Summer Is Almost Here...

I remember growing up the months of summer were something I LONGED for. I loved summer! Our house faced east, and early in the morning during summer months, the sun would come up and hit our front door. The peep hole made a rainbow on the cabinets across the room. I remember eating cereal and watching the rainbow sink lower on the cabinets as the sun rose higher.

I got so excited for school to be out and for the days and weeks of play to stretch out. It always seemed like forever until September would come and school would start again. There were so many bike rides to take, afternoons to spend at the pool, and chalk rocks to steal from the neighbor's yard. (Didn't occur to me at the time that maybe one of the reasons he didn't like us doing that is we had to test each of the rocks on his sidewalk before we knew if it was a good one or not.) There is a lot of oblivion that goes with being a kid.

There is not nearly as much free time now when summer comes around, but I still look forward to it just as much. I know that it means picnics and bonfires and s'mores. I know that I'm likely to have family come into town and I love that. The entire month of July is fireworks because...well, why not? It's watermelon season and corn season and BBQ season. It's time for potato salad and garden tomatoes and fresh everything. 

What is not to love about summertime?

It's Been A While

My commitment to being a dedicated blogger may have waned a little bit lately, but that doesn't mean life hasn't been crazy and amazing for the last several months!

Last year I had a chance to visit a couple of cities for the first time.

The first one was Chicago. I was almost disowned by my sister for saying I thought the corn cob towers were kind of cool. That sort of thing doesn't go over well with someone who can tell you all the reasons Classic Architecture is better!

Navy Pier was beautiful. I am so glad I was there at night and got to see the beautiful lights and skyline.

Speaking of sisters, I know the reason I loved the city so much is that my sis flew out to spend the weekend with me. We went to museums and rented bikes and found Picasso sculptures and a hundred other things while we were there. It was a packed two days!

The next location in my travels was New Jersey. Which happens to be right across the river from New York City! Everyone but me probably knew how close these two really were. Hey, it was my first time. I got to ride the subway. It's as confusing as I thought it would be. But surprisingly free of nefarious people and zombies and all the other things I imagined would be haunting the city-beneath-the-city! (I recognize I have an active imagination. It makes life fun for me.)

I stood on the 50 yard line at the MetLife stadium. This made watching the Super Bowl fun for me this year!! I apologize to everyone I know who might have been more appreciative of this - but I still thought it was a cool once-in-a-lifetime experience.

I saw the Atlantic Ocean. For about as long as it takes to snap this photo. That was the limit on the patience for the guys I was traveling with. "If you've seen one ocean, you've seen them all!" They rolled their eyes when I still insisted on getting out of the car and actually going down to the sand.

As roommates, we try to do fun things together. Rachel was amazed that Chris and I had never been to Zion's National Park. So we went! This was the beginning of our hike to Angel's Landing. Look how happy and innocent we all look! Rachel is directly responsible for us having at least a few normal pictures since she insist, "This one is for me. Smile nice!" I'm grateful for that.

We made it to the top. And a little of the innocence is gone. It was replaced with terror. We know for a fact that if hadn't been for a bald-faced lie someone told us at the beginning of the last stretch from Scout's Landing out to the peak...Chris never would have come. She was eyeballing the chains that you used to scramble over the first 50 yards of the trail and thinking twice about it. This girl came along and said, "This is the worst part! If you make it up this, it's easy the rest of the way." Not true! But we all survived.

At Halloween, the cutest black cat I've ever seen came to visit.

Look at the face on that gnome!! I love it.

Thanksgiving came around, and the big hit was the turkey shootout. And wearing the awesome turkey hat!

At Christmastime, we had a sleepover with two little monkeys.

And I got sleeve tattoos! Ok...they might go on and off like socks...

We normally get together as friends to celebrate, but we were a little late this year. It was February before we all got our schedules to work. It was fun to watch this little girl dance around while she glowed in the dark.

I made a wedding cake!

And bought a car! I may have decided that transporting a wedding cake several hundred miles was a good enough reason to upgrade.

Speaking of cake - my brother made one!! It is the new favorite chocolate cake with my family.

This is before...

This is after! I chopped off my hair. It's been an adventure to have such short hair.

Definitely a highlight was going with my parents to the temple one Friday. It was a bit of a short-notice trip, but I wouldn't have missed it for the world. I'm glad Bountiful and Salt Lake are so close to each other!

I saw Bigfoot. 'Nuf said.

And I'm genetically incapable of not taking flowers once Spring arrives!

All in all, life has been good. I'm grateful for all the good moments that come along and the people I get to have and know and love!

iPhone Photos

Today, for no particular reason, I'm going through photos on my phone. Here are some I've taken over the last few months that make me smile. I like some of them because I think the photo is awesome (don't worry, so far I haven't dislocated my elbow patting myself on the back). For some, its the memory that makes me smile.

This was the view during the first 5K fail Chris and I tried this year. This was about mile 3 of the 5K. (For all of you who are not great at converting kilometers and miles...that is WAY over 5K!) We sort of started with the half-marathon folks. Oops.

My parents were gone during the springtime this year. I was over at their house one day and I snapped a few photos of the garden and trees as everything came to life. This is one of the fruit trees.

One evening as I was driving back from Education Week, this was the cloud that hung over the western horizon. Honestly, can Utah get any prettier sometimes? I don't think so.

I think its in my genetic build to occasionally take on projects that are a little too big for me. One Saturday I decided to re-plant the front flower bed. And expand it. Lucky for me, I have a loving sister and roommate who decided that helping me in the yard was a good plan for that day! I think we ended up with a pretty good result. I'm sorry to say the twisty topiaries didn't make it.

During one of the summer rain storms, I was out on the front porch and saw these ghostly footprints. Spooky! I'm sure there is a perfectly rational explanation like someone waterproofing their shoes on the cement. But I prefer to think this is the exact location where the troubled spirit of a size-9 ghost stands to watch out over my street.

I recently took up a new craft - bow making. (Please see above comment about me being unable to take on projects of an appropriate size!) I think I now own enough ribbon, glue, and clips to make "swag" for about 100 little girls. Please don't judge me.

The Salt Lake temple really lends itself to texture shots. Like pictures you take at night and make black and white.

During one of the summer storms, this amazing double rainbow showed up right over the mountains. I was driving, but stopped my car to watch and take a couple of pictures.

Did I mention these are in no particular order? Jumping back to spring, it seems like the blossoms on Temple Square only last about a week. During one of those days, I ventured out on my lunch break. I'm sure I looked like a dork as I crawled around the flower beds to find just that one shot where the flowers framed the spires of the temple. I think I got it!

Summer storm - part 2. I love it when these happen during the late afternoon hours, and the setting sun catches the clouds just so.

Ok, technically this might not be an actual iPhone picture. But it might still be my favorite! This is a beautiful drawing by my niece. It is of her, me, and my 2 sisters being sucked into a tornado. And I am one of the little guys up at the top. We are smaller because we have been sucked further into the tornado. And we all have capes! If that doesn't make you smile, you should check your pulse. :)

BYU Reminiscing

It has been 10 years since I graduated college with my bachelors degree. On one hand, I can't believe it's been that long! On the other, every one of those years has been amazing and I wouldn't trade them for anything.

This week I had a chance to go walk around campus for a little bit. I love going down for Education Week!

These stone panel things line the walls of the library stairwell. I forgot how awesomely 70's they are.

I spent many hours on the top floor of this library. These desks make a handy place to catch a nap between classes.

 This library has stacks and stacks of books...

 A plethora of books. A gaggle of books. A heap-load of books.

Have I mentioned how cool the library is on this campus? It has some of the best reading and studying spots.

It has skylights that make the basement levels bright and cheery. Bright enough to grow trees.

They hang cool sculptures, just because. It's the thing to do.

 The demographic is a little older, but the scene of crowded paths is familiar.

The hike up to the Y is perfect for a Monday night Family Home Evening.

I was pretty happy the clouds decided to roll in yesterday. It cooled things off.

Sometimes I forget how tall the mountains are in Utah County. One of my goals is to make it to the top of Timp in the near future. Near is a flexible term. Like, before I die.

Ah...the bell tower. Chimes out "Come, Come Ye Saints" every hour on the hour.

Universities are so darn photogenic! I hope to keep having the chance to visit every now and then.

Salt Lake is a pretty cool place to visit too.

Weber County Fair

Last week I went to the Weber County Fair. I'm not sure why, but I've never watched horse pulling at a fair before.

 They are beautiful creatures.

 I'm talking about the horses.

 This little guy was pretty cute too.

They hook the horses up to a sled with more and more weight, and the winner is the team who pulls the most weight.

 The surroundings were breathtaking as the sun went down.

 Did I mention the sky was amazing?

It was pretty cool.

 These were the heavy weight class. I learned they weigh the horses as a team.

I think I might have mentioned I liked the sky.

I didn't get any pictures, but I rounded out the night by watching the hypnotist with some cute pre-teen girls. It was an awesome night.