The best thing in life isn\u2019t things\u2026its family. Family is a pretty amazing thing. First and foremost it is made up of our own immediate family, then our extended family, and then our friends that we love as family.<\/p>\n
Last week was a wonderful week. My own family was able to host several other families on a trip to Lake Powell on our houseboat for the week and we had a wonderful trip together. It was so nice to spend time with my own family as well as deepening relationships with the other families that came. It\u2019s pretty amazing how after spending an entire week with people they become like family to you. The memories that are made and the bonds that are formed are such a blessing.<\/p>\n
During our trip we were hit with a major wind storm that was incredibly dangerous. As that storm raged there was no question what mattered most and it certainly wasn\u2019t our stuff – it was the safety of our family members. They are our most precious possession in life.<\/p>\n
We returned home in time to celebrate the Fourth of July with our neighbors who are also our dear friends as well as with my own family and some extended family members. This has definitely been a week highlighting the love of families.<\/p>\n
July 2016 is also a really special time for my family because it means my sweet baby girl Ashley will be coming home after completing her 18-month volunteer mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. We have missed her SO MUCH the last year and a half. As a parent, having one of your children away from home leaves a huge gaping hole in your heart that just can\u2019t be filled until they are back with you again. And I cannot wait for that day in the next few weeks when I get to hug my daughter again!!! I am so excited that my family will once again all be together.<\/p>\n
\u201cNothing else you will ever own, no worldly thing you will ever acquire will be worth so much as the love of your children.\u201d<\/span> \u2013 Gordon B. Hinckley<\/p>\n As a parent there truly isn\u2019t anything in life that will ever be worth more to us than the love of our child. Sure being a parent is hard and it requires tremendous sacrifices to be made, but nothing in this world can ever compare to having the arms of your child wrapped around your neck in a hug as they tell you they love you. It makes every sacrifice you are ever required to make more than worth it!<\/p>\n Harold B. Lee reminded us, \u201cThe most important work we will ever do is within the walls of our own home.\u201d<\/span> No job we do, or money we earn, or title we hold will ever matter as much as the relationships we have with our families. That\u2019s why we have to make sure we are making our family relationships our top priority. We need to protect our family time and keep it sacred so nothing else in our lives is allowed to trump it.<\/p>\n I hope you all had a wonderful holiday weekend and may the week ahead be full of great memories you will make with your families and friends.<\/p>\n ~Amy Rees Anderson<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The best thing in life isn\u2019t things\u2026its family. Family is a pretty amazing thing. First and foremost it is made up of our own immediate family, then our extended family, and then our friends that we love as family. Last week was a wonderful week. My own family was able to host several other families […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6841,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[395,4573,101,550,410,6159,999,240,8081,551,10251,1007,51,10259,10252,1404,33,189,591,1609,10257,237,1450,454,494,598,1254,1455,3369,64,35,10256,8989,6499,24,32,10254,351,574,1769,3179,2657,544,5236,1096,1410,1416,145,1967,10253,4016,78,442,22,10260,192,10258,10255,2212],"class_list":["post-6982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-amy-rees-anderson","tag-antelope-point","tag-ashley","tag-blessed","tag-blessing","tag-bonds","tag-child","tag-children","tag-dangerous","tag-daughter","tag-deepen-relationships","tag-families","tag-family","tag-family-relations","tag-forming-bonds","tag-fourth-of-july","tag-friend","tag-friends","tag-friendship","tag-gordon-b-hinckley","tag-harold-b-lee","tag-holiday","tag-houseboat","tag-hug","tag-important","tag-job","tag-lake-powell","tag-lds-church","tag-lds-mission","tag-life","tag-love","tag-love-of-your-children","tag-making-memories","tag-material-things","tag-memories","tag-memory","tag-mission-service","tag-missionary","tag-money","tag-parent","tag-possession","tag-precious","tag-relationships","tag-sacred","tag-sacrifice","tag-safety","tag-serve","tag-service","tag-storm","tag-storm-raged","tag-stuff","tag-time","tag-title","tag-trip","tag-trump-it","tag-vacation","tag-walls-of-our-own-home","tag-worldly-things","tag-worth-it"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6982"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6982\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6983,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6982\/revisions\/6983"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}