They've got it in for us!

So here I am, riding Trax in Salt Lake for the first time. We were on our way to the Jazz festival to listen to my dad play with the Salt Lake Jazz Orchestra.

You'll notice that I selected my headgear very carefully; I wanted to go incognito (to avoid all the paparazzi that comes with being so popular) :) so I specifically chose this hat to blend in with the local folk. We look up and see this sign:

Shirt and Shoes: check!

Headphones?! Dang, we forgot those! Luckily, we were able to duck beneath the radar and escape undetected; not an easy task considering that I was severely misinformed about the apparel of the locals! :)

Then, on the way out, Samantha is attacked by their so-called decorative waste receptacles!! (Actually, she just wasn't watching where she was going and almost ran into it, but that wasn't as funny.)

Luckily, it was all worth it. Hurrah for jazz!

Lehi Parade

I forgot I had these pictures of the Lehi parade, so this is a little out of order. I love any chance I get to show my school spirit and cheer for the marching band, even if it is at a 'parade' (which is pretty much like a band swear word - Samantha, at least, is not a big fan) :). First off, I have to show of my skills that I have been working on since Lagoon. Check out that baby!



Ok, here's what we were all waiting for - AF Marching Band!! I just love it, it's so exciting!


There's Tabitha - see if you can spot her in the other pictures doing the work (the actual twirling and stuff).

As far as I know, I don't think Samantha was in any of those. She was on the other side of the lines.

These guys were really cool. They are a group from Payson High that play bagpipes. It was really neat. That would be a really cool group to be in I bet.

On the way back, we saw a petting zoo set up in a park and stopped for a visit.

Good job band!

Steel Days Parade

We went to the parade yesterday. For those who went, here it is again in still frame. :)

The clowns were awesome. They really went all out. I want to know where they got a tricycle that big! Juggling on stilts really takes talent. The kids in front of us really like him, especially trying to give him a high five. :)

Here's our good ol' marching band - what we really went to see. Go Cavemen!

This is my friend Jessica; I met her in Seminary and she is so fun! She's a dancer too, which is how we connected. I was really surprised at how many people I actually knew on the floats. I guess I'm more popular than I thought! :)

Here's some more familiar faces:
Luigi

Mario

Uncle Sam and entourage

Shawna Garbe and Wee Care!

COSMO!! Go Cougars! (That's so weird that I'm going to be going there in a month!)

Now this guy is a real cowboy! On Family Feud a few weeks ago, the question was what does a 'real' cowboy have to have and the one thing they couldn't get was a horse, so that's the joke now. All the horses in the parade were really funny. Whenever they would stop, they would get really restless and start prancing around like "Come on, this is a parade! Let's go!"

More familiar faces:
Cinderella
Spongebob, Elmo, Pooh, Minnie, and Mickey

Godzilla! Or is it King Kong?

I love parades. I don't know why it's so entertaining to watch people walk by, but it is.

This is why I don't grill...

No, I didn't pick those up in the yard. This is what happens when I try to do fifty things at once - I inevitably forget something. So much for my snack! Luckily my mom has a really good sense of smell, or they'd probably still be out there. Mmm, smokey!

Look what we came home to!

That's right. We came home from Lagoon to find a squishy mess in our basement. What appears to have happened is that all the rain from that day caused an excess of storm water that the culvert north of us on 500 N couldn't handle. It overflowed and came through the Hollendrake's (the house north of us) gravel and filled up the 7 foot window well with water, dirt, leaves, sticks, snails, worms etc. from the side of the house where we were digging up the sewer line for an entirely different problem. The pressure shattered the window and came gushing in. It was apparently very violent, because there were mud splashes on the mirror and even on the ceiling. It filled up the tub, clogged the drain, and spilled over into the main room and covered the entire basement in 2-3 inches of water. We spent a few hours that night trying to start cleaning it up and then continued with that the rest of the week. We ended up having to pull up the carpet to get the pad out so it wouldn't spread mold and things. We had to take everything out, which we just got put back from guests staying, including the food storage (ugh!). It has been quite the project, and now we are waiting to see if the city's insurance will cover any costs. That may take a while, but at least it's dry now. Oh, the joys of life!