Is It August Already?

Why is it that summer used to last three months and now it seems to zoom by in minutes? We went school shopping yesterday and I wonder where our summer went! In a few weeks we will celebrate two birthdays and the kids (and I) will be back to school. Not stealing the thunder of my annual Christmas newsletter, I hereby post a few summer highlights so my sister-in-laws will stop nagging me to keep this blog current . . . for another 4 months. On our summer vacation we went camping, dual sport-ing, working, swimming, ATV-ing, Nibley royalty-ing, scout/girls camping, jeeping, and yard working.

Proof That This Lunatic Snowboards Too!

I thought I'd post what we do the other half of the year: well, at least from my point of view. First you spend zillions of dollars to re-outfit everyone who grew since last winter: Dragon goggles for James (plus new helmet, pants, coat, gloves, socks...), pink boots with twisty-knob laces to match pink bindings for Maren, and the list goes on. Then you crowd into the Suburban with six snowboards, six (if friends don't come too)bundled bodies, enough food to have kept the Donner Party alive for years (beef jerky, cupcakes, cuponoodles, hot chocolate, oranges, trail mix), and sing "All the Single Ladies" by Beyonce at the top of your lungs through Logan Canyon. At the Beaver Mountain parking lot you frantically scramble to catch up with the kids as they SPRINT for the lift. Then you pray that you don't crash and die getting on or off the lift, only to crash and die (or at least crash and get really, really stuck in the powder in the trees if listen to "OK, Mom, follow me!") on the slope. Either way your cheeks and nose have frostbite, your knees and thighs are BURNING like you've just done a marathon, and then some idiot skier comes flying by you covering you head-to-toe in snow-spray. . .

Seriously, I am having fun learning to snowboard. The kids laugh when it takes me an hour just to make one run (they timed me once), but I promise I will keep at it until I can keep up with them and look like I know what I'm doing at the same time.

UEA 2008 at the Desert

Where did all my babies go? The answer often seems to be OFF IN FOUR DIFFERENT DIRECTIONS! I've been a mom now for almost half of my lifetime and there have been countless little magical moments. I am lucky, some say, to have a variety of boys and girls, and I love listening to them giggle together. One of our favorite family activities is camping and, sadly, we weren't able to do much of it this year. Last weekend for a little bit of UEA we drove west to the salt flats and railroad grade near Kelton, Utah to camp, ATV, and enjoy just being away. My best memory of it all (even better than all the speeding around the the salt flats and the campfires under the billions of stars) was lying with Charles under the desert race tshirt blanket James made a few years ago, listening to my babies joke and laugh and be friends. They were especially relishing the fact that they had just gulped down the entire box of REESE's PUFFs cereal (if you know me at all, you know that the world revolves around REESE's!). Moments like that make me so thankful to be blessed to be a mom. I'll be the first to admit that I have let my Supermom title down a bit since going back to school and that is why I loved this getaway so much. Sometimes our home is not as full of four giggling siblings as it used to be back when the front room floor was covered with every monster truck, lego, sequinned dress-up, and stinky baby we owned and we spent every minute together. Jessica is up at 5:20 a.m. and the day just flies by from there. I remember people saying, "Oh, Shannon, treasure these moments because you'll blink and they'll all be off at school." Well, they were right. I'll continue to treasure the moments I get and promise to make room for more of them in our weeks.

Where did summer go?

Summer 2008 went by too fast! The red wrist cast put a crimp in our adventures and boy, did we celebrate when Dad ripped the stinky thing off! We really enjoy finding scenic photo shots during our family ATV rides such as this one of the kids in the High Uintahs. Mom and Dad also took a business trip to the UK: this shot from atop the London Eye overlooking the River Thames and Houses of Parliament.