I’m the first to admit that I get restless. I love planning trips and excursions with my family. Camping in March – why not? Exploring exhibits at the museum – we are game! I live for that light and excitement in my children’s eyes when they are trying something new and loving it. That’s part of our family tradition and I adore that the first word’s out of my daughter’s mouth are often, “Where are we going today?”

Looking back on my childhood, my parents were the same way. In fact, I still call my Dad for travel advice. As a child, I slid across glaciers in Canada, ate pastries in Paris, and spent many a day in Disneyland. This week I came across an article on National Geographic examining the possibility of an adventure gene. Fascinating and not all that surprising to me.

These last few months we’ve been able to do many a fun outing. From the magic of Disney on Ice to the inner workings of the human body at Body Worlds at The Leonardo, we’ve learned. we’ve laughed, and we’ve loved it. Be sure to check out the links if you are looking for something fun for your family to do this weekend – hooking you up with discount codes for both!

Last year in Primary (find out more about Primary here), we worked on memorizing The Family Proclamation to the World.  Using a darling flip book, songs, and printables, my little ones and I made a pretty good effort. Certain phrases definitely stick with us, including this one. Happy to say that we have discovered many wholesome family recreational activities.

Living in Utah, I feel like we are surrounded by wholesome recreational activities. From the many theater and civic events to the beautiful outdoors, our weekends fill up fast. I’d like to share with you a couple of my favorite Utah web-sites that share so many fun things to do as families!

Michelle from EnjoyUtah.org is one of the first Utah bloggers I followed. I have her list of Utah summer camps pinned and I am excited to sign my kids up for some! One of our favorite family adventures last fall came after reading her post about the Fairy Forest in Kamas, Utah. Enjoy Utah keeps you up to date with the current events as well as all the off the beaten path hidden gems that Utah has to offer.

My go to girl for events in Utah County is Kimberly from UtahValleyMoms.com. If there is something fun happening in Utah County, I can typically find out more about it on Kim’s web-site or her facebook page. I had a blast participating in her instagram challenge for Chalk the Block at the Riverwoods last year. Utah Valley Moms doesn’t just tell you about the events, they give you great tips, too! I’ve always been too scared of the crowds on free zoo day so I was thrilled when Kim posted a video of the crowds to her instagram. Shhh … best time to go is in the morning!

I recently met the ladies behind The Salt Project and it was an instant connection. These two bloggers are passionate about exploring all the hidden gems of Utah with their young families. I am excited to be going on some adventures with them soon. I’ve tagged their posts about the Hill Airforce Base Museum and The Great Salt Lake for our list of things to do this year.

Check these bloggers out and find some fun activities to do with your families this week! When all else fails, remember this piece of advice:

Photo Courtesy of Sharing Bliss (https://www.etsy.com/shop/Sharingbliss)

While I love our family adventures and have more than a few up my sleeve each month, I am focusing on the quiet, fun moments at home, too. Like this one playing a vintage board game with Cort yesterday.

Whether you have wanderlust like me or prefer more days at home, I hope you get some quality family time in this week! Feel free to leave a comment about how your family is moving forward this week. Link up all your family-friendly activities, too, and I will feature some next week!

The post Things to do in Utah – Family Forward Friday appeared first on KeepMovingForwardWithMe.

It’s the second week of Family Forward Friday and your stories are incredible. Here’s a quick glimpse at the posts that were linked up last week. Thanks for sharing!

If you are looking for a indepth look at Roots Tech, you need to check out Becky’s blog post! Her photo story of her experiences is already making me excited for next year. My friend Paula from the Housewives of Riverton gives us another sneak peek at Roots Tech including her takeaways from interviewing Olympian Noelle Pikus Pace. Carly from Living the Scream and I toured the new Family Discovery Center together and she will tell you all about why your family needs to go as soon as possible!

For my post this week I am sharing one of my favorite action items from Family Discovery Day at Roots Tech – the Temple Challenge by Elder Neil L. Anderson. Click over on the temple challenge to watch it for yourself. Did you take the challenge last year? How did it go? Did you see that that eight words were added to the challenge for this year?

This speaks to my heart. Knowing and doing is good, but sharing that process is even better! My family has hundreds of names ready to be taken to the temple thanks to the efforts of my mother-in-law. Much work has been done on my own side as well. Up until now, I’ve paused my own searching efforts to get all the currently found names taken to the temple. But with this challenge, I am determined to find a name. It is important that I understand the process so that I can teach it to my own children.

Image from LDS.org

As luck would have it, my good friend Breanna posted this week about how she found 100 family names to bring to the temple (How I Found Family Names to Bring to the Temple) and she linked up to our Family Forward Friday series. What a wonderful experience to have in the temple with nieces and nephews, brothers and sisters, and parents – all thanks to a simple breakthrough on FamilySearch. Check out her story and her tutorial on how she found the names and the stories behind them. She gives me hope that I will be able to find a name with my daughter!

Image from BreannaOlaveson.com

Are you ready to being? Let’s go:

First, go to this page and accept the challenge! You’ll be joining 28,000 youth and adults around the world. This page takes you through all of the steps needed to find a name and get it temple ready. There are also several videos that you can share with your family. I bawled through all of them this morning – love the inspirational stories about family history work.

Photo courtesy of LDSDaily.net

What’s next? Share it with your family! While I was at Roots Tech, I had the chance to connect with two writers from LDSDaily.com. I love the family home evening lesson that they have created in response to the Temple Challenge. It includes the challenge video, scriptures, songs, activities, and even a recipe for a treat. Scheduling this for Monday’s family home evening at the Parker house!

Take the Temple Challenge and see the difference it makes in your family! Please leave a comment on this post after you sign up for the challenge or if you took the challenge last year. I would love to hear your story!

Taking the Temple Challenge is just one way we can strengthen our families. What other ways are you moving your family forward this week? Please leave a comment or link up your family-friendly post!

The post Take the Temple Challenge – Family Forward Friday appeared first on KeepMovingForwardWithMe.

Have you ever had a month where inspiration just pours in? That has been my February. I spent last week at Roots Tech, the largest family history conference in the world. I filled up a notebook with ideas that I want to start in my home.  Best part – my seven year old filled up some pages as well. Here’s a little sample of what she wrote while Olympian Noelle Pikus Pace and Al Fox Carraway were speaking:

“Get a 3 subject notebook. Write every day. Make three goals every day. I am so glad I am here. I love indexing. Al Fox’s baby is cute.”

That’s the good stuff my friends. This week I have been thinking, how can I savor all this good stuff and help my daughter to do the same? How can I apply it to my life and to my family? I don’t want to let my inspiration be forgotten in a notebook. So here’s the plan. Every Friday, I will be blogging about how my family is moving forward with our goals and dreams.  I invite you to do the same. If you attended Roots Tech and are moving forward with what you learned there, please leave a comment or link up what you posted about it. If you didn’t attend, no problem. I want to hear about anything that moves your family forward. Do you have a weekly game night – fantastic! Is there a book you read that changed the way you are parenting – do tell!

My posts for the next few weeks will be all the juicy tidbits from Roots Tech that I am applying in my home.

My biggest takeaway –

We are all connected. 

I sat down with journalist and keynote speaker AJ Jacobs and asked him what he hoped to learn from his Global Family Reunion project, a project that seeks out how each of us is related to each other by blood or marriage. The answer,

Here’s the fun part. Because of Roots Tech, I discovered that I am not so distantly related to two bloggers I follow. When I got home I was pleasantly surprised that the visual aids I had been planning to use for sharing time had been made by my new found distant cousin – Allison Kimball (Check out her beautiful art work here in this family history unit and here for these cute family history badges.)

Photos like the one above sparked conversations with my mom’s cousins and my second cousins on Facebook and Instagram.  All of those women in the picture graduated from BYU in the 1920s and 1930s with their degrees. I love that that their passion for education has trickled down through the generations. Having these discussions and making these connections made my life just a little bit richer this week.

So that is a quick sneak peek at how attending Roots Tech is helping my family move forward. Making connections with family members and extended family members brings an extra bit of happiness into my life. As AJ Jacobs commented, “It makes us feel part of something bigger than ourselves.”

How is your family moving forward this week? Did you attend Roots Tech? What was your favorite part and how are you applying it in your family? If you have a blog post about how your family is moving forward this week, post it below! Or leave a comment!

The post A sneak peek into my time at Roots Tech + first ever Family Forward Friday link up appeared first on KeepMovingForwardWithMe.