Sam's trip and FHE

This year has been so funny for our little family.  A few things have been a repeat of last year, like going to Arizona the same exact week we went there last year.  One of the best repeats of all is that my sister Samantha is here again!!  Last year she came to visit a few days after school got out and now she is back to visit at the same time as a high school graduate!!  We've been doing a lot of things all together and it's been really fun to have her here with us.  Someone to keep Audrey and I company during the day, someone new for Audrey to play with, someone for me to talk all about Audrey Hepburn with (I had no idea Samantha loved her almost as much as I do!).  Samantha's even introduced us to new recipes we hadn't tried yet and we've done the same for her.  We still have our not so lovely sisterly moments of course, but more than anything it's been way way fun to have her here with us.  Here are only a few pictures of how we've been spending some of our time.

yay grocery shopping!  so much fun and so much faster with another person!  especially with ice cream….

my beautiful sister

ldsbc, where andrew and i met!  one of the best places on earth.  we did a tour there for sam, who will hopefully be going there eventually!!

one of my favorite classrooms!  religion classes were my favorites.

temple square with mariah

Last night we had a Family Night about talents.  We each had a chance to display one or two of out talents and it turned into such a fun night that lasted longer than FHE.  Samantha shared her talk from getting her Young Women medallion at church (we weren't able to go so it was awesome to hear what we missed) and she also did a few dances for us from her dance class!!  Andrew showed some of his house plan drawings from his early drafting classes, which Samantha was very impressed with (it's funny cause I've seen his drawings so many times but seeing how fun it was for him to show them to someone new and seeing Samantha's reaction to them made me appreciate them more and made me want to brag about my smarty pants husband.  It made me realize how extremely lucky we are that Andrew is able to pursue something he enjoys and is good at).  I shared some drawings and paintings I've been having fun with.  Not something I'm pursuing hardcore or anything, just something I enjoy doing.

I particularly liked this Family Night because it rejuvenated all of us in these talents we shared.  It's true that when you share your talent, you increase it.  For me it's just because it brings it back to my mind and I get excited about it again.  I saw that in Andrew too as we talked all about his drawings, and in Samantha as we watched her dance.  She's even going to teach me one or two of the dances!  There was a talk this Sunday about happiness and how we can find happiness in our lives.  One thought that was shared really hit me.  It was that the key to happiness is to not be idle.  To always have an interest or a work to do, self-assigned or not, something to be working toward.  I think it's the idea of having purpose.  That's a key to happiness.  Maybe I'll write more about this later in my personal journal or something, because I really like it.  Samantha has been a big example to me of this.  She pursues knowledge about things she's interested in and she always strives to develop her talents and the things she enjoys.  I'm really grateful to have had this extended visit with her.  Last year we were trying to hit all the things we wanted to do in one week.  It was fun of course but this time I'm appreciating the downtime we have to just hang out together, while going and doing the fun things every few days.  We will miss her so much when she's gone back home :(