Last Weekend

Our week has been just a bit crazy and I have been meaning to post this all week but here's a little update of last weekend. 

 

+ We have started to be more consistent with a weekly date night and this week's happened to work out on Friday. I was able to get off work a little early and Preston's afternoon class got cancelled so we got to start early! I was in charge of the date this week so I started off with a workout at the gym since we had the time. :) don't worry, I followed up with some fun and we went to the movies to see the Maze Runner. We had literally zero expectations for it and it was amazing!! We throughly enjoyed it!!

 

+ Saturday was spent working on my projects that I mentioned back here.  I made progress!  The chicken coop has a couple nice coats of candy apple red and the porch railing is a bright white! The coop still has some work left and I plan on doing that before the cold weather gets here.  We are going to add white trim to it so that it looks like a little barn. 

 

 

+ An embarrassing amount of Pretty Little Liars episodes were watched.  BUT, I can proudly say I have convinced Preston to tolerate them and I think he is actually enjoying it! VICTORY! :)

 

+ Finally got caught up on laundry.  I swear, ever since we got back from Hawaii (several months ago), I haven't been caught up.  But I am now and everything is even folded and put away in drawers!

 

+ Attended the Ogden Temple Re-dedication.  Always such a treat to be a part of those.  I'm glad we get to look forward to a few more in the near future.

 

+ Almost lost our Millie! Not intentionally, of course.  Complete accident. Every Sunday night we walk the trash cans out to the curb together and thought we'd kill two birds with one stone and let Millie go potty while we were out.  Keep in mind, our yard is not fenced so she never gets to go out and play by herself.  We're too close to so many busy roads that its just not worth it.  Anways, we let her out, took the cans to the street and went back inside.  About 45 minutes later mid an episode of PLL, Preston goes, "Is Millie barking?".  She never barks and the bark was pretty muffled and pitiful so we could hardly hear it but we immediately started thinking she found something in the house.  It didn't occur to us that she had been outside the whole time!  The poor thing was sitting at the back door just begging to come back in and looked scared out of her mind (such a prissy little dog:).  We felt SO BAD!  We love that little dog more than anything and it would have absolutely killed us if something would have happened to her.  So glad that she came back because, let's face it, Millie isn't winning any awards for her obedience skills. :) ha!

 

+ My sweet Grandpa John had a stroke Sunday evening.  He is up in Idaho and we don't get to see him nearly as often as we used to when he lived in Moab but I am grateful he has some of our family and such a great care center watching out for him.  He seems to be doing okay now but it gave us all a little scare.  I am so grateful for the power of prayer and the Priesthood in times like these to calm us and feel us with peace.

 

Well, that was our weekend and our week this week seemed to just fly by between audits at work, church callings, errands, you name it!  But we did squeeze in our date last night.  It was pretty fancy too: dinner at the Purple Turtle in PG. :)  We are headed down to Moab this evening for the Muzzleloader Deer Hunt.  We have one day to find a big one (or just any one, really) so wish us luck!  Happy Weekend!

xo, Syd

The Weekend

+ Preston sold his phone just in the nick of time to preorder his new one.  Those gadgets sure do make him a happy boy! :)

 

+ Came across this quote in the August Ensign > "Difficulties come into our lives, problems we do not anticipate and which we would never choose.  None of us is immune.  The purpose of mortality is to learn and to grow to be more like our Father, and it is often during the difficult times that we learn the most, as painful as the lessons may be."  -President Thomas S. Monson  >To say that it was just what I needed to hear would be an understatment.

 

+ Took my very first cake decorating class with my sister at Michael's.  A cute girl from my ward teaches the class so that was a nice little surprise.  I'm excited to get to know her better and have her teach me her ways of cake decorating.  This was our first of four classes and as you can see, our designs weren't too extravagant this week.  Still hard though!  I was pretty dang proud of that swirl!

+ Slept in Saturday AND Sunday.  Our room is north facing and always stays so dark, no matter the time.  I love it.

 

 + We had Stake Conference this weekend and we were incredibly spiritually fed.  I admit, I'm not always the best at paying attention in Stake Conference for one reason or another but this time the talks were incredible!  We attended the Saturday Evening Session and it was awesome.  Some things I want to remember from that session:

                      * The Savior's atonement is less about filling the gaps and more about filling us. 
                      * Feel and be filled with His grace.
                      * "Behold, I am hastening my work." (D&C 88), stop fooling around, can you let go?
                           and will you do your part? -Stake President Bell

 It was actually regional Stake Conference so during the Sunday session, we got to hear from Elder Richard G. Scott & Elder Russell M. Nelson (and his cute wife!) , along with some other incredible speakers that I failed to write down the names of.  From that session, I want to remember:

                     * Become deeply rooted in the gospel of Jesus Christ that you can withstand any trial or
                        tribulation.
                     * The widow's mite.
                     * Communication with our Father in Heaven is not a trivial matter.  He wants us to
                        converse with Him.  -Elder Scott
                     * Increase your participation in Family History work as you prepare for General
                        Conference. -Sister Nelson
                     * The Lord promises His Spirit to be with us when we engage in His service.  Angels
                        will serve and protect you. -Elder Nelson

+ We took a drive down to Payson to deliver some honey to a man Preston got a swarm of bees from and stopped by to see the progress of the new Payson Temple.  I think it might just be my favorite one (in the valley) so far. 

 

+ Preston extracted some honey and was left with quite the mess.  Luckily bees are super efficient and will clean it up for you. Can you believe all the bees?? That's not even all of them!  So grateful for that yummy honey they make!

 

Now it's back to the work week.  Hope you all had a good weekend!

xo, Syd

Camping at Diamond Fork

The end of summer is inevitably coming and that realization has made Preston and I a little uneasy. We had a few setbacks that made it hard for us to be adventurous this summer but all is well now and we are back at it! 

 

Two weekends in a row we headed up to the mountains for a quick little overnighter.  I've come to realize that I've become pretty picky about where I will camp.  Actually, I only have one request and that's that it has to be pretty.  No camping in baren fields or deserts for me.  I've gotta have some trees! Maybe one day I'll come to appreciate camping in any setting but that day hasn't arrived just yet :). 

 

The first weekend we ventured out, we literally thought we'd drive for maybe 10 minutes and find a place.  Well, apparently everyone else in Utah Valley went camping that weekend too and we ended up driving around, searching for the perfect spot, for almost 2 hours.  We started in Hobble Creek and ended up in Diamound Fork.  But we found a spot and there were trees!  One big one to be exact!  We liked it so much that we went back the next weekend to the very same spot with the Halvorson's and their cute little dog, Brody.  Unfortunately I forgot my camera for that trip but we had good food (have you tried pizza sandwiches?? yum!) and even better conversation.  We had plans to go back again this weekend but the rain scared us away.  Hopefully we'll get some decent weather at least one more time before the snow comes.  We need as many outings like these as we can get! 

 

 

The Weekend

Some highlights of our weekend: 

+ My Zinnia's (above) seem to be the flower of the year for us this summer.  They are blooming out of control!

+ My little sister Emily stayed the weekend with us.  When some of our cousins asked her how she liked the Ogden Temple Dedication a few weeks back, she responded with: "STUUUUPID!".  She was referring mostly to the amount of stairs she had to climb and she was upset that they wouldn't give her a wheelchair or let her ride the elevator.  She loved everything else about the temple, just not the stairs. :)

+ We ate at Taco Burrito.  If you are in Utah Valley, you must try it.  We love it. 

+ Watched way too many episodes of Pretty Little Liars....It sucked me in once again. 

+ Worked out with Emily and went swimming with Katie and her cute little boy, Harvey.  That baby is the cutest, I tell ya.

+ Attended a fireside where Tito Momen, the authoer of "My Name Used to Be Mahammad", spoke.  He did an awesome job! He and Preston had a class together during the Summer and it has been fun getting to know him.  What an amazing man he is!  I haven't read his book but Preston has and says it is amazing. 

+ Killed our rooster. :(  Not me, but Preston.  Provo isn't a big fan of roosters and apparently, neither are our neighbors so it had to go.  This was the first chicken I had witnessed being killed and I did not like it.  Such a pretty rooster, really.

 

 

+ We fell asleep to the sound of thunder and rain last night.  Can it get any better??

 

Hope you all had a happy weekend!  Now it's back to the daily grind! :)

xo, Syd

Bishoff Reunion: Cedar City, UT

Waaaaay back in June we had the annual Bishoff Family Reunion.  Every year a different couple is in charge of planning it and this year it was Chad & Brooke's turn so we did it down in Cedar City.  Having someone different plan it every year is fun because we get to experience a new place and new activities each time.  It's also fun to experience what everyone likes to do for fun in their towns.

 

The reunion started off a bit rocky for some with flights being delayed and re-routed but everyone made it!  It's the last time all of us will be together for a few years so it was a great last hurrah.  Chad & Brooke took care of preparing all of the food which is not an easy task for that many people.  But they did awesome and we never went hungry! 

 

The first morning we went to the Happy Factory. It's a little factory that makes little toy cars out of scrap wood and sends them to children around the world that otherwise wouldn't have a toy to play with.  Everyone that works at the Happy Factory are volunteers.  No one is paid.  All donations go directly to the production of the toys.  Such a neat organization.  We spent the morning putting stain on the cars that had already been assembled.  It was fun knowing we were contributing in the process of making little kids somewhere happy.

 

A Bishoff get together is never complete without a cookout and a little fishing.  We spent the rest of the day up in the mountains above Cedar City which was absolutely beautiful.  I never realized how pretty it is down there but it really is!  We ate dinner, fished, and even saw some elk.  Preston claims to have seen a mountain lion but somehow no one else saw it so I'm not sure we believe him or not. :)

^So far we have a picture of Preston and his Dad every year like this during the reunion.  Somehow Ken sets himself up for it perfectly every year. :)

^The mighty fly fisherman. One of these days I'm going to have him teach me how to do it. 

^My biggest accomplish this summer: mastering the fishtail braid! ha!

^Sassy!

^The June Bug and I.  Now she lives way too far away for my liking. :(

^4 Generations of John Bishoff's.

^The babies :)

Like I said, this was the last time all of us would be together for awhile (Preston's brother and his wife moved to Florida for a PhD program) so we had some nice family pictures taken. They turned out really well considering we have 9 little grandkids all under the age of 7! But they all behaved and the pictures look great! We relaxed for the day after that, spent some time up at a little reservoir right in the middle of town and then went our separate ways. Thanks for the fun, Bishoff's! Can't wait to see what Scott & Brit have in store for us next year! :)

xo, Syd

Bishoff Reunion 2012

Bishoff Reunion 2013