Singin in the Rain: September 2011

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

I suppose since Jess stayed in Provo/Springville/Mapleton the burden lies upon me to record the trip Liv and I took to lake Powell with assorted members of the Hoopes/Paxman clan. As I spend my days sitting at a computer at work I'm not inclined to spend anymore time on this than it takes to upload the pictures, so nothing creative here:

We depart Kent, WA at 1 pm, thinking (well, one of us was) that we'd drive till we got tired and sleep in Boise or somewhere in Idaho. About an hour in Jess casually asks what I think about "pushing on through"; being somewhat of an experienced long distance driver, I say "yeah, why not? If we take a break every 3 hours it shouldn't be bad." And aside from Warner refusing to sleep until we totally ignored him around 1 am it wasn't. We also got to see a great sunset just after crossing the Snake River into Idaho:

After rolling in to Jordan and Taryn's house around 3 am we found their couch and air mattress to be exceedingly comfortable; we slept soundly till time for meeting up with Drew Hoopes et al, Rich Hoopes et al, and the aforementioned J & T at a great pool in SLC. The pool was a highlight for me since they had 5, 7, and 10 m platforms, from which I was able to reacquaint myself with jumping/flipping/twisting from high things in preparation for the red rock ledges of Powell.
The next day was spent preparing the more needful things for the lake, but late Saturday the 20th finally found us in what later came to be known as Bum Crack Cove:

(obviously)

The top of our Bum Crack Mountain seems to have been visited before by one of the Hoopes kids:

(which is kind of fitting if you know Jordan and the typical height of his trousers - not that I've room to judge, just sayin')

The lake experience was all I was hoping for and more:

1. Spiffy Hats (courtesy of grandpa) and Fancy Eyewear

2. Big canyons nearly full (the lake was only about 40' below full pool when we were there)

3. Excursions into said canyons in order to ruminate on some ruins, and run down the hottest sand hill on planet earth. Drew and I braved the scorching sand with a little technique I learned from the lizards: you run as fast as you can for as long as you can, then quickly stop and dig down a few inches to the cool sand below, rest in it for a bit, then repeat. We ascended, then traversed the hill in the last two photos above till we found a good spot where the idea was to run down, as Drew put it: "till we yard sale".

4. Water and red rock, enough said.

5. A water skiing grandma, with great form no less! Liv skied too, between my legs on the double skis. But with Drew being a. the only adult on board, and b. slightly occupied with driving the boat, there are no pictures to show how much she loved the experience. Actually, no picture could show how much she loved it, because she didn't. Next year.

6. Cousin bonding time. Liv loved, loved, loved being with Megan, Whitney, Andrew, Mathew and James for 16 hours of wakeful time every day. And Aunt Jenny too.

7. Cliff jumping! Great job grandma getting the sequence of the simultaneous jumps of little Andrew, Mathew and me. Seriously, if Andrew and Mathew are jumping off 15-20 footers now, what do they do when they're 16? Look out moms.

8. The calm evenings when the temps finally start to drop, the sky goes all molten lava, and your belly is full of good food. Also, If you've ever wondered how far the stars move (or better said- how many degrees the earth rotates) in 30 minutes, the last photo is your answer. That was a 30 minute exposure with the camera on a tripod. Those star rotatey pictures are tough because it's not easy to guess what the optimal camera settings are going to be, and since it takes 30 minutes for each one it took me a few nights to even start to get the hang of it.

We left Lake Powell on Wednesday the 24th, and with a few minor vehicular hiccups (none of which can be attributed to the 'burb's old age - more of what we might call "user error") made it out of the desert and back into, well coming from Washington the whole state is a desert, but Mapleton is certainly less deserty, especially after this wet year.

The last couple days in Utah were spent playing dress up...

catching fish....

and swimming...

I don't think Buster ever woke up. He missed the whole thing.

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

First Day of School

When we were getting ready this morning I asked Olivia how she would like me to do her hair. "In pigtails, because I think that will probably be the cutest", she said.

She was so excited to go to school today. I didn't cry like I thought I would. I did most of my crying last night thinking about it. But the truth is she was ready for something. Its hard because she is the oldest by far in her class. The curse of having a November birthday. Either way I think it will be good for her in the end. I hope.

Monday, September 12, 2011

Can I cry to you for a minute?

Because. . . my little girl is starting school tomorrow. And all of the sudden I'm sitting here and thinking about what that means, and well, quite frankly I just feel like bawling my little eyes out. Doesn't it just feel like yesterday that you looked like this little darling babe Liv?

Milestones are always so bittersweet to me. Part of me wants to hold on to my baby girl forever, and of course, another part of me wants me to see her grow up and succeed in the world. I really do want her to go to school. I think it will be so good for her, so why is this so hard for me? Why?

Can you relate? Can you? If so call me and we'll go get a treat tomorrow while I cry on your shoulder.

The sad part is, its not even kindergarten, its just pre-school twice a week for only 2 and half hours. I know I'm pathetic. So, I'm giving you a warning now that when she does actually go to school all day everyday I will be a complete wreck.