Y Not?

I accomplished something great last weekend, so I had to share. About 9 or 10 Years ago (honestlY can't remember, I've tried to block it out), a group of friends and I set out to hike the Y. I can't remember one positive hiking experience in mY life, but You have to hike the Y at least once, right?! I knew it was onlY one mile each waY, so it couldn't be that bad! Well, "bad" was an understatement. We hadn't even made it to the first switchback and I felt like those moments were going to be mY last moments on earth. MY head was throbbing, heart pounding, legs burning, and I was quicklY reminded whY I hated hiking. While all mY friends, seeminglY unphased bY the difficultY of this hike, scurried up the mountainside, I struggled (I'm prettY sure AmY and probablY RoxY and JooLin staYed back to go slow with me. Such a good sister and friends!). I hate struggling! I hate struggling at anYthing! And I hate not being good at things! Call it a blessing or a curse, but prettY much everything (not piano plaYing) comes easilY to me. I have a knack for just catching on to things quicklY. So it made me furious that I couldn't do this, or that I couldn't do it well.
Looking back now, I was largelY furious with mYself and so embarrassed! How had I let mYself get so out of shape that this was so difficult for me? Needless to saY, this experience was quicklY chalked up to one of the top 5 worst experiences of mY life. And since that daY if there was ever a ward activitY or group of friends going on a hike, You could count me out!
So I have been working hard at mY out of shapeness latelY. I dare saY that I'm probablY in the best shape physicallY that I've been in since I plaYed volleYball in high school (14 Years ago). I had to go back to the Y and conquer that demon and test mYself!
I enlisted the help of RYan earlY last saturdaY morning. The weather was definitelY not the greatest. We almost didn't even go because it was raining and You could tell from the valleY that the Y was right at the snow level. I didn't want to let this opportunitY pass, so off we went with the plan to stop if the weather got too crazY or we felt unsafe.
I was a little apprehensive. Was I reallY in good enough shape to maYbe enjoY this? Was I going to add another hiking experience to my top worst life moments ever? Again, we faced that first climb up to the first switchback. A pair of 60+ Year-old woman came jogging down. What??? If they can get to the top and run down, then surelY I can walk up and back. Those first couple of switchbacks are tough. ActuallY, the whole hike is tough, but we made it! And we even went up to the top of the Y this time (that adds a couple more swithbacks)...in the snow! BY the time we reached the snow level (Yes, it was May 22), we were so far that we couldn't turn back!
Here are some pics, and I have to apologize for the qualitY. RYan brought their camera onlY to find out when we reached the top that the batterY wasn't in the camera, so these are with mY cell phone.
Almost there RY!
The beautiful view of Provo. Oh how I love that place! It was so green! Well, green for Utah!

At the top and lovin' it!

We couldn't pass up this snow-covered sign without giving it a little personal touch! Woop woop!

So that was it! And I actuallY quite enjoYed mYself! It wasn't easY, but I reallY enjoYed the challenge. I would do it everY saturdaY if I lived a little closer! There are definitelY more hikes to the Y in my future and more hikes in general! HurraY for a healthier bodY! And now I can honestlY saY, I love the Y! Now when anY hiking opportunitY (or anyYthing physicallY demanding) comes mY waY, I can saY, Y not?! I can do anYthing I want to!

Thank RY for joining me on this small (but reallY huge) personal journeY!

Here's a little video of us at the top. RYan didn't know I was filming for the first part, so he's talking about something random in the background.

"And Becometh as a Child..."

Pardon me while I wax a little spiritual here. On Monday, I had a conference call at work, and one of my coworkers on the call had just returned home from her grandfather's funeral the previous weekend. She was talking about how it went, and then she somehow got on the topic of all the cute things her little nieces and nephews had said at the viewing/funeral. The one quote I remember was one of her little nephews said at the viewing, "Why did they put grandpa in a treasure chest?" One of my other coworkers (both of these coworkers are not LDS) said something along the lines of how we could all really learn something from little kids and their perspective when it comes to difficult situations. My mind immediately went to Mosiah 3:19:

"For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all thing which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upone him, even as a child doth submit to his father."

Little did my coworker know that she was pretty much quoting the Book of Mormon! Then my mind wandered to the only kid I interact with on a regular basis at the moment...my little Jack Jack. He taught my a big lesson this last Saturday. We were at Sugar House park for the annual Crohn's and Colitis Walk. We were waiting around for the walk to begin and listening to the DJ blab on and on about whatever he was blabbing about. Then he announced he wanted all the kids to get in a circle and get ready to do the Hokey Pokey. The minute the music started, Jack took off running toward action while saying, "Dance, dance, dance!". This kid LOVES to dance, and he is quite good at it, I might add. He ran right to the middle of the huge circle of bigger kids and started to get his groove on. Jack's groove consists of three moves. He either tilts his head to one side and spins in a circle, does squats, or he lifts his knees up and down as fast as he can while waving his arms. He did a pretty good mix of all of these in the middle of the Hokey Pokey circle. All of us adults were absolutely dying! He didn't care that he was the smallest kid out there, he didn't care that he wasn't doing the same dance that everyone else was, he didn't care that he didn't know a single soul in his immediate vicinity (though he did stop a few times to look over at us to make sure we were still there), and he didn't care that his shirt was all dirty from the cookie he had eaten a little earlier. He just danced because that is what he loves to do.
I hope he never grows out of that shameless, passionate, independent little spirit of his and always does the things that make him truly happy.
The lesson I learned:
* Do what you love to do and what makes you happy.
* It doesn't matter who is watching or if no one is watching at all.
* It doesn't matter if you are doing it differently than everyone else, sometimes being unique makes it even better.
* You can be standing in the middle of chaos and still be having the time of your life.
That is all so easy to do when you are not quite 2, and so much harder to do when you are grown up! But imagine how much happier we would be! Oh the lessons we can learn from children! I can't wait for all the things I will learn from Jack and his future siblings and cousins!

April Awesome Brings May...

I knew April was going to be awesome when it started on March 31 (April Eve) with a Michael Buble concert. It was a last minute decision, but I decided I had to go or I was really going to regret it. So I went by myself! Now, I do lots and lots of things by myself, but going to a concert solo was a first. It actually went really well! I could hoot and holler as much as I wanted and knew I would never see any of these people again. Michael Buble was AMAZING! He puts on a great concert! Little lover!

The next day I headed up to Park City with my friends, Heather and Marchelle. We went to dinner and stayed in a hotel and then hit the outlet mall the next day. I forgot my camera, so that was lame, but it was a great trip with great friends!

Next came General Conference weekend. I love, love, love General Conference! They are the two best weekends of the year!

You can see that my April was off to a tremendous start! Then I cruised through the rest of the month looking forward to the festivities that happened at the end of the month. Last weekend Dustin graduated from BYU!! I can't believe that all of four of us (make that 6 of us including Dan and Kara) have graduated from the greatest university in the land! We are truly blessed! My parents came up from Cali of course, and we had a great weekend celebrating Deedsy's great accomplishment. I have to admit I was a little sad that there won't be a Cosby on campus anymore. How will the Cougs continue without us?!


Graduations are really sort of boring when you think about it. Keeping me entertained is one thing, but keeping an 18-month-old occupied was a whole different story. Jack ate lots and lots of pretzels and apples (which most of us call craisins)!

He did it!!

If everyone is looking a little pale in the photo below, it is because we had just seen an elderly woman fall down the stairs of the Marriott Center and crack her head open on the stair literally right next to my seat. It was horrifying, and I was positive that I had just seen a person die right in front of me and that her brain was going to be sitting on the stairs. I couldn't even look to see if she was ok, and we were all very shaken. My mom even called 911! She was so on the ball! I couldn't even function! Thankfully, she was able to walk out on her own, and left a pool of blood on the stairs, but thankfully no brain! I hope she's ok out there somewhere!

Jack is so proud of his Uncle Deeds!

It was raining of course when it was time for our campus photo shoot, but that didn't stop Deeds from mounting the cougar! Can't pass up that spot!

This is where Deeds spent most of his life as an Exercise Science major. The only time I ever entered this building was to watch mens volleyball games. Love! Now Deeds is off the Physical Therapy school. We are all very happy that he's going to a new school opening in Provo, so we can all still play together! It was a very brief campus photo shoot!

To continue the party weekend, we went the Hogle Zoo. This was Jack's first trip to the zoo, and Deeds' first time ever seeing an elephant in real life.

I was the luckiest person on earth and got to take Jack on his first carousel ride. He loved it for the most part, though I think he was so happy for part of it that he was crying. He couldn't quite decide how to feel about it.

We always have to find at least some way to take one inappropriate picture!

Rhinoceri are not real. Definitely robots! Animals are so weird! We had lots of fun with the animal statues.

Giraffes=weirdest animal ever, but sort of awesome!

Jack loves butterflies, which he fondly called "fluckaflies" or something close to that and also close to something like the F bomb.

This was my favorite animal only picture that I took. I'm a photography nerd!

Deeds took this beauty! National Geographic here we come!

Can't leave the Hogle Zoo without a picture at this classic spot! I'm officially taller than an adult female gorilla!

We all think that Pau Gasol sort of resembles a peacock. Deeds and I waited forever for this peacock to fan its tail, but no luck so we moved on to the gorilla statue.

And while we were posing with this fine statue, the peacock did his thing. So we ran over and got the picture we were waiting for! Love you Pau!! Peacocks=so weird, but pretty!

Then we polished the trip off with a train ride around the park. This is the whole gang!

It's always so fun to spend lots of time together as a family! Thank you Deeds for graduating so we had an excuse to PARTY!

This last week I was in Logan for work. It was lots of fun to be back in my old stomping grounds (lived there until I was 7ish). I don't remember a ton about living in Logan, but I do remember the crayons in front of my elementary school...Woodruff woop woop!

I also remember that this was the house we lived in. Willow Drive where you at?! Though I remember us having large boulder in the front yard, but maybe I'm making that up.

I finished off the week with a session at the Logan temple. Hurray for checking another temple off my list! It's beautiful and so unique!

To top it all off, Amy and Dan found out that they are having a girl! I will have a niece in September! Hurray! April was great! The Lakers even won last night to end it on a perfect note! Who knows what May will bring? I'll try to be a better blog poster!