Summer boating trip

Campbell got up on skis and stayed up quite a while.

And then Annie got up and was pretty thrilled.

Matt actually got up also, but no one got a picture of it. He said it was because

 he was only up "two seconds," but up is up, so who cares how many seconds?
(How sweet is Jacob's mom, there in the water helping the kids with their balance?)

And Ben is just so cute it is ridiculous.

Tubing fun, as always.

Later in the day, Uncle Danny and Aunt Camie, as well as some of their friends, joined the party.

Love these kids. And I cannot wait until next summer when I can actually

ride on the boat without worrying about complications during pregnancy.

Summertime is the best!

I dreamed a dream this awkward moment was over

Today I was playing the piano and it reminded me of a story I've never shared on this blog. And it is one Jacob's favorites (and possibly mine, when I can think about it without blushing), so I wanted to have a family record of it.

A few years back, my parents decided that as a combined Christmas gift for our whole family, they would give us a piano (or at least a good chunk of money toward a piano). We were so excited and started taking a look at used pianos in our area (Boston at the time). We found a couple that looked promising and I called to schedule a time to take a look at them.

The next evening, Jacob and I drove a few towns away to take a look at a Baldwin upright that I was excited about. The woman I made the appointment with answered the door and took us right up the stairs to the piano she was selling. It looked like it was in good shape, but we were definitely curious as to how it sounded. She offered to let each of us play.

Now a little explanation...

Jacob plays the piano really quite well. He can definitely sight read much better than me and often accompanied during church meetings when we lived in Massachusetts.

I, like most people I know, wish I played better. I took lessons for a few years and progressed quite quickly, but didn't do the work I needed to in order to have a better foundation for piano. I can play a few of the hymns very well and a few more with great mediocrity. I accompanied in church during our time in Boston more often than I would have liked to, but it was definitely due to a lack of pianists in our ward (we had three for most of the time we lived there, including Jacob and myself), rather than my skill. In addition to my poor hymn playing, I also know four or five other songs that would be familiar to many people. And by the word know I mean I can play three or four lines at best of them.

I'm a skilled performer as you may have gathered.

So when this woman offered to let us play the piano, Jacob sat down and played a few lines of several different songs. I could see in his eyes he wasn't incredibly impressed with the sound of the piano, but he wanted me to play to see what I thought.

So I did.

And for some unknown, now regrettable decision, I started to play I Dreamed a Dream from Les Misérables.

Do you see at all where this is going? I did not. Boy howdy. I. Did. Not.

I played the few measures of the intro and then started into the part of the music where the words begin. I don't have the entire song memorized, but I was only planning on playing a few lines anyway. And yet, as I started into the part of the song with lyrics, something happened. Something a tad (read hugely) unexpected.

From the next room, the kitchen I believe, came an older woman. Maybe the aunt or mother or even grandma of the woman selling the piano? And she didn't just walk into the room to be friendly or say hello or even to listen to the beautiful song that was being played.

She came in singing.

Singing, folks.

With what appeared to be every part of her heart.

Oh help us all, now what do I do?

She not only seemed to know every word to I Dreamed a Dream, but it also appeared to be a favorite song of hers. One that she felt very passionate about.

And not only did I feel close to as awkward as I have ever felt in my life (and sweet waffles, that is saying a lot), I was quickly running out of notes to the song that I knew.

And from the look on this woman's face, that was not going to do, because she was into this song and enjoying her self quite a bit.

(And I'm not sure it helped that Jacob seemed to be almost turning purple in an attempt to refrain from hysterical laughter.)

I continued to play, she continued to sing with all of her heart and my heart continued to race with panic about how I was going to stop this thing without crushing the dreams (pun intended) of this older woman.

So I handled it with as much grace and tact as anyone could have hoped for.

Or I abruptly came to a stop and mumbled something about not remembering the rest of the song.

(Might as well have stomped on the woman's heart and told her she had no hope of making it to Broadway.)

And then we quickly told the woman who was selling the piano that we would get back to her after we had seen some others, if we wanted to buy her piano. And made our escape into the cold night.

Where Jacob at least had the decency to wait until we were in the car to let loose on his laughter.

And I sat mortified and wishing I had nary taken a piano lesson. Or at least pretended like I could play the piano better than I can.

Now I can laugh about it. Mostly.

It was traumatic enough that I still get this kind of awkward pit in my stomach just thinking about it.

And the worst part is that the piano sounded too tinny, so the trip was a bust because we didn't even buy it.

Which actually may have been a blessing, because the thought of facing the singing woman again was a little too much for me to take.

After all, I only had two or three more options of partial songs to accompany her and I'm not even positive there are words to Pachelbel's Canon in D.

From the driveway of my parents' home

I didn't even realize I had caught an airplane in there until I uploaded the photo.

 Desert sunsets are truly amazing.

Some photos from Julys past

 1999

 2000

2003

2005

2007

2008

2009

2012

On the way home from getting together with friends

Nate never met a collection of water...

...he didn't love.

I seriously love fireworks!

Adams Canyon hike

Love this baby boy

Phone photos ~ Part III

And one last post and two very miscellaneous phone photos. 

The day we had my niece over to play, we went out to dinner with my sister and her family and then 

to a nearby park for the kids to play for a while. It was such a fun night and I drove home still in awe

that we lived close enough to get together with family whenever we want to. What a blessing.

A few days later, Matt had his first official team soccer practice (he and Cam are playing 

club soccer in the town we are building our home in) and it happened to be at the field

next to the junior high both Jacob and I attended growing up. What a very strange feeling.

Phone photos ~ Part II

My darling niece came over to spend the day with us last week and we had such a great time 

with her. She and Annie are very similar in personality and I seriously love that girl. She is

as beautiful on the inside as the out for sure and I would keep her more than an afternoon

(more like ten afternoons--plus all the time in between) if her mom would let me. 

While she was here, we decided we needed to go try out a shaved ice place that is close by

and that seems very popular. They only had three sizes, so we asked how big they were. 

The girl taking our order held up a cup and pointed generally to give us an idea. We still

weren't exactly sure what she meant, so to be safe, we ordered each of us a small and

then feeling generous, decided to order a medium for the boys at home to share.

Um, yeah, so this was the small. We could not quit laughing when they 

called my niece's name and she walked up front to get her shaved ice.

But my laughter quickly turned to horror when they called my name and handed me

the medium we had ordered for the boys. Sweet shaved ice, how were we going to 

keep this in one piece during the short drive home? And an even better question, 

what in the world does the large look like? I'm hopeful we never find out.

But for the record, it really was the best shaved ice I have ever had.
(You should probably take into account I've had shaved ice one or two 

other times in my entire life, but still...it was something else.)

Phone photos ~ Part I

I don't take many photos with my phone. I'm sure I should, but it just isn't something I think about
often. So when we had our first accident involving my phone and a toddler (we've gone almost fifteen
years without a phone tragedy, so I'm grateful, but I was still sad to lose my phone that I've really loved),
I took the few photos off my old phone and decided to share them here. Just because they made me smile.

On the plane from MA to UT in May. I looked over a few minutes after takeoff and smiled
because of the sweetness and almost cried from the joy. A sleeping baby on a plane--the relief!

Nate absolutely loves our neighbors' dog. And while he is a big one, it is so gentle and calm and
 perfect for Nate to be around. Nothing better than the advantages of a dog, without having to own one.

Ben requested this photo after a haircut. I adore this boy so much. He is growing up

so fast, yet he still has that sweet, innocence about him. He sure makes us all happy.

Wastach Back: Ragnar Relay

This past Friday and Saturday, Jacob did something pretty awesome, in my opinion.

Ever head of the Wastach Back? Yeah, well Jacob and eleven of his new coworkers ran it.

And boy howdy, it was beyond impressive to me. Two hundred miles, twelve runners,

continuous running...believe me, I was impressed, but not wanting to join the party anytime soon.

Or ever. I don't think I could run two miles on only three or four hours of sleep, never name three

legs of a race that were definitely longer than two miles each and that had some scary hills involved.

We were able to go to see him in his last leg. Here he is coming our way.

He is either happy about all of our screaming or a little embarrassed.
Probably both. Which is why we yelled extra loudly.

All kidding aside, Jacob did absolutely awesome, considering he had already run two of his

legs and that he switched someone to run one of the longer last legs, with a big hill at the end.

He told me later his legs just kind of shut down the last three miles, but he didn't stop.

This is all of us (including his parents who live just ten minutes away from his final leg location) waiting

at the second spot along the way, waiting for him to come by again. This time with the kids' signs.

Here he comes again. And look at those mountains. It appears we live in Utah, folks.

This is after he ran past all of our cheering and yelling for the second time. I just

happened to catch a photo of him with his work van following him to the next water

drop off. Their motto on the side of the van was "our nerds are faster than your nerds."

And waiting for Jacob the third time. Again with the kids' homemade signs.

Here comes Jacob again and this time the kids decided to run a few seconds with him
(except for sweet Campbell who insisted on holding Nate so I wouldn't have to).

Just a few more feet running with their dad and then they would leave him to make it up the

big hill. I have to say, this part broke my heart. I was holding back tears knowing how

tired he was and what he had ahead. I knew he could do it, no doubt about it, but it was

still hard to see how worn his body was--even if his running times were still amazing.

(Oh, and I should add that just a couple of weeks ago, an orthopedic doctor told Jacob that

he had likely torn his meniscus and would soon need surgery to repair it. Not sure that

helped this pregnant lady and her emotions as she watched Jacob start up the hill.)

And finally, he came around the corner to the last few feet before he turned the

next leg of the race over to the next runner. It was pretty awesome to see.

We love you Jacob! Thanks for doing hard things, so we can all be motivated by how incredible you are!

Hiking close to home

Behind my parents' home is a hill that is really great for hiking. Jacob and the kids

have been up it more than once and the view is amazing every single time. 

There really are some great perks for being back in Utah.