September

Well, our "summer" flew quickly by!  It was a fun month, and there's not too much to post about really, but here's some of our goings on...

Dallin and "foyer" church:
This boy has a severe lack of reverence (can't imagine why?), so we usually spend several hours wandering the halls and climbing on couches.  We happened on the kitchen one day and Dallin has found his new "nursery".  There are so many pots and lids and large utensils to play with, he's been in heaven!  Then I realized that Relief Society is right next door so we have to keep it down.  There's no end to his energy.  There is a light at the end of the tunnel... we now have exactly 8 WEEKS before he can go into regular nursery.  Wahoo!

On September 6th, Mary got married!  Some of you are familiar with our friend, Mary.  Bevan and I met her the summer after we got married (so, 7 years? wow!)  She worked at Deer Valley with us and became one of my favorite telemark buddies.  She's had many ups and downs in her life, but she has persevered and conquered and finally met an amazing guy who she married in the Salt Lake temple.  We couldn't be happier for her!  Now starts "real life", right?!

We had a ward party on September 12th.  It was seriously over-the-top!  They had bouncy houses, face painting, hair coloring, a spinny chair thing, pony rides, barbecue, and a ton of food!  I guess the guy who hosted, Ernie, has a party like this every year, and whoever happens to be in his same ward boundaries gets to come (but really, everyone in Midway comes!).  Bevan found a new BYU football-watching buddy, I was fascinated with the huge water feature and pond, Dallin found pygmy goats to chase, and Anna was obsessed with the Pony rides (they even put her to work after the rides were over,  I saw her hauling buckets of water)!  We all had a good time.  Until next year, Ernie!

The garden has been going crazy!  We've found ourselves with bumper crops of crookneck squash and zucchini.  I took a wise-person's advice and quit watering our tomatoes and now we have a ton of those too!  Time to make salsa!  Other success crops include butternut squash, swiss chard, shell peas, carrots, onions, green beans, bell peppers, chili peppers, sweet basil, parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyyyyyyme!  It's been a blast, and a little overwhelming.  But, in just a week or two, everything will completely DIE!  Winter is a blessing.

Work... is work.  Still busy, still working part time.  But, like mentioned above, winter will be a blessing!

One fine Saturday, Bevan went to the BYU football game with some football-watching buddies, which left me and the kids to our own plans.  I decided to pedal them up to the duck pond at the state park.  Man, those kids are getting heavy!!!  The visitor center has an animal display which we've never seen.  The duck pond is usually an evening venture, after the visitor center is closed.  Dallin tried to grab the stuffed rattle snake and rip it off its display.  Why is that display at hand-grabbing-level anyway?!  We had to leave.  There was plenty to do outside anyway.  It was a full-time job keeping Dallin out of the pond!

Let Summer Begin!

It's been a crazy summer!  We didn't get to "hang-out" or "vacation" like we thought.  With the 3 big events (girls camp, reunion, and 10K) out of the way, it was time to enjoy what was left of summer.

On Labor Day, we  drove up Mirror Lake Highway to a lake we've never visited before!  Just before Mirror Lake, there's a trail head to Fehr Lake, which also takes you to Shepard, Maba, and Hoover Lakes.  Bevan can't pass up a great fishing opportunity!  We made Anna walk the first 1 1/2 miles, but brought the extra baby backpack, just in case.  We hung out on shore while Bevan set to work catching "the BIG one"!  It was a full time job for me keeping Dallin out of the lake.  Bevan got a few hits and even pulled in a good-sized rainbow trout!  He said they're pretty rare in the high Uintas.  We planned on only spending an hour fishing, but as soon as Bevan started having success, I thought we were never going to leave!  I can only chase after Dallin for so long.  Finally, he called it quits and we headed back to the car.  Anna refused to walk, so I'm glad we brought that backpack.  Yeah, we probably could've done more to make her a walk on her own, teach her about hard work, persevering, yadayada... but I really just wanted to get back to the car quickly!  

I love driving down that Mirror Lake Highway.  It's so gradual and not so windy, that you can just coast down through the beautiful pine forests!  Outside of Samak, we saw a checkpoint set up.  We assumed it would be for DUIs, but when we pulled up, it was really for fish and game.

Any hunting or fishing today?

Yes!  Fishing!

Pull over to the side please.

D'oh!

The next station officer asks:

Did you catch any fish?

Yeah, do you want to see it?  We caught the "big one"!

Yes, and your fishing license hopefully.

Bevan totally complied and was so proud to show-off his big fish to the DWR folks.  They didn't seem too impressed, but it was the end of the day.  Bevan said it was the first time in his entire life he's been checked for his license.  I'm glad I married such a good, law-abiding boy!

Swiss Days 10K

It's finally over!  No, it was a really good experience, just a little crazy.  I needed a few more volunteers and a few more kids shirts, but other than that, it was a success!  Midway puts on Swiss Days every Labor Day weekend and one of the events is a 10K and kids race.  Our friend/ distant relative, Mark, the former race director, needed to pass it along to someone else.  I guess he really saw us coming!  There's a lot that goes into planning a race: setting us the website, ordering bib numbers, ordering shrits, buying prizes, bribing volunteers, and eating lots and lots of leftover donuts!  We had a grand total of 450 runners and that was plenty for me.  Mark said we'd probably have more next year.

Bevan and I layed out the course at 4am that morning.  Only going off a map and spray-painted mile-markers on the dark ground, naturally it took longer than planned, but we made it.  We got back to the church, organized t-shirts, spread out the food, filled water cups, and waited for the hoard to arrive.  They all came at once!  We had a hard time staying caught up.  But soon the race started and they were off!  I secretly wished the race was longer, so they'd stay away longer!  I needed more time to organize the trophy mugs and ribbons.  They didn't bring us enough water bottles (something to change for next year) but there was plenty of gatorade!  Oh well.

The prizes were handed out, the mess was cleaned up, and it was all over!  I learned a lot of how to put on a race successfully.  You need a lot of HELP!  Thanks to all who stepped up so early on a Saturday to make it happen.  Bevan and I were completely exhausted, but it was Swiss Days!  No time for sitting.  We ate the chuckwagon breakfast, watched the parade, visited with family, worked in the Swiss taco booth, and even made garbage duty until 10:30 at night!  It was a long day!  The next morning I filled a 2-sided notbook paper with ideas of how to make it even better next year.  Should I even be thinking of it?  What can I say, I think I'm hooked!

I only took a few pictures, but enough to keep it fresh!

The boy is 15 months!

I can't believe my little Dallin is 15 months old!  The day started out with a miracle of only being in the pediatrician's office for less than 45 minutes for his well-child checkup!  When does that ever happen?!  All you moms out there know what I'm talking about.  It helped that I got the earliest time possible... 3 months ago!  I was proud and ready to show off my very advanced boy.
His weight? 23 lbs. 6 oz. His height: 32"

Then the nurse started rattling off questions...

Does he sleep though the night?
Absolutely!  Like a log.

Does he eat lots of regular food?
With all those teeth, why not!

Does he walk?
Look at him running now!

Can he say 6 words?
WHAT???

Completely took the wind out of my sail.  6 words?  Was she joking?  He is a baby afterall.  Sheesh!  My very advanced baby does not need to show off like that.  That's over the top!

Anyway, he got a sticker and a sucker.  I thought ahead and scheduled his 18-month checkup, once again, to get the primo time.  It's weird to think that 3 months from now will be December.  I don't get it, summer just started!  It's hard to get a picture of Dallin holding still, without something in his mouth.  This one will have to do!

I can't help but include this.  This is how he wakes up Anna every day!  By crawling on her!  It's very effective and I always get a laugh.