The BIG Move

On June 14th I left my house on Stratford Ave...

said goodbye to my friends in Sugar House...

moved to Twin Falls, ID...

to work for...

I loved living in Sugar House. My roommates were amazing and although our little basement apartment was a little small and brought a few challenges, I loved living there. I still miss Salt Lake but I have enjoyed being back in Idaho where I am close to my family and surrounded by agriculture. I love my job here and after 8 months I am still learning new things every day at work. It is a great place to be right now.

I have been accused of not blogging (which is true). So, I am going to try to highlight some of the events that I have failed to blog in the past year. Lets begin in June 2011...

13.1 Miles : On June 4, 2011 I ran the Fight for Air Run Half Marathon in Salt Lake City. This was my first half marathon. A few years ago it was an accomplishment just to run a 5k so a half marathon was a kind of a big deal. I have almost forgotten how long 13 miles is and may try to train to run another one this summer. :)

This happened to also be the 25th Birthday of my friend Kristi. We trained together and then ran the race on her birthday. It was so nice to have a good friend to run with and motivate me to keep going. Thanks Kristi!

My roommates, Maryn and Lisa, came to greet me at the finish line.

Las Vegas

Luckily I have a great friend who not only spent a weekend showing me around Vegas but also took all of the pictures and blogged about our weekend. Thanks Elise!

Read about my trip here:

http://dustinandelise.blogspot.com/2012/01/heather.html

Weekends in Idaho

It has been a busy month with 2 trips to Arizona for work and two weekends in Idaho. Here are a few pictures from the Idaho trips.

WICKED

BYU Freshman Reunion...and Happy Birthday Joelle.

Joelle's friends asked her if she was having friends over for her birthday. She replied, "No, Heather's friends are coming." It may seem a little strange but I think she had a great birthday! After 4 missions, 2 graduations, and 1 marriage between us, we all got together for a fun weekend reunion in Idaho. We ran, milked cows, made fresh cheese, kayaked and just had a wonderful weekend together.

Disney Vacation!

I forgot to post these pictures. So one month later here is a little highlight of my vacation to Florida!

We spent a day at Magic Kingdom..

Universal Studios
Which meant a stop in HogsmeadeEpcot...

And we had a few days at the disney resort...time for swimming and sand castles!

These are the 11 great kids I went with. Taking 11 kids under the age of 12 swimming...thank heaven for life jackets! I got really good at counting to 11 :) We had a blast.

BASKETBALL WEEK

Tuesday: BYU vs. UTAH

WEDNESDAY: JAZZ vs. KNICKS

My HAPPY BIRTHDAY week (or two)!

I am now 23! It has been a great couple of weeks of celebration so hear are the highlights...

Monday December 27th these wonderful people came to visit...

Mom, Dad, and Joelle came down the week before my birthday and took me to dinner at Olive Garden. After dinner Dad was really nice to chauffeur us around shopping. Mom helped me pick out a new black dress coat for my birthday and I LOVE it. You will see it in most of the recent pictures below.

Monday January 3rd I picked Brent and Kristen Ludwig up at the airport after their Christmas break and they took me to Zupas for dinner.

Tuesday January 4th (MY REAL BIRTHDAY). After a 5am trip to the gym with my good friends Wendy and Janae and then a good day at work I went night skiing with Lee and Ian at Brighton. It was COLD but it was a wonderful way to spend a birthday! I love the skis that I got for Christmas. Thanks Mom and Dad!

Friday January 7th was the day of the big birthday party. At our ward auction in December I bought a party planner :) My friend Wendy planned my party and did an amazing job. I didn't have to worry about a thing. Look at this cute cake and cupcakes. Fun decorations, great food, games, and lots of wonderful friends!

Saturday January 8th I went to Provo for an evening with Elise Kelly Call. We went to YoZone for frozen yogurt but not until we had spent over an hour looking at old Jerusalem pictures. I gave you a small sample below :) Thanks for the great night Elise!

Saturday continued...after spending time with Elise I stopped by David and Ryan's apartment. If you will remember, these were some of the boys that sang to me at my birthday party last year. See here When I told David that he needed to come to SLC to my party on Friday because none of my friends here would be singing to me, he responded, "I guess you need to find new friends." Luckily I still got my birthday song when I showed up at his apartment. I tried to upload the video but it might take all night. Sorry.

Needless to say I had a wonderful time celebrating my 23rd birthday!

Thanks for all the birthday wishes.

The Table

I finished my table a few weeks ago and finally got a picture of it to share. Next project...coffee table?

Next vacation...Kirtland, Ohio

I have been very blessed to have had the opportunity to visit so many church history sites, both modern and ancient. However, I still have one church history site that has yet to be check off my list...I think my next trip will be to Kirtland.

I am taking a Church History Institute class and this past week we talked about what took place while the saints were in Kirtland, OH. Elder M. Russell Ballard gave a CES fireside in 1994 entitled "Our Kirtland Legacy." He said, "It has been said that we may yet discover that Kirtland is our most significant Church history site."

Elder Ballard lists the following to describe just how important Kirtland is to the Church:

• Reveled basically all the priesthood offices that we have in the church today
• Schooling period for the leaders of the Church
• About 1/2 of the revelations recored in the Doctrine and Covenants were revealed there
• School of the Prophets began
• Joseph made his Bible translations
• Pearl of Great Price was largely translated
• First edition of the Doctrine and Covenants was printed
• More heavenly manifestations and appearances occurred in Kirtland than any other place

Last April Holly and I won the Home Based Business Plan Competition at BYU with our business Vinylize It. Seven months later we had the opportunity to return to BYU as guest speakers in the Women Entrepreneur Lecture Series. This is the class that I was the TA for last year and I never imagined that I would return so soon as the one speaking. View here
I love working with Holly. She has worked so hard on this business and I am continually amazed at everything she has learned and the things she is able to do with one hand while taking care of her kids. She is an amazing mom, wonderful sister, and great business partner. Thanks Holly!

Conference

I went to the Saturday afternoon session with my friend Spencer Mun (from freshman year), Joelle, and my roommate Maryn. I love being on Temple Square for conference and it is so nice to live close!

Kristen, Heather, Maryn, Joelle, and Katie

With Joelle

Project #1...check

I finally finished my bed and I love it! About a month ago I moved to Salt Lake and was without any type of furniture. Luckily I have a sister-in-law who convinced me that rather than buying a bed, I should just make my own. Robbie recently built a beautiful bed that you can see here. The plans came from an awesome website ana-white.com. Thanks Robbie!

Project #2

My day of building with Robbie also included a large table and benches. This one is still in the works...stay posted for more.