15 Years

For the past fifteen years, I have missed my best friend and eternal companion every single day.  The joy we experienced together as husband and wife amazed me and the strength he had in his testimony was just so wonderful.  He was an amazing example to my children and to me of how a husband should treat their spouse and children. I miss seeing how he enjoyed his football and other sporting events.  I miss how I always felt loved.  When I walked into the house he would just light up and I would feel such happiness from him. I miss our wonderful trips.  We would go to a favorite spot to camp overnight and I would gather the wood and get a fire going, cook us some steaks or fish and then pile blankets upon him as the night air cooled.  Then with a well stoked fire, I would move my chair as close to his as I could get and we would looked up into the sky at the beautiful stars.  We would count the shooting stars, we would read scriptures, talk about dreams of what our future would look like and one would think it would be a tiring trip to stay up all night long, but it wasn't at all.  I loved every minute of that time and they are some of my most wonderful memories. I miss reading scriptures with him.  Kelly had such a simple way of explaining the scriptures and his love of the scriptures would manifest so purely in our reading.  This year especially, I miss watching conference with him.  What a privilege it was to be able to set next to this wonderful man in the comfort of the beautiful home we had created and tenderly wipe the tears from his eyes and he would feel the power of the Holy Ghost and then express his wonderful testimony to me.  

I don't really like being around people during this anniversary of his death, and this year is the first time I worked on the 31st in many years.  It has been a very educational couple of weeks for me.  I wasn't able to attend the annual sisters luncheon due to it being in Portland and I don't travel outside of driving to Utah or here in Nevada.  Many different things have been shown to me that I really didn't realize, but this year has been the year of really very little stress associated with anniversaries that usually have me in inconsolable tears.  So Ambur and I planned some activities for the weekend.  I would typically attend a couple of temple sessions, but with conference being this weekend, I wasn't able to do that.  So On the 31st one of my friends and her daughter came to Vegas for some charity responsibilities they had and we all went to a restaurant called Juan's Flaming Fajitas. When you get the fajitas they light them up right by your table.  It is pretty fun and food is fantastic.

Saturday morning we woke up and visited a bit and then we headed to Saint George, UT for a trip to Tonaquint Cemetary so I could place flowers on Kellys resting place. The weather has been so cold, windy and rainy here in Las Vegas that the day of predicted sunshine was a pretty exciting thing.  The drive was just beautiful and peaceful.  We had a wonderful trip talking laughing and doing a little reminiscing about life with Kelly from time to time. We also listened to General conference when we were able to get it.  

We stopped and got some flowers and we chose the Sunflowers and lilies.  They were so beautiful.

We left and went back to Las Vegas.  I had noticed that the Joshua trees were all in bloom and so I planned to get some good pictures on the way back home.  There weren't a lot of good photo spots to stop and the road was busier than usual because of shut downs on I-15 highway.  But the first thing I notices was this flag.  With a pirate on it.  Not sure if that means the pirates are invading the Shivwitz indian reservation or what...

Ambur took a picture of me taking a picture of the Joshua Forrest.

The picture isn't what I imagined.  You can see the blossoms, but they were blooming all around the full desert and it was so green and lush from all the rain, but I surely didn't capture that in my photo. I took one of no blossoms as well just to show the difference.

It is a rare event to see snow on the mountains going to St. George in April.  But there it is and so beautiful.

We had planned to drive through the Valley of Fire state park, but as it turned out, I was drained and didn't feel like it so we just went on home and decided to go to the park tomorrow.  It turned out to be a great thing because we were able to get nearly the whole Saturday evening session of Conference and the addresses were so touching to my soul.  It made me excited to listen to it.  (I do have all the sessions recording)

Now it is April 2nd and we are on our way to the Valley of Fire State Park.  I have been there only once a bit of time ago with my niece and her family.  It was so much fun and such a surprise.  It is not far from our house.  I did learn from that visit that there is an entry on the east side which goes right past the entrance to Lake Mead so we decided to go all the way (about 30 miles) to that exit instead of the usual exit we would take.  It was just a beautiful morning.  The ride through the East entrance was simply beautiful and green with lots of scenery.  Then we arrived at the park.

At this time of year, typically the cacti would be in bloom.  There were lots of yellow flowers and in some places some purple ones.  But no Cacti blossoms.  Ambur had Gimlet wear her shoes so she wouldn't get thorns or glass in her feet.

This is petrified wood.  I don't remember seeing it at my previous visit to the park.

We tried one of the pretty short hikes to the Elephant Rock, but it was a bit much for Ambur so we just decided to mostly do the drive which is so beautiful it was just fine.  These are pictures at what is called, "Seven Sisters" and There wasn't a way to get one picture with all the sisters, but I took some individually.  We met some fun people who were there from St. George and discovered they were members of the church and had a really nice time visiting with them.

WE stopped at the Visitor's Center and went through and had a nice little rest.  While there we got some electrolyte drinks and gimme had a great big drink and then just layed down flat she was exhausted.  It has been some time since she put in a day with so much working.

 These next ones are called the Bee-Hives.  They are pretty close to the road and even though it was very crowded, it was not easy to tell.

Then we were on our way out of the park.  We became very thankful that we had made the choice to enter at the other end of the park.  For about a mile this was the line for cars going into the park.  No thank you.

We made it home and we are both a little wiped out but what a very peaceful day.  We also got to hear President Nelson's remarks while driving.  Fifteen new Temples announced.  We both realized (if we didn't already) that the gospel just continues to move forward no matter what is happening in the World Events and it shows us all just how important it is to have Christ in our lives and to live good honest lives that will coincide with Heavenly Father's love and requests.

I am blessed to have been sent such a wonderful man in my life and although short, be married to him for this time on earth and for eternity and I am blessed to have my wonderful Angel daughter who supports me through each and every struggle that I experience.  We have had a very peaceful couple of days and I am grateful for them.