Sunday was a great day! We went to church with Grandma and Grandpa Wright, and I loved their ward! The girls were very good in sacrament meeting, and Rachel had a particular fascination with the hymnbook. She was trying to read it and tell me all the stories. During Sunday school, Paul went with Rachel to help her feel comfortable in nursery, and Alice fell asleep on my lap! (THAT NEVER HAPPENS!) During the last hour, we met together and had a very impactful lesson on keeping the Sabbath Day holy. The First Presidency recently counseled as to how to help the membership of the church draw closer to the Savior, and the determination is that we need to devote more attention and reverence for the Sabbath day. I’ve been trying to teach Rachel about the sacrament, and we put all our toys and treats away during those 15 minutes to help her understand that is the most important part of our week. But after church, we aren’t always totally reverent. Obviously, with small kids, it’s not going to be silent and still, but during the lesson, I was impressed that we are ready to take another step forward. We decided to have a weekly family devotional on Sundays to discuss what we learned in church and have a little gospel conversation. We also set some guidelines for our family activities on Sundays. We aren’t going to watch TV and movies, and we are going to try to spend as much time together as we can.
Sunday night was a little birthday party at Becky’s and then I had rehearsal for “Songs of the Heart”-the 30th anniversary of the hymnbook celebration. We got to hug Emily Dabczynski and give her the keys to our house, and she gave us the keys to her car. Yay for swapping continents!
Monday, I really wanted to hike the Y, so we carted the girls all the way up! It was amazing! We got about half way, and I thought Paul was going to give up-Rachel wouldn’t walk, and he was carrying her and the backpack. (Alice was strapped to my back) But we pushed through, and we had a little picnic when we got to the top! It was great to prove we can do hard things as a family.
We ate dinner at the Warner’s and spent the evening catching up on life and future plans. David showed us some highlights from the Muppet Christmas Concert he helped create in the conference center last year. We loved spending time in their beautiful home and eating yummy food with the best of company! Rachel even got to keep her socks!
Relaxing Tuesday in Provo included: reading with Grandpa, playing at Rock Canyon Park, packing, and a little rehearsal for Songs of the Heart before driving up to Salt Lake to spend the night with Ggie.
Wednesday morning, Eric and Morgan arrived bright and early from San Diego! Bless their hearts, they agreed to watch the girls so Paul and I could GO ON A DATE!!!! WAHOOO!!!! I forgot to take pictures, but I promise it happened. We ate Sushi at Tsunami and made plans for the future. It was epic.
Thursday morning, Paul did a voice over at the motion picture studio, and then we went on ANOTHER DATE to the Kelly O’hara masterclass. (Let it be noted that UNCLE BEN babysat the whole 2.5 hours for us without help! We even made him late for class. He was a champ!! We love UNCLE BEN!) I was kind of disappointed Kelly didn’t sing for us, and the first ¾ of the time was spent listening to students sing and Kelly gave them some critiques. I was feeling like we should go, but at the end, she opened it up for questions which was awesome. She talked about how having a family and being married has been so good for her-keeping her focused and grounded. Nothing like having your son barf on your hands just before you go onstage to keep your ego in check! And she talked about being a woman of faith: there is a plan for each of us, and we only feel competitive or disappointed when we aren’t focused on our path and what God has in store for us. A great reminder from a great lady about how to keep perspective in a pretty self-centered and frustrating industry.
That evening, we had a LOVELY time visiting the Hohl family! Jenni is amazing and bought the girls some candy and some AWESOME children’s books including “The Stinky Cheese Man” and “Ferdinand”. She read them all to Rachel who was enthralled by Jenni’s funny voices. Later, Jenni showed her the Jack in the beanstalk outside with the giant poster in the window, and they gave a nice little concert on the piano. It was so fun to eat good food and catch up-like no time has passed! That’s true friendship.
Friday morning, we packed the cars and drove to Flaming Gorge with the whole Cartwright gang! We got settled, ate dinner, and played and played and played. Ann brought Brady and Rachel the cutest little Woody and Jesse dress up hats and holsters.
Saturday was spent boating on the lake, and it was AWESOME! Rachel loved riding in the boat and on the tube, and even Alice had a nice relaxing time riding around the lake! It was cold, but Brielle and Morgan were fearless out there. I sure enjoyed the day! We had great naps and a yummy dinner at the lodge where we saw tons of deer!
Church was so crowded on Sunday that we had to sit in the Primary room and just listen the whole time, but we got to sit by Rafe and Rinda who had us all over for cheesecake and Uno later that evening. Of course, we had to take our annual pics at “the lookout”, and we played some Skipbo before crashing back at the cabins.
The weekend also included rabbit sightings, squirt guns, walkie talkie wars, sleepless little girls, balloon animals, crawling in the “corrella” (coral), some delicious biscuits and gravy, a few rounds of “Lord of the Rings Cards” and some fun family hang out time. It always seems to go by too quickly, but we sure love Flaming Gorge!
RACHEL'S CORNER:
-makes up the best words to all the songs
-memorized her first scripture! "Ye are the children of the Lord your God." Deuteronomy 14:1
-loves being outside!
ALL ABOUT ALICE:
-really wants to walk like her big sis! She can stand up by herself and take up to 10 steps before falling.
-has the cutest 4 tooth grin you ever saw
-because of her tan, the white creases in between the rolls on her arm make it look like she is literally a tray of baked rolls that just popped out of the oven! I want to eat her! (Confession: I bite her cheeks so often that it doesn't even phase her anymore.)
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