A LONG Drive Home

So, I figured it was time to update our blog. We've been so busy these past few weeks, but I'm going to do my best. It all started when Eli and I came to Cedar Hills to be at Jake's (my brother) farewell. It was SO nice to see him before he entered the MTC. Not to mention it just felt nice to be back home around our family and friends.

Eli and I began discussing the possiblility of moving back to Utah. There wasn't really too much going on for us down in New Mexico. Eli decided to take a break from his business and preschool was over for the summer. We were kind of in a tough place too in our living situation. We talked to my parents about possibly moving in with them until we got our situation under control. After going back to New Mexico and some praying, we decided to move back. After we made that decision, things fell into place.

Just about a week later we packed and packed and packed. We rented our U-haul (I can't believe we got a 17 footer!), packed it up, and left! Just like that. It was so fast! It seemed insane for us to just get up and go, but it was the right thing for us to do.

We were planning on leaving at around 10 am, but we left about an hour later. Who leaves on time anyway?! Eli and I figured our regular ten hour trip would maybe take twelve hours in a huge truck and towing my car. No way! Of course not! And you wouldn't believe the reason...our dogs. I know, it sounds kind of silly, but our puppies are our little family right now. So every 90 minutes we made a pit stop. Ridiculous, right? Right. I understand.

Chorizo, our chihuaua, LOVES being in the car. He got all comfy in the blankets we had out for the puppies. He walked back and forth between us. He enjoyed the view from the windows. And he slept. He slept for HOURS. He was loving the trip.

Little Lima on the other hand did not enjoy the trip so much. If you remember Eli and I were in a car accident back in January. Lima was in the car with us and she got thrown against the airbag and around the cab of the car. Ever since, she's had a really hard time riding in the car. She shakes a little bit, but usually it isn't too bad. Well, on our trip, it was bad. She couldn't relax. She was shaking the WHOLE time (no exagerration). She wouldn't eat. She couldn't sleep or even lay down. She was the reason we had to stop so often. It worried us.

We also got off our trek a little bit. We thought we knew a faster way to get to Utah, but it turns out it took us a little longer. It was a really nice drive through Colorado though. Nice and green and an easy drive. To make a story short though, we ended up making it to Moab by 9:30 that night. We couldn't stand to go on any longer, so Eli used his excellent negotiator skills and got us a motel at a cheap price that let our puppies stay.

After a good night sleep, we packed up and continued on our journey. Lima wasn't any better and Chorizo just slept. I don't see how people with kids take long trips on the road. They must stop ever half hour or so. That would take FOREVER! Anyway, as we were dricing Ifigured I'd call my mom to make sure we had room to put our stuff. Turns out she didn't realize we were coming so early and that there wasn't a place to store all of our CRAP. So, we had to do some calling and found a nice storage unit in Highland, not too far from Cedar Hills.

So, instead of heading to my parents house, we drove to Highland Hideaway. They were really great about letting us come right on over with our huge truck. We were met there by one of my favorite friends, Kerri Brown. I LOVE her! We basically had to unload the truck, pack up the storage unit, load the truck again, and then drive it to my parents' house. THEN, we had to unpack there again.

All in all, it was a long trip. It was a lot of stopping. It was a lot of packing and unpacking. It was a lot of rain. BUT, it was all worth it. We're home and it feels great to be back!

P.S. Eli recommends this book to EVERYBODY! It's the one he listened to while I slept the drive!

We're Leaving...

...in a moving van. We're not gonna make a huge post about it or anything, but we'd though we'd let y'all know that we're heading back up to Utah (Cedar Hills for the time being). It's something we've put a lot of thought and prayer into and we really feel like right now is the time to be close to our family and friends. So, this is what we get to look forward to on Wednesday.

Celebrity Collage by MyHeritage

MyHeritage: Family tree - Genealogy - Celebrity - Collage - Morph

Celebrity Collage by MyHeritage

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities - Collage - Morph

I LOVE...

talented people and laughter! This brings a smile to my face. You have to watch the WHOLE video and then watch the next video to fully appreciate it.



The Original Parody



Eli and I decided that we could be friends with Chuck Wicks and Julianne, and Justin Timberlake. If you guys ever need friends in Albuquerque, look us up!

P.S. I don't know how all the copyright stuff works, but I don't intend to infringe on copyright laws. Just want to make people HAPPY!

Kolob is Near

Listen to the BYU Choir sing "If You Could Hie to Kolob," read the words, and continue on.

Eli and I went on a day date yesterday. It was amazing. Any little bit of time I get to spend with him is special and yesterday was no exception. He surprised me with a trip to the New Mexico Museum of Natural History. I know, a museum? We love it. We haven't had a chance to go since we moved here. We had some other plans for the day and decided to go to the show at the Planetarium.

If you've ever been to the Clark Planetarium in Salt Lake, you'll know what the NM Planetarium is like. It's a little smaller, but still similar. In the dome they played a show called "Enchanted Skies: The Digital Universe." It wasn't quite what we expected, but it was still amazing. There is a woman that narrated the whole show and she shared interesting facts. She showed us where some of the more famous constellations are located and how to find the North Star. She taught us a lot about our solar system and the space around our planet.

Then we moved farther out in space. We were able to see other galaxies and this is where I shed a few tears. It's crazy to me to think that some people believe that we living is an accident, just coincidence. It's unbelievable what people have discovered in space. I'll share some interesting things with you that I learned.

Earth is located in a very special place called that Habitating Zone (or something like that). If we were 5% closer to the Sun, we'd burn because of the heat. If we were 10% farther from the Sun, we'd freeze. Technically speaking, Earth is located in the prime position for life. Mars has an irregular orbit, so it dips in and out of the Habitating Zone, but it does contain some of the elements necessary to sustain life. Scientists are looking for algae and fungus on Mars because that would be "life" on another planet.

Every week scientists are finding more galaxies than they ever thought existed. They are also finding more and more planets. That's INCREDIBLE! I wonder where those planets are coming from. Scientists looks for stars similar to our Sun and find other planets orbiting those stars. Eventually they'd like to explore those plaents within the habitating zone of those "suns," there may be other life there.

Scientists are also taking pictures of our galaxy and trying to figure the structure of our galaxy. They know that it's spiral, but not too much more. They have found something called "dark matter" and "dark energy" that suggests that there is something there, but they don't quite know what it is. I wonder what that is.

One of the things that I found most amazing though is the information I heard about the Andromeda Galaxy. Eli has a book called "The Kolob Theorem" that suggests the Andromeda Galaxy is where Kolob exists. As the woman at the Planetarium was talking about this Galaxy, she informed us that is was the nearest galaxy to our own Milky Way. She said that the way our galaxies were moving, they were on a collision course for each other. Now galaxies collide sometimes and they create a new galaxy. They combine and become part of each other. Our galaxy is set to combine with the Andromeda Galaxy in a billion years or so. They showed an enactment of what that might look like and it was stunning.

The Andromeda Galaxy

The Milky Way

Draw your own conclusions, even if the theories aren't correct, you cannot help but look into the starry sky and not know that EVERYTHING out there is not an accident. I KNOW that my Heavenly Father and his son Jesus Christ love me and created this AMAZING, INCREDIBLE, and STUNNING world for us. Science and religion have a place, next to each other, hand in hand. I believe that they both help each other. It's just unbelieveable what is out there. I am so blessed and am so thankful. I don't know how to express my gratitude for my life.

Happy Easter!

Everything's Amazing, Nobody's Happy

This is Lous CK on Conan O'Brien. I just wanted to add an AMEN and say that I have SO much to be grateful for.

Video belongs to NBC