The Fountain of Youth...and other adventures

Summertime is my favorite season. Yellow is my favorite color, I love being tan, and given the chance, I will jump into any body of water that is more than a couple of feet deep. This past week has been so much fun. My sweet husband is my best friend and we have a blast together, no matter what we are doing. The warmer weather is inspiring many late-night walks, laying in the grass at various parks, consuming hundreds of popsicles, and just relishing our precious months of NO SCHOOL!

The picture above is the glorious fountain we found on a hot, sweaty hike up Rock Canyon. As you can tell, we couldn't get enough of that ice-cold river water! Jonny had fun catching lizards on the way up the hill, and I loved climbing up on rocks and feeling on top of the world.

We had so much energy on the way down, we practically ran the whole way. AND we washed both of our cars! (it was much needed. the poor things had been neglected all winter)

Friday night we went to Salt Lake to see my awesome cousin Tom play a show. He is a amazingly talented musician. My favorite song was one where he played a harmonica and guitar at the same time! Talk about multi-tasking. It was fun watching his cute wife Laura, and seeing her expression as he played. Music has always been very important to me, and it always moves me to hear something played with so much meaning and emotion. Afterwards we got huge ice-cream sundaes downtown (icecream has become my very favorite dessert over the past few months) It was the cherry on top of an amazing evening! So thanks to Tom and Laura for letting us crash your party, and thanks to Jonny for taking me on this amazing date.

The next adventure of the weekend took place in our very own kitchen. And no, it was not one of our many delicious culinary creations. However, it did involve a whole lot of chopping and cutting. After several tense minutes, I told Jonathan to walk into the bathroom and look in the mirror. That's right- I gave him a haircut! (this was my 4th time, I believe) So I am by no means an expert. As far as I know, unlike most little girls, I guess I never aspired to become a stylist- I never once cut my own hair as a child...or even the hair on my barbie dolls, so I am about as amateur as you can get. (you can check with my mom if you dont believe me) What a lucky girl I am to have a full sized ken-doll to practice on now. I still get nervous every time! Luckily, while I'm sweating bullets, Jonny is calm as ever. Bless his heart. :)

I think he looks pretty dang good!

Death of an old friend

Today one of my most faithful companions left me for a better place. We had been together for over 14 years! I was riding my bike in a crosswalk in front of the Wilkinson Student Center and another driver was making a left turn and she didn’t see me. I tried to swerve out of the way but it was too late. I heard a loud scream (Mary) and then a crunch. Next thing I knew I was on the hood of a Mazda Protege, and then on the pavement. Obviously I didn’t want to stay in the road so I got up and carried my trusty bike off the road. The girl got out of the car and asked if I was ok, and that was the first time I thought about checking to see if I was hurt. Luckily I only had a small scrape on my ankle. By this time a guy walked over and handed me a phone and told me it was 911 dispatch. The lady on the other end asked if I was ok and hurt and she told me that paramedics were on the way. And then I herd the sirens. It was two police cars (BYU and Provo) followed by a red ambulance. The police men talked to me and I told them what happened. The paramedics came over and made me sit down while they checked me out. After that it was pretty much over. I lifted my broken bike onto my shoulder and carried it timidly across the street and up the hill to a bike rack.

Later, I took it to Outdoors Unlimited to have it checked out. The frame was bent beyond repair. My trusty friend took most of the force and saved my left leg. Thanks to my old blue friend, together, we've flown off jumps, climbed mountains and hills, raced down sidewalks and streets, and been in loads of wrecks. Today was our last ride together, but at least we went out with a bang, or I should say crunch!

Lessons learned:

Wear a helmet (I wasn’t wearing one and I got lucky)
Say morning prayers (I had extra protection)
Don’t trust other drivers!

5-Star Washington

After so many trips to my homeland of California, we decided it was high time we paid tribute to Jonny's stomping ground in Washington state. We had a wonderful weekend with his family- mom, dad, jeffery and emilee! (we missed you, natalie and josh) It was perfect. We had a few fun-filled days of activites and relaxation. Only my second time there, it was so much fun to see more of the place that was home to my studly husband for so many years. I got the whole tour- from his elementary and high schools to the local pool where he worked, (and was often whistled and winked at over the years, might I add), to the hotel where he went to his high school prom, and 2 trips to the famous Dairy Queen he always talks about (favorite eatery of his teenage years). Overall I think the whole vacation was a huge success! As a world traveler with such extensive experience, I do in fact consider myself worthy of rating vacations...I'd have to give it 5 stars all the way around. It went by way too quickly.

1. The lodgings were very nice (sleeping in Jonny's boy-hood room was a kick), and they live close to shopping and all of the local sights, including WSU and the Columbia River Temple.

2. The scenery was amazing. Springtime in Washington is great. The river, the park, the temple, and dad's flower garden completed the beauty of the tri-cities.

3. The food was delicious, complete with homemade goodies, my first taste of Spudnuts, fresh fruit from the Farmer's Market, mexican at Chapala Express, a delicious dinner at Anthony's,a river-side restaurant (I even ate some fishy things...and liked them!).

4. The entertainment was great- a cool car show included anything from ultra-modern Smartcars to antique Corvettes, Jonathan took me for a romantic sunset walk along the river, (ooh lala!) Jeffery and Emilee entertained us with piano music, and I even started and finished a novel. (I realized how much I miss reading just for pleasure!)

5. But the company was the best part!

So, thanks to the Young family for a wonderful time. We really appreciate and love you.

Burgundy Beast

Last week, we moved. It was a whirlwind! Thanks to some amazing neighbors, we packed up our entire lives and moved into a new apartment within 2 days! It was amazing how much STUFF we didn't realize we had until we needed to pack it all up. And, its crazy how much more you have once you get married...like furniture! (We had been so spoiled all of our single years, moving from one furnished apartment to the next, simply throwing our clothes and blankets in a car and arriving at the new place, to find a bed in need of sheets and empty drawers just waiting to be filled.)

So, last weekend we spent hours decorating and organizing our new little place, and after some crafty inventions on Jonny's part (like turning the wardrobe into an entertainment center) we set up our kitchen table, computer desk, bookshelf and endtables, plugged in the TV, and sat back to relax. The only problem was, there was nothing to sit on. So after a few days of using our kitchen chairs and a single try of trying to curl both of our bodies into a big round "turtle chair", we became desperate. All I could think about was finding a couch. For a quick fix, we rented one from our apartment complex. I was excited about the prospect of cuddling up to my hubby after a long day at school, and plopped down on our new rock hard couch. Let me tell you, that thing was definitely built to last. (I think it's been keeping bums uncomfortable since the 70's). Needless to say, I continued the search. Online Classifieds became my best friend, and after many many vain attempts, today I stumbled upon a treasure...it was a steal; The Burgundy Beast!

Triathlon!

My beautiful sisters and I participated in this awesome event on May 31st in Honeyville, UT. It was a blast! It was a sprint race. Swim, Bike and Run. Swim=400M Bike=13Mi Run=5K. The swim was great, and I felt good in my element. I had a little trouble on my rented roadbike with the gears, and watched my lead trail away as person after person zoomed past! But the run was alright, once my jello-legs came back to life, and I finished strong! We had so much fun completing this challenge, and Jonathan was there to keep us going. He was the best (and loudest) cheerleader around! We were so thankful to have some people (gina, mom, tebo, malaika, thabo, and jonny) supporting us there during transitions, and capturing every exciting moment on video and camera. It turned out that I placed 3rd in my age division! (I went for the gold...but I guess bronze is close, right?) I can't wait to do my next triathlon!

The sister weekend included too much great food, special spa treatments after the race, and lots of laughter. We also went to the SLC temple (my first time there!). It was beautiful.

We loved having some great family time and a weekend get-away from school and work! Jonny was also able to spend some time in Logan with his grandparents, Jimmy and Betty (we LOVE them!) while us girls were having some bonding time.