August Rush

We knew long ago that August was going to be a rough month for us but it ended up being much worse than expected due to people, timing, and events out of our control but what can you do. We tried to stay as busy as possible in hopes that time would fly by and that August would be a distant memory. We made the best of it and even tried to have a little fun. Here is what kept us occupied in August:  

We made a trip to Southern Utah to visit my dad. We hiked in Zion Canyon to a little hidden lake and tried to catch frogs with Harrison. The scenery was beautiful and the hike was perfect, it was great to spend some time again in nature. Every time we visit Southern Utah we make sure to hit The Bumble Berry Inn in Springdale for some always yummy bumble berry pancakes. This year we were sad to learn that the Inn had been sold, management changed, and the nostalgia was partly lost. We still ate the new pancakes but next time I think we may just buy the jam and syrup and make them ourselves. We had fun playing at the schoolyard behind papa’s house and Wrigley even snuck in some Frisbee and sprinkler time. We BBQ’ed, played games, and roasted marshmallows. Dane and I were even able to take an extra night to go stay with Stephanie and Chad in St. George. At their house we had a blast catching up, eating Rio, and calling animal control at midnight ;) We wished they lived closer and can’t wait to live near them someday.

Dane’s fam came into town for a wedding and with that came 4 nights of Red Iguana Mexican food in one week. I’m not complaining or anything because it is THE best, but you know… moderation. And one of Dane’s lifelong best friends, Chad, also came into town for said wedding and stayed with us for 3 days. We LOVED having him and had a blast showing him the sites of slc and making sure he visited select Utah institutions for eating (The Pie, Café Rio, Red Iguana etc). We also enjoyed beating him repeatedly at Settlers. We met up Beau & Dawn for her Birthday dinner -at… you guessed it, Red Iguana :) then we went to Temple Square, watched the Joseph Smith the prophet movie, and did a driving tour of east salt lake. The next day we hit up Park City with Chad and checked out Main Street, Deer Valley resort, and then we headed to Utah Olympic Park. We watched a practice session of pro skiers skiing down the high jump and doing tricks in the air before plummeting into a pool of water. It was suuuper cool and unfortunately we didn’t have a ton of time but I definitely want to go back and go on the tour, visit the museum, and maybe even try the bobsled run. 

Dane also started his new job with the U of U pediatrics department working on phase one of The National Children’s Study. The study is something that we are passionate about in our house. It is the largest study to ever be conducted on children. They will be following over 100,000 children in 105 different select areas across the United States from pre-conception through age 21. It’s an observational study on all of the different environment effects on children. The thing that resonated the most with me is that the generation of children that are being born right now is the first generation that has a life expectancy less than their parents… UH, scary just a little?? They will be focusing on what environmental factors may be playing a part in childhood obesity, asthma, autism, diabetes etc (You know, the major ones). Dane is working on educating the public regarding the study as well as consenting pregnant and pre-pregnant eligible women for the 21-year study. Although phase one is now nearly complete in Salt Lake, we have been blessed by Dane having this job and the experience that it has given to him. It also gave me an opportunity to spend a little more time with Laura and the boys doing things like going to the zoo to visit all the new baby animals. I have a picture of me at age 4 or 5 getting a drink out of the Lion’s head fountain and I love that by the end of the day Harrison was brave enough to try and get a drink too. What cute boys. 

The end of the month brought various get togethers with friends that we don’t see that often. We did a few movie nights with the Ungrichts, had a game night at Janelle and Peter Ehats house with the Laings, and our old pals Steph and Chris Ehat happened to be in town so it was great to see them (and their cute kids, all grown up) since they moved away to dental school nearly four years ago. The Muelleck’s also came into town and it is always fun to go out with them and the Robertsons -Dumbfounded Reunited! Holla :) Oh and as a follow up, we had our last court date with our former horrible tenants and the judge ruled in our favor and gave us a judgement for everything that we were asking for and entitled to unfortunately it's now been 6 months and we haven't seen a dime and I will be shocked if we ever do, especially with our highly competent lawyer...