Bear Lake

We spent an utterly delightful week at Bear Lake with our good friends, George & Melanee.

Me, Joel, George, and Melanee
While we were at the hot springs (details below), an older couple asked us if two of us were siblings because "there was such a strong family resemblance."
So here's a little contest for you:
To which two were they referring?
I'll think of a prize to send to whoever gets the right answer.


At the risk of sounding super lame (which is always a major risk around here), Joel and felt like this trip was a sort of rite of passage into adulthood for us: we went on a vacation with friends. And it was a grand old time.
George and Melanee met us at our house before we were off on our adventure. We were so excited to get there that we stopped at the Bear Lake visitor's center, which gave us our first glimpse of the beautiful, turquoise lake.

Dane is showing Kevin where the lake is.

Yes, Kevin wore that cowboy hat and clutched Woody and Buzz almost the entire trip. Even during bathtime.
You might notice that the sky is ominously gray. Normally, such clouds portend ruined plans and sad faces staring out the window, but not for us! We knew what the weather would be, and we all looked forward to simply lounging around, eating, talking, and relaxing. My only regret is that my camera could never quite capture the turquoise beauty of the water since the clouds messed with the lighting. Otherwise, no regrets.

We rented a two-bedroom condo, and the accommodations were perfect for us. The two bedrooms even had their own attached bathrooms, and there was a great living room and kitchen. I didn't get any great pictures of the interior, but this will give you the basic idea:

Honestly, we spent a great deal of our time just reading and talking. It was great to have the kind of vacation that you come back from without feeling utterly exhausted. But we definitely had a few picture-worthy adventures.
We took a little hike down to the marina. It was too cold and choppy to take out a boat, but I enjoyed just being near the water and sailboats.





We also drove up to Lava Hot Springs, Idaho. It was so much more wonderful than we even imagined. It was about 50 degrees that day, so it was cold enough for the hot springs to feel great but not so cold that you'd get hypothermia if you were out of the water. The hot springs were made up of five or six pools, ranging from 120 degrees to 102 degrees. It was landscaped beautifully, had great facilities, wasn't crowded at all, and even had swimsuit rentals for only $1.50 since we somehow made it there with Dane's swim shirt but not his shorts. We were there for almost four hours, and the kids even enjoyed every minute of it.
I'm saying that if you're ever within a reasonable driving distance from it, go, by all means, go!


The coolest pool was most comfortable for the kids, but they had no problem sticking their feet into the warmer pools, too.

I love the look of utter mirth on Kevin's face:



A couple of the pools had jets, so Joel and Dane tried their best to catch the bubbles:


And, as if it weren't perfect enough already, the train tracks were in perfect view for the kids to enjoy. I think two or three trains passed while we were there, and Dane and Kevin especially watched with rapt attention.

I made Dane pose in some of the pretty flowers. He humored me, with some help from his entertaining Daddy:

He even tried to smile through the shivers:

Joel then wanted in on the action.

I'm not sure what he was going for. Maybe creepy.

Ah...it was such a great experience. Here, Dane and Joel show you how much fun we had:

We had dinner at The Chuckwagon right there in Lava Hot Springs, and the food was surprisingly good. Think: deep fried potato skins.


On Friday, we celebrated my 27th birthday by finding a beach and wading in the freezing water.




Then, Joel surprised us all by making good on the promise he'd made earlier to swim in the lake, no matter how cold:



Showing off his self-deprecating gut:


This is how deep my feet would sink in at some places. I liked it.

I thought it was funny, seeing Joel drive home in his swimsuit, despite the freezing rain outside:

And George was kind enough to make me a delicious Tunnel-of-Fudge birthday cake.

Alas, it did not turn out quite as beautiful as he had hoped, but it was so tasty nonetheless. Thanks, George.

I can't get over what a great week it was. As I've gone back through these pictures, I've wished more than once that we could be there still. And it wouldn't have been nearly so great without George and Melanee. We had so many great laughs and conversations. In fact, they were so integral a part of the vacation that I'm considering just moving in with them. Then we'd party every day.
I can't think of a single reason why that wouldn't work.

Dane

Dane has started to say some funny things lately. For instance, if we ever chastise him for something, he'll yell, "Don't scream like that, okay??" I hope you know that we weren't screaming.
Also, multiple times a day, he'll say "I have an idea: let's play trains!" The idea of playing trains is not novel. Nor would I consider it an idea since it's something that's constantly on his mind.
Maybe these are the kinds of things that are only funny to me and Joel because we're his parents. But here's one that is probably more universally funny:
At church, Dane was snuggling on Joel's lap, and due to his fascination with ears, he put his finger in Joel's ear. He craned his head over to look into Joel's other ear and said, "I can't see my finger!"

Here is some awesome bedhead he woke up with last week:

Also last week, I came home from my Relief Society meeting to find these sweet boys on the couch:

Finally, Dane was invited to a birthday party for a little girl in our ward. I was feeling rather cheap and unmotivated to go buy a birthday present, so I decided to make her a dress using all materials I already had. Kenji was quick to point out that making a dress is way more work than just going and buying a present. But I didn't spend any money, and I finished it all during Dane's nap. Swish for me.
Just to make sure it came out alright, I HAD to try it on Dane. I HAD to! I had no other model!
Don't tell Joel.

I left his pants and dinosaur slippers on him to lessen some of the girliness. He is also clutching Lightning McQueen in an effort to preserve his masculinity.
Since we had all these labels made for our Etsy shop that has proven extremely unsuccessful, I've been sticking the Eminandems label onto whatever I make these days:

And here's a more detailed shot of my first try at shirring. It was pretty fun, once I figured out the best settings on my machine for it. Yes, I was too lazy to clip the loose threads before taking the picture.

Again, Lightning McQueen is making a speedy appearance on the side, proclaiming, "I'm a boy!"
I used this tutorial to make the dress. I made the sleeves a little wider (4 inches) to make it more like a cap sleeve, but I think I'll make them even wider next time, like 4.5 to 5 inches.

Bad Wife

Saturday, May first, was our sixth anniversary.
I love you with the same fervor of our wedding day.

Thank you for a wonderful six years. Howsabout six more? And then six more? And then six more?
I love you like crazy. Even if the blog world doesn't see it in a timely fashion.

Jiichan & Baachan

Yes, I have returned to the world of blogging. Thank you to all of you who had faith and kept checking in on me. You did not give up on me, and for that, I am grateful.


Jiichan and Baachan came to visit us, and they were able to be here for a whole ten days! Dane had a lot of fun playing with them and being spoiled by them.
I never get enough pictures when they're here, so I don't have good documentation of all the fun we had. We went shopping, ate out, ate in, played Wii Basketball, played Sudoku, rode bikes. We also had a couple of other adventures that I actually did take good pictures of:

Thanksgiving Point Tulip Festival
(Random sidenote: "point" has always been my favorite word to type. Try it. I bet you'll like it, too. point point point.)


I've never been to the Tulip Festival before, though I'd heard really good things. My ignorance was further made manifest when we drove up to Thanksgiving Point, walked up to the information center, presented them with our coupon, and were told that we had to drive another two miles to a different location to get to the gardens. Oops.
Anyway, it was beautiful. We'd had a bad hail storm the day before, so I was afraid the flowers would be all broken and battered, but I should not have doubted the heartiness of nature.



Here, Dane is pointing to a helicopter. He can really pick them out like a pro.
Dane really wanted to ride a golfcart around. But $25 seemed a little steep for our taste. But that didn't stop us from finding an abandoned one and stealing some pictures.
My dad put Dane in a tree, and Dane was excited to be like a monkey. But he is cuter than a monkey. Or at least as cute as one.




Here, he'd found a divot in the middle of a little field, so he plopped himself down in it.




I'd heard of the waterfall at Thanksgiving Point, but I'd never seen it. It was really quite impressive to walk around the corner and suddenly see majestic falls.

Another fun thing we did was ride bikes along the Jordan River trail. We started at Gardner Village, where we got all geared up--

--and headed north about a quarter mile before encountering a no trespassing sign. Here we are mulling over the situation, trying not the inhale the smell of sewage treatment plant:

But since it wasn't really barricaded, we ignored it and continued for about another half mile before coming up on a barbed wire fence. With reckless abandon, we decided to ignore that sign as well. All that was required to get past it was to hoist the bikes over the fence. Well, the nice, new bikes are all lightweight, but since there were four of us (Jiichan, Baachan, Joel, Ami) we also had to take the world's heaviest and most useless bike. As my dad was trying to lift it over the fence, the handlebars (which were super old and bare metal on the ends) swung around and conked my dad around the eye. Not in the eye, mind you, but around it. I failed to get a picture of the fence that blocked our way, but I did manage to get one of the injury:

Ouch. Joel then nicknamed the bike "The Hussy." It is a terrible bike, that Hussy.
After that, I didn't take any pictures, which I regret because it was fun and picturesque to ride along a river all together.
We passed a nice park in Murray that had immediate parking and access to the trail, and we thought we should park there next time. I'm not sure how far we'd gone, maybe a few miles, but we turned back and my mom, Dane, and I played at the park while Dad and Joel went back to Gardner Village to pick up the car and meet us for the picnic.
Dane enjoyed throwing rocks in the pond.

We enjoyed a picnic of sushi and Fudgees.
(Another random sidenote: I think Fudgees are the most delicious Oreo incarnation. Even better than original Oreos. Try them. They don't carry them in every grocery store, but they are delicious.)
Here is how exhausted my mom was afterward:

Note the Sudoku she's holding. Good times.

Dane really misses them. Today, my uncle came over, and when Dane heard his voice, he excitedly said, "Jiichan?!?"
My parents were exceedingly generous and gave us their minivan. They've had it for several years but is in great condition and still looks new. So we're now a two car family! We're very grateful that they were so nice to give it to us. For free, even! Wait, no, that's not exactly true. At the DMV, we were getting it registered in Utah, and the total registration fee was $150.50. My dad--again, amazingly generously--offered to pay the fee, but I did pay the last fifty cents. I had one quarter, one dime, one nickel, and ten pennies. So a sweet new minivan for fifty cents. Thanks so much, Jiichan and Baachan!
Anyway, today, as I pulled into the driveway in our other car, Dane was longingly staring out the window. I asked him what he was looking at, and he said "Jiichan and Baachan's car."
He misses them. We all miss them. Thanks so much for coming out.