Utah Trip- American Fork Canyon

While I was in Utah, we also took a drive up American Fork Canyon!  We didn't drive the whole Alpine Loop, but the part we did see sure was beautiful!  I love nature!  It has always been a place for me to go and feel peace and enjoy God's beautiful creations and remember His love for me.  

 Timbo and Mamachka!

 Look at that spiderweb!  I thought it was pretty cool looking.

 Isn't it beautiful?!

 Me and Papachka. I think this was the day I was supposed to leave before I knew my flight was cancelled.

Me and Mamachka

I am grateful that I was able to visit Mom, Dad, Heather and Tim and am glad that I surprised them.  I had a lovely time and enjoyed every minute.  Thanks Dad and Mom for letting me come and stay!  You rock!

Utah Trip- Red Butte Gardens

In June, I surprised my parents and flew to Utah and showed up on their doorstep one day unannounced. I loved seeing their reactions! They were completely surprised and were wondering what I was doing there but were happy I was there. :) It was fun!  (Tim (my younger brother), didn't know I was coming either.) 

I ended up staying for a week. (I was only supposed to be there for 6 days, but my flight back got cancelled due to weather in Chicago, so I got to stay an extra day with my family there, which I was totally okay with:)

My main goal in visiting was to spend time with Mom, Dad, Heather and Tim. I definitely got to spend time with them, especially Mamachka. I loved it!  We also went out and did things. One of things we did was go to Red Butte Gardens in Salt Lake City. It was beautiful!  It costs a little bit to get in, but it's worth it. Apparently they have lots of wedding receptions there and concerts during the summer.

Enjoy some pictures from the gardens.  

 Tim, Mom and I were the ones to venture out to the beautiful gardens!

 I must admit the children's part of the garden was my favorite part!  It was fun! The rest of the pictures are from the children's part.

A birthday cake made of flowers :)

Tornadoes (Part 2)

It was May 3, 1999. We were living in Oklahoma.  We were at a restaurant somewhere near Oklahoma City. A worker came to our table and mentioned that there was bad weather heading our way and that we might want to leave to get home safely.

When we went outside the clouds were dark and huge and we could hear thunder rumbling in the distance. We turned on the radio in the car to hear what was going on with the weather and started driving.  It started pouring and the clouds were getting more ominous by the minute.

As we approached a gas station to get gas (we were running on empty), the radio announcer declared a tornado emergency (which means get underground as soon as possible without delay) near the area where we were located. (I was freaking out at this point, probably screaming in the back seat and crying hysterically.)  The gas station was closed, but Dad went to the window and convinced one of the workers to let him pay for some gas. (It was before the credit card machines were on the pumps.)

It was windy, pouring rain, and at this point the tornado had been flying around for a while somewhere.  We were listening to the radio trying to go in the opposite direction of where it was going (although it's hard to do, since tornadoes can be unpredictable.)  The tornado ended up lasting for over an hour and a half and covered over 38 miles of land.

We made it to our home safely and thankfully the tornado did not come to our neck of the woods. We never actually saw the tornado but we saw the destruction it made afterwards. Clean up started the next day. Many people took off work for the next week and some even longer to help clean up. The next Sunday we only had sacrament meeting and all of the able bodied adults went to the places that were hit hardest to help with clean up and the younger peoples went to the Bishop's store house to make hygiene kits and food kits for those who lost their homes. The tornado destroyed some whole neighborhoods, like down to their foundations. 46 people lost their lives and hundreds of people were injured.

Dad, Mom, Kristina, Tim, Matt and whoever else might have been with us at the time, what do you remember about that day and the days after? You can either write it in the comments or I can add it on to this post.

Tornadoes! (Part 1)

Growing up in Minnesota and Oklahoma, I was not unaware of tornadoes. In both places, the cities we lived in would test the tornado sirens once a month and we would have tornado drills at school once or twice a year.  Occasionally we would be under a tornado watch during spring and summer months when tornadoes were most common and occasionally the weather forecasters would issue tornado warnings, although usually there were no tornadoes (at least not near us), the conditions were ideal for them to happen. 

Having lived in Minnesota and Oklahoma (part of Tornado Alley), I used to be afraid of big thunderstorms and deathly afraid of tornadoes. Anytime there was a bad thunderstorm with the possibility of tornadoes or not, I would start shaking and find Mom or Dad as quickly as possible and stay close to them until the storm passed.  If a storm happened in the middle of night, it was guaranteed that I rushed to Mom and Dad's room, woke them up, and camped out on their floor until morning.

I was reminded of this fear yesterday (May 20) not because of a tornado near where I am, but one near where my Grandma Crain lives in Oklahoma.

There was a giant EF5 tornado (the strongest tornado category) that tore through Moore, Oklahoma yesterday.  The tornado was up to a mile wide at times and the winds were over 200 miles an hour. Now that is horribly scary tornado. It came within a mile or so of my grandma's house, who lives in Moore. Grandma was not home at the time, because she was at a funeral at the nearby stake center, where someone came in and told them to take shelter as soon as possible. She was shaken up, but is doing okay. Her house is also okay.

But there were neighborhoods that were completely destroyed, two elementary schools were hit and dozens and dozens of people were killed. It is so sad. The relief effort is amazing and I pray for those people affected by this horrible storm.

And this past week and this weekend (June 1) Oklahoma has gotten some more horrible storms with flooding and high winds and rains etc. They just can't seem to catch a break right now from Mother Nature. My grandma is doing okay.  Her house is fine, but her back fence is gone. My uncle and aunt and cousins that live about 15 or 20 miles from Grandma are also okay and their house is fine.  But there are many others who weren't so lucky.  May those affected by these storms be comforted.

This tornado and this bad weather reminded me of a tornado that happened on May 3, 1999 in Moore, Oklahoma when we lived in Oklahoma, but this story will have to wait for another post...

Central Park and Broadway Rock!

I went to New York City two weekends ago and I loved it!  I've been there before and have been meaning to get back there and finally did.  (You can read about my experience then if you click here and here.)

 

I love Central Park and walked two times through it, at different parts of the park, on this little trip. 

Central Park!

Central Park is just beautiful!

The weather was perfect both days.  Sunny, clear blue skies with temperatures in the 60s during the day. The trees and flowers were blooming and I especially liked this tree in Central Park!

I loved these flowers!

Isn't springtime awesome?!

I couldn't get enough of these flowers!  If you think they're pretty in the picture, they were even more spectacular in person!

Running away from the rabbit...   In the evening as we were trying to find a place to eat, we ran into this lovely statue :)

Love and peace, my friend.

Doing the can can in front of Radio City Music Hall with Diana.

These stonehenge type things were near the Rockefeller Center.  I am not sure what they represent, besides Stonehenge...

Rockefeller Center!

 The main reason for the trip, at least for me, was to see a show on Broadway, since I've never seen one in New York City before. So on Saturday night Diana, Kara and I went to see Cinderella on Broadway.  It was awesome!  It was fun and cute and funny and the singing and dancing was lovely and the costumes were beautiful and the scene changes were pretty awesome! I loved it!

The trip was awesome! Thanks for the little adventure in New York Kara and Diana!

Happy Birthday!

I always feel like I should give a shout out to all of my siblings and siblings-in-law and nieces and nephews who have a birthday in April since there are so many of them.  So happy 18th birthday to Spencer today! And happy birthday to Lara and Tim and Mika and Tom and Lauren and McKenzie and Andrew this month!  You rock and I hope your birthdays were filled with awesomeness!

Also since I didn't wish a happy birthday on my blog to those in my family who already had a birthday this year, I also wish Matt and Madeline and Ellie a happy birthday too :)  And since it is almost May, I also wish Nate a happy birthday!  That's all for now :)

My weekend!

I had a lovely weekend filled with...

baseball and...

friends on Friday night and...

preparing for and throwing a surprise 40th birthday party for my awesome sister, Lara, on Saturday!

Food mostly from Costco, which was delicious!   (There are meatballs at one end of the table and Oreo truffles at the other end to round off the meal:)

An awesome cake made by Cami! (A white cake with chocolate ganache on the inside and Oreo frosting on the outside.)

A cool sign made by me.  (I really liked the way it turned out. Cami gave me the idea and I didn't know how it would turn out, so I was pleased when it turned out well.)

This picture is for Lara (since she doesn't like the one above:) (I thought this was a cute picture of both of us. What do you think do Lara and I look anything alike?!)

The birthday party was a success, thanks to Emma for planning most of it, for being persistent that we do it, and for distracting Lara so that we could get things set up.  And thanks to Cami for making the cake and getting the decorations up.  And thanks to Glen for the financial support of the party.