Devin and Kim

September 7, 2026

Baseball Trip 2026: Texas!

This year, our traditional Labor Day baseball trip took us to the blazing hot state of Texas. We chose to get TX out of the way because Labor Day was a week later than normal, but it did not seem to make a difference. It was HOT. Despite the heat, we had a great time and saw some really cool things.

Day One:

We flew in late Thursday night (technically Friday morning) after several delays on our flight, so we had an easy/slow morning and saw a park in Dallas, then did a bus tour that was pretty interesting- it focused alot on JFK and his murder there and we learned a bit. We then went to lunch at a BBQ place cause of course you have to have that in TX! It was pretty darn good. Then our first stadium- Globe Life Field, home of the Rangers. It was huge and super nice and air conditioned with a roof! Yay. The funniest part was that we got ushered into a line to get autographs from some former player none of us had ever heard of. It was super funny, especially when later we saw that only the first 225 fans got his autograph. Haha. We also got a retro pullover jersey for being one of the first 10,000 fans in. We love a good giveaway. We had great seats- 7th row in the outfield, ate amazing nachos and the best ice cream I have ever had, and we watched our first grand slam ever in a baseball game! As far as we can remember anyway. It was a great game, but the Rangers lost to the Rays 7-6. A+ Stadium though.

JFK Memorial-- a little weird, no?

Dallas Temple. Also not the favorite we have ever seen. Hahaha

Day Two: We started at the Dallas Farmer's Market, which was really fun to see. We then drove from Dallas to Waco and had a lovely lunch at Magnolia Table. Then we saw all the famous Magnolia sites-- super interesting that people make this an entire destination for a trip. We were good after about an hour there. But again, it was hotter than the surface of the sun, so we didn't want to be outside. We did go by an indoor market that had all sorts of local goods and boy, did we have a great time at a little antique booth that was in there. We bought a bunch of old school items that were amazing. After Waco, we headed to Houston, with a stop at Buc-cees of course. Famous gas station for good reason! It is always worth a stop when in TX!

Only two pictures from this day. Ha.

Day Three: We had a lazy ish morning and didn't do much before we headed to the afternoon Astros game. I have always been a hater of the Astros, but they had a few things going for them. Their fan base was dedicated and super super nice. They had excellent food-probably the best thing I have had at a ballpark yet in the bloomin' onion with chicken and sauces. Delicious. But....other than that, this stadium was hideous and it is one of my least favorite I have been to. It is old and feels it. It also has a roof but does not even look like a stadium from the outside. The seats were cramped and there were some blind spots in the stadium where you could not see the action below. We moved from our original seats because this was the case. It was another good game though, with the Astros losing to the Diamondbacks 3-2. We saw a super scary incident where a Diamonback player was hit by a line drive in the head by his own teammate while running from first to second base. He was down for a good while but luckily got up and walked out on his own. He was out for the rest of the game. Hoping he is okay. To add insult to injury, because the ball hit him, it was an out. Crazy. After the game, we had some famous fajitas that Jen's coworker recommended to her, which were indeed pretty good, then we spent several hours playing games at the hotel, another thing we love while traveling. All in all, a great day. OH- and can't forget we got another jersey giveaway. Always important to note! We seem to hit games at the right time to get them.

Day Four: We spent most of the day at the NASA museum outside of Houston. It was super educational and well done. We especially loved the mission control tour. Pretty cool to see where so much history happened and is still occuring! We then went to Kemah, a nearby town on the gulf- it was so so so hot, so we walked around a tiny bit on the boardwalk and called it good. We of course had to stop and get some ice cream after sweating our guts out, so we did that and then headed to the airport.

Another successful baseball weekend in the books! And stadiums number 17 and 18 for me, I think.

August 30, 2026

Temple Weekend 2026

One of the best traditions we have established with my Young Women's Presidency is to do a temple weekend, where we visit 4 temples to do baptisms for the dead and see others from the outside along the way. Temple trip 2026 was pretty epic; lots of fun memories were made and more importantly, some deeply spiritual experiences happened. We have a darling young women who was baptized into our church just one week before our temple trip and was able to come to join us and do baptisms in the temple for the first time. Her parents were baptized just a few months before her and were able to join us/her in 3 out of the 4 temples. It was cool to see her dad participate in the baptisms as to see her mom as a witness. The rest of the girls had a pretty amazing experience. We also had a blast in our 15 passenger van, staying over night in our 1880's airbnb (the girls were up till 2 ghost hunting- hhahaa), and eating all the ice cream and junk as we drove. I love these girls so much as well as the women I serve with. They have become some of my closest friends. Adore the time we have together.

15 passenger van- wahoooo! We had just enough seats!

First stop- Payson! We were the only ones there and they were so super friendly. 10/10 recommend.

Ephraim Temple. Not quite dedicated, so we stopped by for a photo op!

Temple one Saturday morning: Manti. What a unique experience. The baptistry looks original to the temple, so old and really, really cool. It was Madilyn's first time doing baptisms here, so it was extra special. The girls may have liked this one best.

Pizza at the park in between!

We went from the 3rd oldest temple in the church to one of the most recently dedicated- Lindon. It was quite the drastic difference. This one has two baptistries, which was fun. It was gorgeous and the girls absolutely loved it. At least half said this one was their favorite experience overall.

Photo op at the Mt Timpanogos Temple

Gotta have another picture of that van!

Saratoga Springs Temple. Our final temple and boy they were grumpy. Way less friendly here and very regimented. So strict in fact that it somewhat took the spirit away from the experience. So sadly, this was by far everyone's least favorite temple. Even though it is really pretty.

Of course gotta have some ice cream in there!

Best weekend. 💜

And a bonus picture. The next day we had ward youth council and my girls and I all showed up matchy, matchy. Aren't they the cutest?!

August Misc.

Here's some random pics from our busy August!

Bees Game

My darling friend Mistie got married!! YAY!

Island Park:

We did our traditional weekend in Island Park with my dad/Sharon and siblings. We did very few of our traditional things, though, since it was raining. Such was our pattern this year. Bear Lake was bad weather and Island Park was bad weather. Boo. Anyway, we had a great time inside the cabin playing games, the girls did the boys' makeup, we did puzzles, we watched movies, we rode the side by side when the rain cleared, and we took a walk. We also did go to Frozen at the Playmill that night, which was really fun. My siblings and their families are my favorite people to be with. Never time wasted!