MSGA

One might remember that while living in Monterey, Dan and I ran a little operation called MMA (Mealy Monterey Adventures). We lured visitors out to us with itineraries loaded with elephant seal watching, aquarium trips and breathtaking Big Sur views.

Here in STG, we have understandably harder time enticing visitors, being that we lack the awesome sea-life and instead have 105 degree weather... Yet somehow, we were able to get our friends the Streeters, to come down for a MSGA (Mealy St. George Adventure.) 

{*Note: All pictures used in this post are stolen from Leana's Blog - I was quite awful at taking any pictures. And as you can see, Leana is really good at taking pictures!}
Out MSGA Itinerary included:

Ghost town (visited Silver Reef, not as rad as one would hope)

Downtown St. George(toured the tabernacle, bought candy at Judds and rode the carousel. Which Alex didn't really care for..)

Veyo Pool

(Which luckily Alex loved! And we also scored this amazing Volcano Pie)

Aladdin (my dad watched alex- thanks again dad- and the adults went to tuachan. it was pretty rad, it even had 3D special effects!)

{alex passed out in the baby carrier, poor guy, so hot and tired}

Zion (it was wicked hot, but we got in for free, and it was still fun despite the oppressive temperatures)

Parowan for the Fourth- for the 4th of July we drove north to my Dad's hometown, Parowan. Its a quaint little town that puts on an awesome (or at least amusing) parade. We also a made a patriotic BBQ feast, purchased classy patriotic shirts from Wal-Mart, and had our own little fireworks spectacular in front of the house after Aleks went to bed.)

EATING:  There was of course lots of eating! We even hit some of my my favorite St. Geoge haunts: Samuri 21, Benja's Thai and Sushi, Croshaw Pies....

RELAXING: In addition to playing, we also spent a fair amount of time chilling at the house. Napping, reading books and of course, watching "Signing Time with Alex and Leah." I'm not entirely certain if I'll ever get that theme song out of my head. Ever. 

{streeters on the 4th of july 2010- back in monterey}

We discussed before the MSGA how a long trip like this is the ultimate litmus test for any relationship... It can end in true love, or in hating each other's guts. Luckily  - this MSGA only reaffirmed how much we love Streeters. We can only hope the feeling was mutual...

Mushrooms in the Mountains

June was a pretty crazy month. I ran a half marathon, we moved out of our house, and put all of our belongings in a storage unit - all in one day. 

Here we can be seen in our storage unit with all our earthly goods. A major thank you to Rick and the rest of Dan's family for helping us move. They were amazing! We crashed at Dans parents for a few days, and then Dan went to Army training and I went to the cabin with my family for the rest of the month.

Going to the Cabin is a Hales family ritual, a hajj, dare I say. One drives 12 hours, partially on the world's worst unpaved forest service roads, to arrive in the middle of nowhere. There is no electricity (well, we run a generator at night), no cell service, no tv... Yes, I am serious. I've been going every year since I was born (minus the years since I've been married) and was so happy this year to return! This cabin year shall hence forth be known as:

THE YEAR OF THE MUSHROOM

While driving along the switchback filled dirt roads near the cabin, it is rare to see another car. So imagine our confusion this year when we almost ran into (its a pretty narrow one car road) at least 20 other cars! Even more confusing, all of the cars were filled with Hispanic people covered in soot! 

"I bet they're picking mushrooms," said my ever wise father. WHAT?!? It turns out that after a big forest fire (which happened last summer), these special mushrooms called Morels grow out of the ashes. These special mushrooms fetch a pretty penny, we were told over $100 a pound! We decided we needed in on this action and went mushrooming on the first day. We inevitably ended up covered in soot and eventually began putting ash on our faces as war paint. Upon the advice of local hermits, we battered and fried a few of these Morels. Verdict: they are disgusting.

In addition to mushrooming, this year there were other activites such as...

FIREFIGHTING: When my Grandpa's "controlled" burns got outta hand.

SHOOTING: Because no redneck vacation is complete without it!

Celebrating: My birthday, Kiersten's birthday, Anna's birthday, and My grandma's birthday. Plus father's day thrown in for good measure.

FISHING: Grandpa taught Kiersty the art of fly fishing. I watched. Kiersten's face in this picture pretty well encapsulates how I feel about catching/eating/touching fish: GROSS.

There was also squirrel hunting (Cedric), Elk carcass finding and subsequent tooth extraction (apparently people make rings out of them?!?), Ukulele playing, and napping. In case you haven't already gathered this, I think my Grandpa is super rad, especially for being 79 years old. 

We also waded in the freezing cold river, worked on our tans while reading, held a daily Horsecreek run club, and even did some manual labor hauling logs.

I love this picture for a lot of reason: Copper is so photogenic, Katheryn's face is hilarious, and the fact that I love my family so much. 

Hopefully next year will be as rad as THE YEAR OF THE MUSHROOMS, and hopefully I will be there. 

Meet Otto

So there's a lot of things I want to blog about that have happened over the last month or so, but I've decided to skip ahead to record the most recent event. After having our friends The Streeters stay with us for a week (another thing to blog about, oh yeah, and we live in St. George now) we were inspired. We've known Streeters since our time in Monterey when they too were like us, childless and happy. But Aleks (their little 18 month old guy) seems to have made Leana and Mark's lives so much richer and happier, that Dan and I decided we too should get in on this having a cute little dependent. 

So we adopted:

May I introduce Otto Von Bismarck (named for the first Chancellor of Germany - been on a history reading kick lately). We decided to go the dog route for the obvious reason that it has most of the perks of having a human baby, with none of the draw backs (kidding). 

{stealing a straw during a "SWIG" run}

Obviously all my friends with babies (if they're still reading at this point) are totally rolling their eyes, and my next comment will only exacerbate this, but having a puppy is really hard work. He wakes up multiple times a night crying, I have to keep my eyes on him at all times, he can be super needy... etc. But then again, when I'm burnt out, I can just put him in his crate.

Overall, in the past 3 days, the pluses of having my little Otto around far outweigh the negative (though I am single parenting, Dan is at Army training.) My Dad, Kiersten and Katheryn and I even took him on his first hike up above Parowan. And he did awesome, trotting on those little chocolate legs.

In conclusion, I love Otto. 

You've had a Birthday, Shout Hooray.

Dan's celebrations began last Sunday, when we went up to his parent's house and his sister, Tori, surprised him with his favorite German Chocolate cupcakes. 

Our favorite niece and nephew were integral in helping blow out his MANY candles.

{i'm really good at taking blurry pictures}

We set forth to celebrate on Thursday, being that he had drill all day Friday (his actual bday), Saturday, and Sunday. I crafted a "Choose Your Own Adventure Birthday", you know, like the awesome 80's books. You're reading along and then all of the sudden you're presented with a set of choices to determine how the really complicated plot pans out...

Well for Dan's adventure, per the options in his "Choose your Own Birthday Adventure" book I made, he elected to go shooting. Dan's dad, Rick, had the day off so he came down and joined in the gunfire and then took us out to lunch.

We went out to barren wasteland, aka Redneck Paradise.

These were all over the ground.

And someone may have made the worst footwear choice ever. Although I do love that color on my toes, essie pink, thanks Leana!

Dan and Rick

Dan in full "Dan mode"

Nothing like guns for a good birthday. The rest of the day was low key with a few presents, more food, more German Chocolate cake, and a Redbox movie. Oh, and lest I forget, a Brazilian Ji Jitsu class. Dan's birthday request that I attend a BJJ class with him at our Crossfit gym was honored.

I spent an hour being choked out by big sweaty girls. Lovely. 

Happy Birthday Dan!

An Accidently Awesome Memorial Day

As of Sunday night, we had no plans for Memorial Day. Then, while perusing my favorite running blogs, as I am wont to do, I came across the "Run For Remembrance" 5k/10k in American Fork.

 I saw the words "Free 10k" (race fees add up fast, yo!) and Dan saw the words "Flag Shirt" and we were in!

(no, we didn't run the dino half. it was a free race - they recycled bibs)

Dan had an awesome 5k and finished in under 23 minutes! Me and the 10k struggled a bit, a mixture of a lot of up hill and a bothersome right hamstring (excuses, excuses) had me finishing slower than I hoped. But it was beautiful day and a pretty course that went right through a flag filled cemetery - win, win, wing.

[me, my short shorts, and Grandma and Grandpa Ash's headstone]

We had no plans after the race, but since we were already in the 7th circle of hell (Utah Valley), I thought it would be a grand idea to go visit the headstones of my great grandparents in the Springville Cemetery. In our running short shorts (we brought nothing to change in to, consistent lack of planning). We stopped off at Wal-Mart and purchased some white trashtastic plastic flowers. Had I planned at all, I would have brought some of the beautiful yellow roses from our yard instead... 

 After a phone call to my Dad, Mom, and Grandpa Howdy we found the right cemetery and graves.  

I was sad that I couldn't see my Granny Harward's grave (turns out its in Ritchfield, oops), but we found my Great Grandma Ash's as well as my Great Grandma Hales'. There was also a military program going on with lots of flags and gunfire! It was nice to take a moment to observe the real meaning behind memorial day, and I really do enjoy cemeteries (that would be the Grandma Peggy in me coming out, the Parowan cemetery is probably her #1 favorite spot to hang out, ever.)

Then I came across this on Pinterest: 

A cheddar filled, bacon wrapped, hot dog covered in J Dawg sauce (J Dawg's = a hot dog stand near BYU that has a cult following.)

 I knew this monstrosity must be mine. Luckily, Dan's family was game for a BBQ and my dreams came true! After eating 4.5 million calories, tomfoolery ensued:

So basically Memorial Day was awesome.

And sometimes, having no plan is actually the best plan.