Category Archives: Travel

Child #1: Micah, Child #2: Quentin, Child #3: Emily, Child #4: Jake, Child #5: Cumorah, Child #6: Lily Mei, Children, Family, Family Life, Holidays, Homeschool, Indianapolis, Landscape, Mid West, Photography, Temples, Travel, Utah, Washington DC

Christmas Card 2022

December 21, 2022 Hubbard's Cupboard 4 Comments

We sold our amazing house in Indiana. It was located in the best neighborhood and we were all so sad to leave. May Bo was able to do the whole sale by herself. It was easy since the market favored the seller back at the beginning of the year. We packed everything up and we decided to do moving containers. It was much easier than driving a moving truck with all the kids.

Now we’re back in Utah! We’re hanging out at Popo’s house or the house May Bo grew up in. May Bo’s mom is so nice to take us in during a time when the housing market is not favorable for buyers and the cross country move was very expensive. We see ourselves staying here for the foreseeable future so we started on some remodel projects that is going to take a lot longer than expected. Half the house is down to studs so we are all cozy living in three bedrooms. One room is for May Bo’s mom, one room for Dallin & May Bo, and one room for all the kids! It was a really rough transition at first but we have all seem to have gotten used to it. It has actually made bedtime easier when all the kids have to go to bed at the same in the same room.

May Bo’s brother Aaron got married to Oliva and that was a huge highlight in our year.

Micah started middle school this year. He is the best sport dealing with all the little kids in his room and is really looking forward to having his own room one day. Micah got into the First Lego League team at his school. The tryouts were hard and only a few students got on the team. Middle school has been a really good for Micah and he has met some really great friends this year. He also started back up with swimming but we are still looking for a piano teacher for him.

Quentin has been utilizing the gift of the Holy Ghost in his life. The elementary school that we started out with here in Utah was not working out for Quentin. May Bo really wanted Quentin to stay at the school but after praying about the situation, Quentin decided he needed to leave the school right away. It was really good he did because the situation at the school only got worse and worse. Quentin actually didn’t mind being the new student again and is really enjoying his new school. He probably got one of the nicest teachers ever and he has made a lot of friends.

Emily started 1st grade. She loves her teacher and classmates. Her teacher reads with Emily everyday and she has grown leaps and bounds with her reading. She started to go to art club. Emily started piano lessons this year.

Jacob started his second year of preschool this year. It is a lot shorter than his school last year so he spends most of his time at home. He loves going to school and has had zero problems going to school. Thank goodness! He started swimming lessons this past summer and asks to go back everyday. He is an energy ball. Since Popo cooks for us almost everyday Jacob told us we live at “Popo’s Pizza and Steam Bun Restaurant.”

Cumorah is amazing at singing. She turned 3 this year and every one thinks she’s 5 or older. We started a TikTok for all her cute candid moments of singing. She is ready to start preschool, but not old enough to attend so we started preschool at home since she already knows the whole alphabet.

Lily Mei started walking! She can take 3-5 steps on her own. She still thinks crawling is a lot faster.

Dallin is working hard and long hours at Primary Children’s and is adjusting to be back in Utah. He loves to read Brandon Sanderson to the kids and work on remodel projects whenever he is home.

May Bo is having way too much fun making over 50 TikToks and Reels on Facebook. She used to make all the movies for her senior class in High School back in 2008 so this has been really fun for her to make movies again with much better and faster technology! This may be the first year she has taken more videos than pictures.

One huge miracle that happened to us this year is that Dallin’s sister gave us her 15 passenger van. We have already gone on several adventures with it. We have lots of camper van remodel ideas for this car and we’ll see if we actually get any time to make it happen in 2023. The kids love the van life. HAHA!

We decided to use Quentin’s 4th grade national park pass last weekend to go take a picture for this Christmas Card at Bryce Canyon. We hope we can see many more of the parks this coming year!

Here are our past years Christmas Cards:

Arizona, Child #1: Micah, Child #2: Quentin, Child #3: Emily, Child #4: Jake, Child #5: Cumorah, Family Life, Holidays, Indianapolis, Mid West, New Mexico, Oregon, Travel

Christmas Card 2019

November 29, 2019 Hubbard's Cupboard 7 Comments

So instead of sending all you guys this Christmas card in January (like we did last year… haha!) I decided to get it out by Thanksgiving this year!

This year started by finishing Dallin’s interviews for residency training: Albuquerque, Portland, Pheonix, and Tucson! We added on another 4,624 miles to our trip. We were on the road for three months traveling a total of 19,324 miles and completing interviews at twelve Universities. The kids loved it! We took the kids coast to coast to coast to coast! It was a lot of work but we are so glad we did it. We got to spend quality and quantity time with our kids. Both of our older boys were told to write their favorite memory as a school assignment and they both wrote about different aspects of our trip.

In March, we found out that Dallin “matched” at Indiana University-Purdue University for pediatric residency training. We found a house and bought it in April! In June, we packed everything up in a big 26-foot Penske moving truck. Dallin drove that huge truck the final 1,500 miles to our new home. We bought our house as an internet purchase so we didn’t see it in person until we walked in the door. The kids were professional travelers by the time of the move and they were super good on the moving trip. However, driving out of Utah was one of the hardest things I (May Bo) has ever had to do. Even writing about it reminds me of all the emotions I had that day!

When we got to Indiana we were greeted by friendly neighbors. To say that we love it here may be an understatement. We love the house, the neighborhood, the friends, the schools, and our church! Dallin LOVES his residency program. We feel super blessed.

Unfortunately, in March Dallin’s grandma passed away and then in April Dallin’s father passed away.

In October, we welcomed Cumorah to our family. Now we are adjusting to having a newborn around and enjoying all her cuteness.

We decided to ask the kids what they are grateful for and this is what they said:

Micah: My friends, my family, Jesus, Heavenly Father, The Book of Mormons, Veterans, People who died for our country, the computer, technology, the prophets because they teach us what is right

Quentin: Mom, dad, friends, family, our home, Christmas tree, video games, Santa, scripture study because it makes me feel lots of joy, toys, church because it makes feel peaceful

Emily: Jesus Christ died, pink blankey, Jesus is alive, sleeping, eating cereal, pink fan with butterflies, pillows that don’t fight, sharing, computer

Jakey: Toys, cars, trains, mimi, momma, dada, Micah, Quentin, Emily, baby, tree, cereal, chicken, apple, bike, nose, ears, eyes, hair, ice cream, belly button, toes, Jesus

Cumorah: milk, nini, mom, blankeys, being rocked (This is what the other kids thought she was grateful for… haha!)

We miss you guys in Utah. We also miss our friends we met coast-to-coast and overseas. We hope to hear an update from you all soon!

Love, The Hubbards

Here are our past years Christmas Cards:

Architecture, Indianapolis, Mid West, Photography, Temples, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Travel

Indianapolis Indiana Temple

July 21, 2019 Hubbard's Cupboard Leave a comment

This is our new temple! This is the Indianapolis Indiana Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Dallin and I are so blessed to still have a temple close by so we can meet our weekly temple trip. It’s definitely not the same as the 8-minute drive that we use to have but it is close enough. Every time I’ve driven to the temple it reminds me of the song that says “Over the river and through the woods…” because I am very literally driving over the river and through the woods to get to the temple. HAHA! It is a beautiful drive. I wish I can show you all!

#temple #sharegoodness #cometothetemple #churchofjesuschrist #jesuschrist

Family Life, Landscape, Oregon, Photography, Travel

Trip to Portland

January 31, 2019 Hubbard's Cupboard Leave a comment

Dear Portland, you were a big surprise to me. I’ve never been to a city like you. The pregnancy exhibit at the OMSI kinda freaked me out. 🧐 We tried eating at Voodoo Donuts and Pok Pok because everyone told us to. They were literally a hole in the wall and one time at those places was enough for me. However, Petunia’s Pies & Pastries was fabulous! Powell’s City of Books was a fun place to get lost. The tram was cool and I could see Mt. St. Helen. The best attraction was Multnomah Falls. Even in January Dallin convinced me to hike to the top with little Jakey in our arms. At the end of our trip, you really got us confused when we couldn’t pump our own gas. Well, let’s just say, Portland, you have succeeded to be the weirdest place I have ever been to. Sincerely, May Bo

#portland #thoughts #multnomahfalls #multnomah #keepportlandweird #photography

It was fun pretending to only have 1 child again! HAHA!

Child #4: Jake, Children, Oregon, Parenting, Photography, Toddlers, Travel

4th Child Pretending to be Only Child

January 11, 2019 Hubbard's Cupboard Leave a comment

I am pretending to only have 1 child today while the older kids are at their cousin’s house and daddy is at his interview. Time goes by a lot slower with just 1 kid because he needs to be entertained all the time. I have gotten a lot of “Is this your first?” 😂 and “He is so cute!” Jakey doesn’t get this much attention when all his siblings are around. I usually just get “Wow, your hands are full!” or “Are these all yours?” 😂 I wonder what people would say if I told them he’s the 4th child?!

#waitingfordad #jakey #lovehim #portland #oregon

California, Child #1: Micah, Child #2: Quentin, Child #3: Emily, Child #4: Jake, Family, Family Life, Holidays, Homeschool, Indianapolis, Iowa City, Mid West, New York, Photography, Pittsburgh, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Travel, Utah, Washington DC

Christmas Card 2018

January 8, 2019 Hubbard's Cupboard 5 Comments

Hi Everyone!

This is a little belated… OK may be it is very belated but we have been relaxing and enjoying our time at home for Christmas and New Year. We were just trying to catch up on life and sleep. We have been traveling a lot since October for Dallin’s residency interviews. We decided to home school our kids for three months as we traveled coast-to-coast. Dallin is in his fourth year of medical school which means he is entering the “National Resident Matching Program“. Every fourth year medical student, who decides to pursue a practicing career in medicine, needs to complete a minimum of three year residency. These medical students apply across the country for a residency in their desired specialty. Some people interview at only a few programs while others interview at twenty five programs or more! It really depends on the specialty they choose. Dallin decided to interview at twelve pediatric residency programs. About half of the programs he applied to have a special Physician-Scientist track for MD/PhD’s. Dallin has currently finished 9 out of the 12 interviews. After the remaining interviews, we will complete our match list and submit it. The programs also rank all their applicants. March 15, 2019 is “Match Day” when graduating medical students nationwide will open their match letter to find out where they go for residency. It is a fun and stressful time filled with uncertainty and much excitement. We are so grateful for all the family and friends who have helped us these last few months! We are humbled by everyone who has message us, taken us in, helped us when we lost our luggage (… Don’t worry we eventually got it back!), given us advice, babysat the kids on the road, filled our callings at church, fed us, housed us, and kept us going. We have traveled approximately 14,700 miles by plane and roads. We couldn’t have made it this far without you guys! Thanks so much!

Love,

The Hubbards

Dallin, May Bo, Micah (7), Quentin (5), Emily (3), and Jakey (1)

PS – 2018 family video is still in the making!

Here’s our past years Christmas Cards:

Family Life, Mid West, Photography, Temples, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Travel

St. Louis Temple Pictures

November 3, 2014 Hubbard's Cupboard 1 Comment

Back this March we went to visit Grandma in Illinois. We flew into St. Louis. This was the second time we visited Grandma. The last time was back in 2010 (see post here).

Here is a picture of the famous arch. When we were driving around the arch I received the idea to create the WordPress Ward which is finally a reality. The WordPress Ward recently was awarded Honorable mention at the 2014 LDS Tech Conference! This motivated me to find my St. Louis pictures because I remember distinctly that right next to the Gateway arch is where I received the inspiration from the Holy Ghost to create the WordPress Ward.

At the St. Louis Gateway Arch Visitor Center, we ran into a group of Sister Missionaries on their P day (Preparation Day). We had to take a picture with them! It was so random.

The arch is a monument to Thomas Jefferson and the pioneers who went west during the Westward Expansion between 1830 and 1870.

The Mormon Pioneers were among the first people to trek across the terrain to find a place to safely practice religion because of persecution.

In 1847, Brigham Young lead the first group of pioneers to Utah where President Young declared that, “This is the right place”. Salt Lake City is now where the headquarters of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The church membership is now 15 million and there are currently 141 operating temples.

This time when we were at the St. Louis Temple it was closed for cleaning but I decided to take pictures anyways! 🙂

20140307-IMG_2764

I’m so grateful for the pioneers who suffered much to get to Salt Lake City! Their example and sacrifice is a blessing to us all. The church has been blessed because of the great faith of the Mormon Pioneers.

Architecture, Family Life, Photography, Temples, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Travel, Utah

Ogden Temple Re-Dedication #ogdentemple #ldstemple

September 21, 2014 Hubbard's Cupboard 6 Comments

The Ogden Temple Re-Dedication is my fourth temple dedication I’ve attended since getting baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints only six and a half years ago. I guess it’s a great time to be a member of The Church because of the plethora of temples being built and the blessing of attending temple dedications!!!

Every time I attend a temple dedication, I just can’t be more grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ and the organization of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints!! I just want to shout to the world that “This church is true!!! I know it’s true!! It really is!! It’s amazing!!! Jesus lives and loves you!!”

The minute I walked into my church house, where the temple re-dedication was being broadcast live, I felt so much peace come into my heart. I felt like I was actually inside a temple! For those who don’t know, Sunday Church services was canceled today in our area for the Ogden Temple Re-dedication. All members of The Church over the age of eight could attend the dedication if they had a temple recommend.

I went to the first session. I had so many favorite quotes but I’ll resist to only sharing my FAVORITE.

President Monson said “God gave us memories, that we might have June roses in the December of our lives” (paraphrasing James Barrie, in Laurence J. Peter, comp., Peter’s Quotations: Ideas for Our Time [1977], 335) then he added “Temples provides roses in every season of our lives!”

It’s so true! Every time I’m struggling or have an unsettled heart. All I have to do is go to the temple and I can feel peace again.

At the end of the temple dedication they always sing the song “The Spirit of God”. The first line of the song is The Spirit of God like a fire is burning! My heart was burning with the love of God and I was filled with tears of joy. It’s been a while since I’ve felt so much of the Holy Ghost in one setting.

I think as my years add up in The Church. I get used to having the Holy Ghost with me all the time and take it for granted. I am so grateful for Heavenly Father providing me with this opportunity to feel the Holy Ghost in abundance. It reminded me of the excitement of being a new convert.

I know that Jesus Christ lives and we build temples so we can learn how to become more like Him. Jesus Christ is the source of peace and happiness to this world. We need Him and He wants us to go to His temples so we can be with our families together forever!!

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Here are the pictures I took of the Ogden Temple at the open house at the beginning of September. Enjoy!!

That shinny light in the sky is the moon!!! 🙂

Family Life, Ireland, Landscape, Photography, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Travel

Ireland Miracle #3

December 5, 2013 Hubbard's Cupboard Leave a comment

Sorry I realize that I never finished my Ireland miracles. I’ll just schedule these stories in once in a while. Better late than never right?

For the first month in Ireland, we solely relied on public transportation which was mainly double decker busses and the Dart which is a fast train. Dallin studied at the University College Dublin and we lived in Dun Laoghaire. It was about 45 minutes by bus but only a 15 minute drive. The bus system was fantastic and there really wasn’t much to complain about except for the fact that Dallin took 1.5 to 2 hours or more commuting everyday depending on traffic.

We felt like the Spirit was telling us we should buy a car. We researched it out and miraculously found an old Nissan Almera (aka Nissan Centra in the USA) for 1000 euros. We registered it and bought insurance from Liberty Mutual Insurance which was the cheapest insurance we found. Buying a car was easier than we thought it would be and it eventually ended up saving us money even though the gas tax in Ireland is like 50%.

Driving in Dublin, Ireland is super fun… well kinda. So you drive on the left hand side of the road and the roads are very narrow. Parking is pretty much just parallel parking. You have to get really good at parallel parking. You can use your native driver license for one year before you need to get an Irish license.

We took this old cheap car to every shore of Ireland and Northern Ireland. We drove this car from Dublin to Giants Cosway in Northern Ireland. Then to Cork, Cliffs of Moher, Dingle and the Ring of Kerry. Fortunately the only problem we had with the car was the windshield wipers and a mechanic in Cork fixed it for 10 euro.

On one of our last adventures in Ireland, we were driving to the Blarney Castle in Cork. A local guy rear ended our car and made a dent in the back bumper. The insurance company said that the car was totaled. They let us keep the dented car and gave us 1000 Euro. So in essence we got this car for free. This is what the bumper looked like and if you look around on the streets of Ireland…everyone has the same dent in their car because the roads are so narrow!

We thought purchasing this car was a tender mercy of the Lord. We drove this car everywhere. We drove it to church and drove the Dublin area missionaries to their visits. Dallin used this car to go home teaching and we used this car to drive to the hospital when we had the baby. We ended up giving the car away to a friend and then he was able to use the car for a few weeks while his car was broken. After that he ended up selling it for 200 euro. We thought we got our money’s worth out of that car. What a blessing!

Writing about Ireland again brings tears to my eyes because I miss Ireland so much!

Architecture, Photography, Temples, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Travel, Utah

Star Effect Photography on Religious Architecture

November 19, 2013 Hubbard's Cupboard 6 Comments

Alright, I’m going to continue our virtual temple tour with the St. George Utah LDS Temple. There wasn’t very good lighting that day because there wasn’t a cloud in the sky! So here’s a photography tip, to get good LDS Temple pictures you need diffused lighting which is either: a cloudy day, sunrise, sunset, or twilight. Well, because I didn’t have any of those, I decided to just play around with the “star effect” also known as the “starburst effect“.

To get the star effect you need to point your camera right into a light source. So an obvious light source is the sun. Other light sources could be head lights on a car or a lamp post.

Next, you need to crank up your F number on your camera to create a small aperture. Aperture is measure by F/# so the bigger the F number the smaller the aperture. You can do this by being in the Av mode which is the aperture priority mode on your digital SLR camera. You don’t need a nice lens or anything you can just use the lens that comes with the camera.

These two pictures below were taken at F/22.

If you can get a small light source you can use a smaller F number. This picture was taking at F/8.

On a side note, we believe in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (aka Mormon or LDS) that these temples are “Beacon[s] to the World.” A beacon as define in Merriam-Webster online dictionary is: “a strong light that can be seen from far away and that is used to help guide ships, airplanes, etc.” If you have every seen one of these LDS Temples at night, you would know that these temples glow. You can see these temples from far away. We believe that temples are beacons because temples draw people nearer to God and Jesus Christ.

Anyways… if you want to learn more about LDS Temples please visit my other posts about temples!

BTW you don’t have to be a member of our church to take pictures of our temples. So, please come take pictures of our temples! Have you ever taken pictures of LDS Temples? Please share!