Three Cheers For Team Diabeaters!

Team Diabeaters before the big Step Out walk at This is the Place Heritage park. Thousands showed up on Saturday to walk in support of finding a cure for diabetes. Our team of friends and family marched with babies in strollers, babies in bellies, cameras flashing, and great company under the sunshine. Thanks for showing up everyone. We had a great time!

More Diabeaters team members



The finish line was at Hogle Zoo where I couldn't get enough of the newest residents. They had a recent baby boom and every one of the little babes is absolutely darling! I could have watched this little elephant run around, roll around on her ball, and nurse from her mama all day.

You wouldn't know it, but this mama elephant and I have a lot in common. Her name is Kristi, we were pregnant at the same time, and now we each have a little one of our own running around causing trouble. I didn't have the heart to tell her that my pregnancy ended an entire year before hers. Now I don't feel as bad for hearing about "Kristi, the pregnant elephant" on the news while I was expecting.

Having a snack

Smile for the camera

This guy was six feet tall when he was born!

Bath time for baby tiger

Sooooo cute, right?

Small Town USA at its Finest

I decided I needed something a little more uplifting at the front of my blog. How about the Swiss Days Midway Town Parade? The Post Office Band was even more impressive this year with what I like to call a giant mobile horncycle suitable enough for the pages of a Dr. Seuss book.

Many tractors in the parade.

Someone's impressed.

A Polynesian band marched as well.

I promise I didn't match these two on purpose. The best part of this parade is that no one camps out or lines the streets hours before it begins with chairs for all 21 members of their family. You can show up ten minutes before it begins to find a front row spot to catch candy from.

Goodbye Old Friend

It's not an easy thing to be the decider of when the life of a dog needs to end. No matter how old or sick the dog, it remains a difficult process. Bruno had a rough summer with the loss of the use of one leg, appetite, and quality of life from what ended up being an osteosarcoma tumor on his femur. We knew he was in pain and suffering beyond what any dog can express to an owner, especially after his bad leg stiffened and became inflamed until it was over twice the size of the other one. A dog that once ate as if his stomach was a bottomless pit would not touch any of the several different types of dog food we tried to feed him.
The good days in life seem to speed by, while the difficult days seem to never come to an end. Friday was a long day as we decided it would be the day to take him in to be euthanized. Willing to break all the doggy rules, we let him dine with us and our friends the night before with all the pizza, pepperoni, and bacon he could handle (still wouldn't touch dog food, but our food hit the spot for him). My little brother Kevin, who has a real sensitive heart towards any animal, came to sit with Bruno and keep him company during the day. After feeding him all the Klondike bars he wanted, we took him for one last swim in the lake. JR insisted that he spend his last minutes with him doing an activity that they both loved. You could see the coolness of the water in combination with the release of pressure from his joints relax him and take a lot of his pain away. I kept having to remind myself as I watched him and the minutes kept ticking closer to our appointment that he would feel even better where he was going.
I felt like a robot as I forced my feet to take each step and every movement seemed to take more thought than usual getting in the truck to take the final drive. I don't have any idea what was going through the dog's mind, but we told him about all of the dogs and people that would probably be coming to get him soon. I'm sure it was more for our own reassurance than his. JR didn't have the heart to see him die lying on the floor, so he held him while his body went limp. It wasn't so much the dog's life ending that brought so many tears to my eyes, but the sight of what I couldn't help but picture of a boy and his dog and their unique friendship. We took his body home and buried him in our backyard, which again brought on the forced mechanical movements.
The room at the vet's office had a picture of a plaque that read, "semper fidelis", meaning "always faithful." That sure sums up exactly what Bruno was. I won't deny all the times in his life I yelled at him or said the words, "damn dog," but I will never deny the loyalty Bruno had for his family. I know he would do anything to protect us and keep us safe. Like all dogs, (maybe a little more than most) Bruno's younger years proved to be full of trouble. He dug a hole and actually escaped under the fence the night we brought him home. This dog once ate an entire loaf of bread, a stick of butter another time, and pounds of chocolate and several packages of cookies on other occasions. This dog could eat! I laugh as I picture the two young newly weds we were living with our giant troublesome dog. You couldn't take Bruno on a walk, he took you on a walk! Going through the garbage while his owners were at work was a favorite recreation sport of his. I remember walking in on him one day after he thought I had already left for the day and watched him jump away from the garbage and walk away as if he hadn't already knocked the can over and ferociously ripped the bag open with his teeth. He HATED cats and made it his self-given mission to protect the world from them. I'm sure he is fully repentant by now of any harm he placed on the feline family. He also never realized his size. I remember him laying his head or upper body on the lap of whomever was sitting on the couch. He loved tuna cans, sitting under the baby's highchair, water from the hose, balls of any size, snowballs in the winter, and bones. I don't know where he got the strength, but he managed to slowly and shallowly bury a bone the day he died.
Thank you Bruno, for teaching us patience and responsibility. Thank you for teaching our son to love animals. Thank you for teaching him his first word. He still asks for you and cried while he laid on your bed yesterday wanting you. Thank you for watching over our house. Most of all, thank you for teaching us how to love unconditionally. Every time I hear a siren I'm sure I will still wait for a big loud howl from you to follow. We love you.

Exclusive German Men's Room Sneak Peak

Do you ever feel your blog needs an update, but lack the motivation or energy to spend hours uploading pictures and feeding the world details of recent summer activities or goings-on? Lucky for you dear blogger I recently uploaded my phone pics to the computer, which led me to come across these exclusive pics. You have now seen the inside of a men's room in a restaurant down a small road in Schwangau, Germany. We were in search for famous mushroom soup and found this potty humor instead.
Yes, we have also been involved in other fun blog-worthy summer activities, but you don't see this every day, do you?

P.S. No, I didn't inappropriately enter the men's room. JR had my phone in his pocket.
Good day and enjoy the last days of summer!

Water Weekend

I misplaced the camera's card reader and until I feel motivated enough to look for it, I will continue to post pictures from other blogs and facebook albums. I stole these pics from my sister's page of our fun we had last weekend staying in Eden, UT and boating on Pineview Reservoir. This area is only a little over 30 miles from Salt Lake, yet makes you feel a good road trip away, or maybe 70 years in the past (if you ignore the newly developed condos on the hill). If I was going to build a weekend home in Utah, this place would be a prime candidate. With three nearby ski resorts in the winter and a lake for the summer, we would have it all!!!

Family Tradition

We celebrated the Mormon pioneers' 1300 mile journey to the Salt Lake Valley by running 10 K into the valley. Members of my mom's side of the family run the race (or cheer at the finish line) and then go out to breakfast together each year. Eight of us ran and kept the tradition alive this year.
Pictured above, left to right: JR, Kristi, Mary, Nancy, Carter, Mark, Allison, Brooke.

We live in a great state packed with diverse beauty, recreation, and great people; all thanks to the hard work and sacrifice of so many strong and faithful Mormon Pioneers who first entered the valley on July 24th, 1847.

I thought I would put down a few interesting points regarding the pioneers, who headed west after enduring several years of religious persecution, violence, theft, rape, burnings of homes, and murder.

• It is a pretty good argument to say that the Mormons endured more persecution from their own government than any other religion in US history. In 1838, Missouri Governor Lilburn W. Boggs actually signed an Extermination Order against the Mormons and forced 10,000 men, women, and children from their farms, homes, and lands mid-winter.
• It wasn't until 1976 that Missouri Governor Christopher S. Bond issued an executive order rescinding the Extermination Order and formally apologized in behalf of the state for the suffering it caused the Latter-Day Saints. -It only took over 100 YEARS, thank you!
• An estimated 70,000 Latter-day Saints made the difficult journey to Utah between 1847 and 1869. Tens of thousands of immigrants traveled even further to reach Utah from European countries such as the British Isles, Scandinavia, Switzerland, Germany, and the Netherlands.
• Families had to bury thousands of loved ones of all ages who died along the trail in shallow graves, which would never be visited again.
• By 1900, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had founded more than 600 communities extending from Canada into Mexico. Pulitzer Prize-winning author and historian Wallace Stegner said, the Latter-day Saints "were one of the principal forces in the settlement of the West" (The Gathering of Zion: The Story of the Mormon Trail [1964], 7).
  
• The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has grown from six members in upstate New York to over 13 million members worldwide today.
  

Thank You Mr. Gutenberg

If you ask me, the most important and impacting invention of all time is the printing press. I think Johannes Gutenberg was inspired when he created the press that enlightened the dark ages and spread knowledge and light across the world. His perfected techniques were used for hundreds of years after.
I was able to experience Gutenberg's entire printing process from pouring the metal into the type cast, setting the type, blotting the ink, and finally to turning the press at the Crandall Historic Printing Museum in Provo. Three different well-experienced men, seasoned in the art of printing, took us on a tour through different printing eras in the print shops of Gutenberg, Franklin, and E.B. Grandin (where the first 5,000 copies of the Book of Mormon were printed). Why are they called upper and lower case letters? Where did vellum come from? Why is it called a "signature edition?" Get your questions answered while you view the fantastic press replicas.
They have plans to expand the museum and need help
gaining the funds. They need you to take a date, take your family, or go solo on a tour. The small charge of $3 gets you a walk through the museum, or you can call to reserve a guided tour/lecture for larger groups. It never hurts to learn something new. Check it out!