Canada Day

I had plans to update about my life...but I've been sick, and so its really not that exciting....and then I read my sister Kayli's blog, and it reminded me of SO MANY MEMORIES of July 1st, or Canada Day.

This makes me wish I had a scanner, and I could post all sorts of pictures from childhood Canada Days, while in Canada. I feel like we were there every July 1st in my memory, although I know we weren't, but it felt odd to not be there. Usually reunions on both sides of my family were planned in July as well, and we were up there for a couple of weeks.

Canada Day, as I think it should be properly celebrated, began in my mom's hometown of Mountain View. In the morning there was a program where all sorts of people performed, and mom knew absolutely everyone and would lean over and tell you about their life, their family, and usually the number of cousins removed they are from me...which usually wasn't very many. It's a very small town. She also emphasized several times over how no other town is as talented, amazing, and such good performers as her Mountain View. Then they have races. Foot races. Three-legged races. Sack races. Also, there is a softball game going on. And on one particular year, I went across the street with my sister Andrea and some other siblings and got some tiger ice cream, something commonly found in Canada. I like it, I'm not really sure I like it for it's taste, or because it's a novelty.

And there's always food. I remember meeting a red-haired girl there one year and finding out she was actually my second cousin, and playing with her all day long. Now, you can't really fault me for that because I have sixty cousins on just my dad's side, and who knows how many on my mom's side, and they probably were all born within fifteen miles of each other and now live ALL OVER the place. Sometimes my family jokes that we could walk past our first cousin in the grocery store and not even notice. But if you lived there all your life, you knew. I would walk down a street and people would stop me and say "Oh, you must be Jack and Lorie's daughter, you look just like your mom, are they up for something?" Or one time, I was in the one grocery store in Cardston (the town my father grew up in, fifteen miles from the small town my mom grew up in that I previously described) and some old, old, man told me a similar thing, that I looked exactly like my mom, and he went off on some old joke with a swear word as the punch line and I was more scared than amused, and I got away as quick as I could and told my mom, and she exclaimed "your Uncle Chet is here?!!!" Who knew I had an Uncle Chet? He's a great-uncle or something....I promise I know all my actual uncles. But I think all my actual uncles were just as terrifying to me as a young girl as my encounter with Uncle Chet. My Uncle Gerald always threatened to cut off my ears with his pocket knife and eat them for breakfast with his eggs. I tried to convince myself I knew he was joking, but he always looked so sincere. Haahaaa.

I am straying VERY FAR from the main event: Canada Day. I don't really remember anything else that happened regularly. I confuse reunions with the actual day, I think. But I remember my third grade teacher thinking it was CRAZY that I had lived in the U.S. my entire life and I didn't know the American National Anthem....but I could sing the Canadian one word for word. Thats how often we were there on July 1st. I have remedied that situation though. And we don't go as frequently for the holiday anymore. I, at least, haven't gone since high school I think. But it is a great holiday, and it has lots of great memories. Oh, and in Cardston there is a parade. I don't remember if it is always July 1st, or some other day. But my brother's and my dad and cousins have occasionally ridden horses in it. My grandpa used to drive chariot's in it. I really have been to a Cardston parade in a VERY long time. But, once my husband and I have passports(mine has to be renewed with my new last name) I'll have to introduce him to all my favorite spots!

Lovely

Sterling brought me home flowers and they are SO BEAUTIFUL!!!!!! They are all varieties of purple, but this one flower has a deeper purple on the inside, and I love it. I think he brought home flowers after being chastised by Elder Hales, who talked at our stake conference on Sunday. He told all the men to bring flowers home regularly to their wives every so often. And to always walk in the door and immediately ask "How are you? How was your day?" and then say "I love you so much, and I missed you, and what can I do to help?" It was really funny. He had some hilarious stories about when his wife was stake RS pres and if he heard her drive in and he was running behind, he'd stick all the dishes in the oven, make the kids go to bed with all their clothes on, and threaten them if they let mom find out. He said it was really kinda crazy how she'd walk right to the oven and open it, haaahaa!!!!!!!!!!

At any rate, we got some GREAT marriage advice from an amazing prophet of God, and we got to hear from him both at adult session and conference, but ALSO my husband is the biggest sweety in the whole wide world anyway, and probably would have thought of flowers on his own (probably???). Oh I love that man!

Balderdash and a haircut

We spent Sunday and Monday morning out at my parents in Hyrum. It was so much fun! Tad, my cousin from Canada, was there because he got dropped off so my parents could take him to the MTC on Wednesday, and Wyatt and Lindsay Ann are living there currently with their two little girls that never stop giggling...not even for a second!

We played Balderdash after dinner and it just got more hilarious by the second. One word was knurlin, and Tad put in "retarded cousin of Merlin". I thought Sterling and Wyatt were going to die of laughter. The very last word, I can't remember what it was, everyone was laughing so hard we couldn't even make it through the definitions for about twenty minutes. Mom's definition was "camel saliva" or something like that, and she was laughing so hard, Sterling's definition was "a traveling idiot" and mom and Lindsay Ann were laughing so hard they were crying, and we'd finally sober up, and then next one would be read and we'd all fall into hysterics all over again. I can't remember what Tad's was that time, but I remember it was really good. It was so much fun!

The next morning mom, Sterling, and I hiked the wind caves, because mom has lived here all these years and never hiked it before!!! Then mom helped teach me how to cut Sterling's hair. He has one shorter spot than anywhere else right in the front....oops....but other than that we did a really good job! Now I just need to invest in a razor and scissors and we can save lots of money on haircuts!!!!.....Well, maybe after mom shows me a couple more times.

Shhhh...

Look at how HANDSOME my man is! But I have a secret, he's not my only man....

It's only fair....since this little girl has him absolutely wrapped around her finger. He thinks she's the best thing since sliced bread, and she well might be. But....

See that little man in that picture? The one in the bright blue? His name is Anders. Yesterday, as I babysat him I was playing the piano and singing a song. My nephew Myles was playing the computer, and the little man in that picture came and crawled on his older brother's lap and said "Doesn't she just have the most BEAUTIFUL voice?" Myles just looked at me and said "Did you hear that?!?!"

Yes...I most certainly did. And he just might have me wrapped around every single one of his little fingers. Unfortunately, I still think Sterling has the upper hand. Anders asked me to sing "And So It Goes" for his good night song. Sterling is the only one who knows that song. Sigh. So he got the rainbow baptism song instead. He seemed satisfied.

Oh and Myles also gets points for singing Phantom of the Opera with me and being the phantom, and then switching to Christine when it got too high for me, and then Danica came and helped us out with the really high part. Pretty much we could be on broadway. Haahaa.

PS That picture with all of Megan's kids on the couch was the day of our first kiss!!!! (Sterling's and mine, not mine and Anders...I've been kissing him much longer than that!)

Zions Trip

There are so many, many, many awesome pictures I could post...and some that I can't yet because they are on our one-time-use-water-proof camera that obviously hasn't been developed yet, BUT here are some GREAT pics of our trip! (Thanks to Aleesha for taking most of the ones that I am in!):

This is Weeping Rock. Only, I know a lot of people in my family who get sick of landscape pictures, however cool they may be, so I chose instead, to put cute pictures of people on here.

This is in a crevice/canyon on our way to Observation Point, which was an 8 mile hike, and I am just super glad we did this on the first day, because it was the coolest.

This is the top of Observation Point. We were 2400 feet up.

This is an arch in Hidden Canyon, which is my personal favorite of Zions. We picked the late afternoon to go there because it is in shade the ENTIRE way!

Okay, so this is a really blurry picture, but I thought it was cool. I think this is Hidden Canyon as well.

This is Sterling borrowing Adam's aviator glasses because he thought they were really cool. We had a fabulous time, it was tons of fun....we did have an incident with two squirrels in our tent, but we salvaged mostly everything, so it was all right. Except then I didn't like squirrels at all for the rest of the trip. They didn't seem to care.

This is almost to the top of Angels Landing. You can see the rest of the ridge behind us. We hiked across that to the end. Mostly I clung to the chains and wondered what the difference is between a 19 yr old and a 21 yr old and WHY was I so much more scared this time??? Oh yeah, and these are the shirts we designed. They have that picture of hikers on them and then around it they say "Bring a compass...it's awkward when you have to eat your friends"

This is me at the top of Angels Landing. Gotta love the pigtails.

This is a really sweet rock in Refridgerator Canyon on the way down from Angels Landing. I'll have to post a picture of Walters Wiggles when I get a chance.

This is the last day we were there, and it was 105 degrees and so we just did the River walk, and then played in the water all day long. Hence the swimming attire.

This is me before I got all wet. The wet pictures will have to be posted later, because they were taken on the one-time-use camera.

This is after we were all wet. I had on my bandana and Sterling's hat for safe-keeping. This was our very last stop before heading to our campsite for the last night and heading out in the morning.

Behind us is the Organ, and behind that is the Great White something or other. I can't remember. Oh, and that hiking stick (a real metal one) I found by the river. It was awesome.

I had a FABULOUS time. It was so much fun to be there with Adam and Aleesha. It was REALLY hot, but we saved the day by paying $7 Saturday night and going swimming about two miles outside of the camp at a resort and it was BEAUTIFUL! I felt like I was rich or something and wiling away my summer days. The hikes were intense, we did almost three miles the first evening we drove in, and 12 miles the next day. The next day we did Angels Landing, it was 104 degrees, we drank 7 water bottles and a 2 liter pack between Sterling and I, and Adam and Aleesha pulled the same. Good thing we packed that much! I also got cauterized by a flying burnt marshmallow bit. We made popcorn on the camp stove, and played the music game and a tshirt game. All in all, it was a GREAT break, a GREAT start to the summer, and I wish I could go back.

Instead, I will go do laundry that includes our shoes, duffle bags and sleeping bags, all our dishes, and I need to bring Sterling dinner at school. And I have to go to work tomorrow. Sigh.