Birthday, 4th of July and Camping Fun

I'm gonna make this a post of many pictures and few words because I have a little catching up to do.

First, to celebrate Ben's birthday my mom and Brinley came up and my mom made her famous scones - which just happens to be one of Ben's favorite foods. Thanks Mom!
We even made one special scone for Ben ... It ended up about the size of an elephant ear.

Then for the 4th of July Ben got up super early to set up tables and chairs for our ward/neighborhood breakfast then he came home, woke me up and we headed to the church to down as many pancakes, sausages, and fruit as possible. It was delicious.

We finished up the day by heading to the top of the Ave's and watching fireworks across the valley.

I tried to get a couple good pictures but ... it's pretty hard when you don't have a tripod.


Anyway, it was gorgeous but we had to leave early because we came unprepared and were freezing before all the fireworks had finished up.

Then this weekend we took off work early and headed up to the Uinta's - Moon Lake to be exact - to hang out with my family that was here from Alaska, celebrate my grandpa's birthday, and tell scary stories around the fire.

Let's start with my grandpa's birthday celebration.

We thought it would be funny to give him presents in two because "Now that you're so old you're probably seeing double". He's a good sport and he played a long.

We all got to sit around and celebrate and it was fun to spend a little while with family I rarely get to see.

After the birthday celebrating the kids ran around and got nice and dirty.

Then Captain Ben took us out on a boating journey.

Then Sacajawea pointed us the way back to land.

Once we got back to camp we made a trip to the out house and Brinley and I had a photo Op.

Then we settled in around the camp fire and told some ghost stories - starting with the story about the Girl and the Green Ribbon.

Then we all took turns telling stories. I think Ben was the best story teller of us all.

And I had to add this picture because Keri hates it and I'm an older sister who has to do stuff she knows her little sister will hate her for! Love ya Care Bear! :)

And finally - The most important part of the trip - THE RAFT!

First, Ben tried to stay on just the log ... then he realized it would continue to tip until he found a way to balance it out a bit ... That's when he dragged this log over. He sure works hard at playing.


I have a bunch more pictures of the raft but I'm not allowed to post them because Ben decided to take his shirt off and he won't let me put pictures of his shirtlessness on the internet -- Boo!

After the raft incident that's all Ben could talk about the rest of the drive home. Raft, raft, raft. Anyway, we had a great weekend and I was sad to see it end. But I'm looking forward to next weekend - Seattle here we come.

Star Wars Birthday Party

We were invited to a birthday party for Brooke's cousin who turned seven. Little did they know, I'd be as excited as any seven year old when I heard it was a Star Wars theme. I thought it would be funny to dress up and somehow convinced Brooke to do the same. I thought we would all have a laugh and then remove our costumes and sit and talk with the adults.

Well, despite feeling a bit silly at the door, our costumes were a hit and I had scarcely been in the house for 30 seconds when I was challenged to a light saber duel. Well, challenged is a strong word. ("Can you come have a light saber duel with us when you're done eating? We have lightsabers.")

I ventured into the yard after eating and was suddenly surrounded. It turns out they had seven lightsabers of much better quality than my Walmart knock-off I had picked up the evening before.

The boys grabbed Brooke's hand and pulled her away from me to safety. ("Save Princess Leia!" was the cry.) The girls loved her too and would just stare at her and smile. Once she was safe she apparently was shooting me in the back as I ran away from the fury of seven plastic lightsabers.

I was outmatched and inevitably the dark side of the force could not save me.

And there was much rejoicing as the galaxy was saved!

More Fun For Everyone

A weekend full of fun. We were treated to a wonderful meal by wonderful people. I ran into an old friend and was able to see her 3 week old baby. We got to go to the Farmers Market and buy some delicious cherries and wonderful honey butter. Then we all headed out into nature and hiked up to Donut Falls and "we" (mostly Jay) finished it up with making a Brazilian dessert, pave.

Now for some pictures:

Once at the top of the hike we realized we should be taking pictures of our weekend.

Fran found the best resting place of all.

And then we decided to join her

Then we had a nice stroll back to the car

and found out that Tim is very short or Jay is freakishly tall ... or this picture was just taken at the exact moment that an already tall Jay was on a raised portion of the trail while Tim was in a dip.
Then we came back to the apartment and Jay and Fran and Ben made some Pave which only Ben and I have been able to enjoy. So I'm sharing a picture of it with all of you. Enjoy!

Thanks Tim and Fran for everything! Thanks Jay for the Pave! Come back soon and let's do it again!

We don't let the rain stop us from having fun ...

We didn't even let it deter us from our hiking plans, although the closed road kept us from hiking the trail we had planned so instead we went to another trail a bit lower down in the canyon.

It was beautiful. Rain and all.

We were all soaked from head to toe but we had some good laughs and came back, threw our clothes in the dryer and had our planned picnic on our front room floor.

And then it didn't stop us from going to the Chalk Art Festival at the Gateway. Although, as you can see, chalk art and rain don't mix well. Even if they do try to save it from the rain with tents and plastic tarps.

It was sad to see the hard work being washed away so quickly - sometimes even before the artist had finished their masterpiece, but it was worth getting completely drenched one last time to see some of the finished work.

How to know you can afford owning a house

I was reading something online the other day that gave a great way to figure out if you can own a home.

First, you figure out all the stuff that you'll have to pay for each month - mortgage, homeowners insurance, utilities, property tax (this way you don't have to come up with it all at the end of the year some how), home repairs, etc. Then you figure out how much you are paying to rent - rent price, utilities, etc.

Now that the numbers are figured out here is what you do:

Let's say that renting costs a total of $900 a month and owning a home would cost a total of $1500 a month.

Each month, on the first day of the month (no exceptions) you put $600 (the difference between renting and owning) into a savings account. After a few months if you are feeling stressed for money or having a hard time getting that $600 into the account on the first of the month, then chances are you'll have the same problems when you're owning your home. However, if you're making your monthly payment with ease then you're probably good to go.

Anyway, I thought this idea was brilliant - a little obvious now that I've read it - but absolutely brilliant, so I had to share with you.

Anxious

It's 1pm on a Wednesday. I'm sitting here at work (obviously working hard) and I'm completely ready to be done for the weekend. Hmm ... I don't think that's a good thing.

I have a bit of anxiety which is causing the "I'm ready for the weekend" vibe. I think it stems from 3 things:

1. I just really want to go to Seattle already.
2. I finished reading book 1 in a 3 book series and now I have to wait while at least 7 other people read the second book before it's my turn to get it from the library.
and
3. I found a house online in the Seattle area that is (or at least looks) perfect. But I won't know if it actually is until we go up there and even then we might not (more like probably not) be able to afford it. Boo.

Dah. Is it 5 o'clock yet?

Visit to the country (also known as Idaho)

A visit to the country is always nice. You can turn the volume up on your movies and you don't have to worry about the neighbors hearing a thing. You get to enjoy nature all around you. And when you get bored you get to look out the window and get a little action ...



In case you can't tell the car is on it's side and if you enlarge it (click on the picture) you can see the car tire back behind the other car sticking up in the air.