Hard Things

We are getting a new Temple.

The Gilbert Temple.

It's going to be our Temple.

It is under construction and scheduled to be completed 2013.

Britton did the zoning work for this Temple.

This Temple is special to us.

Today...

Aubrey and Chloe hiked 14.25 miles to the Gilbert Temple.

They started at a park near the Stake Center.

They completed the hike in 4 hours.

They completed the hike on 100 + degree day.

They were moving.

I am so proud of them.

As a parent, I am so grateful for activities like this.

I know my girls will never forget this experience.

About 120 girls hiked, plus a myriad of amazing leaders.

If someone started to struggle...

friends and leaders did whatever was needed to get them to the end.

Every single one of them finished.

Hard things.

Important things.

A very sweet day.

"Da butterflies eat oranges."

 Butterfly Pavilion

Desert Botanical Garden

 I took Preston and West to see the butterflies.

The boys were hysterical. 

They were afraid of the butterflies.

Seriously.

The attendant kept coming over and telling me to have the boys stop swinging their arms at them.
What was I to do?

Anytime one took flight, the boys would start running and swinging.

I was dying of laughter.

Heart pang.

Westy is moving away.

Preston LOVES West.

He is old enough to understand that West will be gone,

but young enough to not understand why and where.

It's killing me.

Our campers

Our Father & Sons 2012

Location: the backyard

Weather:  stormy

Menu:  Homemade pizzas, smores over the campfire, popcorn.  Morning...breakfast at McDonalds

The weather randomly turned stormy and cold.  The wind was blowing very hard.  So hard in fact at one point during the night half the tent lifted up (Max's side of the tent) and promptly dropped him down onto Britton and Benton.  They braved the storm.  (minus Preston-  he got demoted to his crib by 10 PM.)

And so it goes...

Happy Easter.

Childhood Dreams...

All of this...

For this.

The joy it brings to one particular boy.

And he's not 2, 7 or 9 years old.

The Baby

This image will forever bring a smile to my face.

Friday night the girls had a bunch of girls over.

They made cookies, danced, jumped on the tramp...

Everywhere they went, Preston was right in the middle of them.

What warms my heart the most is that the girls and their friends were so good to him.

They played with him and made him feel so wanted.

He would chatter chatter chatter at them and they would pretend to understand.

He would bust out all of his best moves and they would dance along side him.

He was in heaven.

Lucky boy.