Dinosaur Park

My Dad loves dinosaurs. I mean, he really loves them. You should see his dinosaur collection, it is quite impressive. When I was in high school, our basketball team went to a camp at CEU every summer. My Dad would offer to drive us down because there was a dinosaur museum in Price. He would drop us off and then go over to the dinosaur museum by himself. He is doing his best to pass this passion on to his grandsons. So a couple of weeks ago we went on an outing with Grandma and Grandpa to the Dinosaur Park in Ogden. I'm not sure who was more excited, Grandpa or Eli. Eli LOVED it. Grandpa was so proud.

Summit Triathlon

I use triathlon in the loosest sense of the word. Let's say it was more of a triathlon-like experience. A couple of weekends ago my brother, sister and I were planning on doing the Alta Canyon sprint triathlon. But we sort of forgot to sign up until a few days before. And of course, it was full. Lesson learned. So we looked online and found a mini triathlon up in Kamas the same day. We stayed at the cabin friday night and did the race saturday morning. This was my first triathlon experience and I had such a blast! I might be converted...It was way more fun than just running the whole time. The distances were embarassingly short, so it was easy. Which was good since I didn't exactly train. But hey, baby steps. Maybe next I will do an actual sprint distance and maybe I'll actually sign up on time.

First Day

Eli's first day of school was this week. He is so excited for another year of preschool. When I picked him up the second day he said, "Mom, I didn't know school was this fun!" Oh, I wish I had a tape recorder so I could play that for him in a few years when he changes his mind about how fun school is.



This is Eli and his friend Zach walking into preschool on their first day.

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.