A tale of two cabins....

Last Sunday we got together with Lisa's entire family and both sets of grandparents to celebrate her brother Spencer's 16th birthday. We had a shin-dig up at the cabin and had a great time doing normal cabin activities. We didn't take a whole lot of photos, but here are a few:

Come on guys, leave the technology and phones at home, you're in the mountains!

We played some games, which included some card games. This picture could have been useful to know her hand during that round.

Those aren't Rook cards I see, Susan!

Hmmmm, now that I have photographic evidence of this I guess that we won't have to listen to any lectures about playing with face cards anymore. Woo hoo!

Monday morning Lisa, the kids and I went down to the river to do a little fishing.

Aubrey still doesn't quite understand what it is all about, but she likes to try anyway.

Tucker loves to fish, but as of yet still does not have much patience if the fishing is slow.

Yesterday we drove up to Logan to spend the day with Heather and Dan. We ended up taking a drive over to Bear Lake to enjoy the fine weather, scenery, and to have a raspberry shake. I must admit, we have the coolest state sign I have seen in this country, and I have been to most of the states.

Here is a view of the lake. The pictures can't do it justice, but the color of blue in Bear Lake is just so beautiful. It is almost as brilliant as the caribbean blue. What a cool lake.

Dan and Heather love to look at a bunch of the open house cabins around Bear Lake. They hope to have one of their own someday up there, and they took us around to a few of their favorites.

It was a fun day with Dan and Heather. Congrats on your new toy, we like it alot. Oh, and for the record, the raspberry shakes at Bear Lake can't compare to the raspberry shakes at the Dairy Keen here in our valley. If you want the best raspberry shakes in the state, come to Heber. Mmmmm, shakes......

Mountains

The mountains will always be there, the trick is to make sure you are too. - Hervey Voge
We have been spending a lot of time in the mountains the past couple of weeks trying to get the most out of summer where we live. I've been slow to load the pictures, so you all get a smorgasbord of fun photos.
A little over a week ago we headed up to the mountains right behind our house to have some tin foil dinners and enjoy the mountains. It was a very spur of the moment adventure.
I got the fire started using some of our old broken dresser.

Tucker and Aubrey love the mountains and being around camp fires. Don't their smiles pretty much explain it all?

A common view of Cole peeking around from behind his car seat cover.

Here are the delicious dinners cooking around the coals and flames.


A cool shot Lisa captured of a sunflower.

This past week we went on another spontaneous jaunt up to Silver Lake by Brighton ski resort. We drove up the backside and met up with Lisa's parents.

We went for a "hike" around the lake. For those that have been there, you will know why I put hike in quotes. I thought this was a cool photo of a father daughter moment. Dad- "So, you still love that weirdo Cody?" Daughter- "Oh dad, he's just so dreamy!"

We found a dock and the kids loved feeding the ducks.

Cole enjoyed the views from his royal perch.

This is Mt. Millicent in the evening light overlooking Silver Lake.

The kids had a blast playing on the big boulders with grandma and grandpa Foster.

Yesterday, I took off around mid-day to go backpacking in the Grandaddy basin in the Uintahs with Mike Dyer. It was a very last minute decision to go backpacking, but was so worth it.

As you get to the top of Hades Pass, you are treated to some phenomenal views of mountains, lakes and the Grandaddy Basin.

After the pass you descend down to Grandaddy Lake, and Mike and I decided to get some fishing in before setting up camp as it was dusk and the fishing looked prime.

Here's Mike with all his gear.

The sun began to quickly set and we were blessed with some colorful moments while fishing on the edge of the lake.

Because we fished until it was dark, we had to find a camp site down by Lodgepole Lake in the dark. When we woke up in the morning we were pleasantly surprised to see this beautiful scene outside our tent. We had unkowingly camped next to a cool pond by Lodgepole Lake.

We walked over to the lake and started fishing. We were the only ones there the entire morning. It was so pristine being able to camp and fish without sight or sound of another person.

Here is a cool shot of Mt. Agassiz and Hayden Peak to the North.

Despite being alone on the lake, the fishing was extremely slow. I think because it was so warm, and the water was so warm, the fish were just too lethargic. I've fished there before earlier in the summer with tremendous success, but not today. We could see the trout, but they weren't really moving, swimming, or feeding. Mostly just hanging out in the shade and conserving energy. I did manage to catch a small, but beautiful, brook trout.

See, not very big.

It was a great backpacking trip with amazing scenery. I had a great time with Mike, and we both agreed that it was a break that was very needed.

Random Photos

I decided to load a few random photos I have on my cell phone that show some of the activities we have had the last couple of weeks.
As you will see, my camera phone doesn't take such great photos in bright light. Oh well.
Last week when Lisa was in Maryland, the daughter of my cousin Shelly got married at the Salt Lake temple. Jaycee and Clark looked great together and had a wonderful ceremony. They both look so young, and watching them in the temple made me feel old.

Last Saturday we celebrated my friend Doug Cary's 30th birthday at his dad's house. Doug and Heather were nice enough to provide some killer tacos and a great location for the kids to have fun. Tucker and Aubrey loved playing in the pool with Doug and Tyler's boys.

Even Cole got in on the action. He loves being in the water.

Sunday morning I went to pick up the full time missionaries for our 6:45 meeting, and while waiting for them to come out, I had the priviledge of seeing the sun rise and wash Timp with some beautiful colors.

Lisa came down to the office this week one evening to pay bills, do the quickbooks and all that stuff. While she was doing her stuff, I took the kids over to the grocery store to distract them and get them a treat. They have these awesome mini carts there that Tucker and Aubrey instantly loved.

They were so funny running around with their carts.

I let them pick the treat they wanted and then we went back to the office so they could sit out side and enjoy their candy. They are funny kids.

No To Obamacare

OK, so I have to vent on the ridiculous claims, contradictions and issues with the health care system that Obama and his puppets are trying to pass right now. And before anyone says that I am biased because it will effect my job, let me clear something up. Dentistry, as of now, will not be covered under the proposed plan. So, I say this out of concern for our nation, not my job. My job will go on the same as far as patients coming to my office and paying for their treatment.

First, you need to read just a couple of articles elaborating on some of this fiasco. One is in the Augusta Chronicle, and the other is in Time Magazine.

Now I have no intentions of spreading lies or incorrect crap to sway people to my side. (by the way, shame on all who spread rumors and lies to scare people into thinking differently) And on that note, what a bunch of freaking hypocrites the liberals like Pelosi and Obama are to denounce their opponents for fear mongering. They themselves are doing the exact same thing with statements like, "We can't afford not to pass this!" Oh and Ms. Nancy Pelosi, try being a little more consistent about when you praise people for raising the voice of dissent when it is in your favor, only to turn your face and condemn others as being un-american for their opposition. The American media loved and praised opposition as the most basic American right for the past 8 years, and now they seem to frown and ridicule all those that openly oppose these proposed policies. For those that might struggle with the English language, let me enlighten you on what the definition of hypocrite is: a person who professes beliefs and opinions that he or she does not hold in order to conceal his or her real feelings or motives.

Why do so many Americans want a government run health care when other government run agencies (like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and the United States Postal Service) are all losing BILLIONS and BILLIONS of dollars a year? Have we not learned our lesson on what happens when the government tries to run something? Inefficiency is their M.O.

Also, everybody agrees that the system has problems, so let's fix the problems, not overhaul the system. Let's make it possible to get the same rate for a private plan as you can get with a group plan. Let's make it possible to purchase and still use your health insurance across state lines. Let's please finally put a cap on malpractice lawsuits. I guarantee you that with tort reform would come much more affordable health care and much more accessible health care. Did you know that some neurosurgeons have a malpractice insurance fee of $200,000 a year thanks in large part to cockroach lawyers like John Edwards? These are only a few of the possible solutions to achieve health care reform without socializing medicine.

Why are so many people so eager to bankrupt our nation in order to push through this agenda? We are in the middle of the worst economic melt down in the past 70 years. The only way to make this health care system to work is to tax the people and impose burdensome taxes on small business owners. I promise you that if they pass the small business taxes that they are discussing, I will be forced to lay off an employee, and I won't be the only one. The ripple effect of this health care plan would be massive unemployment on top of the high unemployment rate we already have.

Arggggg, it's so frustrating that logic gets thrown out the window in place of pathos rhetoric. Now is the time for everyone in this country to let their senator and representatives know what you think about this plan. If we don't speak up, we only have ourselves to blame for the disasters that lie ahead.

Playing Catch up

The last few weeks have been a whirlwind of stress mixed with some fun. Cody explained in one of our last posts that I've been helping out at his office. It's been a great experience to see what goes on in the office, learn Quickbooks, catch up and fix problems from bills in the past, learn to be a dental assistant and spend time with Cody...I mean Dr. Calderwood! It totally brought back memories from my 1 working year at PMP in Maryland.

This past week I was in Maryland teaching clogging workshops. Unfortunately when we moved last year, the only clogging teacher in the state moved as well. At least the only Clogging teacher that doesn't clog with a big puffy skirt and dances to the Do Si Do! (BTW, if any of you clogging friends ever move to Maryland, you'll have an instant job teaching!) I took Cole with me and we had a great time staying with the Huffs and visiting with friends. I taught an awesome dance (yes, I really do think it's awesome) to my former Irish Cloggers for their annual show in the spring and I did some Beginning through Advanced workshops in the evenings. I didn't take my camera with me, (just one more carry on item that I didn't want to worry about) so I don't have any pictures, but it was fun to be back in the area where I have so many great memories.

Cole and I flew back late Friday night and we are getting back into the "together as a family" mode. My kids keep calling me Grandma because of all the time they've spent with my Mom lately. At least that's what I think, maybe I went from looking like a girl in high school to a Grandma in a week! My mom is the greatest Grandma. She took the kids swimming, to the Dinosaur museum, Wheeler Farm and the Aquarium. I'm pretty sure they didn't miss me at all. Luckily Cody was able to drive down and spend a couple evenings with them, so they weren't totally parentless.

Now for some pictures from the past few weeks. My brother and his wife welcomed their 4th child, Hayden McKay Foster on July 17th. Tucker and Aubrey were so excited to see their new cousin.
We celebrated the 24th of July with a huge shindig at my Grandma/pa Foster's house. My dad's birthday is the 23rd so we always combine the holiday with his birthday. For you non-Utahans, the 24th marks the day the Mormon pioneers entered the Salt Lake Valley.

Heather and Dan spent the weekend with us over the 24th. Dan and Cody finally had enough of our non air conditioned house and solved our problem! Hallelujah! It is soooo nice to have AC! Luckily it was a $8 Home Depot fix. The darn builders/electrician never hooked up the wires to a breaker box, so here the guys are hard at work installing one.

We drove up Snake Creek canyon, just above Midway and went exploring by an old mine. Tucker and Aubrey brought home some lovely green rocks.

We love our "pathfinder"! It always does its job.

And a post from us isn't complete without some gorgeous wildflowers.

Finally a new family picture for our sidebar. It was about time Cole was in it.

Cute Heather and Dan. They've almost been married for a year. Ahhh, how precious!