6 Months

We've been married 6 months today. Our lives are so blessed. Our marriage is wonderful, fun, funny, adventurous, challenging, real, and forever. Even after we dated for 5 years I'm learning more and more about Micah and am continually amazed at what a good and pure person that he is. Something that can be really challenging sometimes, but that I am the most grateful for is that Micah doesn't just let me be...he is always pushing me to be better, kinder and more understanding towards others, easygoing, and grateful. He doesn't just accept my weaknesses, he really believes that they can be overcome and become strengths. He helps me recognize that doing my best is really achievable, but it takes constant vigilance and effort. It makes life so exciting because it's challenging, but real effort and conscientiousness makes a difference that I can see and feel.

We watched a lot of the 2010 Winter Olympics that were in Vancouver on TV (because one day Micah drove to Ogden to get a super awesome deal on a huge TV just so we could watch:) and were amazed at the ability, speed, agility, and dedication of each of the athletes. They are the best in the world at their individual sport/event. As Micah watches these people compete, knowing the amount of time, strength, pushing their limits, endurance, etc. that went into the years to prepare to be there competing for medals, he knows that they are giving their best - an attribute of our Heavenly Father. It's a reminder that our best is attainable. We're here to prove ourselves and to be our best at whatever we decide to engage in. Olympians demonstrate that attribute in the one area they compete in.

Right now Micah and I are reading the autobiography of Larry H. Miller. Micah took an Entrepreneurial Leadership course from him while at BYU and Mr. Miller spoke at one of my work functions (Founders Conference) a couple of years ago. He passed away on February 20, 2009. His book is titled "Driven" which so accurately describes Larry H. Miller. In his book he tells a story about asking for a well-deserved raise from an employer. As he tells it, "After doing a little research, i discovered that I was waiting on 65 percent of the customers by myself, which mean all the other employees combined were handling only 35 percent" and he was workgin 83 hours a week. His request was declined and he was really upset. The same day that he was rejected, he had his monthly dinner with his grandfather who inquired about the matter. I'll quote the rest:

Larry: "No matter how hard I work I can't perform well enough to accelerate my pay, and I'm getting married."
Gpa: "So what do you intend to do about it?"
Larry: "I guess I'll only give them a $1.45 job if they're only going to pay me $1.45."
Gpa: "You could do exactly that and still perform at such a high level that you would outperform your coworkers. So they would never know you were giving less than you had. But you would know, and frankly, you would be teh only guy to be hurt by your underperformance. So, as your grandpay, I am going to promise you that as long as you continue to take their paycheck, if you work as hard as you can and learn all that you can in that business, someday it will pay off many times over. "

Larry's comments: I didn't realize then how profound his counsel would prove to be in my life...It was one of the great lessons in my life, and I have given my best effort in everything I have done since then. Grandpa was right. It wasn't about beating my employers and their policies; it was about me and doing my best because it was the right thing to do.

I love that last line from Mr. Miller - it was about me and doing my best because it was the right thing to do. Pure truth.

Oh Canada

We drove 18 hours up to Vancouver Island with our cousins Eric, Nakita & Reese. Eric drove straight through the night until we arrived at the ferry - a true Canadian. We saw a bald eagle fly right in front of our car. Come to find out that's really common up there. The scenery reminded me a lot of New Zealand. Everything is so green and the ocean views are breathtaking. We stayed at Aunt Jill and Uncle Jackson's house. It was such a fun and unique trip!

Here we are on a British Columbia ferry on our way to Vancouver Island.




Reese was the best road tripper of us all! She laughed and played the entire time. She even woke up at 3 or 4am just smiling and keeping herself happy. You can't help but bond after spending 18 hours together in the car:)

Here is Jackson (cousin Jacob's son) ready to go diving in the freezing cold water. He is an avid underwater sea man. He caught a white back kelp crab and told us all about it while it kept pinching him.

Micah is also part marine biologist as you see him eating squid eggs that we found on the beach.


Two of my favorite things are ice skating and anything involving paddling in water. We went sea kayaking along the beautiful coast of Vancouver Island.


My favorite part of the trip was visiting Mr. Chase. Mr. Chase was born in 1910 and is turning 100 years old in September. After we went seakayaking from Mr. Chase's private beach, we went into his house to meet him. He was wearing one piece jump suit with his work boots on. His house is like a museum full of treasures that Mr. Chase has accumulated throughout his life including:

• A collection of locks and keys that are probably as old as Mr. Chase himself
  
• Mr. Chase's father' s sword that he fought with in the Civil War! There are only two living "sons of the civil war." Isn't that amazing to think that he can say his dad fought in the Civil War? His father entered the war at age 13. What an amazing treasure!
  
• A beautiful and intricate handmade tiara made out of women's hair!

Here is Reese sitting under a tree at Mr. Chase's house while caterpillars kept falling on her head.

Before we boarded the Victoria Clipper to make our way to Seattle, we walked around downtown Victoria. Much of the architecture is the old English style including the Empress Hotel and the Parliament Building.

We stayed at Seth and Amy's house on Sunday night then met Alickya and James for lunch at Microsoft. Amy took Sam and Ellie out of school so we could all hang out together. After lunch we went to Sky High - trampoline land! Jayne was fearless and loved jumping into the pit. Sam was doing flips and Ellie was jumping all over the place. My 33 year old husband even did a gainer into the pit - he's still got it:)

One the plane ride home Micah and I wrote down our goals for our marriage and life together. We have so many things to look forward to in our lives!

Ephraim with Grandma Gwen

On Friday, May 28th Micah and I drove down to Ephraim to meet Grandma Gwen, Micah's parents Allen & Janis, and other members of the Christensen family to see the C.C.A. Christensen (Micah's fourth great grandfather and famous LDS artist of his time) cabin that was moved to downtown Ephraim. It just so happened that it was also the weekend of Scandinavian Days.



We stayed the at Micah's Dad's cousin's house for the weekend - Carl & Carolyn Christensen - with Allen & Janis. Carl let us all tag along that evening as he went to water his farm. I'm convinced that Carl & Carolyn are some of the best people on earth. They were so warm and so thrilled to have family staying with them. They made us so feel so comfortable and welcome. They kept asking us to stay longer. Saturday morning they called all of their family and organized a BBQ with their favorite barbecued turkey to entice us to stay. How could we resist? I could have stayed there forever.

The main purpose of going to Ephraim was to take Grandma Gwen all around town and have Micah film her as she shared stories of her teenage and early married years. Moyle Christensen and Gwenyth Christensen were both born and raised in Ephraim. We visited Grandma's old house, the movie theater where Grandpa worked and where Gwen got to see movie's for free during their courtship and marriage. It was such a priceless experience. I drove Janis' car while Micah filmed from the front passenger seat, Janis held a voice recorder to Grandma's lips, and Allen took a nice afternoon nap. I can't begin to describe how much I admire and love Grandma Gwen. I'm sure you'll learn about her in many more posts here. I'll elaborate later.

Gwen and Moyle were sealed in the Manti Temple. They eloped because the tradition in Ephraim was for friends of the newlyweds to kidnap them right after they were married, take them to the edge of town, take their clothes, and leave them there to walk home in the buff! I would have eloped too:)


Grandma Gwen & Grandpa Moyle, Allen & Janis, and Micah & Rachel were sealed in the Manti Temple.