Aqua Time

My wonderful, glorious, marvelous parents decided to take the potty-trained grandkids down to The Living Planet Aquarium in Utah for the day. 

And guess what? I'm potty-trained so I was able to go too!!

^^I was able to pet this bad boys ^^

^^ 3-D Movie that terrified all of the kids^^

From my parent's lips:

Their parents can deal with the nightmares. 

^^Oh the happiness^^

^^Oh my happiness of seeing God's most beautiful creations^^

And me traversing through the Amazons in style:

Thanks for the adventure Mummsie and Dad!

After the Manner of Happiness

After listening to Jeffrey R. Holland's talk titled, "Living After the Manner of Happiness," here are some of my things from my life that invite happiness:

1. The gospel of Jesus Christ. One of the many blessings that come from the gospel is General Conference every six months. Another blessing was being a able to serve a mission of inviting others to live the gospel. The best? Being able to combine those blessings by watching G.C. with Courtney who I met on my mission!

2. Being surrounded by God's beauty and creations on a daily basis. The trick is to take time out of your busy life to actually enjoy it. 

 3. Creating memories with the people I love. 

What helps you to live after the manner of happiness?

And Now I'm Back

.....from outer space.

(Please say that at least one person gets the reference).

Because of my 19 month hiatus from this blog I will treat you with a 19 point list of random loveliness. None in order.

1. I'm truly back from Tennessee and Kentucky (its own planetary system to be sure).

I flew into Salt Lake City on August 27th, and received quite the royal welcome from mi familia.

2. Reunited with the Mizzy!

3. Playing the most beautiful instrument with some talented youngsters.

4. I'm thinking Stevie is not too excited to have me back as her mother 

and I like to play around in Provo. 

5. One of my favorite places to be in on a college campus. Especially with those gorgeous mountains behind! (I really missed the mountains!)

6. Can you find the "Y"?

7. Seeing mission buddies! You talk about these moments as a missionary, but it seems surreal that you are able to hang out...in pants.

8. Stalking my childhood home. Those trees were definitely not that size. 

9. Visiting Jeb's grave in Malta. So glad he is closer to the rest of the gang!

10. Seeing MANY General Authorities! D. Todd Christofferson is somewhere in that mix. 

11. Being overwhelmed with all the new nephews and nieces. "They're everywhere, they're everywhere!"

12. Still being entertained by the elder ones. He asked me to handcuff him to the chair. Being the charitable aunt I am, I had to oblige. 

13. One of the members in my mission sent me this picture. Her daughter named her African American doll and stuffed pig "Sister Johnson" and "Sister Johnson" from when I was companions with a Sister Johnson. What a honor. 

14. Reunited with Pickle! Both proud of our Southern missions!

15. We received a knock on the door one evening and a guy from the ward bought a dozen roses and was giving a rose to each apartment. I happened to be the one to answer the door so they all claim it was for me.

16. What happens when you add Halloween and S'mores together? You get orange marshmallow cream = deliciousness. 

17. Mission Reunion!!! It happened to land on my one month of being home anniversary and was such a tender mercy to see so many of my good friends. Luckily I didn't have too many awkward "do we hug or shake" experiences. We all just went in for the hug.

18. 8:30 am church means special roommate bonding time.

19. And just another picture of the siblings. Thanks for singing in sacrament meeting!

An Evening Outside

Four pictures to describe the camp-out:

*In Hyrum's hand is a campfire cone*

"Oh Janeen, you're so pinteresting!"

Stop it. 

Lemonade of Pink

What started as a substitution for a tea party has turned into a Johnson girl tradition.

First the food comprising of desserts, finger sandwiches, and, of course, pink lemonade.

Mummsie provided the decor brimming with pink and yellow girly-ness galore.

I did not take the picture with the guests, but all the Johnson girls were in attendance.

Including (in true Queen Elizabeth fashion) some princess corgis. 

Time to Play Catch Up

Due to a serious lack of blogging motivation, you get to be blessed with a catch up post. And you know what that means: one uber long post in which I spout off random tangents.

 I am done with my fifth semester of college! 

The only thing I miss about my last semester were my roomies. They were a hoot and a holler.

Other than that, hallelujah.

Back in Malta for the next 6ish weeks.

So the next 6ish weeks consist of:

A. Playing with the honyocks

B. Taking my time to exercise (mostly zumba and running)

I come home from Miss Jewelee's Zumba class dripping with sweat.

Also, the day I came home from college I went straight to a zumbathon she put on. SO. MUCH. FUN.

The dirt roads are glad to have me running on them again, I'm sure.

C. Once again any socialization usually deals with some form of church activity. Last week- scavenger hunt for FHE, instititute, International Dance Festival, and four-wheelering.

D. And eating all of the Mummsie's food.

I haven't done this in a while, but I love to eat mandarin oranges with chopsticks.

I don't really have an explanation....

Other than moving from Rexburg and settling back into my Malta routine, I have been prepping for England! September 17th cannot come fast enough. 

The Olympics have only fueled the fire. 

The Opening Ceremony had pretty much everything I love about England.

Not to mention all of the team's fun outfits.

Meet Lindsay

Its been a while since I've done a "Meet..." interview so I thought it would be appropriate to introduce the newest member of the Israelsen clan.

Miss Lindsay Israelsen

Since obviously she is not available to take questions right now, here are 10 things about Miss Lindsay

1. She has some CHUBBY cheeks

2. She was born on March 19, 2012

3. She likes to sleep

4. She came in at a whopping 9 lbs 6 oz

5. She has a fractured collar bone

6. She's more tan than me

7. She was 21 inches long

8. She yawns really big

9. She has dark hair just like her now-blonde siblings

10. She came to the best family 

Welcome to the fam!

Boys..

Boys.

Boys can be hungry.

Boys can be crazy.

Boys can be mad.

And they can be silly.

Boys can run around like maniacs.

And they can be your bestest friends.

You meet lots of boys up here.

But the best ones are always the ones who can make you laugh.

Special shoutout to my model, Mr. Elliott. One of the funniest boys I know.

Here's a tragic story to start this post off.

I had this crazy fun filled weekend with the family only to find out that my camera's batteries were dead and I didn't have the charger for it...or my cell phone. But I'm not as addicted to that.

So instead of waiting for one of mi familia to post pictures we'll just have to do with Google Images.

Friday

Arriving in Spring Valley, NV, we greeted family, relaxed by watching Men in Tights, and finished the night with hot dogs and s'mores. The ultimate summer meal.

Saturday

We spent pretty much the whole day hiking this: 

Mt. Wheeler, the 2nd highest peak in Nevada. (Some would even say that it is the highest peak because the other one is technically in California).

Either way, it was a long trek up there.

Sunday

I slaughtered the Children's songs in the Garrison's Branch Primary.

 It was great fun.

The 5th Sunday Potluck proved to be yummy.

And then to Enterprise, Utah.

We watched both Diary of a Wimpy Kid movies.

Have you read or watch them?

Hilarious.

Monday

I gave Jen her very own private Zumba class.

After a nice lil shower we loaded up the truck to go to St. George.

Activities in St. George included a delightful lunch at Brick Oven (I think that's what it is called), errands, searching desperately for a cheap swimsuit so I could go:

Sand Hollow Aquatic Center

Fun times to be had there.

Later on we had a tour of the dairy where Evan works.

Highlight of my life, especially when they were trying to pull a calf out of its mother.

We were watching them struggle when my DIVA niece said in a complete and total valley girl voice: "Oh my gosh!"

She had it right.

The day ended with Car-something Mexican Dish.

Tuesday

Watched the little people ride their horse Jasper and rope.

Quality time with the parents as we drove the 7 hours back to Malta.

What made my day was stopping at an In-N-Out. Yum!

Overall a fabulous weekend with a fabulous family.

Thanks for the fun!

On the Fourth of July

My extended weekend was fantabulous.

Thats why I'm posting today because it has taken me this long to recover.

Friday consisted of carpooling down to Malta and dinner at Cattle Country.

Saturday consisted of a few more things:

Morning-Malta Fun Run (5K)

1st in my age/gender division

2nd in overall age division

3rd woman

And that is why I love local running events. Way to boost your self esteem.

Afternoon-Bike ride and picnic

Late afternoon-laundry and High School Musical marathon on TV

Evening-Malta celebration*

Night-Malta fireworks

Sunday consisted of Singles Branch AND home ward. Love seeing some of my favorite folk.

Monday:

Hike to Mesa Falls

Picnic at some random LDS church

Ice Cream at G's Dairy

Shower

Shopping

Hanging out

Fireworks

*At the Malta celebration they have booths and activities set up around the ballpark to keep kids (young and old) entertained. This year they had a petting zoo. And that was a nightmare.

The poor animals were mauled to death, standing in there was totally unsanitary, and they had chickens.

I was beyond stressed out in there as I tried to restrain my nephew from choking the bunnies.