BETTY IS BACK!!!

YOU MADE ME FEEL SO LOVED & NEEDED!!

It was so fun to come home to all of your comments looking for Betty to return!! It has been an amazing and memorable month. It has been extremely busy, but I have loved it. All that work in preparing to leave was well worth it and I feel so blessed to have been able to have these experiences. I love being on vacation!! I love that carefree feeling I get, and I am truly able to enjoy. I am very grateful for cell phones to keep in touch. It was really nice being home with Tim and Sean last night and I will be cherishing this next few days as they will be preparing to leave for England next week for 13 days. My heart is feeling very heavy as I think about Sean leaving for his High Adventure this week (the priests will be climbing the Tetons & going to Jackson Hole), England next week and BYUI on September 4th. That leaves me with only 6 days with Sean before he takes off for BYUI. He has his final interview with the Stake President tonight and then his mission papers can be submitted by Saturday, the 16th of August (three months before his 19th birthday). He is hoping and praying that he will come home from England to a mission call. Everything has gone really smooth for him as far as his preparations. We are all really hoping that his call comes before he has to go up to BYUI. I am starting to get butterflies thinking about where and when he will go. He has put his availability date for December 17th...but of course we won't know when he will go until after he gets his call. I'd love to hear any guesses you might have. I will be recording everyones guesses to see if anyone guesses it right. His best friend Alex leaves on September 10th (he is going to Korea), so he is feeling really bad that he will still be in England when Alex has his farewell. As I laid down to sleep last night, I couldn't help but ponder at how fast the time has gone. I am so pleased with Sean's decision to serve a mission. It is very exciting!!

I don't know where to begin regarding all that has happened this past month. I thought I would just give a quick run down on some of the events and happenings since I last blogged!! On July 14th, I went with Megan and some of her friends to the American Idol concert. It was the first Salt Lake concert for American Idol and the first concert I have been to in a long time. We had a blast. I found myself feeling like a teenager and got really caught up in the moment. The crowd went crazy for David Archuleta. He cried because he was so amazed and overcome by the support and enthusiasm the audience showed. Michael Johns was down right sexy!!! I'm sorry but there is no other way to say it. Brooke White was adorable as she came out on stage and said "Utah...This IS the place". She was beautiful and classy. Megan's friend Heidi Olsen is a big fan of Jason's. She bought a dread locks wig/hat on ebay for $20.00 to wear to the concert to show her support for Jason. After the concert was over, the girls wanted to stay to get autographs from the American idols. I was feeling in a party mood, so I thought that sounded fun too. Megan and I were heading up to Snowbird that night, so we were already one hour closer than our drive down from Pleasant View. Her other friends and two of their moms had driven down in a van. We weren't prepared that we would have to wait for about one hour for the idols to come out. At around 11:15, a few of the top ten started working their way out. We were able to meet most of them, but we kept waiting for David Archuleta, David Cook and Jason. With about five minutes to go (the idols had to leave by midnight on their bus) Jason and David Archuleta came out. I ran over with the girls to try to get a closer look. At this point the security guards were pulling at Jason and David to get on the bus. They were getting really intense. Jason was right next to us. I told Heidi to run up to him. Jason turned around and saw Heidi wearing her wig. He got the most amused look on his face and walked right over to pose for this picture. At this point the security guard came up to me and YELLED "You're a bad example to your children." I didn't quite know what to say, but I was in such a great mood, it didn't even bother me...besides Heidi isn't one of my children. Tim said I should have said, give me a break, you will have your job tomorrow, I'm just trying to help fulfill a fantasy here!!

The rest of the week was great at Snowbird!! It is so beautiful there in the summer time. We went swimming and hiking and got a lot of eating and talking in too. It is very fun and quite a bit cooler up there too. I had to hurry home because I was giving a bridal shower for one of my former Young Women. It was a big push to show up at home just two hours before the shower started, but I wasn't in charge of food, just the house and invitations, so I was able to get all of that done beforehand, but it still is stressful when it is at your house. I was really glad I was able to help, and it turned out great. It was nice to be home for a couple of days, but Megan and I left for the cabin on Monday morning.

The cabin is one of my favorite places to go. For whatever reason, I love it more and more each time I go. Whenever I go to Yellowstone, I always think of Mike!! We were able to spend the first few days just relaxing and enjoying everything around the cabin. Tim and Sean came up on Wednesday night to join us. We usually end up doing the same things we love like Yellowstone, Playmill, frog pond, a hike to gather wild huckleberries to make shakes, floating down the river and one of our favorite is going to Meadowvuw Ranch for the rodeo, and the best part is the Steak dinner with dutch oven chicken, potatoes, bean, salad and cobbler. After the dinner they have a great performer that sings country music and those who want to dance. Tim never liked country music, until we started going to the Ranch about six years ago, and then he decided he liked some of it. It is one of those nights that you just know everything is right with the world!!

We arrived home from the cabin on Sunday night, and Megan and I had to be ready for girls camp by 5:30 a.m. on Monday morning. I had packed as much as possible before the cabin, but we still had to put together the rest of our things. We went to Reid Ranch which is about a 3 hour drive, turned into a four hour drive due to the poor road conditions. It was a great week, I still don't like camping, but I love my Young Women!! One night as we were trying to sleep, one of the ladies in my tent said, I feel like we are in the middle of Lagoon trying to sleep. It was so noisy. It was a Stake camp, so there were over 440 girls and leaders there. However, I was able to sleep through the girls, but one of the Young Women leader in the next tent over snored so loud throughout the night I had a hard time sleeping!!! I don't know if you can tell in this picture, but yes I am wearing a bikini at girls camp. I can explain later...Megan was a YCL this year and she did a great job, and I was very appreciative of her watching out for my Beehives.

We got home from girls camp on Thursday afternoon, and I went with Sean to his doctor's appointment for his mission physical. On Saturday, Tim and I hiked Ben Lomond (a 16 mile hike) with Sean and Carlie. I've been desperate to spend time with Sean, so I decided I would go on his dates with him. We had a great time, and it was a great workout!!

Our last adventure of the month was NEW YORK!! We had a fabulous time!!!!! I loved every minute of our trip. I just looked and I look 482 pictures, so I really need to take the time to figure out how to do a little slide show, (don't worry I will try to be selective) but I am feeling a little overwhelmed right now with all I have to do! This is a picture in Central Park, but it almost looks like it could be in Europe.

It was a true girls trip with lots of shopping! We also did a ton of things like...Empire State Building the Today Show, Rockerfeller Plaza, St Patricks Cathedral, NY library, the Plaza Hotel (remind me to tell you that story later) shopping, or rather looking at all of the big stores like Saks Fifth Ave, Maceys, Tiffany's, etc. We went to see Mary Poppins & Lion King on Broadway, Liberty Island, Ellis Island, went as close as we could to Ground Zero, Wall Street, Trinity Church and Grand Central Station, China town, Little Italy, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the temple, Central park etc... It was so much fun. Our feet hurt so bad, but we didn't want to miss out on anything. Megan was a party animal!! I loved every minute of it...sore feet and all. So now I have my pictures, and memories...until next time!! So there you have it...I must face more laundry and make dinner. Tim is getting really tired of frozen food!!