hearts of our fathers

Last week greg got an email from his dad explaining that one of their relatives was going to be honored with a sculpture. I think i got more excited about it than greg did. I always ask greg what some of his ancestors names are and he responds with something like i don't know all the genealogy is done though. So when i had a name to look at it just got so exciting for me. I quickly ran to the computer to google the name...

Robert Gardner Jr.
I found so much information and stories about him. I found a journal entry that he wrote that had a great deal of his life achievements in it. He immigrated with his family from Scotland to Canada. From Canada he converted to the gospel and crossed the plains with the first wagon train to enter the Salt Lake Valley. With his family he helped to settle the valley. He was later called on a mission to Canada and then to settle the St George area. The sculpture was placed in St George. Greg's dad and some of his uncles and aunts went down to see the unveiling. From the newspaper article it seems like there was quite the turn out.

What a great feeling knowing history about your family. Robert Gardner Jr would have been greg's great great grandfather. His son (from his second wife) is greg's great grandfather that was named Royal Joseph Gardner which is where the Royal name began ...i think. If i could say thank you to Mr Robert Gardner Jr i would. He must have been a strong man to not only cross the plains with his family but to join the church and give up so much for the testimony that he had of our Savior.

sitting in a booth

One of my favorite qualities about Greg is his dedication to me and the respect that he shows me. i am often the one who has said or done something out of haste and he always shows his patience.

His adventurous personality never leaves a dull moment. He indulges my passion for delicious food. One of my favorites quotes of his has been... "I imagine this to be like heaven, sitting in a booth eating crab legs..." How can you not fall in love with someone like that.

This past week I have been thinking a lot about the family that I have and would like to grow into. I read a story about a young family (thanks Melissa) that was struck with an almost fatal tragedy. The love that each member showed was incredible and inspiring. This pushed me to realize that I have a great blessing in my life. I have noticed and truly felt more love for and from my husband. I cannot believe how truly blessed I am to have such a wonderful person in my life.

He is my best friend.

Today is our anniversary.

I love you Greg!

two miracles with one post!

Well the first being that i have blogged 3 new posts in the last week...i know let the heavens open and translate me now.

The second miracle is that greg and i are heros. Last night just before i called dad for his birthday one of our friends came by to visit. His wife had to work and she was going to meet him at our house. When she got here she ran in the house and screamed "fire!"

We all got up and ran outside to see what she was talking about. our next door neighbors house was on fire! Greg ran in to get his fire extinguisher and i ran around to the back yard to get the hose. We called 911...

i realize the pictures are a little dark. Here is the street from the front of our house. 2 firetrucks, 1 ambulance, 1 news van and 2 cop cars all reported. Apparently they were grilling and dumped the embers which they thought had cooled off into the trash can. Well they began to spark with other pieces of trash and started to burn. The scary part is that this was right next to the gas meter. In fact the gas company had to come out and replace the meter because it had started to melt.

The fence burned up and flames were about 2-3 feet above the roof when we got out there. Behind the fence they had 2 full 5 gallon gas cans and a full propane tank that were right up against the fence. Scary but a few minutes later and they would have exploded and probably caught our house on fire too.

The fire started to travel up into the rafters and burn some of the insulation. The inside of the garage looks a little more destroyed. They pulled out the dry wall and ripped out insulation. Fire extinguisher was all over. This was exciting news and the most action our neighborhood has seen. The neighbors have only lived there for 7 months and we didn't know them all that well. This broke the ice!

The news station wanted to interview one of us so we nominated Christy to do the speaking. She is the one who called 911 after seeing the fire when she drove by. We made it to the news Sunday night and in the paper today. Here is the article.

i have found it, the new wonder drug...

what is this wonder drug? first, let me explain all the benefits of this little pill. it cures headaches, backaches, leg aches and insomnia. it dissipates all anxiety and panic attacks in the morning. so little and white it creates a blissful mood that everyone enjoys. i'm pretty sure it even helps the common cold. No this isn't a new concoction that was just released by the FDA, it has been around for quite a long time. its midol!

Many of you have probably used this and know of its healing powers. every month when i am blessed with the "joys of womanhood" greg always offers to go buy me some midol.
I quickly reply with a "no that stuff is just like Tylenol"

Well a few months ago he actually took me to the store and made me purchase some. i took some when we got home just to please my caring husband. Twenty minutes later i was surprised and humbled. I admitted to greg that we was right once again.

I now use this wonder drug for everything. I pop these pills for the simplest things and my symptoms always disappear. it's wonderful.

Fruita is the greatest place in America!

So when Greg and I moved to Colorado is was a spur of the moment type of move. He was not a big fan of the Californian way of life...meaning traffic and millions of people everywhere. He had been to Fruita, Co once in about 2000-ish. He suggested it and my first words were something to effect of, "Who would ever live in a town called Fruita?" My second request was that we move somewhere that was not in the desert... which Fruita is. Well 4 years later and I could not imagine living anywhere else. We live in the perfect spot to enjoy the outdoors no matter what time of the year it is. For the past couple of weekends we have gone on little trips in different directions.

The first trip we went on was snowshoeing (one of my favorite winter activites) Every winter I ask to go snowshoeing. This year I realized its because I can go slow and it doesn't hurt my knee...low impact. In the past we have gone up to the Grand Mesa but this year we decided to go to Red Mountain. Red Mountain is between Ouray and Silverton with lots of neat history with old mines and beautiful forests.





The next weekend we headed to Utah and Thompson Springs, then up to Sego Canyon. Greg had heard about it and was curious to see what was out there. We knew there was an old mining town but what we didn't know is that there was also some petroglyphs. It was a nice day and we saw only 2 other cars.





The next weekend we went out to Capital Reef National Park. We camped right outside of the park. It was so nice. We used our roof top tent. Greg got a heater to use in the tent to warm it up. It was a nice weekend. We hiked and took pictures. The weather was perfect and hardly anybody was there.







The best part about this weekend is that we took a family picture and Daisy would not stand still. Every year I tell myself that we are going to send out Christmas cards and when the time comes I can never find a picture or I don't have enough time to take one and still get them out. So this year we are taking tons of them so I have no excuse. This is my favorite so far. It was taken at Capital Reef National Park.