Summer Summary

 As fall is upon us, I wanted to write a Top 10 list of things that we did this summer.  I was having a hard time ranking them, so instead of a numerical or even chronological list, here is an alphabetical list of our summer adventures:

                   We hiked Arches National Park!  While in the Moab area, we took a  

                                     Boat tour of the Colorado River, called

                                     Canyonlands by Night, all expenses paid for by the company I work for, as I 
                                                     was delivering a part to a water plant down there.

                                     Denver was one of the highlights of the summer, as we visited several sites 
                                                      there on our wonderful vacation with Syd and Clif.  

                                     Echo Reservoir and the Rail Trail, where we walked Penny nearly every day.
                  F is for the Flowers we tried to grow.  In fact, we planted some irises last week. Penny’s
                                                      favorite game is to dig them up every single day.  We’ll see how things
                                                      go next year.  

 We planted our first Garden together.  Too bad all the tomatoes froze in August!

                                     Harley Davidson Motorcycle riding.  Of course.  

                                     Iron County Fair and visiting Parowan.

        The wedding of Jenn and Carter Peterson.
    We hung out with Kami and David, our friends and neighbors.  We went to several movies
                                                with them this summer. 

                                     Lindsay’s Birthday.  It actually takes place every summer.  

              Brett grew a Moustache.  It wasn’t so creepy when he had the goatee to go with it.  

                                     New York.  No, we didn’t actually visit but my brother left for his mission there. 

                                     Oh Penny.  She was always entertaining us this summer in one way or another.

                                     Pickleville Playhouse, where we watched “Crazy for You”.

                             MesQuite where Brett got to spend a number of 110 F+ days (best Q I could come 
                                               up with).

             We went to a Real Salt Lake Soccer Game with the Robinson's.  A real Re-al soccer game.
We put a brand new Sprinkler system into our yard!  Before, the grass really was greener on our
                                              neighbors' sides of the fence.

        The Sheep Dog Trials at Solder Hollow, a tribute to the intelligence of Penny and her fellow 
                                              border collies.  

                               An Umbrella is what we should have had at the Rockies game, where we got 
                                         both soaked and sunburned at the longest game ever played at Coor’s field.  

                                     Vacationing various places throughout the summer.  

                                     Wild Animal Sanctuary - lions and tigers and bears, oh my!

                                                We decided we needed to own all of the
                    Disney-PiXar movies, so we bought them all (another stretch for X).

                                      Yardwork.  It seemed like we did quite a bit of that this summer.  

                             Last, Zions Harley Davidson.  Brett got a nice shirt there.

Vacation

The start of the adventure

Brett and I had the wonderful opportunity to visit Syd (Brett's sister) and Clif (her husband) in the one-and-only Fort Morgan, Colorado over the 4th of July weekend. Fort Morgan is home to the famous I-76 dirt speedway, which we got to experience on Saturday night. For several hours we cheered on a variety of different styles of race cars, got to see a crash or two, and watch all of the other red-neck fans. We were covered in dirt by the end of it, and my favorite (and smartest) fans were the 80 year old couple that cheered louder than anyone and had on full green chemistry style goggles.

Lightning McQueen

Cars

In addition to the wonders of Fort Morgan, nearby Greeley, and Brush! (the name really has an exclamation mark at the end, as in Brush! Fire Department), we got to experience some of the sites of Denver. For example, we can brag that we attended the longest Rockies game ever played at Coors Field - 5 hours and 24 minutes! We stayed to every minute of it and got sunburned and soaked in a rainstorm throughout the course of the game. It was a good thing the Rockies finally won after 15 innings of play. But is was fun to do both the 7th and the 14th inning stretch!

Lindsay playin us a tune in downtown Denver

Coors Field

Us at baseball game

Rockies game

The Denver Aquarium was awesome - we saw everything from trout to clown fish to sea turtles to sharks. They had a really neat setup, with different areas representing different habitats. We started in the Rocky Mountains and then travelled through deserts, rain forests, and the deep ocean.

Lindsay swimming with a fish

Brett with fish

Bruce

We saw more wild life at the Wild Animal Sanctuary. The animal sanctuary is home to over 200 large wild mammals including tigers, lions, leopards, wolves, and grizzly and black bears. Most of the animals came from people who had them as pets or in fur farms. I might be naive, but I had no idea that in many states people can purchase a pet tiger cheaper than they can get a dog. Most of these animals eventually end up abandoned when there owners realize what they got themselves into, and so the Sanctuary takes in as many of these kind of animals as they can. We got to see these animals up close and in large open fenced areas, not just confined in a tiny cage like at a zoo. It was an eye opening experience for me.

Tiger

Leopards

Liger

Other highlights of the trip included eating at Rodizios, huge 4th of July cupcakes, visiting three Harley stores, taking the pretty drive home through Colorado, seeing Meeker, Colorado (in honor of Penny), and of course catching up with family. Special thanks to our hosts for a great time!

Lindsay in Meeker

Traveling through the Rockies

The Lemon Tree

Brett got me a lemon tree for my birthday. "A lemon tree?" you may ask. Yes, an actual lemon tree. I had never heard of it either, but there are special dwarf citrus trees that grow in a pot inside in the winter, like a house plant. When it is warm enough in the summer you can put them outside so the birds and the bees can do their pollination thing. The trees really produce fruit and make the house smell lemony fresh, and because they are kept in a pot they don't get very big.

If you look closely, you can see two tiny lemons starting to grow.

See, the lemon tree is smaller than the peony bush (I love the peonies - luckily the previous house owners had some lovely perennial flowers planted so they came up in spite of my lack of attention).

Congrats to our Siblings!

On May 8th we had the privilege of attending the marriage of Brett's sister Jenn to Carter Peterson in the Manti Temple. It was a beautiful day and Jenn looked stunning! Everything came together so nicely, and we even had time to stop for a shake in between the wedding and the reception. It is hard to believe that I first met Jenn when she was in high school, and now she is all grown up and married. We are very happy for them - Congratulations to Mr. and Mrs. Peterson! P.S. I will have to ask Jenn for a picture to post.

Speaking of our siblings growing up, my brother Tyler entered the MTC this Wednesday, and will be heading to the New York, Rochester mission in a few weeks. He looked very grown up with his new suit and short hair cut, and I am sure he will be a fine missionary. And my sister graduated from Utah State and is going to pharmacy school this fall. I am proud of them both, but it makes me feel old when I see realize how grown up my younger brothers and sister are. Congratulations to them also!


Me, Brett, Tanner, Casey, my Grandma Dean, my mom, Tyler, and my dad

Happy Birthday to Me!

Yesterday was my 24th birthday. You know you are getting old when you have to put an ENTIRE box of candles on the cake, except one was missing so I celebrated the last day of being 23 instead. When I was younger I always associated my birthday with the end of the school year, but now I've decided I will have to associate it with Memorial Day, and hope that I get a lot of three day weekends for my birthday. Another great thing about birthdays is that you can usually stretch them out for a while. For example, on Thursday I had ice cream cake at work for my birthday celebration, on Friday Jenn made me chocolate cake and ice cream, on Saturday I made banana split ice cream sandwiches, and on Sunday I had strawberry shortcakes for my birthday. I am sure I will think of something for tomorrow as well.

For my birthday, Brett allowed me to drag him along shopping for a couple of hours. Then we saw Jeff Hornacek, Deron Williams, and hundreds of bikes at the Timpanogos Harley Davidson store. Ever since we have moved into our house, I have been waiting for the spring (more like summer) to plant a garden, so we also went to the nursery and I picked out some tomatoes (regular and cherry), green, red, and jalapeno peppers, four kinds of squash, cucumbers, basil, green beans, and onions for my garden. It will be a real experiment this year, because I am pretty sure I live in the coldest city in the state (I used to think it was Logan, but Coalville has consistently equal or colder temperatures). Our plants are going to stay in pots in the garage for another week or two until it stops freezing at night. It has been a nice birthday weekend.

Vegas Vacation

Last week Brett and I went on vacation to Mesquite and Las Vegas. Brett had to stop into work at the Mesquite Wastewater Treatment Plant for a bit on Wednesday and Thursday, but Wednesday evening we set off for the first round of Las Vegas. We walked through the mall and down the Strip, looked at the casinos, watched the fountain show at the Bellagio, rounded a corner, and saw the perfect place for dinner: the Harley Davidson Cafe Las Vegas! They have a huge conveyer system that circles the restaurant so that the bikes are suspended from the ceiling. Covering one wall they have a huge American flag that is made out of 42,000 chain links and weighs over 13,000 lbs! We both got t-shirts to add to our collection - mine has the flag on it because I thought it was so cool.

The Harley Davidson Cafe in Las Vegas

Thursday I met Brett for lunch in the park in Mesquite, along with JD (Brett's coworker), his wife Tressa, and his family. They brought us BBQ beef brisket sandwiches from a restaurant in Mesquite that were the best I have ever had in my life. Thursday night we went to the Clark County Fair in Logandale, Nevada, and it was the biggest fair I have ever been to. There were a ton of booths, a rodeo, three buildings of exhibits and animals, a carnival and more. We met JD's family there and saw the sites. Of all the possible "fair food" choices to choose from, I chose a Philly cheesesteak that looked delicious, until we saw the fat, greasy man preparing them without gloves on. Neither Brett or I could eat more than a few bites, and had some lemonade instead.

We left bright and early Friday morning for Vegas, round 2. This time we actually had time to go into the casinos and admire the decorations and the architecture. I thought the Venetian was really cool, but the best one is Caesar's Palace. The statue were neat, and they have any store you can think of in the Forum shops. Lunch was at the Cheesecake Factory, and then I dragged Brett to the M&M factory for a little chocolate for dessert. On the third floor of the factory they have a whole wall of M&M dispensers with every color you can think of. Let's just say that I got a little caught up with it, but I limited myself to four small scoops of different colors. I got to the cash register, and my small bag of M&Ms rang up at $21.68! I couldn't believe it. Brett and I were going to go to a show that night, but after the bag of M&Ms, we thought we better save up a little more!

One of the statues at Caesar's Palace

The gardens at the Bellagio. Behind us is a snail made out of rose buds.

Brett in front of one of the many Harley stores in Las Vegas. We happened upon one of them in one casino. When I asked if there were any other ones in Las Vegas, I was told, "Yes, there is one in Caesar's Palace, the Venetian, MGM grand, New York, New York, the Cafe, etc." We made it to four of the stores, but will have to make a return trip to see the rest of them!

Name That Tune

Last Friday I went to a concert, and I think it’s gonna be a long, long time before I see another concert so exciting. I hope you don't mind that I put down in words how wonderful these two artists were. I attended the concert with Jenn (Brett’s sister), Joyce (Brett’s mom), and Sherry (friend). The show was at the Energy Solutions Arena, and it was packed. After trying on our new t-shirts and snapping some photos, the music began. Right from the start, I gave them my heart and they didn’t disappoint. Had I seen the artists before the show started, I would have said, “Don’t go changing, to try and please me, you never let me down before” or “Sing us a song you’re the piano man, sing us a song tonight. Well, we’re all in the mood for a melody, and you’ve got us feelin’ alright.”

Figured it out? If you guessed the hidden songs were Rocket Man, Your Song, Don’t Go Breaking My Heart, Just the Way You Are, and Piano Man by these artists

then you are correct! May I present Sir Elton John and Billy Joel.

Billy and Elton sang for three and a half hours, non stop. It is hard to describe how great the music was, or how talented they were at the piano. Some of my other favorite songs or moments:

Candle in the Wind

Crocodile Rock

B-B-B-Bennie and the Jets-s-s-s

Tiny Dancer

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

Elton John putting his fantastic shoes up on the piano

The outfits

Looking at the different types of people at the concert

She’s Got a Way

Uptown Girl

Only the Good Die Young

It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me

Billy Joel playing the guitar for We Didn’t Start the Fire

Billy and Elton playing duets together at the beginning and end of the concert

Billy Joel playing the harmonica in Piano Man

I suppose you could say, “I never knew me a better time and I guess I never will.”