Tweens

Look Dad, we look the same. If someone says to us, "You want ice cream cone?" Both of us says Yes.

Stewart Falls

Now that Johnny and I finally have the same days off from work- we have decided that our day off will be the designated hikin' day. Here is our latest hike: Stewart Falls. Prettiest hike so far. (out of 1 haha)

This is a panoramic stitch I took with my camera. It's more impressive in person though ...

This hike was so gorgeous. We started the hike at around 2 in the afternoon and it was sweltering ...

we were a hot, sweaty, dusty, mess by the time we made it to the falls.

Here are our respective hikin' faces. Johnny: 3rd grader slumped shoulders and bad attitude

(I totally posed him). Me: hogging all the water and pretending not to be tired.

The falls were so refreshing; misty and cold in the shadow of the mountain. We hiked right up to the base of the falls and got completely soaked from the spray. I have to say that going from being hot and sweaty with parched throats, to being soaked with cold dripping hair and goosebumps on your arms has got to be one of the best feelings.

After getting soaked in the falls, we immediately plopped down, took off our shoes and stuck our feet in the water. It was glacier water and sooo cold, but it felt good on our toes.

Cool fossilized sea shells by the falls. I wanted to take these home, but they were part of the cliff face.

We found a hoard of ants making a feast out of some dead beetle, and a cute fuzzy bee. Also, randomly, on our way back down the mountain, we heard this loud crashing sound behind us and this huge eagle/hawk tore through the trees screaming. It snatched up some little mouse in the bushes, and I saw it's tiny little legs dangling from the bird's talons as it flew away through the trees. I felt bad for the mouse, but the bird has to eat too. It was pretty impressive though.

A+ Hike

Shooshie

Today, I made some Sushi; or, as my Dad likes to call it: "Shooshie." I didn't have short grain rice or a japanese bamboo sushi rolling mat- but the sushi turned out just fine. Johnny said that he would have liked to have some fish in his, but for vegetarian sushi with carrots, cucumber, and avocado, we both thought it was pretty tasty.

Childhood Treasures

Today, I stumbled upon these little nuggets:

Me in neon pants, pink socks, with white zombie makeup & holding a cat

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Nate wearing a pink drool-covered shirt, wearing short shorts, with wolverine beard & hair

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Probably not Halloween.

Me clutching a candy bag + drunk candy smile + mullet haircut

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Happiness

Sammy wearing full body pajamas + riding the smallest trike in the world

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Most efficient form of transportation

Mother's Day Favorite Child

Because Sammy officially holds the coveted "favorite child in the family right now" position, I edited some of the photos he sent home and put them all together in a collage for my mom for Mother's Day.

Sammy boy, you are my favorite missionary in the world right now; it was the best thing ever to talk to you on Mother's Day and hear your voice and the African accent you try to cover up. (Don't. It's awesome). You are such an example to me: you love the Gospel and you love the people in Africa, and so many of my blessings I owe to your faith and hard work. I wish you could see how amazing you are. Thanks Sam, I love you.

Mom, thanks for always singing "teddy bear picnic" to me growing up and always whispering in my ear that I was the secret favorite. Thanks for being my best friend in grade school when I had no friends, walked home alone and got made fun of for wearing my soccer uniform to school. Thanks for letting me skip school and go to Toys-R- Us with you. Thank you for forcing me to part my hair on the side. Thanks for being my best friend still. I love you.

Dear woman who towed our car...

Dear woman who towed our car yesterday,

It was 10 am. My husband and I went for a hike and parked on your street for around an hour and a half. You live on a very wide street on which other cars were parked. It seemed reasonable for us to park there as well. It’s a street.

Do you have nothing better to do all day then stare suspiciously through your blinds, with your fingers tightly grasped on your phone and the towing company on speed dial? Why not leave an irritated note? Why not put a boot on us? Why tow us? After an hour? Although, I have a sneaking suspicion that you called the tow truck immediately after we shut the car doors. Those car doors shutting were like a blaring siren for you, I’m sure. Your eyes snapped open and you pulled out your phone from the utility belt you wear for dealing with the unwanted general public. Along with your tow phone I’m sure you have some taser guns for removing animals or annoying neighbors that come too close to your property, maybe an air horn to frighten small children away from your flower beds, and likely, the binoculars you use to watch for distant, but advancing dangers. You must be on 24 hour surveillance.

Did you know that the impound yard is six miles away from your house? Did you also know that we didn’t have cash on hand and couldn’t find anyone to give us a ride? The impound yard was unsympathetic and told us to walk. So we did. Walking six more miles across Provo after having already hiked four miles is very tiring, and depressing. I will admit, for the first ten minutes across town I angrily kicked rocks and folded my arms like an upset 5 year old. You may call me a child, but I would like to see you go on a fairly long hike and then walk six more miles, with the sun beating down on you and smelling car exhaust the whole way. I doubt you will be a happy camper.

When we arrived at the impound yard after hours of walking in the hot sun, they charged us $150 for our car. I know that $150 is probably chump change for you and your nice large house, no biggie. But for us, it is sadly, quite a lot of money. I’m sure that if we towed your car and you had to pay the same percentage of your total wealth to get the car back as we did- you might be a little upset too. You might also be upset with being the recipient of a deep red sunburn on your face and neck, because you hadn’t planned on being in the sun for so long. This will prevent you from wearing a lot of summery clothing because your neck burn will make you look a little white trash. That is going to take a while to even out.

You know, it’s funny. People park in our actual parking spot all the time. That would be like us parking in your garage, and not just on the side of the road near your house. The nerve! But, I just leave mildly irritated, but polite notes. Guess what? Those people never park in our spot again. I didn’t know you could achieve the same end result through a less heartless route? Huh. Odd.

Have no fear though. Our innocent, but apparently terribly vexing actions of parking near your property will never again be repeated. I wish that in the future you might be able to fill your life with much more meaningful activities. May I suggest reading… or being a kind person? Both work.

In closing I dearly hope that only those with proper parking permits ever dare park within 15 feet of your presence again.

I say good day to you.

Biological Cat Child...

On Monday night we were watching House on fox. There was a subplot about this lady that had two kids, one biological and one adopted; she just felt like she couldn’t love the adopted kid as much as her biological kid.

Johnny was looking at our two cats lazily lying on the floor in front of us. Then he turned to me and pointing to the kitties said, “You know, June is okay, but Jasper is our biological child. I just love him so much more. June is just the adopted one.”

I started to crack up and then I said, “Yeah? Did I give birth to Jasper?!”

“No,” Johnny said, “but we’ve had Jasper since he was a kitten and it’s just like he’s really ours. We picked June up off the street and I just don’t like her as much. I’ll never love her like I love Jasper.”

Hahaha.

Photographic Evidence

I believe this photo backs up my claims...

April Fools

So I forgot today was April Fools. But, then my mom kindly reminded me:

Me: “hello?” (I’m answering my phone)

Mom: “Mal?!?” (frantic voice)

Me: “What?!”

Mom: “I broke my leg…”

Me: “Ha. Ha… No you didn’t.”

Mom: “No really, I did” (sad voice)

Me: “Are you serious?”

Mom: “Yeah, I fell down the stairs and broke my leg.” (really sad voice)

Me: “Are you kidding me? Where are you at?”

Mom: “I’m in the emergency room.” (sounding very grave) “When your dad comes back, I’ll let you talk to him.”

Me: “Aw geeze mom! I’m sorry! Really?! Where did you break it?” (very concerned voice)

Mom: “I broke my foot…”

Me: “Well, which bone? Where?”

Mom: “It was my toe….”

Me: “Which toe?”

Mom: “My pinky toe….”

Me: …

Me: (flat voice) “You fell down the stairs, and broke.... your pinky toe? And, now you're in the ER? For your toe? You didn't break anything did you?”

Mom: (Hysterical Laughter) “Bwahaha, April Fools.”

Ricky and Ricky

My dad just recently had liver surgery. While he was recovering in the hospital, my mom and I bought him a stuffed Siamese cat at the hospital gift shop to remind him of our real Siamese cat Ricky. Ricky is old, disagreeable, walks with a limp, chases dogs/ neighbor kids away from our house, stands guard at the lamp post and is in general a bit hateful. Only WE love him. And, HE only loves my dad. When anyone holds him he whips his tail around in irritation, screams, has angry eyes, will box you with his de-clawed paws or will bite you. But, not with my dad. He loves my dad. It just happened one day- he hopped up on the bed, cuddled with my dad and fell asleep. They've been BFF ever since. I have frequently walked in my parents room to see my dad asleep with his arm around Ricky.

My mom and I gift wrapped the stuffed Ricky and wrote a card to my dad from the real Ricky telling him to come home soon. My mom thought he would be annoyed that she spent money on a stuffed cat. But, he was actually really, really happy that she got it because he misses Ricky. It was funny to watch him open that bag up and pull out the cat. He immediately had this big smile on his face and started petting the cat and talking to it like it was Ricky. Then, he decided that it should be placed on top of his IV cart so that he could wheel it around with him. When it wasn't on the IV cart, he would be holding or petting it. After he was discharged a week and a half later, he gave his stuffed cat away to a Nigerian woman who worked at the hospital to give to her kids. I love my dad.