Friends Forever

Anybody remember that song from Vitamin C called Graduation? It came out in 2000 and now 13 years later it popped into my head. The second line says “Where we’re gonna be when we turn 25” and here we are with Mr. Bluth in the last leg of his 25th year and Mrs. Bluth’s 25th year fast approaching. As the song continues it discusses how we move on with life and reach for our dreams but questions whether we will hold onto the past. The main theme is still being friends as much as our lives change and lead us to different paths.

The biggest thing that will ever be missed are people. What do I miss from BYU? My friends. What do I miss from San Diego? My friends. What will I miss when (if) we leave Chicago? Our friends. While there are plenty of other things to miss such as football from BYU, and perfect weather from San Diego, overall if there was only one thing I could pick it would be the relationships I formed and created in all those places.

We have a lot of wonderful friends here in Chicago, but one couple definitely stands out as some best friends. Friends that we will have forever. We both moved to Chicago the exact same week so we shared the first week of church together. Since that cold Sunday in January our friendship has grown and grown to the point that it feels like family. We don’t go a week without seeing them and all of our little adventures include them. To say it simply, they are the best.

Mrs. Bluth’s padres lived in Washington for the first 10 years of their marriage and they made a lot of friends with other couples that were just starting their families. Growing up, the Lee family always spent their vacations going and visiting their friends. Trips to Washington included just as much time visiting the friends as it did visiting the family. And that is how we imagine it will be with Tylor and Cheri. When the time comes when we are not living a half a mile away from each other, then we will plan our vacations accordingly to visit them. I guess we will have to go to Hawaii one day so that they can show us everything and their homeland.

Just in the last couple of weeks we have ventured over to the planetarium together for a perfect view of the city and a free day and headed up to Wisconsin for some apple picking. There are some pretty cool things in the Midwest such as going to orchards and eating apple donuts and cider.

We picked about 5 different types of apples and filled our huge bag. You might not be hearing from us for a while because we are cutting, coring, and then drying the apples. Putting our dehydrator to good use!

The Happy Crew.

The view from the Planetarium is incredible.
No matter where we go we will always find wonderful people that will be hard to leave and that is one of the many beauties of life.

Uncomfortable Bike Seats

There are two kinds of bikes in the world. The kind that hurts your bum and the other kind. On Saturday, Mrs. Bluth and I decided to go on a bike ride and both of our bikes were of the former type. It's true that you don't forget how to ride a bike. But you do forget how uncomfortable they are. When you are a child you barely notice the uncomfortable seats.

Neither of us has have had much use for bikes in our lives. I rode around the neighborhood on an assortment of second-hand bikes while growing up (thanks Dad for putting in a lot of time keeping those things running -- none of them were ever very nice , but you managed to always keep them working). Anyways, it felt good to go on a ride and thankfully it is still beautiful weather in Chicago. One important thing about bike-riding in a busy city -- you have got to be pretty cautious.

There are a lot of big buses, cars, other riders, and pedestrians. Stay alert, or be killed (or kill someone on accident). Actually it wasn't that bad, but it is important to be cautious.

 I speak of caution because it reminds me a little bit about doubt. Both involve you checking and double checking your surroundings and standing. Doubt ensures that whatever decisions you do make, it will be a well thought-out and calculated decision. Doubt drives desire for more knowledge. The Restoration of the church through Joseph Smith came because he doubted some of the things that he had been taught. Doubt drove him to desire clarification.
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We've had a couple of very great discourses on doubt recently. President Holland and President Uchtdorf have both given terrific talks on this indelible topic.

Both emphasized affirming what you do know. Everyone has at least a couple of principles that resound with them. Grab onto those little foundations that secure you in place. Then you can use doubt to explore all of the other doctrines and principles that don't make sense to you. Nurture the seed. The doubt drives discovery.

Caution on the road, like doubt, keeps you alert and aware. The discomfort of doubt actually stabilizes you by ensuring that you truly understand and endorse what is being taught. It forces you to actively pursue more knowledge. Too much comfort leads to too much complacency.