This is what I got for my birthday:

Lost. 

In the mountains.

I was "leading" a group of four 13-year-olds back down to our girls' church camp after a morning hike. After spending a couple of frustrating hours hiking back and forth down several different trails, all involved learned a very valuable lesson: that it only takes one wrong turn to veer away and become far from the right path. Luckily I had another great friend "leading" with me to share the embarrassment, humiliation, terror, panic, and (later) tear-inducing, ab-tightening, all-you-can-do laughter. 

We sped too far ahead of the rest of the group behind us and ventured far from camp. It was a humbling experience after that morning I dug into my fruit and granola parfait and listened to the survival lesson thinking it was for the most extreme cases and probably not very applicable. I'm usually pretty confidant and feel like I have a decent sense of direction, but things change when you have four young girls entrusted by their parents and one is starting to experience symptoms of heat exhaustion under your wing. The looming dark clouds weren't close, but still a threat to consider. 

While running to retrace our steps down one of the trails I heard the mysterious rattle sound that a couple of girls complained about at a certain spot. Here is where I realized the potential danger of situations such as this with particular unmentioned reptiles who make particular rattling sounds. I learned that I need to be better prepared next time I want to go off on a mountain and play Jim Bridger. 

Meanwhile back at the camp, four wheelers were sent out searching for our small group, an impressive set of speakers and sound system were set up to blast music calling us home with what I think I remember playing "The Eye of the Tiger" upon our return. One of the other leader's husband flies for search and rescue and was about ready to hop in the copter to come spot us for his worried wife when we made our way up the hill. 

Although an embarrassing situation and thankfully not too dire, it was still nice to see the forces at work who cared enough to bring us home. So many parallels can be drawn from this experience. All of the girls included their own interpretation in their testimony around the fire that evening. One was grateful for the atonement which makes it possible to return, another for how difficult it was so she remembered the lessons learned. One said, "This was the hardest, most difficult . . . and coolest thing I've ever done." 

The Next Big Thing

This week I was introduced to two new things making advancements in different areas of my life. One is the example of just how great technology can be when it is so readily available. Literally at my fingertips. The other is a practice new to me, but is as old as the great mountains surrounding me.


First, have you heard of Spotify? Wow. It's any music any time that you can actually make your own playlists with (for free) and sync to your ipod and listen offline (for a small fee). You can also add your Itunes music to it once you download. I'm really excited to make my perfect running playlist. Do you remember when YouTube or Facebook was new? Now Spotify is new. I just hope it doesn't go away.





The second advancement (which you will not find quite as exciting) I made this week was visiting a cannery. I purchased 25 pounds of red wheat for $11 and a large can of dried apples for $5. I will go back for beans, rice, and other staples. Different locations provide wet or dry products that you can sign up to can, or show up anytime to pick up certain items that are already canned. The concept is wonderful for making healthier changes for my family's diet while saving money.

All of the workers are volunteers and ever so kind and helpful. They fed my rambunctious boys apple slices while a couple of ladies took the time to educate me on different health food, cost savings, and home storage ideas. I learned how to substitute oil and butter with white bean puree, about powdered honey, and which stores to find the least expensive items. The facilities function to package food for humanitarian aid around the world as well as to help the locals be prepared with home food storage. I kept thinking, this is really how the world should work. 

Now excuse me while I go listen to the latest music and grind some wheat. 

Everyone Gets a Trophy

Except for Charlie. And in our case they were medals, not trophies. Charlie really deserves one though because he has been such a good sport supporting the rest of us in our activities this summer. 

Charlie wasn't very good at staying off the soccer field. He wanted to kick the ball where it belongs- on the field. His small Woody doll has been glued to his hand this last week. He insists that this little doll go everywhere he go: bath, bedtime, church, the zoo, 

etc. . . 

 The Freedom Half Marathon. This is at the start at the top of Emigration Canyon. Such a pretty run and great way to begin the Fourth of July celebrations. The finish line was at the capitol building. We met family at Ruth's Diner for breakfast/lunch after the run. Ruth sounds like she was a bit hard around the edges, but that place sure is great.

 The weather on the Fourth was perfect. I wish it would top out at 80 degrees and be overcast every year! I have also been LOVING the short and refreshing summer rain showers we have been getting lately.

    JR's brother provided a great BBQ, entertainment, and a spectacular firework show.

In other news: These Instagram pics stand as evidence that my iphone is alive! After sitting at the bottom of a kiddie pool for who knows how long, it sat in an air-tight container of rice for a week and now works perfectly (for the old model it is)! 

I hope you are all enjoying backyard BBQs, wearing out your sandals, and eating plenty of popsicles. 

Castle Week

It all began when Emerson thought that the only thing to make life bearably continue was to have a castle for his two toy knights. He begged to go to Grape Grandpa's house to play with his castle and then begged for me to buy one at the store. After explaining that neither of those desires would be immediately met he got really excited about the idea of making one out of a box. After remembering that the brilliant wife of my cousin does educational theme weeks with her kids, I decided to make last week "Castle Week."

The knights were housed in a castle painted by Emerson. When I gave him beds to put inside he informed me that, "Knights can't sleep, only princesses sleep!"

We loaded up on books to read about medieval castles, towns, and knights.

Next Emerson decided he needed his own knight outfit and began gathering supplies around the house. I enhanced the box he put on his head. This costume made for an afternoon of fighting dragons and saving the damsel in distress (mommy) and her "little fluffy dog" (Charlie). During play he whispered, "Take your sandals off, princesses don't wear sandals." The teaching has been mutual.

We watched The Sword in the Stone. It's always interesting to watch movies I haven't seen since I was a child. I didn't remember Merlin's robe flying up a few times to reveal his pink boxers underneath. 

Castle week concluded with a castle dinner. Emers noticed that the meat had bones in it on The Sword in the Stone, so that was a must.

Too bad he doesn't remember this:

Or this:

Or this:

He was actually so loud we were kicked out of this castle.








Maybe next will be dino week, or we can wait and see where the wind blows Emerson's imagination. 

Bi Phone.

Thanks to Charlie. He is, however, loving his new blow-up pool.

One Year Ago . . .

I was connected to this little belly. I brought Emerson home a brother named Charlie. I learned I had a greater capacity to love.

He got rain for his birthday. 

Charlie, I love watching you walk around pointing to things saying, "Eeewwwww" with your mouth making an o shape. You remind me of a little monkey climbing and eating everything in your path. You are fascinated by everything and we are fascinated by you. 

Your family is glad you were born.

We Went to California

 Nancymom took us on a road trip to California. When I was a wee one I called her this. We stayed in Encinitas, which is a laid back, great-for-vaca town with a nice beach. 
I like these pictures JR took on the beach in the dark. It's amazing what cameras can show us  that our human eye cannot. 
Above is a bonfire beach party. I wasn't invited. Will someone please invite me to one of those some time? They just sound like the epitome of a coastal summer to me. I grew up in Utah and attended camp fires in the mountains, but no sand, no cute beach attire covered in hoodies, and certainly no crashing waves to serenade the friendly chatter around the fire. . . back to the trip:

This is the family.

 This is Emerson in San Diego pretending to be a pirate. 

Grandma felt bad that he had to use his hand for a patch and we later found him like this:

 We spent a day at Disneyland. Walt Disney. What. A. Dreamer.

Emerson will tell you that Buzz Lightyear was his favorite ride, but he didn't stop smiling and laughing during It's a Small World. Toward the end he said, "It's beauiful, It's so beauiful!" Charlie got a kick out of it as well. 

Little Men

I think we ran 8 miles in the park that day. I was actually yelled at once to "Stop running, just slow down a little," by an employee. It completed the sensation I had that day that I was a little girl again. 

Now What?