100 posts, a Mormon Miracle, a hoard of Burgeners and some news

This is our 100th blog post! I wish I had some exciting news or SOMETHING to mark this momentous occasion, but...we're still just living life, and we love it!

Two weeks ago, we got the random itch to hit the road and see the Mormon Miracle Pageant at the Manti Temple. This may be our only chance, since our life in the next year is a bit up in the air with Landon finishing school and such. We invited the cousins to go with us and geared up for a Saturday of fun. When we woke up it was raining. Pretty hard. We started to get phone calls from people wondering if we were crazy for going with the horrible weather. We talked one of them back into it (Chelsea, I'm sorry, but you totally were lame and totally missed out), and a few into it at very last-minute notice. They were all troopers, and we had the best time! The storm did not let up the entire drive to Manti. We could barely see out the windshield and it was pretty scary. Kyle wrote an ode to Landon's amazing driving and I tried to distract everyone by having a political conversation with Jesse, which didn't work that well, but was so much fun it didn't matter. When we finally reached Ephriam, we stopped in at Fat Jack's for some pizza in honor of Kyle's memories. It was very good pizza, good choice Kyle!

Landon, Kyle, Jesse and Katherine at Fat Jack's

After dinner, we went to a fun candy store that sells penny candy, and Landon let me buy 100 Fruities (you know, those amazing fruit flavored tootsie rolls). I am in love with that candy, because my piano teacher gave them to us when we passed off pages. I really loved my piano teacher, and eating those tootsie rolls always brings back good memories. We then proceeded to the temple. It was just as beautiful as we remembered from our last trip. I was feeling really nostalgic about the whole thing, since the set and lighting come from the Palmyra Pageant. Sometimes I really miss the time that I spent there. Only I wouldn't trade being married and so happy for anything in the world! Anyhow, we met Landon's mission companion there. He was kind enough to save us seats the whole day. It was great to see Cory and catch up with him as well. Thanks so much for the awesome seats Cory!

Here we are all bundled up in front of the temple!

After we met up with Cory, we walked around to look at all the booths and things they had set up, and I of course dragged everyone to the red door that I am obsessed with.

Here's Kyle looking all GQ

Here's the whole gang by the door

Ending scene

The rain cleared up about an hour before the Pageant and the weather was absolutely perfect. As the man on the phone that I called twice earlier in the day to confirm the Pageant was still happening said (quite indignantly), "It never rains on the Pageant." The Pageant was fabulous - if a little old fashioned - and we had so much fun together. It was great to see Kyle and Jesse again, and so fun to meet Katherine! She's a fun girl, we had a blast together. It was totally worth getting home at 2 a.m. Here's to impromptu road trips and good friends.Jesse, Katherine, Kyle, Kylie, Landon and Cory - thanks everyone!

This week, we had the opportunity to have Landon's family up for some fun and an extended family reunion. His older siblings came up a day early, and we had a good time hanging out together. It's so fun to have Dallin home. We also celebrated Miles' 18th birthday.

This cake is my masterpiece brain-child

Happy Birthday, Miles!

The rest of the Burgeners came up the next morning and we had fun hanging out, seeing the Oquirrh Mountain Temple, swimming at the reunion (even with the sunburn), having treats, watching movies, and just being together. I am always amazed that the Burgeners can all fit into our small living room to sleep! It was a lot of fun having them here.

The boys in the pool

One last piece of news to commemorate the 100th post:
For those of you who aren't aware, I lost my job at ThomasArts in May. The economy is so rough right now, and the company has lost a lot of business. This is the third time they've laid people off since I started there in 2007, so it didn't realy come as a huge shock. I am having a hard time finding employment, but we're really happy. It's weird, but it's actually been a good thing for us. It's as if a huge weight has been lifted off our shoulders. We have been so blessed with savings, a job for Landon, and the opportunity to be together and with family a lot more this summer. We're learning a lot about our family and where we want to eventually be in life.
We're planning to move to Provo in the Fall to be closer to BYU for Landon, so if any of you have leads or ideas for employment down in Happy Valley, we'd love to hear about it! Thanks to everyone who has already heard and have been such a support to us through it all. And please don't worry about us, we're already planning a million more adventures. Stay tuned!!