{Relative Genius}

My cousin Mckenzie? Genius.
She makes us look GOOD! ;)
Check out her mad skillz on her photography blog...

THANK YOU MCKENZIE!!!

{Sparky the Wonder Dog}

Ready to witness a miracle?



Caroline has been afraid of dogs since day 1. Not just nervous, but completely afraid climb you like a tree to escape the terror afraid. Shaking like a leaf and crying like a baby afraid. Petrified afraid.

Until she had a little sleepover at her cousin Paige's house while we were in Utah. Somehow, Paige got Caroline brave enough to not only pet a dog, but hug one! MIRACLE! ...but she says, "All dogs are scary but Sparky."

Oh, well. It's a start!

{Swimmy}

So far we have spent half of the summer vacation in Utah, where Todd had piled up a bunch of work. I went down to help out (a good demo is such a great stress reliever!), and poor Grandma Marge got to see a lot of the kids. She was amazing! They went to a pioneer museum, the Aerospace museum at Hill Air Force base, Antelope Island, and did projects galore. They made petroglyphs, ground wheat, helped out in the garden, made Father's day cards, sewed jingle boxes for humanitarian aide, and tons more! They had a blast, and totally didn't want to come home. I took a day off so we could take them to the pool with their cousins Paige and Conner, where I got 3 shots on my camera before the battery went dead. grrr... Thank goodness for cell phone cameras!

{How does one...}

...celebrate 11 years of marriage? I mean, that a lotta years, so if you're looking to do something together that you've never done before some imagination is in order.

Don't worry. We figured it. Try not to be jealous.

But we were hungry, so first we started with Panda Express (yummy, but no, not the amazing thing we've never done before).

Sheesh, he's even handsome when he's stuffing his face. I do love a good car ride.

...and suddenly not so handsome. This picture is legit. He had a toothache and was trying to check out his molar in the rear view mirror. From over here? He just looks a little handy.

OK, so I know you're dying to find out our super-original-never-done-before-idea.

...drum roll please...

We went scuba diving in the desert! For real. Wendover, Nevada to be exact.

Stop laughing.

Believe it or not, there is a hot water spring called Blue Lake out there. Somewhere.

... and we had a blast diving the crap out of that 74 degree water. Ahhh, so warm.

Muddy? Yes.

Beautiful? No.

Interesting? ...I guess you could say that. (Divers over the years have put sculptures out there so there is actually something to look at besides a few random fishies.)

Warm? YES!!

The dive club from Idaho Falls did a poker run (you have to dive to several sites in the lake and collect poker chips, then you get a card for each chip and the person with the best hand wins first pick at the prize table). We totally found them all due to Todd's mad navigation skillz.

Here we are celebratin' in the pop-up trailer. Classy. Sparkling cider, anyone? I have more of those fancy blue cups! Crystal, schmystal.

We even had a generator we put a 100 foot extension cord on and drug out to the desert so we could watch movies. Like I said, classy.

Todd was in charge of the cooking ("How sweet!" you're thinking). He bought anything that was in a can with a pop top lid that he could heat in a pot of water. Beef stew? check. Beans? check. Canned pears? check.

yum.

And just to spice things up a little bit, we invited our brother-in-law to come along.

There are so many things I cannot explain about this picture.

OK, just kidding. The real story? Adam was getting scuba certified and had to do several open water dives to finish his course. So he invited us along on this club dive. It just happened to be the same weekend as our anniversary. This picture was really just to tell Laura how much fun she was missing!

And so now we have a new dive buddy. Woot!

He really wants to be poster boy for next year's event. Can't wait for the great dive/shoot out Memorial Day weekend 2011!

These are our great neighbors / Twinkie roasting buddies. Hey, don't knock it 'til you've tried it. This dad and his daughters come out every year -- they were awesome.

Todd also sampled a toasted Rice Crispie treat and declared it to be good.

So there you have it folks. Now you know how truly redneck we have become. Please don't stop being our friends.

Honestly? I would go anywhere with this man. Who needs fancy vacations with "hotel rooms" and "beautiful scenery" and "candle lit dinners"? All I need is time with Todd and I'm a happy girl. That's the cool thing about being married to your best friend.

{Cutest. Kindergartener. Ever.}

Caroline started out that kindergarten graduation with a bang.

A huge thank you to her teachers, Mrs. Dick and Mrs. Judy! I'm so amazed at how much she learned this year!

The diploma:

No major milestone goes uncelebrated with ice cream. Ever.

We're so proud of you Caroline!

{Featured!}

I've been featured on Better After!
I feel like a rock star today... totally soaking in my five minutes of fame from my FAVORITE blog.
Warning: you'll feel totally inspired after spending hours wending your way through this creative little place. Love it!