i heart's (oops!) best pictures of august 2010 that i forgot to post!

the lincoln memorial

the spot at the lincoln memorial

where martin luther king, jr.

delivered his "i have a dream" speech

glenn beck speaking at the restoring honor rally on the mall.

thomas jefferson's monticello

the garden and view at monticello

the national cathedral

detail of van gogh's "roses"

at the national gallery of art

(i'm always so tempted to reach out and touch his paintings!)

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i heart's best picture of september 2010

sedona

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i heart... the restoring honor rally

i was so happy to be able to go to the

restoring honor rally

in washington, d.c. on 8/28

it was as wonderful as i'd hoped it would be.

it was such an uplifting experience to be with so many people

of all different backgrounds, but all like minded.

there were two themes to the rally:

to honor the troops

and

to restore honor to America

by looking to God.

my favorite quote was,

"we as individuals need to be good,

so America can be great."

the Founders knew that the Constitution could only work

if Americans were good moral people.

we need to get back to that.

here is an article from the wall street journal

that represents the rally as i experienced it.

i heart ... middle-of-nowhere, arizona

while my aunt carol was in town
she asked my dad to take us on a road trip
to visit his property in middle-of-nowhere, arizona.

on our way we stopped to take in this beautiful view

from the mogollon rim.

when i got out of the car

look what i saw!

maybe the only snow i'll see this year!

and now,

middle-of-nowhere, arizona!

we just drove around the property.

there's nothing there.

but it's pretty!

oh wait,

there is something there.

there's this skull tied to a tree.

why do the boys in my family like dead things so much?

while we were driving, carol asked what kinds of animals live in the area.

i said i just hoped there were no mountain lions!

those things are scary!

they will silently stalk you and you don't know they are there until it's too late.

we didn't see any mountain lions (until later),

but we did see some cows (that had trespassed from another ranch)...

... and we also saw javelina

(see him on the other side of the water, running behind the tree?)

there were 5 of them, but my camera wasn't fast enough.

in town, we drove by this beautiful church.

there was a cemetery behind the church

which of course we had to explore.

i thought this was really pretty.

i guess they couldn't afford a proper headstone.

have you ever eaten lunch next to
a kodiak bear and a caribou.
dead ones?
well we did.

at the antler's cafe.

i don't know how i did it.

i should win some kind of award.

the food was actually good!

and what in the heck is this all about?

remember how i said earlier that i didn't want to see a mountain lion?

well, what do you know?
there he is.
sitting above the t.v.
of course!

driving around middle-of-nowhere
we saw some interesting signs.

this is my personal favorite:

umm... why is there a bicycle and a coffee pot on top of this sign?

"go away".

i thought cowboys were supposed to be friendly.



we left middle-of-nowhere, arizona

and drove to small town, arizona

to have a quick visit with my brother and his family.

but first we stopped by

my great-great grandfather's house

which is now a museum.

then we stopped by his statue

(that's him standing in front of the wagon.

his name is jesse n. smith

and in the wagon is ira hinckley

who is gordon b. hinckley's grandfather)

(umm, i don't know if i should tell you this,

but paris hilton is also a descendant of jesse n. smith,

but let's just keep that between you and me.

i'm not sure if he'd want you to know that!)

also there are statues of my great-great-great grandparents

lucy and william jordan flake.

on the right is erastus snow.

after our little diversions

we made it to my brother's house

where i smothered these little munchkins with kisses!!!

and finally,

on our way out of small town, arizona

we drove by the temple

(do you see the moon to the left of the temple?)

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i heart ... visiting stephanie and her family

recently i got to visit

stephanie and her family

in utah.

on my first morning i woke up to this...

samuel asking me if i would like him to cook an egg for me!

what a sweet boy!

and it was the best egg i've ever had!

this was my first time visiting stephanie

in her new house.

i very much loved the view from the backyard...

and i loved the view even more from the front yard!

and i loved, loved, loved the view

out of this little window at the top of the stairs...

later that day we went to hang out at marsha's house

and as always drove past the provo temple...

then i swooned over this view at the end of marsha's street.

my first sighting of snow this year.

and maybe my last since i live in the desert!mount timpanogos


and then swooned even more over the beautiful colors

on her neighbor's trees!

and while in utah we saw many beautiful sunsets...

on friday we were able to do a session at the salt lake temple.

if you ever have the chance to do one - do it!
wow!

this is my favorite picture of the whole trip!


after our temple session

we took a drive around the area

and this is what we saw...

the state capitol...

a beautiful house...

another beautiful house...

this super cool lds chapel...

and on the way home from the temple

look what we stumbled upon...

yes, that's stonehenge!

you know, i visited stonehenge in england.

i never got the memo it had been moved to utah.

huh.


then we saw the rameumpton treehouse.

things just keep getting weirder.

(only in utah!)


then we went to the the grocery store

and look what i found...

the weirdest (and maybe coolest) thing of all...

and my personal favorite...

then thursday night

noah and samuel gave me my latest lesson on jets.

if you ever needed, for some reason, to know anything about jets

ask them.

on saturday samuel had a halloween party

for which shelby made cupcakes...
then those lucky kids got to decorate them...

and samuel looked very scary...

and with that

our visit to stephanie and family

was at its end.

goodnight!








p.s.

on our way home we saw this...

the manti temple.

this is where we'll do a session on my next visit to utah!

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