Temple Pictures

Mom is working on a project, so I've uploaded these pictures of the Mt. Timpanogos Temple so she can see them. The titles are their file names.

Window Focus Original









Window Focus Light Best









Window Focus Blue Windows









Window Focus Gray with Color









Fire Branch









Fire Branch with Blue Window









Fire Tree









Fire Tree with Blue Window









Blue Sky with Spire









Sunrise

Fun Trip to Utah!

This last Thursday, January 19, I returned from a WONDERFUL trip to Utah! Greg stayed behind, but he and I had some crazy adventures getting to the airport in St. Louis on Thursday, January 12. We got up at 3:30 a.m. and left Springfield at 4:30. Of course we hadn't had snow all winter, and it chose that morning to start snowing! The drive was pretty scary since the snow was blowing over the road, and you couldn't see any of the lines. When we got to St. Louis, not only were the roads horrible, but so was the traffic. There were people sliding off the road, and everything was so backed up that all we could do was creep along with the rest of the cars. We were going so slow that at one point our GPS unit asked us if we wanted to switch to "Pedestrian Mode"--it thought we must be walking instead of driving! Miraculously we made it to the airport in time for my flight, and everything went smoothly from there. When I arrived in Salt Lake, Mom picked me up at the airport, and we went and had a fun late lunch with Aunt Karalie at our favorite place: Left Fork Grill. They have the most delicious pies in the world! That evening we were able to visit the Barretts and then went to see Grandma at her fun new place which is very close to where Mom, Dad, and Rich live.

On Friday Mom and I ran some errands and had lunch at Brick Oven with our good friend Yevon. It was so great to see her and to catch up on everything. Mom and I then had some delicious Coney's Custard and picked up KFC for the big sleepover with the Barrett girls that evening.


Here I am with my nieces Sidney, Camden, and Riley--we are all ready for the big sleepover! As you can see, the movie of the evening was "Enchanted"--always a big hit. We got to watch the movie in Mom, Dad, and Rich’s cool theater room.






When we woke up the next morning, it was Dad's (aka Grandpa's) birthday!! Happy Birthday, Dad! I was so happy to be home for his birthday. He is a wonderful dad, and I feel so bad about all of the health challenges he has had over the last two years. But he is recovering well from his last surgery, and hopefully he is on the mend for good now! Dad had to fix his own birthday pancakes, but no one makes pancakes quite as delicious as Dad's :-) Here is the chef hard at work.

And here is the rest of the crew ready for a fun Birthday Breakfast. We had a great morning playing games, having fashion shows, watching movies, and just enjoying being together.




Later that day Mom and I went over to see Grandma and had a fun time enjoying dinner with her. After dinner we watched the movie "The Help" with Dad, which was a really good movie. And then when Rich returned home from work, Dad opened his birthday presents. It was such a wonderful day of celebrating Dad!

On Sunday morning I was getting ready for church, and I noticed that the blinds on the windows had a pink glow coming through them. I peeked through the blinds, and this is what I saw--it was SO beautiful!! I've got to say that next to being near my family, the mountains are one of the things I miss the most about living in Utah. Mom, Dad, and Rich live in such a beautiful setting, with Mt. Timpanogos right outside the window.


We had a nice time at church, and then a relaxing afternoon at home. Then we headed over to the Barrett's for dinner and a continuation of Dad's birthday party. Mr. Ben is always up for a good party!



Lindy made some really tasty ribs for dinner, and then we had birthday cake and birthday pie--yummmmm. Here is Dad getting a little help from the girls in blowing out all of the candles.



We thought we'd take a picture of the kids with Mom and Dad for the birthday party. We're just missing Sarah, but she, Joel, and the kiddos will be visiting Utah in February. I'm sorry that I will have just missed them by a couple of weeks!



On Monday, Mom and I realized that we were wearing the same clothes--just reverse colors! It was so funny. Great minds do think alike :-) Mom, Dad, and I had a nice visit to see Grandpa Taylor in Springville that morning, then we had a fun lunch at Cracker Barrel. That afternoon we and Rich went to see the movie "Warhorse," which was awesome! That evening we had a fun time playing games together.


I realized that I didn't take any pictures on Tuesday because we were too busy having fun! Mom and I made some quiche and went to the Relief Society luncheon at the church that morning/afternoon, and then ran quite a few errands. That evening we made Pad Thai noodles and watched movies with Dad. Here is a picture of Mom on Wednesday at J Dawgs--one of the most fun places to eat right by BYU! Our J Dawgs were so delicious.



We then went to the BYU campus and ran into Dad at the Bookstore. We also visited my friends Shauna and Jeanne who work in Dad's college. I worked with them for a couple of years on the Winter Quarters Project while I was at BYU. Then Mom and I went to see our other friend Susan Black, and it was certainly nice to catch up with her.

That evening we met Dad over at Grandma's for dinner and had such a nice time with her. It's wonderful that she can be so close to family, and I am happy because now I can see her every time I'm home.






After dinner we went to visit the Barretts one more time before I left. We played a really fun game called Hedbanz. The girls were so cute and funny with the game!




The kids also did some serious dancing while we were there. Ben is growing up so fast--not only is he walking/running all over the place, but he is also a dancing man! We had a great evening together, and then on Thursday morning Mom and Dad took me up to the airport. Luckily the weather was a lot better in Utah than it had been in St. Louis the week before. Thank you, everyone, for the WONDERFUL week! It is always hard to return to reality after a fun time in Utah (especially getting up for work the next morning), but it was fun to see Greg and the animal children. Greg and I had a fun evening in St. Louis after he picked me up. We went to Five Guys Burgers and Fries and visited our favorite baseball card shop. It was a great week!

2011

Today on the last day of 2011, I've been thinking about what a year it has been. It has had its good and its bad times. Unfortunately this year has brought more surgeries for Dad, but hopefully he is on the road to recovery for 2012! Greg's grandpa and my step grandpa both passed away this year, along with Auntie Reah and our good friend Harvey Black. Several of our friends moved away from the Springfield area this year, which made us sad. I have applied for 34 jobs this year, and the only job I got was one I didn't apply for, but I am getting some good experience at the Illinois State Military Museum. We did have several opportunities to see our families thoughout the year, which was nice. And one thing that is definitely better about this year than last year--we are not having tornadoes here in Illinois on New Year's Eve Day. In fact, it is quite nice outside. So we'll focus on the good things that happened in 2011. Some of the highlights include:

In February, Greg turned 30. In April, Greg and I traveled to Atlanta to attend our friends David and Teal's wedding. Also that month we attended our first Cubs game in Chicago. In May I got to go home to Utah for three weeks, and it was wonderful to get to spend all of that time with my family! Later in the month I got my job at the museum, and Greg and I got to sit in the St. Louis Cardinals dugout for a few minutes when we attended our first Cardinals game of the season. In June I turned 27. In July we drove through ten states on our two week trip extravaganza to see our families in Arizona and Utah, and I was called to be the first counselor in our ward Young Women organization. In September our Gettysburg friends the Atkinsons came to visit, and we had a wonderful time with them. In October we celebrated our #3 wedding anniversary, and we got to attend our first baseball playoff game. We also got to attend a WORLD SERIES game, and while I was at home in Utah at the end of the month, the Cardinals won the World Series! In November I got a new car, and now it is the end of December.

I think we can all agree that the most exciting moment of the year was on Thursday, October 27, when the Cardinals and Rangers were playing Game 6 of the World Series. Twice the Cardinals were only one strike away from losing the World Series, but twice they came back, which paved the way for this, the greatest sports moment of the year:



I loved watching Game 6 with Mom, Dad, and Rich in Utah! And we got to see Game 7 in St. George with Grandma the next evening. Now that the Cardinals have lost Albert Pujols, I think it will be hard for them to ever have another year like this one. But we certainly enjoyed it while it lasted. 2011 has had both its good and bad moments, but it's fun to reflect on the good things that happened and look forward to more fun adventures in 2012!

Merry Christmas!

All was quiet and peaceful around here . . .











. . . until Christmas morning! The animal children were seriously really excited this morning. It was so funny. Big Spike was trying to open everyone's presents, and he was especially excited about his own.







The animal children pooled all of their money and bought us a hand-held carpet cleaner so we can clean up all of their messes!





Greg's and my main present to each other was going to the World Series back in October, but Santa still brought us some nice things. Here I am with my awesome Jimmer Fredette signed basketball card.



And here is Greg with one of his presents--a t-shirt to wear when he is playing Call of Duty on the xbox. We also received some really nice money and presents from our parents and family--thank you everyone!!!



As you can see, opening presents (and chasing wrapping paper balls around the house) wore everyone out! It was nice that Christmas was on a Sunday so that we could go to church this afternoon and remember the real reason for the season. It has been a Merry Christmas here, and we hope it has been for all of you as well!

Christmas Eve Nostalgia

Today I have been feeling very nostalgic about Christmas when I was younger. I suppose it's because I especially miss my family a lot at this time of year. I found this fun picture of one of the famous Taylor family Christmas pageants. It looks like Dad is Joseph, I'm Mary, Sarah and our friend Virpi from Finland were wisemen, and our friend Tanja, also from Finland, was the shepherd. We did this pageant each Christmas Eve for many years. Other favorite Christmas Eve traditions included going for drives to see Christmas lights, telling stories and drinking hot chocolate, and setting out cookies and a note for Santa. Christmas morning was always very exciting. Sarah and I were usually the first to wake up. We would run to the kitchen to see if Santa had eaten his cookies and left a note for us. Then we would wake Mom and Dad up. Dad would then go downstairs to wake Lindy and Richard up, and to make sure that Santa had indeed made his stop at our house. Then we would all line up at the top of the stairs, and Dad would lead the way down to the family room where we would open presents. I remember always being so excited about the gifts that I gave and received, but it's funny--I don't remember what most of those gifts were. I do remember so many things about our fun Christmas traditions and all of the things we did together as a family. While it was the gifts that made Christmas exciting, it was being together as a family that made Christmas memorable. I love and miss all of you! Merry Christmas!