Families Are Forever

It's been a long time in coming, but last weekend was well worth the wait! Mom and Dad and the kids came from Nebraska, and after a day of... 

...Pretzel Maker with my kiddos...

...many tears and an anxiety attack....

...and finally a sweet girl with pierced ears

... and then after shopping and picking out pumpkins, we went to........

the temple!

After 12 ½ years, I'm finally sealed to my family! As we walked in the front door, the man at the front desk said, "The Landers? Yes, we've been waiting for you!" Totally made me cry. :) We are grateful to our friends and family who were able to come and share this special day with us!

When we got back to our apartment after dinner, Zane jumped out of the car, and then turned and gave me a big hug and said, "I'm so glad that you are part of our forever family!!" :) He and Morgan understood a lot more than I thought they would. They also thought that the double mirrors in the sealing room were pretty cool!

I'm SO grateful for my forever family!

Living Room Revamped

When we bought our entertainment center almost 2 years ago, I told Levi I'd only get it if he promised we could paint it black. So this month, I decided it was time to finally revamp it. Cami has done lots of projects with spray paint and so she held my hand and helped me, layer by layer and can by can.

And so, we started out with a plain veneer entertainment center from Shopko.

After 5 cans of gray Valspar Perfect Finish Primer....

And FOURTEEN cans of Rust-Oleum Black Lacquer...

It is finally complete. :D

We've also been talking about getting a love seat for months, so I figured while we were in the middle of improving the living room we'd better do that too!

(Nevermind the random gun... this was in the middle of hunting season, after all.)

And since we were having fun with the living room, I decided to spruce up my plain, boring washer and dryer as well. I saw a blog about painting them a while back, but Levi said no way because they would just scrape and peel every time we move. Too much truth to that statement. So, I went with a simpler approach.

Vinyl stickers. Pretty whimsical, I know, but I like them. :D And I plan on changing the colors seasonally.

Now that we've got it all put together, it finally feels like home! 

Die hard Foodies

As most of our family and friends know, we have a bit of a food obsession. One night last week we had steaks for dinner with a cabbage from Levi's mom's garden, and as we were preparing dinner I realized that we were evidently having a super-sized night.

The steaks.....

 

...were ginormous. 

The cabbage, as compared to a head of lettuce from Walmart...

...And compared to Levi's head...

... was MASSIVE! 

We gave a third of the cabbage to the Larsens, a third to the Bakers, and we still couldn't finish it after 3 nights. I don't know what Mom Campbell used for fertilizer, but that is the biggest cabbage I have ever seen in my life. Fun times!

Why hellooooooo!

Hey guess what! We're still here!! Ü 

As summer started winding down, life started speeding up! August included Hadli Mae Larsen's baby blessing, working the chiropractic booth at the fair, Zane's 6th birthday, several weddings, two demolition derbies, Morgan's 9th birthday, the Brigham City temple open house, teaching a lesson AND giving talks in church in the same day, AND ..... a job interview! 

[pause for breath] 

September has been been even busier - I started my new job!! It's at Thermo Fisher, which up until now I'd never even heard of. (And I still can't adequately describe what they do there. ...Which is why the name is hyperlinked.)  But I am now their main receptionist and report to the executive team. Every day I find out more duties within the scope of my position, and while feeling completely overwhelmed, I still LOVE it! I sincerely miss my daily naps, and all of my patients, and being able to keep Facebook open in the background constantly... but new experiences are good, right? :) And I am slowly getting used to being gone 9 hours every day.

We also went to a BYU game! 

Thank you bossman Todd!!

Don't judge me, I know I usually openly detest BYU, BUT it was the Les Schwab sponsored game and Levi's boss gave us box seats! Who could say no to that. And then he asked "Do you have any friends that would want to go to a BYU game too?" Only one. :) Logan Baker is one of our great friends, and he loves the Cougars. So we planned it out with his wife and told him we were just going to breakfast... and then got on the freeway instead of coming home. I wish we'd had the camera on to catch the look on his face! It was a great time.

We love our Logan and Chloe!

I think Levi's favorite part was the food . . . 

Catering from Tucanos

The BYU marching band was a lot better than Weber's. A lot.

Weber

BYU

And all that was just in the first week of September. Since then, we've had Alyssa June Nutt's baby blessing, Parade of Homes, stake conference, new internet and tv... what have I missed? Levi spends almost all of his days off hiking and scouting for deer now. Hunting season is almost upon us! And then I will get to be a single woman til my birthday! Hello, late nights with Hastings rentals and Chili's takeout. :D

VACATION!!!

(Disclaimer: This post is very long. What can I say, I take a lot of pictures on vacations if I manage to remember the camera.)

We finally made our trip home to Oregon!!! It was SO much fun! A couple barbeques, lots of swimming, and a huckleberry trip later, we are officially exhausted. 

Grandpa Berry, Aunt Mel, and Katie having watermelon milkshakes at Lloyd and Rachel's.

Oop. They caught me taking pictures...

Mr. Corbin showing us how to play Super Mario.

Grandma touched up my layers. She's my hair magician.

Tuesday night, Grandpa and Grandma took us up on the mountain to find some real Oregon huckleberries!

We found some itty bitty wild strawberries too
 

Grandma found a really good patch right off the road.

I think Levi ate more berries than made it in his bucket...

Grandpa telling us about "Over yonder"

SUCCESS!! We ended up with just over a gallon total. Not bad at all :)

 Then Grandpa took us a little higher on the mountain to a lookout point so we could see the whole valley and have a picnic.

Wednesday we had a barbeque at Hilgard Park with Uncle Rick and Aunt Sharon.

Sharon with Rick's sister, Susie. Levi, Cody, and Rick in the background.

Ali, Avrie, Jaycee, and I worked hard to catch the itty bitty fish in the  shallow, warm water.

Levi fit right in with Dad's side of the family, talking about guns,  hunting, and fishing with  with Cody and Rick, and then helping the little girls catch...

...nasty crawdads!!! Bleeeechhh. No we did NOT eat them.

Miss Avrie was very brave and even held a fish in her cupped hands.

And Miss Jaycee had a lot of fun with the crawdads, and teaching me how to catch the fish in plastic cups.

Eventually we had to say goodbye, so Thursday we started making the long trip home. Rick and Sharon fed us breakfast and gave Levi a tour of their place. Levi really wanted to bring home the Harley they’re selling (I admit, I wanted to buy it too), but he finally decided he was content with all the salsa and jelly they gave us.

On our way home we stopped in Baker City at the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center.

It was too hot to walk any of the outdoor trails, but we went through the maze inside and learned a lot. (i.e. It was considered a “good” day if the wagon ruts in the road were less than waist-high. And so many people died that it averaged out to be about one grave every 80 yards along the trail.) Levi and I are both sort of... well, ok, we’re definitely nerds. So we greatly enjoyed the museum. :D

We then stopped in Meridian to see a senior couple, the Kynastons, from Levi’s mission. I love hearing all the fun stories from his two years in Florida.

Drove a couple more hours, and made it to Twin right at dinner time! We love getting to stop and see Aunt Erin and her family. Erin and I can talk shopping for hours. Levi and Jesse can talk hunting for hours. Cracks me up how well Levi fits into our crazy family. :)

The sun was gorgeous as we left Twin Falls. Too bad cameras suck at capturing that beauty through tinted windows....

And the moon was gorgeous too. And massive.

And then finally, 14 hours after we said goodbye to Grandma and Grandpa Berry, we pulled into the farm in Arbon. Talk about a long day! We spent our last couple days off recuperating from our traveling. Levi got the flu and my allergies kicked into overdrive, so we were both pretty miserable. But we did manage to find enough energy to go for a ride on the horses.

This was the first time I’ve been on a horse in over SIX years. Three days later and I still can’t sit properly.

Sunday, our friends Dustin and Cami blessed their baby girl in sacrament meeting in Arbon. Afterwards, we partied a little more and had lunch with all their family and most of the people from the branch. Levi was not happy with me for buying two watermelons while in LaGrande. (Something about having to pack them across two states, in an already full car.) BUT that watermelon sure was a hit at the lunch. :)

After sleeping in a camper for 8 days, being on the road for 23 hours total, and being out of cell service for 3 days, it feels fantastic to be home! We laughed as we unpacked and realized how many shoes were in our car…

Add in the 2 pairs we were already wearing, and boy were we prepared!

Thank you, Family, for the great vacation!!!

That Famous Preston Night Rodeo!

Woot! Time to bust out my boots and Montana Silversmith earrings. Oh how I love a good rodeo! And Preston is easily my favorite every year, with three nights of carnival rides, parades, food, and hilarious rodeo clowns.

Cami, Dustin, Logan, and Chloe

Baby Hadli's first rodeo!
In a couple years, she'll be out there Mutton Bustin' with the big kids :D

The clown was pretty entertaining again, and this year I managed to grab my camera in time to video our favorite part.

{video is coming soon. oops!}

Next adventure: Oregon!!

Jeep Ride

Last weekend we made a trip out to Arbon with several of our friends for a Jeep ride up the canyon. It was a blast! This picture is missing almost half of the group, but I think we’re a good lookin’ bunch nonetheless.

(Going across the top first) Levi, Logan, Me, Chelsea & Jett.
Cami & Hadli, Dustin, Chloe, Jenna, Cody, Skylar.

Up the canyon, we made a campfire and roasted hot dogs and smores. It’s so nice to just get away from the city for a while!

That night we went back to Dustin’s dad’s house and had a sleepover. The boys slept out on the tramp and the girls (plus Skylar) slept in the bunk house.

After church Sunday, Dustin made some awesome homemade fried chicken in the dutch oven. (Turns out, LARD is the secret ingredient. Who knew!) Once everyone had stuffed themselves, it was evidently nap time. I came out of the house and cracked up when I saw this:

Not a very lively bunch. :]

Jett wasn’t at all interested in a nap, so Chelsea and I played in the back yard with her while everyone else snoozed away.

We’re so grateful to have such good friends to do things with!! Whether we’re riding the jeep, chasing bunnies, or just sitting on the grass, playing with the babies, we always know how to have a good time.