Happy 4th of July!

"And I beheld that their mother Gentiles were gathered together upon the waters, and upon the land also, to battle against them. And I beheld that the power of God was with them, and also that the wrath of God was upon all those that were gathered against them to battle. And I, Nephi, beheld that the Gentiles that had gone out of captivity were delivered by the power of God out of the hands of all other nations." -1Ne 13:17-19

What a wonderful day! I loved going to church today and thinking about how blessed we are as a Nation and how great of a responsibility that gives to each of us. We sang the National Anthem as our closing hymn. The scriptures referenced at the bottom were from 1 Nephi and also Alma when Moroni hoisted the title of liberty.

I love that story, but as I was reading it again today, I was reminded of the picture of George Washington.

"And he bowed himself to the earth, and he prayed mightily unto his God for the blessings of liberty to rest upon his brethren, so long as there should a band of Christians remain to possess the land." Alma 46:13

I feel like there are a lot of similarities in these two men. And I appreciate the examples of both of them. To read more about the story behind this picture, read this blog. Awesome.

I have enjoyed the weekend spent with the family of course. Yesterday was the parade and then we went to Wheeler Farm for a picnic and some fun. What a great lookin group!

Robbie fed the ducks out of his hand, after he watched Kat and Cori do it first.

This family loved stripes today.

These two didn't dress alike on purpose. How cute is that?!

Everyone was so patriotic.

Have you ever told someone you were from the US, and had them look at you with a mixture of Awe and Jealousy? It isn't something that you forget. And you shouldn't.

"Surely God shall not suffer that we, who are despised because we take upon us the name of Christ, shall be trodden down and destroyed, until we bring it upon us by our own transgressions." Alma 46:18

God Bless America

"Multiple Streams of Income"

Every day at work I'm helping people get started on their "path to financial freedom." Most of the time people are interested in how to make money on the internet. Making money while blogging seems to be all the rage right now.

Think about it though. It makes perfect sense. We are all out here blogging and reading each other's blogs. In the meantime there are plenty of businesses trying to figure out how to get their products into our homes and faces.

This might just be a win win win win. (I'm not really sure what the fourth win is for...)

LinkFromBlog Marketplace is a good place to get hooked up with advertisers for your blog.

Let's all join in together and get on our own path to financial freedom. I mean, one step at a time right?

Trip Ideas

At least once a week I stay awake into the night planning a vacation. It's an obsession of sorts. I haven't been on a trip for so long I'm having major withdrawals so it's been fun to make plans for what I'll do once I am back on my feet again.

Of course I'm excited to visit AJ in Cali and have a fun Sisters Weekend (dates and location tba), but I'm also planning the "next big adventure."

I'm currently debating between a few options. Perhaps you can help.

Bicycle Touring

Since I've already done backpacking by foot, I thought going by bike would be something fun. I've been reading up on it a lot on bicycletouringpro.com, adventure cycling, and travelblog.org. It's very popular, safe, and cost efficient. I would love the experience. Of course it would be expensive to get the gear, but once on the road it would be mostly amazing. I'm debating between:

• Transcontinental - from coast to coast. Traveling by bike would be such a fun way to explore my home country.
• Ireland - Europe is my favorite place to visit and I really want to go to Ireland. Of course I would just start in Ireland and then hop over to the mainland and visit all sorts of places.
• The Mormon Trail - Biking from Palmyra to SLC following the Mormon Trail and stopping at every Church History site and Temple along the way? Ya...it would be inspirational.

I'm also considering taking a trip by rail. Tickets are actually pretty reasonable, and I feel its something I should experience. I'd probably just stick to the US on this.

Finally, Vanuatu. I haven't been back in a while and I'm missing it bad. How wonderful it would be to just go disappear in the islands for a few weeks or even months.

I'm sure you've heard of Euro Rail passes. You buy the pass and can travel all over Europe. (not as cheap as I'd hoped) Have you ever heard of Air Passes though? It's similar to the rail pass only it's with airplanes. That is the way to travel the South Pacific I tell you.

So right now those are the main things I've been considering. Do any of you have any opinions? If you have another idea I'd love to hear it. Right now I'm mostly planning for next summer if its a bike tour or between the holidays if its something shorter. Oh ya, I also need to make a little bit of money.