A Taste of Heaven

I just want you to know that eating one of these felt like heaven!

My landlady Launa made them. The caramel doesn't get stuck in your teeth. The white layer is a sort of white chocolate flavor, but better. (White chocolate normally makes me really sick. This one didn't.) And then it's covered in a cinnamon/sugar coating. Delicious! 

Visitors

My cousin Tammy came into town this week. Her husband Ty came to do some recruiting at BYU, so Tammy and her little boy Bryce tagged along to spend some time with her sister Emily, and of course see us cousins. :) Schedules were crazy between Emily and Brittany's work schedule, but we did manage to get a lunch date for Brittany, Tammy, and I at Brittany's house one of the afternoons. It was sooo good to see Tammy! And her little son Bryce is adorable! I love his smiles. I'm so impressed how pleasant he is when he wakes up! Wow!
Time was short and limited, but with cousins, any time = good time.

I feel so blessed to have such a wonderful family. It was so great that our dads could raise their families close to each other. I value the memories and traditions we were able to establish with each other. I'm grateful for the close relationships I have with my cousins, my aunts, and my uncles. I feel like we have gone through the good, the bad, and the ugly - together. I am perfectly aware that our family is DIFFERENT! In a good way, at least for us. There aren't many families out there that are as close as our extended family is. We have gotten together every year for 30 years! (I'm not THAT old, but that's how long the family reunions have been going on.) It's always so much fun! Plus, being able to grow up near cousins allowed us to get together almost monthly, for most of my life. It's fun to see how we have grown and changed, and each new addition, whether spouse or child, is such a blessing! People marrying into the family don't just get the parents and sibling approval - they get the aunt/uncle/cousin approval! It's intimidating, but soooo fun! I wouldn't have it any other way!

I also value my cousins because of my faith and beliefs. As far as the Gospel is concerned, growing up, I did not have a lot of LDS friends. And sometimes, that is really hard. I don't remember struggling with living the values I was taught, but it was hard to live them without having people support me in the choices I made. I think that's why I value my relationship with my cousins the most.

Now, I just look forward to any time that we can have together. For some cousins, I don't get to see them often, but when we do get together, I feel like we haven't lost any time at all. Tammy is one of those. It's another person that I know I can be open with about my feelings and struggles. We got really close before she left on her mission to Hong Kong. I couldn't have gotten through that summer without her.

I'm thankful for family. I'm thankful for cousins! And I'm thankful that my cousins are more than just family to me. I'm always looking forward to the next time we get to be together. Thanks for visiting Tam!

Feast of Tabernacles and General Conference

Last weekend was a very special event - General Conference. Unfortunately, Joe had to work so I was watching by myself, but he was able to catch up on it each evening when he got home. General Conference is something in our church that we look forward to 2 times each year, the beginning of April and October, where we get to listen to our living prophet and other church leaders. It seemed that there was a lot of talks given about love - loving others and feeling the love of our Father in Heaven. It was a wonderful Conference! I especially enjoyed Elder Holland's testimony about the Book of Mormon and Elder Osguthorpe's talk about teaching, since I was just called to teach the 13-14 year old girls on Sunday. I am excited to re-read and study the words of these leaders, as I find that they bring an uplifting power of hope and faith. I had many thoughts come to mind during those 2 days about things I can do to be better and improve. Now, I just need to get started!

There is a tradition in Joe's family for Conference, and this time was the first time I participated. Every Conference, each family makes cinnamon rolls for the weekend. I have only made cinnamon rolls one other time, and it took ALL DAY! It's quite the effort. The day before Conference I had been toying with the idea of doing it for Joe, because, although he had to miss the actual Conference for work, I didn't want him to feel left out. Plus, I kept hearing about all of his other siblings and their cinnamon rolls too. In some ways, I was feeling pressure to keep up with the family. Of course, I didn't tell Joe any of this. In between Conference sessions, I pulled out the recipe to see what it would actually take, and if I even had the ingredients. For some blessed reason, it didn't seem as hard or as time-consuming as the first time. I thought it was a fun surprise for Joe to come home to.
They turned out pretty darn delicious if you ask me! Thanks to my cousin Ashley for the recipe. We love them! I even got to share with our landlords; it's always fun to share goodies!

So, while I surprised Joe with the cinnamon rolls, he came home with a fun activity for our evening. One of the members of his band is Jewish, and he had told Joe that it was currently the Feast of Tabernacles. During this holiday, Jews build what are called "Sukkots" in their yards. It used to be that they would then "live" in these huts during the holiday season. Now, it isn't as much "living," as just spending time, tho some do bring out TVs and internet and such.
Anyway, so Joe's idea was to build a "sukkot," or basically, build a fort, but in our living room instead of outside. So that's just what we did:It took a lot of work and creativity to get the blankets to stay on the fan, but eventually, it did work. We brought in our ironing board, swiffer, and several chairs as well to extend the edges.


Then, we sat inside, enjoyed our cinnamon rolls, and watched some YouTube videos of a Hasidic Jew, Matisyahu, who is a very famous Reggae rapper. He's good! - you should watch the video if you get a chance.
And then we watched Hairspray (my choice), and did some fun crazy dancing. We left the fort up for a couple days, and I watched my Sunday Conference inside as well. It definitely was a great weekend!

More Polka

The week after I went up with my cousins to watch Joe polka, some of his family was able to come up as well. Some were returns from last year, and others came up for their first time experience.

Our little tuba player had a cheering section that looked like this

I thought it was a lot of fun! We took the small little trail and hiked to enjoy the view. We even saw a deer. The kids liked that. I always enjoy being with my nieces and nephews, as well as mother-, brother-, and sister-in-laws.

Jo-Jo got adventurous and climbed a big rock. James joined him too but I missed a picture of that. Good thing they were steady on their feet and didn't look down - there was a pretty big cliff just below them.

The colors were starting to come out as well, which I love. Fall is such a wonderful and beautiful season. It reminds me of New York, and the temperature is *mostly* enjoyable. :)

When we came back from the hike, we were able to catch the end of Joe's last set. He even got the Jensen clan up to do the chicken dance. I was dancing with Sara and Rachel to begin with, and then realized I was missing an AMAZING photo opportunity, so I ducked out and grabbed the camera. I think you can see just about everyone:

Jo-Jo is in the front corner, with Peter in the orange right next to him. Then there is Suzette dancing with Nora, and James next to Grandma. Right behind Suzette is Marisa to the left and Jessica (in the brown) to the left. Next to Jessica is Matt.

Here's a close-up of Grandma and James.

There is Sara in the yellow and Rachel is just behind her - you can just barely see her pony-tail and her legs.

Here's some more of the spinning: Suzette and Nora, Matt behind her with Rose, Marisa and Jessica, Grandma and James, and Rachel and Sara.

This one captures Peter and Jo-Jo, along with Suzette and Nora again.

After the chicken dance, the twins came and sat with me. It didn't take long for Nora to say she wanted to go and dance. I agreed to go out with her, and Rose followed. I was surprised how tired I was dancing with them! We went and sat down at the end of the song, just as Jo-Jo was coming out to join us, so I agreed to go back out again. It was fun but tiring!

I was grateful when Matt came out and danced with the twins - it's hard dancing with more than one person at a time! I think he's used to it since he has twins.

That meant I could have fun just dancing with Jo-Jo. He was squirming and trying to get away, but he had fun too!

After all the polka was over, we went out into the far reaches of the parking lot and Matt and Suzette brought up their grill. We had brats and salad and listened to the BYU game on the radio. It sure was a fun day with family! We are grateful for all of the support the family gives to Joe and his tuba playing.

Tonight we got to go back up to Snowbird for an "End of Oktoberfest" dinner. Sadly, we missed the tram that went up to the top of the mountain. We heard it is beautiful up there! (We even missed a proposal of the balloon guy; she said yes!) But we also heard it was really cold, which is believable since there is already snow on the ground at the resort. Hopefully next year we'll make it, and I'll just dress warm. We were able to enjoy a nice dinner, music, and a slide show along with some of the other performers and those that really make Oktoberfest happen each year. I'm learning that it's about more than just beer. The traditions are a lot of fun! It's great to see the children dancing and dressing up in traditional German outfits, and the older couples are just darling!