utah, tricks, and trash

(brace yourself. this is a lengthy one. you might want to prepare a small snack before starting.)

road trip ala utah

troy takes his stretching very seriously

the beautiful valley of cache

i love lagoon. i don't understand how you can't love lagoon. especially when rach shows up unexpectedly to spend the day with us there.

this lagoon visit did start off a bit problematic when our cart on the ride The Spider, was stuck mid-ride at the top. we had to climb down the not all to reassuring stairs after awaiting a rescue for half an hour. you can see our cart (still stuck) behind troy and i. and they wouldn't even give us a free weenie or churro. boo.

ziggy's extended dog family in idaho recently welcomed 5 furry and adorable english bulldog pups. being so close we couldn't pass up an opportunity to see the little balls of precious.

of course we fell in love. how could you not?! it took all the strength we had, but we managed to not sneak a single one out hidden beneath our shirts and restrained ourselves from squeezing the cute right out of them. it was tough. but we're coping alright.
nikki and malia at the farm

while we were smothering the puppies with our love, kade went out with his aunt joy to transport manure. despite "poop" being a new word in kade's vocabulary (which made me giggle every time i heard him say it due to how very mature i am.) he referred to the poo as "sunshine". now that's what i call a positive spin. he must be cody's son.

another perk of visiting idaho- you can see 8 year olds driving pickups with their brother and dog in the back. totally sweet.

nikki laughing as if the run was nothing

nikki and jennifer both ran the top of utah 1/2 marathon which was very neat to see. what strong ladies! seeing the grin on jennifer's face as she passed the finish line almost inspired me to start running myself. until i remembered all the miserable faces of some of the other runners and decided i'll stick to surrounding myself with successful people, like jake, lindsey and my dad who rode a 100 mile bike race. or fitness guru dani and her marathon. it exhausts me just thinking about all this exercise. jennifer

troy and kade
as always it was great to play with malia and kade. i cannot believe how big they're getting! between the two of them, liam and sheyda, i know the cutest kids ever. it's probably a good thing i don't live near them. i would just be overwhelmed by their adorable-ness and implode. that's just how cute they are.



also cute:

this girl is my rival in the world of strange face pulling. she amazes me with her mad skills.

we like sushi!



all in all it was a great trip. we have such awesome family members. i'm glad we were able to make the trek before we settle back into the busy schedule troy and i have somehow gotten ourselves into. thanks to all of you who helped us achieve some much needed r&r.

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of all the things i have accomplished this summer (in reality this list is actually quite short, but that's beside the point) this is what i am most proud of:

ziggy's transition from a one trick pup to a TWO trick pup.

even if he does first sniff the hand hoping for a treat without a performance. hey, i'll take what i can get. his repertoire now consists of sit and shake. he is very skilled at catching food in his mouth as well, but that's less of a trick and more of an eating disorder. now he can most often be found sitting next to the shelf where his treats are kept with a raised paw, hoping to receive a treat for his newest skill.

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i have been meaning to get away from the habit that is disposable grocery bags for quite sometime now. i just never think to purchase a reusable bag when i'm out. after going through all our junk drawers yesterday in my effort to de-trash our house, i found in the goodwill pile more shoelaces than i will ever use in a lifetime, and unused cloth napkins, which will more than likely continue to go unused for years to come. feeling unusually motivated, i created this:

now before you go ahead and judge my poor sewing skills, keep in mind that after an hour of frustration without a single stitch from with my beautiful vintage sewing machine which my mother so graciously donated to me years ago (which i have yet to figure out how to properly use,) i gave up and did the whole thing by hand. hence the horrible seams. but it carries groceries! and a good amount of them, so i'm quite pleased with myself. in the midst of my feelings of success and after receiving praise from troy for actually completeling a project, i told troy we should make them for gifts. he looked at me, then the bag and said bluntly albeit with love, "janell. who do we know that would use that, in public, besides you?" this is a valid point. maybe one day when i have acquired more sewing skills you will all have a lovely shoelace-napkin grocery bag. until then, i challenge you all to find your own unused objects that may be lurking in drawers and in the depths of closets to create something (at least somewhat) useful.

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