The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Back to School

After a summer of sleeping in, Tanner can't muster the strength
to get up for his first day of school.


Once on his feet he's happy to catch the school bus


On the other hand, Hailey gets up an hour early so that she can
make herself beautiful. Sixth grade means cool clothes, cool
attitude and cool friends. Hailey is so cool she's hot! I can tell
by her choice of clothes this year that "cute " is no longer "in".
It's better to be cool than cute. Eeeeek!

There goes my little girl. When she comes back home at the end
of the day she'll be my little pre-teen.

Why is this the most wonderful time of the year? Because I get
to enjoy things I haven't done in the past 3 months. As soon
as I pushed the children out the door I turned on the news.
Nobody turned the channel!
I took a long, hot bath. Nobody bugged me! I fell into a
hot bath induced coma for two hours. Nobody woke me up!

The most fun I had however, was when I went on a fly killing
spree. For a while I sadistically enjoyed stalking and swatting
flies , pumping my fly swatter like a sawed off shot gun and
proclaiming victory in a voice resembling Arnold Schwartz-
enegger. All the while nobody called me "embarrassing" or
"immature". Ha!

Lake Powell 2010

Hailey and I indulged in the warm waters of a desert paradise while
Dave stayed home to ensure the continued success of our family's
financial stability. Bless him!

If Dave were here he would join the four men watching the one
man dig the holes needed to bury the anchor lines for the house-
boat.

If Dave were here he would wonder why his daughter was sitting
all alone in the middle of nowhere .

If Dave were here he would be telling the boat driver to go slower,
to not turn so sharply, to look out for the other boats, to not run
over anybody.... he would be telling Hailey to be careful, to tighten
her life jacket .
If there was room in the boat Dave would be pacing back and forth
mumbling, "someone's going to get hurt, someone's going to get hurt"


If Dave were here he would be wondering why it's so green in this
little canyon.
He would be deducing that a lot of water must run down the cliff
walls when it rains.


Dave would be right! A LOT of water runs through this canyon
on the off chance of a torrential, desert rainstorm. New waterfalls
are created, mud flows down the cracks and lightning is very, very
close. If Dave were here he would be FREAKING out!

If Dave were here he would be saying that black thunder clouds
and slot canyons DO NOT go together.


If Dave were here he would look at the largest stone arch in the world
and say, " that's the coolest thing I've ever seen"!

Sunny California???

THE PACIFIC OCEAN IN JUNE Here we are enjoying that beautiful California sun, scuba diving
in balmy waters. Can't you just feel the warmth as the ocean
envelopes your body and sends refreshing trickles of water down
the back of your wetsuit?

Here are two numbers to get my point across:
--------------60 degrees outside air
------------- 57 degrees water temp.

Here is how I survived the chill:
---7mm thick wetsuit with hood
---hot meals
---hot showers
---warm sleeping bag


As I look out into the steel gray water, imagining the shock
of 57 degree water running down my back, I can't help but
make excuses as to why I don't want to dive today.

Of course, Dave shames me into gearing up. We came
here to dive. So I pull on the suit, boots, hood, goggles,
fins. I strap on my life support and waddle to the edge
of the dive platform wearing 80 lbs of gear.


I don't feel the coldness of the water until it finds it's way
slowly through gaps in the suit, down the neck hole or the arm
holes. The worse part is submerging my exposed face and hands.

It's not so bad after my body heat warms the water in my wetsuit.
Sometimes you have to sacrifice comfort to see beautiful things.

The shock of the plunge soon is forgotten once I explore this
underwater paradise. The golden kelp beds wave in the current.
Colorful fish swarm around like bees. The sea floor is alive with
plant life. There is a lobster in every crevice, a sea creature at
every turn.

A huge jelly fish lazily floats into our path. As we look around we see
a dozen more off in the distance. It truly is a wonderland under the
sea.

My Unusual Dad

Father's Day 2010


This Father's Day my dad spent a few hours with his four
well-adjusted, successful, happy daughters. We offered
to take him shopping for some new shirts since his old,
comfortable ones are in terrible shape. He told us he
had something else in mind.

My unusual dad is mysterious: he never tells us his plan.

This time he took us to a jeep trail at the top of Guardsman's
Pass. All the while he carried this mysterious package in his
hands. He wouldn't tell us what it was until we all sat under
a big pine. Then he presented us with fresh raspberry's.

My unusual dad is a natural athlete. He hikes, he bikes, he climbs,
he skies. He explores. He can never stay on the trail, ever! He
loves to find patches of unmelted snow in the summer mountains.

My unusual dad has an unusual job. He has spent the last 45 years
running a ski lodge, sometimes with the help of his six children.
He taught us how to work.

My unusual dad is cool.
Love You Dad!

Moving On

Tanner's days as an elementary school student are over. He is
officially in Jr. High. I can see him now, flirting with the 6th grade
girls, eating lunch at the "cool" table, hangin' with his classroom
buds.


No more field trips to the bowling alley or the trout pond. No
more feeding the ducks. These are just for the little kids. Now
that Tanner is in Jr. High he'll have to go to museums and
ballets and landmarks.

Bowling isn't that great but these buttons are sooo colorful!!


Tanner's teachers thought that he would love to throw bread
into the water to feed the ducks. They were wrong. He fed
himself.
Good-bye little elementary school, It's been a fun 6 years.

Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader?

Fifth grade was a good year. Fifth grade was a hard year. Fifth grade
was a year of big projects and great feats of memorization. And
since I expected Hailey to learn the curriculum then I had to
re-learn it as well.

Science Fair Project: We learned that rotten tomatoes can stink up
the whole house.


Invention Project: Each fifth grader had to come up with a unique
invention of their own and demonstrate it to the class.
-Introducing the "Shovel Shoe", you'll never have to bend over again-



State Project: Everything you ever wanted to know about New York!



Autobiography: "I was a cute bald baby who loved to smile but didn't
like to eat..."


Book Review: An dramatized book report


United States Presentation: tracing America's history through song

And that's not all.....
Hailey and I know all the states and capitals (go ahead, quiz me!)
We know all about Colonial America, slavery, immigration, explorers
We know how to change fractions into decimals
We know how to find the perimeter and area of geometrical shapes

Wow! I'm as smart as a fifth grader now!

Little Red Bike Tour 2010

I decided to join my mother and sisters in a little bike ride
which took us around Cache Valley's farmland. It was a
little bike ride which involved about 3000 other women,
all on bikes, some serious contenders and some riding just
for enjoyment. The hard core ladies rode 80 to 100 miles,
while the weak and wimpy rode 60 miles. I am one of the
weak and wimpy types. For four hours I pedaled with my
mom by my side. Every two or three minutes I heard "on
your left" by everyone who passed me. I really, really got
tired of hearing "on your left" so I decided to make a
comment every time.

"on your left" says a faster biker...
-----------gee, I haven't heard THAT before!
or
---------- no kidding!
or
----------I've been hearing that a lot today!
or
---------I feel better about myself already!
or
--------Yeah, and I'm on your right!

Once though I got to say it to a fellow biker.... "I'm passing
you VERY slowly on your left, in fact, we could possibly
have a small conversation while I'm passing".

Still, it was a fun ride. There was a rest stop every 15 miles
with great stuff to eat and drink. At the end we were treated
like royalty, given a crown and a fancy strawberry drink.
Then we hung out at the chocolate fondue tent and argued
about who was going to drive the car home.