Pictures of the BBQ

A BIG Thank You to Cyndi for sending me these shots.

SUCCESS - What a great weekend !

Photos will be posted later.
For now, here's a summary of our incredible weekend:

Saturday was pretty much a just busy-day running errands and getting the yard ready for Monday's BBQ party. Running around town (in the rain) to gather the usual party supplies, like Kingsford Charcoal, a small wading pool, birdseed, a broom. You know, the regular stuff.

For Sunday, we had planned a rather long hike to a Geocache on the mountainside above Perry. When we woke up, it was STILL raining. So, we decided to dress warmer and go hiking anyway! My trusty Subaru sure proved herself on the road(?) to the starting point of our hike. Got a couple of dings in the rocker panels at the worst spots, (we need a little bit more ground-clearance) but over-all, a really fun and challenging drive. We parked at the base of a rock slide and started our ascent. Just under an hour later we arrived at the HUGE rock formation that was our goal, searched about 15 minutes more for the cache, added our names to the log, sat and enjoyed a wonderful view of the valley, and prepared to head back down... then came the fun part. On the North end of the rock formation was a section of the rock slide made of much smaller rocks. We essentially floated all the way down. It was like skiing on rocks. Just take a step and slide for about 8-10 feet, then do it again. Craig timed us on our way down... 3 minutes and 48 seconds. WHOO HOO !

Monday, Memorial Day, was a BLAST! I hope everyone had as much fun as I did. The Ribs turned out incredible! We had 6 full racks of baby-back ribs, in the marinade and in my fridge since Saturday evening. They were SO good (if I do say so myself). We ended up with 15 people at the party, and everyone got along great, even though it was A VERY DIVERSE GROUP. But, I think Craig said it the best I've ever heard. As I was planning my guest list, he said to me, "It doesn't matter WHO you are... it's HOW you are that matters."
Perfectly put. :)
We had a full day of hanging out and visiting, a fun little yard game, playing in our big back yard (remember, we have an acre) with one of those 6-wheeled amphibious vehicles, and generally just having a relaxing afternoon with each other catching up on life and being together.

Kelly's Driving, Heather moved, and our lawn mower sucks!

I took Kelly to get his Learner's Permit on Tuesday!

It freaks me out to think that 'My Little Kelly' is DRIVING! And, of course, he drove home from the Drivers License Division. Then we went for more practice on some of the dirt roads around our house. He actually does very well (for a beginner). Starting out from stop signs is the roughest part, but that's normal. Our vehicles don't have automatic transmissions. Around here, you learn to drive with a CLUTCH and a stick shift. After the rural roads, we headed down the Highway to Ogden, and into city traffic. He even handled that with a great sense of humor.

After some sort of an episode that I don't fully understand (or need to), Heather decided to move out of the apartment with her 'friends' and has moved in with Grandpa Fred in Brigham City. Obviously, I'm QUITE HAPPY with that decision. She's seems to be healthy and I think she's doing fine now. Last I talked to her, she is STILL looking for a job (It's a tough market out there). Grandpa is a great guy and I think this will be a good arrangement.

Our lawn mower (the BIG one that you ride on) has not been running right for a few months. We've tried tearing it down and cleaning the carb, replacing ALL of the filters, new spark plugs, fresh clean oil, new gas, the whole kit-and-caboodle. STILL running wrong. I've called a couple of repair shops, which all seem to be run by pig-headed jerks, and found that they are back-logged anywhere from 1 week to 3 weeks before they can even diagnose the issue, then they'll order parts and go from there. No thanks. First, I have a really hard time PAYING other people to fix our stuff. Second, if you choose to treat me like crap when I call your business, you can bet that someone ELSE will be my choice if it comes down to it. Craig & I are both very mechanically savvy, and we can usually fix anything that shows up around here. So, our next step is to try a total carb rebuild (instead of just cleaning) and if that still doesn't fix it, THEN we'll cave-in and get it fixed by someone else. For now, we have been able to borrow our neighbors' mowers to keep our small jungle under control. (We're lucky enough to have nice neighbors on both sides of our place.)

On Monday (Memorial Day), we're going to have a few friends over for a BBQ at our place. I think that will be fun. I'm going to try doing baby-back ribs... my first attempt at ribs. We'll see how it goes.

Mother's Day Fun & Adventures

I got my mother's day gift from Heather on Friday evening. She gave me a sweet card and a rose. :)
On Sunday, my Mom, Sister, Grandma and I all went down to Kaysville to visit my GREAT-Grandma (who is 100 years old)! It was a good trip, and I'm really glad that we all got to spend some time together. I think the visit was important for everybody.
Afterwards, I went on a bike ride with Craig & Kelly. We went out to the Legacy Nature Trail that runs along side the Legacy Parkway (a new highway from Farmington to Salt Lake City). We didn't ride the entire length of the trail since it was already late in the day, but we did ride about six and a half miles. It's a pretty simple trail that runs through the wetlands and next to a nature preserve. We saw a few ducks, a lot of Kill-Deer (birds), a snake, and smelled (but didn't see) a skunk. It was a blast! As usual, my butt-bones are sore from the seat, but well worth it.