We rock

I can’t believe summer is officially over. I can’t believe how fast it went this year. I had always heard that when you get older time goes faster because your days are so much more the same than when you were little. I’m starting to see how true that is. One minute it’s Monday and the next it’s Friday. I don’t know where the time goes.

On to updating you on our latest activities. Two weekends ago we had one of the busiest Saturdays I can remember having in quite awhile. I started off the day with tutoring – something I haven’t done much of this summer since the children were coming mostly during the day. I came home did some cleaning and got ready for our fun filled evening. We had a birthday party, wedding and show to attend, in that order. I was actually amazed how well the times worked out for each event.

First was Annie’s hubby’s birthday party, he was turning the big 30 so she planned a surprise party. We were a bit late due to cutting up the watermelon so we missed the surprise. Sorry Steve! It was wonderful to see Annie and all of my other girlfriends. I don’t get to see them enough. Hopefully they will come and play after we’re done with vacation. After only staying a little bit it was off to our next destination, our friend Brandi’s wedding.

We made it out to Toole in 40 minutes – after the Iphone saved us from getting stuck on traffic on the 201. Thanks Iphone for keeping us on schedule. Brandi was a fellow co-op at the company Shad and I met at as co-ops. She is an adorable girl and made a beautiful bride with her bright green shoes. Totally sweet. She had been together with the groom for years and still Shad and I had never met him. He seems like a nice guy though.

On our way out of Toole, there was a quick stop at Del Taco for some food (we had missed the food at both the party and wedding and didn’t want to wait to eat another 40 minutes). We arrived at the Sweater Friends show in Jake’s backyard only about 5 minutes late – super sweet! We watched his cousin Ben perform a few songs then it was our turn. It was a bit chilly for August and by the end, I couldn’t feel my fingers but all and all, it was a good show with all of our favorite people.
A
fter the show, instead of driving home we opted to sleep at my parents since I was singing in my parent’s ward the next morning – Don’t worry Dublin came with us and stayed too. We’re not that bad of parents.

The musical number with my sister went pretty well, I think it was better than the first time we sang it in her ward. That done and over we returned to my parents for a Sunday afternoon nap and family dinner. It was almost like a mini vacation away from home to see all of my friends.

This last Wednesday night was designated our monthly craft night. We opted to do a craft from Martha’s Encyclopedia of Crafts. Ideal. We made Sand candles. Martha told us to use fine grain sand, we used paver sand – just a slight difference. Needless to say, our candles didn’t look like Martha’s. We’ll try harder next time.

Just as the pizza arrived Shad and Jared came home from golfing. We ate and put them to work assembling the slip n slide. It’s not craft day without slip n slide. This is maybe why the church encourages people to have kids while they’re young instead of spending their evening modifying slip n slides for adult use, they’re engaged in righteous causes.

This weekend I was supposed to be on coverage (should have retracted my previous blog post about not having it for awhile). It was called on Friday which left me with a very open weekend. Friday Shad went to SLC for his brother’s birthday party. I got home too late to go. I heard it was a good time though. I lounged on the couch and watched TV. Saturday I cleaned the house and then my family came up for dinner. My sister’s husband was in town for the weekend (he is going to school in LA now and Kristen is still working and living here) so we all wanted to get together. If was fun to have them come up to us for a change. We went to dinner at the Oaks and Shad and I got to ride in Scott’s beamer. It was good times in the canyon.

Sunday I slept in super late and went to the 3:00 session of the Oquirrh Mountain Temple dedication. It was a wonderful meeting despite the lady that had to yawn every five minutes so loudly right next to me.

I’m super excited to head to Great Basin this weekend. It should be a fun trip, then it’s off on our cruise. It’s going to be a good three weeks.

A Fair Time

Last Friday night Shad and I trekked on over to the Weber County Fair grounds for the Weber County Fair. Who doesn't love a good fair? Animals, terrible cover bands and fried food. I know of no other place you can compete in such exciting areas as table settings and terrifying looking dolls. Here are a bunch of pictures from our fair experience.




We Considered picking up a new organ in the vendor building, because organs are fun, the display says so.
I think I might suggest these to my company for cost savings. Forget Sharpies - Skerples are all the rage!
And how could we go home with out a transformable robot? He looks like someone very familiar.
We then braved the animal areas, we saw some really fat lazy pigs. We found one that was awake.
There were some adorable sheep - Shad still won't let me get one! I keep on telling him Dublin likes sheep but he thinks otherwise. Plus he keeps on telling me they're stupid animals and will get into trouble. I made sure he didn't say those things around the sheep - their feelings would have been hurt.


We paid 50 cents to get our faces painted. Thanks Weber County Library.This is why you should pay more than 50 cents for face painting. This lightening bolt was no where near this obese in the example.

Lastly I think the fair confirmed Dublin's previous goat existence. When we visited the petting area which animals were shoving their heads through the cages and stealing food to get attention? Sheep is the wrong answer, it wasn't the really obese cow either. You guessed it, the goats. They loved new people especially children just as much as our dog does. He will stop at nothing to get their attention!

Oh yeah, we did come home with a new friend for Dublin. His name is Zeke, short for Ezekiel. He's a Dwarf African Frog. I showed him to Dublin when we came home and he tried to eat him. I say new friend, and he thinks I wonder if he tastes good. Zeke lives on the kitchen counter now, safe from Dublin's reach.

PS - The other day Dublin caught a grasshopper and I had to rescue it from his mouth. I saw him chasing something in the grass then suddenly he just stopped and sat down. I went over and opened his mouth and sure enough, there was a little green grasshopper sitting on his tongue. Lucky for the grasshopper our dog doesn't believe in chewing things he eats, he hopped out and went on his merry way. I guess since he can't catch birds, grasshoppers are the next best thing.

Narrowed?

This last weekend Shad and our friend Jen took a trip down to Zion to do the narrows. It was a weekend full of adventure as always. We left Thursday night after work and drove down to Mount Carmel, Utah. On our way, Shad thought there was a gas station at the exit on I-15 to get onto Highway 20. There was not, and the gas light was on. Since Panguitch was only 30 miles away, we thought we could make it.

Apparently our guesstimation was 5.7 miles wrong because 5.7 miles outside of Panguitch we ran out of gas. It was a first for all of us and we got to hear all the gossip on the local gas station drama from the triple A guy when he finally showed up so really I think we are much better for it.

We arrived to our campsite without issue to find a note on the office door saying we could camp at site 1 or to the left of the cabin. Turns out the RV park in Mount Carmel doesn't really have the tent sites it advertises on it's website. We opted for left of the cabin because there was grass there.

The next morning we got up and headed to Zion to catch the shuttle to Chamberlain's Ranch (where the Narrows hike starts). I was pretty excited we were doing the shuttle since the car fiasco you have to do is such a pain. It might have been worth it though.

I guess our shuttle driver was on a schedule because he drove up the dirt road to the ranch (typically a 2 hour drive) like we were being chased by Nazis. We made it there in 1 hour and 15 minutes. New record maybe? Who cares? All I know is all of us were so car sick by the end and neither Jen nor I have EVER been car sick in our lives. I literally stopped talking to Jen mid sentence and turned around to face the front of the van or I would have pucked all over her. Yikes.

I think I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking...
Just getting into the narrows.

Look at how fresh and happy I look. Ready for lots of fun river hiking.

Jen told me I wasn't allowed to wave.

Can you find me in this picture? Jen was going for something artsy. Apparently that means you can't use a flash...

They made me get in the water to go see the waterfall. My husband decided it would be a good time to give me a nice wet hug. Thanks hubby.

Then Jen made us take a "cute one."

This is a picture from where we camped. Very pretty. I think we went to bed at about 6:00 pm though. We were tired!

Still day one somewhere in the river.

I don't remember why Shad was making this face. I thought it was awesome enough to include though.

So at this point, my hip flexors are starting to really hurt and I'm praying they will be miraculously healed for day 2 A.K.A. death river day. See how I can still hide the pain with a smile?

Here I am about 2 hours into day 2. See how I can't hide the pain through a smile? No miracles happened overnight while sleeping on the hard ground hoping the animals running around near my head wouldn't run over my head (it happened last time I was sleeping in the narrows). They didn't.

Here we are in more really cold water Jen and Shad made me get into. I got out to "take pictures."

Here are Jen and Shad playing on yet another waterfall. I took one for the team and stayed dry.

And that's where the pictures end. The waterfall was just too much for the digital camera and it decided to slip away to the big white flash in the sky. Don't feel too bad for it. Jen's camera had already withstood being dropped in the ocean and getting sand stuck in it (hence the grinding noise it made when you turned it on) and being bashed against a rock in Moab while Jen was kneeing Jared in the face (the lcd screen was a gonner so you never knew if your pictures were actually being taken until after the trip). Now Jen gets to get a new camera. Bonus!

It's probably best the camera died, none of the pictures of me would have been good. I can't remember a time when I was in more pain. Luckily it only hurt when I had to pick up my leg which when you're hiking through a river full of rocks happens just about every step. Other than that, the trip was a success.

When the river finally ended, we went back to our campsite (really a patch of grass next to a cabin in a trailer park so not really a campsite) and made the camping staple, cheese stuffed bacon wrapped hot dogs and went to bed. The next morning it was back home to see our puppy and take a nap.