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Animal Kingdom/Celestial Marriage

Our last day in Disney World was spent at Animal Kingdom.  We got there late so that we could sleep in.  Our adventure began at Mount Everest a fabulous roller coaster that even goes backwards!  Maddie sat next to me, we always keep our hands in the air when we ride roller coasters and Maddie is no different.  As we began our hands were up but as we went backwards and upside down my hands came down.  After a few moments I felt Maddie's arms against my shoulder, they were sill up!  I was being bested by my 6 year old!!  My arms shot back into the air and my respect for Maddie and her love of roller coasters increased dramatically.  She really loves fast roller coasters and can keep up with the best of us.


While we switched around with Mount Everest we let Michael play in the Bone Yard.  As I was coming back from the ride Derek informed me that Michael almost cut his eye open.  I started to panic.  I wheeled as fast as I could to Michael picturing a gaping wound and blood ever where.  But we were so blessed that it was just a major black eye.  This is it a couple of days later.  Poor kid.  He was walking around looking at everything around him when he walked right into a hand rail.


We went to Nemo the Musical.  Amazing!!  It was all done with puppets and was just beautiful  The picture does not do it justice at all.  Truly entertaining.


My kids are troopers.  Samantha was my personal chauffeur as she pushed me around most of Disney World.  John Derek had control of the stroller and really did a good job strolling the little kids.  Derek carried our heavy back pack full of snacks and diapers.  Elizabeth really stepped it up the last couple of days as everyone else was giving out.  She would carry the back pack to allow Derek to rest his shoulders, she would fill in with pushing when it was needed.  It was a joy to see them work together and help out.


One of the main reasons we went to Animal Kingdom was so that Samantha could see the Hippos.  She love it.  We stayed for quite a while watching this one swim around.  She was ecstatic.


Our last stop of the day was the Safari.  Because of my wheel chair we were able to have our own personal Safari.  It was fun!



Disney is done, now onto other adventures!!

The Joy of Living a Christ-Centered Life

"“And it came to pass that we [did live] after the manner of happiness.” 5 Despite their hardships, they were able to live after the manner of happiness because they were centered in Christ and His gospel.

Brothers and sisters, like the clay on the potter’s wheel, our lives must be centered with exactness in Christ if we are to find true joy and peace in this life."

I think we as a family need to see the happiness around us more. How do we do that? How do I do that and inspire my family?
Elder Maynes says that by centering our lives with exactness in Christ we can find true joy and peace. I do have to say that I do find true joy and peace with Derek. I do believe that our relationship is centered in Christ I wonder how to extend that to our family?
Recently Derek and I had a talk about our relationship and how special it is. I asked him if there were others in our ward with this kind of relationship was it common? He paused for a moment and reflected and finally said, "Our relationship is peculiar. There are couples in our ward who I believe have a "celestial" marriage and others who are well on there way. But it is unique and peculiar just as we are a peculiar people.
I pondered this statement and felt like he had described our relationship perfectly when he called it a "celestial marriage." We still have work to do, we still have to grow, but we are firmly centered with exactness in Christ.
We then talked about how there are families who have a "celestial family." I feel like we still have a long way to go to get to that state. Yes we have family prayer, scripture study and family home evening but there is a continual spirit of dislike among us. I fully admit that I am part of the problem. I am still learning to enjoy my children but my children do not enjoy each other and if they are getting a long it is usually a form of teasing that quickly gets out of hand. This idea of a celestial family is something I would love to achieve but am so grateful that my marriage is celestial because then I can help my family. I think it would be more difficult the other way around.

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