When I saw that Mountain Starlight Theater had Newsies on their lineup for the summer I knew I wanted to go with Rylee but I also wanted to see if Whitney and her girls would want to go with us since we have bonded over our love of the movie. Whitney was all for it and I got tickets for June 25th. Whitney, Kinsey, Sadie and Madison came over at about 5:30 on the 25th and we went to Waffle Love for dinner before we headed to Garden Valley for the show. We brought blankets and snacks and I brought my jacket because I knew from my Girls Camp experiences that the mountain air gets chilly when the sun goes down. The performance started at 8 and I enjoyed being there and watching the show based on a movie I love but it was Broadways version of the show and I am not too much of a fan. They changed the music, the story line was different and they gender swapped some of the roles which I did not like. My biggest issue with the show was it did not have Christian Bale in it...jk, hahaha. Overall I love the movie but do not like the broadway interpretation the movie but I enjoyed being there with Whitney, her girls and Rylee.
Rylee and I were separated by a couple of people and at intermission she came and sat by me and we talked and laughed about funny things we saw in the play. It was a good night but a really late night. We didn't get back to our house until Midnight and poor Whitney had another hours drive making it 1am before she and her girls got home.
Whitney had sent a message out to all of us Peterson girls asking if we wanted to go Blueberry picking. She mentioned that Thursday and Friday were going to be cooler days and I said that works for me. Some of the other Sisters-in-law were saying they couldn't do those days and that Monday of the next week would be better for them. I had signed up to clean the Temple Monday morning so I couldn't do that day but it was just me and Rylee and so I told them to go ahead without us this year. Whitney and I talked about it at the play and she wanted to go on Friday because it really was going to be cooler temperatures and Monday wasn't the best day for her so for blueberry picking we were split up this year.
I got Rylee out of bed Friday morning and we met up with Whitney and her kids at Grandma Jo's in Emmett. I was surprised that Brit didn't show up, she had origionally said Friday was good for her but when we confirmed Friday for us for sure she said she would have to see how the morning went that day. She must have had a lot going on that morning and I was bummed they did not show up. Rylee and I had fun picking Blueberries, I did not need a ton because we don't eat them a lot once they are frozen and I had blueberries still from last year so we picked about a buckets worth. As we were checking out they also had already picked cherries so we grabbed a bunch of those to snack on. I rinsed the berries when we got home and put them on cookie sheets to dry. I had enough to fill two and a half cookie sheets and I left them the counter for a couple of days and snacked on a lot of blueberries. They were so convenient sitting on the counter and fresh blueberries taste so good. Finally on Monday I had Rylee bag up the rest of the blueberries and put them in the freezer for future use.
This COusin picture does make me a little sad this year because we are missing so many of the Cousins. Hopefully next year we can find a time to have more of us all go together.
Madison, Sadie, Lainey, Rylee, Dillon and Kinsley
On Sunday Jeremy, my brother, spoke in his Ward in California. Jeremy stopped going to church when he was 18 and this past year has been coming back to church and regaining his Testimony. I have been so proud of him and am so happy with where he is at and how he is doing. He is in Ashleigh's ward which has been really nice for him to have someone to go with and he was recently given a calling to be a teachers Quorum advisor which I think will be so good for him and for the boys in the quorum. He was asked to speak on Sunday and Ashleigh's Ward still puts their meetings on zoom so I was able to watch him give his talk. He did such a good job and was such a natural speaker, I would have never guessed that this was his first talk in 30 years. He talked about leaving the church in his youth and the mistakes he had made. He talked about wanted to come back to church but was scared for a long time not knowing the reception he would receive. He talked about the welcome he received from the Ward members and the Bishopric and how the Bishop has been so good to show love and help him. He then mentioned that he has been looking for a job for the past year and has put in over a hundred applications with not a lot of luck. He said he has been praying about it and then remembered my Mom telling him how fasting with pray can bring results. He decided to give it a try and made a commitment that he was going to fast every Sunday until he got a job. The very next Sunday he fasted for Breakfast and lunch and then went and had dinner at Ashleighs with the family. The next morning he put on his suit and tie to go try to put out more applications and was brushing his teeth getting ready to go when he got a phone call. It was a job offer from a pest control company that Jeremy had applied to and figured they did not want him. I was so happy for him that his fasting was able to help him get a job and that he was blessed. I know the Lord saw his commitment and knew his heart and knew that he would fast every week until he did get a job and the Lord knew that wasn't needed from him at this time. I love that Jeremy was able to grow his testimony from this experience and could feel the Lord's love for him. I am so glad I was able to listen to his talk, I screen recorded it but I did not know it would record the sound so I have an 8 minute silent video which is a bummer to me.
I didn't take a picture but I wanted to briefly mention about cleaning the temple. I went Monday morning, July 1, and it was my first time going so I wasn't sure what to expect. Usually the cleaning assignments start at 9pm and go till midnight which does not work for me, I am way too tired in the evening. I was really happy to see a morning shift this time around which is more my time frame. When I got there I signed in and then went downstairs to change into the temple provided scrubs and socks. I brought my own shoes to wear because I was worried about how my feet would do since they have really been hurting lately and I wanted to have more support than the slippers the Temple provided. I did pray before went that my feet would do ok and that it wouldn't be a problem for me while working in the Temple cleaning and they weren't. I was able to get around no problem and not have any foot pain bothering me or being a hinderence. Once I got changed they had a prayer meeting and then they assigned us to different areas. I was told to go to the baptistery where me and two others started cleaning in the girls bathroom. There were construction workers in there as well doing their jobs and we must have been on the way because when we were about halfway done they asked us to not be in there while they were. We headed over to the mens bathroom and were cleaning in there and got about halfway when the construction worker started working in there as well so we had to vacate. I then polished the wooden banister that went around the font area and when that was done they didn't have anything left to clean in that area so they told me to go upstairs to the first floor to see if I could help up there. I was given a vacuum and told to vacuum one of the hallways and the older sister service missionary that giving me the vacuum told me how pretty I was which was super nice of her. A couple of minutes later she came back to check on me and again told me how pretty I was which made me feel really good. It is always nice to get sweet compliments like that. Once I was done vacuuming I went to the initiator area and cleaned some of the lockers and then I pulled down the runners that were on top of the lockers so they could be vacuumed and then put them back up. After that I cleaned the rest of the baseboards and then they were done and had nothing else for me. it went really fast and I was done by 11:30. I went and changed and then left theTemple feeling really happy with the service I did. The next day when I went to the Temple to do initiator I felt some pride in how clean the Temple was and that I was a part of helping it look so good.