No, I REALLY love the Olympics!

Wow. That pretty much sums it up... I'm so glad we have the Olympics, I actually think they are inspired by God. It's amazing how the world can even get together to plan this historic event every two years, it's awesome! Watching the events, highlights, opening ceremomy, and the closing ceremony really gives me hope for the future. Yes there are a ton of problems out there in the world, but there is a ton of good...

It all reminds me of my days living in Singapore, especially the opening and closing ceremonies, seeing what the chinese put on show for us to see. There are a lot of Chinese people living in Singapore, and we had some Chinese members of the church in our branch. They are such a kind, gracious people. Mandarin chinese was one of the four national languages in Singapore. Anyway, it was a very good life experience for me to live in Singapore, even being as young as I was. (9-12) In our school, we had kids from a lot of different nationalities, so race really wasn't much of an issue. I had friends from India, Australia, Korea, New Zealand, USA, and more... The whole world congregates in Singapore, just like at the Olympics, it's pretty amazing! I loved seeing all the people from different nationalities gather together at the bird's nest.

Another thing that I love about the Olympics is that it shows us that we are not alone in this world. I know, weird, eh? There are actually people living on the other side of the ocean... A lot of times it seems like the US is the only country, or even that UT is the only state. Because we are stuck in our own little lives, living everyday life, not paying attention to global events. But there are people just like us, with the same problems and the same joys living all over the world! And even more amazing, the church is all over the world, with the Book of Mormon in all kinds of languages. It just boggles my mind, but it's awesome!

And of course, who can forget the competive spirit in all of us all over the world at the Olympics. Phelps got his 8 medals! Awesome! I cried with Nastia Liukin as she won the all around gold. I got emotional when I saw some of the Visa Go World commercials. I laughed and cheered at Usain Bolt when he won 3 gold medals and 3 world records. I watched in amazement as Dara Torres won a silver at 50m freestlye at 41 years old! I watched in umbelief (and sheer excitement) as Lezak swam past the French swimmer to win gold in a swimming relay. I watched in wonder as the chinese athlete flew around the bird's nest and then lit the torch. I also watched in sadness as the torch went out at the closing ceremonies. After the closing ceremony, I teared up as I saw the slide show of all the highlights and emotional moments of the games.

There were many more events that were just as enjoyable to watch, and of course many more very cool parts to the opening and closing ceremonies. I look forward to the next Olympics, but I am glad that I'll be able to get more sleep now...

Sisters... Sisters...

Earlier this week, my sister, Christina came to visit from Virginia. On Monday we went to toddler time at the Treehouse Children's Museum during the day. At night, after Travis came home we went swimming at the lake. On Tuesday night, we got Christina to babysit while we went to the temple, now that it's open. We had a fun couple of days. So until the next time we see her, we'll miss her! I'm really glad I have Christina as a sister! Oh, and thanks for babysitting Christina, we really appreciate it!

Christina and Elora fell asleep on the couch while I was working online.

My kids really had a lot of fun with their aunt "Stina" as Elora called her.
Max enjoying his oreo a little too much...

Cousins

Last weekend we got the chance to go to Salt Lake for my cousin, Tiffany's wedding reception. It was so fun to see her and a whole bunch of other cousins. Tiffany is my cousin who lived in New Mexico, and is the same age as me and Karolee. (Most of you know who Karolee is) When I was 15, I spent a big chunk of my summer in New Mexico with Tiffany and her family who I adore. At the reception, I was also really glad to see my aunt Darrlye and uncle Reid, (Tiffany's parents) because I don't get to see them very often, and they are awesome relatives!

Joe, Kimberly, and Alisa Tara, Jeramie, and Max (My Max thought it was pretty funny there was another little boy named Max. They're second cousins, and named after the same great-grandfather)
Anyway, I just love all my cousins, and no, not all of them were there at the reception, not even close! I just think it was so cool to have most of them live near me in St. George. The family parties were the best! We got together around Christmas, sometimes doing the nativity, or going caroling, and of course listen to something long and prophetic from my grandpa Max. We miss you guys! But when trying to decide where we want to go after Travis graduates, having my kids close to their cousins will most likely be a big factor!

Enjoying Motherhood...

Lately, I've been learning that I'm enjoying motherhood more. Yes, there are hard times, and yes, it sometimes feels like what I'm doing isn't worthwhile, and that I'll never get to do much of anything for myself... But, lately, I've just been soaking it all in more... I love my kids, and I'm actually enjoying the everyday routine with them more. I'm enjoying the giving of myself to them. I'm enjoying watching them play together, enjoying seeing them give eachother a hug and saying, "Sorry Dax!" after Elora hit Max. I'm enjoying seeing Elora be so motherly to her babies, her stuffed animals, her ponies, Max, etc... I'm enjoying Max look at a duck in a book and saying, "Duck! Duck! Duck!" I'm enjoying the snake shakes that I give Elora (learned that one from my mom...) I'm enjoying the reading of books, the singing of a lullaby before bedtime, and Elora's prayers... I'm enjoying the giggleling, dancing, playing, building blocks, little voices (not so much the big, loud, shrieking voices...) Playing with Elora's hair, and watching Max walk. People say to enjoy them while they're little, because they grow up so fast. I'm really trying to do that now, instead of just getting through another day... I'm enjoying the present, instead of the thinking of "It'll be better when..." I appreciate and am thankful for my children. I love them so much, even though they might not fully understand that... I'm just so grateful to be a mother, and I think a lot of things in my life lately helped me to get to this point, the way I'm feeling now... So anyway, just wanted to share my feelings a little, sorry to get all mushy on ya... But if there's one bit of advise that I'd like to give, enjoy your now. Wherever you are in your life, enjoy the present. Don't be always thinking, it'll be better when... Because then you'll never enjoy life, and never be happy or satisfied, and never appreciate what you have right now...

The Lazy Days of Summer...

Ah... summer is great... I'm enjoying having Travis around after work during the summer before school starts, and Travis will be back in night classes and homework sessions... Only 11 days before school starts for him, I guess we better make the best of it!

Here's Max after dinner one day, what a messy, funny kid... It looks like he was trying to draw in some new eyebrows with his food...

I've been doing Elora's hair in two messy buns lately, she's quite cute!
Here is the ultimate example of the lazy days of summer... The kids with their Daddy enjoying some vegetation time...

Elora and Max both love their books, and when they're not fighting over toys, they can entertain themselves quite well... Here, they were sitting on the couch and bouncing their backs against the couch over and over and giggleling a lot!
Last friday, we went to the treehouse children's museum here in Ogden. It's the coolest place, the kids love it! It has a big tree in the middle with stairs inside and there's a slide that goes down from the tree. There's lots of activity centers in the museum, like a kitchen, doctor's office, school, doll room, a big chess set, art corner, music corner, and more! We finally decided to get a year membership so we could have someplace fun to go to get out of the house in the winter.

Here they are after we made visors in the art corner

Max couldn't keep his on so Travis wore it... uh...cute....

The kids loved banging on the marimbas...

Travis put on a little puppet show for Max and then appeared from behind the curtain! Max thought it was the funniest thing!

Then he wanted to grab the puppet to play with it...

Elora enjoyed driving the fire engine... Thankfully, she won't be driving anything for real for another 13 years!

Max climbing, and playing peekaboo...

They had a little nursery for the baby dolls in the doctor's office, and Max was so cute holding a baby... He's in touch with his feminine side...

Elora checking the heartbeat of her baby...

Here we are on the fire engine again...

The next day, we went to Salt Lake for a little Arnell reunion. This is Elora on the way down, she was excited that she was going to see Grandma...

4 Years Ago...

4 years ago today, Travis and I were sealed together for time and eternity in the St. George temple...

...And 11 years ago this fall, a friend named Catherine introduced me to my future husband. It was after a ninth grade football game, she took me down to the middle school to see all the guys after their good game. She talked to one guy, saying something like, "Hey big tuff Gough!" And I said, "Who's that?" Catherine told me about how he was in her biology class and how guys liked being called big and tuff... But I was just thinking that he was pretty cute... But that fall Travis paid no attention to me, he liked Catherine. But I secretly had a crush on him all the way through school until he finally showed some interest in me in 11th grade when we went to Sadies and Junior Prom, and then not showing much more interest again until we were in College. Some might call me pathetic, but there was something in this amazing young man that I couldn't let go of. Travis says he was stupid for not noticing me, but I say we just had to wait for the right time and to go through life's lessons before we got together.

Anyway, that's the short version of our story. Tonight, we wanted to go to the temple and out to dinner, but our plans aren't working out... It's girl camp this week, so all the girls in the stake that could babysit are off to girls camp. Two of my adult friends are helping with girls camp as well. We did have one couple that was going to babysit, but they found out that they have plans, so another couple was going to babysit, but they had plans. Plus, we found out that the temple is closed for two weeks... So....I think we're going to get some take-out and have a candle-lit dinner after the kids go to sleep...

Rodeo

Hinckley Dodge was one of the sponsors for the Rodeo in Ogden, so Travis got some free tickets for Monday night. This was my first time to a rodeo and I had a GREAT time! It was a lot of fun! The rodeo started out with a few sky divers coming into the field, and the last one had the American flag, it was pretty incredible!

Elora thinks she pretty cool wearing Daddy's sunglasses...
Here we are, having a good time!
Max was surprisingly really good for sitting on our laps for almost 3 hours!

Here's a video of Max "Bull Riding" (on Mommy's legs) He enjoyed himself...