Back Again

Post 15 - It's a good thing I'm so good at accomplishing all my goals. I think it really helps people believe everything I say I think I'm going to do. For example, that day I said I was going to post 100 things about my life in the next 100 days, and then on day 14 I burned out with the idea...yeah. So instead of putting the day and number at the top of my post, I'm just writing the post number and hopefully, by the end of the year, I'll get somewhere close to 100. No promises. Not that you expected them. I just thought I'd throw out that disclaimer to relieve any potential guilt. (I'm off to a great start-obviously.)

Anyway, Fred and I are back from vacation and what a blast it was. Getting back into real life this past week has been a handful and given me an even GREATER appreciation than I already had for the break from real life. One thing you probably know about me is that I'm not much of a picture taker and consequently, I don't have lots of evidence of all the fun things we were able to enjoy on our trek out west. So here is a short string of photos with a few comments about the trip.

Our first two weeks of vacation were spent in Orem with Fred's family. One of Diana's former co-workers does photography and took this of the group while we were there.

There are not many ways to make me happier than by giving me something with raspberries in it, especially after a two-year raspberry fast due to the HORRENDOUS prices of the tasty morsels out here in the east. Let's just say this raspberry pie did not disappoint. Thanks, Diana for telling me I did want this piece of pie even though I said I was too full of cherry, blueberry, and apple cobbler from all the birthday celebrations of the day. (And yes, I did have some of each - don't judge.)

Here's a belly picture we took with Ryan and Diana. I like to say my belly is because I'm pregnant, but I think the prior picture above might be incriminating evidence of other reasons.

While I was busy discovering amazing foods with Necia like the carmel apples from the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory and enjoying some frozen yogurt, Fred went on a few hikes with James. They got some amazing pictures but I'm only adding this one right now because it shows the two of them. (More pictures are available upon request.)

I'm including this picture (borrowed from Brightroom Photography - please contact me if you want to order pictures from them and I'll send you the link) as proof that I did a little more than just eat during the trip. I'm lovin' the white legs. It takes years of work ladies, but you too can have pasty white legs like mine too. This was the Utah Valley Marathon 5k. We ran with Necia, Diana, and Lori.

Our first day in Boise was the day after Fred's birthday, so my mom made him an ice cream cake and we celebrated.

So, the next series of pictures need to be preceded by a short story. A little while back Fred randomly said to me one day, "I think we should start bringing back old words to their proper uses like queer, gay, and fagot. People shouldn't use them the way they do so we should bring back their old meanings." I used quotation marks just now but I can't be sure he said that verbatim. Anyway, I took it to be a random Fred comment and not much more. That is until we got to Boise where my parents had a large elm tree cut down and there was a great stack of branches that Fred took on as his project to cut and stack. Can I just say that he was thrilled to death to be able to make bundles of sticks, or as he reminded me, fagots...

Here is one-half of the stack of fagots that Fred made. I wish I had gotten a before picture of the pile of branches. It was HUGE. These here are just the smallest ones. We had to make other piles out of the larger portions of the branches, but I didn't include those pictures. Thanks to Sheighla, and dad for helping him and mom, Kaila, and Danny for helping out the last day.

A huge thank you also to Gram and Gpa Bill who put me up for my last week in Utah. What gracious hosts they are and wonderful examples. We just love being around them.

This is me with my parents just before leaving Boise. Thanks so much for a wonderful time! It was so fun to be able to relax out there for a couple of weeks. We look forward to coming back, hopefully in December.

I also wanted to say thanks to Tim for sharing Janine with me for a couple of days. I know you both are so busy and time together is precious. But I'm grateful for your friendship and the time we were able to see one another. (And don't forget to send me one of the pictures we took :))