33 Years!

This week Scott and I celebrated our 33rd anniversary of marriage. Wednesday was our actual anniversary so we decided to go to the temple and do sealings that night. The whole experience was very sweet. We walked into the temple and saw President Worthen (president of BYU) so Scott introduced himself and Pres. Worthen shook our hands. Then I saw our neighbor Jackie Wood who works in the temple. After we went up to the sealing office and sat down to wait, we saw Ron Stoddard who was Camille's doctor in the NICU. He is a very nice man and he gave Camille a blessing right after her bowels perforated when she became extremely sick and had to be transported up to Primary Children's. It was nice to visit with him after not seeing him for many years. It turned out that he was the sealer assigned to our session. 

During the session, we were able to have Elizabeth Brighton sealed to her parents (Samuel and Elizabeth) and Elizabeth's mother sealed to her parents (James and Elizabeth) as well--3 generations of Elizabeth's. Elizabeth Brighton is the woman I have been studying all semester in my family history class and I spent about 60 hours researching her family. It was wonderful to be in the temple together.

Then on Friday Scott and I left the girls with my parents and we drove up to Pocatello. We ate and then went to the Pocatello temple to do an endowment session. It's a really beautiful temple. The celestial room is quite lovely. I also enjoyed the artwork and the front doors.

We stayed in a nearby hotel and then the next morning we went on a lovely hike, not too far away. There were hardly any people on the trail and the temperature was perfect. It was a little muddy but not bad. We enjoyed talking together, viewing the nice scenery, and hiking about 4 miles. I think living in Pocatello might not be so bad although they're a little colder than here.

Scott wanted to try out Lava Hot Springs so that was our next destination, about 30 minutes from the hike. It cost $10 each for entry. We changed into our swimming suits and then went to the least hot pool to sit down. It was a cool day with some wind but being in the very warm water quickly warms you up. They have about 5 pools. The hottest one is 112 degrees and the least hot is about 102 degrees. It turns out you can warm up pretty quickly in 102 degree water. We tried the hotter pools but decided 102 was the most comfortable for us. There were quite a few people there but it wasn't too crowded. We stayed about an hour and decided that was plenty. Sitting around in warm water looking at people in swimming suits gets boring pretty quickly.

We had lunch at a Subway and then drove home. We enjoyed our time being together. One of the things I enjoy about our relationship is that we never seem to run out of things to talk about. We don't necessarily talk constantly but we have lots to discuss.

On this trip we listened to part of a book called "From Strength to Strength" by Arthur C. Brooks. His purpose in writing the book is to talk about how we need to change our focus in the second half of our lives. He says decline in our chosen professions happens much sooner than we expect and we should let go of our need (even addiction) for recognition and "success" and focus more on things like relationships and spirituality.  One thing the author personally does is to take the time at the beginning of each month to ask himself, If I only had one more year to live, how would I structure this month?  Or in other words, what would I do differently this month if my time on earth was quite limited? It's a good question to consider.