On October 10th, my sister Elizabeth and I started on long weekend road trip to see a former college roommate. The weather had been beautiful and unseasonably hot for this time of year so when we set the date for our trip we didn't even consider the possibility of snow. Well, we drove the northern route which took us through Wyoming. Having driven this a few times, I wasn't looking forward to the boring drive. This time, it was NOT boring. In fact, it was quite terrifying at times. The snow started before we even hit the Wyoming border. We hit freezing rain, ice on the roads, fog, and more snow before we made it to Cheyenne at 2:00 am. We passed three horrible accidents, but luckily, we made it in one piece.
On Saturday morning, we started the final....short...leg of our trip to Arvada, Colorado. We borrowed my friend's TomTom to help us find Annie's house. What a blessing! We found Annie's house quite easily. (Having never been to Colorado before, I would have had no idea where to go.) Annie and her husband Ben have two awesome kids: Deeny and Sam. I haven't seen them for quite a while and my have they grown. The reunion with Annie was definately sweet. We sat and talked for hours. Poor Annie (and her husband Ben) had a horrible cold. You could tell she wasn't feeling well, but didn't let it show. They cooked us some awesome gourmet meals. On Sunday, Ben even cooked us pizza - from scratch. Here are the pizza's for the kids.
We spent most of the time there visiting. It was so great to catch up with Annie and to spend time with her family. Ben works multiple jobs and Annie is able to stay home with the kids. Watching them was incredible. I was grateful for this peak into their lives. I saw so many things that I was impressed with. Annie is the type of mother I hope to be. She and Ben do all that they can to raise their family in the way we have been counseled to do. She is up at the crack of dawn to get them off to school. When they come home, it is homework time. Her kids are only in kindergarten and 1st grade, but have more homework than I had somedays in high school. She is patient in every way with them. She does amazingily well with keeping their schedules straight. They eat what's given to them (something that doesn't happen at my house). They are polite and kind. With Ben's busy schedule they have nightly family prayer before he leaves for meetings or gigs. When he doesn't have to work, they have family prayer before bedtime. They all take turns - even Sam. They read a chapter in the Book of Mormon every night - Annie calls it Jesus Story. They patiently sit and listen to the scriptures. It is hard to say how much they understand, but I know it is a great blessing in their lives. If time permits, they even get a bedtime story from one of their library books. Since I was still sleeping when the kids left for school in the morning, I didn't know until we were leaving, that they also have family prayer in the morning. I was in awe. This is how we spent most of our time with the kids.
This trip impacted me in ways I never could have imagined. I am forever changed by what I saw. I am grateful for the experience of spending a few days in their household.
I didn't take very many pictures. Most of them are of the kids being crazy. It was Deeny's birthday the day we left. Their family tradition is who ever is not having a birthday gets to decorate the cake. As it was Deeny's birthday, Sam decorated her cake. It was so fun!
Here is Sam. He let his sister put make-up all over his face. It didn't wash off
very well, but you can hardly tell he has it on.
Deeny got to celebrate her birthday early. One of her early gifts was a
Hannah Montanna Doll. She loved it.
Here is Sam presenting the cake he decorated for Deeny's Birthday.
I think he did an awesome job. Chocolate cake with chocolate frosting.
You can't really go wrong with that.
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