I'm a City Girl Again

Hello Salt Lake City! It's great to be back again. We joined BD for his annual work conference at the U. Work for him, play for us right??
After spending the first morning in a dark, stuffy hotel room and 2 hours of SpongeBob and kids fighting over the remote I was beginning to think that maybe BD had the better end of the deal! I almost cried, really, "Wait--send me to the conference!" No, in the end we pulled it off. We had plenty of adventure but not so much sleep. Here's how we spent our week:

DAY 1: This is the Place/ Heritage Park
The best thing about this is that it is way less crowded than the zoo across the street and you can pet the animals---at least the farm ones. Kate has been begging for a bunny ever since.
They enjoyed learning about pioneer life, making rag dolls, Indian arrowhead necklaces. The trainride was fun and the pony rides were a hit. Then it was..."Mom, when are we going to Lagoon?...."
DAY 2 : Lagoon. I wasn't about to tote a clunky camera around but boy I wish I could have captured the looks on Brynn and Kate's faces in the House of Horror, Colossus, Wicked, the Spider...Thanks to Cannon and Adrie for staying with Aunt Shannon so we could have such fun.
I think I got my fill of funnel cake for at least 5 years.

DAY 3: Museum of Natural History.
We always like to see rocks and dinosaur bones plus they had a pretty fun live frog exhibit. I can do a RIBBIT that really impresses the neighbor kids.


DAY 4: Why go anywhere when we can stay at the hotel and swim all day?

DAY 5: Ice skating.

Brynn won the gold-medal for ATTITUDE on this trip and this was her one request to go ice skating. How could I have remembered to pack jackets and gloves in the middle of summer? Luckily we scavenged a few items around my parents house. I just don't get how people can go backwards on those awkward things they call skates, let alone do any jumping or spinning.



Next door was Murray Park.

The girls couldn't resist the call of rolling green hills and vine trees dripping over a rushing river. We had to enjoy the freshness for a while before heading South.

There you have it. 5 days of city fun as an almost single parent. Sound exhausting? Well it was.

I'm glad to be home and sleeping in my own room. Could I just sleep for one whole day?

Do What?!

Brandon had a great idea for a church activity for the couples in our ward. As EQ President he planned it and in a few spare minutes last Sunday, typed up and printed out an invitation. These were passed out at church.. The party was on!
Apparently step 3 caused some speculation...

FIREPROOFING YOUR MARRIAGE IS AS EASY AS 1-2-3

1. See the movie Fireproof at the home of ___ .

2. Enjoy ice cream with all the fixings as you watch.

3. Return to the privacy of your home and complete with your spouse a Marriage Wellness Excercise to enhance your relationship.

It's as easy as 1-2-3. Hope to see you there!

Brandon received all kinds of feedback and chuckles about this. If you don't get it, go back and read step 3 with a dirty mind.
Really, step 3 was to be a writing exercise or questionnaire that couples could fill out to evaluate their marriage. Brandon came up with a few good questions on a handout. So as to avoid any marital feuds, he thought it would be best if couples discussed their answers "in the privacy of their own homes." Of course!
Brandon responded in good humor that even though step 3 was intended to be a written excercise, it would be great if the other happened too.

Here is a sampling of questions with possible answers of OFTEN, OCCASIONALLY or NEVER.


1. I express gratitude for my spouse's gifts, talents, and daily efforts.
2. I pray for my spouse and children.
3. I solve current problems without bringing up my spouse's past imperfections/incidents.
4. I live by the principle "Never go to bed angry" True/False
5. I am willing to ask my spouse 2-3 things I could do differently to improve our relationship. True/False

Feel free to enjoy this excercise in the privacy of YOUR own homes--ha ha.

Proof that we went camping

I know, it's shocking--which is why I took pictures to prove it.
We went camping with 8 or so other families in a beautiful spot just 30 minutes away from home. Kate and Brynn were very excited for their very first ever camping trip. We were sorry to leave Brandon home--he was on-call. But, we were glad to leave Cannon and Adrie home where they wouldn't be tempted by the many water hazards and campfire dangers.

We might have seemed a little pathetic sleeping in our van and eating Lunchables around the campfire but for us it was adventure enough!

What could be better entertainment in the mountains than a stream with a couple of rope swings hanging from the trees? Even I couldn't resist them. In addition to the water fun, the kids enjoyed a nature scavenger hunt, a raft race, geo-caching, fishing, and making hemp-bracelets.

Except for the the terrifying outhouse experiences (which were thankfully few) our girls had the time of their lives. We maybe would even do it again...if I had shower/toilet access...so, I did some research when we got home:

Cost of trailer: $20,000

Cost of truck to pull the trailer: $20,000

I think for $40,000 we could have some pretty nice beach vacations over the years.

Luckily mountain fun is not so far away that we can't return home and sleep in our own beds!

I love you bed!

Feeling Nostalgic

I love this photo because it captures all my memories of family reunions. Growing up my mom planned and hosted the family reunions on both sides. She has been doing it for 25 years. Ahh the memories of those good old fashioned reunions. Everyone would bring potluck. We had homemade rootbeer and the slush machine from my Dad's work.

There were gunny-sack races, wheelbarrow races, egg tosses. Volleyball went on in the front yard and a ping-pong table was in the back. Most years my mom would hire entertainment. Over the years we had a magician, pony rides, a barber-shop quartet to name a few.

There was always a guess how many... in the jar. Tables were set up for chess, checkers, and kids crafts. Whenever anyone left we would have to make sure they got their "goodie bag"--adults included.

Lots of relatives and lots of fun memories!

My dad made the comment to me recently that whether they were blood relatives or in-laws it made no difference--my mom always took an interest in every family member and kept in touch with them.

After taking a few years off my mom was back at it again. This year's theme was "SHOES you this Day..." My girls were the only ones that remembered to bring a special shoe. They got prizes for the smallest, the prettiest, etc. With his American flag designed converse hightops, Brandon won a prize for the most patriotic. The reunion crowd has definitely dwindled over the last few years and the agenda was much more simplified but I think we all were glad for the opportunity to renew family bonds.

photos: the newest generation, my dad with his only other sibling, Kate, the traditional farewell dance, cousins representing each of the Pack siblings.

Carnie-val

According to the girls, the carnival was the most exciting thing that ever happened to our town. It sure looked fun as they set it up on Main Street. The girls BEGGED to go and so we took them. It lived up to their expectations. They each chose a couple of high-flying dizzying rides--if you count the ferris wheel. No one begged for more, no one puked, and no one asked for over-priced cotton candy so I felt like it was a good time!

Hooray for a little excitement close to home!

Can't Catch a Fly with Vinegar.

What is this-- a new post?? You'd think we'd been hibernating or something. Well, it's kind of like that when you spend the week holed up in your house for 10 days passing around colds, fevers, and coughs and never leaving except to get remedies at the store. When you're feeling miserable, you're head is stuffed, your lungs feel heavy, and you just want to breathe again, you get desperate to try anything!
I did some online searching for home remedies and came across a pretty cool website for alternative medicine: Earthclinic.com. Think amazon.com only instead of people reviewing products, they rate and review different natural remedies. Got joint pain? try cabbage leaves. Allergies? raspberries. Pretty awesome.
So, after reading 30 very convincing testimonials (out of 127) I was sure that apple cider vinegar would cure my sinus infection. I went to the health store and went hog wild! I bought of course the acv, along with some grapefruit seed extract to really knock the infection in the butt, some vitamin B12 for extra energy, and some peppermint oil for headaches. Yeah, they love me over there now.
I got home so ready to fix all my problems and so excited to write my own testimonial! I diluted the 2 T. acv with a cup of water just like everyone said and drank and drank. Suddenly I had a new problem: how to stop myself from throwing up?!
That stuff is DISGUSTING!!!!AAAACK. I tried again later in the day and still...couldn't do it. And people since the time of Hippocrates have been drinking this stuff everyday for the health benefits??? How?
The next day, I went to the Dr. who kindly gave me a prescription for easy to swallow, conveniently coated antibiotic capsules. I felt better within a few hours of taking them.
I am sure that I could have had a good experience going the natural cure route. I wanted to but dang it--how to get it down! Incidentally my doctor had never heard of using apple cider vinegar for sinuses. What kind of education are they getting in Med. school?
Oh well. What else can I use all that vinegar for: acne? sunburns? weight-loss? I remember one family reunion my sister sunburned her face. She lathered it with the stuff. We don't know if it helped because no one could even stand to be around her-- she truly stunketh.
I guess there's something to that old adage: Better to catch a fly with honey than with vinegar.
And this I heard the other day in a movie: "What's the matter with you? Did you drink vinegar for breakfast?!"
Yes, actually, I did! But I won't be doing it again until they come out with a nice easy to swallow capsule form.

Hot Date!

Brandon and I got a babysitter and went out last night. Hot dates these days involve eating food I don't have to prepare and conversations that don't get constantly interrupted.
One of those conversations included special talents that we have that have no lucrative value whatsoever. Example...Brandon can smell something and describe it in a wacky but perfectly spot on way--"smells like a wet dog that ate some parmesan." Okay I can't think of a good example, I'll start taking notes from now on. Anyway...
One of my special talents would be a food/restaurant critic. I love going out to eat and I always find myself dying to fill out a comment card after. I like to let people know what I liked and how the food or service could be better... this is only in a restaurant situation, don't worry! Have I ever been sent by the local paper to dine free at a restaurant and write a review column? No.
Have I ever had the satisfaction of filling out a restaurant comment card? No. Have I ever had the guts to ask for one? No.
Here's the comment card I would have filled out about last night's restaurant experience.

1. CUSTOMER SERVICE--excellent. 6 out of 5 stars. Why?

• our waiter checked on us OFTEN (which was good cause I needed way more toppings for my salad)
• IMMEDIATELY gave us ice water WITH LEMON and STRAW
• gave extra napkins
• gave us our own salsa bowls for dipping chips
• apologized for the "cook in training" for forgetting the aforementioned salad toppings.

2. ATMOSPHERE--excellent. 5 stars

• not too cold or too hot
• very stylish decor and menus
• booth seating
• no loud or annoying music

3. FOOD--fair. 2 stars

I ordered the strawberry chicken salad with sugared almonds, tortilla strips, bacon bits and poppy seed dressing. Sounds fun doesn't it? Did I already mention it was served without the almonds, tortilla strips, or bacon? (good thing I memorized my entree selection.) Of course, this was easily remedied by the waiter as mentioned above but something more unforgivable...it was served on a bed of shredded iceberg lettuce (think taco filler). Salads these days have got to be GREEN. Throw some spinach leaves in there or at least some Romaine, please!! I went to all the trouble to resist the smothered fried chimichanga--at least make my healthy selection actually look healthy!

The strawberries could have been fresher and the chicken tasted like a refrigerator. So, I just had to load on extra dressing and nuts. Yeah, so much for being healthy. The chips and salsa were my favorite although the salsa tasted like it came out of a jar. Always best to go with fresh salsa! My advice to the manager in 2 words: GREEN and FRESH.

4. PRICE--excellent. 5 stars.

• We took advantage of our buy one get one free entree coupon!
• This month's special was FREE fried ice cream with every entree!
• Our total food bill came to $10! (plus a great tip for great service)

All in all a pretty good deal for some good conversation.

Do you have any special but unmarketable skills? Are you as picky about your food and restaurant experiences as I am? Do you ever go out to eat?