52

The high for today, this lovely summer month of June, was 52 degrees. It rained all day.  There is snow on the mountains. So naturally, I took the kids swimming at the rec center (minus Calvin and Preston who went to see movies with friends.) I love summer!

Simon is teaching Owen how to float. What a great brother!

Purpose

Right now I am lucky (aka totally blessed) to be the president of my congregation's women's organization, which is called the Relief Society.  I am a member of The Church oF Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, often called the Mormons.  I was baptized into the church at the age of 8, and have remained actively involved for the last 28 years (yes, I am 36 years old.) There are so many women who serve in Relief Society that it would be nearly impossible to name them all. My position in the organization has blessed me with an expanded vision of how very important each and every single member of the Relief Society is, both to the women's group and to God.  I am constantly and consistently in awe of the various attributes and talents that each of these women possess.  Basically, for any one that doesn't know, or who might have forgotten, the Relief Society has 3 purposes:

1) Increase our faith and personal righteousness
2) Strengthen families and homes
3) Help those in need

There are countless ways that we can accomplish these purposes.  None of us are exactly the same and I love seeing the personal flair that each of us brings to the group.  It's kind of late, and I'm not sure if anyone is reading this, or if I'm making sense, but I just wanted to declare a few things. I believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ. I love the scriptures and read from them daily.  Prayer is the best way to communicate with God.  The Holy Ghost will help and direct you as you sincerely seek for guidance from God.  And lastly, hang in there. When things seem dark and difficult, just hang in there. Looking back over trials in my life, I remember at the time thinking there was no way to fix ____ (fill in the blank.) But stuff works out. To quote a well known leader in my church, Sherri Dew, "GOd rarely moves the mountains in front of us, but he helps us climb them."  I've reached the top of a few peeks, and am thankful for the view.  Happy Monday night.

This is a picture of my twin sister (Lesley Jane Howe) and me. It was taken 6 years ago. We were at a Relief Society Women's meeting in Provo, Ut. This was taken right after I told Les that my water broke, 3 weeks before my due date. We were in a stadium of about 20,000 women, rockin out to a cheesy Christian concert, (Kenneth Cope, anyone?) 

It was so wonderful to experience this with thousands of my sisters in the gospel.

See. My water really did break.

The next day Owen Ryan Wallace Smith made his appearance, with Les and Ryan coaching me along.

Babies are cool. So are women. So is Relief Society.

 

Happy Fathers Day!

R - really great person, dad, professor, kisser
Y- you love our children with all you got, lucky for them, that's quite a lot
A - awesome, artistic, architect
N - nobody can draw Garfield like you, or do quite as good a Donald Duck impression: what' really matters in a dad.

Happy Father's Day (especially to John Albert Holman and Edward Albert Smith... you must have done something right, cuz Ryan and I are great! XOXOXO)

What a happy Dad!  With a balloon and a case of "Dad's" rootbeer, it's clear to see that Father's Day was covered at the Smith house.

Owen gave Ryan a pretty great gift... that shirt.

For dessert we had hot Cherry Orange Cobbler, made form the cherries that Calvin and Preston picked form our cherry trees.

Portland Farmer's Market

Last morning in Oregon.

Breakfast was had at a place called Voodoo Doughnuts (Ryan could eat donuts for breakfast every day of his life and be happy.) It had a pretzel through the heart and was raspberry filled...like blood. Mmmm.

We hung out at the farmers market and found goodies for the kids. This pic was taken about 5 seconds before we realized that we needed to speed walk to our hotel to checkout so that we wouldn't miss our flight... we also realized right after this pic that we both needed to use the toilet like it was going out of style. Speed walking while needed to "go" is quite miserable, for both genders.

***This post is for Saturday, June 15th, 2014.***

16 years and 1 day

Tillamook State Forest. Awesome.

Oregon is simply breathtaking... and cold. I had hot chocolate every day.

Best sign found in the museum.  Oregon has experienced many devastating forest fires over the last century, and have worked hard to re-forest destroyed areas.  I'm sure Smokey would agree.

We're at Tillamook Cheese Factory. I'm a cow! The cheese samples were fab and the ice cream was creamy.

Samples? Don't mind if I do!

Look!  It was sunny for about 10 seconds!

Lunch at a seafood restaurant: clam chowder and crab cakes: heaven.

We went to the Portland temple, to celebrate our eternal love.  Ryan was in the toilet and I forgot to get a picture of the two of us together... so this is it: Lindsey Joy smiling in front of the Portland temple, aka Portland Temple Selfie.

**** This post is for Friday, June 13, 2014**** 

16 Years

16 Years ago I married the man of my dreams: Ryan Edward Smith. To celebrate, he planned this lovely weekend in Portland, OR.  We left early, rode the tram into Portland, checked in, rode bikes, grabbed lunch, rode an air tram, rode bikes, walked around a farmers market/food trolleys, visited a fabulous historic book store, rode bikes in the pouring rain back to the hotel, napped (really!), walked to dinner and then saw a show. When we returned, we had a cheese platter with a lovely note from Marriott, wishing us a happy 16th anniversary.  It was!

Cool cardboard car and camper cutouts at the Portland airport.

Oregon!

Biking in front of a fountain.

DInner at some random Vietnamese restaurant. It was delicious!

This is the aerial tram machine and it says the date, June 12th, our anniversary.

A view from the tram.

The view from the top.

The best sign we saw all day.

Ryan at the bookstore.

Cheese platter. Mmmm.

Posh dinner.  Allergy eyes.

Earthquake!

For reals, we had an earthquake tonight in Bountiful, Utah.  It was a 3.3 magnitude.  I immediately called a friend to confirm that she also felt it 6 houses away.  It lasted about 2 seconds... and was totally thrilling because it was too short and not strong enough to cause any damage or be scary.  I lived in Berkeley, Ca and never felt nothin. But here? In Bountiful, Utah? What the heck!

Get out your magnifying glass, but its right there, on the internet, so you know it must be true.