Ten Elephants, To Infinity, and the BEST Week Ever...

-:TEN ELEPHANTS:- 
    This last month has been filled with a lot of wonderful, exciting and scary experiences, so this post will get pretty long, but it's catch up time, and then I promise to be a more consistent writer...

     The beginning of January brought two things, meeting Babe's family, and his 22nd birthday :) I was all but terrified to meet his mom and sister the day before his birthday, he's the baby and i don't want them to feel like I'm trying to take him away from them. But i went and it was nice, they are great people, obviously, and I hope that as they get to know me better they think the same of me. The next day (Monday the 11th) was his birthday, I took him out for lunch at Love Boat Sushi...we had a lot of fun and a really good talk about how we feel about eachother, it just seems to get better and more perfect everyday...Later that night I met him and his family for dinner at a buffet in San Marcos, and met his brother also...I really look forward to spending more time with all of them. His brother and sister are funny and his neice and nephew are absolutely precious!! The next night my dad took us (Ashy, Nolan, Delaney, Sharon, Dad, Babe, and I)out to Ruth's Chris for dinner ( we did a lot of eating for this birthday haha) we all dressed up nice and dinner was AMAZING!
     The following weekend I got to drive with Ashlynd up to L.A. to meet the Thallons, a family she was close with in Australia. The drive up was full of music of all kinds, turned up as loud as it could go, and lots of laughs...That night I dropped her off at their hotel near LAX and went up to Kayleigh and Allie's in Northridge. As I exited the 405 on Nordoff there was an older man standing at the light in the pouring rain. Under any other circumstances I probably would have just kept driving, but the timing was just right, I was listening to Hilary Weeks, and was quiet enough to remember a story my grandpa told at Christmas time about a similar situation, and to feel the prompting that I needed to turn around.I only had $40 in cash, and all I was hesitant because all I could give him was a 20, but I knew I needed to do it, as I gave it to him I began to cry, the spirit as I sat alone in my car was strong, and I said a prayer aloud as I drove that my small sacrifice would in someway benefit that man...
      It was so nice to be able to see and talk with my girls about everything that is going on in our lives and to know that time and distance doesn't take away that bond that we have...I left early in the morning and was at the Sheraton at LAX by 7, even in Hollywood traffic. The family is hilarious and so loving and fun to be around, I know now why it was so hard for her to leave, and why she loved it there so much, They loved her so very much, and were so welcoming to me as well. We took the shuttle to the airport with them, stayed until they hit security and then got Denny's for breakfast and headed back home. I really enjoyed spending that time with Ash. I look up to her in so many ways, she is my goofy, yet serious, emotional, yet strong, spiritual, best friend and sister, and I love her SO very much!!       
  I mostly split my time between nannying, work, and seeing the boy. I try to sleep and see everyone else as much as possible as well. I love Danielle, she and i were destined to be best friends, we say the same things at the same times, and think a lot of the same thoughts wether we say them out loud or not, haha...she makes me happy, we've had some good times and good talks recently...

~:TO INFINITY, okay, maybe just Utah:~

    

Last Friday we left for Utah... we being Gerber, Babe, and I. We left Escondido at exactly 6:05 am, and got to Provo around 5:15pm Utah time, which is actually amazing timing! The drive was fun, how could it not be with two of my absolute favorite people in the whole world in car with me?! We were in vegas by 10:15, and made it to in-n-out in time to be the 13th, 14th, and 15th coustomers of the day, and saw the funniest tagging on the side of an aluminim walled building in the middle of the desert, it said "The CROOKEST SHERRIFF DEPARTMENT IN THE USA"...just like that, hmmm, really? haha.

Seriously,  I don't think I could have been happier, scratch that, I KNOW I COULDN'T HAVE BEEN HAPPIER!! The rest of the drive went well, no weather like we were worried about either. Our first stop in Provo was to the boy's apartment...i was SO excited to see them!! Then Collin left for a date, and Kyle headed off with us to Taylor's house where I put myself together for her "party." I've never been a huge fan of social gatherings like that, especially ones where I only know like 4 people, and the rest of them don't seem to be interested in talking, SO we did our social duty and stayed for a little while, and then went to Sub Zero Ice Cream, [which I thought was sent from heaven :)] and then to the boy's apartment to watch a movie....I headed back to Orem and Taylor's late that night and then went in the morning to hang out with the boys til lunch with Tay and a few of her Friends. Theeeeennnn I picked Col, Kylie, and Gerber back up and we went to visit Michelle and Logan at their home. We watched a little bit of the Sandlot and got to talk for a little while which was wonderful, I wish I could have talked to here more one on one, but it was still nice to see her and know she is well, I miss her so very much!!

From there Babe and I dropped the others off so that they could go to the BYU basketball game and Humor-U and we headed out to the Provo Temple. There we sat on a bench, looking up at the Temple and the snowy mountains (breath taking is a word that comes to mind) and had an amazing talk, and when we were almost frozen, walked back to the car and talked some more...We got a lot out, and our understanding of eachother grew tremendously.

From the temple we decided to see a movie, Provo is great for cheap things to do, so we went to the dollar theater and saw The Fantastic Mr. Fox. It was funny and we just enjoyed eachother's company. By the time the movie was over it was starting to snow, so being paranoid like I am, we hurried to Taylor's and ended up falling asleep. After a little while I took him back to Provo, just to pick him back up as soon as I was ready in the morning while the others went to church and we attempted to pack some of taylor's things...Once she was done with church she and her friends Steph and Krista finished jamming everything in my car, we had Collin pray for us in Japanese, and we were on the road again...Another fun drive, mostly cramped in the back of the car, but hey, I didn't really mind :) Ashlynd called on our way home though, and it was really nice to talk to her, she told me about how she was listening to our favorite song (Somewhere Beyond the Moon) and had to sing BOTH parts, and I missed her even more, I was excited to get back and see her! We hit major traffic for about an hour and a half outside vegas, and after some seriously silly moments {mainly a wacked out girl at in-n-out in Barstow, and Chocolate kisses melting all over the front of Babe's pants}we made it home around 11:30 pm.

[_AND THE BEST WEEK EVER_]

Kara told me this morning that one of the kids that just graduated escondido summit got shot last night, not a great thing to find out first thing in the morning...A lot of the time when i find out things like this it makes me take stock of my own life. I've had such amazing opportunities lately and I am so unbelievably grateful for all of my blessings.I absolutely love and adore the kids that i get to work with, I don't get it though, when will they learn, what's it going to take?! And it's not just them, it's their environments, and their families...everyone deserves love, consistency, meaningful connections, and encouragement... I honestly believe that everything comes back to the love of our savior, and the amazing light his gospel brings to our lives. Babe was telling me last night that he wants this week to be the best week ever, and how he's going to make sure he's reading and praying and doing everything right so that he can make that happen, and asked me if I would do that with him. It's moments like that when everything makes sense, when i realize why nothing has ever worked out before and why everything is falling to place now. He's helping me be closer to everything that I know is right and good, and closer to the person I know that I can be, the one that Heavenly Father sees in me. He's everything I've ever wanted and even a few things I never thought I needed before...I have never felt more secure in who I am or where I'm going or been more excited and ready for the future!