When I Am Baptized

What a wonderful week! Khora's baptism was so special! She planned the program herself and wanted to include every member of our family. When she asked Bonnie to give a talk on the Holy Ghost I had not even consider that. It all turned out so nice. It was a very beautiful day for her. She is one of the choice daughters of our Heavenly Father. She was given a wonderful blessing and has wonderful talents and gifts that will help lift those around her and help her keep the covenants she has made! It was a nice full day celebrating with her.

Birthday Time Again

Khora's special day finally arrived!! Friday she officially turned 8 years old! I know she didn't think it would ever come but it did!  Her birthday wish was that the girls didn't have to do school work so we complied. She had new clothes to wear and time to spend out in the sun playing with new PetShop toys!!  I sure love this beautiful inside and out girly girl! She has a tender heart and compassionate spirit. She makes me laugh.  I love watching her tumble and to see her smile. Happy Birthday Khora Ann!!

The girls and I met with both grandmas  and helped Khora pick out a white dress for her baptism day. Her baptism day is getting so close and she is just so excited! We enjoyed a wonderful afternoon together shopping, trying on dresses and having lunch at Zupas.  She wanted to include her sisters in her day which is very typically Khora. She loves them both and hates to leave anyone out. She tried on a few dresses with Afton being her little assistant in the dressing room. It was a good day and hinted at future times.  All roads lead to the temple. 

Payson Temple Preparations

Thursday, April 23rd - Dennis and I were able to go to a VIP walk through of the Payson Temple!  All the upper city officials were invited that day. It was amazing!! It is so beautiful!  Honestly it is the most beautiful place I have ever been! Right there in the temple I had the desire to stay in Santaquin for years and years. I can’t believe we have a temple 10 minutes away that we can almost see from our own backyard. 

Another wonderful opportunity came to Dennis on Sunday the 26th.  He was asked to play the piano during a special general authority tour of the Payson temple this morning.  He played for about an hour in the little reception tent outside the temple.  He took Jacob with him to ‘help turn pages’.

Sunday, May 2nd -  I was able to go with the YW in our ward to tour the Brides Dressing Room and sealing room at the Payson temple. (The Brides dressing room is not part of the 'regular' tour.) It was fun walking through it with the girls and their moms.  Of course my thoughts were with my own girls at home. One day! There are two things that stood out to me both this time and when I saw it the first time with Dennis. 

First, there is a theme of apple blossoms through out the temple. They are everywhere!  In the stained glass, the details of the hardware and embellishments in the fabric and even on the ceiling. It is an obvious connection to this area. It  was symbolic to me of  our growth from a tiny bud into a beautiful blossom. This is also seen on the temple itself.  As you progress up the temple the buds open. In the sealing room they are in full bloom. The purpose of the blossom is to bear fruit, the same is true for us. 

The other theme was light.  There are 120 stained glass windows in the Payson temple.  We were told that is twice that of any other temple.  This was evident as Dennis and I were sitting in a sealing room on the west side of the temple.  It was late in the day and the sun was positioned just perfectly to light the whole room with a beautiful and radiant natural light. It was so beautiful and warm and made me so happy and warm. My thoughts naturally turned to my family and the desire to have them there with me. I know that because of the sealing power available in that room as in the room Dennis and I were sealed 16 years ago, I can be with my family forever! I know that we have been given power to bloom and bring forth good fruit.

 I found this quote in General Conference from Elder Cook this past April.  He said:

When we follow the Savior of the world, the Son of God, we flourish and become glorious despite the many terrible circumstances that surround us.  He truly is our light and life.  "Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the Kingdom of their father." (Matt 13:45).  As individual disciples of Christ living in a hostile world that is literally in commotion, we can thrive and bloom if we are rooted in our love of the Savior and humbly follow His teachings.

Thursday, May 14th- I  was able to help at the temple open house in the wheelchair assistance line on Thursday. We wrapped the wheels in saran-wrap. It took a minute or so to do so I had the chance to talk to the visitors.  It was a good experience. It was so windy but didn't rain while I was there, just for Isaac's game later that night. 

Saturday, May 16th- Mahonri and Ammon brought their families up and we went with mom and dad to the Payson temple open house Saturday evening.  It was raining the whole time, and there were SO many people there, but it was still good to go inside with our family.  The girls loved the sealing rooms, but where the isle was that you walk down.  It wasn't the same as they see in the movies. Still beautiful enough to fill a little girl's dreams though!

Friday, May 22nd -Dennis was able to help out with the last week of the open house before the dedication of the Payson Temple. The rain has done little to keep people from coming! I'm curious to the numbers, but the lines never seemed to end. Dennis helped out with parking duty Friday morning. He may have gotten a little wet, but didn't seem to mind.

We've been busy with practices for the cultural celebration. Its getting closer and becoming more of a reality. We are all so excited for it to be dedicated! How grateful I am for temples!  What an incredible blessing to have a temple just 10 minutes away!! Feeling so blessed!!

Birthday Girls

One year older for these two beautiful girls!

11 Years Old

5 Years Old!

We planed a birthday party for Bonnie, its her year for it. We got to use a couple of the city's big inflatables at the Recreation building!  It was an easy party to plan and the kids were entertained the whole time!! If we didn't have all the rain this week I wouldn't have even thought about it. She said it was a good day!! She sure is getting big!  I can't believe that my baby is 5! Craziness!! 

Singing Happy Birthday & Ladybug Cake

Making a Wish

Inflatables Birthday Fun!

Afton was excited to get this special Polar Bear cake, made by a very neat lady in our ward.

Afton's Personalized Polar Bear Cake

To celebrate Afton's birthday she invited Khora and another friend to go see Cinderella at the theater Friday afternoon. They had a good time together and enjoyed their day with lots of girl time, and treats. She is such a good girl and growing into a beautiful young woman!  She just completed memorizing the 13th article of faith.  She was so excited to finish her goal of memorizing them all this year. 

Birthday call from the Marker Family

Spring Review Tumbling Session

Khora completed another session of her tumbling class.  This was her last class with coach Trina.  I'm kind of sad about that because Trina has done so much to help bring Khora out and helped her to find what she is good at and just bloom!

 Khora is confident enough now to move on to another coach.  She is excited to continue to develop this talent. Here is a highlight reel from her showcase in May.

Philippines Trip #4

Mom still had a pretty well stocked pantry that she was trying to clean out before they left, so we didn't have to buy too many meals while I was there.  When we bought anything it was purely for the benefit of my cultural experience.There wasn't anything too crazy like squid or anything.

Beyond the coconut, white rice, and sweet and condensed milk that was everywhere and in everything there was . . . 

We found these fish among rows and rows of other sea food critters of all shapes and sizes at the market in Carbon.  They had a nice looking LapuLapu fish there so we bought it. .  They fillet it right there in front of us.Didn't want the head so Pres. Belleaza took it

This was the fish soup that the Belleaza's made for us from the fish head we gave him-from Carbon. It was actually very good! No eyeballs. (They were his treat!)  They use a lot of ginger which I love, but I got a big chunk in this and it made my eyes water.  There will all kinds of veggies. The leafy greens are called peckay. 

This was part of the buffet we had while in Bahol on the river tour. The pork was pretty tastey!!

Taho is a Philippine delicacy made of fresh soft/silken Tofu, Arnibal (brown sugar syrup), and Sago “pearls” (which are similar to Tapioca pearls). We also had this on the floating restaurant in Bahol and I thought it was pretty good.

Durian fruit aka the stinky fruit.  I learned that this is actually banned in some public places in Asia because it is so odorous!  I didn't actually try the fruit, but President Belleaza brought some durian jam for me to try.  I didn't think it was that bad actually.

Mangos are delicious!!  I could eat them everyday!!

We bought some avocados at the market in Carbon also.  They were ripe enough to eat just before I came home.  Yummy!!

Sapodilla, we bought these just to see what they were like. I had actually tried them in Utah but Mom and Dad had never tried them before. They are kind of like a mix between an apple and a pear. It was alright.  The more ripe it is the sweeter it gets. I think the one we ate was a little too ripe for my taste.

My favorite treat there!  This comes from a buko fruit.  My mom froze it and then made a smoothie with fresh pineapple! Orange Julius has nothing on this stuff!!

President & Sister Belleazon brought these over for us on Sunday night.  They are called pinaypay or banana fritters.  They are deep fried in coconut oil (of course) and then rolled in sugar.  Also delish!!

Called Bananaque we bought these hot from a vendor on the street by the temple block.  Well, technically a member who has a store bought them for us and delivered them to the apartment.  They weren't done when we were out so she offered to pick them up for us. They are small cooking bananas on a kabob that are fried and rolled in brown sugar.  Not too bad.

I was too exhausted on the flight over to take a picture of my Asian style dinner which included tofu(not a fan), but I did remember on the trip home. This was the meal that I had on the plane from Cebu to Tokyo.  It was pretty good.  Chicken and rice with steamed veggies, a fresh julianned salad with balsamic dressing, some other veggies, the one on the left I didn't like much but cauliflower and carrots were alright (airplane food is still airplane food after all.)  Watermelon, both yellow and red.  At first I thought the yellow melon was pineapple, but as soon as I stuck my fork into it I knew that it was the yellow variety of watermelon that I had heard about.

I actually brought home a bunch of 'snacks' for the family to try out (These are only a few of them).  We just picked them up from the grocery store while we were out.  Some were really good, others were OK and the durian candy was purely for the experience of it.  I personally thought that the chocolate bars tasted fishy - if that's even possible.  The kids didn't think so though and Bonnie actually liked the white chocolate bars that I brought home.  Of course we could eat the dried mangoes all day!

Philippines Trip #3

3. Bahol Island - by AnaLee

We spent a whole day on the island of Bohol. My parents had been here before (see post of July 28, 2014) on a different tour, but this is definitely on my list of places to come back to . . . one day!

The Loboc River

Our first stop on the tour was for lunch on the floating restaurant featuring a Filipino cuisine buffet. It was a very warm day but it was gorgeous! The cruise included live entertainment and a view of locals getting out of the heat and enjoying the "unpolluted' river. I think at one point a man swam up to our barge and of the the workers gave him a life jacket.  When we came back around we saw a little boy wearing it.

Bardge(aka floating restaurant) on the river.

I loved the colors!

So beautiful. 

At one point along the river there was a short stop where we were treated to local entertainment.  They played their ukulele and sang and danced in their costumes. There were all ages included. A couple of the youth performed a dance with four long bamboo rods that was kind of impressive.

dancing with bamboo

Of course all ways something to buy

Isn't he just the cutest thing ever!!

Tarsier Preservation

These guys were so cute!  They could probably fit into your pocket, or at least your purse.

The second stop was at the tarsier wildlife conservation.  We saw about 10-11 of these animals often called "the worlds smallest primates". They are about the size of a man's fist. They are a protected species and threatened due to illegal trading, and deforestation.  Their main predator. . .the domestic cat.  They were all sleeping, because they are nocturnal and eat insects. They were so cute sleeping though. Those eyes are huge when they open them. They don't move their eyes, however their heads can rotate 180 degrees. 

I forgot to open my eyes!! (but what's new?)

The Chocolate Hills

Unique to Bohol is a natural feature named The Chocolate Hills. These are small grass covered conical shaped hills are scattered all over an area. There are between 1,260 to 1,776 individual mounds. The hills are covered in green grass, which turn to brown during the dry season, making them look like dollops of chocolate. Dad and I were able to view all of them from a high viewing deck. We made it up the 210 steps to the view deck without even stopping.  Yahoo- feel the burn! 

From on top of the viewing deck

Bohol was my favorite place to visit. It was so green and clean and probably the closest to what I pictured the Philippines to be like . . in my head.

Our departure time from Cebu was late so we didn't get to see some of the places that were scheduled for the tour.  Even though We were a little disappointed but it had already been a long day with lots of sitting and we still had another 2 hour boat ride back to Cebu.  It was a good day!!