Elder Balmforth

Elder Balmforth is coming home!!! It is hard to believe that tomorrow at this time our whole family will be in one room. We haven't had everyone together in 2 years!!! So much has happened in the past 2 years! I hope Colton is ready. Because ready or not.... HERE WE COME!!!

here is the email that I wrote Colton last week. I am putting this on here so I can always remember these  crazy times. These last 2 years have been the best and some times hardest times in my life. I am so grateful for the blesses I have received because my my bother and sister served missions. So here you go.

Hey how are you!!! I love you bro! I am sure these last couple of weeks are going to be bitter sweet. Just remember that you have another journey that is about to start. You are amazing! It still feels like yesterday when you opened that big white envelope. I Remember thinking how crazy everything was! I was scared and nervous for you. Now 2 years later I am once again scared and nervous for you. But I also can't wait to see you!!! What an amazing day that will be. these last two years have shown me that you are strong and that you can do anything. I am so grateful for your willingness to serve a mission. You have brought some much happiness to our family and we have been so blessed because of you! You will never know the impact that your mission has had on my life. I just want to say thank you! And I want you to know that I know this gospel is true. I know our Heavenly Father loves us and he has a plan for us. I know that he will never fail us. If we do what he has asked then we will return to him someday. I am grateful for our eternal family. I am so grateful for prayer! Our Heavenly Father hears us. I love you bro. Keep the faith. You amaze me brother!! I am so blessed to be your sister! See you soon!!!!

yahhh I love my missionaries! I am also grateful for all the other people in my life who have served missions. They are all so amazing!! Thanks for reading! 

Before.......

After.... To Be continued........:)

GO UTES!!

GO UTES!

We hope you all loved the game as much as we did. This is Riley's favorite time of year. On Saturday he even stated that " Today is better than christmas." He was just kidding. And even if he wasn't  I am going to pretend that he was. :)

Even Mr. Fez has a utah doggie shirt.

Good Game Utah!

One year of being married!!!!!

After our race we spent the night in St. George for our anniversary. After about 35 hours of no sleep all we wanted to do was eat some pizza and go to sleep. And that we did. Thank you Papa Johns for being so good to us. We were so starving!!! It was so nice to spend time with each other  and not have to worry about anything. The next morning we woke up and headed to Disneyland!

We did 2 days in Disneyland and California Adventures. And then we spend a day at the beach. We also go to eat at two of our favorite places! ESPN Zone and Ruby's and the pier at the beach. So yummy and so much fun. Disneyland was not busy at all and we walked on to pretty much all the rides.
Once again it was so nice to just spend time together and not have anyone else around. I wish we could do this more.  I even love the long car ride because we get to be together.

On the way home we made a stop back in St. george to have lunch with a senior couple that Riley served his mission with. That was so much fun. I love hearing stories of Riley's mission. When we get old I want to be just like this couple. They have been on a handful of missions and they are so cute and fun. They are so amazing for doing everything that they have done in the lives.

After lunch we made one more stop to pick up Mr. Fez. Thank you Abula for watching Fez for the week. You are way to kind. We know Fez can be crazy.

Well that was our week. One year down forever to go.



And to Riley Woods,

Happy one year of being married. I am such a lucky girl to have you as my husband. Thanks for taking such good care of me and Mr. Fez. You work so hard and I am so grateful for that. I can't imagine my life with out you. Life would be boring that is for sure. I have the best husband hands down. and last but not least....Thanks for  helping me run my night leg of the race. hahaha I know I am such a baby but you really saved my life. And I must say that that was my favorite leg to run.(once you saved my crying little self. )  What a great way to start our 2nd year of marriage right?? 9 mile run,  no big deal for my husband.  I love you Ri. :)

                                                               The new Cars Land
                                       
                                                                   Boogie boarding

                                                                   Minnie Mouse

                                           Toys story game. So not good for our marriage.... :)

                              After Riding the ride 5 times we finally got to be in the #1 seat!!! So fun!

                                                             Posing for the camera

                                                                   Lego land

                                                             Lunch in St. George






Once we got back from vacation we decided to have a taste of our wedding cake. It tasted really good.              You all need to go to granite bakery. You will never hate it. I promise.

Red Rock Relay 2012

Since July we have been running like crazy in preparation for the Red Rock Relay race.

 Red Rock Relay is an organization that puts on a few different relay races every year. The different races take place in Zion, Park City and Moab. We participated in the Zion race that started at Brian Head and ended in Zion. the milage for the race is 187 miles. Yeah talk about a race. This was one of the most amazing things I have ever done is my life. My first leg was 2.9 miles. My second was 5.2 miles and my third was 5 miles. Crazy I know. And to think that some of my other teammates had it much worse. Our team started at 6:00am on 9/7/2012 and ended at 4:27pm on 7/8/2012. (Yes that day also marked our one year wedding anniversary.) I would recommend this race to anyone. You will learn so much about yourself. I never ever thought in a million years that I was capable of something like this. But, I was and I want to do it again! I am grateful for the amazing team that I was on and for the 5 team members that I was in the van with. This is a memory I will never forget. And now for the best part......PICTURES!  

Side note- My pictures hate me and would not stay in order. Sorry. 

                                            Just finished my first leg of the race. 2.9 miles.

                                                           GO MER! She is a amazing!

                                                         Starting my last leg of 5 miles.

            Finished! yeah baby. Did  I mention that it was 104 degrees on saturday. No big deal right?

       Passing off to Riley so he can start his last leg of the race. 6.2. Yeah he is also amazing!

                                             katee finished up the race for us. Yeah Katee!

                         Every time you finished a leg you would add another tattoo. fake of course.

                                                                     Go Stacy!

                                                                Me and my Medal!

                                                               So proud of myself.

                                                    Happy one year of being married!!

Riley on his first leg. 

van support

Don't forget your Jazz hands while running! 

                                                                   Rockstar runner!

                                                                 All smiles baby


One last story that  I really want to remember........

So the 2nd run that I did was at 2:00 in the AM. Yeah in a Dark Canyon. The leg was even titled "The Spooky leg".  I was so nervous but I just kept telling myself that I could do it and it wouldn't be scary at all. So I got ready, the wristband was past to me and I started running. I got about half a mile and I started freaking myself out. look kelsee you are  the only one in this dark canyon? Oh what was that noise, Oh what if someone was behind that tree, Oh hey what was THAT noise???? Yeah I am a freak I know. I was setting myself up for the worse possible thing that really WAS not going to happen. But when the team van drove past I started freaking out and then the tears started rolling. I think I started saying, I CANT DO THIS!! And that is when I see my cute husband jump out of the car. I wanted to so badly run this on my own but I was willing to admit that I needed help. And lets face it I got a lot further than I thought I would. Half way though our run I realized that Riley's leg was right after mine. Oh hey What a nice wife I am.  Everyone kept saying that they would switch him out but refused to let anyone else run with me. He was probably just trying to save everyone else from having to run with my scared little self. So after our 4 miles or running together, he also did his run. Yeah ROCK STAR! p.s. We made it! No one attacked me!!!!!!!!

Oh hey its me :)

Well HELLO Blog world. It has been toooooo looonnggg! Sorry about that. But on the other side, you haven't been missing out on much. Summer has been flying by. We have been working lots, Going to Seven Peaks a lot, fishing, taking naps, cleaning, BBQ..Ing? Oh and Watching the Olympics. Summer is amazing. But I am getting excited for fall! I LOVE BOOT SEASON! And my Bro is coming home. whoot!!! We both started new jobs this summer. I am now working at IMC and loving every minute of it I went from a 45 minute drive to a 15 minute drive. OHHH YEAAAHH! Riley is still at Select Health just a different job. :) No more phones for him. We even get to carpool sometimes. It has been heaven. We sold my old white honda. I am so happy to have a new, nice, amazing, sexy car. Can you tell I love it? Did I mention that all the windows work? And here is the kicker... This is the first car I have had that doesn't leak oil! Its a miracle ladies and Gentlemen!!!!!!! But I can't complain to much. I alway had a car that got me from A to B. :) Ummm lets see........... Oh we finally got picture on the walls of the house. hahah it only took us 11 months. Don't worry about it. We also got family pictures done. Thank you Becky!!! We love them. I will post them as soon as I get the disc which is in the mail. Yup I think that is everything.Oh one more thing, Mr. Fesenko turns one tomorrow. He is all grown up. I still can't believe I have a one year old..... Dog that is. He makes our lives happy and I don't know what we would do with out him. I just might have to have another post tomorrow that is just for him.  I know I am crazy. But we are dog lovers. He is spoiled to death. But he is an only child so how could I not spoil him. hahah I know I am nuts. Okay well happy thursday. Love you long time. 

Maybe I can put my feelings in words. . . . ?

But probably not......


I can't believe my sister comes home from her mission tomorrow. The time really did go by so fast. Somedays it seemed like forever but looking back it seems like just yesterday. 


The day she left. 


We were both wearing boots. It took a lot of convincing, but she finally decided that she would take my advice and wear them. I remember taking pictures and then loading into the van and driving to the MTC. (Are stop was not complete until we had IHOP! ) We stopped at a church parking lot and said are final See ya laters. Then we got back into the van and made are way to the MTC. Once we got there dad got the bags and I had to get out so that Katee could get out. I remember are last hug. I didn't want to let go, but  I knew that Katee needed this mission more than anything. ( I can now see that we all needed it.) Finally I got back into the van. As she walked away I could see the happiness in her face. She knew what she was doing. I on the other hand wanted her to run back to the van and come home with me. But, she didn't. On the way home from the MTC .... I cried. Like a baby. I couldn't stop. Why did my heavenly father want my sister to be apart from our family for so long? What was the point of this???


 Don't worry everyone I have found the point of all of this. 


The past 18 month have not always been easy, but I have grown so much in so many ways. I would not trade these times for anything. Like I said, We all needed this mission.  Sure I would have loved to have had my sister at my wedding, but she was to busy helping other people have there turn at being married in the temple. Katee has helped me understand the most important things in life. And that is to do EVERYTHING that we can to return home to are heavenly father with honor. Every week when I hear her testimony I get a smile I my face. She has strengthened me so much. I am also grateful for the relationship I have gained with my Mom and Dad. They may not notice the difference but I have. I love them so much and they are amazing parents. I am so grateful to be apart of there family. 


Katee, I am more than excited to have you home. you are an amazing person and you have grown so much. I can't wait until tomorrow when I can hug you and tell you how amazing you are. You are such a good example. I look up to you so much. I could not be more proud of you. Well done sister! I love you so much. You were always a missionary before you got the official title and I know that that won't change  once the title is gone. I am happy to have you home soon, but I am also sad to see it end. Bitter sweet for everyone . I will miss you letters and emails. But I know this is what is mean't to be. You are amazing and  you are going to keep being amazing.  Love you sister. Thanks for building my testimony. 


I will be back with another post of all the pictures I am going to be taking in less than 24 hours. :) 

Happy 6 months......

Of being married!!!! Happy 6 months of being married Riley Woods. Thanks for being the best husband ever. You are amazing and I am so lucky to have you forever. :) I can't believe how fast time has gone by. Being married is the best. I can't wait until we are celebrating a year. Thanks for making me so happy. Love your face. :)

The end.....

Oh wait...p.s. Fez told me to tell you that he is happy that we are married because he loves being apart of our family and he says your are a very nice man for always taking him outside. He is also sorry for waking you up so early this morning. :)