Erin and her friend Shannon on a trip to the pool after school one day. "Disneyland Daddy" spoils her rotten!
Erin swam so much this year with Dad that she has completely gotten over her fear of water and I don't feel so bad that we haven't gotten her into formal swimming lessons yet. Not that I do guilt, but I did feel she might be deprived of the knowledge and therefore the joy of swimming - an activity that both Clint and I love. My Dad was a swimmer in high school and I remember learning from him at Bear Lake which proves you don't HAVE to learn to swim from an instructor you paid to teach you!
We took a day trip to East Canyon since we had never been there before and it was close enough to do in a day one Saturday when we got a wild hair up our you-know-where. Thanks to my cousin, Kerstin, and her fabulous tips, I have now perfected the self portrait with my digital camera. We take a lot of them - especially when there is time to kill - and I love not having to be stuck behind the camera where posterity pouring over my hard drive photos might not realize I even existed. Ok, so this was only one of MANY including lots of funny faces that we took that day while Erin and I hung out on the rocky beach eating peanuts from the shells and feeding the chipmunks. It was kind of a hike down from the truck and it was nice to be out amongst the trees and the rocks.
Clint half-heartedly fished but apparently it isn't a great reservoir for fishing. Oh, wait, it might have more to do with the family of immigrants who were just out of the frame of this photo who had a dog frolicking and a bunch of kids throwing the huge rocks into the water. Look closely and you can see the muddy water they have churned up. No wonder he didn't catch anything. Any fish for miles had bee-lined it far from that area!
On our way home, we stopped at the East Canyon Resort - a place I had heard a ton about from people who have timeshare there - and were promptly told that even though the signs on the road for a mile on either side said they were open and that there was a restaurant that they were actually closed. Are you kidding me? Remember, I'm a pregnant woman at this point. One who if I don't eat regularly, gets sick - very sick. So we headed for home and grabbed a burger on the way down the canyon. All in all, East Canyon is close but we aren't impressed enough to return.
This is part of my team from work participating in the United Way Day of Caring. We went up Millcreek Canyon to a Boy Scout camp and helped run an obstacle course for kids from a school in an underprivileged area of the city. It was sad to think that this place is twenty minutes from anywhere in the city and yet 99% of these kids had never even been to the mountains before. What a tragedy!! It was an awesome experience to volunteer and see what a difference we were making in the lives of the kids. Not to mention that I FINALLY got to go to the boy scout camp my brothers got to go to every summer and I was forbidden from because I was a girl. na na na na naaaa na!
This is my co-worker - Pam - who I now consider a great friend (and who coincidentally is married to another co-worker and friend from my days at the bank who also works with us on the systems team). After the end of the volunteer morning when the kids headed back to school, our team gathered together for a dutch oven lunch cooked by some of the best dutch oven chef's I've ever had the pleasure of being served by. We are lucky to have them working with us!
Another weekend, another day trip! This time to Mirror Lake up in the Uintah Mountains. I spent so much time in these mountains when I was growing up that I guess I take them for granted now. It was like coming home driving the windy roads and seeing all the trees and animals. Erin loves the mountains as much as we do and we have vowed to do more camping every year but it isn't easy with two full time careers and a dancer in the family.
This trip was really a scouting expedition for Clint who was looking for inspiration for a painting he wants to do next. So, I took a book and hung out with Erin - who loved playing in the little stream next to our picnic table site - while Clint hiked around the lake. It was kind of cold and windy but it was so beautiful to see the leaves all changing among the evergreens. Fall is my favorite time of the year.
These are just a few of the photos from around the back side of the lake. I can't wait until there's a painting inspired by one of my favorite places hanging in my house!!
Clint did a guys weekend trip on his bike with one of his buddies. This was his first road trip on the street bike that I "impulsively" bought him the day he had his ACL surgery - TWO YEARS AGO. He's always been a dirt biker and has a ton of time of bullet bikes but he wasn't a fan of the V-star since it is not the bike he wanted or would have chosen for himself but it was the right price and the right terms so I jumped on it. Granted, selfishly I think eventually it will be MY bike and in the meantime it has been sitting in the garage waiting patiently for Clint to come to love it or for me to not be pregnant and confident enough to ride it since it is pretty heavy and intimidating for me still - whichever came first.
I don't know if it was the open road or the beauty of Trappers Loop in the fall that weekend but Clint came back saying "it was the best time he's ever had with his clothes on". He kept raving about how great it was to have ridden 400 miles on a bike without nagging back pain. (I smiled and tried really hard not to use the words "I told you so" very often.)
I guess I'll have to wait my turn to call the V-Star mine until we purchase his dream bike but I'm okay with that.
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