Back-to-School

We started school again on Thursday last week. It has been fun and different in a lot of really good ways and I'm super excited for the school year. The one thing I wanted to say here about school starting is this:

I only know a few people who are expected to work, dress, etc., at a business-professional standard who also have to work IN 86 DEGREE HEAT INDOORS. We got it down to 82 with the lights off and fans full-blast, but this heat is killing me and my 32 warm bodies!!!

Music in the Mountains

Every year, Randy gets tickets through the bank to a Jon Schmidt piano concert at Wolf Mountain Resort near Pine View Reservoir. This has become one of our favorite summer traditions, Matt and I look forward to this concert every year. This is the third or fourth time we have been. This year, Matt and I drove up with Randy and Brad to the concert. Jenny had sick Claire and Harrison at home and couldn't come. We definitely will drag her with us next time. Brad was a crazy man throughout the concert. He wanted to run around the mountain and play and dance the whole time. I kept waiting for him to lose some energy but it never happened. It was hilarious when Jon Schmidt played a song that Brad recognized, he would start singing way loud or humming the tune as loud as he could. As always, the concert was great, I love listening to piano music, especially Jon Schmidt. He plays some of the same songs every year, and it is a pretty entertaining show. Brad loves watching him play the piano upside-down and with his toes. Mostly it is amazing being in the mountains in the summertime. This year a moose walked right across the street from the amphitheater!

Wicked!

I've been waiting for almost a year to go see Wicked at Capitol Theatre and finally the time came! My mom and I met up with Jenny and her mom, and Kamie and Tim at the show. Wow! I wish I could afford to see Broadway shows more often, because it was AMAZING! I was glad that I read the book beforehand because I didn't have a very good idea about the story, although I was surprised that I recognized a few of the songs. Even though I got home really late, it was so worth it!

Our Weekend in Vegas

Matt happened to have a couple days off last week so we headed out to Las Vegas with my dad and stepmom for some fun. We drove down on Friday morning and in the afternoon played 18 holes of golf at Laurie's parents' neighborhood golf course. We were the only people crazy enough to be out in Vegas at 2:00 in the afternoon so we played really fast. Surprisingly, we didn't melt, and we actually played pretty well. We didn't take any pictures because we were so disgusting. Friday night we ate dinner at the Cheesecake Factory in the Forum at Caesars. I am definitely not fancy enough for shopping. Proof in point: I spilled pasta sauce down my shirt at dinner. Definitely not fancy enough.

Saturday we slept in late, watched the Olympics in bed at the hotel, and slowly made our way down to the strip for lunch, where we ate at Margaritaville. I have eaten at Margaritaville in Cozumel and Key West and wasn't super impressed with the crazy Vegas version. We then walked the strip to the Coca Cola shop and tried a bunch of Coke products from around the world. We met up with Chelsie and headed over to a magic show. Chelsie had met the magician and he gave us all tickets to his show. After his show, later that night we went to see Chelsie's Dancing with the Stars show at the Tropicana. I was worried Matt would die sitting in the VIP section at a ballroom dance performance, but he did pretty well. After the show, the stars were taking pictures with the VIPs and when Chelsie introduced us to the cast, Matt was bragging that he had taught Chelsie how to dance. She took it in stride... We had a way late dinner at the Tropicana's Beach Cafe and went to bed exhausted!

Dad and Laurie and us at Dancing with the Stars

On Sunday we again slept in and headed out for breakfast on the strip. Every place we drove by had a huge line so it was after noon before we actually got to eat. We saw Serendipity on the strip and decided it sounded good. When we got there, there was a 45 minute wait to get in. Outside the restaurant was a window where you could order food, so we figured we'd get some food there and eat dessert when our reservation opened up. Well, as luck would have it, we waited in the other line for 40 minutes, and just as we paid for our food, our reservation was called. So we went and sat down while my dad waited for our food. By the time our food was done, we had already ordered dessert at the restaurant and were waiting. So frustrating! However, our desserts were divine. I ordered the famous Serendipity frozen hot chocolate which was delicious, Matt ordered a smoothie and dad and Laurie both ordered ice cream sundaes. Needless to say, we all were SICK before we even walked to the car. We actually had to stop inside the hotel and take a break so Matt didn't pass out and Laurie didn't throw up. I guess waiting forever to eat combined with eating mostly sugar (and lots of it), and it being really hot didn't do well with us. We went back to Laurie's parents' house and took naps and hung out for the rest of the night. So much for being crazy in Las Vegas!

My yummy frozen hot chocolate (with which I have a love-hate relationship)

On Monday we headed home. We had a great weekend and although Matt still hasn't taught me how to gamble, I think I can say I've had enough of Las Vegas for a while!

Camping at the East Fork of the Bear

Last weekend Matt and I met Randy, Jenny and the kids, and Lance and Kendra and Rudy for a few days of camping! This is exactly the type of trip that I love: Not a ton of preparation, not a ton of money, but lots of fun and relaxing with family!

Eating ice cream with Harrison- he couldn't get enough!

Matt decided to wear a white polo shirt our first day... needless to say, it didn't last long

Claire spent most of the time during the days catching/killing butterflies

Claire was so funny when we went fishing! She wanted to touch all the fish that the boys caught and even gave this one a big smooch!

Harrison loved riding the four-wheeler almost as much as the rest of us did! It was really fun to ride the wheeler and follow Brad on his dirt bike! He is getting really good!

Matt and Randy having a "Bro-mance" moment together...

Harrison's huge eyes

Our makeshift fire- we couldn't have a real fire so we put the bug candles together and made this fire... Don't worry, we couldn't have started anything on fire even if we wanted to, this fire gave off zero heat!

My Camera Loves These Kids

Randy and Jenny had a fancy work thing to go to a couple weekends ago, so I got to play with the kids for the night! It also gave me a chance to test out the different, cool settings on my new camera! I am loving it!

 Love the red lips all puckered!

Harrison played along with Aunt Tori's picture-taking for a while, but then he was done!

Camping

This weekend I met my family up Little Cottonwood Canyon for a few days of camping! I met them up there on Sunday morning (unfortunately I missed a lot of fun things Saturday night) and we went up the canyon to hike to Cecret Lake. It was pretty overcast but it felt really good.... Until we got to the lake and it started to pour down rain on us! We walked back down to the shuttle, where a lot of people were waiting, and piled a million wet people into the shuttle to go back to the car. Jeff and Jake were the most wet, but we were all soaked! (Cassie was not soaked because she stayed at our camp and read her book in her car)

We hung out around the fire, played cards, talked, ate, and watched Friends out of the back of the Tahoe. Camping Fox style! Alex, Jake and Cassie went home after dinner, so it was just my mom, Jeff and I overnight. On Monday morning the sun came back out and we went up to Snowbird and did a little hike and had lunch! I had so much fun, even though we were only there for a couple days. Thanks mom and Jeff for a fun weekend!