OH, the joys of tag... here we go!

3 Joys....
1. The Gospel - and all the wonderful promises and blessings assoicated with it!
2. Keven and Hannah
3. A ride in the mountains

3 Fears....
1. Keven or Hannah dying - it makes me shiver just thinking about it!
2. That certain health problems will take my life at an early age.
I don't want this to sound the wrong way but I don't necessarily fear for me but for those I would leave behind.
3. I must admit that the state of our government makes me nervous.

3 Current goals....
1. Finishing The Biography of Gordan B. Hinckley. (10 pages away!!)
I started reading this a few months ago and it has taken me way longer than I thought. But it is great! I totally recommend it!
2. I am trying to work on a music project that Keven has been encouraging me to do for the past year. Sorry to sound so discreet but for some reason I just get embarassed talking about it.
3. To do my best to make Girls Camp an impacting event for the Young Women.

3 Current Obessions....
1. Food Storage.
Crazy, but true. I literally I have planning and scamming about this for the past month. We have been working on our food storage for the past year but for some reason I have been finding myself thinking about it all the time - what I should get this week at the store, how much more water we need, etc. Random, I know.
2. More Gospel Knowledge.
I realized a few months ago that there are many things about the gospel that I don't feel I know well enough so I have made it a priority to change that. Keven has been a great assistance - I tell ya that kid is so blasted smart!
3. Hiking!
I have always loved it hike! My favorite hikes included Mary, Martha, and Catherine, Secret Lake, and the lovely A&B Hike that included 7 peaks and 12 miles! Since I had Hannah I have not done much hiking and I have sorely missed it. So I have tried to get out once a week to take a hiking adventure.
Yesterday was great! I did my first hike with Hannah in the baby hiking pack. Thanks to the Brighton staff and campers who let us tag along, Aunt Lydia/Strings who helped steady me over the snowy regions, and yahoo for Hannah who was a trooper! We went to Mary, Martha, and Catherine and 5 miles later we were still doing great!

3 Random facts about me....
1. Most people do not notice but my left arm does not straighten all the way. I broke my elbow several years ago and was never able to gain all the motion back.
2. I am a full on neat freak.
3. I don't like competition. Friendly banter and games are all good, but any other sort is not my thing.

And now I tag ANYONE would might like to participate! I would love to hear from all of you who regularly check things here!!

Youth Conference, T-Days, and Horseback Riding

Alright, get ready. Here are the latest events of the Wall's and the Canyon Rim Young Women!

I got the opportunity to go to Youth Conference with the Young Women. It was great! I am glad I was able to go, it was super nice to spend time with my girls and get to know them better. We started out by having a devotional at the Draper Temple site by President Hilton. This will be the temple our stake will be attending when it is finished.
Then it was off to Camp Williams! The girls in our car really wanted to stop at the gas station before heading out there so we arrived for some training late. This army guy you see made us get down, do push-ups, and yell "we will never be late again for a camp meeting". While we were doing push-ups he suddenly looked at me and said, "Are you a leader?" To which I replied yes. He then profusely apologized for having me included with the girls. I didn't mind, I thought it was funny!
Yahoo for repelling! I am SO proud of our YW/YM as they were stellar repellers! This is the free fall side.
Here is Bishop Elkins! What an awesome guy! He is in his 70's yet he got right up and repelled as quickly and confidently as the rest of the youth! I was super impressed!
Here is me! The last time I was at Camp Williams on this training equipment I broke my elbow. I am happy to say that this time around all went well!! Go Tamarra! She is the one eating the creamy and let me tell you, I have never seen someone who loves creamies as much as Tamarra! Elaine, on the far right, is our Young Women's President. She is also 8 and1/2 months pregnant! --What a trooper! Elaine and I were the only YW leaders there from our ward. We also got in trouble from the stake leaders because they thought we were too loud at night with our girls. Oh well, right? We sure had a great time!
Lexi and Abbie
David, Jamie, Haley, Kylie, Amelia, and Liz.

Okay, now on to Taylorsville Dayz. Each summer we get the great fun of participating in T-Days because Keven's Father is greatly involved with the city. This is Hannah at the parade. Uncle Sean was throwing water on her and she could not get enough of it!
Maleia and Hannah waving their flags!
We invited our neighbors to come because her husband was out of town. This is her little boy, Caleb. I thought this picture was super cute!

Hannah loves ballons lately. She also loves to dance. Here we are trying to play with balloon and dance.
Horseback riding!! Our YW go horseback riding each summer and it was great! I was so impressed at how our girls did. They all jumped right on these horses and acted like naturals. Way to go girls!
Brianne, Kylie, Amy, Ericka, and Kylie

Amelia!
So, I have to be honest. I really am not a horse person. The last time I rode a horse it tried to buck me off. Since that point I have not been a big fan so I really wasn't planing on riding a horse. But my girls are very encouraging and after watching this cute horse, I decided to give it a whirl. Harley was a great horse who is gentle and mild. Thanks Harley for giving me some faith in horses again!

The Dancing Queen!

Howdy all!! This is a video I took a few weeks ago and I had to post it because I think it is so darn cute! Hannah loves to dance and twirl! And Keven and I love to watch, over and over again!

Hope everyone has a great week! Wish me luck, as I am off to Youth Conference at Camp Williams! Keven will be a single parents for the next few days so wish him luck as well!

Last time I blogged I mentioned my excitment for the Garage Sale season to begin. I have normally felt I have good luck with acquiring what I desire from Garage Sales, but there has been no such luck this year - what a bummer! This past weekend some of the ladies from the neighborhood and myself got up bright and early to go check out garage sales and it was a TOTAL let down. This is due to the fact that both times I tried to get some plastic, outdoor play stuff for Hannah another person would sneak in front of me and get it first. I am offically shaking my fist at them. I also tried to get a used hiking pack and table and got beaten out. I did manage to get a great hiking pack later, which I am super excited about - gotta love great stuff for great prices - but I am taking a little break from the garage sale business right now.

This week has been fun as Keven has still been home with us. He has been busy installing a few A/C's, but otherwise we have loved having him around more! Tuesday was my big turning 26 day! We got to play all day and that was the greatest gift of all! We went to Park City to do some shopping, played at the park, went to pick up a fun hiking pack, ran errands, ate a yummy dinner, and ended with a fun surprise party for Jeff - it was his birthday too, only he was turning 30! Happy Birthday to you Jeff!!

Here is me with my lovely ice cream cake, I have never had one of those before! Thanks to Keven and family for being so kind!

JUNE..how nice!!

Hello fun friends!! IT'S JUNE!!! What a great month!

I am so glad for summer! The mountains truly call me to during this time of year as I am anxious to hike and spend time with the mountain trails I love!

Life is good! Our little family has come to a new crossroad as Keven has accepted a new position with Standard Dry Wall. He has been working for Superior Insulation for the past 2 years and he has loved it. Just a few weeks ago he had someone approach him about a new position with SDI. We weren't looking for a new job but this new job offer will be such a great opportunity that we are very excited for the new experiences it will provide. Yahoo for Keven! And Yahoo for wonderful growing experiences!!

Because of certain circumstances Keven has the next two weeks with paid time off so Hannah and I are loving having lots of Daddy/Hubby time!! We plan to play, get projects done, and have a fun trip to Park City!

Another reason I love June is for the great season of Garage Sales!!! You may think that is silly, but let me tell you -- Garage Sales are AWESOME!! I have found some amazing things for incredible prices! This weekend is the opening season for me as I am going to attend a huge garage sale in the area! Yahoo! I am on the lookout for outside playgear, a child hiking pack, kid books, and possibly some patio furniture. Wish me luck!

Here are a few random pictures of Hannah from the past few weeks. That girl is SO great! She just cracks me up!

This is how I find her reading. on the floor with the book in the air. Love it! Have I mentioned Hannah loves to read?? This last picture shows Hannah with her purse, jewelry, and pretend cell phone. Thank you to Emily Holbrook for getting Hannah into such girly things!

The Wall's meet the Mexican Riviera!!!

Ya know, I just have to say that cruises are GREAT! Keven and I are not huge travelers, but we definitely agree that cruising has got to be one of the best ways to travel!

Get ready for details from our Mexican Riviera adventures!!

Here we are getting ready to board our ship, The Vision of the Seas!

We learned some fun facts about the Vision of the Seas -- when stood up is as high as the Eiffel Tower and contains 70 Statue of Liberties worth of metal. Crazy!

This is the bay area of Los Angelos we left from. Our ship left about 5 p.m. Sunday evening. We had a great time exploring the ship, adjusting to our sea legs, and watching our ship leave the bay area!

We also got a quick chance to call home to check on our baby girl. She was just fine and after that one phone call I decided that we couldn't call home again because Hannah was just fine but it was too hard for her Mommy!

This is our fun cruise group, Keven and I and his parents, Russ and Sharon! We took this picture at the very front tip of the ship.

This is Keven and I playing with our camera on our first real day at sea! We spent most of the day playing cards, reading books, swimming, etc. It's so nice to have relaxing days like that! We had to dress super formal for dinner that night so Kev and I dolled ourselves up a bit.
That night we went to a show in the theather. They had shows every night! This particular night was a group immitating the Temptations. They did a pretty good job!

Our favorite part was our fun friends we made that night, Debbie, Rick, Barb, and Dan. They were teasing Keven and I about not knowing the Temptation songs. After that we just struck this friendship and enjoyed spending time with these guys during the rest of our trip!
Yahoo for the Temptations!

Here are Russ and Sharon on the boat we took to get to Cabo San Lucas. We all had great luck with no sea sickness. But others of our group did not far so well on this little boat ride.
This was taken on route to Cabo. Once we got there we couldn't walk two steps without being offered some type of fun Mexico tourism stuff. One guy convinced me to come to his shop because he said his bracelets were only a dollar. Then two minutes later is decided they were actually 22 dollars. Silly man.
These lizards are all over and the people in Mexico like to use them to earn money off tourists. They let you hold them, you take a picture, then they ask for money. I didn't even want to hold this lizard, as I am not a reptile fan, but this lady forced it upon me while Keven and Russ laughed. I was worried it would pee on me and they assured me it wouldn't. Well, that was a bunch of bolony! Luckily I was quick and it missed me!
This picture is great! This guy with the guitar followed us several blocks until we went into a restaurant. Then he proceeded to sing the Mexican version of "Margairitaville". It was great, especially since we couldn't understand certain phrases he was saying!
We went to the beach, two actually. One where tourists are not allowed to swim and one where they are. This picture was at the beach where they aren't allowed to swim. But don't worry, Keven had to go check it out. The waves don't look too bad here but they were sooooo strong! I went in far enough to have it reach my ankles and it nearly knocked me over! I can definitely see why some of the beaches in the area are just for looking and not for swimming!

Here we are in Mazatlan. We went a tour of the old and new part of the city. The mountain in the background has one of the highest lighthouses in the world.
We stopped at a boardwalk that goes all along the city beach and there we met some "professional divers". (By professional I mean local citizens who do crazy things for money.) There is a a very high cliff with stairs carved into the rock. These men come around asking for a dollar and then dive off the high cliff into the 5 ft. water below. Each night when we came back to our room we had a different towel creature -- bunnies, swans, and even a flying pig!
Each night they had a different triva or relay game. Keven and I grew to be big fans! The first one we participated in was a T.V. Trivia, seeing who could guess a program by it's intro song. We didn't win that night but Keven got an honorable mention for doing a backflip while trying to impersonate "The Fresh Prince of BelAir". The next evening we partnered up with our new buddies in "The Qwest". You had to do all sorts of crazy thing in a very quick manner. This is me sporting very red lipstick, which I had to leave on some bald man's head.
This is one of my favorite cruise pictures! This is our friend Rick dressed up as a lady. He was hilarious!!! I laugh everytime I picture this!
This is Keven participating in a hula hoop contest, which he totally won!!!

This is us with Kev's parents after we won 1st prize in "The Qwest"!!!
This is from Puerta Vallarta. This spot was definitely the most Americanized. Here I saw a Chili's, McDonalds, Domino's, Starbucks, and Hooters.

Keven and Russ went scubadiving so Sharon and I did a lot of shopping. As we were walking around some guy came up to us and asked if we were from Utah. We said yes, then he asked if we were Mormon. We said yes. He was all excited and I was like, "How did you know we were Mormon?" He said that we were the only ones around wearing long shorts and t-shirts. Alright for being modest!

Here is a sunset from the Vision of the Seas!

This was a parade they did onboard the ship. A staff member represents each nation onboard the ship by parading that nations' flag. It was pretty neat! These were our waiters, Elmer and Debashish. They were singing to us at dinner. They were both super cute and so kind. It was really interesting to learn about their countries -- Elmer is from the Phillippines and Debashish is from India.
Here are our fun friends!! Go Debbie, Barb, Dan, and Rick! Honestly, these were some of the nicest people ever, and we had a blast together! If you go on a cruise, make friends with those around you! It made it so much fun!! We made friends with the people sitting next to us at dinner. They were from Seattle and loved Five Crowns! We also met lots of fellow Jazz fans from Utah!!

That is it!! For the record I would like to write that I was super excited to come home. Loved the cruise, but missed my sweet baby. When we got to our house I ran through the door and Hannah took one look at me and cried. It's like she didn't remember who I was, she wanted nothing to do with me!! Oh, sad was I!! She went to Keven but everytime he tried to hand her to me she would cry and hang around Keven's neck. That was probably one of the saddest stories for 2008.

But no worries, all is well now. It took her about a half hour to forgive me for leaving and now she loves me again. In fact, my non snuggly girl is giving me hugs a lot more these days! And my baby is really a big girl! Keven and I both agree she grew tons while we were away. She can now run, jump, and say bird, & blankie.

4 Days and Counting!!!

It's offical! We leave in 4 days for our cruise! Can you tell we are super excited!!

While we are very excited, we are somewhat sad about our favorite Nanna. We have never left her for this long and this is a long time -- 8 days!!

We know she will be fine. My Mom and sister are coming to take care of her at our house. Plus, Uncle Ray will be here. We keep telling ourselves that she will be getting so much attention that she won't even notice we are gone. I think that statement is more to comfort us then her.

I really have felt good about leaving Hannah, it has just been the last few days that my heart as suddenly taken this sad tugging. Both Keven and I are finding ourselves squeezing in extra hugs, kisses, stories, songs, etc. because of the long stretch we will have without them!

Last night we were playing with our Madsen friends, whom are our heros as parents. Keven asked them if we were still good parents for leaving Hannah on this trip and they said we were still great parents! Thanks guys! We appreicate your vote of confidence!

So with that said, wish us luck! Mexico, here we come! Yahoo for sun, good food, and good times!