Summer = St. George

What would summer be without at least one trip to St. George to enjoy a little 110 degree weather! Sadly, I think this is going to be my last Summer = post...summer apparently is ending and fall is upon us! :(

However, a few weeks ago we were able to do just that. Brigitte and Tyler invited us down for the weekend. We stayed in Tyler's family's condo and had a great time. My car had been in the shop a few times over the last month so we left a little early thinking that if my car happens to break down that Brigitte and Tyler would be behind us and could pick us up. Well just as luck would have it, our car worked just great. However, about the time we got to Cedar City, Brigitte called to say their car broke down in Scipio. Luckily the other couple that came down, Kim and Milan, were close enough to turn around and go get them. So we all made it down there.

So what did we do...what else do you do in St. George, we shopped, ate, hung out, saw a movie and slept. It was a great weekend, it went by way too fast, and luckily we all made it home without any more car problems. Thanks Tyler and Brigitte for inviting us, it was a great weekend!



I didn't realize Brigitte and I were so matchy match...and still not sure why Brigitte was trying to hit me in the leg?


Milan, Kim, Brigitte and Tyler

Summer = Girls Camp

I have officially attended my first Girls Camp since I was 14 years old. Yep...I rebelled and never went after I was 14. I am NOT a camper and back then Girls Camp was always just as it reads...camping. This year it was more along the lines of a Girls Retreat. It was just our ward so we were lucky enough to use someone's cabin in our ward. Lucky us!! We had 32 Young Women and 7-8 leaders. The cabin was down by Scofield Reservoir and it had enough bunk beds for all the adults to use. Then the girls 'camped' out on the carpeted floor for the very few hours they were asleep.

We had a great time...we went on a 'hike' (it was more of a walk.) Right as we were about to start back it started raining and coming down pretty hard. We were all soaked by the time we got back and pretty muddy. We played some games based off of the 'Survivor' theme and the girls all had to eat some interesting things. Love being a leader so that I don't have to participate in those things, just watch and take pictures. We made some camp journals, had a few speakers, played lots of card games and ate and ate and ate. The food was delish.

It was only 2 1/2 days and just as everyone was getting really tired and probably turning cranky and emotional, it was time to clean up and come home. It was so nice, there was no drama and fun was had by everyone there.

Here are some pictures from the week:

All the YCL's or as I call them 'My Laurels'


For you Emily...I told you I was going to post it, you blog creeper!

Summer = Bugs?

Ok seriously I still get the shivers just thinking about writing this story. So last night about 10pm I was in Shane's office chatting away and I decide to go to the kitchen to get a snack. As I am walking by our front door on our wood floor, I am about to step down when something just under my foot starts moving.

I freak out!! Scream!! Run!! And yell at Shane to get out here!! We flip on the lights in the entry way and this is what I see crawling across the floor, well crawling pretty fast:



Seriously, the body itself was easily 1.5 inches. So what does Shane do?? He brushes it out onto our porch and closes the door...like well that's the end of that. OH NO!!! I was NOT about to just let him brush it outside, so I ask him why he didn't kill it? His response? It's Sunday! Seriously!!!???!!! And he just goes about life like nothing has happened. Meanwhile I'm still totally freaked out that maybe it's going to crawl back in...what if it had babies, maybe our house is infested, etc. etc.

I think Shane finally realized I was NOT going to just let this drop so he went and got bug spray and went out and sprayed it (why couldn't he just smash it I still don't understand?) So it was doused with bug spray and brushed into the bushes. Oh great, so now it's in the bushes mating with his friend producing more.

Ok I know I'm being overly dramatic but when I finally sat down to eat my bowl of cereal, I started gagging thinking about it and couldn't finish. Ok I'm a freak, I admit it.

I thought it was a cockroach but consensus at work today says it's some type of beetle. I haven't seen anything this big since my mission in Australia where I had to kill cockroaches this big on a regular basis. Hint, put bowl over big cockroach, wait overnight, remove bowl and it's dead. They crawl up the bowl, fall over on their back and die. I LOVED learning that on my mission, that I didn't have to smash them.

PS I do have to give Shane credit for taking care of the problem, as I don't know what I would've done. I was paralyzed with fear. I love being married!!

Summer = A busy blog slacker

I'm still here! Did you wonder where I was? Yeah, it's summer and my sit inside and work on the computer knack has gone away. Probably because I've been busy enjoying summer.

So I'll get you all caught up in the next several posts of Summer with a promise to try to post more often so I don't get behind.

Summer = Cancer Free

Maybe the most exciting piece I have to share with you is that I had my 2 year scan about a month ago and everything came back clean and perfect! Yeah! So I've hit my 2 year mark which is the big milestone you want to hit for Hodgkin's Lymphoma. Apparently my chances of the cancer coming back went from about 15% to less then 2% now. I LOVE seeing that percentage going down.

I thought when I hit the 2 year mark I'd have a big celebration, some sort of party. But so far I haven't. I still might but nothing has really come to me as to what to do to celebrate. Any ideas?

So...the plan now on my health is that now I only have to go to the clinic every 6 months instead of every 3 months...yeah. But I still have to get scanned every 6 months (I thought it moved up to a year, oh well.) However, instead of a PET scan like I have been having, I only have to have a CT scan. Berry Barium here I come...mmmmm (ok really it makes me want to gag thinking about having to drink that stuff!)

And an update on my hair for history sake. Here is my hair growth of 2 years, minus some trims to get it to one length.



So that's the update. CANCER FREE!!!

Summer = Concerts

We've been going to a ton of outdoor concerts and events this summer and the best part is that they've almost all been free. Who doesn't love throwing a blanket down on some grass and listening to music? It's one of the true signs of summer for me!

We've been to see Peter Breinholt at Draper historic park, Ryan Shupe at some political event (I was there to hear Ryan not for the political event, so much so that I didn't even vote for the guy...should I be admitting that on here, oh well.)

We also went to the opening of the new Draper ampitheatre where we saw the Utah Symphony perform. It was fun because they performed movie themes like ET and Harry Potter.


Then we spent both nights at Draper Days this year. Have I told you how much I love Draper. I do...maybe I should save my love for Draper for another post...until then, just know that I LOVE Draper! We saw Collin Raye and then the next night was Beatlemania and Fireworks. Beatlemania was NOT good I didn't think but loved Collin Raye. I think Shane wouldn't have minded skipping both nights but he was a great sport to go with me both nights.


The 4th of July was spent in Sandy with some of my family. Not sure who performed but they played a bunch of songs from the 80's and so we all enjoyed it. And then of course the fireworks at the end were great.


This last weekend, Brigitte and I went and saw Tim McGraw in concert at Usana. We got grass seats at the last minute and had a great time. I hadn't been to a big country concert in a while so it was fun to go to one and hang out with Brigitte.

Summer = Hiking

Brigitte and Tyler invited us to go hiking a few weekends ago. We hiked of Bells Canyon, not too hard of a hike and it was fun to see the views and the lake up there.

That hike inspired Shane and I to go on a few others. One other one that I really liked was hiking to Secret Lake (some spell is Cecret, I saw both and not sure which one is right.) It was a little early in the season for wild flowers but it was a good hike and fun to hike when it's so hot outside and then all of the sudden you come to a big pile of snow to walk across. Then the lake still had a frozen section in the middle.




The other thing we did which isn't really hiking, well hiking in your car out west. We went to Kennecott Copper Mine. Of all the years I've spent in Utah, I've never made it out there to see it up close! So it was a fun little afternoon trip one day. We didn't stay real long but still fun to see.