The Adventures of Brittany and Curtis

Welcome to Our Blog!!!
Thanks for taking the time to get to know us.

Happy Birthday Curt

For Curt's Birthday we celebrated with CARS!!!

Curt LOVES the Cars movies AND his Nephew, Dylan so for both of their birthdays we had a Cars themed birthday!!!

Take a look at the Pictures, They tell the story:




I made red velvet cupcakes with CARS on it!!! Yummy







Beth, Ryan, Mom and Anna decided to combine our birthday present. We opened our card to Tickets to Sugarland and a Gift Card to Texas Roadhouse. We were so excited and surprised. It was such a wonderful present and a great way to celebrate birthdays---being able to be with family.

Faith, Hope, Love and Perseverance

For those of you who regular follow this blog, We usually post about events and pictures of who we are so that others will no. The purpose behind this blog is to hopefully be chosen to become adoptive parents of a child.

So in effort to express ourselves we are stepping away from our normal posts to do something a little different.

So here goes.....

We have spent most of our lives trying to continue to move forward. We are taught that we should be planning for the future. If you think about it that is all that we do from the time that we are born until we die. For example; when we are born we are encourage to start laughing, then talking; ie...first words, walking, running, learning ABC's and so continues the pattern. Then we continue to progress toward the future. School, grades, driver  license, graduation, then college, marriage and; between the last two for some, is a mission. Then kids come along and careers and everyday living.

Sometimes the above plan becomes the standard or tradtion dictates that we are to do things a certain way and if we don't we fail.

So what happens when things do not goes as plan. That is when if the situation gets bad enough we want to give up.

The first time that this situation happened to us was when we experienced our first miscarriage. We did everything right; no smoking, drinking and took care of ourselves yet it still happened. The devastation was drastic and it took as a long time to get over the loss of a child. But somehow we found the faith and hope to continue on. Trusting that Heavenly Father knew us and was aware of who we are. The next time we found ourselves in the normal traditional game plan for life happened when we experienced our second lose. We had another miscarriage last December.

During these past four years after much prayer as to what we should do to continue to Move Forward we decided to adopt. We started the process over a year ago and during this time period there have been moments of struggle and heartache for not having things happen sooner. We have had many moments of grief over our loss and struggles in getting approved and waiting for our children to come to us.

It has been in those moments when the faith and hope and perseverance is needed. We have learned through life's struggle no matter what others may say that our lives are in the one person who knows the whole Picture: Heavenly Father. We are not sure why we have to face certain trials but we can count on the Love of our one parent who has experience what we have : Heavenly Father.

We personally have seen that by love, faith, hope and perseverance in the life of a people that come across our paths. To us the people that exemplifies these qualities is birth parents. If for no other reason they have become the reason that we decided to adopt.Yes we have experienced loss in the children that did not come to us here but they are people who are faced with some of the hardest decisions and make the ultimate sacrifice for a love of a child. The only other person who has done that has been Our Heavenly Father- He sacrificed His son- Jesus Christ. He did so willing and it is something that we have yet to comprehend but we know it is real.

This post is somewhat rambled together but to some it up we are blessed to know that we are loved and that with faith, hope, perseverance we can accomplish anything. This has been a reminder to never give up no matter how are hard it may.

**** Please take the time to Read it*****

Independence Day Weekend

Vacations are important to us but as you all know that are not always easy to come by. So we decided that since it has been about two years since we went on one we were needing to get away. The destination would be........



BRYCE CANYON!!!!!


It was needless to say absolutely beautiful!! (The pictures speak volumes)

DAY 1- Friday July 1st-

We started out be going to the Bountiful Temple and do a session before we headed to Bryce Canyon. It was of course wonderful. the drive was nice but we did have a few hiccups along the way. We were about three hours from our house when we remembered that we forgot bedding-  We were staying at a cabin at a KOA. (If your not familiar with the cabins at a KOA, they have a full size bed and a bunk bed but no bedding. So when we forgot ours we were pretty much in a jam. When I say bedding I mean- no pillow, no sleeping bags, no blankets!!! Luckily we found a walmart and picked up the necessary items we needed to be able to sleep. We arrived at the KOA at about 7 and after setting up camp we built a fire and spent the evening watch the stars and talking.

Our view from our cabin. It was nice to wake up to this each day!!   


Day 2- Saturday July 2nd-

Bright and early we headed to Bryce Canyon. Because the morning was not to hot we decided to hike a trail that was about 4 miles round trip. The swamp creek canyon trail was nice, easy trail at least when we headed into the canyon. The trail was a straight shot down the canyon for about 1000 feet or more, which means we had to climb out of the canyon. Straight up hill!!! It was worth it. Again pictures speak a thousand words.






It was a little hard to take our own Pictures!
After making it out of the trail we went to others spot in the park as well as the Visitor Center. Bryce Canyon was amazing. More pictures are needed to show the beauty that is found there.



















After spending the day there we went and cooled down in the pool at the KOA and grabbed some food. That night we went to the park again, this time to watch the night sky. The stars were so clear and abundant. Our cameras didn't work to take night pictures like that.



Day 3- Sunday July 3rd-


We left the camp site at about 9 am and headed to another spot in the Bryce Canyon Park- Moss Cave.  We also stopped and took a trail in the Petrified Forest State Park.  On the way home we took the scenic route back to Salt Lake. The Moss Cave had a beautiful waterfall. (See Pictures). The State Park had two trails after all the hiking that we did the day before we decided to do the longer harder hike. It was a straight shot up the mountain about 200 ft to a trail that took you to all the spots to see the Petrified Wood.




















These Last Three pictures were from the top of Boulder Mountain on  Scenic Route Hwy 12. We were 9400 Ft above sea level!!!!



Overall the trip was wonderful. It may have been short getaway but it was well worth it. Even if we did end up a little bit in trouble!!!! Just kiddin!!!!!






Earth Day and Easter

For Earth Day we went to the Golden Spike National Site and Spiral Jetty. We were in search of the perfect pictures.(This one not so much!)


As you can see I am not having much luck!!!




Trying to walk the rails.
































Curt is willing to try anything to get the perfect shot. No worries though he gets!!!


 
See Isn't that a perfect picture!!!!



At Spiral Jetty, we waited until everyone left to get the best picture. After that it was all about taking fun pictures.

  
It was a great day. It was the perfect weather so that we could enjoy the beautiful earth that has been created for us. For Easter we had Curt's mom and sister over as well as Brittany's parents. We enjoyed hamburgers on the grill and shared with each other what Easter means to us individually. It was a wonderful time had by all. Also Bo and Cheryl and their kids stopped by for a visit as well.  Thanks Family for the good times.

Happy Valentine's Day

Sometimes the best gifts are the ones that are not expensive but mean the most.

When I got up for work I woke to a trail of Valentines. Curtis had purchased a box of 32 valentines. (The same ones used for classroom parties.)
The first one was found on the bathroom counter, the next in the shower,  one in my jewelery box, one on the night stand...

After I left the bedroom I found more in the hallway. There were five around the computer....... 
2 in my lunch box.....















 
3 in my purse and 5 in the fridge.



















There was also one in my shoe.


Each had their own special message. When I left for work I thought I had got them all. Well I missed two in the bedroom and the last we could not find. I figured we would maybe find it eventually. 

Curtis started asking me where I found them this morning. It turns out that I had missed one but it was with me all day. It was in my other shoe. I wear inserts so I did not check my other shoe all the way and had put my inserts on top of the last valentine. Needless to say it was a little wet and gross. We laughed about that one for awhile. What a great day!!! Thanks Curt!!!

Hope everyone had a good day as we did!!!! 

(Curtis Loves the Cars movie)

Good Times

We love to have good times with our family members. Last Sunday was no exception. We had dinner at Mom's House.  The food was great!!! After dinner we just sat around and chatted. Curtis' Job was to entertain Dylan. It started by Dylan riding his "horsey"



After his "Ride", Dylan went on to Say "Thanks Horsey"

Dylan went on to build a train and we were his passengers. While Dylan was conducting the train, Curtis went on to tickle the other passengers. Dylan was a little confused about why we were laughing so hard in the back of the train so he decides to laugh as well. I do not think he was happy when his train was messed up whenever Curtis would tickle Anna. (Sorry it is so dark)
It was a night of Good Times. Thanks Everyone!!

Early Spring Cleaning

In our efforts to start our new year we started to go through some of our stuff. After all we have lived in the same place for the past two years and we have collected many things.  Anyways I came across some pictures that were a blast from the past.
This picture is from 2006.We are in Lake City, Florida serving our Mission. It was Prep. day and we were looking for something to do. We found this pond and decided to play football, it just happened to be in the MUD!! This is the before picture.
 As you notice this was at the end of February. Florida weather is the best.
We were a mess!!! I am sure that we were stepping on things that were dead and decaying. Curtis actually broke his pinky toe on a rock. 
This picture is not the greatest but hopefully you can tell the difference from the before and after. I am pretty sure if I remember correctly we were cleaning the mud off of us for like an hour. We hosed off before we even left the property. (Curtis is in the middle and I am at the end on right)

So even though we had to clean house, It was great to look over these pictures and have the memories come back to us. That was just a wonderful day and we had so much fun. Playing mud football was on a list of things that I always wanted to do and I had the chance to.