A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes

 You know how when we are little we like to think about what life will be like when we "grow up"? I've kind of been thinking about that lately and it causes me to wonder how much of that will ever happen, and if any of it will happen like I thought it would.
  I have a pretty detailed imagination and it seems like, in my mind, I know exactly how my life should turn out - exactly. But I've been learning through the years, and mostly the hard way, that life doesn't usually go exactly as planned.
   Does that mean it isn't good, though? No way!! It's just different and I am learning how to adjust and progress according to how it is going.
  Anyway, for fun I was thinking I'd lay out some of the key points of the way I always liked to imagine my life once I "grew up".
  To make this even more exciting (since I'm sure everyone is just dying to know what kind of things are going through my mind) I'll take this through with the help of some fun pictures - because who doesn't love pictures! :)
   I know that as kids, lots of people thought about becoming a princess, or paleontologist, or crayon maker one day. Those things would be great! But really, what I mostly remember as the re-occurring position I wanted, was to be a mom. I know, that doesn't sound exactly exciting compared to a deep-sea diver or Olympic pole-vaulter. But I'm serious, as much as I think back to what I wanted to be when I grew up, it was always a mom.

  So I guess my dream ultimately starts here (or any of our temples, for that matter :) -

 Eventually it would be something like this -

Followed soon by lots of these -

and these :)

And do you know what we'd all do together?

  Stuff like this -

  

I don't really care about having a big, fancy house filled with lots of things, but I do think one of these would be super awesome! -

Yep, a room full of books and fully equipped with a window seat and squishy pillows! Ahhh.....

 And I'm not really into having a fancy car, either, just something to haul a big family around for road trips, or just a day at the park.

 Let me admit that there is definitely some country in my heart, too, thanks to growing up and taking countless trips to Jerome and getting to be part of all those wide open spaces.

 In my dream I would grow up and live somewhere surrounded with a view something like this-

And since we're on the country theme, I would love having one of these around -

Haha, wouldn't that be fun?! My aunt occasionally has cows that she raises and when I was little I would go out in the pasture during the summer and hang around any of the cows that would let me close enough to them. Love it!

Christmas would feel like this -

And smell this way-

But all of that would only mean anything because the main focus of our family would be-

and...

and being a family forever.



  As I've thought through this idea, it would seem that most of what I want when I grow up doesn't have a lot to do with "things" - it looks like most of it has to do with what will last forever (not that "things" are bad -so don't think that's what I'm saying!). And really, who doesn't want that?

  Something else I noticed is that a lot of what I want is what I've always had, in a way (except for the cow, I've never actually owned one of those). When I grow up I don't want to exchange what I have now, I just want to add my own family to it!

  More days on the Farm, more birthday parties, summers full of swimming and BBQ's, backyard campouts, raking leaves, snowmen in the yard, laughing, talking and listening to each other, special "church" events together....the list goes on.

  This was so much fun!! It makes me excited at how much I still have to look forward to.

 Ok, so now it's your turn! What was/is your dream? And it doesn't have to be serious. If you wanted to grow up to be a wedding planner (which actually would be pretty fun), or a movie star, or own a Ferrari, live in a huge house on the beach - whatever it was, tell us about it! I think you'll love remembering it, too! :)