oh, hello summer...

Our weekend started out like this:

Teriyaki wings and sushi from Tona.  Mmmmmmmmm.

Richard enjoyed the wasabi, while I enjoyed the awkwardness of watching his sister's boyfriend on a date

with another girl at the table right next to ours.  She's on a mission, but still.  He pretended that he didn't even

see us, which made it even funnier.  I really love awkward stuff.

Next, we made our way down and across lovely Historic 25th Street to see what was going on at the Ogden

Amphitheater.  It was a concert of the rap variety, which Richard was not ok with, so we headed back to

Wise Guys to have ourselves a good hour and a half laugh.  But not before I felt the rhythm and laid down

the hook while my DJ revolved it.

Saturday morning, Rich went climbing with his buddy Kevin, where he neglected to coat his ginger skin

with SPF 5 Billion like he usually does.  The sunburn that resulted from that decision is the reason for his

makeshift sunhat, which protected his sizzling neck while he mowed the lawn.  Classic.

Sunday we celebrated Fathers Day, of course.  But we also had some family here from out of town,

from Jeffersontown, Kentucky to be exact, so we had some quality family time with them, too. 

I love quality family time because, at least with my family, its always hella entertaining. 

For example, we got to watch these sexy mamas... 

sing happy birthday to that "little angel" on the left.  We celebrated Shay's first birthday, and the sight of

all of those Shepherd women making baby faces and singing in baby voices to her was about the

greatest thing I've ever seen.  It was like the rest of us didn't even exist. 

I tried to get a picture, but I was laughing too hard.

I also got to witness the cutest man in the world make the cutest boy in the world laugh really hard. 

Toady loves Richard, and I love them both.

So much that I had to post two pictures of them together.  Priceless.

So, needless to say, it was a great official start to summer. 

That rain had better not show its ugly face around here for more than a day at a time,

 at least until November.

Or else.

City of Rocks & Roll Out

This is our 2nd attempt at making a camping trip to the City of Rocks in Idaho.

At least we made an appearance this time.  Last time we just cancelled, thanks to the weather.

This is what zero sleep and a night spent wondering if your tent is going to collapse under the hurricane outside looks like: 

Good thing we married geniuses who can turn a shade awning into a lean-to shelter.

Thanks to our pals Spencer & Rachel, a hearty dutch oven breakfast kept us from starving...and freezing.

Look at all of those awesome rocks we didn't get to climb.

Hopefully 3rd time's the charm.  We'll be back.

The boys braved the elements and stayed to do a little bouldering.

We girls kissed them goodbye and rolled out to a warm-ish home, some much needed warm blankets & a chick flick.  We love you, George Clooney.

 Lessons learned:

S'mores make a great breakfast,

I cannot sleep through anything, e.g. a tornado,

and

Friendships DO survive the dissolution of a ward.

***Please stay tuned for the story of a successful rock-climbing/camping trip in the near future***

...Wish upon a Star Cafe...

There's a little place in Clearfield where many of my high school mornings were spent...when they should have been spent in class. Its the Star Cafe, and to this day it holds a special place in my heart, largely in part due to their heavenly scones and scrumptious honey-butter that comes with them.

I talked Rich into taking me there for dinner the other day, and I loved those scones just as much as I did on those tardy mornings that my old pal Marissa Eddy and I would stop "on the way to school" for a breakfast of champions. You know, we were never marked late...pretty sure it had something to do with the same love of those scones that Mr. Staley had, and the fact that we'd always bring him our leftovers.

Here's to you Star Cafe. I love you, still.

What a LOSER!

Believe me, I mean that in the best possible way. Does the gal in the red shirt look familiar to you? If you're a die hard fanatic of the Biggest Loser like I am, you will recognize her as season 5 winner Ali Vincent - the first female winner of the show. Not only is she inspiring, but she was in Utah this week doing her gig with Famous Footwear. I caught wind that she was doing a group exercise class in downtown SLC, so I recruited my bestie Ms. Jenkins and we sweated our guts out with about 15 other peeps. Ali set up a circuit class for us that kicked my butt! Not only did I love every minute of it, but I deserved it, too, because I teach a circuit class twice a week for work, and I totally give them stuff to do that I hate!

Anyway, Ali was great! Since there weren't many people there I got to talk to her & get some awesome insight that will really help me with work. And, I'm sure you've already noticed, but doesn't she look hottt?! I guess that's what losing 112 lbs/over half your body weight will do for girl!

we 2 BL fans watch the show together every week!

Hello, Backwoodsman. Welcome to Moab!

Ever seen Seven Brides for Seven Brothers? If you haven't, you should get on that asap, and if you have, you should watch it again asap so that we can both have those darn songs stuck our minds together! We watched it on our most recent vacay, and it was a treat. Bless your beautiful hide...

Last weekend we went on a little adventure to Moab and Canyonlands National Park with our friends Charles & Heather Francis (& their little guy, Andy). We stuffed our new ride to the freakin' rafters and drove down Friday morning. Saturday we did some hiking, Sunday I was reminded how thankful I am not to be in a singles ward anymore, and Monday we ran the river in "duckies" - my personal favorite part of the trip.

Here are some of the highlights:

Richard's just gearing up for our first little hike. balance: check!

Not sure what these formations are called, but they were suhweet!

Have you ever seen our state's flower in the wild? I have.


Chuck was nice enough to let Rich wear that hat on our long hike (11 miles long!) so he didn't look like a lobster 5 minutes into our trip.

The gang.

Andy definitely worked the hardest, but Chuck was a close 2nd.

One of my favorite parts of the hike, mostly because it was in the shade.

Gimme shelter!

I was thrilled to find some shade at our destination.

I was sweating like Shaq by the time we reached the top!

Druid Arch.

So big.

So worth it.

Making our way back.

Laying around on the rocks above our campsite.

Sweet background, huh?

Our view from the other side.

Our camp was just below these rocks down on the left.

Before we braved the river in our 2-man, inflatable kayaks a.k.a. duckies.

I was so nervous I was feeling sick before we got in the water, but it ended up being the best part of the whole trip.

Rich & I shared a ducky, and it was so much fun. We laughed pretty much the entire time even when we nearly went overboard and he "tapped" me in the head with his oar...

and especially when he screamed like a little girl going over the rapids.

Thanks, Francis fam for a very memorable Memorial Day!

A couple nuggets from the trip:

Muddy Buddies are now called Dirty Friends

Would you rather... is the best game for long car rides

Husbands should be required to eat "estrogen bars" every hour, on the hour