More Pics

In an effort to minimize the number of photos of me in shorts available on the Internet (a service I offer to you, The Reader) I may have been stingy in the photos I posted of our parasailing adventure. Here are two more.

I believe the image Dad captured here was the EXACT moment during the instruction session where I started to think, "What have I done here? How do I get out of it?"

And this is the moment where I realized I was having a blast. Ready for lift-off. Up, up and away.

San Diego

Last week, Tricia and my Dad and I spent a few days in San Diego. It was such a great trip. We went to the ocean. We ate fresh fish. In fact, I'm trying to remember now why I decided to come back home. That may have been a mistake.
My first visit to the San Diego Zoo. It's huge! I loved it! The pandas were my very favorite. I also was really impressed with all the habitat areas and the flowers and plants.

Two of the polar bears started a wrestling match while we were watching them. I was fascinated - and really glad for the glass partition!

Outside the Mormon Battalion Visitors Center in Old Town San Diego. We also saw San Diego's first synagogue, first school, first courthouse, and what I believe may have been San Diego's first saloon.

Everyone who has seen this picture asks the same question: How much did Biz and I have to pay Dad to pose for this shot? Answer: Nothing. He hopped on that wagon of his own free will. In fact, I remember turning around and there he was, practically begging to have his picture taken. True story.

The carousel at Seaport Village. This was right after the fudge I had for breakfast that morning! I was on vacation. Why wouldn't I eat a quarter-pound of chocolate first thing and then go for a ride on a merry-go-round?

Parasailing!!! We were on our way to the hotel to change into swim stuff, when Tricia mentioned that she wanted to come back to San Diego sometime and fulfill her life-long dream of parasailing. To which I replied, "Sunshine, we're here NOW. Why don't we go parasailing this afternoon?" Literally an hour later, we had typed "parasailing San Diego" into google, located a near-by harbor and found ourselves being strapped into harnesses by our new best friend, Mike. As a sidenote, Mike happened to be extremely good looking and knew all the words to Weezer's "The Sweater Song." Pretty sure he would have wanted to date me if, you know, I was going to be in town for awhile and was looking for a serious relationship.

Yep, that's us! During our ride, we were eye-level with a passing helicopter at one point. It was absolutely amazing. I loved being on the boat, loved being in the air, and loved the dolphins we saw on our way back to shore. What an afternoon! Great idea, Biz.

Saturday morning I got up early and did a session at the San Diego Temple. The temple in San Diego is known as "the castle temple." You round the corner on the freeway and there is a beautiful and strikingly white masterpiece of a building. So you can imagine my surprise when THIS is what greeted us at the temple grounds. Guess they're doing some construction. Talk about scaffolding.

The only tiny hitch in the trip was that our one-hour layover in Vegas turned into a three-hour layover in Vegas. Luckily I bought a milkshake and a John Grisham novel at the airport and survived the horrible ordeal. Thanks Dad and Biz for an AMAZING trip!!!

Remember These Guys?

Guess who played a "reunion concert" at Farmington Festival Days over the weekend? Colors.

I typically am not a fan of "reunion concerts" by local bands. If you are in your 30's and still trying to charm audiences with the same songs and jokes from 10 years ago... you're not funny anymore. (Yes, Voice Male, I am talking to you.)

But, because this is Colors we're talking about here, I couldn't make myself stay away. It was actually really fun to see these boys play again. And a lot less stressful now that Russ is married up and I didn't have to be all anxious about when he was going to propose to ME. They sounded great. And nothing says "summer" quite like an outdoor concert with cute boys on stage and me singing along into my snowcone.

This is What Happiness Looks Like To Me

I remember being in the last class I had to take for my Masters degree. I was talking with some of my friends about the things we wanted to do when we were done with school and had some of our precious time back. Exciting things - like read books we hadn't been assigned to read or work in the yard. I remember the top item on my list was to bake more cookies.

So yesterday I came home from work and experimented with a new recipe I saw in a magazine. Just because it was Thursday night and I had nothing better to do than bake cookies. Yeah hurray!

Child's Prayer

Tyler and Bryce have been taking an interest in saying the family prayer.

Tyler: Please bless that we will have more yummy smokies and no yucky ones.

Bryce: Heavenly Father, thank you for donuts, amen.

Now this is what I call sincere, heart-felt prayer. You know if a three-year old is praying over Little Smokies, he understands a thing or two about expressing the desire of his heart. Same goes for a two-year old who is thankful for donuts.

Amen to that.