Temple and Rockies Game

Earlier this year, our church announced that the Denver Temple was going to open the baptistery on weekdays.  This would enable the youth to serve in the temple over the summer, and they've had an amazing response to it!

Wednesday we took my brother Cole down to the temple with us, and we all did baptisms.  It was a super cool experience to be able to participate in that with Cole.   They told us at the end that 97 youth were in the temple that day, and over 1000 ordinances were done.  That was incredible!

After the temple, we took Cole to lunch at Cafe Rio (he had never been before), and then took him to Deseret Book where he chose his birthday present: a new phone case with a picture of a missionary suit and tie on the back.  I bought the book "Heaven is Here."  It's one of the books for our family book club in a couple months.  I started reading it yesterday.  I'll let you know what I think in a little bit.

We still had some time to kill before we went to the Rockies game that night, so we went to Ikea.  I love that place, and Cole had never been there.  As per usual, we didn't leave without a souvenir.  I've been looking for nicer pillows to put on our couch, and I finally found some I liked at Ikea!

After we were done at Ikea we headed to Coors Field for the Rockies game.  We LOVE the Rockies, but haven't been able to go to as many games as we'd like this year.  I'd only ever been to one game (that I can remember) where the Rockies won.  But now I can say I've been to two because they won that night!! 

Despicable Me 2 with Issac

Neal and I have recently talked about wanting to spend more one on one time with each of our sunbeams (that's what we call the 3 turning 4 year olds in our class).  We want them to know we love them, even outside of class.

The first opportunity presented itself when one of our sunbeams, Issac, wanted to go see Despicable Me 2.  So we made plans with his mom, and picked him up, and took him to the movie theater in Fort Collins.  It was fun to watch his excitement.  We bought him popcorn (which he ate the WHOLE bag of!) and he loved that!

We LOVED the movie, and so did Issac!  Our favorite parts were pretty much anything the minions were in.

We're so glad we were able to go and spend time with him!  And we look forward to getting to spend time with all of the other kiddos in our class!

This was outside of the movie theater :)

4 Wheeling

Last Monday and Tuesday were really enjoyable for us.

Shauna and Sam got into an accident in Sam's car, and the rental car she was given was a 2013 Jeep Cherokee.  On Monday, Sam asked us if we wanted to come help them take the top off, and go drive in the mountains.  So we went down there and took the top off the Jeep.  It looked pretty stormy directly to the west of us, so we tried to drive around it.  We headed up to a spot that Neal had gone 4-wheeling with his friend Porter.  We got rained on on our drive up, so when we got to the 4-wheeling trails, they were quite muddy.  Neal, being the driver, decided it would be fun to go drive through the puddles.  And basically, IT WAS!  We had SO much fun speeding through puddles, and climbing over rocks.

Shauna and Sam and I stood up in the back seat, and got splashed and bounced around.  The inside of the car got a little dirty, and the outside looked awesome. Then we headed to Estes and got pizza at Bob and Tony's.  It really was an amazingly enjoyable day :)

Johnson Family Reunion: Idaho 2013

A while back Neal’s family decided to have a celebration for what would have been his Grandpa Johnson’s 100^th birthday.  It was decided that it would be over the 4^th of July because that was the weekend that would work best for most people.  I knew I wasn’t going to be able to get the 4^th of July off (they had sent out an email a while before that saying they couldn’t allow anyone else to take that day off), but Neal was still going to be able to go

Wednesday morning, Neal and Shauna left for the 9 hour drive to Idaho.  I wanted SO badly to go, but knew I needed to be at work.  Wednesday night I was talking to Neal about all of the fun he was having, and all the different things they were doing.  Pretty much his entire dad’s side of the family was there, including a lot of people I hadn’t met.  I wanted SO badly to be up there.  I LOVE Idaho.  I would classify 2J Ranch as one of my two paradises (the other is our hunting spot).  After I got off the phone with Neal, I prayed and explained to Heavenly Father how much I wanted to be up there.  I told Him I understood if for some reason I wasn’t supposed to go, or it just wasn’t going to work out, and truly I did, but that didn’t stop me from really wanting to be up there.

Well, I won’t go into details (I don’t like posting much about work), but Heavenly Father opened the way, and by the end of my shift Wednesday night I had Friday and Saturday off

I got up early Thursday morning (the 4^th) to go participate in the parade to celebrate Fort Collins Police Department’s 100 years of service to the community.  It was really fun!  Neal participated in the parade in Rupert, on a float that celebrated his grandpa and grandma’s legacy.  They also had a couple buggies that his grandpa built.

I worked Thursday night, and then Friday morning got up and headed for Idaho.  Me coming up was a surprise; only a few people knew (including a certain husband that pretty much blew the surprise for his wife….thanks Scott..haha just kidding).  I pulled in about 8 pm after a 9 hour drive, and was greeted by Jennie and Misty running to my car, followed by Jennie's three girls.  After I got out of my car, I walked towards the area where dinner was sitting, and Neal's Uncle Alton came walking up with a plate of food and said, "An offering for the sweet one."  Every one busted up laughing in disbelief!  That is not exactly in Alton's character, but I loved it :)

While I was eating, I got to see the big brother/little sister relationship that Neal and Jayde have developed.  It was pretty cool to see.  They played a lot of pranks on each other.  That night, Jayde had a mouth full of whipped cream, and Neal was holding the bottle like he was going to attack her with it.  To defend herself, she spit an ENTIRE mouth full of whipped cream on him!  He chased her down and sprayed whipped cream all over her face.

  That night we had the "Johnson Family Talent Show."  It was so fun to see the different talents that we have in that side of the family!  Jennie and her girls sang "The Cup Song."  The kids sang "Firework" by Katy Perry (stinking cutest thing).  The "Colorado Johnsons" sang "Beautiful Savior."  The Harrisons sang "Gethsemane."  Misty did a really cute remake of Tim McGraw's "Down on the Farm."  Jennie and Misty sang a very beautiful duet.  The kids did some other fun things - more songs, gymnastics, jokes, danced, and other things.  It was so fun!

Saturday we did a lot of things.  We rode two of Alton's horses, Denny and Angel for a lot of the day.  We went and swam in the canal, where we threw a football and a frisbee and jumped into the canal trying to catch it.  We shot guns and archery.  And we said goodbye to cousins that we really wanted to spend more time with.

Sunday we went to church at Alton and Terri's ward.  We helped pick things up in the area we stayed in, and Neal helped Alton move the water for the fields.  We then headed to Utah to stay the night with Neal's Aunt Peg.  We had a really good conversation with Peg and Henry that night and the morning after.

On Monday morning we made the 7 hour drive from Salt Lake to home.  We stopped at Little America and got ice cream, and had an enjoyable time driving home together.

We loved being up there.  It was so nice to get to know our family better, and to strengthen those relationships.  I love knowing that these family relationships are eternal.  I love getting to know and love Neal's family better, and am so grateful for their love for us!  We look forward to the next time we get to see each of them!!

Here are a couple other fun pictures from the trip:

This photo of Alton is thanks to Jenn Johnson :)

Tiffany and Chase's wedding: June 29, 2013

On Saturday, June 29, 2013 my sister Tiffany got married to Chase Madsen.

She is now officially Tiffany Madsen.

The night before we took Tiffany to Buffalo Wild Wings for her bachelorette party.  I only took one picture that night, and I don't think she'd want me to share it - it's a picture of her with one of her presents.  Haha.

She and Chase got married in our Grandma and Grandpa Sabec's backyard.  It was beautiful and the perfect setting for their special day.

The ceremony was at 5:30 pm, and the reception began about 7:00 pm.
Their first dance was to "You're My Best Friend" by Jason Reeves.
Tiffany and my dad danced to "My Little Girl" by Tim McGraw.
Chase and his mom danced to "In My Life" by The Beatles.

They both truly looked amazing, and happy to be together.  I wish them all the joy and happiness available in married life!!

Here are some pictures from that day:

All pictures with "Katie Britt Photography" logo are copyright by Katie Britt Photography.

All other pictures were taken by Neal or me.