Vintonville

It is that time to be packing up the families and those sweet temple clothes and venturing to good old logan where your favorite sister, unborn monster, and luke will be sealed for time and all eternity! Can you believe it has already been a year? It just seems like yesterday when we were all together in dan’s gorgeous backyard experiencing a civil marriage. Everything has come together at just the right time and although me and Luke have had a week of onorey marriage bliss the day is finally here and we could not be happier. This is a day that will go down in the books because the vinton crew will be there together experiencing celestial glory. Me and luke are so thankful to all of you who have supported and loved us through this exciting year, it would not have been so rewarding without all the advice and encouragement. So hip hip hooray for wearing garments and knowing that we can be together forever!

Joshua is a vigorous dreamer. He tosses. He turns. He kicks. And, on occasion, he talks. The talking usually comes when he’s coming close to waking up and there’s been more than a few occasions where we’ve found him up and talking or, sadly, standing in front of his closet crying. We’ve always wondered what goes through the little guy’s head and the other day we got a crazy glimpse when (after pulling his 5:30 am ninja creep from his bed to ours) he woke up, grabbed MCs face and said, “Mama, do you know where my mouse is that has garbage on it and flies?”

Everyone who’s spent a day at our place knows that if Joshua is outside, he’s got a special little place he takes care of the business (the number one business, that is). The pilgrims had Plymouth Rock, WWE had The Rock and Joshua has his Pee rock (much to the chagrin of some folks). Well, times are a changin, as it’s no longer acceptable to stand in full view– Joshua’s discovering the art of discretion and the concealment powers of bushes and trees. As we were out in the backyard playing some frisbee, Joshua climbed onto the deck and stood behind the West facing Flowering Pear tree (which is wedged between two bushes), “This is my favorite pee spot, Papa. It’s a good hiding place. A robot used to live here.”

Yes, this is, like, the umpteenth post involving Bear Lake this month, but the location is just incidental. We were up at David’s summer home for a little family gathering (if you think we might have gone wakeboarding… you’re right!) and found this monster (aka Shelob) after it had attacked and cocooned several of the cousins.

We came out victorious and called a truce, promising to deliver errant and obnoxious Wave Runner riders if she’d leave the kids alone. The deal was struck and we snapped this shot as we ran away.

That’s always been a motto I’ve lived by and one I think everyone can learn from. But wait? What does that have to do with anything, you ask?

This post, that’s what. It’s a sweet life lesson learned by Joshua as he and MC ripped caught three Monarch caterpillars from their families and natural habitat, sealed them in a jar and watched the miracle of life and death unfold on our kitchen counter. The Death part came when one started to hang itself upside down and blew a gasket, oozing a long trail of suspended goo from the top of the jar. Not sure what that was all about, but it’s the stuff of my nightmares now.

The other two, however, taught Life’s lessons as they cocooned, metamorphasized and hatched into the stately flying insects they were born to be. To watch the whole thing brought back the milkweed scouring/Adams peanut butter jar memories of childhood as we had fun with seeing Joshua extra excited to as they hatched. After a day or two under incarceration our watchful eye, Mama and Joshua decided to let them go before they decided to go belly up and volunteer for an entemology collection.

Joshua and MC took them out onto the deck and let them go. The two Monarchs wasted no time in getting the he-double-hockey-sticks out of their “Butterfly Bungalow” and away from us. So fast, in fact, there was no time to get pics as we showed the Monarchs how much we loved them (by setting them free, see?). Apparently, they weren’t all that attached. Ingrates.

Like I said: Life lessons learned.

So yeah. Not much going on these days. The summer’s winding down, wakeboarding has become a routine (who wants to see more pics of that!?), and Joshua just isn’t cute any more.

Ok, who am I kidding. He’s hypercute.

But still, nothing much happening. And when nothing much is happening, Playlists get made. And when Playlists get made, everyone wins.

Thus, bask in the glory of winning by enjoying these sonic delights.

Surprise! We spent our Saturday spending inordinate amounts of time in a boat. It’s a sad fact that summer is wrapping up and we had our first low 80 degree day in a while. Despite it’s nickname as the “Caribbean of the Rockies” Bear Lake isn’t known for warm water– and while 68-69 degrees is really refreshing on a hot summer day, 80 degrees with a cool breeze isn’t “warm” per se when you’re wet, so we spent most of the day whimpering when it was our turn to get in. Still, it’s always a good time when you can get 3 dudes out on a (quickly deflating) tube designed for kids, fold them into a taco and whip them around like they deserve it. I squealed and flopped like a sissy, while The Punsihers (ie- our wives) on the boat squealed with delight and took pictures at our expense.

Please note that the single foot you see at the end of this series is mine, as the rest of my body is greeting the depths of Bear Lake at roughly 25-30 miles per hour. Mmmmm… feels good!

As previously mentioned, Ben came with us and actually took to the wakeboarding like a champ, as you can see here:

I kid. He took to it very well, but got a little squeamish when it came to jumping (something about a Bear Lake punch to his soft parts). So, he rode and surf carved. And surf carved. And surf carved. And surf carved. Behold said riding and surf carving (which, I must say, he does make look good).

MC did get some pictures of me this time out. They’re nothing special, but I was getting a little higher than I thought I was, so here’s me doing my best to show off without doing anything actually tricksy (Hoochie Glide to Fakie, Scarecrows… IE- anything that would give me a facial enema with a bad landing).

And MC? Tearing it up and looking good doing it: (Hominah-Hominah)

So Ben’s with us this weekend “for to see”<sic> his newest Lady-Friend who, incidentally happens to live in our old stomping grounds: Smithfield. Seeing as how we totally don’t approve of Ben dating cute girls because we think sweet spirited girls need a fair shake too, we sequestered him all day Saturday on our boating daycation up to Bear Lake.

After 12 hours in the sun, water, more sun and 40 mph blowdry at the bow of a boat, Ben’s hair was looking so mighty fine– so very compelling in a feathered Ted McGinley/Corey Haim throwback– a tragedy (unseen since mullets were given sole propriety to guys named Bosephus and Buck) would have been perpetrated if it wasn’t captured and shared with relish.

And so, relish:

Despite winding down a bit, it’s still summer. And in my book of summer rules, shoes are always optional. Joshua’s picked up on the rule and I couldn’t be more pleased. Of course, add “no shirt” and it looks like you may have sauntered your way down from the Appalachian’s Hillybilly quadrant/the nearest trailer park’s Monster Truck and Tractor Pull.

But not Joshua. Using brawn and might and might and brawn (and lots of sound effects) he’s wrastled redneck chic into a pint-sized cross between old school Marky Mark and Abercrombie and Fitch Jr.. Which is really weird, because he’s barely 3 and is suddenly looking like a little gentleman. Sniff.