Summery Summary

I am so proud of my title cleverness.

I am easily amused these days.  Exhaustion?  Being confined to a home office in Heber? Just plain being awesome?  Probably.

Whew so where has the time gone?  This summer seriously flew by.  I have mixed feelings about this. So here are some nonsense ramblings about what we have been up to.  They are in no order, have little relevance to anything, and probably don't matter to anyone.  But Isla is napping, I just finished the submittal from hell, and I feel like writing.  Consider yourself warned.

If you know me very well at all, you can attest that I HATE the heat.  I hate being hot.  The only thing I hate worse than being hot is not owning a boat to be on a lake when it's too freaking hot.  More on that later.  But I have never had to be home all day to fully appreciate the sauna affect that a home produces in the blistering 3 - 4 week mid-summer heat wave.  Did I mention that we don't have air conditioning?  Well we DON'T.  Which isn't normally a problem, except during said 3 - 4 week period.  So we do the best we can, wear as little as possible, and try to complain as little as possible.

Aaron and I recently realized the magical time-zapping power that babies have.  Having Isla around has made our lives seem sooo much busier than we ever realized.  I think of the quote from Anchorman when Ron Burgandy is speaking to Baxter who just ate an entire block of cheese, "I'm not even mad, that's incredible".  But to get a little sensitive on you here... it really has made us come to appreciate the small and simple things in life.  A peaceful shower is nothing short of a miracle.  And the days that I actually get to wash/dry/style my hair after said miracles are priceless gems.  Days that I don't have to run pushing a jogger are like little presents that Aaron gives me.  And there is a lot of improvising and creativity going on with making things possible with Isla. (ie, Aaron mowing the lawn with Isla in a hiking backpack)  

This summer has dreadfully and semi-unintentionally been dedicated to home improvements.  To sum it up - it is the price of a sweet vacation, but a TON more work and not as much fun.  Lame.  But many loads of soil, many yards of concrete, countless railroad ties, and buckets of drywall mud later... we are still in the midst of 1,000 projects.  

As spring was coming to an end we vowed to each other we would go camping at least twice a month.  HAHAHAHA.  This weekend will be our first time of the summer.  Things just always kept coming up.  And that's a stupid excuse.  

My garden is my secret passion.  I have loved working in there pulling weeds and talking to my plants.  (A little tactic I picked up from Sue.  She swears by it.)  Isla loves to sit out in the garden in a diaper and make muddy messes.  And let's be honest, eat the mud.  But she loves the garden too.  Aaron used be a BIG hater on my garden.  But when served fresh produce daily from the backyard he has become very stoked on it.  

Now for the fun stuff (and probably the reasons we don't meet our camping goals).  Aaron decided that our family didn't have enough hobbies and that we needed to get into road biking, cycling, whatever you call it.  You know, what those Euros do in Tour de France.  Aaron initially got the ball rolling, but I soon followed in suit as I am not one to sit idly at home and babysit my weekend away.  Aaron has been competing in several races including Tour de Park City and he's actually pretty good.  I am sure his unexplainable Fat Boy consuming skinny little body plays to his advantage here.  With what I call the "equalizer" (a trailer for Isla) hitched on behind Aaron, we are able to pedal around nicely and at a relatively similar pace.  I still run avidly and am currently training for the Dirty Dash.  A 10k race through pure muddy hills.  Yay.

The rest is just jibberish details.  We enjoy eating out on the patio most mornings and almost every night.  Aaron consumes anywhere between 1 and 4 Fat Boy ice cream sandwiches a day.  Aaron and I both have great jobs and bosses/coworkers and we feel so blessed.  Isla is just a doll all of the time.  We have had some awesome family parties this summer, campouts at the ranch, shooting tournaments, volleyball battles, lots of fishing, boating when possible and of course, all the horse riding we can squeeze in!  I got a sewing machine and consequently have about 12 half-finished projects.  I am constantly trying to keep the house clean (unsuccessfully) but sometimes that's what summer is all about.  What can I say?  I LOVE this family of mine.

We celebrated our 5 year anniversary with a wonderful date night ALONE!  The first date night we have enjoyed since Isla was born!

One of our favorite things about summer? Lemonade stands.  Aaron ALWAYS makes us stop and support the young entrepreneurs.  

And that's about it.  We have been so busy that we really haven't even been able to take many pictures.  Here are a few that I could dig up...