Abundant Recompense Copy

Let's be honest. Nate is brilliant, handsome, nice, hard-working, witty, blah blah blah. But I bet you didn't know that underneath his mild-mannered facade he's a closet liberal. Wacko environmentalist, to be more precise. I don't know if it came from all his adolescent wanderings in canyon country or his treasonous graduate studies at the U, but either way he's decided the time has come to come out! We are therefore pleased to unveil his new blog The Sustainable Suburbs. In it he's trying to take "going green" to a practical level for people like us who have no money or time and really don't want our yard to consist of astroturf and gravel. To do so he will be tackling a project each week for the next year to find out just what will actually make an impact - not only on the environment, but also on our pocketbook. He's come up with a really simple, at-a-glance rating system for all that. He actually does a great job of introducing it himself ...

We just got back from Havasupai, a side canyon of Grand Canyon with amazing waterfalls and beautiful turquoise water (from high concentrations of lime). I've been wanting to go for years, and it was really a dream come true. Michelle was nice enough to come along for the ride, and she actually enjoyed it, despite the 10-mile hike in and out with a 35-pound pack. My mom and dad watched Addison and Bryn (thanks again) and we went down with Michelle's college roommate Allie and her husband Matt. They made the trip a lot of fun, especially since they found this sweet hotel in Laughlin, Nevada, for the trip down. After-hours adult party - us and the over-60 crowd. Oh yeah. From the trailhead it was a half mile of switchbacks then seven and half miles down Hualapai Canyon and Havasu Canyon and into the Supai village. At the trailhead. The village. By then we were pretty bushed, but it was another two miles, past the two new waterfalls (after the flood two years ago) and Havasu Falls ...

Is it any wonder that we bought our house at this time a couple years ago? As soon as you open the door to step outside you're hit with a punch of rosy goodness to the nose. And this first variety is HUGE. That's my arm next to it.

It's been WAY too long since we've done any explorations of the out-of-doors. So long, in fact, that I forgot how much I like doing it. We've got a pretty major hike coming up this week, so a couple weekends ago Nate decided we should do a little warm-up adventure. We loaded up the kids and went about 20 minutes away to hike Strong's Canyon. It was so fun. And beautiful. I told Nate that if we can keep up the hiking, I might not want to move to Georgia so bad, because it helps me remember that there are beautiful, green, wooded, mosquito-infested parts of Utah too. The hike follows a mountain stream, which was swelled to overflowing with spring runoff. It actually got a little scary a couple of times because the trail crosses the stream in several places and the current was quite strong. It's one thing for just Nate and I to do it, but with a kid strapped to your back or in your arms it throws off your balance just a little. Add to that the slippery rocks and extrem...

One great thing about being a stay-at-home mom is the opportunity to sing at the top of your lungs whenever and whatever you feel. As I was washing the chicken and stars off Addison's face after lunch today, we were rockin' out to my version of Miley Cyrus' Party in the USA (don't tell Nate, but I am a fan). Addison asked me what that song was. Encouraged by his interest, we started up with some awesome dance moves along with my singing. Right in the thick of it he said, "No! Peter and the Wolf!" Um, for those of you who don't know, that's an orchestral composition by Prokofiev. Wow. Good thing he has his dad to teach him some culture around here.

We had a great Memorial Day weekend. One major perk was that it started the Tuesday before with a drive down to St. George. The kids were AMAZING on the ride down, and we actually made pretty good time. This was our first trek down that way since last Thanksgiving, and it's always so enjoyable to just get away for awhile. Nate (and the camera) left early Wednesday morning for a conference in Missouri, and the kids and I got to hang around with Grandma, Grandpa, Abbey, and Linzy and Micah. We had a great time and ate way too much ice cream (Abbey...). I brought a little pool down for the kids to play in. It was the first chance they'd all year since we live in the great white north. (side note: We turned on our air conditioner for the first time all year yesterday!) They really enjoyed the pool, although Bryn wasn't so sure at first. Here they are workin' their swimwear. We also watched the finale of American Idol. Bryn seems to have a crush on Ryan Seacrest. On Saturday...

At the end of April, the kids and I went to good ol' GA for my sister Rebecca's wedding. It was a fabulous time. We had so much fun it made me want to move there. The only thing that would have made it better was if Daddy could've come along. Enjoy this (extremely) copious photographic evidence. Add was SO excited to fly on the plane. Overall, the flights weren't too bad, thanks to Addison's Thomas the Train backpack (I love you, DI) and the dvd player Grandma loaned us. The most interesting parts were potty breaks. Lemme tell you, those airplane bathrooms were really not meant to accommodate three at a time. A long day of flying coupled with about a dozen very friendly aunts and uncles equaled a meltdown for Add upon arrival at the homestead. I tried everything to calm him down, and finally took him down to our room and showed him his "bed." He was miraculously fine after that. Cousins! Juliann and Jarett. All the grandchildren We had so much fun outside!...