The March of Dimes

 The NICU families

Me and my beautiful best friend Lacie!  Olivia was exhausted, but she was still cute!  :)

 Our favorite NICU family!  :)  They are so awesome and we just love them!  SERIOUSLY!

 Todd and the girls trying to warm up after walking in the rain!

 Reese being a goof!

The day wore the girls out! 

On Saturday, we were able to drive to St. George and walk in the march of dimes with some of our very best friends!  Lacie and Tayce have quite an amazing story and their beautiful daughter was born at 25 weeks gestation.  She is an absolute miracle and they have taught us so much through this whole experience!  I was so happy we could be there with them and work to raise money for babies that need special care!  The March of Dimes holds a very special place in my heart, I remember doing a walk when I was younger and when we lost Gibson, we had some friends donate money in his name... which has really meant a lot to me! 

My first Triathlon

 The three of us.  My friend Brittany (the one on the right) talked us into doing this with her and I am so glad she did!

 This is me swimming!  I have the orange cap on.  I swam a lot faster than I thought I would.

 Me and Brittany at the finish line!  I honestly love this girl!  She has been with the along the whole way!  I was getting pretty emotional after I crossed over the line and gave her such a big hug!  She has truly been cheering me on and just as excited as I have been all along the way!  She's MY inspiration!

This is the five of us!  We would all train together in the mornings at the pool.  Poor Matt (the guy on the right) wrecked his bike as well as got 3 flats during the race.  But he's been a good friend throughout too!  I have loved having such awesome support!  We truly surround ourselves with people that get us where we want to go, and they have really helped me push where I wanted to go.  I am so happy about my results!  I definitely wasn't the fastest by any means, but I cut 2 min off my swim and 9 min off my bike.  Yeah, that was good!  My run wasn't as good as I had hoped, but I am ok with that.  I was just starting to get into my groove and I got a side ache, so I couldn't sprint it out until the last hill, but I don't mind.  I passed someone at the end... that works right?!  hehe

Some deep thoughts...

So I read something this morning that got me thinking about a few things.  In the past few years, I have had a few friends come out and say that they are gay.  First off, for all of them, I think this is a very brave and scary thing to do.  I think it takes a lot of guts to do that especially where we all live.  I care about these people a lot, they mean a lot to me.  I have never had any struggle in this area and I honestly can't really sympathize with this.  But I have always had this internal struggle when it comes to this topic. 

I know that God has brought families here together to create such an amazing support system and to help us to get to eternity together.  I know that families are eternal and that having children is a very sacred experience and beautiful thing.  I also know that my family makes me the happiest I have ever been and also give me the biggest struggles. I love my husband more than anything!  I know how happy we can be together and I believe that everyone on this earth deserves to have what Todd and I have or even more.  But this is where I struggle when it comes to homosexuality.  I don't believe that lifestyle is condoned by Heavenly Father, but I also don't think it's fair that we ask these people to live in celibacy for the rest of their lives.  I know what the gospel says about all of this, but how do you expect people to live a lonely life?  I know that eternity is a lot longer than this life, but I just don't know what to do here!  If anyone has any viewpoints that might help, PLEASE share!  But only if you're loving and caring, I don't want any anti-gay discussion here!