Picture Tag

The rules are you have to take pictures of the following things, and you have to do it right away. No cleaning, straightening, or wiping your child's nose (and I mean it!) Then tag 6 others.











1. Kitchen sink. We had pasta for dinner, and I left the plates and pot in the sink instead of putting them in the dishwasher. Oh well, there's always tomorrow!

2. Laundry room. Nothing fancy here, just the basics and some food storage.


3. Fridge. It looks like it's about time to take down some of those notes!














4. Bathroom. This is our second bathroom. The one Spencer and I use is not as clean. I use this bathroom to blow dry and straighten my hair. I don't think the shower has been used by us except to wash things, like our climbing rope and large tupperware containers. Michael and Jessica used it when they stayed overnight. I remember because there was no soap or anything in there and they had to use the hand soap from the sink!





5. Closet. One thing we lucked out on with our condo is the huge closet in the master bedroom. It's definitely bigger than the one we had at our house in Idaho! Which leads me to . . .

6. Favorite room. Okay, okay, the closet isn't really my favorite room. But I forgot to take a picture of the living room and I don't want to go through the trouble now that I'm already in the middle of posting.







7. Favorite shoes. I just realized I forgot my ultimate favorite pair--my $2.50 black flip flops from Old Navy. I've worn them for 3 summers now I think. The heel part is almost worn clear through, but they're super comfy! Well, until I step on a jagged rock or something and it stabs my foot through the thin rubber!
The pink pair on the right are from my Grandma Sally. Aren't they cute?











8. Self portrait. Pay no attention to the garment sleeve visible on my shoulder. It's Friday night and I deserve to be comfortable! I guess I should have edited it out, but it's too late now.














9. Children. This is as close as it gets right now. Jack has been following me everywhere as I've been snapping these photos. When I took a picture of the shoes, he laid down and rolled over so I would scratch his belly. How could I say no?

















10. Dream vacation. I would love to go on a cruise to somewhere tropical. I want the kind of cruise that does all the fun adventure things, like scuba diving, climbing, and all that jazz. I figure if I spend a lot of the time doing something physical, it will be okay to eat all that yummy cruise food I hear so much about!

Tag! Michael & Jessica, Adam & Harmony, LeAnn, Sara, Laurie

Jack

Before I decided to enter the world of blogging, I was a little hesitant because we don't have kids. Most of the blogs I saw were of young families showing off their cute babies. Why would anyone want to see boring pictures of Spencer and me? Anyway, I am glad I got over that, and today I thought I should do a post about our dog Jack, since he's as close to a child as we have right now!

We got Jack for my birthday in 2005, right after buying our house in Idaho. We picked him up at the animal shelter in Idaho Falls, where he had been for 3 weeks prior. When we took him out of his kennel to look at him, he pressed himself right up against my legs and stayed there, even when we took him outside the shelter to walk him around. All the other dogs we looked at would immediately run to the edges of the fence when we took them out, but Jack stayed right with us.

He was super skinny, dull fur coat, and he had to be neutered before we could take him home. The surgery involved stitches, so we couldn't bathe him for a couple weeks. And the anesthetic they gave him made him pee about every 15 minutes. This was before we finished our fence in the backyard, so he stayed in the house a lot of the time. Which meant I spent all my time following him around with carpet cleaner. Not a great start! Luckily, he completely changed after the first couple weeks. He is great with kids, never gets on the furniture, learns tricks quickly, is obedient MOST of the time, and of course is very loyal.

The one thing we struggle with is his interactions with other dogs. For the most part he's fine, but he has attacked a couple of dogs on different occasions. We are still working with him on this.

Anyway, here are some photos of Jack. They are not in any certain order.

Jack came with us to Fillmore to help my parents put sheetrock up in the garage. He spent most of his time hunting for cats and laying around in the dust.

Jack kept me company in the Uintas this summer while Spencer spent the day fishing.

What a great sky!

Spencer and I sometimes force Jack to do "people" things, like play on the playground at the local elementary school. He doesn't really like it, and we had to push him to get him to go down the slide. But it makes for cute pictures!

Here's Jack with his cousin Sarah. We kept her at our house in Idaho for a couple months while her family was transitioning to their new house.

We took Jack to Lake Powell in 2006. He liked riding in the ski boat and house boat. He liked being on the beach. He liked all the food given out by nieces and nephews. One thing he did NOT like was the water! We threw him in a couple times and even gave him a life vest, but he never could appreciate the joys of swimming. Oh well!

Here's Jack in our backyard in Idaho. Since moving to Utah, he has had to adjust to much less backyard space. Especially now, while we're living in a condo! Luckily he is a very mellow dog and doesn't mind staying inside for most of the day.

I've always liked this picture of Spencer and Jack along the Snake River, one of our favorite places to take him for walks in Idaho Falls.

Jack is such a cuddler! He almost always sleeps all curled up with his nose tucked under his paws. Awwww! Cute puppy!

Lamb's Canyon Pass

Spencer and I went on a fun, but very steep hike today up Millcreek Canyon. We planned to go up today because every odd numbered day you can have dogs off-leash, which Jack LOVES! Little did we know that today is actually an even numbered day. Oh well, we still had fun, and the hike we went on is one of the less popular ones so we only saw a handful of other hikers. Thus, Jack was free to roam most of the trip. He always does really well staying with us anyway, and even walks behind us if we want him to.

Before the hike we stopped at a little picnic area for lunch.

Yum! Tuna fish sandwiches!

We started the trail here.

The weather was perfect for hiking! Temps were in the low 70's, with a slight breeze and mostly sunny sky. We found some wild raspberries growing right next to the trail on the way up.

Here's Spencer next to the Lamb's Canyon Pass sign.
If you look close you can see we had 1.8 miles of near vertical hiking left to get to the top!

I had to stop a couple times on the way up. I couldn't believe how STEEP the hike was! It was well worth it though.

Here I am at the top of the hike. The terrain up here was mostly aspens, scrub oak, and dry bushes. Much different than the lower elevations, which were full of pine and greenery everywhere.

When we finally made it to the top, we could see into three different canyons. Neither of us could figure out exactly which canyons we were looking at, but the views were great!

Canyon view #1

Canyon view #2

Canyon view #3 -
The background is really washed out, but we could see what we think was the Salt Lake valley behind Spencer.

We might have gone a little further, but it turned into a watershed area, so Jack was not allowed. Oh well!

No dogs beyond this point!

What a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

In Memoriam - "Cabeza de Fuego"

I just found out recently that a good friend of mine from high school was one of the passengers in the plane that crashed down in southern Utah, killing ten. Here's a link to the news story on ksl.com.

I got to know Keith Shumway really well in high school because we did track together. We had a tight knit group of friends on the team. We spent a lot of time together and knew each other really well, even keeping in touch off and on after high school. All my memories of Keith are from our four years in school.

We all used to tease Keith about his red hair, and gave him the nickname "Cabeza de Fuego." Jamie, Kristen, and I even had a little Mexican dance we did to go along with the nickname. He was a pretty good sport about all the teasing we did. I remember learning that he filed his fingernails. I teased him about that too. He defended himself by saying he only used the file that was attached to the nail clippers.

I also remember that he was what we called "touchy-feely." I think Jamie, and maybe Kristen, know more about that side of Keith than I do.

One time on the way back to Kanosh late at night, Keith fell asleep at the wheel and hit a cow. Or maybe he just rolled off the road? I don't remember many details, but he ended up being all right. I don't think he went to the hospital or anything. I don't think that was the only time he fell asleep while driving.

The girls track team wrote songs for some of the more "important" boys in the team. We took popular Disney songs and changed the words to match the boy the song was about. This was spear-headed by Andrea Nixon, and all us girls participated. I don't know if I remember all the words to Keith's song, but I'll give it a shot.

(to the tune of "I Just Can't Wait to be King" from the Lion King)
I'm gonna be a mighty Keith
So enemies beware,
(Well I've never seen a distance man with quite so red of hair!)
I'm gonna win the main events
Like no Keith has before,
I'm workin' out, I'm bulkin' up, I'm workin' on my FORM!
Oh, I just can't wait - to take state!
*That last line was sometimes substituted to "Oh I just can't wait - to beat Chad!" because of the slight rivalry between the two distance runners.

There may have been a second verse. I don't remember.

During our senior year, we had an indoor track club. Those of us on the indoor team developed a close relationship, especially after our long trip to Pocatello to compete in the Simplot Games. I think we made Keith sit in the front passenger seat of my dad's (our track coach) mini-van.

Keith was a really great friend and a good person all-around. He was a hard worker. He pushed himself. I remember watching him run his distance races, and it seemed like he always started out way too fast. He would be far out in the lead at the beginning of the race, and not be able to keep it up at the end.

The last contact I had from Keith was an email he sent out announcing the birth of his first child. His baby boy was born in May, near the time when Keith graduated with his degree in Chemistry. He was in the process of applying for medical school.

We'll miss you Keith. My heart goes out to his wife and baby.

Trip to southern Utah for the Dixie Invitational

The Seniors on the team - Class of 2000, after winning Region

Keith volunteering at the Special Olympics

Here we are at a celebration in Kanosh. Keith was proud of being from Kanosh.

Fore!

Spencer bought me a nice set of golf clubs for my birthday in June, so we've been spending a few of our evenings hitting practice balls at an elementary school near our house.

Nice shot!

Don't miss!

This is also a great way to give Jack some exercise. He loves to run around and explore the area while we're hitting. There is often another dog or two around for him to play with.



We usually go out around 8:00 or 8:30, so the air is a little cooler, and hit until it gets too dark to find the balls.

Now, where did the ball go?

I always had an interest in golf, but never really enjoyed it because I had such a hard time hitting consistently. The clubs Spencer got for me have helped a lot! They have graphite shafts, so they're lighter and easier to swing. Thanks Spencer! I'm excited for the day when we can go to a course and play a round. We're hoping to find a time near the end of the summer to go with one of Spencer's brothers and his wife. We'll keep you posted!

Who's That Super Couple!?

I've had a few people asking about our Super Couple photo, so I guess I need to post about our awesome trip to Texas. We went with Spencer's family in April. Spencer's parents had initially arranged the trip for his youngest brother's wedding, but the wedding was cancelled after all the flights had already been arranged. Luckily, we all ended up having a BLAST anyway!!

We flew into Houston the first day and drove up to San Antonio. The following day was Spencer's birthday, and we all spent most of the day at Six Flags. It was so fun! I love roller coasters!

One of the rides was called the Superman ride. We loved it, and went on it at least 3 times. The capes were a great souvenir!

SUCH a fun ride!! Definitely one of our favorites!

While in San Antonio, we couldn't pass up the opportunity to see the Alamo. Since we were in a hurry, Spencer ran past the building and I snapped a quick photo. We also enjoyed a delicious dinner with the family on the Riverwalk.

If you look close, you can see him to the right of the door running past the little kid in black.

The next day was a long drive back to Houston and to the Space Center Houston. We took a tour of the grounds and got to see the real Mission Control Center, many space shuttles, capsules, etc.

Our tour guide explained that during an emergency, the flight director has more authority than the President of the United States!

This is the business end of the Saturn V rocket. This thing was HUGE!!

That evening we drove over to Galveston to see the Gulf of Mexico and all the cool old architectural buildings there.

Not the prettiest beach, but still fun to see!

This is an all-white Catholic church. We went inside and spoke with the . . . reverend, . . . pastor, . . . whoever was in charge of the day's mass.

Then it was off to the airport and back to Utah. Spencer and I both had a lot of fun bonding with his family during this trip!

Uinta Trip

We just got back from a four day camping trip in the high Uintas. Our good friends, Greg and Laurie, go there every year with Greg's extended family. We are lucky enough to tag along!

For those of you who are familiar with the area, we drove up the Mirror Lake highway to Elizabeth Ridge, and then an hour driving on a very bumpy dirt road to the camp site.



We had a lot of fun in the cool mountain air! Spencer spent a few hours fishing and caught 18 fish! Of course, we only kept a couple.

I spent a lot of my time taking pictures. Here is a link to my photobucket page, where you can see more Uinta camping fun!