Labor Day Birthday

Happy Birthday yesterday to my cute niece, Riley! Her birthday was extra fun because it was also a holiday :) I can't believe that she is already nine! Time flies when you're having fun ...

Summer Sentiments

I realized that I should probably write about the summer before it's over! I have been a major blog slacker lately, but hopefully this catch-up will help to bring everyone up-to-date. 

Showing how behind I am, I didn't do a Father's Day blog post back in June--sorry Dad!!! I am lucky to have the greatest dad in the whole world! Thank you for everything, Dad!

I also neglected to post about Camden's birthday back in June! June was a month full of birthdays including Camden's, Lindy's, and mine. We had a lot of fun parties!

In July, we got to watch the July 4th fireworks from our front yard!!! Greg and I really do live in a great location--we are close to restaurants, the train station (I can walk from here), and we have a perfect view of the Thanksgiving Point Christmas lights and fireworks! I think that this will be our new Fourth of July tradition.

Also in July, Mom, Dad, and I went to the classic car show for the American Fork Steel Days celebration. I think that Mom and Dad need a '57 Chevy!

Right before we went on our fun Grand Canyon/Zion family trip for Pioneer Day (which, amazingly, I did blog about!), the new Boy Scouts and Norman Rockwell exhibits opened at the museum. For the exhibit opening, we had a fun celebration outside on the museum plaza. One of my main jobs was to serve popcorn. I love my job!

Greg and I have been enjoying going to baseball games this summer--the Salt Lake Bees and the Orem Owlz. At the Bees game pictured here, we were actually cheering for the team playing the Bees: the Omaha Storm Chasers, since they are the affiliate of the Kansas City Royals.

This summer, Mom and I have loved going to the farmer's market at Gardner Village. They have yummy food, tasty produce, and lots of fun things to see.

It's also been fun to hang out with the Barrett kiddos this summer--they are as silly as ever!

The other night, Camden, Riley, and Sidney joined us for an Orem Owlz baseball game. We got to meet hall-of-famer Rollie Fingers before the game. He has quite the mustache!

The girls weren't sure about the giant owl :)

Mom has been spending a lot of time this summer going through Grandma's things. She has found a lot of great pictures, including this one of Sarah and me with Grandma in the background. The funny thing is, this morning when I dried my hair with the blow drier, it looked almost as big as the wig I'm wearing in this picture!

Rich had his birthday earlier this month, and Riley's is coming up in September, so there will be more celebrations to come.

It has been a great summer, and I look forward to the last couple of weeks before fall arrives!

Zombies

Preparations for the upcoming Fantasy Football season are continuing around here. I re-designed the Utah Yellow Jackets logo:

...and created one for Rich's cool team--the Detroit Zombies. It should be a great season!

Oh wait, I came up with an even cooler one for the Yellow Jackets:

And here is the logo for my fantasy basketball team: the Salt Lake Skullzz:

Fantasy Football

Greg and I have had a great time playing fantasy baseball online with our friends this season, so we've decided to keep the fun alive by playing fantasy football during the upcoming football season. I am uploading our team logos here so that I can paste them to our team pages. 

 

 

Greg will be the Kansas City Chefs, a name which comes from the funny Snickers commercial where a guy is painting the end zone at Arrowhead Stadium, and he accidentally paints "CHEFS" instead of "CHIEFS". When he realizes what he has done, he says, "Great googly moogly!" Then the tag line of the commercial is, "Gonna be a while? Grab a Snickers."

 

 

And my team will be the Utah Yellow Jackets. I've always thought that Utah should have a professional football team and that their mascot should be the yellow jacket--it's perfect mascot for the Beehive State, and goes well with the Salt Lake Bees. I have also always thought that when the New Orleans NBA team was the New Orleans Hornets (before they became the Pelicans), they should have switched mascots with the Utah Jazz, so then it could have been the New Orleans Jazz and the Utah Hornets--that would have been awesome (and made more sense)! :)

A Grand Trip

I know that I have SOOOOOOO much to catch up on--birthdays, exhibit openings, the 4th of July, and all sorts of other summer fun. But I'll start with our most recent adventure: a wonderful trip to St. George, the Grand Canyon, and Zion!

 

 

Last Saturday, the Barretts and Mom, Dad, and I headed to St. George. It was SO hot!! So it felt extra nice in the swimming pool. Look how strong the Barretts are!

 

 

We had a nice time in St. George swimming, going to dinner, and walking around the temple. The coolest thing was that after dinner, there was a beautiful rainbow!! We knew that it was a message from Grandma Farnsworth letting us know that she was happy we were visiting St. George, her home for many years. It was sad to be in St. George without her there, but we had this nice rainbow to help us remember her.

 

On Sunday we went to church and then headed over to Jacob Lake, just north of the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. Jacob Lake is Mom and Lindy's old stomping grounds--they both worked there when they were in college. Here are the girls at the actual lake in Jacob Lake, although it's more of a pond than a lake :) Greg and Richard (who both had to work on Saturday) joined us Sunday afternoon.

On Monday we headed to the Grand Canyon! The kiddos were pretty excited. My favorite part of this picture, besides just how cute they all are, is Ben's funny smile :)

 

Here's our crew, ready for hike. We missed having the Agates with us, but we're glad that they arrived safely in New York, ready for a new adventure there!

 

Ben wasn't so sure about riding in a backpack on his dad's back, but he eventually decided that the "king's chair" provided a pretty sweet ride.

 

Rich and Sid!

 

Poor Greg was pretty uncomfortable being up so high above the canyon. He was not a fan of the hikes that we went on, but he was a trooper and toughed it out.

 

Here are Mom, Dad, and me trying not to blow off of the mountain!

 

Mom and I took a picture at Jacob Lake before we headed out on Tuesday.

 

Before leaving Jacob Lake on Tuesday, we stopped at a sink hole where both Mom and Lindy used to hang out with their friends when they worked here. It was a fun area, perfect for frisbee golf and fossil hunting.

On our way to Zion, we stopped at the best park ever . . . the Kanab city park! The kids (and Greg  and I) had fun playing on all of the playground equipment.

 

On Tuesday afternoon we arrived at Zion and checked into our hotel. It had been nice and cool at the Grand Canyon, but it was hot, hot, hot in Springdale, so our first stop was the pool.

 

Swimming tuckered everyone out!

 

 

We woke up to an absolutely beautiful morning at Zion on Wednesday--Pioneer Day! This is seriously one of my favorite places on the whole planet.

 

We had a fun hike to Emerald Pools, and then we all hit the road, sad that our fun trip adventure had come to an end. But I guess we have to go back to work sometime . . .

 

 

On our way home, in honor of Pioneer Day, we stopped at the cemetery in Summit, Utah, where many of our ancestors are buried. My g-g-g-grandpa, Sylvanus Cyrus Hulet, owned a home in Summit. We stopped by his house and then enjoyed visiting his and other graves at the cemetery. It was a wonderful way to remember our pioneer heritage! Thank you for the wonderful trip, Mom and Dad!!!