Oakland Temple

Saturday morning we packed up and headed over to my childhood temple. 

My parents were married in this temple. 

As a child my parents would make that 30 minute drive to visit this temple. 

It is the most wonderful temple for children to visit.
You get to walk the steps to the roof where there are lots of trees and plants and grass and look out over the city and even see the ocean.
It's a wonderland there and I remember my testimony growing and the dream of getting married in the temple all started there.
Well we moved and we started visiting all the temples in Utah.
Coming back was incredible and getting to go in was a dream come true.
My family all met there and we hurried in.
Mark stayed behind to watch Scott and Anne and Natalie stayed and watched Ben's kids and Luke and April got a head start to Carmel.
It was bitter sweet being there with my family and still missing a few others but it's hard to feel too sad in the temple.
while in there we noticed one of our party missing, Ben.
He had to figure some last minute things with his kids and missed the session.
But as we finished up we entered the Celestial Room and Ben was there waiting for us and it was so comforting.
Not only was this my first session with my oldest brother Josh but also with Ben and Kim, they were living else where when I went through the temple.
Many of Josh's friends and support system there in California came through with us.
Some of those friends are friends from Josh and Ben's youth.
I remembered them from growing up there.
It was an amazing experience.
I just couldn't shake the feeling of Heaven on Earth.
Leaving one world and into another where my family will be and so many other familiar faces.
When we left I was greeted by my Scotty boy and Mark, the good feeling just kept growing.
It was amazing getting to see Scott run around and enjoy the temple the way I did when I was little.
Families are Forever!

 Scott loves visiting the temple and it may have something to do with a fountain in front of each one.

The view from the top with my family below.

 My eternal family.
Where it all started.

I am so incredibly blessed.

San Francisco

We arrived Thursday night in San Ramon, my home town.

Wow it was amazing to see it again, 15 years is way too long.

I really wanted to go see our old house but it was late and our time there was so busy.

On Friday we played tourists and went to San Francisco.

Mark had never been and I loved it there.

There is one problem with traveling with so much family.

It's all agreeing on what to do.

Everyone didn't want this to happen but I think it's hard to avoid.

We wasted the morning trying to figure out what boat to take.

We all wanted to go to Alcatraz but it was sold out.

Then kicked around a few different options.

we settled on a boat ride out to Golden Gate Bridge that also went around Alcatraz.

 It was a lot of fun.

From there we all decided to split up and do our own thing.

I really wanted to show Mark China Town so we thought we would take the trolly there.

Bad idea, we got lost, by the time we finally found the trolly there was a huge line and we knew it would take hours.

So we walked.

By the time we go to China town it was time for pretty much everyone to leave for the baseball game.

Everyone but my mom, three of Ben's kids and us.

We just didn't care enough about the game to spend all that money.

We took all that weren't going to the game back to the hotel.

By then it was 9:00 pm and I was dead.

I was so looking forward to taking Mark to see San Fran but it didn't turn out like I wanted it to.

It's just so crowded there and it's hard to do anything.

Mark didn't enjoy San Fran Like I had hoped and we probably wont be returning anytime soon.

But when we do return we will stay away from the big crowds of pier 39 and stick with architectural and historical sites that we both enjoy and hope that the crowds will flood else where.

California

As some of you know I used to live in California.

My whole childhood was there.

We moved the summer I turned 12 to Utah.

I know that I am a complete Utah girl 100% but there is a part of me that feels like I am home the moment I cross that boarder.

Mark and I have been to California once together which was three months after we were married.

We visited my brother, Ben and his family in San Diago and got to go to Disney Land.

We also headed up north to Sacramento to visit my beloved Grandma Horn, my mom's mom.

My grandma is one of the best people I know.

Well I wrote earlier that my sweet Grandma past away in October of 2012.

She told the family that she didn't want a funeral if she died before my cousins wedding.

She past about a week before.

So we decided as a family to have a memorial for her in the spring.

All my siblings made arrangements to be there.

Another reason we wanted to all get over there was for my brother Josh.

Josh has for many years now been inactive in church.

We have all prayed for him and even fasted for him.

For some reason I was never too worried about him.

I think somehow I knew deep down all would work out, in this life or the next.

I knew my Father in Heaven was watching out for him.

Well Josh moved to California about a year ago and I know my mom worried that he would never find his way back to the church.

But I still didn't worry.

Well somehow the Lord found Josh and was able to soften his heart.

Josh told us in February that he was getting ready to go to the temple again.

When my mom told me I wept like a baby.

I had been praying for my brother and although I knew it would work out I wasn't prepared for this to happen.

I didn't care when it was but I would be going out there to go with him.

We arranged his going through the temple to be the same weekend as my grandmothers memorial.

Not just these two things drew the Ellis family to California.

We had been planning a National Park trip out to California for about a year.

We had scheduled the trip 6 months earlier.

The memorial was planned to be a week earlier then we planned our trip but we were able to move it up a week luckily so we could save a bit of money to make one great big trip instead of two.

It was an amazing trip with way too many highlights to put in one post so the next few posts are about our amazing trip.

Mark loves to get pictures of the road while driving and Nevada has some of the best roads to drive on.

Wait, no they don't, they suck!

Mark fell asleep and was even snoring, then Scott fell asleep.

Since the road is so long and completely strait I took some pictures while driving.

I know I'm horrible but really it was fine.

A Fun Project

I love painting and fixing furniture.

Mark likes things nice and new.

But he only wants them when we can afford them and need them.

Well I may not need some of the things I get the moment I get them but I get them for incredible deals and after I fix them it's still much less then I could buy it new for.

Well mom told me she had a corner hutch from one of her rentals that she didn't want anymore.

I died!

I have been wanting one for years, ever since I saw one in a friends house within the first year I was married so for about 5 years.

She was giving it to me for free and even brought it with her when coming to visit me.

She didn't have a lot of hope for the hutch and thought I was a bit delusional for seeing potential.

I saw something incredible.

I sanded it like crazy.

I painted coat after coat.

I sanded it some more.

I sealed it.

I was in love!

Here it is.

I am so happy with the final product.

I didn't have any other cream furniture so I also painted my console table cream although I didn't antique it.

Mark likes the final product also but still thinks I crazy.

Oh well, if I'm crazy then I shall stay that way because I enjoy this so much.

Primary Continued

Scott is learning to love the time he has away from his parents.

While this kinda makes me sad it is also amazing.

Amazing because he knows that the people we are leaving him with love him.

He has been blessed with incredible teachers and not just in school.

His primary teachers blow me away every single week.

they are great at getting him to cooperate and participate.

They are great at being patient with him.

Most importantly they are great at showing him love and he knows it.

They teach him about the gospel in a way that he understands.

I used to teach children this age in two of our wards and I was no where near as amazing as these teachers are.

Since they are so incredible we just drop Scott off and don't have to worry about him till Sacrament meeting.

What's amazing is that he gets incredible things to take home.

They are hand made and I know it doesn't take ten minutes for them to put together.

They also spend money on the stuff that I can tell costs more then a dollar per kid.

What's also amazing is if we miss a day of going one of his teachers stops by and gives him a minnie lesson along with the hand out.

AMAZING!

Here's a picture of Scott showing off his latest handout.

The lesson was on loving birds and insects.

They gave him an insect collection box full of his favorite, small insects and snakes and lizards along with a nest and a sweet little bird.

What's also amazing, maybe the most amazing part about these amazing lessons and handouts is that it keeps him happy and distracted almost all of sacrament meeting.

Workin It

As I said earlier Mark got me a treadmill for Christmas.

After I got it Mark and I both had a great time running and walking on it for a good month.

But then I went to Idaho for a week and after I got back I had this crazy idea to potty train Scott.

CRAZY!

Then our family spent a few weeks being sick which was a lot a fun, let me tell you.

Well I'm done being sick and potty training and being lazy too.

Spring is here and summer is right behind it.

Our family bought "The Pass of All Passes" this year and Scott and I plan to spend a lot of time at the water park.

I am not ready for swim suit season so I got to start workin it.

Two weeks ago I went off sugar for three days to try to get it cleared from my system.

I was completely addicted.

Three days may not seem like such a big deal to most but it was SO hard for me.

After the three days I didn't crave it anymore.

I also went off of soda at the same time, obviously, it has sugar in it

I didn't even try to justify getting a diet soda.

I am now on my second week without soda and I'm doing just fine.

I'm not craving the caffeine or the bubbles running down my throat.

Well last week I started working out again.

I'm running and doing weights and some yoga and other stuff, all on my own.

I'm always thinking it would be easier if I had my gym pass again or if I had my work out buddy again or if I had more work out videos.

I was constantly making excuses for not having one thing.

WILL POWER!

I had NO will power.

No self control.

But I realized something when I was trying to go without sugar.

I had read that it takes three days to break the sugar addiction and I told myself that I could do three days.

And I did!

I told myself that I could go without soda for a week if I was going without sugar.

And I did!

I realized I did have self control, but I had to set small and realistic goals instead of crazy ones.

Maybe it started while potty training Scott and I realized that I could do hard things.

I don't know but I feel like a new person.

I'm not completely off sugar anymore but I practice self control by limiting my intake and replacing it with more healthy food the majority of the time.

I still have days when I don't want to work out but I have set a goal to stick to this till we go to California the second week in May.

That's three more weeks.

I can do that right?!

It will be hard but I CAN do hard things!

Farm Country

I think I've written before about my mom having a pass to Thanksgiving Point.

She gets Scott in for free and me in for half off.

It has been so fun for us.

We have only been to the dinosaur museum till now.

It was hard driving there and Scott seeing the dinosaurs on the wall and then telling him we weren't going in.

But it didn't take long for him to understand.

We went to Farm Country and he loved it.

Around animals is where this boy comes most alive (dinosaurs included).

He loved every animal we saw.

I would show him one and he would smile and laugh and talk to it.

If we could pet them I would take his hand which was nervous and force him to touch it.

He would laugh and pull away the first time but he would try it again by himself within a moments time.

I would pick him  up and drag him away to show him another animal.

Each new animal was heaven and leaving each animal was torture.

After an insanely long line full of cutting and one person saving a spot for 10 children he finally got a pony ride.

This picture doesn't even begin to portray the pride he felt on that horse.

It was incredible how he got one and I knew that he immediately had this feeling of home. 

Like Hercules on Pegasus.

He was born to ride a horse.

We can't wait to go back just for the pony ride.