James-Myler

is the baby of my best friend from high school, and he is beautiful. Greg was gracious enough to drive me and Rex to Rexburg this weekend for his blessing. As we were driving I was almost regretting my decision to drive to Idaho for one night. Isn't it kind-of mean to make a baby drive 5 hours during his nap time just to have to sleep in a bed that's not his? But we had a great time.

Rexburg really surprised me. We stayed at a friend of mine who live off campus, and far away from campus, and Rexburg is kind of nice away from campus. Kendra was kind enough to stay with Rex while he napped so Greg and I could explore downtown Rexburg, which if like the perfect date for us. We walked around checking out all the old buildings and venturing into a few stores. While I usually can't afford (or rather choose not to afford) anything from downtown areas, I almost bought several cute crafts. In the end, I didn't because I could make them myself to better suit my needs, but I memorized the idea and will re-create from scraps I find around the house. Back to the story: Rexburg's downtown is nice, because unlike Provo where people have other shopping options and use them, in Rexburg, people don't and so people were actually shopping in the downtown area.

Later, after Rex's nap, and during Greg's, Rex and I took a short walk to a park and had a great time. Rex has learned how to go down the slide all by himself. He loves the slide. He jumps/dives head first onto a slide from about a foot away from the top of the slide. He thinks it's the greatest thing and giggles all the way down. So far I've been lucky enough to catch him at the bottom of every slide, but I'm not so anxiously waiting for me not to be there once and him to eat tanbark. Maybe we'll work on sitting and sliding this week.

We came back last night and Rex was quite the trooper. We only stopped once for a short recess and Rex only cried from about Lehi to home, which is pretty good considering it was 2 hours past his bed time.

Oh, and the blessing was nice too.

Egg Hunting

Rex has discovered candy. (Thanks Brian and Pattie). He knows where we keep the candy and stands under the bowl hitting the wall until I cave or distract him; he wins about 50% of the time. Easter morning as he was going through his Easter basket he noticed that the plastic eggs he's been playing with all month make noise. This was fun for a while and then he dropped on in order to move on to other items in the basket, and low and below as it hit the ground the egg broke open and there was candy inside. I let him eat that piece. But being the smart boy that he is, he just went after the next egg and after unsuccessfully trying to get me to open it, he threw it on the ground with the same results as egg number 1. So he had candy for breakfast.

Later, we went to his (our) friend's house for an egg hunt. Rex found one egg, dropped it on the ground to break it open, and then proceeded to eat all the candy out of that egg while the older kids scouwered the room for the rest of the eggs (yes, we had to do an inside hunt, because thanks to global warming, we had 6 inches of snow). Rex got 3 eggs. And even those we had to fight for. One of the other little girls at the hunt discovered that she could get lots of eggs out of other people's baskets.

Despite having a few eggs stolen, Rex had more than enough candy.

The Temple

First, thanks to Emma for babysitting Rex at the last minute so Greg and I could go the temple.

Second, check out the newfamilysearch.org. I did a few months ago and was surprise to find a few family members who had all the necessary information but not work done. I called my grandma and she was surprised that the work was lacking. She thought it had been done. So I printed the cards, and off to the temple we went. It took all of five minutes. Greg and I had originally intended to do all the work for these ancestors of ours in one day, but after waiting 2 1/2 hours in the baptistry, we decided to go home. That was in February. We thought we would finish the work this week when we went, but decided to do a session of initatories instead. So now we have to go one more time to do the endowments. What a shame.

But I have to say, it's been an interesting blessing doing this work for my family. I feel like I'm contributing to my family history and like to imagine my ancestors waiting for me, so happy to finally to be linked together. I picture angels running around the vast expanse of the universe to find these people and bring them together. I picture them waiting at the edge of the baptismal font and then just on the other side of the vale. It's a satisfying image to say the least. I try to think of people I normally do this work for in the same way, but they aren't my family; it's just not the same. Aside from feeling like going to the temple has a bit more meaning, I have enjoyed redoing all the ordinances. Usually Greg and I just do a session, which is good, but it's been a nice review of the other ordinances done in the temple.

So I guess what I'm saying it, try out the newfamilysearch.org. It's ridiculously easy to use and taking a member of your family to the temple and providing them with the saving ordinances, adds miles of meaning to the services.

And that is all.