Moab. The start of many adventures :)

Well, I guess this is our first official blog post. We figured it's better late than never to start journaling a bit. We've both felt impressed to write more. I think it has something to do with the way our Father in Heaven communicates with his children. In our day it's uncommon for someone to sit down and write, or ponder, but I believe that it's critical. Those are the times when we recieve the most revelation and inspiration from He who knows best. What a blessing, really, it is to have the ability to sit and think about the things of God. More and more knowledge is poured out with each minute.

Anyway, to say the least, this blog will be for updates and important things that happen in our life, but will also be a blog full of our own personal insights. That might bore some of you, but for us, we feel it's something that we've been needing to begin. Afterall, when's a better time to begin something new as two lives are joined to one.

We've loved being together and still love it every single day. This last weekend we had the opportunity to go to Moab Utah to camp and hike. I have to admit, I was a little hesitant at first to go on the trip. It would be with Logan and a bunch of his friends who I didn't really know too well. I'm also studying right now for my Nursing Boards which I take this Friday, so I didn't know if I wanted to miss out on so much study time. BUT, I went and was so glad I did. It was sooo much fun! I loved every second of it.

We got there Friday night and sat/talked around the camp fire, set up our tent, had a few smores' then went to bed excited for the next day. Well, the next day came and it was rainy. The whole reason we had even gone to Moab was so the guys who were training for the triathlon there on May 14th (including Logan), could ride the trail and get a good feel for it before the big day came. Well, it was a little rainy in the beginning, but they decided they would still go. So, off they went, 5 guys on their bikes, while us 3 girls stayed in the tent where it was warm and dry. We get a call about 10 minutes later saying they needed us to come and pick them up.

While they were riding the trail one of Logan's friends stopped and realized he had a flat tire. While they were stopped and fixing it, he realized his other tire was flat as well. Then another guy, Adam spoke up and said, "hey guess what guys..." he had a flat tire too. Everyone checked their tires and realized that 8 out of the 10 tires had 7-8 thorns in them. Disaster! They were all really sad, but decided to just go ahead and call it a day on the bike and come back to camp.

I found it interesting to note that the only guy whose tires remained inflated were those that were protected by "thorn liners." They had a guard completely around them, and kept them safe. Obviously we can apply that in our lives as well. Are we allowing ourselves to be protected and guarded against the adversary? Or do we just plow through life thinking that we'll be alright on our own. Maybe here a little and there a little we'll have to do a little patching, but for the most part we'll "get by". I think sometimes that's our mentality. I know sometimes that's MY mentality. "I can do it on my own. I don't need the protection." Those are false thoughts. We CANNOT do it on our own. We need, more than anything our Savior, and the Holy Ghost as our guide as well as our guard to keep us protected and ready for when we cross the path full of thorns.

What a blessing it is to know that we have a Savior who loves us and wants to save and protect us. We just have to make the necessary adjustments in order to have his protection. We have to put in the right amount of time and effort...and in the end, well...we're riding home happy, healthy, and safe.

After their "exciting" bike ride, we went out to breakfast at a local diner. DELICIOUS! It was fun to just sit with everyone else, laugh and talk. As we walked outside after breakfast, we quickly realized that the sun was shining, the clouds were for the most part gone, and it had stopped raining. It was beautiful. We were excited and ready to go hiking in Arches National Park. We hiked to see "Double-O Arch" and "Delicate Arch" (the one that's on the Utah license plate.). We had a lot of fun. About half-way to Double-O Arch Logan picked me up to give me a hug and one of his buddies bet him dinner that he couldn't carry me the rest of the way to the Arch. It's at that point that I realized how much I LOVED hiking!Haha. I was very impressed actually. Logan carried me for over a mile over, up, and around big rocks, and sand until we reached our destination. I have such a strong husband! He's great! I think about every person who walked by us either stared or laughed. To one lady who walked by and kind of chuckled a bit I said, "Isn't hiking just so much fun?!" She laughed, and continued walking.

By the end of the day, and after eating so much from our free meal, we were exhausted. We didn't get home till 1:30 Easter morning. It was a fun trip.

Oh my goodness, the outdoors are beautiful and it was so nice to just be able to enjoy our time together walking through nature. The outdoors are so full of the spirit. It's peaceful, and relaxing. You seem to forget about all the stressors you have in your life at that point. At the beginning of the trip I was stressed a bit about my test and how I wouldn't have time to study, but after the trip I think I felt more relaxed than I have in a long time. It was great.

Well, we hope you all had a great Easter Sunday as well! We got to go to the homecoming of my old mission companion, Hermana Barker. She lives in Roy which is about 40 minutes away from us. It was fun to be with her and her family. We got to talk about, and look back on all of our memories we had had together. It was a lot of fun. I wouldn't trade that experience for the world.

Well, we love you all and hope all is well! Have a great day today!

Love,

Logan and Shanell