There's No Map, And A Compass Wouldn't Help At All

Thursday, I took the kids on the shortest hike I have ever been on.  It was awesome.  There was a waterfall at the end.  It's this place up Big Cottonwood Canyon called Hidden Falls.  I took a bunch of pictures, and will share them with you now.  I'll warn you, though.  They are a bit overexposed.  But I think there's still good.  :)

 When you get to the start of the trail, you see this sign, but don't go up that way.  The waterfall is to the left and over a fallen log over the stream.

 So my kids see this and automatically want to do the opposite of what the sign says.

 My friend invited me along with her and her sister and a bunch of other moms and kids.  It was fun.

Pretty cool place, eh?

Summer's In the Air Now

Sunday night, our air conditioning died.  It was the worst possible thing that could ever happen.  Okay, so I'm exaggerating a lot.  Monday morning, I talked to my friend whose husband is a heating and air conditioning guy.  He told her to call him directly and we arranged for him to come later in his shift if he could get to us.  He told me to call him at four if he hadn't gotten to me yet to remind him.  4:30 came and he hadn't gotten away, yet so I called.  He told me he had one more person and barring no emergency calls, he could get to me.  6:30 came and my friend called me.  She tells me he can either come right then and charge me the after hours fee, or come at 8 or 9 and he'd do it for free.  Well, I think free is always way better than not free, so I asked Kurtis what he wanted me to say and he said free.  What's another couple hours, right?  I felt kind of bad at the same time, though because I didn't want him to feel like we were taking advantage of him or weren't grateful for his help.  It was really, really hot inside my house, though.  The temperature got up to 94 degrees.  I drank a lot of water that day.  He came, he almost lit the house on fire, he and Kurtis ran to the hardware store, he fixed it.  I could have cried.  My friend came with her husband and when she came inside, she said, "It's cooler outside than it is in here!"  It really was.  I had the windows open all day, too.  

It seems to be running so much better than it has in a couple of years, now.  He also told me a few things about maintenance that I didn't know I was supposed to do, too.  Like did you know you are supposed to spray off your air conditioner at the beginning of each season? I didn't.  My parents didn't get air conditioning in our house growing up until after I moved out, so I guess I don't have much experience in that area.  I remember asking Kurtis what we should do to it when we first moved in and he had no idea either and the idea of spraying an electrical device off sounded like a bad idea. Considering that water and electricity don't really mix well with each other.

Any way, I asked my friend what his favorite treat is and she told me he likes lime Popsicles.  Well, that's cool.  I was expecting to make him a cheesecake or something.  Yesterday, I took them over to him and he told me that we are blessed because it was such an easy fix.  He went to a home the night before and they had a much worse and more costly fix.  I said, "Yes, we are.  We are very lucky."  "No." He said, "You are blessed."  Too true.  Blessed is a much better word.  So many times.  Our roof didn't get nearly as much damage as many of the other homes in our neighborhood during the horrible windstorm in December.  We have ugly patches on our roof, but we'll get to the new roof next year (I hope).  Our water heater still works, and we haven't needed to replace our heater, yet (knock on wood!).  These things are little and minor, but I do feel like we are being watched over and that we are truly blessed.  My heart is full of gratitude to God and our friends and family.  We certainly seem to have the best ones.

I took a picture of the thermostat in my front room at about 5:30 Monday afternoon (the time stamp is wrong).  My thermostat doesn't tell me how hot it is outside.  That's how hot it was inside my home that day.  I checked it a few minutes later and it was up to 94!  Yikes!  So grateful to be much more comfortable now.  Especially since the last two days have been in the triple digits.  That doesn't happen here very often.  :)

And No, I Did Not Need Training Wheels This Time

Tuesday was my birthday.  I was going to blog about it yesterday, but yesterday, I didn't really do anything except have a Stampin' Up! workshop at my house.  Yep.  I'm still a demonstrator.  Just let me know if you need anything. ;)
Tuesday, though.  I did a bunch of stuff.  I got a bike for my birthday and so the kids have been wanting me to ride with them.  We rode around the block.  Once with just me and Zach and the other with all three of them.  Except Kaleb said, "I want to run.  I don't want to ride my bike."  We're still working on the training wheels coming off.  He did run most of the way, though.  Oh, here's something funny.  When I told Kaleb I was going to get a bike for my birthday, he said, "Mom, when you get your bike, are you going to need training wheels, too?"  Ha ha!  He's so cute.  It has been a very long time since I have ridden a bicycle, though.  Apparently, he's never seen me on one. :D
I'm the Assistant Wolf Den Leader in the cub scouts, and so we had a den meeting that morning.  We did all the stuff to pass of Achievement number two.  It's called "Your Flag".  We talked about our country's flag and how to treat it respectfully.  We did the outdoor ceremony in my neighbor's yard (she has a flag pole she told us we could use).  We came back to my house and talked about our state flag.  There are two dates on Utah's flag.  One says 1847, and I explained to them that is when the Mormon pioneers first arrived in the Salt Lake Valley.  Then I asked them why they would also put the year 1896 on it.  Riley (who is a Bear) just happened to be there and chimed in, "Because that was the year you were born!?"  Hahahahahahaha!  That's hilarious!  I said through fits of laughter, "I don't think they would put the year I was born on a flag just because it was the year I was born, Honey."  I think he was just all caught up in the excitement of it being my birthday.  My little wolf, got it right though.  He said, "Because that's when we became a state."  I also informed Riley that I am not 116 years old.  My partner laughed too, and said, "So does this make your second or third family?"  I replied, "Well, it's my fourth.  My first was all killed by vampires in 1912.  They just couldn't kill me, too.  They were awestruck by my beauty."  :D
After scouts, I ran to the store for a few things, came home, ate lunch and rode my new bike to my friend Amy's house.  She's moved and needed some help cleaning her old place.  I came after everybody else had left, so I didn't have to do too much.  I cleaned her bathroom, took some strings off the lights in the kitchen, washed the patio sliding door, helped her pack up some stuff into her car, and then we talked for half an hour before her kids started yelling that they'd been in the car forever (the air conditioner was on), and that they needed to go!  I'm going to miss her.
Then I was supposed to go home and clean up my house, but I didn't do that.  I played Farmville instead.  It always takes me longer than I think it will.  I should have learned by now.
Then I decided I needed to start making dinner.  I was having a few of my friends over for fry bread tacos.  I make good tacos.  Kurtis had made me a red velvet ice cream cake with Belgian chocolate ice cream and cream cheese frosting.  It was heaven!  I went looking for an ice cream cake recipe (because I didn't want to pay for one this year), and I asked if he would make it for me.  He surprised me by saying yes!  Woo hoo!
While my friends and I were partying it up, one of them informed us that our neighbor with a swimming pool posted on facebook that she was having a ladies only swim.  So I went to that and practiced my synchronized swimming moves while talking to some of the ladies in my neighborhood.  I had a really great day.  Riley gave me a card, I handed Kurtis the card I made myself when I was making everybody their birthday cards way back in January, and he had the boys write me notes and he wrote me a love letter. :)  I'm blushing just thinking about it.  :)
Yeah,  I think I'm a pretty lucky girl.  :)

Well, of course because it was my birthday, I didn't take any pictures.  But because I didn't take any pictures, nobody else did.  It's kind of, pretty much just me who takes the pictures in this family. :)  But this is my new bike!  It's so pretty. :)

Let Your Colors Burst

For the fourth of July, we didn't go any where.  We usually go to my parents' house, but somebody had this great idea to get them Stadium of Fire tickets for my dad's birthday.  Emily.  ;)  He he.  They had a blast and said their seats were the best seats for the firework show after the Beach Boys concert.  The seats in relation to the concert, were just okay.  Any way, so everybody came to my house instead!  Emily and Joel came.  Rodney and Jeremy and even Lili and Michael came after dinner.  We ate the London broil I grilled up (yes, me), and some baked potatoes.  Jeremy brought a salad and Emily and Joel made a very yummy dessert.  Then we watched Thor on Netflix, and went to the city fireworks show.  I forgot to take pictures of everybody stuffing their faces, but I did take pictures of the fireworks.  Here's a few:

 I thought this would make a cool picture.  It's the reflection of the fireworks on some stranger's car window.

Maybe this can be our new tradition. :)

When the fireworks were over, a bag blew over to us.  Kaleb got really excited about it and Kurtis said, 

"Awesome!  Now we know what to get you for your birthday!"  "Wait.  Nooo!"  Muwahahahaha!  The next morning, he put some tape around the bag and drew a face on it.  He's so creative.  :)

See These Eyes So Green

So all my life, I have wanted a cat.  My mom always said, "No.  I'm allergic to cats."  For a really long time, I felt like there were too many people in my life allergic to cats, so I couldn't have one if I wanted them to be able to come to my home.  But apparently, I'm over that.  Cats are awesome.  My children keep begging me for one, and my birthday is on Tuesday.  I'm getting a cat!  My friend's cat had kittens awhile back, and before I could tell her I wanted one, she had already given them all away.  She told me she had posted them on our local classified site and they were all gone by the end of the week.  She also told me that our neighbor had a wild kitten that just needed to be petted and it would be tamed.  I nodded and smiled at that.  I mean, really?  I don't know about that.
So a week or two later, I was looking at the local classifieds my friend mentioned to see what we could see. Well, that cat ended up being posted on there along with a few other kittens.  Most people wanted me to buy their kittens.  I decided to just go ahead and give this poor little kitty a chance.  I mean, he's wild, but aren't we all a little wild?  I called the neighbor and Zach and Riley came with me to pick him up.  He's so tiny and so cute!  Then he hissed and me, and I was in love.
We quarantined him to our laundry room for a couple of days.  Just feeding him and trying to get him used to us.  Kurtis got him to eat out of his hand the night I went to the concert.  I was so jealous.  Animals kind of freak me out a bit.  I love them, but I don't know what to do with them.  I blame it on the fact that I just didn't grow up with them. I'll figure it out.  The next day, Kurtis showed me what he did and he was eating out of my hand too (and the kids').  :)  Well, I was getting kind of depressed that I couldn't bond with my kitty and hold him and Kurtis could tell how I was feeling, so Kurtis said, "You know what?  I'm just going to pick him up and see what he does."
It wasn't easy getting him out of the dog carrier our neighbors lent to us, but he did it!  We are now able to hold our kitten and he doesn't hiss at us any more!  I'm so excited.  :)  We haven't really let the dogs meet him just yet, but I think things are going to be just fine.  :)

 Kurtis is trying to feed him a small bite of baloney, but he was too nervous to eat at first.

Kurtis and I were talking about what we should name him.  We think he's a boy, but we're not experts, so we're still not sure.  Any way, he suggested we name him Moka from some Anime he watched once.  I looked up the word cat in Japanese and it's Neko.  I was going to name him Moka, but then I accidentally called him Meko, and I liked it.  So his name is Meko!  He's adorable!

Well, I'm Just Gonna Do Here What I Gotta Do Here

I like to blog about my life in the order that things happened, but I think I need to stop caring about that.  It's not as important as I think it is.
I am so freaking tired today.  Last night, I came home at a reasonable hour.  I went to bed at 1:45, or so.  I was almost asleep when my husband finally came to bed.  Which, of course, woke me up a little.  Then, this morning, he woke me up at 8:00.  "Are you still going to take me to the motorcycle place?"  Kurtis' bike is leaking gas.  I want to kill him.  "What time is it?"  "It's just after 8."  The motorcycle place doesn't open until 9.  "Yeah.  I'll take you.....Znnnzz."  Then Zach comes in, Kurtis gets up.  Zach lays down where his dad just was.  I don't remember the conversation.  It was mostly about how tired Zach is.  Shut up and go back to sleep.  Not sure if I thought it or said it out loud, but at 8:45, I got up and put some clothes on.  I tell myself I will go back to sleep when this is over.  That never happened.  I tried to take a nap just now, but it's hard to take a nap when there are children in the house.  And they are awake.  Consider that your warning about why this post might not always make sense or really be all that well proof-read.  You can point out my grammar mistakes and I'll just fix them later.  Sound good?  Great.
I like music.  I really, really enjoy a good band.  I like happy music.  I like depressing music.  I like all kinds of music.  Except country.  I'm not really a fan of that.  So in December (I think it was December), when tickets went on sale for this new band I'd heard about over the summer, I just had to go!  Apparently, this band is pretty popular, too.  The radio DJ told his listeners (and I just happened to be listening at the time) that all the people who won tickets to see this band had actually come to pick up their tickets.  How often had that happened before?  Never.  What is this amazing band I have yet to mention the name of you ask?  Why, it's Foster the People, of course!
I love them.
Once again, Salt Lake City lived up to their reputation of being a great audience.  The band is from L.A., where according to Mark Foster (lead singer and a bunch of instruments), audiences don't let you know if they are having a good time or not.  "They just tweet about it later."  Not here.  We scream, we dance, and we scream some more.  I woke up with a sore throat this morning.  It's awesome.

My bestest friend Nicole and I decided that because last time she went to a concert at the Great Saltair, somebody got dropped on her head, we should go up to the "Beer Garden".  I have no idea if that's what it's really called, but that's what we call it.  I'm pretty sure she coined the phrase.  We also decided that because we weren't going to be trying to get to the front of the stage, we didn't need to get there that early.  We were wrong.  The Beer Garden was pretty crowded and we didn't get a good spot on the balcony.  We couldn't see the stage at all and missed Kimbra's set (visually).  We decided to go to the merch table and check out the t-shirts.  After that, we stayed on the floor, but it's still hard to see because we are both vertically challenged.  They wouldn't let me bring my camera inside, so I got some pictures of Mayer Hawthorn performing, but they are all crap.  After his set, we tried to get closer, so some of my pictures of Foster the People are okay, but nothing spectacular.  While we were waiting for them to come on, we entertained ourselves by speculating about why they were taking so long to get on stage.  Our conclusion was that they were so new to the scene they haven't figured out the fine balance between high enough and too high to go on.  He he.  I love Nicole.  She's the best.  What a great night. :D
When they finally came on, they rocked the house!  They played all my favorites:  "Waste, I Would Do Anything For You (which, let's face it.  He needs to work on remembering the lyrics to that song because he skipped an entire verse), Color On the Walls, Houdini, and a few others that I hadn't heard before.

Just a couple of hotties.

This is Kimbra.  But you probably know her best from this:

I like these guys, too.

 That's Mayer Hawthorn in a fancy red suit.  I liked his music, too.  He was great.  Here's one of his songs:

What a hipster.

 Then Foster the People came out singing "Miss You"!

 They wrote a song with Kimbra, and so they asked her to come sing it with them.  You know, since she was there and all.  Oh, hey.  Look.  I found the video for it. :D

I saw an episode of "Angel" like this once.

For their encore they sang two songs.  One that was slower, but then they ended with "Pumped Up Kicks" and at the end:  BOOM!  Confetti burst out of two cannons (one on either side of the stage).  It was pretty spectacular.  I wasn't expecting that.  Like I said.  Last night was pretty freaking awesome. :)