Growing Up Wonderful

Today I walked to 7-11 with my niece Laine. Romney was there too, of course, but quite limited in his participation, what with the stroller straps and the binky in his mouth and everything. The walk was only a few blocks there and back again, but looking through Laine's eyes, it was a grand adventure. Midway, she began collecting sticks which she stashed in the bottom of the stroller or used as batons to aid her dancing. She stopped to smell every flower, and asked to investigate more fully the features of several houses we passed--the bird houses, the rock garden, etc. She was stopped dead in her tracks by a small pile of broken glass on the sidewalk, and she was completely stumped by how it could have gotten there. Her brainstorming produced the following possibilities: maybe a mouse sat on it, or a huge mungus destroyed it, or maybe a leaf fell on it. My bet is on the leaf. I'm not quite sure what a huge mungus is.

Where'd you matriculate from?

Well, I know I'm going overboard here, posting more than once in the same day...but I've got a lot to share with the world. "I like to wake up to the smell of sizzling bacon. So sue me."

I graduated from college. At the time, it seemed like a really great thing. But now I find myself typing on my dad's computer at four in the afternoon, totally unpresentable and with nothing to show for the day and I wonder. What am I going to do now and what's in a piece of paper?

Feel free to offer job suggestions, or non-job suggestions (though those will require a little more justification.)

A shout out to my dear friends: you're all cookies. You made Provo the place that I now miss.

Let's go, Let's show, Let's RODEO!

Let's get wild, rough, rugged, and a weeee bit western!

I'm back from Dubois, Wyoming--the most remote location in the lower 48 states (true story)--where I have spent six weeks working on my cowboy walk. I was a counselor for ten girls, ages 13-16, and I learned from them that my tastes in music, celebrities, and movies are about ten years younger than me. This wasn't really a surprise; I'm the first to tell you that I'm growing down instead of up, a gravitational wonder. Anyway, Teton Valley Ranch Camp is a crazy cool place and the kids who go there are as lucky as any I know. My girls went on a four day pack trip, a four day backpack, and spent days in camp doing awesome activities.

My favorites were the petrified wood hike, and pretty much anything that involved the swimming hole, Lake Lebato. The pack trip was a five hour ride to camp, where the cowboys and trail cook had set up a sweet kitchen and sleeping tarp for us. Pack trips are the lap of luxury: horses to carry you, cooks to feed you, and large guns (courtesy of the cowboys) in case of bears. I actually slept with my hand on the bear spray...though I tried to hide my paranoia from my girls since I was supposed to be the brave one. For our backpack, we started at Jenny Lake, hiked up Cascade Canyon, took a detour to the Wall, went up over Hurricane Pass into Alaska Basin, summited Static Peak, and ended at Phelps Lake. There may not be more beautiful country in the whole world... "I won't say I'm much better than anybody else, but I'll be darned if I ain't just as good!"....

A few things I learned from TVRC:

-everything is better outside

-mice are, in fact, as gross as I've always thought

-never tell a fourteen-year-old she's being dramatic

-time will pass--it always does

-almost everything can be funny

-there is very little you need to get along, especially when everyone around you has very little too

-loving people makes living with them so much easier

-i quite like being in charge

-jackalopes are not real. i promise

Summers are made for exploring the wilderness and yourself.

It's been a good summer.