Holiday Fun

Every year we participate in the 24th of July parade in Hyde Park. I am now down to only one parade a year! This year Ethan drove Rachael on the 4-wheeler, and Supe and his cousin rode the go kart. This year, Ethan thought he may be "to cool" to actually participate in the parade. He was a good sport to take his little sister though. We assured him he was way cool. Rachael loves "mothering" her little cousins. I am not ready for it to be August already. Summer is such a fun time. The 24th of July is one of my favorite holidays! No presents, no over-planning- just a time to kick back and relax with family and friends. I hope you all had a great holiday!

Park City

What a fun trip Park City is. I recommend it to anyone just wanting a bit of a getaway. We bought this Marriott timeshare a few years ago. (Much to Blake's chagrin.) I, however, love it. It MAKES us get away and be a family. There is so much to do in Park City. We had a ball. We hiked to the top of the Y in Provo. Ethan was all over doing that. He heard at football camp that the center of the BYU football team ran the Y in 18 minutes. Now you all know that the center is like the biggest brute of the team. So Ethan was convinced he could run it faster. He ran it in 24 minutes. I couldn't believe he even did it in that time. It was killer! Straight uphill. But such a fun thing to accomplish. I'm sure my friend Heidi, who LOVES BYU, would just be all over doing this feat. ha ha.


We also went to the Olympic Park. If any of you have not been there yet, I hightly recommend it. We loved this! You can watch the ski jumpers still go off the big jumps and land in a big pool of water. It was really cool. I cannot believe how scary that would be. We also saw the luge were the skeleton and bobsleds go. It was incredibly steep. For a mere sixty dollars, anyone can ride the luge. It takes about sixty seconds flat. We passed. We already tickets for the alpine slide later that day. Anyway, we had just a great trip. My sister-in-law lives in Heber, and we just love the cousins. It's always hard to get back into life after being on vacation!

This is our fam on top of the Y. We even could see above the smog!

Nano Crisis

Okay. You may be asking yourself, "Why is this dumb picture of Alison's nano on her blog?" I will answer this question my dear friends. This happens to be my sixth ipod. Much to my chagrin, and even much much much to Blake's chagrin, I have a nano abuse problem. I LOVE my nano, and I have loved my IPODS. I cannot survive running without them. The problem I face is upkeep. My first died from all the sweat getting into the main system and failing. The second IPOD got rained on while I was running. My third just didn't ever work out for me, so I gave it to my son. I like the nano better. It's smaller, and can click right onto my shorts. However, that proved to be disatrous for my fourth nano. I washed it right along with my shorts. Now my last and final nano, according to Blake, is ruined. I got it my birthday and I was so excited. I kept it in my car and pampered it ever so gently. We were on our way, late, to the Fowers for a barbeque. I held our meat marinating in soy sauce on my lap. Blake turned sharp, and the soy sauce spilled. It got onto my nano. I hurried and brushed it off, but it was dead. So, I had heard that you can wash them, let them dry out, and then they will work again. So this is day five of hoping the nano will regenerate. I washed it. I dried it with a little fan, and charged it. No signs of life. I am a wreck about it. Blake says no more. I say it is really his fault for driving liking a crazy man. Who wins? We'll see......So goodbye purple nano.

Fourth of July Fun

Did you all have a great holiday? We enjoyed ours very much. We took the kids to hike the Bonneville Shoreline Trail. It was great. Very hot, but great. Supe thought he would perish on the way, but a good song of "Oh One Fine Day" brought him right out of his funk. We had yet, another barbeque and five thousand calories later, went to bed. I am grateful for this holiday. It gave us a chance to be together as a family and celebrate life in general.

Family Kickball

Tonight was the kick-off of our summer kickball. Every Sunday night in the cool summer evenings, our family gathers at my house for kickball. It really is a hilarious event. The kids look forward to it all day. It's great to see my seventy year old parents out there just a kicking and running away. They are great sports. I hope to be doing that when I am seventy! It always gets a little heated. Last night we thought of calling our neighbor to referee us. We play and then have a yummy treat. This is one of the reasons why I LOVE summer!

Three hours and pink background!

I hope you enjoy the pink background. It only took me an hour to figure it out. I am very proud. I hope, fellow readers that you do indeed like pink, and that you don't get sick of it for a very long time!!! Cheers!

Pets R Us

I frequently ask myself, why pets? We have two cats, one dog, and now only one bunny. We have buried three bunnies already. Supe has a tendency to kill bunnies. Blake continues to fold, and buys him one right after the other. I took this picture when our dog had puppies recently. Our dogs name is Aggie. Unfortunately, she was date-raped by a black dog. She is a golden lab, and all twelve puppies were black. Last week I took Aggie in to the vet for a hysterectomy. I have felt bad ever since. I took away her right to bear future puppies! She was very groggy, and almost passed out on the way home. I can't stand the dog. She is big and gross and very bothersome. But seeing her coming home from the vet, staggering in pain, I felt so bad! I wasn't going to pay the extra $18.00 for the pain meds. But then Ethan made me feel guilty by telling me he would have to think about paying extra for my pain medicine when I am old. So I called and told them to give her the pain meds. Then next day she was her old self again. Crabby, hairy, and barking at any stranger. Tomorrow is the two male cats day to shine at the vet. They are being neutered. Somehow, I don't feel as bad for them. Is it because I hate cats? Or is it because I can't relate to being neutered?