Missionary Memories

Today I had an experience that brought a plethora of mission experiences back to my mind and I just wanted to post my thoughts. Lately Alicia has had this cough that she gets with her pregnancy that just sporadically brings on a coughing fit and sometimes they make her dry heave she coughs so hard. Every time she dry heaves it reminds me of my trainer elder Hicks and how in the mornings as he would get ready for the day he would spit in the sink and make a "spoowe" sound and if you ever spent a morning with him as he gets ready you'll know exactly what Im talking about. Another thing that reminded me of Hicks this week was when I got a hair cut. The hair cut was great, but the sides were shorter than usual which I don't mind, but this reminded me of when Hicks would get a hair cut you could always tell because his moles would show on the side of his head. If he ever caught you looking he would say something along the line of "Hmmm you looking at my mole and then smile an ear to ear smile" to which you couldn't help but smile right back at him. This week I was also reminded of Elder Garcia-Lyons, when I went to buy a usb drive from the BYUI Bookstore and my friend Jared enthusiastically showed me the Star Wars series were the usb was a mini figurine of your favorite star wars character. I was seconds away from grabbing the usb drive I heard Garcia's voice in my head saying, "Echu ma ma!" This year there have been many things that led me to these memories, but what I love about these experiences is that I was fortunate enough to have one with every person I met in my mission. Lastly there was a kid on a show the other day that remedied me of a song one of my companions sung in titled, "Get Away" and the second we heard the tune Alicia and I looked at each other and said "no!" that sounded just like this elders song and then busted up laughing. I seriously could go on forever but hope to bring more of these awesome stories to light as they pop back into my memory.

Genealogy fun?

Both Alicia and I have been told how important our genealogy work is but Sunday afternoon at the Mckay Library I went in to find information about my Mom's Father. I told Alicia before I left that I wouldn't be gone for more than an hour max, but three hours later I found myself still working on my Great Grandfather and his boys. I couldn't believe how much fun it was learning all the information on different census's. Needless to say I hope I can gain some more news to share with you. I'm so stoked to continue to find new information about my families history.

What, a Pool in Rexburg?!

So this weekend we were invited to go swimming with Brett and Jen Cochran to go swimming in the indoor pool their town homes have. I was so excited to see how pumped Lila would get at the opportunity to swim outside of Claremont. When we got there Lila instantly took off and nearly jumped into the pool with all her clothes on. After a little pep talk and a change into the proper attire, she literally jumped into my arms in the pool. For the next hour all we would hear were screams of enthusiasm and constant in out, in out as she would run to the edge and jump in. I took some pictures and videos, I hope you enjoy them as much as we did living them:

Red What?

Tonight I made Velvet Chocolate Brownies with cream cheese frosting and they were amazing. I love the chocolate issue of the Food Network Magazine, everything I have cooked so faramazing. Yeah for a profession that makes people happy by sharing receipts. 

Cooking, Satisfying? Yes!

As of late Alicia has been really tired from going to school, pregnant, and the idea of cooking makes her want to vomit. So as any good husband would do, I have stepped in and started cooking the meals. I have always dreamed of once I was independently wealthy opening my own restaurant in Claremont. The menu creation process would go like this: Rachel would create the appetizers, and collaborate with my mom, Alicia, and Courtney. Courtney would be over the before mentioned and desserts. Mama Sommer would be in charge of interior design and my mom would over see the menu as a whole. Leah will be our nutritionist and will make sure we offer healthy courses and alternative options. I would then at the conclusion of culinary art school, be the main chef with my family working as a team and rip up the Claremont food scene. I still have not created a name that I like, but when I find one you will be the first to know. Another dream I had was to take the old garage that is to the left of Nick's into a venue, but stupid nectar has taken that space but by the time we come up with the money to make these dreams reality, they will have moved over to village west. Now that tangent is over I was saying about my new love for cooking has really brought a new self worth and pride into my life. Since last Monday I have made two pot roast, Giada's Shrimp Scampi with Angel Hair Pasta, Martha Stewarts Chicken Pot Pie, Chocolate Peanut butter Brownies from Food Magazine, and Smitten Kitchen Buck eyes. The next is mango curry and Creamy spaghetti with crisp salami. Does anyone else have a recipe they think I would like to make, please share!

Heres a picture of my first attempted at crust for my Chicken Pot Pie:

Where are the Plastic Badges at the Play Place?!

I usually don't vent about things like this but as of late I have noticed that the more active Lila becomes the more ways in which we look around our community for outlets that would allow her to get her energy out. In Rexburg is very hard to find things to do during the winter time so Alicia and I have found the play place at the Teton Mall to be a good venue for this new found energy. I usually let the amount of kids and size of kids roll of my back, but lately we have been observing parents dropping their 3rd graders off here and leave to go shopping the mall. Usually I wouldn't mind but these kids have a complete disregard to the little ones and run full speed in this super small space knocking kids who dare to step in their path of destruction. There is a bear that says anyone that is over this line cannot play in they play place, but just like the rides at disneyland instead of going up on their tippy toes the kids play limbo with the line to meet the requirements. Okay now that I got that out of my system here is an awesome picture of Lila having fun at the play place:

"You Better Belize it!" Part. 1

I have repented and realized that my Facebook posts don't count as blogging, so I will be better I promise. Last week Alicia and I went to Ambergris Caye Belize, the island of San Pedro for my best friend Craigg's wedding. After 10 years of courtship to his High school girlfriend Emily, finally tied the knot and it was epic. The first two days were beautiful even with the rainfall, but the end was the best part. After many prayers the sun came out for the wedding and it was absolutely breathtaking. I finally got to see Eric,Austin, Seth and Jessica since it has been a year since we last saw them and we so enjoyed their presence. On top of seeing old high school friends, I love sharing time with my second parents(Ross and Kristi). I have a lot in my life to thank directly from their example and words of wisdom. It was also nice bonding with the Dietz side again. We also made friends with Emily's bride maids Cam, Dina, Thore, and Ally. It was also nice to meet and bind with Liz, Alex Magee. It was also nice to bond again with the Bumby family, I really love there family dynamic and was so happy to see Ann, Sara, Maggie, Will, Chris, Kaye, Ed, and Jane. Another man that really impressed me was Ann's boyfriends Darrell(?) who was so nice to talk to and can't wait to get to know him better. I love reconnecting with friends that you haven't seen in years. I also really enjoyed hanging out with Seth since I hardly ever see him and never got to work at camp when all my buddies were there. Among all the fun we had just hanging out with each other, found time to rent seadoo's and got on an amazing snorkeling trip! Alicia actually went into the water and snorkeled along side me, while there we saw everything from needle fish, a 8 Foot Eagle Ray, eel, yellowtail jacks, parrot fish, Lion fish, barracuda, a fat grouper, french Angle Fish, Royal Gramma, 3 sea turtles and so so much more. Afterwards we went to the hot spot on the island called shark/ray alley that was created by fisherman that would stand on a coral gutting the fish and then throwing the aftermath into the water and feed those fish that we sitting and waiting for it. The coral has since been over taken by water and has now attracted rays and nurse sharks. By the time we got there Alicia was creating her own chum on the starboard side of the boat, right where we were going snorkeling, but luckily the fish took care of it by the time we got in the water. Alicia stayed in the boat for obvious reasons, while I was swimming with 15 nurse sharks and 5-6 rays. It was so awesome manhandling them and apparently if you put a shark on its back you can send it into a trance. This was by far the best snorkeling I have ever done in my life!! I can't wait to get the footage and show it to you guys. This place truly was paradise. We had so much fun celebrating Craigg and EM'swedding. We love all those that made it possible and are so happy to have them as part of my families life.

So the photos are really weak because we left our camera at the hotel but thanks to the

Turners hopefully we will get them back.

The Clouds and Coast While we were defending into Belize.

Alicia with her Belize money which was a nice 2/1 ratio.

This was the plane that took us from Belize to San Pedro.

As we descend into San Pedro. It was cool sitting behind the pilot.

Left to right side: Doug, Austin, Craigg, Magee, Deryl, Ed, Chris, Will, Eric, Ryan, Dougg, Jon.

Eric, Austin, Me, Seth, Craigg, Seth

Seth, Austin, Alex Magee

* Also I attempted to fix the photos but failed and gave up. For more check out https://www.facebook.com/drew.forester/photos or the official ones on Thors Blog:

http://lindseythorne.blogspot.com/2012/02/emily-craig-belize-destination-wedding.html