August 22, 2009: Cherry Hill

My mom and dad took Justin, Shelly and Ava to Cherry Hill Resort for their camping trip this year. Ethan and I decided to join them on Saturday. It took awhile for Ethan to warm up to the water and feel comfortable. My dad took him on the lazy river and the first few times around he was just as stiff as a board. Poor kid. He eventually warmed up, it probably helped when I decided not to be so paranoid and took his life jacket off. He loved the Pirates Cove for the little kids. He took grandpa all around the pool and was even brave enough to get down on his hands and knees and lift his legs up.

Thanks for letting us crash and Thanks Dad for taking Ethan. As most know, I'm not a swimmer, even in a kiddie pool.

Ethan and Ava hanging out in the trailer, taking a break for lunch. Can you tell who Ethan gets his skin tone from? And this is his tan. Poor kid.

August 16, 2009: Shinner

Ethan and I decided to go and see Matt at his new store while they were training. It was a great time to go since they have been cooking all this food and had no one there to eat it. I felt like I should help out and volunteer to sample. No only that but they hadn't opened yet and there were no customers so Ethan could run around and be okay. And run around he did, but as for being okay... well see picture below.

Ethan's first black eye.

He was running back to the booth were I was at and actually stopped in time, he just took one more step forward and smashed into the edge of the table, which of course was exactly the right height to hit him below the eye. At least it was below the eye instead of in his eye. We weren't too happy after that. Ethan got a special shake and lots of attention for the female employees. He's a tough kid though and wore his new accessory well for a few days.

Self-Reliant

I have a very long way to go in becoming self-reliant, but my goal this year was to increase our food storage. So, I decided to start a garden. This was quite a feat for me since I definitely do not have a green thumb and had never gardened before.

Matt and Ethan made me a nice little garden in our back yard. I think I got a bit over ambitious and planted way to much for such a little space. Oh well, live and learn. I did get some great harvests of spinach, tomatoes, and carrots. I learned that broccoli grows very big and that snails love peas and tomatoes. Ethan was such a great help. He loved to help me water the garden and look for snails to toss over the fence.

I also talked Matt into letting me get a freezer so we could store all this wonderful food. It has been great.

Ethan watering our lawn and garden. You can see how small it started out and the results below.

My lovely overflowing garden.

Freezer jam made from some apricots Matt's grandma and grandpa Nielsen gave us.

August 1, 2009: 5k

So I decided to run another 5k this summer. Actually, Matt decided for me. While we were on our rafting trip in Jackson, Kiera, a Manager at Mimi's and Matt's former co-worker called to see if I would run in a fundraiser 5k for the Taylorsville football team which her son is on. Of course Matt told her I would be glad to do it. And I really was. I needed a goal to look forward to.

I talked my sister Krista into running it with me and she came down the night before to stay with us. Bright and early Saturday morning we went to Taylorville High School track. It was a pretty good course. No large hills or anything. Krista ended up kicking my butt by 30 seconds. Oh well, it was fun. I'll just have to get into better shape for next year.

After the 5k we cleaned up and headed downtown to temple square. We went to the top of the church office buildings, hung out around the reflecting pond and of course had lunch at the Lion House Pantry.

Thanks Krista for coming down.

Ethan hanging out on the track.

Me and Krista after the race.

Reflecting pond on temple square.

Enjoying some dessert at Lion House Pantry.

July 2009

--While Matt has been away in Denver, Ethan and I have spent lots of time up in Logan. Ethan just loves Grandpa Bird's horses, 4 wheelers and tractors. Every time we went up we had to go out and see the horses. Thank you so much mom and dad for letting Ethan and I come up and spend so much time while Matt was away. It would have been an extra long three weeks without all of your help.

--On July 3rd we had our annual Brown family get together/reunion. It was such a great turn out this year. All of my mom's brother's and sisters and their spouses were in attendance. It was so fun to see aunts, uncles and cousins from out of state that we don't get to see that often.

--After a long three weeks, Matt finally came home, yay. Two days after Matt got back from Denver, we left to go rafting in Jackson with the singles ward my dad was recently release as bishop from. I had never been rafting before and was so nervous. Luckily, Matt has ridden the river several times and was the guide for our raft. Rafting was so much fun. I don't know if everyone that was in our boat would share my enthusiasm since half of them got thrown out on our second run down lunch counter, but I definitely would love to go again.

Later that evening after the river runs, Matt, Ethan and I had dinner at a little restaurant in downtown Jackson. We decided not to go to the Bar-J with the rest of the group since Ethan would not be able to sit through the program. Ethan charmed everyone sitting around us at the restaurant and afterwards when we went to the park. At the city center park, there were several gophers that have burrowed holes under the boardwalks. Ethan would giggle and laugh and chase the gophers into their holes, then hold his hands up as to say, "Where did they go?" People got a kick out of watching Ethan chase the gophers.

My sister Krista and her husband Taylor also came on the rafting trip and were nice enough to do some family photos for us up in Star Valley. They turned out so good. Krista is getting to be such a great photographer. Thanks again Krista and Taylor.

Below are some photos Krista took:







--We celebrated Pioneer Day up in Newton at their annual festivities. I decided to run in the Newton dam run after all these years. The dam run is a 5k race from Newton dam down to the center of town. My brother Justin and his wife Shelly also ran. I was surprised at the turn out apparently a lot of people who grew up in Newton come back to run, who knew? There were about 90 or so people that participated in either the 5k or 1 mile run/walk. Justin was beat out in the last few yards and came in second. I didn't do too bad, I came in 24th overall with a time of 26:22.

After the race, we watched the parade from my parents front lawn. Thanks to Ethan and Ava, we were pelted with tons of candy. Ava even got a whole case of strawberry milk from Benson Trucking. Score!

We just hung out the rest of the day and had delicious BBQ chicken and dutch oven potatoes on the patio for dinner. Great end to a great day.

June 2009

Okay, so I have been really bad about posting lately. Hopefully I'll be able to keep up better from now on. Since I've fallen so far behind, I'll just highlight a few events from the past few month.

Dad's 60th Birthday

My dad turned the big 6-0 on June 12th and we had a great Hawaiian themed party for him including leis and of course music by IZ.

Here are some photos of Ethan his aunt Krista took at the party.





Matt's New Job


So for some big news (however, by the time I'm posting this isn't really news any more), Matt decided to leave Mimi's Cafe, a tough decision, and has joined the ranks of the burger flippers. Matt is now the new General Manager of smashburger, a fairly new fast casual concept that is just opening stores in Utah. Matt will be the manager of their Sugarhouse store, which will open on August 19th. Matt leaves at the end of this month for three weeks of training in Denver, CO.

Race for the Cure

One of my goals this year is to run a 5k. A friend from my ward has motivated me and convinced me to run the Murray 4th of July 5k. I haven't ran for probably 5 years, so needless to say I need some training before July. I started this program I found online at www.coolrunning.com called from couch to 5k. So far its going great.

My friend from the ward also talked me into running the Race for the Cure 5k on May 9th, just to get a feel for the distance. Since I had just started training, I wasn't quite in the shape I hoped to be in. However, I'm so glad I raced, not just to run, but just the experience. It was so amazing to see how many people came out to run or walk; there was a sea of people. I loved the uplifting attitude of everyone around. It wasn't a competition. It was a celebration of those that have beaten breast cancer, a touching memory of those who didn't and encouragement for those still fighting.

I didn't mind my time that I came in at. It gives me a great starting point and a goal to work towards for the July 4th 5k.