and, she cries. again....

amen.

i read this today.

turns out, i cried when i read the last paragraph.

kind of an odd emotional response. i know. it happens sometimes, okay.

i just couldn't help thinking about my experience as a missionary for the church of Jesus Christ of latter-day saints. i thought about how grateful i am that my parents were so willing to pay to send me to a foreign land, to learn the most important of life's lessons.

i also couldn't help thinking about my in-laws, mel and sandy, (president and sister sabey) who have spent the last three years of their lives serving and loving the people of ghana. with that, they have also been instrumental in helping the missionaries in ghana learn the most important of life's lessons.

*confession - i borrowed this article from the blog of rachel sabey, my lovely asian sister-in-law. love me some asians!

ps - for those who don't know, that foreign land served my mission was the land of formosa. it only makes sense that i love asians.

facts of the day

1) christian, our friend charlie, and i went biking on wasatch blvd.

2) the air was brisk...needless to say, i was cold.

2) we rode through an intersection.

3) christian waved at a car in the lane turning right onto wasatch blvd.

4) i thought to myself, "i wonder if he is making sure that older gentleman sees us?"

5) i noticed "that older gentleman" was elder richard g. scott, one of the twelve apostles.

6) i smiled and waved too.

7) i yelled to christian, "that was elder scott!"

8) christian yelled back, "i know! that's why i waved."

9) we watched as elder scott turned into a shopping center on wasatch blvd.

10) we speculated. was he going to dan's to do some grocery shopping or to millcreek bicycles to

purchase a bike?

11) my heart was full of gratitude for the service, elder scott and each of the apostles,

so selflessly give each day of their lives.

12) i was reminded of elder scott's sweet conference talk about the eternal principle of marriage,

and how it helped me want to be a better wife

13) we kept riding our bikes.

14) it didn't get any warmer, so i was basically a popsicle.

15) my feet felt like popsicles at the end of the ride.

16) i like popsicles, so i felt okay about it.

last but not least...

these are the last of the san fran pictures. while we were on our own personal guided tour of the city, we took the bus to the haight ashbury district. we found a grateful dead t-shirt for christian. we found a really cool hat shop where we both found hats. i was also offered drugs for the first time in my life. don't worry. i just said no!

friends in northern cali

by the pier with nate and kim.

keep in mind, kim is behind the lense.

view of tiburon

redwood trees

walk in the woods - john muir forest

stacie!

while spending time in northern cali was delightful, spending time with friends and family while we were there was even more delightful. we spent an evening with nate and kim. we have missed them so, since they moved to san fran. we had fun 1) braving traffic with nate at the wheel (i was so glad i didn't have to drive in that traffic!) 2) clam chowder at boudin's 3)"getting hosed" translation spending $6 on a piece of chocolate for parking validation, then finding out the chocolate shop doesn't validate 4) finding a fun little pier to explore and watching people fish off it5) driving over golden gate bridge 6) eating delectable doughnuts in oakland 7) getting the grand tour of nate and kim's pad

we also spent a day and night with stacie, jj and ozzie. it was SO good to meet the oz man! i can't believe i didn't get a close-up shot of him. we took a little walk in the forest with them, talked and talked and talked, went on a drive to see some amazing houses and even more amazing views and went to dinner. i can't express how much i love the anderson family. they are favorites of the sabey's. "don't ya think?"

more of san fran

such an interesting city. downtown felt more like the east coast than the west coast. the buildings were so high-reaching that we often didn't have cell phone reception. it was busy, crazy, dirty. then we walked a couple of miles and we saw things like this...

alcatraz

it was really cold.

lombard street - apparently this is the curviest street in the world.

some lovely building art

and last, but not least, the attractive man i was able to spend my trip in san fran with!

china town - san fran style

we took a little trip to san fran. it was fun. christian was presenting at a conference. he did a wonderful job. i know because i snuck in to listen. sneaky, sneaky. christian indulged me, by spending some time in chinatown. it was feichang hao.

my uncle kip gave me a hat like this when i was a little tyke.

he brought it back to me from his mission in taiwan.

putting this on made me feel like a little kid again.

christian has a hat like this at home.

his brother, pete, brought it back for him from his mission in taiwan.

as you can tell by his face, he likes it.

china town in san fran seemed pretty legit.

smells. sounds. chaos.

i kept having flashbacks of my mission.

and i loved it.

tada!

more san fran pictures to come...

happy valentines day!

a little late, but this was our romantic valentine's dinner. we went to the coppermill restaurant. at 5:00 pm. with all of the 75 year old couples in town. it was a great night. we went so we could eat the pulled pork that we didn't get to eat at our wedding luncheon because it was so busy. turns out, they don't have the pulled pork on the restaurant menu, only on the banquet menu. oh well. we still have a really fun time. we laugh about how romantic it was.