Dandelion Wine

In the final days of summer I appropriately finished reading Dandelion Wine, by Ray Bradbury. Stated simply, it's a book about summer. Here is an excerpt from the first chapter:

"It was a quiet morning, the town covered over with darkness and at ease in bed. Summer gathered in the weather, the wind had the proper touch, the breathing of the world was long and warm and slow. You had only to rise, lean from your window, and know that this indeed was the first real time of freedom and living, this was the first morning of summer."

I would suggest reading this book next May or June, as soon as you feel summer in the air. Or better yet, read it in the dead of winter when you are longing for a little bit of summer.

Twelve year old Douglas Spaulding is the main character in this story of a small town summer in 1928. One of my favorite parts of the book happens at the start of the summer when Douglas becomes really conscious of the fact that he is alive. He had never really thought about it before and the realization fills him with pure joy. Later in the book he has to come to terms with the understanding that he also must die. It's a book about summer, but it's also a book about life.

Go Utes

The only good thing about summer ending is that it means college football is just around the corner. The Utes play at Michigan tomorrow and I can't wait! I'm jealous of Fro and JP who will be at The Big House. We went to Ute Fanfest at Rice-Eccles last Saturday to hype up the coming season. It was packed. I like it Ute fans. We took pictures, got autographs, kicked field goals and caught punts. We also went to the coach's show at Famous Dave's last night. We have to enjoy the preseason hype because you never know what the rest of the season will bring. Go Utes!

Ode to Summer

When I heard Marianne telling David and James last night that it was a "school night," I got this familiar pit in my stomach. Even though I'm not in school anymore, I still hate to see summer come to an end. I love the long, lazy days of summer. But I guess if summer lasted all year we wouldn't appreciate it as much. I can't complain, we've had a fun summer - lots of cabin trips, running through sprinklers, swimming lessons, barbeques, hiking, fishing, homemade ice cream, picnics in the canyon, family trips, riding bikes, popsicles, slip n' slide, and just lots of playing. So farewell summer, until next year...

Pajaro Dunes

We went to Northern California with the Lloyd family last week. It was so fun to have everyone there. We stayed in a beach house on a private beach called Pajaro Dunes, near Monterey. Although it was a little chilly (not quite like Newport), it was awesome to pretty much have the beach to ourselves. Highlights of the trip included the Monterey Bay Aquarium, a train ride through the redwoods, skim-boarding, sand castles, dolphin-watching, late-night gaming, beach soccer, collecting sand dollars, and just lots of family bonding.

The Book Thief

I loved this book and would highly recommend it. I really enjoy reading World War II books, but most of them are from the jewish perspective. This book is different because it is told from the german point of view. It was very interesting to read about a young german girl's perspective of Hitler, Hitler youth, bombings, etc... Death is the narrator of the story and his sarcasm lightens the otherwise heavy subject a bit. The book also focuses a lot on the power of words, their power to destroy and their power to save. This is a powerful book that is very creative and well-written. It has definitely been added to my list of favorites.

Happy Birthday Rich

Today is Rich's 36th birthday. It is also exactly 3 months since he passed away. I think about him everyday. I am forever grateful to be his sister. I love you Rich.

24th of July 10K

Thirteen years ago my brother Rich rallied all the siblings (except Fro who was on a mission) to run the 24th of July 10K. We were not runners. In fact none of us had ever run before - not a race or even a jog around the neighborhood. But Rich was dating Marianne at the time and she was a runner, so I think that's where the inspiration came from. And since Rich is pretty good at "inspiring the troops" and hyping things up, we all decided to run it cold turkey. I remember when the race started Rich just took off. He was weaving in and out of runners and we were all just following his poofy hair. We had a great time and we all did surprisingly well considering our lack of preparation. I ran pretty much the whole race with my brother Nate who was nine years old at the time. I didn't want him to be left behind. But then on the final stretch runnning up towards Liberty Park, he was the one looking back at me saying, "C'mon Em, let's go. We're almost there."
So somehow this year I got talked into running it again. And once again, I wasn't very prepared. And once again I ran the whole race with my brother Nate, who is now a runner at Utah State. He was so great to hang back and run with me. I would not have made it without him. I looked at him about four miles into it and I'm pretty sure he wasn't even sweating. Al and Dad also ran. And even though Dad has a bum knee and Al had the flu all week, they were ahead of me. What superstars.