity. We moved into this ward almost exactly three years ago. I was immediately put in as first counselor in YW, and about five months after that started serving as president. All I've lived and breathed for the past three years is young women's! I can hardly imagine going to Relief Society!

I just want to put down some of my favorite memories that I've had from serving in young women's with these wonderful girls. We've had some neat experiences together, and I know they've made a huge impact on my life.

- Seven in '07: This was right after I got put in as president. My presidency and I decided that we wanted to take the girls to seven different temples in Utah. This was a ward effort as we had to bring our own names to all of the temples that weren't our temple district (so six of the seven) and had to bring our own priesthood to each of those temples as well. It was so unifying to have so many different ward members involved with what we were doing. Some of my girls got to do their own family names. We got to visit seven beautiful temples in Utah. A lot our trips were on Saturdays, or other days that weren't our regularly scheduled mutual nights. It was a real testament to me of these girls' testimonies that they were willing to give up their Saturdays and Friday nites to attend the temple and serve the Lord. It was an awesome experience, and I hope it made a lasting impression on the girls.

- Eight in '08: It's hard to follow up after visiting seven different temples, but we tried to take the girls to eight different church history sites during 2008. I'm not sure if we really ended up hitting eight, but I know that we had some incredible times visiting the humanitarian center, finding prophet's headstones in the cemetary, the church history museum, doing a scavenger hunt at the family history library, and hiking Ensign Peak. I think it is so important for our youth to know the history of our church, and hear of the sacrifices that the pioneers made. It really makes you reflect on your own willingness to serve and sacrifice!

- Youth Temple Celebration: This was this year, and it was such an incredible experience! We were working in correlation with a few thousand other youth to prepare a cultural event to perform for President Monson. We learned Polynesian dances and sang beautiful songs. It was A LOT of time practicing, driving to the conference center, and learning new things. While the main purpose of this was to put on a performance for the prophet, I really had a testimony of it being for the youth and their families. We had youth coming every single week that rarely, if ever, come to our normal activities. We had parents attending the performace in the Conference Center that don't even come to church. I think this was meant to serve the youth and help them feel the Spirit, but also to help their families feel that Spirit. When we did our performance for the prophet that nite, it was the most incredible feeling. You could just feel everyone buzzing - the energy was incredible! The Spirit was so strong, and I can't even describe how amazing it was to have thousands of people singing "We Thank Thee Oh God for a Prophet" when President Monson walked in. Definitely a once in a lifetime opportunity!

- Draper Temple Open House: We were able to take some of our girls to the Draper Temple Open House. It was pretty amazing to be there with the girls, and have them asking questions about the different rooms. It was such a neat experience for them to be able to see all of the temple now, and to get that desire to return. We didn't go as a group for the Oquirrh Mountain Temple because that is our new temple, and most of the girls attended with their families.

I'm sure I could go on and on, but I'll stop for now. It's been an incredible three years, and it is bittersweet for it to be over. I'm so grateful for all of the opportunities I've had, and all of the lessons I've learned! We'll see what's in store for me next!

.:Feeding the Ducks:.

Yesterday Josh worked from 4:00 a.m.-9:00 a.m., so we were lucky to have him home for the majority of the day! We had originally wanted to hit the zoo, but Josh needed to take a nap after getting up so early for work, and I had young women's in the evening, so it would have put us cramped for time. Instead, we took Reece back to the apartment we lived in when we first got married to feed the ducks. We brought one loaf of bread, and some snacks for Reece and we were set.

When we first got there, there were only like two ducks. We wondered where they all were, but figured two was better than nothing. No sooner had we started feeding those two ducks that some signal went out, and about 20 other ducks came waddling down the path. We were totally surrounded! It was hilarious. Reece liked them, but not as much as we thought she would. She was happy eating her food and looking at her animal book. We had got the book out to show her the picture of the duck, and then point out the real ducks.

After we had run out of the loaf of bread, all the ducks left. Then all of the sudden a couple of mommy ducks came with their babies. Soon after that some 'teenage' ducks came on over, too. We were out of bread, but ended up feeding them goldfish crackers, graham cracker, and Reece mum mums! It was a nice afternoon, and I'm sure we'll do it again soon and be sure to bring more bread!

.:Mommy's Little Helper:.

Ever since Reece has been mobile, she naturally likes to follow me around wherever I go. So, I was switching her laundry over to the dryer yesterday, and she decided to come 'help.' She actually did find a wash cloth in the washer that I had missed!