The Weekenders

I am now confident that if I were to run a marathon over the course of a weekend, I could do it. Though I haven't, I sure feel like I spent the weekend running around, huffing and puffing. But in the whirl of it all, I did manage to have a great time.

We spent the regrettable occasion of Natalie turning 30 at my cabin, in Midway. It was truly a blast, and a great way to blaze the trail for all the others of us turning 30 in the upcoming months. We discovered new species, ate kabobs, opened presents relived horrible moments in our past, ate rainbow cake and dug 1973 Jeeps out of ditches. Splendid times.

It was nothing but the luxury of Fall.

If ANYONE knows what this spider/grasshopper/potatobug/alien is, please contact me.

ANSWER: Jerusalem Cricket.

This cake was kind of the bane of my existence.

Our southerners.

Our welcomed new-comers.

Our islanders.

Our birthday girl.

Our fat dog.

Our skinny dog.

Our twins.

Our dog-lover.

Our hair-cutter.

Our candle-lighter.

Our wish-maker.

My masterpiece.

Josh's masterpiece.

Jeep getting stuck story: Josh, Jon and Jason decided to skip off for a minute to go four-wheeling in the Jeep (Mind you, we may be driving it, but it is not OUR Jeep..) I guide them of where to go to find a fun trail, and they disappear for a couple of hours. The sun began to nestle itself deep in the west, and I called them to see when they'd be back. Josh informed me in a high, squeaky voice that they were "stuck." Debating on whether it was serious or not, we decided to accept Tyson's generous offer to take his f350 up to see if he could help. I went with him to tell him where to go. The path quickly became narrow, being that the 350 was HUGE. We kept going further, and honking to see if we were close, but they could never hear us. Once the path was nearly impossible to get through, I started hiking in the pitch dark with my wee little flashlight to find them. They hiked down to Tyson's truck and we all took turns holding back trees so Tys could get through. Eventually we made it to the Jeep- which you see above, tucked in the mega-deep ditch. Turns out, the 4-wheel drive button is in the glove box. So they switched that on, cut down some trees, planted some logs in the ditch, hitched up the tow, and Tyson mightily pulled the Jeep out to safety.

Yep. The Jeep's OK.

Fairview, UT

(I hadn't heard of it either..)

This weekend we took a family trip up to one of Joshs's partners' cabin in Fairview. Despite our efforts to gather a group to go up to this nice, accommodating cabin, it turned out to be just the three of us. Nevertheless, we had a blast, and spent most of our time on the ATV exploring the surroundings, doing our best not to bother "Sherm" the neighbor. Or the sheep we kept running into.

At first it took us a while to find some good trails, but we ended up taking a good hour trip up a mountain to the skyline, and it was beautiful. Jack was an absolute trooper, bouncing around on that ATV. He calls it, lovingly, the "motor."

I also got some excellent star shots after our marshmallow roasting session in the fire pit. There were millions and millions of stars, and my camera in fact caught more than my naked eye. So here is a taste of "Fairview" and we invite you all to come up next time.

(Love it up there with those leaves)

(Some cliffs we rode by)

(Jack loved the "motor" but had frequent stops, due the lasix)

(Some views from the skyline trail)

(A picture Jack took)

(Our picnic spot)

(Thank heavens for camera timers)

(The view from the trail when we finally realized we were getting somewhere)

(All those stars)

(Sheep- looking at us menacingly)

(Some surprisingly clear water)

(This is not the cabin. The cabin has doors and windows..)

(Our source of fun)

(the source of my fun..)

Seriously, come with us next time.

Facebook.

I hate that I am a facebooker. I do. I won't lie, I "hide" a lot of things on my wall. However I am not a crazy facebooker; I don't rely on it for valid information and I wouldn't go there first to get any. I also don't like when people EXPECT me to know things because they "put it on their facebook."

"Oh, you're pregnant?"

"Um, YEAH, didn't you see the sonogram on my facebook?"

"Gosh, no, how insensitive of me to have called you before checking your wall."

But I sure do enjoy the frequent changes it has. It's certainly not like blog's or email. The turn over time for facebook is really quick. It's great. And I like being able to throw things out there to find out new things, like recipes, places to go, hobbies I can adopt. Not to mention being able to stay in touch and up to date with people you don't see very often. Just enough contact with them- but not too much..

I do have a Top Six Things I Hate About Facbook list, though. Kind of an etiquette list, as it were.

1. Post NO MORE THAN three status updates a day. Beyond that and we feel like we are invading your privacy, or are way too involved in your day-to-day activities.

2. Be careful with your vagueness.. it's fun to make people think, but not to make them guess.

3. Don't bring death to facebook. RIP'ing someone on your status grants more disrespect than it does anything else, and again, makes the rest of us feel uncomfortable. Seek sympathy elsewhere.

4. Stop it with the Farmville. It is facebook cocaine.

5. Please don't "heart" things. Unless you are twelve. Otherwise you just look stupid.

6. Do you REALLY have 1,497 friends? Really? Only accept friend requests from people you ACTUALLY care to read about. Not just as a point to add to your popularity list.

Now, I understand I may offend people with this post. But really, I am just trying to give and gain some perspective on the whole thing. So I apologize in advance to those that this post offends, but know that if you are my friend on facebook, we are TRUE friends... cause I'll accept nothing less.

Durham Family Cedar City Trip

Since I can remember, our family has gone to Cedar City for the Shakespearean Festival. I have gone through many phases of this trip. Phase one, not remembering anything except being dropped off at the childcare center while the adults went to plays. Phase two, staying at the hotel and running a muck around the hotel with the other kids we had there. Phase three, being old enough to GO to the plays, but not understand them or understand why I had to sit still for so long. And phase four, adult only trip, nothing but relaxation in between plays and an appreciation for Shakespeare and his poetic language.

Now we are on phase five, complete go-go-go trip with getting kids dressed, fed, to sleep, into swimsuits, to the festival, to the childcare, hurry to the play, pick up kids, back to the hotel.... etc.

Nevertheless, it was so much fun and I am truly grateful that my parents are keeping the tradition alive. Grandma was an excellent hostess, keeping the kids entertained with generous amounts of gifts and snacks and plenty of hugs.

The festival has changed somewhat, the accents aren't as predominant as they used to be, and the tart wenches look like they are fourteen years old. However I am pleasantly surprised by the talent and my ability to absorb the plays for what they are and how they were performed. We saw Great Expectations and Merchant of Venice.

Playing "Mrs. Haversham" in Great Expectations, was Ellen Crawford who has played many roles on television. I recognized her immediately as one of the witnesses on Boston Legal, because Josh and I have been watching season after season lately. She played the housekeeper that may, or may have not murdered her employer. She sure did enjoy the festival though.

We usually try to make a trip up to one of the MANY national or state parks located in souther Utah. This trip we went to Cedar Breaks. It was quite beautiful with the gray overcast clouds and the bright red rock. I always find the outdoors breathtaking and consider dropping everything to come be a ranger.

Unfortunately Jack hasn't learned that appreciation yet and was being quite a stinker. But her reminded me a lot of myself, the first time I went to Yellowstone and couldn't stop complaining about one thing or another. And Josh was stuck on a phone call for the entire visit to the cliffs. But I captured it all on camera... so they can all enjoy it LATER.

Again, the beauty is indescribable, hence the pictures. I truly enjoy the air, the quiet, the smells and the tiny wildlife than surrounds you in these parks. It's like my Disneyland.

Carter, Laura and Dad. There they are.

Then we had a picnic at Navajo Lake. It was very peaceful and everyone had a good time whether it was throwing rocks into the lake, hitting golf balls into the lake... or fighting over hostess cupcakes.

The kids really enjoyed the Green Show and had fun dancing around with the "players" or whatever they are to be called. I enjoyed my tarts. All apple, summerberry, cheesecake and raspberry ones.

This girl is super awesome because she has a brown eye and a blue eye. Tessa and I had some good times together. We watched Toy Story together till midnight. Her favorite character is Slinky, the dog.

And this is Sadie. She looks like she's been abandoned at the Lake, but she hasn't.

All in all it was a wonderful trip and I had a great time. I can't wait to move onto phase six, where my kids are old enough to either keep themselves company while Josh and I go to plays with other adults, or old enough to want to join us.

Perhaps that's phase seven. Or eight.

River Trip with a Bunch of Strangers

This last weekend I was lucky enough to go on a "girl's trip" to Jackson, and raft down the Snake River. At the very last minute, the only person that I actually KNEW dropped out, and I was left to make my very own new friends. I made sure to take note of all 20 girls' names, memorize them, and ask them questions about themselves. Maybe if I did these things more often as a teenager, I'd have more friends. Anyway.

(This is Nicole, she is a neighbor of a really good friend of mine, she was such a sport for dragging me along.)

We rafted 7 miles down the snake river, three different times. Each time was VERY different from the other. Sometimes it would be very mild, other times people got sucked into the rapids, other times we didn't really pay attention and ran into rocks. All of it was very fun.

We camped at Wolf Creek, just 20 miles outside of Jackson Hole. One night we ate dinner at El Abuelito's. It's a really good mexican place- that may have been "really good" because we were all starving.

I cliff jumped, which isn't a big deal for me because I love heights and water, but since I have had a child, I have this crazy sense of vulnerability that stops me from doing dangerous things.

But I did it.

The rest of the time we cooked and ate our own food, (provided by wonderful Nicole and Natalie..) and the rest provided wonderfully humorous stories. It was so much fun and I was very lucky to be included. So who wants to get together and do this with me?? Anyone?