Trip to Utah-Day 1

Ahh the mountains…

Aggie Ice Cream…

Blue mint

P.F. Changs…

Quick post

Arrived safely in Salt Lake City!  Waiting for Nina to arrive and head up to Logan.

2 things to share…

1.  Bob and the kids built a kick-butt guinea pig cage!!  The piggies love it!

Its finally spring, warm outside, tulips coming up, and the trees are budding!!!

Marisa 4/7/14

Good afternoon everyone!

Other than conference, our week wasn't terribly eventful.  Unfortunately though, were discovering that some people here LOVE to talk talk talk talk.  We tried to teach a lesson to an investigator this week who literally talked for an hour and a half straight, seemingly without taking a breath, and when we tried to step in and teach something he just talked louder.  And its a rule in our mission that our lessons only be 15 minutes long...so that was a little rough.  And also its really hard to find people at home. It always seems that as soon as we arrive at someones house they "just left".  Ugh.  But the Lord is really helping us to have little miracles everyday. 

I hope you all had the chance to watch General Conference - it was really amazing as always.  Luckily I got to watch most of it in English, so that was a blessing.  I learned a lot, including the fact that we are more important to our Heavenly Father than a tree (according to Elder Anderson) haha.  We are really pumped because in May Elder Anderson and maybe another apostle are going to come speak to us in our mission.  I cant wait!  We were actually able to get 6 less actives to conference - miracle!  I only got to hear a part of Boyd K. Packer's talk but it sounds like hes about ready to pass on.  I wonder if he'll make it to the next conference... One thing he said though was really interesting.  He said, "I know Christ lives, because I KNOW Him."  How incredible would that be to actually KNOW our Savior.  I know that if we follow the counsel we received during conference that we will begin to know our Savior.  He loves us and knows us, and all we have to do to love and know him is keep his commandments and love others as he does.  I really liked a phrase from Elder Rasband, "We have to learn to value and love what the Lord loves".  Just think about that.  That's really cool, and I think we all need to do better at that.  God loves our neighbor, but do we?  God loves righteousness, so should we, etc. 

I hope you all have a fantastic week!  I love you!

Final show choir

Tyler had his showchoir finale on Saturday.  He did an awesome job and I'm sure that he will be happy for the break.  Now he starts practices for the trip to New York City.

Lily loves to hang with Kayla.  She props up her paws on Kaylas hands and watches videos with her.

Divergent, Family, and Happy 18th to Kayla!!!!

Loved, Loved, LOVED Divergent!!!

Kayla went to the premiere with her friends and had a slumber party…

Grandma Ribera and Diana were so awesome and flew out to Iowa for the birthday party and Divergent!  We had such a fun week.

Happy Birthday Kayla!!!

(AKA She who shall not be photographed…)

Spring Break!

So, even with sick people, we went to Wisconsin Dells, known for all their water parks.  We stayed at the wilderness Territories.  Wisconsin was prettier than I thought it would be and reminded me so much of Utah.  All the décor was rustic and there were pine trees all over.

We had a great room and a blast at all 3 waterparks!  My favorite was the wave pool and lazy river.  We also got to watch Wolverine!

(Sadly, Bob was really sick the whole trip)

(Yes, that’s a moose on that car!)

The Fluffy Lily and a Pi-Ku to red paint…

I am not sure how I went from anti-pets (for good reason) to two guinea pigs!  We did some research and it all shows that little female guinea pigs do better with a  friend.   So, we went to the pet store and saw this beautiful little guinea pig who was so fluffy, she looked like she had stuck her finger in a light socket.  So, we brought her home.  Rosie and Lily are getting used to each either and its pretty cute.

She likes to hang out in Alaynas hood…

In honor of Pi day on Friday, I wrote a Pi-Ku (instead of Haiki, so I use 3,1,4) as to why Tyler is off the family painting team…

Only Ty

can

step in red paint.

We started the work on Tyler's room.  We are going with some pretty colors.  One of them happens to be bright red AKA Frosted Pomegranate. Tyler insisted on helping paint his room.  I was leery, with good reason.  Within a couple of minutes, he stepped backwards right into the red paint with his size 14 feet!  How?, one might ask.  You should have heard my scream.  So we wrapped his foot in a garbage bag and sent him to the bathroom, where he proceeded to spread the red paint throughout the bathroom while “washing” his foot.

So, he lays on the bed for a while, kindly pointing out our mistakes and then says, “Hey, I think I deserve a second chance!  I can do this!”  So, being the awesome mom I am, gave him a chance.  Within 5 minutes guess what?  No, go ahead…guess!  He stepped backwards again!!  You should have heard THAT scream.  The mess he left behind made his room look like a crime scene.  Did I mention he is permanently off the painting team?

Oh heres another Pi-Ku:

Alayna

cooked

the plastic lid.

So, in summation, we are MORE than ready for spring break.  3 people sick, one extra-gritchy…Wisconsin Dells, here we come!