January

I am SO far behind on my blog that I haven't even wanted to attempt posting anything. It's kind of an overwhelming feeling, but I need to catch up sometime and I guess its better to do sooner than later. This whole year has been one big blur thus far and I don't think it is going to slow down any yet. We have had so much craziness going on I can't even keep my days straight. I couldn't remember one thing about the month of January and had to look in my picture files to jog my memory. As I was looking through pictures I was reminded of a really fun weekend we had in Salt Lake with some family. My parents were coming to Salt Lake for something in January (I can't remember what) and my Dad had been given an open invitation by Elder Anderson of the twelve to come and see him anytime. Elder Anderson had been to my Dad's stake conference a month or two before and was not able to meet my Mom while he was there because she was on a humanitarian trip in Nicaragua. So he had told my Dad to call his office and bring her by anytime. So of course who wouldn't take an Apostle up on that. We really wanted to meet him as well and even though my parents were planning on coming and staying with us for a couple days afterwards we made the trip to Salt Lake to go with them. It was a really great experience! The spirit in that building is overwhelming. While we sat and waited to go up to his office we were able to see many of the seventy and even saw Elder Uchtdorf and and wife being escorted from the building. It was pretty neat. We got to visit with Elder Anderson for about a half hour and then got some pictures with him. Overall it was just a really fun weekend. We also got to see my Grandma Larsen and stayed with my Mom's parents. Then my parents and Jared came to our house for the rest of the weekend which was a lot of fun. I'll post some pictures of our fun weekend together.

We went out to breakfast with my Grandma Larsen and my Mom's parents before we went to see Elder Anderson. I've really enjoyed getting to see my Grandma Larsen so often over the past couple years since living in Vernal. We pass through Salt Lake so much on our way to Idaho that we've been able to stop and see her quite a bit.

Family shot with Elder Anderson.

Afterwards we went out to eat at a Brazilian Meat House place. I can't remember the name of it, but it was delicious. They cut all these different types of meat in front of you for you to try. Plus they have a buffet of other options. Tytyn thought it was pretty darn cool. I'm not to fond of how I look in the angle of this picture, but Tytyn's face cracks me up. He has the cutest and most fun personality. 

This was our dessert that we all shared. It was a GIANT piece of chocolate cake. Tytyn basically licked the plate clean. 

After going to Salt Lake my parents and brother Jared came to stay with us for a couple days. We went to the dinosaur museum again. We hadn't done that since we moved to Vernal almost two years previous. It was basically the same experience for me, but Tytyn enjoyed it a lot more being older this time.

He wouldn't pull many normal faces for pictures this weekend, wonder where he gets that from ha ha.

We went to the quarry this time as well, which we had never been to. As tired as I was I'm really glad we went. I liked it a lot better than the museum. Its just a huge wall with all sorts of fossils in it that they have built a cover over to put on display. It was really cool.

My handsome boys before church.

When I could still pick Tytyn up, barely!

About 5 months along. And I thought I was really sticking out then!

It was a really fun weekend! My parents have made the effort to come and visit us so many times since we have lived here. We appreciate it so much. It has been hard at times to be so far away from all of our family, but we appreciate all those that have made an effort to come and stay with us. We have loved having you all visit! I can't believe we will be moving away from here so soon. We have loved our time here and have learned and grown so much. It's amazing the twists and turns your life takes. I don't think we ever thought we'd live here, but the Lord takes you where you need to be and we needed to be here for several different reasons. We have made such good friends and will miss them all so much! I will also miss having a temple 5 minutes away! That was such a great blessing and I'm glad we took advantage of it as much as we did.