Madeline has really loved playing with her new American Girl dolls and loved dressing up her doll in one of the new outfits she got for Christmas. Madeline loves skiing and was excited for her doll to get all ready to go skiing. | Madeline went roller skating for the first time during one of her classmate’s birthday parties. She used the rolling walker to help her and by the end of the party she had really gotten the hang of the skates. | I love shopping and sometimes I just want new clothes for church but sometimes all I need is a refresh by putting together new outfits with the clothes and shoes I already have in my closet. | The lettuce we planted in our home garden finally started sprouting. It made us all extremely excited. | Mike did his 2-week reserve duty in DC again. He enjoyed reviewing medical policy and working out in the amazing military gym. | Mike was able to visit with his dad while out in the DC area. He enjoyed looking through all of his dad’s old military uniforms and looking through old photos on the bookshelves. | One morning Madeline put on my University of Utah sweatshirt and told me how proud the boys would be to see her in that sweatshirt. | Mike took Madeline out for a special day to get pampered. Madeline always loves to get her nails painted. | My new MacBook Pro finally came in the mail. I am so excited for a more powerful computer. | Our lettuce is finally growing, and we are so excited to finally start eating fresh lettuce grown in our home. | Miss Colorado came to the elementary school and visited each of the classrooms. Madeline was so excited when she came to her classroom, and they got a photo with her. | Madeline has loved going to the activity day activities and she especially loved making hot cocoa chocolate bombs. | Madeline wrote Peter the cutest letter to put in his birthday box. She is so excited for him to come home and baptize her.
It’s not every day that you get to celebrate one of your children turning into an official adult. Emma had her 18th birthday, and we all did things to help her feel special. Mike took her out for a couple hour adventure to go shopping over the weekend while Abby, Mike and Madeline spent some time ordering her some fun gifts. I made sure her actual birthday was full of fun and joy! I put together a nice Japanese dinner for Emma with a beautiful strawberries and cream cake for afterwards. I found the cutest bags to put all of her gifts into that matched our strawberries and cream theme. She was so excited for the efforts that everyone put in to make her actual birthday special. It will be fun to put together a friend birthday for her after some of her indoor track meets are finished! I am so proud of Emma for the amazing woman that she has become. I can’t wait to see what incredible things she will do in the future!
We started the New Year with a 24-mile ride down the Cottonwood and Santa Fe trail. It was a relatively warmer day for the winter and so we put on our layers and headed out. The good weather didn’t stick around for very long. Most of my runs this month were on snow covered trails or really cold mornings. We did hill repeats at Bear Creek Park, hill repeats and tempo runs along the Santa Fe trail, a hill endurance run up Rampart Range Road, and a tempo loop at Bear Creek Park. I was extremely proud of myself for staying on task with the 45-day weight program that Mike and I started last month. I was consistent and started to see real results by the end of this month.
Hello Everyone! Sorry this email has been a long time coming. The past few weeks and months have been filled with a tremendous number of adventures, both joyful and sorrowful. We have been so busy that we have had to resort to the wildest of shenanigans to keep the work going. Instead of fixing a leak in our aircon, we made a device to catch the water. When our power went completely out, we used our stove fire to heat the iron to unwrinkle our shirts. The amazing cuisine that has kept us alive, is almost entirely made out of hot dogs and eggs. At the current moment, my companion and I have two families that have a goal date for their baptism. We have been hard at work in an attempt to help them prepare for the covenant they will make. In the meantime, we have found a plethora of new people, each with their own unique set of circumstances and problems. I have come to recognize how harsh the world really is when looked at through the secular view. I have seen so much suffering here. Broken homes, abandoned children, and the rampant spread of poverty always accompany the day’s work. In the Book of Mormon, we read of a dream had by the prophet Lehi. In his dream, he saw a road that leads to the Tree of Life and many diverse roads leading to death and destruction. The only way to make it to the tree without falling away is to the hold to a rod of iron which extends itself from the world to the tree. Lehi describes two types of people that make it to the tree. Those who "cling" to the rod and those who "hold fast." Those who hold fast stay at the tree forever, but those who cling, fall away. In the English language these two groups of people may seem to be doing the same thing, but after careful pondering, I do not think that they are anymore. When I use the word cling, it almost always accompanies the underlying theme of fear. The phrase, clinging on for dear life, is a great example. However, the phrase, holding fast, shows something different. It shows consistent strength followed by determination. The scriptures tell us that the iron rod is the Word of God. When we put our hand on the iron rod, we have two choices. We can look directly at the tree, or we can focus on the fallen world around us. The iron rod won't change, but our perspective can. Those who focus on the disharmony of our world will cling. They will see the suffering, pain, and affliction caused by our mortal condition. Despite the rod, they will fear. However, those who focus their eyes on the tree of life, have no reason to fear. They understand the horrors of the world, but they know that there is hope. In the Bible, we read the story of Peter walking on water. At first, Peter successfully walks on the sea, but what causes him to sink? In Matthew 14: 30 - 31 we read, "But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid;” He was focusing on the fear rather than the hope. What saved him? “...and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?" Focusing his eyes back on his Savior and calling out for help, he was saved. In our lives, it is easy to see the winds and waves, but in those moments, we forget about the figure out on the water. We forget the very tree we are walking to. Despite all of the terrible things I have seen, I have never seen a day without the tender mercies of the Lord raining down from heaven. I have seen how much love and care He has for even the poorest of his children. I have a firm witness, that focusing on the Savior in our trials prepares us to face our own storms, because we know, that in the midst of them, is our Savior. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. Elder Wilhelm week 60week 61week 62week 63It was no surprise that we slept in again and then headed to the fitness center one more time to lift weights. After getting ready and eating breakfast at the Peacock Alley again, we headed to the Air and Space Museum by Uber as it was snowing. We loved seeing some of the new updates to this museum and understood why we needed reserved tickets. Over half of the museum was still under renovation. After we were done exploring we walked over to the National Art Gallery and saw some of our favorite paintings and then ate lunch at the Garden Café. The food was surprisingly good! As we walked back to the hotel it was still snowing a little bit. We finished packing our bags and relaxed for a little bit longer since my flight was delayed due to the snow. It ended up being a long trek back home as my flight got delayed even more at the airport. Although that was not ideal, I wouldn’t have traded this weekend for anything. air and space museumnational art galleryAfter staying up way too late watching TV together, we slept in again and then got breakfast once again at the Peacock Alley. I got the waffles again and was not disappointed at all by that choice. Before heading to Virginia, we walked around the building to the entrance of the clock tower and made our way to the top. The view was amazing, but we didn't stay there very long since it was quite windy. Then we got the car and headed into Virginia for a little bit of a nostalgic day. We headed to Tysons Corner first and stopped at our old apartment building and then went in to the mall at Tysons. We didn’t spend too long there before we got back in the car and headed to see Mike’s childhood home and walk around the woods that he grew up exploring. The weather was definitely colder than the day before, so we wore our hats and gloves and warm jackets. We even saw a fox run past us and quickly grabbed some photos for Madeline since the fox is her favorite animal. Afterwards we headed to the cemetery to see Mike’s mom and to pay our respects to an amazing woman. Mike took the opportunity to call his sister and reminisce about their mom and the memories they have of her. The day of nostalgia wouldn’t have been complete without a stop to eat dinner at Sweet Water Tavern with Gina. The food was just as I remembered it, and I was surprised that I still found it tasted pretty good. Views from the clock towerfirst apartment and tysons cornerchildhood home and neighborhoodcemeterysweet water tavernAfter sleeping in, which we never do, we got on our workout clothes and headed to the hotel fitness center to lift our weights for the day. The gym was pretty nice but there were several people on the cardio machines, so it felt pretty stuffy inside. After finishing our workout and getting ready for the day we ate breakfast at the Peacock Alley inside the grand atrium area. I had the most amazing mini waffles and Mike had a stack of pancakes. It was delicious and filled our bellies for a full day of roaming around the mall area of DC. We headed first to the Natural History museum and loved seeing all of the new upgrades since the last time we there almost a decade ago. We just kept saying how much we wished Madeline could be there because we knew how much she would love this museum. Then we headed toward the Air and Space museum but realized upon arriving that you needed reservation tickets. Since there were no more for this day we got tickets for Monday. We made our way towards the Capitol building and needed to burn some time before our reservations at the Capital and Library of Congress, so we ate lunch at a cute little French inspired café not too far from the Library of Congress. It must have been a popular place since it was packed inside. After eating lunch, we walked over to the outside of the Supreme Court building which I had never seen and snapped a few photos before our reservation to go inside the Library of Congress. I was so impressed by the inside of the Library of Congress. It was beautiful and I enjoyed Thomas Jefferson’s library as well as the many amazing quotes in the main area of the building. Next we headed to the Capital building for our tour. We have done this tour once before with the older kids but it was nice to do it again without little children in tow. Our favorite statue, by far, was one of the Colorado statues. It truly is one of the coolest looking statues at the Capital. As we made our way back to our hotel after a lot of walking, we felt a little like we were in a different country with people from the middle east lining the sidewalks going to and coming from the protest. I must admit it felt strange to have the feeling of being a minority in your own country. Luckily the protest was dying down and people were going home. I’m glad we avoided that throughout the day. We decided to dine in for dinner and canceled our other plans to go out to dinner. We ate at the Peacock Alley again and got to witness firsthand the attitudes of those that deem themselves high and mighty. It was quite comical to watch different groups of people as they dressed in fancy clothes and drank their liquor. It made me grateful that Mike and I are very much down to earth kind of people. Waldorf AstoriaNatural history museumthe mallthe capital buildingthe supreme courtthe library of congressCapital tourWhile Mike was doing his reserve duty in Washington DC, I decided to head out there for the long weekend for a quick little couples’ getaway. When I arrived at the airport, he had food from one of my favorite sandwich shops just in case I was hungry. He also looked so handsome in his suit which he wore just for fun. We headed from the Reagan airport to the Waldorf Astoria which is where we would be staying for the next few days. When we made it up to the room, I was floored by how nice the room was and how sweet it was that Mike put heart chocolates all over the bed. He even had a nice little chocolate cake with ice-cream sitting in a bucket of ice. There is one thing that is for sure, Mike is such a romantic. We relaxed for a bit before heading out to dinner at the Hamilton. We walked by the White House on our way to the restaurant. In preparation for the Palestinian protest the next day there were already people set up with their own protest signs. Without saying too much about that I will just say that’s what you get when you live in America where everyone thinks they can say whatever they want. Luckily people were pleasant so that was good. After getting to the restaurant, we were seated early which was nice. There weren’t too many people there at the beginning which was nice. I had crab cakes, and they were amazing. After dinner we decided to head straight back to the hotel instead of wandering around more. It was getting colder, and it started to sprinkle a bit. We got back to our hotel just in time before the weather started to turn. As we walked through the grand atrium in one of the most impressive lobbies ever, I felt so lucky that we were staying in such a fancy hotel.
|
Archives
March 2024
Categories
All
|