Payson lakes

This post is a little delayed but just to make Sam jealous I felt like I had to include it. We went camping last weekend up at Payson lakes. It was a short but fun trip. We camped out on Friday night where we collected berries, roasted marshmallows, and talked around the campfire. That morning the kids made a fort and Lizzie enjoyed the dirt. We packed up after that and headed down to spend the day at the lake. Some of my family joined us and the kids played in the water all afternoon. Addie and the rest of the girls decided that I had to swim back from the raft when we were in the middle of the lake. I claimed that I couldn't do it because I didn't have my goggles, but Nan let me borrow hers and I had no excuses left. Later we walked around the lake and watched Nick unsuccessfully try to catch fish with his hands before heading back home.

My Weird Kid

Addie found the Parmesan cheese in the fridge last night. As she was carrying it around the house with an unnaturally large smile the following conversation happened:

Natalie - Addie, if you give me the cheese you can have dessert. Do you want dessert?

Addie - Yes, cheese.

Tour of Utah

As most people know Nick and I are a little crazy about bike racing. Nick has always loved it and I have been quickly sucked into the world of teams, leaders, the Maillot jaune, the domestique, the sprinters, the climbers, ect. It gets a little embarrassing when people try empathize with me about his need to watch every stage of the Tour de France since its four to six hours for three weeks and I have to admit that I might be worse, but it is an exciting sport and we love watching it live even more! The Tour of Utah came over the Alpine loop so we went to the top to watch them come over. Addie loves it because she usually manages to grab some water bottles, bells, and clappers.

Alpine Daze

I am not an expert on parades. Luckily I have never let my lack of knowledge about many different subject stop me from speaking definitvely about them, so I am going to do so now about parades.

In the world of parades there are three categories. First there are the crazy Macy's Thanksgiving Day ones that seem overwhelming on TV but I doubt you see more than a baton twirler's toe if you are there. Then you have the small-town ones that really just have Joe and his tractor. Finally you have the Alpine Days parade. This is definitely on the Joe-and-his-tractor level but the difference is that Joe is actually advertising for his tractor services and is throwing candy out by the handful. I think it was a requirement set up by the parade organizers that any float in the parade must throw out more candy than a city full of rabid three-year-olds could possibly pick up. The dentists in the parade were throwing toothbrushes and candy. So the game plan is find a good spot, bring lots of plastic bags, and send the kids into the street to pick up candy thrown at them by strangers which they will inevitably eat before parents get to check if it is OK. If my Mom and Dad are reading this I think they are passing out right now. Oh, there are also lots of big inflatable slides and things with kids running all over, spreading germs. Here are some pictures of the carnage that was the Alpine Days.

Cecret Lake (Spelled correctly, I promise)

We finally got out on a hike last weekend. We haven't been much this year so it was really nice to get out. We went up to Cecret Lake which is not a big hike by any means but really pretty. The hike itself is about a mile long and Addie hiked the whole thing. I didn't even have to threaten her more than thirty times with going back to the car. The highlight for Adds was that there are salamanders in the lake, AKA Swimming Lizards. Some of them were named "Bob" and some of them were "Sophie" but they all had one of those two names. I had the audacity to suggest that one of them didn't have a name, that was almost unforgivable. About the other kid, Natalie carried Lizzie up to the lake; despite all of my encouraging she refused to crawl up (Lizzie that is). She ate her dinner up there and made a very nice mess with the banana and dirt combo (again, this comment pertains to Lizzie. Natalie ate her banana and dirt with realativly little mess). Lizzie followed that up with half of a water bottle. She did great, I think it might have been one of her better hikes. Now for the pictures...

I couldn't resist putting this picture in. The whole pirate look was just too funny.
Now a real smile.
We are looking at the swimming lizards. I think this one was Sophie.
Lizzie saying "hi" with all of her teeth.

One of my new favorite pictures.

Spudman #2

As my addition to the Spudman post I would like to add the following observations:

1. Southern Idaho is not pretty
2. Reza will always beat me out of the water. I've accepted this as an unalterable fact of the universe
3. People who put their sprinklers on the road and sit on their lawn chairs to watch a race go by are awesome
4. Bumping your head into the river bank is not a good way to stay in the current
5. Natalie is tough
6. Old pop-up trailers are embarrassing to setup when you are around people in tents but make up for that in comfort level
7. It costs way to much in gas to get to Burley, Idaho
8. The grilled chicken go-wrap from Wendys is a severely lacking post-race meal
9. In-laws that will watch your kids while you go play are one of the nicest luxuries around
10. Friends that are willing to: fly to Utah from Ohio; drive through not-so-pretty southern Idaho; spend too much money on gas to get to Burley, Idaho; be embarrassed to setup an old pop-up trailer next to tent-campers; and get raked over the coals to try and get their bike back to Ohio just to do a race with you are very nice to have.