A Few Thoughts

Lately I have been feeling an overwhelming gratitude for the marvelous gifts God has placed in my life. One of the most precious feelings in the world is the confirmation that God is on our side and desires to bless and aide us. Over the last few years, I have had the opportunity to move around a lot. Everywhere I have gone I have been blessed with lasting friendships that I truly cherish. There have been so many people that have touched my life and made me want to be a better person. I truly love these relationships. Through them I feel a sense of the love our father in heaven has for us. I know he must love us with an incredible love and that is why he blesses us with one another, giving us friends and companions to help each other return to him. I am thankful for the many precious relationships I have been blessed with in my life and I am learning that they are what matters the very most. There is a perfect hymn that sums up my exact feelings. It is called "Each Life
That Touches Ours For Good". I heard it a long time ago at BYUI and it has always been one of my very favorites! Check it out!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zq7JPVPz9os&feature=related




 1. Each life that touches ours for good
Reflects thine own great mercy, Lord;
Thou sendest blessings from above
Thru words and deeds of those who love.

2. What greater gift dost thou bestow,
What greater goodness can we know
Than Christlike friends, whose gentle ways
Strengthen our faith, enrich our days.

3. When such a friend from us departs,
We hold forever in our hearts
A sweet and hallowed memory,
Bringing us nearer, Lord, to thee.

4. For worthy friends whose lives proclaim
Devotion to the Savior’s name,
Who bless our days with peace and love,
We praise thy goodness, Lord, above.

Ocean City and the last couple of weeeks

Life has been quite busy for us lately! It is our last month in MD and the company is sending us on a lot of adventures before the summer ends! We went to the Orioles baseball game on July 28! It was a lot of fun but we decided that football is much more exciting than baseball. haha. Baseball is just so slow. It is fun to play though! Campbell also won a trip for us to visit Ocean City for three days! Zach also won a spot. We had a lot of fun! The beach was so beautiful and there was such fun feeling about the boardwalk! The sand in Ocean city is a little more golden than the sand in S.C. It is beautiful.  I brought my camera but forgot my batteries so the only pictures I have are from my phone. The Guys still had to work so we did most of the fun stuff in the mornings and late at night when they got home. While they were gone, I just hung out with the other girls! We played games and made dinner together. I am going to miss these guys! 

Orioles game!

Here we are

The guys played a lot of football and volleyball on the beach. We had fun being cheerleaders for them!

This was an awesome little place by the boardwalk. There were so many kites!

Pilled in the back of the truck....heading to the  best part of the beach

Campbell looks pretty good with a 'stache ;)

Campbell ordered a huge Pizza to eat. This was the last thing I wanted because it was so hot but he ate quite a bit of it until he finally broke down and had to give the rest away.

Such a sweet husband. I love him!

probably the coolest sand castle I have seen!

I had to include this....Zach joined in on the hot dog eating contest. It was disgusting...some guys were dipping the bun in water so they could just swallow it and not chew. It was pretty much only the single guys that did this because the married guys always have dinners to go home to that their wives make. I think Zach came in 2nd....

Family visits!

Like I mentioned in the last post, my wonderful family came up to visit us! My mom had to leave a little early but the rest of them stayed for 11 days. We made the most of our time and visited a lot of the cool places around here. We took another trip to D.C., went on some awesome trails, hung out at the pool, went to the temple, went to the cheesecake factory and did a little shopping and a lot of cooking (Campbell liked that part).  I am going to just upload a bunch of pictures from their visit!

Campy

This was on our walk down the awesome old mill trail. Tyla insisted on playing "stick pull" which is  a pretty awesome game people would play back in the 1800's. These two girls are just too strong for the game because they ended up just breaking the stick in half. 

We had a lot of fun exploring the abandoned mill

whole in the floor! Mal was watching the fish below.

My brother

My sister

My brother torturing my sister

Playing Hacky sack

Hacky sack, intense style

Campbell being his happy, goofy self. 

sassy girl

The beautiful Washington, D.C. temple

Tyla took this. Nice shot, girl!

We spent some time in the visitors center watching to Joseph Smith movie and looking at the  displays

My beautiful sister, I do love her a lot

This was after another day of walking all day in D.C.

The squirrels out here have some major personality! they will eat food right out of your hand! They are awesome.

....chilling under a tire. He looks squished but he was fine. haha. He is so cute!

 

4th of July in D.C.

The 4th of July this year was an amazing one! Mainly because my amazing family (minus my pops ) and Tyla Campbell came up here to visit us! We had such a great time just being together! They are just such great company and I can't wait to go home and live close to them again. Anyway, we decided to go into D.C. and visit the sites and monuments the day of the 4th. My friend, Miranda Drake also came with us! We rode to Metro into the city which is always a fun adventure. We did a lot of walking! We went to the American museum (where we saw the death mask of Abe Lincoln and the star spangled banner!) and then we went to the natural museum which has been my absolute favorite! The natural museum has a large variety of things in it from Egyptian mummies to deep sea creatures. SO cool! We also saw some of the monuments!  We visited the Washington monument, the Lincoln memorial and the Vietnam memorial. around 5 o'clock, Camp got off work for the night so we ended up coming back to Laurel to hang out with the working crew. It was a hard decision to leave D.C. and miss the amazing fireworks but it was getting pretty crowded and we would not have gotten back home until 3 a.m. and my mom had to leave back for S.C. by 1 a.m. It was a wonderful holiday! I am so thankful for the country I live in! I truly LOVE America!

Riding the Metro with My faves! (minus Camp who had to work)

My sweet bro, waiting on the metro

Pretty cool place!.....it's pretty smelly though

Excited to start the day

My wonderful Siblings, couldn't ask for anyone better

This was in the American Museum. I love this Statue. Washington is pointing the sword's handle out which is symbolic of him giving the power to the people. I love it. You can't tell through this picture but he was also sitting on a throne that was decorated with people throughout history who had great power.....Just a great symbol of George Washington's selflessness. This was the Original Washington Monument.  

This was a cool little place on the way to the Lincoln memorial. It's an awesome shot because you can see the Washington monument and the girls' are Repin' for SC. Sweet!