Our new wheels...

At long last we have joined the ranks of the two-car households! We held out as long as we could but, after trying to make the first week of dental school work with just one car, we [I] became strongly motivated to buy a new car. We are happy to announce the arrival of our new truck! We love it and it loves us. We look forward to many years of hauling stuff, tailgating, and parking where ever we want on game days.

He's on his way to a D.M.D.

Jeff is officially a dental student! He'll be wearing this pretty blue number every day for the next 4 years!





I'm so proud of him. We are both excited that this last phase of his education is under way and he's enjoying spending his days learning stuff that interests him. It's been a hard adjustment for me. I never see him and I'm having to resume the household duties that he kindly took care of all summer long. I miss my personal assistant!

Our Vacation After Vacation

Less than 48 hours after we got back from our Caribbean cruise, we headed out to southern Idaho for a fun-filled week at my Dad's house. It was a GREAT trip! We all enjoyed getting back to our roots and my dad is one of the funnest people I know!

This was our destination. With all of us, my step-brothers and sisters included, we really contributed to the population for the week!



It's a place where this is normal...



and you can spend a whole day sitting on the front porch. Although, our porch-sitting time was pretty limited. As you'll see, we kept very busy!



My brother, Braden, brought his girlfriend, Cassi, to meet the fam. She's so cute and, thankfully, I don't think we scared her off!



We had some fun cruisin' in the Jeep, which is one of my favorite summer past times. I can't tell you how many times we piled all of our fun Utah girls in this thing for many different adventures!



This time, it was Ashley, me and Cassi piled in the back.



We spent a couple of days on the boat at Bear Lake. The first day we were so cold! Yes, I wore a sweatshirt to the beach. There's just something fundamentally wrong about that.



We were all a little hesitant to jump into the 65 degree water. (Especially me and Jeff since we had just returned from the 80 degree water in the Caribbean!)





Generally, everyone made a face like this...



or this...



or this when the jumped in the water.



Braden was more brave and flippied himself right in ("Flippied" may be a new word. I'll inform Wikipedia).



After your body goes numb, you can muster a smile. This is fun after all.





We had quite a lot of water sports talent aboard this fun-boat. My dad is 55. Can you tell?



Braden eventually got up on the wake board.



Which was a relief to him because he didn't want to be shown up by his girlfriend...



...or his sister (Ashley).



Erick was pretty good.



And Jeff was really good! My hot hubby still has it. Let's take a moment and appreciate his arm muscles. Go ahead, appreciate 'em. Aren't I a lucky girl?



This is as close as I got to getting up. After 3 tries, it was time for lunch and when we went back out to try again, my attempt was thwarted by my near-death (not really, but it was scary) close encounter with the propeller and the under-side of the boat. My hot hubby jumped in and saved me. My hero! He (has) saved me in every way possible... (Name that movie!)



So, I traded in the wake board...



...for the knee board and all was right in the world.



Ashley and I had a lot of fun doing this...



We also had a few fishing adventures! First at the carp hole...



Cassi's first fish ever...








Then we had an early morning fishing excursion up the canyon for some rainbow trout.



Jeff was the first one with some success.



I mostly just tried to stay warm while being Jeff's beautiful (albeit extensively clothed) assistant.



We had evenings of shooting. Bows and arrows first. My dad imparting his wisdom on Jeff.



Jeff was a pretty good shot. Although, by the time he actually released the arrow, the elk would have ample time to give him a once over, sing the national anthem, and then walk slowly away.



Ashley was a natural-born hunter.



I was a little less natural. This bow tried to shoot me! These compound bows take 60 lbs of force to pull back. In my prideful state I thought, "I work out, I can definitely do this," but as you can see, I needed the strength of two men to make up for my weak back muscles. In my defense, Ashley couldn't pull hers back by herself either. I just wasn't able to capture it for our posterity. We both had lengthy talks with our trainers (Jeff for me, a paid professional for her) when we got home.



Cue the Robin Hood music...




We also like to shoot guns in our family. Really, I don't think we have enough guns to go around...















Awww...isn't Braden a good boyfriend!?!



We took the 4-wheelers up the canyon for a hike to Bloominton Lake one morning.





We were among the wild flowers...







...and were one with nature.





We had some old-fashioned family photos taken.





My dad was especially proud of his over-educated "skank ho" daughters (yes, my dad used the term "skank ho" and was especially proud when he remembered it after great effort and a good couple minutes of thinking about it).



In the end, we all were so happy to have had a week remembering our roots. After all, we have many "onion layers" and this is just one of mine.



Thanks Dad and Betsey for a great week! We loved every minute of it and will definitely have to do it more often!