Wednesday, July 30, 2008

I'm going to Hollywood, baby!

As some of you may know, American Idol finally decided to hold auditions in Salt Lake City this year. So I went down to audition and...I made it! I'm going to Hollywood, baby!Okay, okay, so those of you who really know me know that this is not reality, just my fantasy. Reality is that I am at my parent's with a sick baby. It is her first sickness of any kind and she is absolutely miserable, poor thing. So would I trade it for a golden ticket to Hollywood? Nope, I'll rough it out with my little one!
I've got to keep pictures of Skye on here for Lance to see since he is far away from us in Phoenix. But sometimes kids just refuse to be cute for you!

But it is all worth it when you finally get the smiles...
the cute things...
and the silly things!



Sunday, July 27, 2008

Why I hate small towns and why you should never live in one

Small towns suck! For those friends and families who live in small towns and love them, please forgive me. I know not everyone is the same and that stereotypes don't fit all people. Unfortunately, mine and Lance's small town, rural area experience was a living nightmare. Here is a list of why I hate small towns and why you should never live in one.

1. They don't pick up roadkill. This is one of the first things I noticed in Orangeville. I'd see a dead skunk or deer on the side of the road in the winter when we moved there and by the time the next winter was approaching, it was still there! Who wants to see the "life" cycle of some dead animal on the road?

2. People hang dead cow carcases out to dry and freeze on trees in their front yard in the winter. Apparently for the locals, this is no big deal. However, all I could think was how glad I was Skye was only a baby and couldn't be disgusted or traumatized by it. Too bad I had to be.

3. The stereotype of small town gossip--people talking about each other all the time, knowing everyone else's business, and sticking their noses into everyone else's business is around for a reason--it's true! If you aren't a local, don't expect to ever be able to join in a conversation because all anyone does is talk about people they have known their whole lives because 99% of the population is from the small town and their parents, grandparents, and great grandparents are all from there and you have no idea who they are talking about because you don't know everyone in the whole stinkin' county because you just moved there. Oh, and don't expect for your life to be private because it won't be.

4. Locals treat you worse than dirt if you aren't family or a part of the clique of friends that have lived there their whole lives. They view you as outsiders and thus treat you like outcasts.

5. When the local children do horrible things to you and your baby for no reason at all, the local parents blame you, try to tell you that you are a horrible person and parent and that they are the best parents in the whole world with perfect children who never do anything wrong. You can't even take your own kid out to play without being mobbed by these parents and viciously attacked and emotionally abused.

6. They treat your husband like crap at work even though he has only done good things for the company he works for.

7. The lack of culture is enough to turn you into a caveman. Now if dinosaurs and softball fulfill your cultural needs and your child's cultural needs, a small town is definitely the place for you. But if you would like to go to the symphony, a play, a concert, museums (besides just dinosaur museums) and you would like to be able to expose your kids to these things without having to drive 2 to 3 hours to do it, don't live in a small town!

So there you have it. That is why I hate small towns, why I will never live in one again, why (as a concerned friend or family member) I don't think you should live in one, and why I am so very excited to be moving to a city soon.

Friday, July 18, 2008

Just For Fun


1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember! Let me know you check my blog!
2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments.

Hawaii Skye

My mom has these leis that Skye likes to put on. One night, before I could get her pajamas on, she put them on and took off toddling around! I thought she looked so cute all naked except for her diaper and the leis. Won't she make a great hula dancer someday?







Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Fun on the Fourth

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July weekend! I know it was last Friday and I really wanted to post all about what we did, but I was waiting for some pictures, so I'm just getting this on a little late. We had a great weekend. Lance had a job interview in Salt Lake on the third so we celebrated the fourth with my family in Kaysville. We were able to do some other fun things as well, before Lance had to leave on a business trip to Boston. The morning started out with Skye playing on my dad's lap. She loves to play with his hat.
She will often say, "hat, hat" as she walks over to the back door where it hangs. Sometimes, she just wants to play with it and sometimes she wants to go find Grandpa and give it to him.
Kaysville's parade came right in front of my parent's house this year. We set up a blanket and some chairs across the street in some shade at the elementary school. Here is Skye eating some cheerios while waiting for the parade to start.
Here's my mom and Skye as some military trucks approach. I think Skye actually had more fun watching all of the other people, children, and dogs than the actual parade. The sirens from the fire trucks scared her a lot at first, but eventually she got used to them.

One of my favorite parts of the parade was the VW convention that went by. There were tons of them!


A line of VW Bugs driving up.
Skye loves animals so she really enjoyed seeing the horses ride by.
I stole these pictures from my parent's next door neighbors. The parade ended with a massive water fight. Their neighbors, Steve and his daughter, Laura, decided to fight back!
They used hoses to spray the people in the parade that were spraying people watching the parade. Does that make sense?!
Look at all that water that truck was spraying out! What a fun way to end the parade. Of course, I was inside and out of harms way by then!
On Wednesday, July 3, some of Lance's friends invited us to come to a Real Salt Lake Soccer game at the U of U. I'm not a soccer fan, but I went anyway and I'm glad I did. We sat by Lance's friend, Dave, and we had a lot of fun. The game was fun and interesting to watch and so were the crazy fans! There were jersies being worn, flags being waved, yelling, screaming, trash and smoke bombs being thrown onto the field, and fans being kicked out of the stadium! There were also some great fireworks afterwards. Too bad I forgot my camera, huh? So I just stole some of these RSL pictures from the internet instead!
While I did like the game a lot, it was unfortunate that I never got to see a goal scored. RSL played Houston that night--both teams tied for second, the winner taking the first spot. So I guess they were pretty evenly matched and the game ended 0 to 0.
On Saturday, Lance and I headed up to Big Cottonwood Canyon to meet his friends, Dave and Bus, to go climbing. Some of these pictures were taken by me and some were taken by Dave. Look at that beautiful view.
More beautiful views from the crag we were climbing at...

So we had quite an adventure climbing that day. To get to the climbing wall, we had a long hike up this super, super steep cliff full of crazy little switchbacks (Dave called it switchback hell) and slippery talus fields. It was scary and exhausting, yet exhilearting in a way. It was definitely worth it when we made it to the top. Unfortunately, I was so exhausted by the time we got there, I only had enough energy to do one climb. But it was a lot of fun!
Here's Lance hanging out on a little ledge on one of the climbs.
Bus climbing.
Lance took these pictures of me with the incredible view behind me.

The next two pictures are of Dave on one of the climbs.

Can you see that cliff wall--the rocks up above the trees? That's where we were! Crazy! The hike down was even worse than the hike up. Hiking down the talus was not fun at all and I've got the scrapes and bruises to prove it! But once again, it was so worth it!
Dave took this picture of Bus, Lance, and me walking back to our cars after our adventure!









Dogs, Birds, and Water

I had to take my car into Salt Lake this morning for a few hours so my mom and Skye came down to hang out with me while I waited. We had a great time. First we went to Liberty Park and showed Skye the baby ducks. It was kind of strange--the seagulls segregated themselves...
from these geese and ducks.
Then we took Skye to one of the playgrounds where she had a lot of fun swinging, going down the slide and playing on the big toy.

I tried to get her to walk through this tunnel. She looks happy, but she decided she didn't like it so she turned around, sat down, and waited for me to come get her on the other side.

She loved watching the water shooting out here and got her hands in it.
She wasn't too sure about sitting on this turtle, but after I took the picture, she finally smiled! Of course! What else could you expect from a one-year-old?
More water fun!


Skye loves dogs and this one loved her! Twice, she slurped Skye's face!
After we were done playing at the park, we went to Tracy Aviary. I took a few pictures of some of the birds. These golden eagles are beautiful!

We learned that all of the raptors they have at the aviary are birds whose wings were damaged so badly that they could no longer fly. It would have been impossible for them to continue living in the wild, so instead, they have a new home at the aviary.
There were three or four peacocks just strutting around.
Skye wanted to chase them when she saw them. They didn't mind people being around, but wouldn't ever let us get too close to them.


What a fun day we had!