Maybe Next Time...

As we left the house and headed down the block, I thought for a second, hmmm, maybe we should bring our camera in case we see something cool. But since we've taken this little trail by our house many times, why would this time be any different?

So we (Spencer, Jack the dog, and I) continued on our evening walk. We made it out of the neighborhood and were heading down the wilderness trail, when Spencer and I noticed something laying on the trail ahead. It was fairly large, and at first I thought it might be a dead deer. We walked a little closer until the thing started moving. It was a porcupine! A big one! We called Jack over to us and put his leash on while the porcupine slowly walked off the trail and into the bushes.

I should have brought the camera.

We continued walking along and were joined by about a million dragonflies! Okay, maybe not a million, but they sure seemed to be everywhere! On the way back down, three F-16's flew overhead. Right above us in the blue evening sky.

I really should have brought the camera.

"So, ... what do you DO all summer?"

As a teacher, I get asked this question a lot. I may not wake up early every morning and spend the day teaching a bunch of six and seven year olds, but I do stay pretty busy.

Here is a quick sampling of how I have been spending some of my time.

First, I love going for walks with my dog Jack.


I can walk from our house, down a couple neighborhood streets, and right onto a great single track trail. It is mostly shaded with trees and has a bunch of wildflowers everywhere.


After about two and a half miles the trail leads to this little bridge.


It's a great way for me to get a little exercise, and of course Jack LOVES it!

A good portion of Spencer's and my time has been spent running from one family event to the next. We spent the 4th of July in Fillmore with my family. What a great small-town parade!


My cousing surprised us on the way home from the parade festivities. He was perched on my parents porch like a gargoyle! I was very impressed with how long he stayed there, motionless and with that gargoyle expression on his face!


Speaking of family, we had a surprise party for my Grandma's birthday in mid-July. I even made a cake!


Spencer's side of the family has kept us busy too. We went with his brother's family and parents to a Salt Lake Bees game a few days ago. It was my first professional baseball game. It was fun!


Sometimes I spend my time "supervising" Spencer. He has been working a lot on the cars. He washed, waxed, and buffed my car the other day while I watched. Okay, I did help a little.


And just now, Spencer and I got back from a quick walk around the neighborhood with the dog. Waiting for us on the front porch was this huge, disgusting bug.


I didn't want to get close to it, so Spencer put his foot there to get a size comparison while I took the picture. Yuck!

Now we're planning our next adventure, which you will here about in a few days. I love summer vacation. I really love summer vacation. A lot.

Happy Birthday to Me!!

I'm another year older. Zippee! I just turned 27 on June 30th, and while I have heard from some (okay, most) people that I am now in my late 20's, I have to say that 27 should still be considered mid 20's. It's just as close to 25 as it is to 29, right?

Anyway, Spencer planned a great birthday surprise for me. He is always so thoughtful with his gifts, and this time was no exception! He took me up to Park City for the day to ride the zip-line at Olympic Park and shop at the outlet malls.

Here are a couple shots while riding up the ski lift to the top of the zip-line.



And here we are getting ready to go on the zip-line.


It was so fun, we had to ride it twice! The second time, Spencer took video on the way down.



Thank you Spencer for the great birthday!

Road Trip Part 4

*Editor's Note: For some reason I cannot switch the order of my posts to put Part 1 of our trip at the beginning, so it might be worthwhile to scroll down a little and start at the beginning with the first Road Trip post. Sorry!

Day three of our journey, and it was time to pack up and make the drive back home! We loaded up the goodies Reuben gave us from Bookman's (a great bookstore/entertainment store where he works) and we were off!

We soaked in the Arizona desert scenery one last time.



Anyone who has ever driven into Arizona has probably seen all the little Navajo jewelry stands set up along the highway on the reservations. Well, with my birthday a little less than a week away, I convinced my parents to get me some "authentic" Indian jewelry! (It didn't take much convincing--they asked what I wanted, I told them, they said okay!)



Our next stop was at the Glen Canyon Dam (Lake Powell) where we stretched our legs and took a few more photos.






Jack was happy for any chance he got to get out of the car!


We stopped in Page, AZ for a quick lunch. Then it was on to Moqui Cave! This was another quick stop since we didn't want to pay the $5 admission to the museum. We got a couple pictures at least!


Our final stop before reaching our destination was a little drive-in in Panguitch, UT. When I was working at Panguitch Lake a few years ago, I would drive into town every now and then and get an ice cream sundae at Henrie's Drive In.


To this day, it is still the best ice cream sundae I've had!


By the end of our trip we had spent a good portion of our time in the car, but we still had a great time. I can't wait for our next summer adventure!

Road Trip Part 3

Sedona! It's not too far away from Flagstaff, so we drove down in the afternoon of our second day of the trip. The red rocks and extreme heat made it a much different experience than Flagstaff. It was also very touristy! We stopped for ice cream in town, and then drove up to a Catholic cathedral that was built right into the red cliffs. Pretty amazing!





We left the cathedral and stopped in another spot for some photo ops of the landscape.




It was so pretty, but the heat sent us quickly on our way back to Flagstaff for our final night of the trip!

Road Trip Part 2

After a fun drive through southern Utah and into Arizona, we made it to Flagstaff. I can see why my brother Reuben likes living here. It's a beautiful mountain forest town stuck right in the middle of the Arizona desert!

We met up with the family and walked around downtown on our first night in Flagstaff. My parents, my three brothers, my sister-in-law, and Spencer and I were all together for the first time.




After a great dinner of tacos, tamales, and burritos, it was game time at our hotel rooms. We can't have a family gathering without playing games! It was also time to relax and rest for our big day tomorrow.


Day two started out with our main goal of the trip - to take a family photo. The last family photo we had taken was at the SLC airport when my younger brother got home from his mission. It was not a great photo, so we were all glad to take a new one!

We drove up to a beautiful meadow outside Flagstaff to find a spot for the picture.



After a few different tries, we ended up with a great family portrait!


Once our mission was accomplished we took a short hike on one of the trails.



We hadn't gone very far when we decided to turn around and get some lunch. Jack was not happy about this decision and laid down in the middle of the trail when we started walking back down. He did not want to leave. It was so funny!


We ate lunch at a cute little creperie, mostly because the sign told us to. (And also because we LOVE crepes, thanks to my dad and his French influence!)


We saw a little more of downtown Flagstaff, where I happened to run across a very brave butterfly! I think I could have just picked it up and taken it home, it let me get so close!


Of course, a trip to Flagstaff wouldn't be complete without a picture of a train! The train tracks run right through the city, and trains are coming and going all the time. Choo choo!

Road Trip Part 1

We just got back from a family trip to Flagstaff, AZ to visit my oldest brother, Reuben. I took a bunch of pictures throughout the trip, so prepare yourself for an extremely lengthy blog post!

Let's start with the drive down to Flagstaff. My younger brother and his wife Jessica carpooled down with us for the 8 hour drive.


We kept ourselves busy by eating snacks and playing games like Jeopardy and a guessing game using our atlas to guess distances between cities. We also listened to some great music and comedy CD's. Brian Regan had us blithering, it was so funny!


We were having such a fun time that we missed one of our exits (oops!), and ended up taking the scenic route past Brian Head and Cedar Breaks National Monument to get to Hwy 89 from I-15. It was well worth the extra time!




Since we were in the area, we thought we would take one more little detour and drive past the BearPaw Lakeview Resort by Panguitch Lake, where I worked one summer as a waitress/housekeeper. I didn't take any photos, but it sure brought back some memories!

The scenery was really amazing on the drive down.


Even Jack appreciated the great views, and loved to stick his head out the back window when we slowed down for road construction!


Hooray for road trips!