New Family Pics

 Today we went and took family pictures! I have a good friend that we trade doing pictures each year, and its kind of becoming a tradition! Which I totally love!  Its like having my own private photographer :)  These were my favorite shots.   Thanks so much Nancy your the best!!!

Happy Memorial Day

 I just wanted to say Happy Memorial Day to all!  I am extremely blessed in my life! I have so many blessings that counting them would be an absolutely impossible task! I'm so greatful to have grown up in a home where I learned about the reality of war and what it can do to families.  I'm grateful to have had a family that only let those ifluences strengthen us! We learned respect for others and for our country! And we ALWAYS took our hats off and put our hands over our hearts when the flags where present.  We are proud of our country and what it stands for! And we are deeply grateful for those who have served and lost their lives!  They will never be forgotten! They will always have a special place in our hearts, and their ulitimate sacrifice of life itself will always stand as a testimony of their character of willingness!  We are grateful for those who have served and returned home safely, and for the lives that they are living now and the influence they have on all of us.  Not many can comprehend what living a post war life is like for those who will always remember the things that took place.  Thank you to those who have served! And especially my amazing DAD! I'm SO grateful for his example to me of sacrifice.   We also are grateful for those who now serve, and pray for you and your families that you will be safe and protected from harms way and that when that special day comes that you get to come home to your loved ones, that you will arrive in safety! 

 I love Memorial Day!  Its one of those days that I remember as a kid, and even later in years, of going out to the cemetary and putting flowers on my grandma and grandpa Croslands grave's.  And now in more recent years, my grandma and grandpa Cook have also joined them and are in the same cemetary.  I also remember my mom talking to me about the proper places to stand at the cemetary because she wanted me to be very respectful while we were visiting the graves.  I remember we would talk about the good memories that we had of my grandparents when they were here with us, and how we know that we will see them again and what that reunion will be like.  I'm grateful for those early memories as a child, of learning respect for those who have passed on, but also to remember their wonderful lives that they lived and to try and be like them and always honor their name by our actions.

I love this picture so much, because you all know how much I love horses!  And............I love our flag! So this is a perfect picture!  Someone had posted it on FB and I loved it so much that I saved it. The job that Kade and I are currently doing doesnt allow me to be home on Memorial Day but I will always have those memories.  Something else that always makes Memorial Day super special is the 21 gun sallute that they do at the cemetary every year.  I love to see the men in thier uniforms for such a special occasion and watch the flag be raised! I love that all the people watching are standing, united, together with their hands on their heart! And one of the best things about the whole day, is when the taps are played! I always get goose bumps when I hear that tune! I hope we can all take a moment today and remember those special people in our lives and I hope you all have a very Happy Memorial Day!  

Horse Riding....Beach/Redwoods!

 So many of you already know by now, that I was so fortunate to get to live a life-long dream that I have had, of riding a horse on the beach!  It was so awesome! Just as I'd imagined it would be!  It  was fun running in the water and just feeling the ocean breez!  The day was so pretty.  It was slightly overcast so it wasn't hot. It was funny, my horse wanted to drink some of the water, so he put his head down and took a sip and immediatly stopped!  Haha! Gotta love the ocean salt water!   

We took our 1st horse ride on the beach on Tuesday and then we went up through the redwood forests today(Thursday).  Riding in the redwoods was also really fun!  I loved it!  I feel so lucky to have met Kristi!  She is serisouly one of the sweetest people ever!  Such an awesome friend!   I told her that whenever she is in Utah, she needs to stop by and see me!  I wish that I could just take all of these wonderful people with me, back home and make them live there so I could see them whenver I want and hang out! So greatful for the wonderful people in my life!!

Never Give UP!!

Well, this post doesn't have any pictures, but I wanted to share some things that have been on my mind lately.  I have thought a lot about people in general, and how they don't give themselves enough credit in life!  And I guess what I mean is, people don't realize that they can do amazing things or they don't realize their full potential.  We as human beings have the ability to do whatever we want in life.  Kade and I were talking about the best of athletes and why they are the best.  He said, that they push themselves.  We talked about what pushing yourself means to an athlete.  When an athlete is in the middle of a competition, if he is a wrestler, a runner, or whatever it may be, he/she will try so hard that only colapsing on the ground will stop them from finishing what they have set out to do.  We have so much more mental power than what we even comprehend.  When you compare this to enduring life, sometimes physically colapsing would be the easy way out if thats all we had to do, but enduring our trials mentally is the true endurance test.  I think about what a privledge life really is.  Its a privledge to be here on the earth and enjoy this beautiful place and we get to learn from trials and experiences that we have.  They mold and shape us.  Did we think that we would come here to earth and not have any trials to go through.  Did we think that we could sign up for a specific life plan that would go as follows, maybe all good, and no bad!!??   No one has come here with the privledge of picking their trials in life.  We all get dealt a different hand, some of us may have a health problem or a family issue, and others have something completely different, but WE CHOOSE what our life will be like according to the attitude that we have! I see people give up, because they don't realize their full potential.  I see people defeated before they've even started!  I also see people with amazing attitudes who inspire me everyday and people who have changed my life just by the way that they choose to live theirs!  I also see people who quietly endure without complaining and I see people whos hearts have been shattered by some things that have come their way, all are very dear examples to me.  Its so important that we live our lives with confidence, and humility and put any pride or arrogance aside.  And its important that we look to the future with hope and faith and that we LOVE others unconditionally and help them realize their full potential in life!  Never give up and KNOW THAT YOU CAN DO ANYTHING!

Tee Shirt Makeover

 So this "before" picture doesn't even look like the same shirt because of the lighting but oh well, you get the idea.  I have had this shirt tucked away in my "project to-do's" and am finally getting to it :)  I've been wanting to keep this shirt because I love orange but for some odd reason, there is a bleach stain on it..........don't know how that happened but that seems to happen to me once in a while :)  So I've been wanting to do a makeover on it to cover the bleach stain and be able to wear it again.  I had no idea how I was going to redo it or the colors that I wanted to use.  So I just started digging through my material and this is what I came up with :)  I tried it on with jeans and thats my favorite. 

Crecent City!!

 This past Sunday we went on another adventure, we went and visited Crecent City.  Kades group had been working up there and he told me it was really pretty and that I would like it.  I love that he thinks of me when he sees places, because he is always right!  He knows me too well :)  On our drive up to Crecent City, we saw the elk again.  They always hang out around the same spot.  And man! they are growing!  Their antlers are getting bigger all the time.  There were a whole bunch of bulls this time, in this herd, and no cows.

 I'm excited to see how big they are here in a month before we move :)

 This is one of the many many large redwood trees out here but I liked the big round knub that I could stand on :)

 OK, LOOK AT THIS PICTURE VERY CLOSELY!  Kade is standing on the left side of the tree, down there above the ferns, he's in a cream colored shirt.  That shows you how big the trees are!  And my camera would only fit 1/2 of the tree's height! Thats right 1/2!!! HUGE TREE!!!

 These tree were also really neat.  They grow kinda crazy and they are all covered in moss, and they are beautiful!

 This is what they call "The Big Tree"  pretty origional right!!?  The height is 304 feet tall, diameter is 21.6 feet and the age is estimated at 1500 years old!  

 Kade is down inside the remains of an old stump. 

 When we got to Crecent City, there was a beautiful little rock formation by the docks and it was one of the prettiest things I've ever seen.  It just comes right up out of the ground but its really easy to climb up on.  It probably sits about 50 feet up out of the ocean, so you can really look out far into the ocean.  And we saw WHALES!!!! It was so FUN!! We were so excited to finally see whales!  We were sitting there and Kade said," I think I just saw a whale come to the surace, because I saw the water stream that they blow up"  so we watched for a few seconds longer and sure enough, they kept coming up to the surface! Super fun!  And the above pic is when we were climbing around on the rock, looking at things, I liked all those green ocean creatures :) and the barnicles sticking on the rocks.

 One of my most favorites of all time right here!  I set up the camera for this pic and I love how it turned out!

 We got to go see a really neat, old, (still in operation) light house and these flowers were right by the light house.

 This was on our drive as well.  We stopped at the Trees of Mystery gift shop to take a picture of the giant Paul Bunyan and Babe the blue ox!  It was so fun.  They were huge too!  I am sitting on Paul Bunyans right toe, with a cute little boy, because he wanted to be in the picture with me :)

 We can finally say that we drove through a tree!  I still can't believe that the hole of where we drive through is only half the width of the tree! Unbelieveable!

 These lovely little creatures hang out all over the place, and they make themselves quite comfortable indeed!

 This was on the way back from Crecent City and man, what a beautiful sight! It truly reminds me of how much God loves us to give us such a beautiful place to live and enjoy!  And it reminds me of the power that was used to create it. Only the power of God could create a sight like this!

College Cove

 Time is actually going by pretty fast! I can't believe we have been out here almost a month now! That seems crazy.  I'm thankful to be working in the office for our company, because that takes up a lot of time and its nice to be in on the office fun!  I've been wanting to post these pics for a few days now, but it feels like this has been my only chance.  This past Sunday we went and visited College Cove, its actually just north of Trinidad, where we went two Sunday's ago.  I love College Cove a lot because its very secluded and not a lot of people are here, probably because of the cliffs that you have to climb down to get to the beach :)  Which, I'm totally OK with! The pic above is from the cliff that we were on (Redwood forests) looking out to the north. 

 Same cliff :)  Off to the side of me, it was litterally straight down! Probabley at least 100 feet. 

 This was a really fun rock that we climbed up on (the right side) and had a great angle of the beach and ocean, sort of a birds eye view, all angle view.

 This was up on top of that huge rock that we climbed on.  I love these flowers that just grow in the rocks. Cliff flowers :)

 This was up on the rock looking over towards Trinidad.  This is where we sat for a long time and listened to the waves crash on the rocks.  A nice Sunday afternoon activity.

 I think the star fish are so cool, I know I take a lot of pics of them but I just love how colorful and unique they are!

 Can't forget the purple guy

 The rock straight ahead is the one that we climbed up on to watch the waves. I love how flat the beach is so that the water kinda just runs all over it.

 Kade buggers :)  The mountain behind Kade doesnt look that big but......its big, and thats the one that we climbed down to get to the beach.  I felt like I was on the elk hunt with the Church boys again.......never know where they are gonna take ya! 

Just another view from our climb.  Hope I'm not posting too many scenic pics.  I just have a hard time picking which ones I want to post, so, they all end up on here! :)  Oh well!  Hope you all like them!  We love and miss everyone! Hope all is well with everyone, wherever in the world you may be!!!