yw camp 2009

spent 2 days with the girls at camp this year. there's just something magic about camp - you get to be away from the world and you get to see the amazing young women you have the privilege of spending time with. it's the truth.

here are some snapshots i took:

on tuesday, the girls learned how to make lemonade with lemons and candy sticks - it was really yummy. when life gives you lemons...lots of time spent bonding and making new friendshipssome of the girls around the campfire - which i built! it was the first time i have built a fire, i was so proud of myself. sorry if you are reading and have already heard about the fire erin built :)a little dance party time in the cabinthe fearless leaders

the big fat bummer about camp this year is that we all dropped like flies. flu-like symptoms, bronchitis, and even some confirmed cases of swine flu are plaguing the leaders and girls alike post-camp. hopefully we can all recover and be better soon!

Grandma's House

From one of the trips to Monroe in the last month. (and if anyone is wondering, yes, this is actually FILM).

...I'm sure no one is wondering nor cares. Oh well, I'm a geek.

Strawberry Days in Pleasant Grove

I have gone to Strawberry Days since I was a little boy. Both of my parents grew up in Pleasant Grove, and it was always fun tocome see the grandparents and go to the rodeo in the summer. While I haven't been to the rodeo for years, we have tried to get over to the carnival each year. The main reason we go is to get a cup of strawberries and cream. This year, however, Kate was big enough to actually go on a ride. She loves her horse, and we thought she would love the merry go round. She did. I can't believe how expensive rides are! Tickets are $1.50 each, and the merry go round takes 2 tickets, but some rides take 4! That's $6 to take the ferris wheel! They do offer discounts with quantity, or a $25 pass, but still, that is an expensive family outing if you have a few kids that want to go on rides.
The strawberries and cream are well worth the $1.25. It was also worth the $6 for two rides on the merry go round with Kate.

Cousins

We went down and saw the family in Monroe last weekend. These little girls are a handful. I feel bad that I didn't get any photos of Ali, but she was asleep when I got out the camera. This is Karli, Jessica and Trent's new little girl. The pigtails belong to Sophie, who belongs to Annie and Chad.
And... Erin and I had our personal best ever golf game! Look at those scores! If you can't read the card, I got 44 and Erin got 55. I managed to play the whole game with the same ball (also a first). And the "J" is Joe, Erin's dad. He gets 39s consistently.

new post

i haven't taken any pictures lately, so i guess this post will be void of them.

i also haven't posted lately, so i keep feeling the need to do that everytime i walk past the office.

life:

weston is in full work mode. it's lovely. i know the novelty will wear off, but i have been loving the last couple of weeks when evening rolls around and i start thinking, "what should we have for dinner?" or "better start defrosting chicken, etc." it's been fun, who would have thought? not me, for sure. plus, summer cooking is fantastic because everything gets grilled - very easy. he is still working on his moral minority project and still squeezing in skateboarding and live music when he can.

i am in full mom mode. it's lovely, as well. again, i know this novelty will wear off, but the last couple of weeks have felt so good. some days i hop out of bed when kate gets up, she eats, we take off for our daily walk. other days, like today, we eat breakfast in bed, watch a movie, then think about getting dressed to leave the house for the day. speaking of walking, though, i am loving it and have managed to keep up a pace of 5 out of 7 days for a good couple of weeks now. i'm not much for the exercise, but i can definitely enjoy the walks. and the best part about it is the asking kate part:

me: do you want to go for a walk?
kate: thinks about it, shifts her eyes while thinking, then nods her head vigorously up and down and says, " 'kay "
is pretty much adorable

some days the house is very clean when husband gets home, some days (like yesterday) it is frighteningly messy... ah, at least baby girl is fed, dressed, clean, and happy right?

kate is in full blown 16 month old going on 2 year old mode. temper tantrums have nestled in and made a quite comfy home. kate, so far and knocking on wood, has yet to throw one in public where she actually falls to the ground, but she is a big fan of that one at home. she stomps her feet in protest and knocks things over when her wishes aren't quite met. or when the word "no" is thrown out there, that will do it anytime really.

she is a jibberish chatterbox. she has periods of the day where she is spouting off genius thoughts i'm sure, but none of us can understand her. she knows a lot of words, should i list some? haven't thought of that before, here are a bunch:

dada (both weston and me are dada.... i keep trying to get mama in her vocabulary, but to no avail) she may also growl this one for you
grandma/grandpa (gaga)
home
horse
dog
duck
kitty
outside (side)
walk
shoe (although she says sock for this one, even though she knows the difference if you hold them both up)
sock
book
okay
milk
yogurt (gook)
bread
water
this/uh-oh (pacifier)
uh-oh
woops/oops
tree
bird
baby
ball

she knows where her ears, eyes, nose, teeth, hair, hands, toes, legs, and belly button are

okay, that's enough of that, i'm sure. i was also going to list all of the words she knows but doesn't say - don't worry, i'm not going to do that :)

and to round off how kate's doing, here are her stats (from a month ago, anyway)
29 inches and 19 lbs 9 oz - so she's still a little thing, which we love :)

thanks for reading!

so do i now have to call myself a SAHM?

it's really official - today was my last day in the office.it's so weird because mentally i was prepared to leave my job at the end of april. then we stayed. then, in the last 2 weeks, everything changed.

weston got 2 jobs, has been working since monday, and life has been turned upside down ... all in a very good way.

so, today i cleaned up my desk, took care of some last minute tasks, left my list of responsibilities with the proper people, and said my good-byes. it was strangely bittersweet. as i was saying, i had been prepared to leave, then i got to stay, and then in one evening i realized i couldn't really give my boss a solid committment. it definitely surprised me to hold back emotions that surfaced as i said goodbye - didn't expect that.

i'm just hoping that my boss wasn't as excited to get rid of me as michael was to get rid of toby. i suppose i should be breathing a sigh of relief that he didn't want to throw me a big "get out of here, i'm so excited i never have to look at you" farewell party.i am very excited, however, to get to spend all my time and energy with this little ladymake dinner for this hot man of mineand hopefully do a lot of this

SYTYCD - WWYT?

as in, "so you think you can dance - what were you thinking???"

you cut some of the best dancers you had auditioning! we watched last night and were shocked at the people they cut, and kept. it was like, "hey, you're so good and can clearly learn and perform well with any genre, but you're not blowing me away .... see ya, you're cut." meanwhile, "hey, you're not that great of a dancer, but you completely shocked me just now! i had no idea you could learn how to do (insert dance genre), so even though it wasn't actually very good, we're going to keep you because i just didn't have high expectations. welcome to the top 20!"

i.e:tony bellisimo - what the crap? sure, he can entertain, i'll definitely give him that. and it's no surprise to me that he made it as far as he did (except the top 20) on his performance ability. and the guy can clearly learn choreography. but to keep him over any of the following????
ryan kasprzak (right). you kept the wrong kasprzak, people!!! you said, to RYAN, that he should be proud of his choreography because it's what got his little brother in the top 20. ryan got him there, but that aside, ryan is the better dancer!!! and much cuter. take off that cap, ryan, bald is beautiful!!! your brother should take a note and shave his head. and i get so distracted by evan's lazy eyes.natalie reid!!?? what were you thinking????????? this was just infuriating. if you didn't see this, she was in choreography and was killing it. so much so, that choreographer sonya had natalie and brandon (made top 20 by the skin of his teeth, it seems ... he completely needed to be there, the guy is amazing) so she was so impressed with these 2 that she had them show the class how it was done. they were incredible!!! what happens when she performs in her audition? the judges were unimpressed with her because they had crazy high expectations or something. why is it if you are amazing, you get cut because of it??? makes absolutely no sense. sorry, nat, you were one of my very top picks!!!and what about amanda kerby? she was also a fabulous dancer. but poor amanda got the axe. not sure why .... was it the quota? were there too many contemporary females that they simply got cut to make room for other genres? this gets a big, fat L.A.M.E from me. i really would have loved to see her in the top 20. sorry, amanda.

good thing they kept this girl, or i may have had to stop watching all together:forgive both "gymnast" pictures - all i could find. caitlin kinney is my very favorite this year. even since her audition, i have loved this chick. she is an unbelievably beautiful dancer. she is so fluid, graceful, and performs with so much ease. a dream to watch. go caitlin!!!

and here is her audition clip - i also love the song she chose. please watch.

blah

is it just me, or does anyone else get overwhelmed by all the creativity everyone else seems to have? i look at blog after blog with these women who have amazing abilities to make things and sell things and look fabulous doing it :) is this just the picture they are putting out for their blog life? (as opposed to the real life?)

i guess it's just going to be one of those days and i'll feel better tomorrow. it's just that sometimes i come away feeling all inspired but today's the day where i feel like i'll never come close. i guess that's okay. i've always been the type to color inside the lines while staying inside the box. not much creative juice flowing - but i am a great imitator :) and i guess i find joy in that, it does get me to make something.

enough rambling.

i stumbled across this just now and i already feel better.we missed moustache march and may this year...