"And I Say To Myself, What a Wonderful World"

We knew we wouldn't get a chance to celebrate our anniversary with how busy we were that weekend.

Andrew had arranged to take the day before off of work.

But Peter only has school for about two hours on Fridays.

And I had a couple of papers due that weekend.

I knew it would be a waste of his vacation time.

So we postponed a few weeks.

He scheduled a Thursday off so we could benefit from the kids school schedule.

We didn't get to go away, but we spent the ENTIRE day together.

It was splendid!!!

I actually had some CASA responsibilities to tend to first thing in the morning.

I left just as the kids were getting up for school.

Andrew fed them (he does that every day)

And got Ammon off to school (he does that every day, too).

He and Peter took a quick trip to Home Depot.

He finished up about the time I was completing my reports.

And at that point it was time to drop Peter off to play with his cousin Kambria.

I have been jealous of all of the beautiful Fall pictures I've been seeing.

I knew that one thing I wanted was to get into the mountains.

A friend of mine posted some pictures and told me it was Yellow Fork Canyon.

The canyon was here on the West side of the valley, so it seemed like a good option.

We had fun!

We had a nice, private walk.

We saw a few bikers and some horse back riders.

But for the most part, we were by ourselves.

We didn't walk far - about a mile round trip.

Our time was limited, so we stopped at the picnic tables and just spent some time talking.

We talked in greater detail about some of the things we face in our day to day lives.

I could feel some of life's stress just melt away.

I really realized how important it is to have date time as a couple.

It was nice to just be able to talk to each other away from home and kids.

I can tell Andrew loves me so much.

I'm basing that simply on the fact that he will let me take limitless pictures.

He doesn't even complain.

We picked Peter up from my sister-in-law just in time to feed him lunch.

Then we rushed him off to school and headed to the temple.

For more than three months we have lived two miles from the temple.

I'm embarrassed to admit, I haven't been since we've moved.

I was SO excited to finally go to OUR temple.

I know a sister in the ward who works at the temple.

I know that Thursday is her regular day.

I realized I still think of Jordan River as THE temple.

I was completely surprised to see her at the Oquirrh Mountain temple.

It was fun to have a neighbor there.

It reminded me again that this is home now.

Sitting in the temple was such a beautiful feeling.

I have felt strongly about heading in certain directions in my life.

Those feelings seemed to come more strongly and crisply in the temple.

It rejuvenated my strength and commitment.

I began to feel an overwhelming sense of joy.

I have been working on teaching Ammon and Peter scripture mastery scriptures.

It's a goal I've had for the past year.

We finally learned our first scripture this week:

2 Nephi 9:25

"Adam fell that man might be and men are that they might have joy."

I really felt that as I sat in the temple.

Heavenly Father loves us so much and has the ability to fill us with unspeakable joy.

It is a beautiful thing.

I began to feel excited about my upcoming birthday.

I'm turning 35 and I haven't been sure whether or not that was a good thing.

It seems like another landmark age.

Suddenly I just felt grateful for the added wisdom and understanding that comes with age.

I am excited to have 35 years of experience with a loving Heavenly Father.

A more enlightened view of His interactions, blessings and miracles than I did even five years ago.

Aging is a blessing.

After the session, we walked out and I was struck by the beautiful view of the Jordan River Temple.

We grew up in South Jordan and we were married in that temple.

It made my heart skip a beat to be standing next to my eternal sweetheart.

Eleven years later, we are happier than ever.

I feel so fortunate.

The view from Oquirrh Mountain is so beautiful.

I LOVE living in the Salt Lake valley!

We had a gorgeous view of the Draper temple as well.

After the session we picked the boys up from school.

We surprised them by letting them know they were going to spend the evening with their cousins.

They were SO excited!

(So were we!)

We dropped them off and headed out for some shopping.

(This was the part of the date Andrew was in charge of - he likes to shop.)

After hitting a couple of stores, we headed out to dinner.

We went to Chili's where we had the best waiter ever.

(My brother Dan - he's awesome!)

After dinner we picked a spot along the Jordan River Parkway.

We enjoyed these final moments together, walking hand in hand.

We even got in a good kiss or two...

I can't imagine a more perfect day.

Big thanks to all of you who helped make it possible.

And the biggest thanks of all, to my wonderful husband - whom I adore!