Church talks!

Austin and I gave church talks a couple of weeks ago, as previously mentioned.  It was on our one month-iversary and, both of our parents were in town, so it was a cute little way to celebrate.

We didn't write down our talks, and so I won't copy and paste them here, but I will include some of the things we brought up.

Austin gave an awesome talk based on The Witness by Boyd K. Packer.  I guess what I got most out of it is how important our actions are.  When we live what we believe, people can tell a difference.  Austin included this from the guide to the scriptures.  It is the definition of a witness, which can be a noun or a verb.

"A statement or other evidence that something is true; a testimony. A witness can also be someone who gives such a statement or evidence based on personal knowledge; that is, someone who bears testimony."

I focused on the talk by Marcos A. Aidukaitis If Ye Lack Wisdom.  It was a really good talk, and it talks about different ways you can get answers to your questions.  Basically there are three ways you can do it.  Read the talk.  Find out how!  

I also super liked this video, because I feel like it just relates to our lives today.  Because our lives are crazy, and sometimes it is hard to find pure and simple truth.

ENJOY!

Entertaining Parents: 101

As always, our week last week consisted of rock climbing, work, and eating. But! What a special treat that both of our parents came down. We were so thrilled to show our parents our apartment, where we live, and of course, some of our favorite places to eat. Good news. My mom loved the world's best corn dog truck. Seriously. I already posted their Facebook page. Check them out.

My mom had school board meetings in Cedar City, so my dad came down and supported her. She actually was part of presenting a special class. She jokes that all she did was turn the lights on and off for the projector, but I still think it is awesome that she is so involved. They came down Friday night and we had dinner with them and talked for awhile.

Austin's parents were also in town. They are currently in the process of helping her parents move, so they were busy painting this weekend. We were worried we wouldn't get to spend any time with them, but luckily they worked super quickly and had the whole houses painted before Saturday evening. But, they came over after my parents did in Friday night, and we had a good chat with them.

We noticed that the moon was really spectacular on Friday, full moon you know, so we decided to go on a moonlit bike ride. It was really fun. We did the Virgin River bike trail. Surprise. I'm not super into biking, but I always really enjoy myself when Austin and I just lazily pedal and talk. The moon was bright enough to light our path the entire time, and only once was I terribly afraid that whatever was rustling in the bushes was going to jump out and attack me. Don't worry. If something did jump out I would have probably passed out from fright... That would have been a tragic ending to a delightful evening.

Luckily, we had enough sense to bring our headlamps!  I mean, how else would we have gotten this picture??

We woke up early this next morning and went climbing with the #climbtimecrew, but this time my parents also joined us.  Check out my dad!!

Like... seriously... big props to him for climbing in his regular tennis shoes.  We just need to get him some climbing shoes and he will be scaling those mountains like they are no big deal.  In other news... peer pressure still works :)

Here are some quick little pics to finish up that fun climb adventure.  Seriously, we only look hardcore because we document.  If you notice, I am totally resting in one of these pictures, and I barely made it 4' up the wall.

 

Our day then consisted of corn dogs, cleaning up, and cleaning up our apartment, while my parents went and met with family and visited various quilt shops, and Austin's family kept diligently working on the grandparent's new abode.  Also.  They are moving super close to where we live, so we were able to drop by and see how things were going.  Really nice little home, and they are going to really enjoy themselves.

We went out as a gang of 6 to the Brick Oven.  I got the Penne Pesto something or an other.  It was super good.  I would definitely recommend it to anyone.  Shoot.  I recommend it to everyone.  I am really grateful that Austin and I have the parents that we do, because we all get along.  Such a joy.

We went to see Spamalot after that.  For all of you that haven't seen Spamalot and aren't doing anything on Thursday or Saturday, go check it out.  I did the costumes for it.  Let me attach a link and help you out.

http://purchase.tickets.com/buy/TicketPurchase?organ_val=21329&schedule=list

And!  You can check out Lee Blessing's Nice People Dancing to Good Country Music.  That one is playing on Friday.  So much talent.  I am so lucky to work with so many great people.

AND!  I stole this picture from Grace.  She has been doing costumes.  And.  She has been doing awesome.  So, here is a picture to entice you further.

Yep.  Totally made all of those costumes.  Naturally, I had help.  But still.  I patterned everything you see on that stage.

We loved watching the show with our parents and everyone had so much fun.  The audience was just eating it up, and everyone was really enjoying themselves.  The audience was feeding the actors, and the actors were giving it back.  It was such a good flow of energy.

And that is how we spent our weekend.  I mean, we did have Sunday, but we actually gave talks to I am going to do a more detailed post on that, but it was really great to have our parents in town and hang out with them.  My biggest advice.  If you want to go rock climbing with your parents, just make sure the shade you promised them... is really there.

We love 'Murica!

We had such a great fourth of July!!  Both of us had the whole day of work off, and that sure made it easy to celebrate all day.  Luckily, we have great friends down here in St. George who have climbing rope, and swimming pools, and a roof right next to the fireworks.  It was so fantastic.

Waking up bright and early on a holiday can be pretty... frustrating... unless it is planned.  Then it is cool!  We went rock climbing with our #climbtimecrew and had tons of fun, as always.  We picked up Miss Grace, and then met PartyBear (as he has chosen to be referred to on today's blog) and Kierstin at Del Taco.  We were on the east side of Black Rock, which was really nice, because it was still shady when we left at 12:30.  But enough talk.  Let's get to the pictures!

Here is Miss Grace, totally killing it!!  This is her second climb... ever.  We love going with new people because they are super hardcore and brave.

Austin did his first lead climb.  He totally rocked it!  Oh, the puns!  It was rated as a 5.10 and honestly, no one would have ever known that he hadn't done this before.  

We had to switch the ropes, so we was all sorts of busy getting that sorted out, and I got some nice pictures.

Here is one of us two being super romantic.  I loved Austin's instagram post where he said that I always support him.  What a cutie.  Love him.

We got corn dogs for lunch.  We absolutely love this corn dog truck.  Want to know more??  It is in the same parking lot as Hurst Ace on Bluff St.  Check out their Facebook page.  

https://www.facebook.com/WorldsBestCornDogsSt.GeorgeUtah  They're awesome because they put honey on top of the corn dogs.  So good.  And they're a foot long.  Boom.  Delicious.  I sat in the car and watched as Austin got us some delicious lunch!  Seriously.  I can't get enough of it.

One of the most glorious things about living in St. George is that everyone just loves hanging out in the pool.  Big shout out to Kierstin for having a landlord that recognized the necessity of having a pool in the backyard.  It was us two girls, and six guys, so we ended up just sitting on floaties in the water and watching them.

They had so many hilarious games they were playing.  I think they ended up with ten by the end.  Singing and slapping the water for percussion, getting out of the pool with no hands... or something.... seeing who could swim the most times underneath the water with one breath, doing a relay of people swimming under the water with one breath, and... hmm... my memory is fleeting.  PartyBear was coming up with some really good ones, and everyone seemed to love trying them all out.  Check out Austin doing the jump in the pool game.  Who knows what this thing is called... but it is so flippy!

We had a barbecue while we waited for it to get dark.  It went so well.  The food was super delicious, and the company was fantastic.  We are so blessed to have so many good friends.  Seriously.  Kierstin and PartyBear are some of the best friends I have ever had, and we are so blessed that they continue to let the old marrieds hang out with them.  We had what any typical barbecue would have, good burgers, bratwursts, piano music, regular music, chips, and more chips.  The group of people there were all so chill and fun.  They definitely made for a good night.  I brought peach cobbler, and people even said, hey, this is good, so I think that I am moving up in the world.

PartyBear invited us all to come watch the fireworks on the roof his house.  He lives right next to the park where they would be lighting the fireworks, and the pitch of his roof was perfect for us to see everything.  This is the first summer Austin and I have actually hung out since we've known each other, and so we really enjoyed watching the fireworks and talking about our favorite ones.  Turns out our favorites are the same.  Romantic. <3  But seriously.  I love him.

Living in St. George is hott.

But, seriously.  St. George is so hot.  This weekend we had so much fun!  But, we had to wake up at 6:00 a.m. in order to beat the heat and make sure our friend could get back to work.  We went to Snow Canyon, just outside of St. George, by Tuacahn.

When we started climbing, I was kind of nervous.  Our friend did the lead climb, and it was kind of oddly set up, not his fault, just the wrath of the mountain.  After I finished my first climb I was pumped.  It was just a tease!  It made me feel so good.  We went with two beginners and it was fun to have them try it out.  They loved it.  So awesome.

But, once we had all finished climbing I decided I would go for it and climb the face.  Austin was so supportive and helpful.  There really wasn't anywhere for me to grip on, so I don't know how I did it...  So grateful I managed to stick to the wall like Spider man!

Today we went to church, and we made some more new friends, and then we were invited to a surprise birthday party.  We are really excited for our new little adventure down here, and are starting to feel more and more comfortable here!  It's like... we live here!  We aren't just visiting anymore.

Oh.  If you were curious.  It is like... 106 degrees today.