In true Kristin celebratory fashion I stretched out my birthday into a birthday weekend! My birthday started out pretty fabulous with an early morning temple trip. This was extra special because it was Bryn's first time going to the temple. She was SO EXCITED! It was really neat that Tyler, Ailey, and I were all there with her. Our temple is still only in phase 2B.
Check out that angelic halo!
I loved that Bryn got to be there with some of her best friends who were also going for the first time. It was a very special morning. Ailey and Bryn brought family names and I loved hearing those sweet family names being done. Johnson, Johnson, Johnson, Egbers, Johnson etc. Ailey found names on both my side and Tyler's side. There were quite a few for Tyler's side of the family because his dad was a convert. It definitely brought tears to my eyes. I got to be a witness for the first time. I loved it! Tyler did confirmations and the whole experience was amazing! Our friend Aaron, who is in the bishopric with Tyler said, "Look at Bryn! She's glowing." It was true. She was absolutely beaming.
After our session at the temple we went out for Thai food for my birthday lunch! It was so good! I even got one of my very favorite desserts. Sticky Black Rice with Coconut Cream. Heavenly!
Kam called me just as we were finishing lunch. We video chatted with him out in the parking lot for about an hour. That was so much fun! I do not know how parents survived only talking to their missionaries twice a year or even less depending on the mission. I am so grateful for the change. I think it is so good for both the families AND the missionaries.
After we got home my good friends, Mary and Shannon, came over. They had all kinds of birthday gifts for me. They are the sweetest! It is such a PLEASURE to hang out with friends in OUR HOUSE!! Later that afternoon we went shopping and then Tyler, the kids, and I drove up to Long Lake to check out the boat launches. It looked so beautiful! I can't wait to get on the water!
That night we attended a double graduation party for two kids that we love and have watched grow up: Emma and Dallin. The party was held at our friends, Sarah and Dan's, house. It was so fun to celebrate these two great kids. One is headed to BYU and one is headed out on a mission. We had such a fun night with friends! I saw some of my friends that I haven't seen in over 16 months! It felt so good to hug them. God Bless Vaccines! We had such a great time!
I opened gifts and had my cake late that night. Tyler got me my favorite Swedish Princess Cake. Truly the most delicious cake! MARZIPAN! I got some great gifts too! Tyler got me a VERY nice paint sprayer that will cut down my painting time immensely. I cannot wait to try it out! He also got me a huge spray painting tent. I am super excited! The girls got me some sprouters and two kinds of seeds. I am turning into my mother and growing my own sprouts. She grew sprouts all the time when I was a kid. She had just gotten a sprouting kit before she passed away and was excited to give it a whirl. (I'm not sure where that one went.) Anyway... the girls knew that I really wanted one. I LOVE alfalfa sprouts on sandwiches and salads and they are hard to find these days.
The next morning I had to be at the stake center very early to set up for Eight is Great. It is a meeting and breakfast for all of the kids in our stake who are turning eight and will be baptized in the next six months. We talked about baptism, Primary Activities, the new Children and Youth Program etc. I spoke about the Children and Youth Program which is a very cool goal setting program. Kids set goals in four areas: spiritual, intellectual, physical, and social. Our meeting went well! The cool thing was that it was the first church meeting that I didn't have to wear a mask! Our stake sent out an email this week saying that if you've been vaccinated you no longer have to wear a mask at church. Yay!
After that it was stake conference which was being live streamed so I headed home. We watched part of it at home and then listened to more as we drove to Coeur d' Alene where we met Reilly at the Coeur d' Alene Resort for brunch.
Literally one second after Tyler took this picture he knocked orange juice all over me and Reilly! Good grief! The CDA resort isn't doing their big fancy brunch buffet due to COVID but they still have a delicious brunch that you can order from a menu that is served until 2pm. So good.
Despite the stormy weather...Lake Coeur d' Alene looked so beautiful and people were even parasailing. Crazies! It was chilly!
Hunter wasn't able to come so it was fun having our three girls to ourselves!
Birthdays can sometimes make me emotional and overly sensitive. I got my feelings hurt for part of the brunch which wasn't fun. Adult children. They aren't easy. Luckily it didn't last for too long. I was already sad about another birthday without my Mom, and missing Kameron, and well... there you go.
After I got rage (the orange juice situation) and sadness (hurt feelings/missing people) out of the way I ended up having a fun time and got some good laughs in too. I guess that is life. It's always a mixture of highs and lows.
This was the gooey of the month: Sour Watermelon. Oh yes, we got it and it was FABULOUS! Perhaps the best gooey yet!!
After that we drove up Fourth of July Canyon (truly the best named canyon ever) to Kellogg, ID and Silver Mountain Ski Resort. We have wanted to ride the gondola for awhile now (in non-ski season) but it was closed last summer due to COVID. It's open now and it was absolutely gorgeous!
Did Ailey have any fear of height issues on this? Nope.
She said it was because it wasn't open air. Good to know.
We walked around up at the top and marveled at the beauty. There is a lodge/restaurant up there too. The air felt so crisp and clean. Reilly kept commenting on how fresh the air was and how much she just wanted to keep breathing it in. We are pretty lucky that Spokane usually has great air quality (except for forest fire season) but even I was surprised at how different the air felt up at the top.
As we were looking at these beautiful vistas we were talking about my mom. I was telling the girls about how when I was a kid and we would drive up to the lake from Utah...every time we got past Missoula and started heading into the beautiful thickly forested mountains...my mom would always sigh and say how happy she was to be back in "beautiful mountains." She loved the drive up over Look Out Pass in Montana and into Idaho and onto Fourth of July Canyon and down into Coeur d' Alene. She would oohh and aahh and proclaim it the most beautiful place in the world. We kids were always stunned because we thought we lived in the most beautiful place in the world... Provo Canyon! How could she possibly think that these mountains were more beautiful than Timpanogos and Cascade!! And yet...she did. I love Provo Canyon more than just about any other place in the world but I think she was right and my family, on top of that mountain, agreed. There is something about mountains that are just trees on trees on trees that have my heart. I love coming home from Utah and stopping in Missoula and getting out and smelling the air. That intoxicating pine tree/water combination that smells heavenly and that tells you that you are almost home.
It was funny because later than night Kam was asking us to send him more pictures from our little day trip. He wanted to see home and couldn't get enough pictures of the mountains and trees. When we talked to him the next day he said that as beautiful as so many places are that he has been; there is just something about those mountains and the CDA area. It doesn't get more beautiful. He pretty much quoted my mom verbatim. It was funny and sweet.
After we rode back down to the bottom we walked around the resort. Then we drove onto Wallace, Idaho. We love this cute picturesque town. We explored all over and drove up the mountain and by all of the miner houses high up on the steep mountain. We found a great stretch of the Trail of the Coeur d' Alenes to bike. We mapped out our route for our next big bike ride. We can't wait! Then it was back home for more cake!
Ailey and Bryn had done the cutest job decorating for my birthday! I loved it! It was a terrific birthday! Now onto planning all of the things I want to do before I turn the big 5-0!
