A Great Vacation

It's been a while since our last post but we were visiting family so we had a great excuse. Instead of posting pictures here on the blog we put some of them on our Family page and the whole lot of them in our Picasa album, so check them out. Ærowyn's Fourth Birthday page and Wrævn's homepage have also been updated with new stuff.

Right before our little vacation we celebrated Ærowyn's 4th Birthday. I cleaned the entire house on Wednesday so on Thursday we could spend the whole day playing. And we did. Her friend came over and stayed for a couple of hours. She helped me make her cake. We played outside, played games, and were just plain silly. She was very excited to turn four. You can see pics and details if you click the link above.

My brother Brett recently returned from his mission in Rochester, NY, so we went to welcome him home. For those of you who know him, he is now taller then he was before he left. It seems impossible, but he is. The youngest is now the tallest.

Saturday, we went to the Rexburg temple and it was so amazing. It was neat to have the family there and feel what it will be like to be together for eternity.

Sunday, Brett gave an amazing talk at church about his experiences in NY. He told about three different experiences he had with investigators and the Sacred Grove and how the spirit touched them to know the gospel was true. They all felt it in different ways. There are many times in our lives we don't recognize the spirit because it doesn't always speak to us in the same way. Praying for guidance and direction daily can help us recognize the promptings. After church we had a huge picnic at the park and had tons of extended family and friends to share all the food with. Brandon and I looked over toward the slide and Wrævn was climbing up the steps. If it was a little kid slide, no big deal, but it was a big slide. Brandon rushed over and just went up behind him to make sure he didn't fall. Then down he came into my arms. He liked it so much he went back at least 15 times. He shows no fear...that worries me :)

My parent's house was a little chaotic, but Ærowyn kept plenty busy playing with her cousins so I didn't mind one bit. Wrævn learned a new word - hot - while we tried to keep him away from the fireplace. Luckily the weather was nice and we only had to turn the heat on at night. Ærowyn got to ride with Grandpa in the tractor and play Toss Your Cookies with Uncle Brett and Grandma. We went swimming, made play dough, played outside, played games, and just had a nice relaxing time.

Thursday we left for Idaho Falls where we got to spend the rest of our mini vacation with Brandon's dad and step mom. It was good to see them. They are planning to go on another mission (last one was to Africa) so it was fun to spend a little time with them. Ærowyn played a game of Rummikub with Brandon and grandpa and helped me when we played Phase 10. She did pretty well with Uno so I guess I should start playing that with her more often. We watched The Golden Compass and The Water Horse both which are excellent and we recommend them to anyone.

On Memorial Day we visited my Grandpa Ricks' gravesite which is in Idaho Falls. My dad's mom and step mom are also buried there along with my dad's brother. Ærowyn went with us and was very interested in all the people buried there. She asked if they were strangers and if strangers go to Heaven. She asked if skeletons can feel the spirit, and a was a little upset that we couldn't lift up the gravestones and look at them. My mom and I were pretty amazed she had so many questions, but it was good and I am glad she has such deep thoughts sometimes. I'm sure she asked questions about death for at least 10 minutes.

On the way home we drove through Leavenworth, WA which is a fun little Bavarian tourist town. We ate and played and just enjoyed the beautiful sunshine. Ærowyn was VERY sad when it was time to come home. Pretty much the whole drive back to Marysville, she kept asking if we were going back to grandma's house. I'm sure it's a little boring for her to just play with her brother again, but school will be out here next week and then she will have more friend's to play with.

We are getting our house ready to sell and hopefully will be working on that all day today. It's much easier to work outside when there are 2 adults to watch the kidlets run out in to the street!! Ærowyn is much better about staying on the sidewalk now, but Wrævn on the other hand sneaks away any chance he can. We still don't know where we are suppose to be, but we know the Lord is watching over us and will guide us to where we should be. Patience and humility come hand in hand and the Lord will reveal to us in His time what His plan is for us.

Call for LDS-centric sites

A friend of mine is starting a company called Inferknow (clever eh?). His technology is very cool, in that it allows you the user to specify what/what kind of ads you see as you surf the web. So rather than the hit/miss Googld Ad-Words like you see at the top of this page, you'll actually see actually relevant ads that you might actually care about.

He asked me to provide him w/ some LDS-centric sites that he could feed into his algorithm to get started. Here is his request:

Is there any organization, website, directory, etc, that you know of that lists LDS-friendly businesses? The businesses are not necessarily LDS-owned, or otherwise have anything directly to do with the LDS, but rather just LDS-friendly. Businesses that LDS recognizes and/or endorses.

The reason I am asking is this: I think the Inferknow ad replacement technology can be used to help people in "special interest" groups connect with advertisers in a more effective way. For example, if Joe is an environmentally conscious consumer, then Inferknow can hook him up with companies that are known to be environmentally friendly. Inferknow can build a list of environmentally-friendly companies by going to sites like EPA, Sierra Club, etc.

So I am wondering what sites Inferknow can visit to build a list of LDS-friendly companies.

I was able to come up w/ the following, but thought you guys would be able to provide even more (I actually do very little Church stuff online as it turns out. Who knew?)

Your posts are encouraged and appreciated - both from my friend's point of view, and me, interested in seeing what other 'Mormon stuff' is out there.

Thanks,

B

Official Church Sites:

http://www.lds.org
http://www.mormon.org
http://www.familysearch.org
http://newsroom.lds.org
http://www.providentliving.com
http://www.byu.edu
http://www.byui.edu
http://www.byuh.edu
http://www.ldsbc.edu
http://www.byutv.org

Other:

http://www.deseretbook.com
http://www.ldsliving.net/
http://www.ldslivingonline.com
http://www.ldslivingmagazine.com
http://www.millharvest.com
http://www.footnote.com
http://www.ldsmingle.com