Just Because

This is Rich carrying the ladder down the streets of Tropic.

He's so very strong.

Why is he carrying a ladder? Because I may have been a teensy bit obsessed with the fact that there was an apricot tree in town that wasn't being used. The fruit was just falling all over the ground. And it was making me so sad! I wanted the fruit. Very badly. I needed to make fruit leather. Homemade fruit roll-ups rule the world. Honestly.

So I pestered my dad all weekend to talk to the guy who owned the empty house lot where the tree was growing. Finally, on Sunday, my dad was able to ask the guy if I could pick some apricots. And he said yes! (Really, I had no doubt he would say yes, and I probably could have just picked the apricots without asking because it's Tropic. BUT I AM A LAW-ABIDING CITIZEN.)

Rich really loved picking the apricots. The tree hasn't been pruned in years. And apricot trees are scratchy. And because so much fruit had already fallen on the ground, our shoes, and thus the ladder, got all squishy. But! We got so many wonderfully beautiful and tasty apricots! All week I've been preparing the apricots before the very ripe fruit goes bad! I'm pretty much on an apricot high right now.

We will have fruit leather a plenty to get us through the winter until we can do this all over again!

Celebration!

So the Friday pictures are taking too long to get off of Rich's camera. I mean, you would think I would need to do something other than think about the fact that the pictures were on that camera.

In the meantime . . . the Pioneer Day celebration in Tropic was on Saturday! (Though the actual Pioneer Day is the 24th. But meh. A weekend of goodness!) How did we start off the day? By big booming cannons waking us up and scaring us to death? YES!! Just like every year. And every year they still scare the living daylights out of me.

The parade started at 10 o'clock. I love the Tropic parade. It's like a total of 15 minutes, but you get all the candy you need. You get to see people you know. You get sprayed with water from the firetrucks.

And you get ninja guys and hand sanitizer!
This year was Rich's first Tropic parade and celebration. I wanted to ensure he didn't miss another year. Rich loved every minute. I think he discovered what heaven really is.

After the parade we trooped down to the park for the field races! I love that they start at one year old and go up from there. I ran in these races every year growing up. I'm pretty sure I never won though. I'm very slow. But you get a ticket just for running! And that buys you a snow cone! Or a trip to the fishing pond.


Zane really was super cute and decided that he wanted to run to Uncle Rich.

The other kids did great too!
You can just see the determination on Nicholas' face.

And I love the wind in Maura's hair.
Good times.

After the races we chatted with friends, got some cotton candy and snow cones, and ate a great lunch of freshly made Navajo tacos! We eventually made it back to the trailer to prepare for the Jolley family reunion! My dad's extended family has always been really good at having reunions. I think I've only missed like maybe 3 of these reunions my whole life! They are great fun, though it's sad because my grandma is no longer around, but all her siblings, who are really my great aunts and uncles, but whom I refer to as if they were really my aunts and uncles are all still there, and it's great to know you have so many people who love you and care about you!

Only my (real) Uncle Lloyd and Aunt Linda were there from my dad's immediate siblings, but it was great to see their family and to see all the extended cousins.

The reunion was at the park in Cannonville; it's so pretty there! Rich was, again, a hit with all the kids. He is a fast runner and the kids like chasing him around! He's more fun than me. Clearly.

Zane was still enamored with Uncle Rich, and used his flashlight to make sure Rich checked out. This is a fun video of Zane on Uncle Rich's lap.



After the reunion Rich and I decided to walk to the store, which ended up just being a walk to Tari's house to talk to her for like 2 hours! But that's okay because I never get to see Tari and we needed to catch up!

(This is not a picture of me talking to Tari. This is Cooper on grandpa's lap. He was very distraught that he had possibly lost his compass/whistle combo toy.)

After the catching up, the family drove up to Ruby's to watch the fireworks. Nothing like watching fireworks up there! They are so close and you feel like they're right on top of you. I love it.

And I love Rich!

The end.

Tropic! Again!

A little Tropic getaway never hurt anyone. That's what my doctor says. He does.

The Millett family annual camp out turned into more of a stay in Tropic this year due to many scheduling conflicts. But it was still lots of fun. Most of the family was down the week before the 24th and Brad, Phil, and Erik ran in the half marathon again. Unfortunately, Rich and I couldn't come down until later, and Rich almost didn't get to come at all! Brad and Jo left on Sunday, so we missed them and Phil, but we got to spend time with everyone else in the family. I went down on Tuesday night by myself, and Rich came down Thursday night with Erik (who had left and was now coming back).

Just being with family, away from work, was wonderful in and of itself. But, taking naps whenever I wanted and reading some books and getting to sleep in a tent under quilts my grandma made are additional positives.

It's been awhile since I have driven to southern Utah by myself. It felt like I was going back to college or something! It was a weird feeling.

We went over to Boulder (Utah) on Wednesday to see the Anasazi Museum. I took some pictures of the scenery and thought about Selina in order to honor her hometown. I won't lie, the museum was not as amazing as I was expecting. But perhaps being in the National Museum of the American Indian in DC set my expectations too high? At any rate it's crazy to think about the people who came before in that area and how they lived and how ingenious they were for living in the desert of southern Utah over 1,000 years ago! We got some good pics at the museum and then had a picnic on the grass out front. This is important because I got to eat one of Dawn's homemade pizza pockets. Srsly. My sister is awesome, and I will be copying her recipe shortly.



After the museum we were going to stop at the Petrified Forest outside Escalante, but we were all tired. And, gasp, there was a one-mile hike. So we didn't stop. I was okay with this. As I took a nap the whole way back to Tropic, where I was then ready for some more general Millett family merriment.

Thursday was a relaxing day, and Troy and Dawn took the kids, sans Zane, up to Pine Lake for some swimming. Zane was very distraught so we got ice cream to assuage his frustration at being left behind.

Ice cream makes everything better.

And so do bubbles!

Thursday night Rich came down! I like when Rich is with me. Because I love him. And I want him with me always. I saved him dinner, like a good wife. Except Rich feel asleep that night on top of the quilts, and then I didn't have enough to put over me. At around 3 o'clock in the morning my feet were so very cold. It was a very upsetting experience. All of my toes survived.

That night there were many gnats in the trailer, so Erik ingeniously tried to vacuum them off the ceiling. The results were not as hoped.

Friday morning was my breakfast assignment, and we had some sourdough pancakes. My gosh, sourdough is like manna from heaven. And my mom would like you to all know that her sourdough start came across the plains with the pioneers. Very fitting breakfast for Pioneer Day, if I may say! Back in June, when my mom first came home, she promptly got out the start to make sure I hadn't killed it; there were some tense moments as the start wasn't really taking off and my dad had requested sourdough pancakes when he got home in July. I almost ruined our sourdough heritage! But in the end the start grew; people rejoiced; and sourdough goodness was enjoyed.

Friday afternoon will be its own post because I do not want to keep typing right now.

Strawberry Breakfast, or will it be Strawberries for Breakfast?

That was the subject line of one of Rich's emails to his elders quorum presidency. So I thought I would share.

This weekend we headed down to Strawberry Reservoir for an elders quorum activity. I'd never been to Strawberry, but I was imagining something different. The lake was great. The campground was not so great. I guess I've just never camped somewhere that lacked trees and where I had to fight the sagebrush for a place to put my tent. The general area was nice, but I would scout out a different campsite if we were to go again. Because I like shade. I missed the shade. However, the bathrooms had running water. RUNNING WATER, PEOPLE. I'm not used to this while camping.
I left work a little early on Friday, and we headed down to the lake. We got there in pretty good time, after some detours. And me getting annoyed. But we made it! We went out on the Sasine's boat that night to have some general water fun.
I haven't been boating in awhile, so I was sad I couldn't ride the tube, but Jen was much more pregnant than I, so we just hung out and talked while the guys had fun torturing the Sasine's kids. Rich was very impressed with his strength and ability to get Kent, who is 12, off the tube.

We also dropped some crawdad traps. Rich made his own traps, and he was very proud of them. My hubby is very crafty! The traps worked. This made Rich happy. To make the traps Rich made everyone drink a lot A LOT of pop so he could use the 2-liter bottles. Dave was happy to oblige.
That night we had a campfire and now I was happy. Because I love campfires. And because it was freezing. We cooked up some of the crawdads, and I thought they tasted just like lobster. But I guess they are mini lobsters, so that makes sense.

Saturday morning was a breakfast with everyone. Only five families camped on Friday night, and then another two couples came up for breakfast, but we can still call the activity a success. The breakfast was "off the hook!" At least that's the word on the River Ridge 1st Ward street. I cooked the sausage over the fire, so you can be sure that at least the sausage was "awesome!"

Jen and I decided we needed to be closer to a bathroom this day, and we wanted to let others have fun on the boat, so Rich and I and Dave and Jen just tried to fish on the shoreline. This didn't work so well. And it was sad. Then Jen and I decided that the lack of shade was making us cranky, so we spent some time sitting in the air conditioned car! I will admit that it wasn't as hot as it could have been, and I was just thankful that it wasn't humid. I'm pretty sure living in humidity made me more tolerant of Utah heat. But I still can complain:)

Dave and Rich wanted to catch some more crawdads, so we stopped on the way out and the guys fished off some rocks. This is when Rich's sunburn went from slightly pink, to painfully red. He's so used to just tanning that he didn't put sunscreen on. He regrets this decision.

My favorite part of this picture is that to the left of the crawdad you can see Jen and I up on the hill yelling for the guys to be done because we needed some real food. Which we did end up getting at this fun hamburger place in Heber. Seriously, that was a good hamburger.

By the time we got home, I was tired. Very, very tired. But it was a fun time! And it was good to be out in the sun and nature. We'll get some more camping in this week when we head to Tropic for Pioneer Day, which I'm looking forward to so so so very much!

Reading Away

I feel like I accomplished a lot in the reading department in June. I will say that the rain helped. It rained a lot.

First report: I finished American Gospel. I liked it mucho. It was very informative and smart. I learned a lot and am glad that I have this new information. I think I had some misconceptions cleared up, and the book really made me think about my own personal feelings on some things. I like books that make you think. I'm grateful for the freedoms of religion we have in America. And I'm glad that the founding fathers realized the importance of creating a nation that didn't place one religion above another.

Second report: I Am the Messenger was a quick read. I think I just wanted to find out how the story ended, which is always a sign of a good book, because I certainly wasn't reading quickly to just get done! The writing was interesting and engaging, and the story had an interesting premise. But a good lesson. And it was thought-provoking, which is a nice attribute in a YA novel. I think I like The Book Thief better, but perhaps this is because I really like WWII history? I Am the Messenger was a good summer read though. Two thumbs up.

Third report: I'm in the middle of The Infinite Atonement, and I'm loving it. LOVING. I really enjoy having highlighter in hand on the bus. I feel like I'm gaining little nuggets of knowledge and insight everyday. Though I'm still in the middle, I feel that I can wholeheartedly recommend this book. I'll report more later though.

Fourth report: I'm reading some baby books at night. I'm just not ready to bring them along on the bus, and besides, I'm getting all that reading time in on The Infinite Atonement! Annalisa suggested a Deepak Chopra book (Magical Beginnings, Enchanted Lives), and I'm glad I picked it up from the library. I will probably go buy my own copy this week, as it's time to return the book. I get sad sometimes when I have to give books back. I like to keep them. And then see them on my bookshelf. Anyway, I've been reading a few other baby books too, because I'm woefully unknowledgeable about what's going on, though it is fun just to experience things without reading about it in a book. I like reading the baby books at night, then I ensure I keep balance by reading other things, too. I wonder how long this will last.

I love writing about books. It's been a good summer. And I have another book on hold at the library right now. I get to pick it up Monday night. I'm looking forward to that errand.

Day of Reckoning. Part 2.

Well she lit up the sky that fourth of July.

It's Independence Day.

Saturday was some family time with the Britton clan and Rich's mom and step dad. It was fun to see Rich's parents from Oregon because we don't get to see them very much! We're glad we got to spend the 4th with them.

We all got together at Rich's brother's house. Where, apparently, I am not good at taking pictures. I will thus share the only picture and the one video available from this family time. (But at least this is proof that I brought the camera.) We are playing Rock Band. Sadly, I didn't think to take a video of Rich's brother singing "Roxanne." I was laughing too hard I guess!


I did get a video of our two nephews taking the game VERY SERIOUSLY. Tyler is a master guitar player. But I'm not sure you can see the intense guitar playing because the video is dark. And I'm not smart enough to figure out how to edit the video and post it so you can see what's going on. So squint! Then imagine the intenseness!



After dinner we went to Rich's sister's house to watch the fireworks and have dessert. Honestly, I'm lame for not documenting this occasion. Rich's siblings always get millions of fireworks and then light them off at the same time. It's very intense. But while I love fireworks, I do not like the sensation that someone is going get lit on fire before the end of the night! My fears were unfounded though. The worst that happened was a mosquito bite on my ankle. I'm going to go itch it now.

I'm sad that I didn't get any pics of Liz and Leonard. I really need to step up the picture taking! We'll blame it on that pregnancy brain that everyone talks about. And I'll pray that I won't forget to document our child's life when shim gets here!

Oh I lied. I found one more pic! It's an awkward self-picture of me and Rich. But I will share. So that I always remember that moment.

Day of Reckoning. Part 1.

Let freedom ring, let the white dove sing.

It's Independence Day.

Or it was. On Saturday.

We celebrated on Friday and Saturday because we are very patriotic and all about the eating of barbecued things and homemade ice cream.

We had a little get together with the Milletts on Friday, essentially to officially welcome Mom and Dad back to America. It was nearly a whole-day affair. But that's just because we're really good at congregating and then never leaving. That sounded mean. I heart my family! I'm glad they came over! The Utah Milletts were all there, but we'll get to see Christy and Phil and the boys soon.

We (the kids) went swimming, played bocce ball, ate good food, made homemade ice cream, and had fireworks. Oh, and apparently Rich had the best golf game of his life Friday morning. He told my mom it was because of the lucky hat she bought him in the Philippines. I think it was an all-around good day for the Brittons.

I didn't actually start taking pictures until we were starting to make the ice cream.

And if you don't help turn the ice cream, you don't get to eat any! So there are many pictures of various family members turning the ice cream maker.

Addie helped by putting one grain of salt in the bucket at a time. It was very necessary.

Dawn told Canon that eating the ice that had the rock salt on it would taste salty, like potato chips. He did not think the ice tasted like potato chips.