Ashli

OK So I guess my daughter really is going to get married and move away to Arizona.. I've been in denial for a long time. I love Kenz. I especially love that he loves Ashli so much. The moment I really took him into my heart was the night she wrecked his car between Mt Pleasant and Moroni. She and Tyler were following me home from Ephraim and all of a sudden I couldn't see their headlights anymore. So I called Ty's cell phone and he said,"Can you just come back here?" He wouldn't tell me why and I was freaking out. Finally he said, "We hit a fence. Can you come back here?" Well, when I got back to them, it was a LOT worse than hitting a fence. Ashli had driven off the road, slid down the snowy embankment, and torn out a barbed wire fence. The car was in the middle of a snow-covered field, and it looked horrible. Tony and Zetta Olsen were there with Ash and Ty, and two really amazing guys stuck around to help. I wish I could remember their names. Well, we called Kenz and when he got there, he parked across the road, hurried over and just held Ashli in his arms. He didn't even glance at his car. He's a 19 year old kid whose car just got nearly totaled, and he didn't care at all about the car. All that mattered to him in that moment was my daughter. And I knew then that they belong together. And as much as I want her to live right down the street from me so I can see my grandkids every day, as much as I want her to live in Nephi so I can see HER every day, I know she has to go where Kenz takes her. So, even though I'm ready to share her, I'm glad Kenz knows just how blessed he is to be sharing his life with this girl.

I was so scared I wouldn't be able to have children as I was growing up. So when God saw fit to send us a gorgeous, perfect, amazing daughter, I was in awe. She was everything I had ever dreamed my daughter would be, and more. She was prettier than I thought she would be, smarter than I thought she would be, kinder, more spiritual, more athletic, and so compassionate. I would love to care about others the way Ashli does.

She doesn't even have a clue how amazing she is. When she moved to college, I was cleaning her room and found probably 20 unfinished paintings and drawings. She thinks they're not good enough to finish, and I absolutely love them all. She is the light of her Dad's life and our home is always brighter when Ashli comes home for the weekend.

We have loved every dance revue, every volleyball trip, the freshmen softball games, the sophomore track meets and cheerleader trips, the months of Provita competition season and even the boring Honors banquet.

We've enjoyed the friends Ashli has brought around and the example she has always been to her brothers.

I insisted that she have sleeves in her Prom dress, Senior ball dress, etc. So she always did.

We'd spend hours looking for dresses, passing up lots of dresses she loved because they had straps instead of sleeves.

Until one day one of my visiting teachers was sitting at my house talking about her daughter's custom made Prom dress. And it had wide straps instead of sleeves. I was shocked! My visiting teacher laughed and said she was a lot more worried about cleavage, bare backs and midriffs than she was about shoulders. So we let Ashli borrow the dress with straps when she went to the junior prom her senior year.

She was thrilled, and she looked beautiful.

Her year at Snow College has been a blast for all of us. She got a scholarship to CEU, but we were all SO glad she made the Badgerettes drill team and went to Snow College instead. It's been nice to see her a few times a week, and has made the transition from high school to the real world a little easier for her Mom. I love this girl. I love that a girl so together, so gorgeous and smart and talented can be so irresponsible at the same time!!! Her bedroom and bathroom were a health hazard her entire life. Her car is like the junk drawer in the kitchen. Anything you need you could probably find in her car, except a spot to sit down and ride with her. She loses everything from her keys to her checkbook, and it's a good thing she has Kenz to look out for her. I don't even think she and Kurt told me how many times she locked her keys in her car or left the lights on and had a dead battery during high school. And I'm sure Kenz has made a few trips from Moroni to Ephraim for the same kind of emergencies. She makes us laugh and smile and cry and lay awake at night worrying. She is a blessing in our lives and we wouldn't trade any minute of the 19 years we've had with her, and look forward to the next phase of life with her and Kenz and anyone else they eventually bring into our family.... in a few years, when they're both done with school and well established financially and secure and living back in Utah so that we can see them every day!

I talk a good game, but I'll always hope they eventually settle right here in Nephi where we can play Yahtzee for who does the dishes, throw a softball the minute the snow is off the ground, follow Kurt around the golf course, hike to the gorgeous waterfall in Payson, make gingerbread houses, open pajamas on Christmas Eve and fight over whether they eat with the Nunleys or the Searles on Thanksgiving!

I would love it if Ashli and Mackenzie could afford to have all of the things they dream of... Kenz's dream truck and Ashli's dream house, trips to Hawaii and Mexico and wherever they want to go every summer. I'd love it if they wear new socks every day just because they can afford to. I'd love it if they never argue, never get sick, never have to worry about the little stresses that life brings our way. But whatever comes their way, whatever mountains they climb together throughout their marriage, I could ask for nothing more than this.... Our only daughter will spend her life with a man who loves her as much as we do.