Summer-Summer-Summer Time

This weekend summer hit hard. It was nice and warm outside. I love it!

Friday we wanted to take advantage of the warm summer night and make s’mores in our backyard. We have a little fire pit that we purchased last summer. We didn’t use to much last year, so I was excited to pull it out this year. We even had lots of fire wood from cutting down trees at my Grandpa’s house.

Matt had the honor of starting the fire, and like a real Boy Scout he started it without matches or a lighter. That is right folks – NO Matches! I am sticking with this guy when the end of the world comes; I think he will be able to take care of me. Anyway, we had a nice fire and just hung out and chatted. My Brother BJ got off of work and came over and hung out with us for a while. Sometimes the hardest part of making roasted marshmallows is waiting for the fire to burn down so you can make them! I love the fire, I love looking at it and it is fun, but I really wanted my treat.

Finally the fire reached the end and we were able to make yummy marshmallows. Mix those with some graham crackers and some quality chocolate and you have a wonderful treat. I remember as a kid when I could pack away 5 or 6 of these babies. I must admit I reached my sugar limit after 2. But it was a lot of fun!

Tragically when we went back in the house we smelled horribly of smoke! I guess that is the drawback of a camp fire.

Saturday was another great day! We had a nice slow morning, then went for a run. We are both in training for the Disneyland Half Marathon again. We probably waited too long to go outside to run, since it was a warm day. We went down to our river trail and had a fun time. It was a 5 mile day – not too bad. But with the heat and the headache I have been fighting for a week, I didn’t go too fast. But not bad either. Matt seemed to have a good time too. We finished running and got home just in time to watch the USA World Cup game. I did get some mosquito bites while we were running. I am bummed about that because the one on my left arm still itches. Sad.

So we watched the soccer game. Sad ending, but still a fun game to watch. Then we decided it would be fun to drive down to SLC and go to the Arts Festival. We have gone for a few years now, and it is a fun thing to go walk around downtown and enjoy the summer. We got there about 5 and looked at some art. I took the camera, but didn’t take any pictures. I am sometimes just the biggest slacker with taking pictures.

We wanted to get some dinner, and rather than pay $10 for food at the festival (which we would have to stand in line for and then eat on our laps) we hopped on trax and went to the Atlantic Café. I had never been there, but Matt used to go with some of his buddies before we were married. It was a cute little Mediterranean café. We ordered an appetizer (so good – feta cream cheese with pita – SO GOOD). Then I had a sandwich and Matt had the Greek plate. Very good food.

After dinner we went back to the Festival. We decided to watch the Utah Short Film Festival. It took about an hour, but it was fun. Who knew that BYU even had an animation department? I didn’t. But it was fun to watch the movies. Then we went back to look at more art and listen to some music before calling it a night.

Ahhh – summer is officially here!

Good Vibrations

I don’t know how many years ago, but I was probably about 10 when my mom and dad piled all the kids (and some cousins) in the car and drove us to Provo to see the Stadium of Fire. That year the Beach Boys were performing. We had so much fun! There were dancers and even, oh yeah, John Stamos was there.

Fast forward about 10 years and the U of U was trying to compete with BYU and had a Red Hot 4th (or something like that). We again went, partly because the first act was the Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. You can guess who the second act was, yep, the Beach Boys.

So at this point I had seen the Beach Boys live in concert 2 times in my life. I had a good time at both events. So when we saw that the Beach Boys were going to be performing at the Peppermill Concert Hall in Wendover, we thought it would be fun to go out. It happened to correspond nicely with Mother’s and Father’s day, so we got tickets for my parents to come to.

So Friday I hurried home from work early and we quickly went and picked up my parents. Then we were on the road (the very boring road) to Wendover. We did stop in Erda (near Tooele) to eat at Matt’s Great-Grandma’s old restaurant Virgs Fish and Chips (Virg is short for Virginia). Matt had fun talking to one of the guys that used to work for his Great Grandma. The rest of us had fun eating. Food was good, but I was getting stressed out about time. It is a LONG way out to Wendover, and I didn’t want to show up late.

So after we ate we jumped back in the car and set off! The drive is about as exciting as I remember it. We were even in too big of a hurry to stop and take pictures of the beautiful art work along the way (giant cement tree). We pulled into the city at about quarter to 8 – with the show starting in 15 minutes. Almost perfect timing!

We picked up our will call tickets and found our seats. I had been told that the concert hall was about the size of a high school auditorium, so there are no bad seats in the house. It was true. I didn’t feel at all bad for being in the cheap seats.

The concert started right on time, no opening band or anything. In fact, the concert may have started before the Beach Boys were ready. I don’t want to be spreading any rumors, but I am not totally sure they didn’t lip sync the first set of songs. We were far enough away that I couldn’t tell, but I was getting the feeling that they were singing along to a CD.

I hadn’t really thought through how old the Beach Boys would be. They were talking about how they recorded this song in 1960, and I thought, WOW, that was 50 years ago! No Wonder Matt and I are the youngest people in the audience! But that isn’t to say it wasn’t a lively crowd. They were up dancing and having fun. One old guy in the front was having an especially good time. I was happy for him (and glad he wasn’t my Dad - My Dad didn’t dance in front of everyone at the concert).

But it was fun. I like the old songs. They are good, fun, Summertime songs.

The concert lasted almost 2 hours then we went to check in to the hotel. I wasn’t a big fan of the casino – mostly because of the smoke. So we went up to our rooms and let me just say I love the black-out curtains at casino hotels. I didn’t wake up until after 10 and I would have kept sleeping except we had to be out by 11.

So we packed up and loaded the car with our stuff. Mom and Dad offered to take us to the Buffet for breakfast, so we agreed. Then I did something I am ashamed to blog about. We ate at the buffet from breakfast to lunch! Yep, we showed up just in time to grab some of the last breakfast items as they were being switched out for lunch. So my first plate was a nice omlet and bacon (very appropriate breakfast) but my second plate (which is required at a buffet) was lunch food. Crazy. But Yummy.

Then when we were all full to bursting we rolled ourselves out to the car and headed home. The ride home is kind of a blur – I may have been sleeping. But before I knew it we were back home and unloading the car. It was a fun little mini vacation.

Bear Lake 10 K

  

Sometime last fall I found out that my little sister signed up for a half marathon at Bear Lake in June. Not to be outdone, I considered signing up myself. I knew I would be doing a half in February, and thought maybe June would be a nice motivator to keep moving. Then I thought a little bit longer and realized I didn’t want to do a half marathon at Bear Lake! I like to do half marathons down where there is a lot of oxygen, not up at high altitude. I didn’t want to totally wimp out, so I signed up for the 10K. Great.

So, as we get closer and closer to the day of the race, I am feeling good about my running. I am doing a mix of running and walking, running for 2.5 minutes, then walking for 5. Not bad. I feel good. The thing that has me worried is the weather. I keep checking the forecast, and I don’t like it! What started as potential for a nice run around the lake is now looking like it will be a run in the cold rain (40 degrees and rain – not ideal).

Matt and I drove up on Friday night to sleep over at our trailer at Sweetwater. Mom, Dad and Val went up earlier that day. We are driving up and it is raining, the whole time. We decide to drive over to my starting line and see what the race will be like. I notice deep puddles on the route, not feeling too good about that.

We finally get to the trailer and settle in. When we go to bed I hear the rain pouring all night. I am trying to decide if I just sleep in and forget about the dumb idea of running in the rain in the cold. Why? Why and I doing this? I actually had a dream that I woke up and finished the race and it was all dry and I was happy. Then I woke up and realized I hadn’t done it yet and I was bummed.

So morning finally comes. Val and my Dad set off early, because the half marathon starts before the 10K. I get ready slowly and have Matt drive me to the starting line rather than driving to the finish and taking the bus. It was about equal distance from where we were staying. As we drive the 3 miles to the start line it is raining, then raining harder. I have a pauncho in my little bag, so I am not too worried, but I still don’t know why I am running in the cold rain, and I am worried I am going to be one of like 4 people that show up to run. I sit in the warm car with Matt until the bus shows up. A bus load of people get out, and I start feeling better that I at least won’t be the only dummy running in the cold. So when they get to the starting line I say goodbye to Matt and go stand with them. Little did I know that we would be standing there for another 20 minutes waiting for another bus to show up. It wasn’t too bad, because I was able to talk to other people in the race. Then, FINALLY, it was time to start.

The race was pretty uneventful. It didn’t rain at all on us while we were running. We started by taking up the entire road, and as people moved and thinned out we were over on the left side. The road was open during the race, but it didn’t seem to be too much of a problem. I was having fun. I took my camera and tried to take pictures as I went. I was passed by the first half marathoner at about my mile 3 (so he had gone 10) and I was very impressed. All the halfers that passed me were covered in mud. I didn’t know yet, but they had to run along a dirt road for part of the run. Not so much fun in the rain.

But I finally made it to the end, still feeling really good. I had a time of 1:16 – which for walking 2/3 of the race was not too bad at all. Just under a 12 ½ minute mile. Still pretty good for me. Matt was there waiting at the end of the race (he was awesome and followed me a lot of the race, so I had my own little cheering squad every couple of miles!) We stuck around and waited for my dad and Val to finish. They did awesome. In fact my dad won his age class! Too bad there were not any real prizes for that. But I think it is awesome, especially since he was injured for most of the run. Way to go Dad. I can say that I didn’t get anywhere near to winning my class, but I still had fun.

We spent the rest of the day visiting Minnetonka Cave.  It seemed just like the thing to do on a cold rainy day.

Happy Birthdays

June 6th we attended a party for my Aunt Janice and my sister Val’s birthday. We were lucky enough to have Janice here for her birthday because she was on her way to Central Utah for a business trip.

We met at my Grandma’s house. It was a beautiful day (finally a weekend with no rain!) and we met in the back yard and just enjoyed the day. My Grandma has the most amazing yard. Her flowers are some of the most beautiful I have ever seen. I know my yard is nowhere near the same class as hers, so I was just in awe and I must admit I took way more pictures of flowers and stuff than I did of the people at the party. (most people don’t like their picture taken, flowers don’t complain or give me dirty looks).

So here are some pictures I took at the party. I haven’t had a chance to clean them up at all, so here they are in their original form.