Shlepn Seven: July 2011

Monday, July 25, 2011

Back Home

The Open House was a smashing success. The wind was blowing hard enough to knock over the flower centerpieces on the tables, but when 7:00 rolled around, a plethora of prayers were answered as the winds calmed and the temperatures dropped. A perfect St. George summer evening! Denise's backyard was jaw dropping stunning. Seriously something straight off of HGTV. We love the Wades!

It was so fun to have all 7 of our kids along with Steph and Krista there. Everyone stayed, enjoyed cake and had a great time. We got back to the hotel around 11:00 after watching J&L open presents. The next morning we had a fab time at breakfast with everyone at the hotel. Then later we went back to the Wades for some amazing food made from cafe rio recipes. We all decided it was even better than cafe rio. We watched a slide show of the wedding pictures and then headed back up north to Lynndyl. Another round of Utah in a Box (monopoly) and Uno with Grandma. And the next thing we knew we were landing in Baltimore. We came home to colony of cicada killer wasps. There are at least 20 of these mounds all around our yard:

The wasps look menacing, but are actually very passive. They are also very hard to get rid of :(

I have to say that the combination of the wedding, trek, the trip to Utah and now high adventure has left our lawn a complete disaster. I have gone from pulling weeds to just mowing over them. In other news.... it's been hotter than hot around here lately. We're talking heat index of 120 degrees record breaking hot. While I prefer the AC, Bruce and MK would rather go here to cool off:

Fortunately the heat wave has ended just in time for Dad and Mikey to take a hike. A LONG hike. As in 100 miles along the Appalachian Trail. With 8 other scouts and some leaders. Ahhhhhh. Did I mention they are doing this in 6 days? While they are off building their characters I think I'll take MK to Plaka Grill for lunch today:)

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Utah Part II: The Hike and Other Stuff

Lynndyl Highlight: MK drove her own four wheeler for the first time on this trip.

Delta Highlight: Since I don't have a pic of us eating at Hogi Yogi (yep, it doesn't get much better than that) the park will have to do:

I've noticed that Utah is really good at creating fake streams for MK to leap over:

On to Dixie via Provo where we helped move more stuff into J&L's apartment.

and ate at J-Dawgs. Thanks for the Eskimo Pies, Justin!

After driving in the DC area for so long it was a cake walk getting down to St. George. It didn't take long for Bruce and MK to find the pool:

Or for us to find Jeff and Krista:)

We also met up with G-ma and G-pa but they opted out of going with us to Red Robin since it was getting a little on the late side.

MK having too much fun:

After an ever so comfy night's sleep in a Hampton Inn bed we headed out for a crazy insane (at least from this old lady's point of view) hike at Kanarraville Falls. The group we hiked with:

Our fearless leaders, Jordan and his dad, Mark:

Sloshing along in the cold water:

MK scrambling up a ladder:

A chilling waterfall:

meeting a rattle snake:

Dad, in front of the camera for once:

Entering the slot canyon:

Traversing rough terrain

Just hanging around:

Where the wimps turned around.

The cool peeps kept going but caught up to us on the return trip to the car. Next stop, Cafe Rio. Then back to the hotel where some of us went swimming:

While some of us hung out with Nathan and Steph:

Next up: The amazing backyard reception at the Wades:)

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Laura & Jordan's Utah Extravaganza:) Part I

Nothing like an epic trip out west to help us recover from the rigors of pioneer life. Not 24 hours after returning (with a suburban full of ticks) to civilization, we were headed off to BeeWee to catch our flight to SLC. On the way we swung by the Maryland Cruise Port to pick up the honeymooners who had the absolute time of their lives on their trip. MK was in heaven sitting with them on the plane. Not only was our flight early getting into SL, we taxied to our gate in under a minute and our 9 pieces of luggage were among the first off the carousel. It was awesome. Trek tick number one was found on Bruce's collar just before we had lunch at Wendy's on our way down to Lynndyl. L&J came with us and stayed the night after dinner at G-Ma and G-Pa Nielson's. They also got to pick out a quilt that G-ma and her sisters made for them.

All in all a good travel day. We spent the next day helping the love boids build their nest. Tom was especially helpful wearing the hot dog hat G-ma gave him.

After finding the landlord's house for the key to their place we coincidentally ran into 3 of Jordan's friends

at Sonic, where we were having lunch, who helped us move. After watching L&J open a bunch of wedding gifts we helped them get stuff cleaned up and organized.

Then we went to Cafe Rio for dinner where we ran into the same three guys who helped us move. Another co-inka-dink to say the least.
Let us now pause for a moment of silence as we reflect upon our post supper pilgrimage to the Jimmer Shrine, AKA home of the Jimmer Head,

AKA Tom's apartment where he surprised MK with her very own autographed BYU hoops shirt. She couldn't talk him out of the ball.

On Tuesday we hung out in Lynndyl and went on a nice long walk that morning.

MK practicing her mad levitation skills:

and making a friend:

Before we ate at hogi yogi in downtown Delta for a late lunch/early dinner I found trek tick number two on my leg. UGH! Tom came down and we played Uno with Grandma and it was hilarious. The two of them later had an epic game of monopoly that lasted a couple of hours. Tom loves his grandmas, that's for sure.

On Wednesday we headed back north and spent the afternoon with Nathan in Ogden. We ate at a Mexican restaurant that had the best salsa but the entrees weren’t so great.