More 2007 Review - May through August

May
We planted a vegetable garden! Brian made some grow boxes, we filled them with soil instead of the usual dirt, and we bought WAY too many starts of tomatoes, onions, peppers, and butternut squash (I thought). Brian's parents took a few starts off our hands and ended up getting the only real butternut squashes. I was left with 8-ball zucchini and cream-of-the-crop winter squash. Secretly, a crazy-looking bug was left with the cream-of-the-crop squash.

We celebrated Mother's Day by getting me a porch swing (see left column for "getting old" items) and crying in church. What else is there?







June
Who could forget Brian's 33rd birthday? I mean besides me, of course. AH! We got up early that day and had a nice breakfast and STILL I didn't remember that it was his birthday. After he'd left for work, I gave Bridget a bath and started singing "Happy Birthday" to her (since her birthday is six days after Brian's). That's when I realized I was the worst wife in the history of marriage. Bridget and I scrambled around to find balloons and steaks (for Brian to cook on his Father's Day grill), but it didn't change the facts.

Bridget celebrated her first birthday on June 25th! It was the social event of the summer. I put pigtails in her hair for the first time and baked her a chocolate cake (with matching cupcakes for the rest of the crowd). We had tables set up in the backyard and Brian grilled hamburgers. Both sides of our family came. There were flies and a little bit of crying, but that's true of all major social triumphs.

Besides turning 33 in June, Brian also did a sprint triathlon and an Olympic triathlon. His parents and my Mom all came to watch him at the Salem Spring Triathlon. (Mom, Bridget and I also picked strawberries in Mapleton before the race.) Brian improved his time from last year in Salem. More importantly, he beat that weird guy who always talks smack to him. Again. The Olympic (1 mile swim, 26 mile bike, 10K run) was the Provo Triathlon only a few weeks after Salem. Brian left our house with his friend in what seemed like the middle of the night. He called me a few hours later from a number I didn't recognize. He had dropped his cell phone in the step-up-from-a-port-a-jon next to the starting line at Utah Lake. Hilarious! Disgusting! Fun for the whole family! Bridget and I were ready with fresh batteries in the camera for every leg of the race. Brian met his goals and looked great doing it. :)

July
We celebrated our independence by watching the balloon launch in Provo without my parents. (We were supposed to meet them, but we made no plan.) We found them as we walked back to our car and made up for our ramshackleness by going back to their house for star shaped pancakes. That afternoon we had a barbeque at Makenzie and David's house with all the meat in Pleasant Grove present and accounted for. We watched a pretty good fireworks show at Thanksgiving Point that night. It took us 30 seconds to get there (it's about a mile from our house) and 30 minutes to get home. Next year we're walking.

What better way to celebrate our pioneer heritage than a trip to Oakley, Idaho? We stayed with my bff (and fellow old lady), Kellie, and her family. It was just like our sleepovers of old. :) I ran the Dam 10K (ha!) with another grade school/college friend, Anne. We had to be bussed to the dam and then run back into town. I was alone for most of the race (never a winner or a loser am I) and it was very pleasant to watch the sun rise over the valley where I grew up. Afterwards we ate a pancake breakfast in the park. During our trip to Clark's for Shopping the day before the race, a kind Clark personally invited us to the town lunch the next day. We couldn't resist, "We do this every year. I'll see ya there." (I like that he didn't raise our expectations unnecessarily.) Brian, Bridget and I toured the museum and even found a few pictures of my Great Grandparents. We were front-row-Joe at the 5-Horse Parade in the hot afternoon. Luckily Kellie's sister was on the float that sprayed water on us. That evening we attended the rodeo with Kellie, her husband Mike, and her little boy, Xander. Sitting on the top row of open bleachers with two wiggly toddlers is a lesson I don't need to learn twice. In the immortal words of Sharon Okelberry, "A good time was had by all."

While we were in Oakley, we drove down the road to Pella to visit Grandpa Curtis at his 60-something year high school reunion. Bridget hasn't stopped talking about him since. :)

August
After so much craziness in June & July, August was very still. My piano students started their fall semester and Bridget started walking. I entered my jams in the county fair in August. My blackberry and raspberry jams are the best in all of Utah County and my strawberry is second best. (No fair disputing it if you're not entering your jams in the fair.) The end.