Richard's Birthday at Echo

August 27, 2011: While Sandy and April were in town, we spent some time at Echo Reservoir playing in the sun like we did when we were kids. As children, we spent hours in the water and sun and it was really fun to do it again.

Three of my cousins joined us at the lake for Richard's birthday and it was really nice to see them. (I didn't get pictures of Debi and Rachelle, which is kind of sad, really).

In the afternoon, we pulled out the boat and the water-weenie and took the kids for a ride. It was a hot summer day so we all took time to swim in the lake. My brother's boat doesn't have a ladder off the back and I didn't realize this before I jumped in. After jumping in and swimming around for a while, getting back into the boat was rather entertaining for me and anybody who was there. April told me the way to get back up was to "Shamu it" onto the deck, which was level with the water. Shamu it? LOL! You know when you laugh so hard and you get weak? That was me. After that, I stayed in the boat.

Here are some pictures of the kids and Lori's son, Chris, on the water weenie:








After some time around the lake, we made our way to the cliffs. I would have jumped, but then I thought about the Shamu moment and decided to just take the pictures:




As we finished out the day, one side of the sky was filled with clouds and lightening (in the distance) while the setting sun lit it up in the most beautiful way.

All in all, it was one of the most amazing summer days: my sisters, my brother, my niece and nephews, cousins, and The Lake. Perfect!
Happy Birthday, Richard!

Happy 3rd Birthday to Chance!

Today is my nephew Chance's 3rd Birthday! Here's the video I made for him. Choosing the music was the hardest part.

Happy Birthday, Chance!!

Alta 20 Year Reunion

A couple of weeks ago, I went to my 20 year high school reunion..... sort of.

I grew up in Sandy and attended one year at Alta High. Three days before school started in my junior year, we moved to Salt Lake, where I attended and graduated from East High. I didn't love my time there and didn't make any lasting friends in those two years.

When the time came to go to the 20th reunion, I contacted friends from Alta, who were planning the reunion, and they extended an invitation to me and Sandy. I wasn't sure I was going to see anybody I knew, but thought I'd go and see how it went.

I was so excited to run into friends from junior high and even elementary school. We had a really great time.

Here are the pics from that night.
As we arrived to Snowbird, we saw this moose in the parking lot, drinking from a puddle of water. I think we startled each other equally. I didn't have my camera ready to go, so I used my iPhone:
Greg Hunt from junior high - he also was on the planning committee:
Michael Scott, also from junior high:
Tiffany Uriarte (was Mounteer) from all the way back in Kindergarten:
Tiffany and Sonia Olsen - I didn't recognize Sonia because she was a brunet in high school.
Lisa Eggers Kimmel - from Sunbeams!!
Angie Pantuso Smith:
A group who attended Eastmont (junior high) together. There were others at the reunion, but this is the group we got together from the picture. Tiffany, me, Melanie Fathers Belnap, Liz Watt, Brandi Williams Campbell, Angie Pantuso Smith:

California Vacation

We had a great trip to LA a few weeks ago. Richard, Eric and I flew to LA to spend time with my sisters. It was the first time that all of us siblings have been together in several years. We had such a magnificent time!! We spent most of our time laughing.

One of the activities of the weekend was to go to LA Rising, which is a concert series that included Rise Against, Muse and Rage Against the Machine. The energy at the concert increased in intensity as the night wore on; at one point I got a little frightened, but we had a really fun time.

Pics from my iPhone:

Other pictures from the night of the concert are found here.

We spent Sunday at the beach at Six Man - which is a volley ball tournament. There were some seriously hot bodies all around...and the volleyball was really fun to watch.

We also went to the water and played in the sand and enjoyed the sound of the waves. It was really fun to watch Sandy and April get into a sand fight....And at one point, Richard came back from playing the water and April threw sand on him. He kind of chuckled and commented on the fact that he was wet and now covered in sand. He headed back to the water to rinse off and when he came back, Sandy threw sand on him. We all got such a laugh out of the fun, playful times of being back together.

Here are some of the pics from that day. There are MANY more found here.





Eric enjoying the water:
Elida and April:
My favorite picture of the five of us:

Friday Night Videos

I'm catching up after our vacation to California. That post to come soon. Here are this week's videos.

First I have two videos from LA Rising - the concert we went to while in LA. We saw Lauren Hill, Rise Against, Muse and Rage Against the Machine. The energy built up throughout the night and got very intense by the last song (which is the second of the two LA Rising Videos).

First up: Muse, Resistance:

Second: RATM, Killing in the Name:

Here are some other videos I found for the week:

I love watching his videos...He does a great job:

Dating video:

I don't watch America's Got Talent very often, but I happened to catch this and knew it would be on my Friday Night Videos: