a SuMmEr DeLiGhT

I always have the problem of buying a lot of fruit, fresh fruit...thinking if I have it at my house, we'll eat it. The apples usually get eaten but that's about it. I was throwing rotten fruit out like no other. Until...my brother and sister-in-law gave me the perfect solution. I now freeze all the fruit that looks like it is starting to go bad. Then, whenever I feel like a healthy treat, I pull out the frozen fruit and make a smoothie out of it. I love trying different fruit blended with each other. Blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, peaches, blackberries, banana's. I throw some vanilla in the fruit smoothies and then 1/3 of a can of some kind of frozen concentrate. Frozen pineapple juice, orange juice, Orange-Pineapple-Banana blend or Strawberry-Orange-Banana are some of the few I love. No sugar needed! Delicious! I also make it even more healthy and throw fresh spinach in my smoothies. You can't taste it and it's so good for you! Thanks Taylor and Annie for the great idea!!!

Favorite summer activity

Awe, cute

One thing a good boat has to have...a heater! Yes, a heater...especially for those early morning ski runs

Gary wake-surfing


Nice rooster tail babe!

Me, trying to lay it down


Gary loves wake-boarding

Gary and I have a good friend who owns an awesome Malibu boat. We have been fortunate enough to go out and spend some days and early mornings on the lake. I will go with anyone, anywhere, anytime. I will drop whatever I am doing to go! I'm such a water/sun girl. My two most favorite things in the world? Waterskiing and watching BYU sports, especially football. But we'll save that for another blog.

We got to go out this last weekend to beautiful East Canyon lake. It was awesome water in the morning. Nothing better than skiing on glass. Gary is the all-around guy in the water. He loves to do it all and is very natural and good. Me? I stick to waterskiing. I've had a few concussions wake-boarding so I stay away. But I love even a ride on the boat. Thanks Curtie for taking us out!

A camping we will go...

My family doesn't camp. Just ask any of us. Okay, okay, Taylor might...once in a while...but as for the rest of us, we don't do it. We don't like to get dirty or smelling like campfire. We like sleeping in our own beds. We like having flushing toilets and running water. We don't like bugs. So, we just don't camp. We don't own camping equipment. But, I got married to a man who loves the outdoors, camping, and the smell of campfire. So I consented and last weekend, we went camping with our friends.

My premonition was not to go. The weather report said thunderstorms and a low of 37 degrees at night. It rained the day we left and then on our drive to the Uintas. But I tried to be a "happy camper" and went along. We finally found a campsite and we quickly set up our tents because the sky was darkening quickly. No sooner as we finished did it start hailing on us. Great. I'm already freezing. Luckily I found some mittens in my coat I had brought. I had also talked my husband into buying and bringing an umbrella for our night out...because I had checked the weather.

The hail stopped and the rain came. Pouring rain. Rain that was putting out our campfire...the only thing keeping us warm. The few of us that had umbrella's had to stand over the fire so the rain wouldn't put our fire out. That caused a TON of smoke and the smoke inhalation was intoxicating. Our lungs were burning. We couldn't see. It was cold, make that FREEZING. I didn't even get to have a S'more (I love these!!) because my fingers were numb and we didn't have much of a fire. Good thing Gary had brought our BBQ grill to cook some hamburger and hot dogs.

I was wet all over and Gary and I decided to call it a night. We went to our tent and mud got everywhere. Then I had to go to the bathroom...in the rain...with no outhouse. Jeez. After getting settled and putting our 5-6 layers on us, we settled in for the night. I was COLD. I ended up putting my extra pair of sweat pants OVER MY HEAD to keep some heat in. Ya, it was awful. I had a restless night and woke up to a flat air mattress. When I finally had the courage to get out from the covers and go out to get some breakfast, I was numb. Everything was frozen! We had pancakes with frozen butter and syrup. My husband informed me that his watch said it was 42 degrees that morning. Sweet.

Breakfast was just about over and I wanted to get out of there...fast. More dark clouds coming in. I begged Gary to take our tent down and to leave. We did but as we were cleaning up, SNOW. SNOW! SNOW!!! I HATE SNOW! In the middle of August? Really? Depressing. We finally got cleaned up and left. I couldn't have been happier. I was wet and chilled to the bone. For those of you who know me, I don't do well with cold.

Moral of the story, doubt I will be going camping for a long...long...LONG time. The one positive? The Uinta's are gorgeous!!! Wish we could have hiked them in warm weather...

Right before snuggling down in our many layers of bed covering. Trying to look happy.

Me putting on my happy face

The tarp covering our firewood to attempt to keep it dry

Gary grilling up some burgers and "Mexican" hot dogs

The hail that plagued our campsite

The crew, trying to keep warm by the fire

Me with my sweatpants over my head, just waking up. Don't know why I am smiling

The pretty Uintas. You can't tell but it is snowing pretty hard in this picture

Um, ya. This is Gary chewing charcoal. For those of you who aren't smart enough to know, chewing charcoal actually cleans your teeth. Who knew?

Just before leaving for home. Can't you see I'm estactic?