Whirl Wind Weekend

***Warning in advance this could be a long one! I decided rather then doing separate posts for all the different activities this weekend I'd just do one LONG post so here it goes!!******

So our whirl wind weekend actually started during the week! I was having one of those days, ya know where you're just not feeling yourself and not as happy as you normally are. So I called up one of my good friends and had a good chat with her. It was great. But after hanging up it really brought to my attention the fact that I don't have any good friends that live here. I guess that's what can happen when you've moved a lot, but it seems all of my good friends live out of state! Which is great if you want a place to crash on vacation, but not so great when you need a shoulder to cry on. So after having a pity party for myself about having to have a pity part over the phone (it was one big party!) I decided it was time to get over myself and take some action. Being in Primary I've found it quite difficult to meet people. There are just not as many opportunities to strike up conversation, at least not with adults. Also it almost never fails the night enrichment falls on, I have clients. Just in general it seems the rules of making friends change once you get married. When I was single it was easy. FHE, ward activities, enrichment, parties. It just seemed like to opportunities to meet people and build friendships were practically endless. Now it just seems so much harder. And I feel like perspective friends need to be compatible with Brent too. Which is difficult since we have such different personalities! I also felt like friends should come in the form of a couple. I have recently decided those two things aren't quite necessary. I can make friends, for me it is great and awesome to have couple friends that Brent and I can hang out with together, but I need friends, girlfriends for ME! But I decided the first step to building friendships is to create opportunities to get to know people. So I called and invited two couples over for dinner on Fri. night. We had a great time. It was so fun to talk to them and get to know them better. Also after dinner we had a great time playing Rock Band. I definitely decided I just need to go out of my way more often to create friendships! So it was wonderful to have dinner with some people from our ward! Hopefully I'm headed down a good path (mostly in my head that it is my job to create my own happiness and friendships) to creating some wonderful friendships.

Then Sat. we had decided to take a day trip down to Willcox AZ and to go Apple Annie's Orchard. It is a cute orchard that has peaches, apples, grapes, and all sorts of fruit. They also have a garden with fresh veggies. All of which you can pick yourself! They also had a restaurant and the best home made peach ice cream I have ever eaten in my life! It was such a cute little place. Definitely off the beaten path, you had to drive a couple of mile down a wash boardy dirt road. Reminded me of Chino! This place also allows dogs so we got the dogs out of the house and took them too!

This is a pretty mountain we passed on the way down. I never realized how green and beautiful south east Arizona is!

Bentley thought it would be fun to see the view on the other side of the car for a while.

Bosco was too cute resting his head on the arm rest!

This was the cute Barn/gift shop.

Kind of obvious but Shaved Ice, Kettle Korn, also where you got the worlds best ice cream!!

This was the tent with fresh produce for sale.

The burger joint

One the way home we passed an Air Force base. There were tons of airplanes there. Maybe it's just the future pilot in me , but I love airplanes! So I took a pic, it's not that good but I think they look awesome all in a row!!

Then after we got home we headed over to Brent's parents house for our nephew Connor's first birthday party. I can't believe he is 1 already!!! And he is so dang cute walking around! They had a BBQ and of course cake and ice cream. There were a ton of people there to celebrate Connors first year of life! The kid made out with a ton of loot! I think he even got tired of opening presents!

Here's Connor opening a gift with his Mommy Erica.

Here is Conner is all the wrapping paper and tissue paper! He was buried!

Max at the party. Too cute as always!!

Brent and I at the party

I tried to take a pic of Kierstie, but she didn't want to stand still long enough! But she was adorable too! It was a fun party. After the party was done Brent and I took Kierstie to our house to pick up a movie and then we headed to Carrie and Burt's to watch Be Kind Rewind. That was actually much better then I thought it would be! Max was too cute, he was laying on the couch next to me and he says Terina will you rub my legs? So I tickled his legs and then he says, can you do my arms? So I tickled his arms, then I look over and he had fallen asleep in the most awkward position! His head was falling off the couch! But apparently tickling his limbs put him right to sleep. Or maybe it was the long day at the lake, and then a birthday party? I'll just take credit with my tickling! ha! ha! Oh and apparently Brent and I are not the only ones who think of our dogs like our children, Max asked if Bosco could have a sleep over at his house! Too funny!

On Sun there were just a couple cute moments I have to share. They do a spot light every week of one of the children. Well this week they were spot lighting a teacher. I knew it was not us, because no one had asked us any questions, and in the monthly news letter they had spot lighted another couple. But Hayden one of our cute little guys looks up at me, so excited and says......Maybe it will be you!!! He was so excited that we might get spot lighted! And then a little sad for us when it was some body else! They are adorable! I also love how when they want to tell you some thing, they think they have to whisper it in your ear! It's so precious! Our lesson on Sunday was on sharing. We brought a treat (candies) and I pulled them out and said look what I have, oh these are my favorite candy! They are SO GOOD! I love them. I'm going to have one. And I did. Then I said, but I really love them so I don't think I'm going to share. Oh the look on there little faces was priceless! They fell for it hook line and sinker. I had to quickly tell them. Oh maybe I will share! Because one of them was on the verge of tears! But I think it got the point across of how it feels to be left out! ha ha. They are too great! Also not this week but last for sharing time we had the best talk ever! There is a little boy in one of the Sunbeam classes who has downs syndrome. He gave the talk. His verbal skills are very limited so his Mom came in and helped. She gave the talk and then he signed the words in the talk that he knew! He was SO excited! It was so precious! I don't know if I was his teacher that I would have even though to ask him to do a talk. I thought it was so wonderful that they thought to include him!

Also during sacrament meeting one of the talks really struck me. It was on Tithing and Fast Offerings. Both of which Brent and I pay, but we are a little sporadic in when we pay, which means that we can forget some income that we have gotten. Which means we guess sometimes at how much we need to pay. Not so great! But that was not what I was thinking about at all. He told the story of Elijah how he was commanded by the lord to place a curse on the land that there would be a drought. As a result of the drought he did not have any water either. The speaker said how sometimes we think that just because we are living life righteously it will be easy. But that is not true. Sometimes following the commandments/the Lords will can make things more difficult. What a true statement! I'm not sure why, because I know this is true but it was a powerful statement to me at that moment. Then he continued the story where Elijah asked a widow woman for some water and food. She replied, that she only had enough for her and her son to eat one last meal and then they were going to lay there and die! That in it's self it sad enough, but then she had a prophet ask her for her last meal for himself. She was asked to sacrifice not only her food but her food for her child!! She was obedient and was blessed! Her grain and water did not end, there was just more and more. But she had to be tried and prove herself before the Lord could bless her with that miracle! Sometimes the Lord has to test us/me before bestowing the blessing I may want. Maybe even blessings I don't even know I want. I highly doubt that widow was praying for endless food and drink. But because of her faithfulness that's what she got. It just reminded me that I need to be faithful and continue to trust the Lord. It also reminded me of a talk that we had read in seminary. I thought it was entitled The Blessings of Adversity, but after searching that on lds.org I know that's not the title, I'm still trying to find it. But that was the message of the talk. That adversity is really a blessing. An opportunity for us to grow, and strengthen our faith in the Lord. So I'm trying to be thankful for my adversity!!!!

We also had gone to Lowes to replace our bamboo that had died. They didn't have any so we decided to just get a new plant. After looking at lots of plants, picking up a few I saw one sitting there and said that's it! That's the plant! So I picked it up and headed to the check out. When I was standing in line I looked down at the tag in the plant to see what kind it was. It's a Money Tree!!!!!! Yep that's right. I'm attracting money into my life even if it's only in the form of a tree! I thought that was pretty awesome!!

Here is our Money Tree

We also found out Bentley loves to play fetch with a tennis ball! We never knew! But he completely loves it! Even more then his tug-of-war rope!!!! So we've been having great fun with that! He really is too funny! So that was our action packed whirl wind weekend! I hope I didn't bore you all to tears since this post went on forever! But I did warn you!!!