Experience

We got spoiled last weekend! S was invited to a seminar for work at the Ritz-Carlton Half Moon Bay. It was just a one nighter and within driving distance and wives were invited. So we turned that into the whole family...and they even paid for our gas to and from! Staying there is just an experience! They are so super nice to you everywhere you turn! The little things they do makes you feel special and important! Everything from using your name(I've wanted to do this for a while...isn't it nice when someone uses your name? Often, we go through days without using others names...just because we are talking directly to them.), to chocolates and waters by your bed at night, COLD waters for when you get into your hot car and more! We loved it. It didn't hurt that there were the most amazing views and beach right at the hotel. It was so fun to get away as a little family and enjoy eachother and a fun outing. It reminded me how being extra nice to others is a great thing to be. Not that I'm a mean person, but I think we could probably all use a reminder every now and then that we can go the extra mile more often. Then Sunday I taught a lesson in Young Women about Love and Harmony in the Home. What a great reminder week!

I've thought several times lately that I don't know how or why I'm so lucky! Reading the life histories of my ancestors makes me wonder why I get to do so many great things! Ancestors who left their native country never to see relatives again...I'm so lucky to live in a time where coast to coast airplane travel is available! Ancestors who trekked across the wild wild western states, probably never experienced the vastness, beauty and fun of the ocean! Digital photography! What life changing technology! Modern medicine...to identify and take care of ails our bodies may encounter and help us through child birth (ancestor gave birth to a child with her two year old hanging around and husband lost his horse and was therefore absent...not retuning for 3 weeks).

We do have our challenges too...in 1952 at the age of 94, my very own great great great grandmother Elizabeth Reese (Craig) said, "Yes, I’ve pioneered in Arizona, but my mother was a pioneer before me – she came from Illinois to Utah with the first handcart company, and my husband’s father, James Craig, was a bugler for the pioneers of 1847 and crossed the Plains into Salt Lake City with Brigham Young… Yes, I suppose you’d say that pioneering in those early years was hard, but we were all trying to develop the country and build a better nation. No one was trying to destroy it or tear it down. Everybody worked together and tried to follow the teaching of one of the Apostles who said, ‘Stick to the good and work for the right.’

Of course we worked hard, but hard work is good for the souls of men. Hard work kept our children out of mischief and kept men from getting into trouble. If I had my life to live over, I believe I’d take the hardships of our times rather than the problems of today. We built the nation. A lot of people now are trying to tear it apart. No matter how hard, it is easier to build a country than to keep the enemies from destroying it afterwards.

There’s a tremendous job of pioneering for our young people today—pioneering in a wilderness of unrest, selfishness, intolerance, greed, and dishonor. True courses must be charted through this wilderness just as we broke trails through nature’s wilderness sixty-nine years ago.”

Wow! Can't wait to get to know her someday(by the way...same lady that went through childbirth ALONE). So through all the wonderful experiences I get to have that she and others didn't, my goal is to tackle the wilderness that my family will face with her wisdom, faith, and good old fashion family values.

May we all enjoy and appreciate the experiences we are so fortunate to have!