24th of July Weekend

Date: July 24th-ish, 2013

We had a super fun 24th of July weekend! It was spent mostly hanging out with family, lighting off fireworks, and generally having a fabulous time.

We definitely took advantage of the newly-declared legality of aerial fireworks.

 Daniel riding his bike......

 I made my very first batch of homemade raspberry jam! I used fresh raspberries picked from my Grandparents' garden, and it was delicious.

 We also finally got a mirror to put above the sofa! We've since changed up the arrangement of our front room a little bit, and finally gotten covers for our wing chairs. It's always a work in progress over here.

Hooray for holiday weekends! I love it when Daniel is off of work/school in the summer so we can hang out all day. Hope your weekend was awesome as well!

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A Zoo Day

Actual Date: July 19, 2013

This past summer, Daniel, Kimi and I got together and headed on an adventure to the Hogle Zoo. Pretty sure it's one of my favorite places in SLC, and the fact that Kimi is the keeper of the Sorensen Season Pass made our day even sweeter. If you ask Kimi and I, the Dippin' Dots also contributed to the sweetness.

It was the first time I had been there since they re-did some of the enclosures, and I loved seeing all the new stuff! Here's some photos of our fabulous day:

Me and my soul sister enjoying our Dippin' Dots

 Snoozing Rhinos

 A sneaky Peregrin Falcon who ended up escaping during the free-flight bird show.

 The barn owl that made my day.

 Sleepy alligator dude.

 The burrowing owl who became my best friend.

 A majestic leopard.

 A tiger stalking around the foliage.

 Hello, Mr. Giraffe!

And that was our day at the Zoo! 

The funniest part of the day was during the bird show, when the falcon pictured above was doing a free-flight exercise with a trainer. He flew up, up, up....and away! Haha! The trainers didn't know what to do. Apparently he does this often, and they tracked him all the way to Farmington the last time he got away. What a sneaky bird!

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Jimmy Eat World

Actual Date: July 18, 2013

Right after Tommy left on his mission, Daniel and I checked a big box off our bucket lists and went to see Jimmy Eat World in concert. Our mutual love for this band was the first thing we realized we had in common, and we drove around listening to them the first time we hung out together. Seriously, we love these guys.

Here's the progression of the evening, told in blurry concert photos:

BEFORE:

 DURING:

 AFTER:

Pretty sure that last picture says it all. Seeing them in concert was even more incredible than I could have dreamed! They sounded amazing live, and their song selection didn't disappoint. We even pretended like we were teenagers again and pushed ourselves up to the 2nd row!! It was a dream come true for both of us.

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Oh, blogging.

Oh, blogging.

It seems I simply don't have time for you these days! And what a shame. I love reading back to when I posted more consistently and remembering some of the adventures we went on. I have always intended this place to be a journal of sorts, but there are sure a lot of blank pages from the last year or so of our lives. Luckily, Instagram has helped me preserve a few snapshots from some fun and important events that the blog missed out on. But it's not the same.

So, in an effort to fill some of these blank journal pages, I'm going to post some adventures we've had since I last posted (in JULY!?) that I want recorded. Prepare for a major flashback, people! This is going to take a while.

Cabin and the Oakley Farmer's Market

Actual Date: August 3, 2013

This weekend, we escaped up to the cabin with Daniel's family while his parents were in town. I don't think I ever mentioned this on the blog, but Daniel's parents moved to Pahrump, Nevada in June of 2013. Yes, Pahrump is a real city! It's a cute little town about an hour outside of Las Vegas, and near Death Valley. They decided to move so Daniel's Dad, who is a renowned surgeon, could work at the town's hospital. They have never had a surgeon there before! Pahrump is lucky to have such an amazing couple down there, and we miss them lots!

aaaaanyway...

While we were there, Emily and I took a quick drive to Oakley to visit the Farmer's Market! It was full of adorable things, and we left with some super fun stuff.

Emily scooped up that adorable little basket, handmade in Africa!

We got our faces painted like 5-year olds :)

The most amazing cranberry orange bread that I still dream about.

Rock magnets! I picked the green and white ones, and they still hang happily on my fridge.

Daniel reading to our niece, Hannah. Precious! (I know it looks like the book is upside down, but I promise it's not. It's really two books in one, so the story he was reading starts from the other side!)

Kimi and her best horsey-friend. We tried SO hard to get the rest of them to come hang out with us, but none of them were interested. Rude!

The cabin is fun any time of year, but there's lots to do up there in the summer. I can't wait to go back!

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Dear Elder (Round 2)

It seems like just yesterday I was sitting at my computer typing this same post for a different brother. Little did I know, the Church would make a major announcement in the next General Conference that would have me writing this post an entire year before I thought I would. 

My little brother Tommy recently got his mission call to Novosibirsk, Russia! What an exciting day that was! Russia was completely unexpected (ask my mom, she was on the floor), but absolutely inspired. Tommy is going to be an excellent missionary serving the people of Russia. 

Some fun facts: The Russia, Novosibirsk mission is currently the largest mission in the entire church, geographically. It's about the size of the United States to give you an idea. It takes in the ice-cold area of Siberia, and also part of Kazakhstan. Tommy will also do a lot of traveling - Russia requires people serving there to renew their visas every 3 months, so he'll be flying to other countries often during his mission. The time spent in the MTC has also recently been cut, so Tommy will only be spending about 8 weeks there learning the Russian language. I know he'll be blessed with the gift of tongues in order to accomplish that!

Tommy reports to the MTC tomorrow, July 17th. I can't believe how quickly this day came! I am so proud of him and the choice he has made, but I am really going to miss seeing my little brother for two whole years.

Tommy, thanks for being my partner in crime. We've shared some amazing memories together over the years - jamming to rap songs, inventing the "grandwich", having a sleepover at our place, our hilarious daily picture/text message conversations, freaking out over the latest episode of Breaking Bad, late night Wendy's runs, watching movies together after Sunday dinner, and going on a million other adventures because you were always up for them. Recently, it was so fun for Daniel and I to go shooting with you for a whole day! I'm so lucky to have a brother with such an amazing sense of humor, and that I have so much in common with.

Tommy, I want you to know how much I love you! Things will not be the same without you around, but let's hope someone else in our family can step it up and be the "Responsible One" while you're away. Thanks for being an example to me of obedience. When you realized your mission was going to come a year early - you didn't miss a beat. Instead, you doubled your efforts to prepare and showed us all what it means to be a disciple of Christ by following His commandments. I am so proud of you! You are going to be an amazing missionary! The people of Russia are so lucky to have you.

Love you, Teej! We're gonna miss ya!

Much love,

Manders

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