Self-Esteem Boosters

I love a good pick-me-up from random people or people you don't normally hear them from. I've had a couple recently and the one that I heard today made me laugh and want to share a few of them...

When we were with my family last weekend, we met them at the park ready to go in our tennis gear. Well I followed my mom out onto the court and she said, "Rach, your legs are looking muscley!" Inside my head, I instantly thought, "Sweet! All the biking is doing something." Then later that day we were hanging around my parents house and Kaitlin comes and wraps her arms around me to give me a hug and she says, "You're so skinny!" Again in my head I began to cheer and I got a big boost with that one because if you know Kaitlin, she doesn't really know how to give compliments, she usually tells you whats not so great about you. Yes, Dave tells me these things all the time especially since I've started training but sometimes you feel like the hubby is just saying to make you feel better so it is nice to hear it from others.

Ok, so the one today was my favorite. I was at work and my boss comes up to me and tells me that I stopped traffic yesterday. It first worried me and I thought, "Did I do something wrong or offend someone?" Then she tells me that a guy called and asked if the girl that was wearing black pants that just walked in (me) was married? She told him yes and he sounded crushed. It made my day.

Pioneer Day

We had a great 24th of July. We spent it down in Sandy, with my family, this year. We started the festivities at the park with some tennis in the morning. We ended up playing for over 2 hours. We just didn't want to stop even with our tummies grumbling and bodies dripping with sweat (good image, I know). We went to Kneaders (my favorite place for a turkey sandwich) for lunch and then to see Despicable Me. It was an adorable show. I recommend it. We were all quoting it the rest of the night. Michael had to go to work for a bit after that so Kaitlin and I went for pedicures while Dave put his new mountain bike together and my parents rested.

That night, after Michael got off work, we went to eat on the patio at Willow Creek Country Club. It was a beautiful night. We then decided to hit up some fireworks. If you know my fam, things are always decided last minute and someone is usually not quite happy with the decision but then we all end up having a good time...it's funny. But we decided to drag everyone up to the Cottonwood Heights fireworks show because it was close and it was almost time for the shows to start. We were lucky and found a fairly close parking spot and walked to the field to sit. We got there just in time. The show lasted forever. I still think I liked the Weber State show this year better but I enjoyed the length of this one. It wasn't like you came all the way to watch only 10 minutes of fireworks, they made it last at least 20 if not more.

I greatly enjoyed the entire day with my whole family. I am so grateful for them and grateful that my brother is home and helps make our family time that much more enjoyable. My two siblings are the world to me! They make me who I am and show me who I want to be. I love you Michael and Kaitlin!

I am also grateful for the pioneers that sacrificed so much and came here to Utah. I do love Utah, although I do complain about the weather quite a bit, I still love it here. I also like how we get to celebrate with fireworks throughout the month of July here in Utah. I was at the store the other day and I heard someone ask the cashier, "Did Utah not celebrate the 4th of July yet?" or something close to that and I just laughed. That does have to seem a bit weird to outsiders.

Lake Powell July 3-6

Last weekend we went to Lake Powell with Kara, Nic and Kara's dad, Kyle. We went down to Wahweap. We usually go to Bullfrog but this was a nice change. We were able to see a lot of new places. Wahweap is huge compared to Bullfrog and you have a lot more options. As you can see by the pictures, we did a lot of playing and the boys found way too many places to play and explore. We only got the wakeboards and kneeboards out for a short portion of the last day because we used so much time climbing, jumping, and exploring. It was probably one of my favorite Powell trips thus far. We even got to sleep in til 8:30 each morning because we had the big cliff behind us delaying the blazing sun to rise on us.
Dave and Nic are like two peas in a pod, they feed off of each other. Well, this time Dave finally got hurt. Not that I want him to get hurt, but if you saw the things they do you would wonder, just like us, how in the world do they come out untouched or even alive? He didn't get hurt too badly. They were on there way back from an adventure (it was the only time he didn't take his shoes), trying to wedge theirselves back down between a slot and Dave started sliding bare feet down and then used his hands to slow him down to not crash into Nic. He came out with some burns on his feet and hands. Luckily it was the last night because it kind of broke his adventurous spirit cause of the pain. Other than that incident, we enjoyed ourselves and hope to go again real soon!

Setting up camp

Kyle told me I had the most graceful jumping style; we thought I looked like a witch after it's prey.

Every little canyon we went into, the boys found a rope to climb.

Dave's Birthday Cake

We celebrated Dave's Birthday with family and friends yesterday at Golden Spike Park by our house. We played frisbee, volleyball (thanks to the Fausett's for our new volleyball), and hung out on blankets. We also were able to enjoy Dave's cookies 'n cream cake and ice cream. You can't really tell but Dave would not let me make a normal shaped cake. He protested me making a complete circle or square cake so I had to make one layer square and one a circle. Once we were at that point I made him put it together because I was not able to wrap my head around putting that cake together in some devent looking manner so I passed on the responsibility to him. Everyone loved his creation.

We had trouble with getting all the candles to stay lit so we had to sing happy birthday after he blew out the couple that were lit but it ended up being the wind that blew them all out for him.

Thanks for all who came and celebrated!

Dave is 25!

Happy, Happy Birthday to my amazing husband! He is 25 years old today or in my late-grandma's words he is "a quarter of a century old." I even had to buy 2 candle packages beacuse he's grown out of just the 1 24-pack and now onto 2 packages. I hate the fact that I am really only one year behind him in age, so if he's getting old, it pretty much means I'm getting old. I can't complain about the one I picked to get old with, though. Dave was the perfect pick and I can't imagine where'd I be without his kiddishness (not a word, I know but if you knew Dave you know what I mean), support, dedication, patience, and never ending love in my life. Oh, I forgot, one more thing- his head scratches and massages, don't know what I would do without those either. Love you, Babe!

I'm trying to decide what kind of cake to make him this year beacause I try to do a new one each year, although, I have done this amazing peanut butter one twice because it's so good and we'll probably do it again if we can't come up with another one that sounds better. Any ideas? Please share!