"What are we looking at and why are we looking at it?" - MST3k

Mom had no idea what to get me for my birthday. The items on my Amazon wish list were all "too small" to get me, she wanted to get me Something Good. So I racked my brain and I remembered something I saw while at the last visit to IKEA. I told her about it and she was thrilled. So yesterday, we ran to IKEA and with our hulking muscles, we hefted the 90lb bookcase, four wicker baskets, a closet shoe organizer, and a 6-pack of cinnamon buns into the mini van. The buns were so hard to say 'no' to but I managed to only eat one half. The rest went to sis and her babies. Thank you! I hate temptation.

So, with a hammer and my BoHo Pandora station, mom and I put together my latest bit of gorgeous furniture. And here it is:



Gorgeous, no? I've already filled those baskets with yarn according by weight and importance and now my closet looks a lot more bare. Awesome.

The day before, we made Daisy's day and took her to Petsmart.

She's sooo excited to be there!


Oh yes, here's what we came for. A new chain to replace the one that got misplaced.


But what's this? A stand off by the cat-adoption area? Those dogs look pretty worrisome.


Aww, nevermind, they're a trio of lambs with a thirst for headscritches. Everyone was quite polite as far as dogs can be polite.


Daw, happy ending, no one went home with bite marks or hurt feelings from silent snarls. Isn't it wonderful?

It's the Rail Trassah!!!

Saturday was the day for our new tradition of summer Heber Creeping. There's a train in Heber that goes along the Provo River and then back up it again. It's a fun ride, takes about 30 minutes or so to go down to the park where we had a small picnic and then hopped back on to go back up.



The kids seemed to have fun. Actually, they did, I caught them in a bored/serious/unfocused/unposed moment.



See? It wasn't so bad. I think that's a smile.



Nothing better than screaming or shouting at the birds/horses/shrubbery/cars.



And blackening the hands and knees by crawling all over the train and playing/drinking with the sippy cup.



It was fun to snatch at the leaves until the conductor told us to stop because it might tear up our hands (and hurt the trees though he didn't mention that bit).



We saw what looks like a bald eagle nesting though there are alternate reports that it might be a buzzard. Well, I'll call it a bald eagle and get Coolness Points.

Speaking of coolness, have some videos. Here's the brother just enjoying the ride:



And a real hijack of the Heber Creeper!



Pretty fun day, I didn't even get sunburned, hooray for sunblock!

Hanging out

So, I had just about the best birthday present ever. My sister saw an ad for a site for Tandem Paragliding and decided that it was just the thing for me to celebrate my 32nd birthday. So she and my brother got together and paid for me to be airborne for thirty minutes.

If this was some attempt at trying to get my stuff, the joke is on them, I don't HAVE a will yet, nyah! ;D Just kidding.

It was so very exciting though, I loved it!


Classes start at the bottom of the hill.


We didn't go so high but that doesn't matter, we flew and flew.


Eagle Mountain looks pretty good from here.


The grin didn't leave my face all day.

And at the end of the morning, we all had breakfast at McDonald's. The kids loved it. :D

And back

Not that I was really ever gone but I thought I would update this.

Ah summer, bright, comfortable, and a perfect time for construction.



Mom had been watching the grandma of our neighbors on both sides of the fence putting clothes up along the back fence to dry and realized that she missed doing the same with her own clothes. So she bought herself an eco-dryer of her own:



There's something meditative and comforting in putting clothes up to dry. And sunlight is sterilizing, not to mention a great bleaching agent. And it smells fantastic.

Anyways, my birthday is coming up and despite the fact that I don't get along with the figures of authority, I did happen to get a rather nice present:



Isn't it pretty?



I loved the orange colors.



But enough for the flower porn. I just love flowers. But there are other plans for my birthday that my sister and brother have in store. I won't reveal it yet, but it's safe to say that I'm incredibly excited. And a little scared. ;)

I have been knitting, of course. I attended WWKIP on June 12 at the Farmer's Market with a few other fellow Utahns, Lis, Kim, Sam, and her mother Libby.



It was cold and a bit muggy but we had plenty to keep us warm and cozy.



We had plenty of visitors and passed out fliers about where and when we meet to knit and hopefully we wind up with a few new knitters and even more hopefully, they'll look as good as us!



And I finally finished a project!



There we go, updated!