Homeowners!!

As of July 9th we officially became homeowners! Woo hoo! After  7 1/2 years of marriage you can bet we were pretty excited to finally purchase our first home. We were always traveling a lot or in school before, but since life is now settled in WY and Keith has an amazing job, we figure we'll be here a good while so it was the perfect time for us to buy.

Ours is quite the story, back around the 22nd of May the home we bought was on the market, we got outbid though and so we didn't get the home, a week later we put in another offer on a different home and got outbid again. Needless to say we were pretty frustrated but kept on looking, a home came on the market on a Saturday that I really wanted to look at since it was in a neighborhood that I loved, I called our realtor and she said the earliest we could see it was the next day (Sunday) and that we probably wanted to jump on this one so she set up the time for Sunday afternoon to look at the house, we weren't too sure since we knew it was Sunday and didn't want to be looking at homes on the Sabbath but agreed to it anyway. That night was stake conference and the theme was keeping the Sabbath day holy. Keith came home from the Priesthood meeting and said he felt strongly that we needed to reschedule for Monday, that we shouldn't look at homes on the Lord's day but that day should be dedicated to him, how can the Lord bless us if we aren't showing him obedience and following his commandments? I agreed and we rescheduled for Monday. We went and looked at the house but it didn't have much of a backyard so we decided not to go for it.

Monday evening we went and looked at another home we loved but it was A LOT higher than we wanted to go (still within budget, just top of budget), we decided to sleep on it. So Wednesday we decided yeah, ok maybe we should just go for this higher one, we prayed and prayed, didn't feel much either way but then Keith got a call from his boss saying the position in Star Valley will most likely be opening up because his co-worker is moving. We had previously talked about moving to Star Valley because it's only 5 1/2 hrs from Boise instead of 11, they're getting Wyoming's first temple, the schools are fantastic and it's an amazing LDS community to raise our family in. There are some downfalls with not having much commercially there or big grocery stores like Winco and Walmart (the nearest would be almost 2 hrs in Idaho Falls). So we thought about it, slept on it and were seriously considering it but Keith was talking to his boss about where he would prefer Keith to be and his boss said Casper because there is more opportunity to get recognized here and be promoted. So that threw us for a loop and we didn't know what to do, after Keith told me that I started looking at homes again online in Casper, I immediately spotted the first home we put an offer on, it was back on the market!! I didn't know if it was a flook or what, but they had previously taken the listing down, so I immediately called the listing agent and she said it had been back on the market for 2 hours! We called our realtor and put in another offer right away! The previous people who put in an offer lost their job and so the loan fell through. The rest is history! We got the house!!

Funny thing is, is that Sunday after our offer was accepted we were sitting in Stake Conference in Kansas City, MO (we were on our Church History trip) and the speaker was Kim B. Clark (former pres. of BYU-IDAHO) and he was talking about keeping the Sabbath day holy and promised blessings that will come from obeying and trying to be better about following this commandment. It was in that moment that Keith and I realized, that us getting that home was a direct blessing from keeping the Sabbath holy and deciding not to go look at homes on the Sabbath but dedicating that day to the Lord. The Lord knew it wasn't just any home but THE HOME that we wanted, out of all the ones we looked at, this was the one we loved the most. I will forever treasure that experience and try to do better about enriching my Sabbath days with spiritual things.

Wow...that was a lot but I mostly wanted to write it down for my sake. So here's some more from the rest of July....

Our first Sunday in our new house!

Fruit pizza for the 4th of July

Keith smoked ribs all day, we ate a wonderful BBQ then went swimming for the 4th

The day before the 4th we roasted hot dogs on Casper Mtn. I love that the mountain is only 15 min from our house!

These next two were in late June but hey--water and shaving cream fun for the kids at Athena's.

Father's Day Celebration (on a Saturday) at Washington Park in Casper.

Keith got two awards--Employee of the Month-not sure why they didn't give it to him till almost July when it was for April but whatev, and the Above and Beyond award! Congrats Babe! Already doing great things!

Keith took Carson to the fair so I could unpack things at our new home.

Moving madness

Carson was so excited to ride his first bike! It's yellow too--his favorite color!

Hope you all are staying cool this July!

Church History Trip!

Saturday, June 13th - Friday, June 19th we spent the week traveling to Kansas City/Independence, MO and Nauvoo, IL for a church history tour to see all the sites from the early saints. It was surreal to think about how they traveled from Kirtland, OH to Independence, MO to Nauvoo, IL and then finally made the trek by walking all the way to SLC, UT (and going through our beloved Wyoming on the way). So much sacrifice was required of these early church members, all they had was given of them and more. It made me really think if I'd be that obedient to the Lord, that willing to go and do.

It was an amazing experience to sit in the very room that Joseph Smith was martyred by mobs, to see the actual bullet hole in the door, to ponder what it must have been like for him, but I could only imagine. I have a testimony that he is a true prophet of God, it would have been so easy for him to give up and let go of everything, and not continue the Lord's work, that was a man of many, many trials, but he pressed on and was eventually killed because of it. He sealed his testimony with his blood, I gained an even greater testimony of him that day spent in Carthage, and I can't deny it because the spirit of the Lord was so strong in that room.
It was so interesting to hear the stories at Carthage, one was that Joseph told Willard Richards who was in the jail with him that night along with Hyrum (Joseph's brother) and John Taylor, anyway, he knew they were going to be attacked and he told Richards that he would be the only one in the room unharmed when there were bullets flying around them everywhere, Taylor was badly injured and both Hyrum and Joseph died, Richards was the only one unharmed.
 Joseph also told Dan Jones to use his arm as a pillow and Joseph asked Dan if he was afraid to die, Dan replied, "Engaged in such a cause, I don't think death would have many terrors." Joseph replied to Dan, "You will yet see Wales and serve a mission appointed you before you die. Dan ended up serving a mission to Wales after Joseph's death.

My favorite parts of the trip (besides being able to see my family that came) was Carthage Jail, the Nauvoo temple, and Adam-ondi-ahman.

Liberty Jail in Liberty, MO where Joseph was held for five months on false charges

Lunch at Steak'n'shake after a long day in Independence

Sunset on the Mississippi--a program all the missionaries at Nauvoo put on every night M-Sat

The Smith homestead in Nauvoo

The mansion house where Joseph and Emma lived for sometime

Joseph's mothers home

Scovil Bakery

The graves of Hyrum, Emma and Joseph

We found our greatX4? grandmother in the Nauvoo cemetery

On the wagon ride around Nauvoo

Outside Liberty Jail

Kansas City, MO temple--doesn't get better then heaven on earth

Inside the Independence Visitors Center. The group--Dad, Alexa (niece), Keith, Me, Carson, Misti (sister), Mary & Jared (brother and sis-in-law) and their two kids Aiden and Abby. 

Swimmming!

The spot Joseph dedicated for the Jackson County temple site, it was never built because the saints were driven out of MO by mobs, but can't wait for that day when it's announced again.

Loved this place! Where it's all going to be :)

LOVE THIS TEMPLE!! NAUVOO 

The window Joseph was shot and fell from

Carthage Jail

I feel like I already posted so many pictures so I won't post all the stuff we did in Nauvoo but we packed it all in. In two days we did the visitors center, sunset on the Mississippi program, temple, wagon ride around to the sites, Brigham Young Home, Joseph Smith properties, Blacksmith Shop, Print shop, Post office, Old Pioneer games, Brick shop, Old Nauvoo Cemetery, Scovil Bakery, and a few more that I just can't think of right now cuz it's too late. All the shops and homes were like they would have been in the 1830s, some of them are still original, it's definitely so fun to tour and see how they made bread or candles back then. It was definitely a memorable trip that I will never forget!

May, Keith's Birthday, and Beginning of June

I'm starting to see a pattern in my blogging, now I just do one big post for a whole month worth of pictures...welp here goes...

So after we got back from Boise around the 5th of May our adventures included...

A wonderful Mother's Day with this cutie who made me a Mom and Keith. Keith made a yummy breakfast and dinner. He spoiled me with roses, cheesecake, a new phone cover and a skirt. 

One weekend while I went to a bridal shower Keith and Carson had a whole day of fun at the Circus and ice skating!!

I guess they had a large pile of snow on part of the rink for the kids to play on.

Carson is doing good at writing his letters

Ice cream date to Ken and Betty's Scoops one hot May day.

Shopping trips to Target with Zara and Jasmine

Ward BBQ and Drive in Movie night in the church gym. Carson's cardboard car/box was not as exciting as some. ha

Sophie's 3rd birthday was a Ninja Turtle theme. The kids got to play with ooze and each kid got a Ninja Turtle costume!

The first week in June we headed up to Cody, WY because Keith needed to help a co-worker with a site. Here we are at a local elementary school exploring Cody for FHE.

Cody has some gorgeous mountains and canyons!

June 2nd- the day of Keith's birthday we traveled from Cody to Riverton, WY and got to stop at the dinosaur museum in Thermopolis, WY. Carson loved it and we're sure glad we got to go. Afterwards we walked around the mineral springs. When we got into Riverton we went out to dinner for Keith's birthday and I may have watched too many episodes of Flip or Flop. Love that show.

June 6th was free fishing day in WY so we packed up the truck, headed to Sportsman's to get a few fishing essentials and headed to some lake I've already forgotten the name. Carson had a blast, it was his first time and he can't wait to go again.


The end of May and beginning of June we were also busy house hunting. Two of the homes we looked at we put offers on above listing price but someone else out bid us on both, but we might have some exciting news coming soon that I'll update on when it happens.

Happy Summer!!!