Last Hoo-rah!

This Labor Day weekend was busy as ever, but we managed to squeeze in some fun. Saturday Skyler helped out the neighbors as they unexpectedly had to replace a REALLY old water heater (gotta love those kinds of surprises). In the meantime I got a phone call from an aunt who was needing a little cheering up so I went over to her place and we canned tomatoes and peppers. This was my first experience canning and I think I could really get into it. We made a giant pot of a salsa type deal, and then she gave me a jar of just tomatoes and a jar of tomatoes and peppers (w/out the onions and garlic) to take home, plus some of what we had made together. I still haven't tasted what we made, so I don't know if I was any good at it or not, but I'll just pretend I was :) It smelled good, that's for sure!
When I got home Skyler and I decided to take a drive up a canyon we hadn't been to yet - I think it was called Neff Canyon?? We didn't get very far on the trail, but we got far enough to realize it's one we'll want to do sometime. Oh, and on the way down we saw the most random thing; this man had a bunch of packing goats that he was training for hikes and he was taking them on a walk up this trail. They got a little distracted by us when we passed by, but when he whistled and called them they followed him. It was so fun to see.
Labor Day we woke up and got ready to go hike this Neff Canyon trail, but moments before we were about to leave I got a call from my sister Heidi. She invited us to come up to her parents get-away home in Huntsville to go boating. Our plans quickly changed :D The weather was wonderful and we had such a good time with Heidi, Nick and the girls, and Heidi's friend Madie (sp?) and her husband Colby. I'll post some pics below - there are some good facial expressions in some of these so look close LOL

Here I am just chillin' on the boat

And here's Skyler manning the tube

This is about as close as a pic together that we got that day

Skyler just can't stop making me laugh (and I hope he doesn't)

Girls got to go first: Here's Madie, Heidi and my niece Alyssa, and me getting ready for the coldest shower (or more like face spraying) of our life!
Heidi's face in this one cracks me up - we were all screaming pretty loud. I really love the second one though because you can totally tell Heidi is mad and yelling at Nick to slow down LOL

The guys got to go next and we made sure their ride was JUST as exciting as ours >:)
Here is Nick, Colby, and Skyler
This was the final jump before the guys then got a little upset and had us slow down LOL This pic was taken right before the tube came crashing down and Skyler flipped off, rolling under the tube. We all couldn't stop laughing. Nick's face is the best in this one.

If there had been a trophy awarded for the person who fell off the most, Skyler would have won. He didn't mind though - it just meant a little more excitement for him. What a trooper!

Our Summer :D

I can't believe it, but summer is ending quickly. I keep thinking to myself that I don't know where it went but then I look back on all of the pictures we've taken this season and I guess we've been staying pretty busy - no wonder time flies! I decided that it would be easiest to recap the summer with a bunch of slide shows and a little "blurb" about each thing so here ya go:

Top of Utah 1/2 Marathon
So this was a beautiful trail. It was gradually downhill for the 1st 6/7 miles through Logan, UT canyon and the last little bit was mostly level through some neighborhoods and ending at a park. Mishelle, Page, and Amanda all did great. Skyler was there at the finish line to take pictures. He even got one of Brother Steadman who is also in our ward. I did not have the best experience with this one, which was VERY, VERY disappointing. I made it to mile 9 and had to get a ride to the finish line - I was SO sick. When I found Skyler at the finish line he had the camera ready and the cutest look on his face and I could tell he was searching for me to be coming down the finish line soon...I burst into tears :( He knew just what I needed and took me in his arms. I was so glad he was there. The only thing that is helping me to get over what I am still struggling to not call a failure is that there was absolutely NOTHING I could do or could have done differently. Hopefully I can figure out what went on and I will beat my one and only 1/2 marathon time from Hobble Creek of 2hr11min.

Happy 80th Grandpa!
My Grandpa Muhlestein turned 80 this year - wow! He keeps joking that he doesn't feel a day over 65 LOL We threw a party for him with all of my aunts, uncles, cousins, and some of Grandpa's siblings. As decoration there were pictures of Grandpa from his lifetime all over the picnic tables. They also had a table set up with some of his memorabilia. The birthday cake was awesome (thanks aunt Amy). It had a screen print pic of Grandpa and then there were things like tools and a hairpiece - things that remind us all of grandpa - because he's a carpenter and used to be a hair piece salesman. My job was to make the "Family Tree". Then we all traced and cut out our hands on green paper and wrote a birthday message to Grandpa. It was a nice visual of all of the people that have been brought into this world in part because of Grandpa - and it made a cute backdrop. To top off the night some of Grandpa's siblings and those that grew up with him, as well my dad, told stories they remember about Grandpa. I liked the story his sister Lily told about the time Grandpa took her around in a little red wagon and tried to sell her for 5 cents. I also like the story she told about Grandpa and his batman costume. Those are wonderful memories to have. Look forward to another 80 years Grandpa! ;)

Well at the party I took a pic of my cousins Chloe, Lauren, and Malorie. As I was taking the pic I said "Hey, something looks familiar." When I got home I found a pic from many years ago of these same cute girls! - same order and everything! I thought that was pretty fun.


Camping and Fishing
Skyler, being the great event organizer that he is, planned a fun camping and fishing trip up Provo Canyon with his friend Jake and his wife Alyssa. A couple of PT's Skyler worked with at the VA hospital came too (Liz and Micah- but we didn't get pics with them) and they were fun to get to know also. We slept in the most random camping spot in grass that reached up to my hip before we smashed it down with our tents. It rained on us a bit, but we didn't let that stop us from having smores and peach cobbler (Skyler's trademark camping desert). We only got in trouble once with the cops who thought we might be some youngsters getting plastered in the mountains. We were all just about to go to bed when the cops came and we were just glad that they didn't tell us to pack up camp! We didn't catch a single fish even though we could see them jumping in the river. I did however see a Black Footed Ferret - that was random and SO cute. Overall it was one of those simple and nice get-aways that we don't get enough of :)

Delta UT -July 18th
Skyler's cousin Jacob Porter got married to a girl from Delta, UT. I had never heard of Delta before, but apparently it is only a couple hours from us here in SLC. What this meant was that we got to go to their reception. This was a lot of fun for us. We got to see some of Skyler's side of the family including G'ma and G'pa Porter and Rodney and Lisa. It was fun to see some of that side of the family without having to travel for 11 hours - only 2! LOL Unfortunately we were so busy talking that we didn't get any pics until Skyler and I stopped on the way home at the only open restaurant at 9p on a Saturday in Delta. We were just being silly, but that's us!

Zions Trip
For the 4th of July Skyler, me, and my BFF (besides Skyler) Amanda all went to Zions National Park and enjoyed some heat (which we did NOT get the entire month of June). Amanda was such a sport ;) to come with us married folk for some cheap-ish fun. The weather was great! We hiked The Narrows (those pics aren't scanned to the comp yet) and Angels Landing. It was dusty and hot, but beautiful. Luckily the Narrows didn't flash flood until the day after we hiked it. That kind of put a damper on our tubing the Virgin River idea - the water looked just like the chocolate river in "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" LOL So instead we just snuck into a swimming pool at a local camper "resort." Good Times!

Happy Birthday Dad!
My dad turned 49 this year - only one more until the BIG 5-0! We made sure to get him some manly gifts like tools and earplugs - he can always use those!



Making a picture frame
I was just proud of this idea. I got a bunch of different scrapbook papers and tore them randomly and glued them to the part surrounding the pics in this frame. It turned out really cute, I think. And it is so fun to look at all of the things Skyler and I have been able to experience together.



Ward Campout
The ward campout was fun. Skyler and I got to teach everyone a new and hilarious game. We will still never think of certain people the same i.e. Jerry Hatch "The Sex Kitten"...yes, I did say WARD camp-out...you don't want to know LOL

This video is hilarious. Lets just say we now always check EVERY pocket in the tent before we pack up.

My Dad is so much fun! He has been entering in parades this past little while; 4th of July, 24th, and here we are at Midvale's Harvest Day Parade. He has a 1945 2 ton Chevy flatbed that he puts in while who-ever sits in the back. Skyler was camping with the scouts so he couldn't come, but Clay had just gotten home from basic training the night before and he got to be there to drive the old truck, while my dad's bluegrass "band" played in the back. I was in charges of throwing candy (very important).

My dad is the one on the guitar (he also played the banjo), and the other two are from my dad's ward.
Page is the girl and the only one you can hear in the video clip, but you get the idea. It was a really fun parade for them to do this in because it went through the neighborhoods in Midvale and they played a couple old-timin' songs that everyone really loved.

Laugh out loud

So our computer that has all our pics on it and the only one that we can transfer our camera's memory card to has crashed! This means that we haven't been able to download any new pics for a while. This led me to looking at what pics were on our other computer and I found some that were taken on my cousin Leslie's computer while we were all in Pennsylvania for my Grandpa Pinky's funeral. I laugh out loud every time I look through these. I don't know if this is because I was there and part of it or what. These are just a few (and I mean a few because we went until 5am doing this and ended up with almost 600 pics LOL) of my favorites. Hope you enjoy them at least a little:

This is one of my sis. Heidi I played around with and changed a little because I thought it was such a cool shot.


Here is one of me with a twisted look...

And then here is Heidi


Leslie started looking like Penelope with her hair like this and her nose taped up LOL

And then a few moments later she pulled off this Jay Leno look

This is one of those I laugh out loud at. Sometimes I look at these and am amazed at how distorted things were

Here are our crazy eye pics: Heidi

Me

Here are all 4 of us (my cousin Josh, Heidi, Leslie, and me)

Big lips run in the family :D

This is about the most normal shot we took. There is no distortion - just a weird color to the pic...oh ya, and our makeovers!

Here is one my aunt Cyndi did. She and my aunt Aly were watching us and cracking up the whole time

This one kind of scares me

And this is one of my favorites of me

Living the Bachelor-ette Life...

Skyler left for Scout camp this morning and wont be home until Wednesday night so I am living the bachelor-ette life again. This has me asking myself "How did I ever spend all this boring time?!" I didn't have a house to clean or a full time job like I do now - what did I do? Anyway, luckily my boss helped me out by asking me to work 3 1/2 hours past my regular shift to cover someone who just this day let her know she was not coming back to work, so I pulled a 7a-7p (a blessing in disguise really). Then since my lame-O friend punked out on me again with our running routine (which it turns out she actually did have a good excuse for, this time), my mom rode her bike next to me while I jogged ~3 mi - Thanks mom :D Now I'm just getting to eating dinner which is the best part of all *drumroll* 2 stale Costco muffin tops - one chocolate chocolate chip, and one poppie seed - and some Ramen noodles that I'm not going to even bother to put into a bowl (that's just another dirty dish to wash, right?)...hey, when there's no one to impress, that's what you get. I think that I'll eat while watching a little Men in Black II and then it's off to bed. I can't wait for Skyler to get home!