Memorial Day Fun

We had a super fun Memorial Day weekend down south in beautiful St. George and Pine Valley.

Thank you so very much to our good friends, Kirk and Joan for inviting us.

It was such a memorable weekend and we had fun even though we missed Mark a lot.  He had to stay home and take care of some Bishop duties.  Just one of the sacrifices that we have to make during this time of his service.

We started out staying with my parents and playing with cousins.  We went to the pool and celebrated Kaiden and Luke's birthdays.

 We love the pool and we love playing with cousins!

After the birthday celebration, we headed up the mountain to Pine Valley.  If you have not been to this little town, you really need to put it on your list of places to go.  It is a little piece of heaven.  So peaceful and beautiful and wonderful, wonderful people live there.  They even let Kirk move there. ;)

(Kirk and I have a long-standing tease fest between us.  Love you, Kirk.)

This is the beautiful Pine Valley Chapel.  It is one of only two chapels that were built by the pioneers that is still in use today.

Kirk invited Emma and I to speak in their Sacrament Meeting. (Sacrament meeting is the term for a regular Latter-day Saint worship service, usually held each week on Sunday, where the sacrament (similar to communion) is offered to the members of the Church. Sacrament meetings include music, talks, testimonies and prayers.) 

He also asked Josh to play his cello, and he did a great job.  I was not really nervous at all.  Probably because I have not had much time to think about it.  I was happy to do it too.  I love to talk to people, especially when I can share with them some of the things I have learned over the past 3 years and of my love for my Savior, Jesus Christ.  

 It was Emma's first time speaking in church and she was so awesome!  Have I mentioned how much I love this church?  I love that we have these opportunities to learn and grow from one another.

The actual chapel was tiny.  Probably can only fit maybe 100 people.  The cool thing is, there were actually about 600 people in attendance.  They were spread out in other rooms and outside on the grass.  They set up closed-circuit televisions so those people could see and hear the meeting.  I was very thankful that

a.)  I could not see all 600 people, and

b.)  I could not see what I looked like on the TV. :)

After church we had dinner at Kirk and Joan's house and then went back to the chapel so we could snap our pictures.

There were so many great things that happened over the weekend, including being able to see my 5th grade teacher, Mrs. Staheli.  She lives in Pine Valley as well and we actually stayed at her house in an apartment over her garage.  It is a crazy, small world.  It was also fun to see her daughter, Mishaun.  We went to school together.  It is always nice to be connected with old friends.

I really, really missed my hubby, but the kids and I had a great time together.  I love this little family of mine.  It was a great little trip and got me even more excited for summer to begin.