Kelsey in Costa Rica

My older sister Kelsey is down in Costa Rica right now, 

studying Spanish and having a great adventure!  

In case you didn't know where Costa Rica is located.

We hung out with her while she got ready to go.

Clark lending his support during the moving process, playing League of Losers.

4:35 pm.  Getting organized.

5:28 pm.  Painting her toenails (in preparation for the trip of course)

5:51 pm READY TO GO!

She headed out with Dad and Clark, and you can read all about what happened next at her blog!  kelsey-costarica.blogspot.com

Laundry Genius

I don't profess to be a genius in many respects, but today I showed genius-like qualities in my own sphere.

There has been a longstanding problem with the way I get my liquid laundry detergent into my front loading washing machine.  First I tried just setting the HUGE jug on top of the washer and guess at how much I should put in the dispenser for each load.  This, skipping the middle measuring man and the mess that comes along with it.  Then, while the washer was going it would jiggle the jug right OFF the washer creating a HUGER mess than the measuring middle man ever could have and thereby making it a crappy method.

Next I tried just moving the jug down each time I needed detergent in the dispenser, again skipping the middle measuring man and just guessing as to how much soap to put in.  Then once a large load of warms did not come out smelling fresh and that grossed me out for like a week, so then I worried I wasn't putting in enough soap.  I felt I must start using the measuring cup (the middle measuring man).

So for the past few weeks I have been washing everything in COLD (not really a pertinent detail to this story, but it has revolutionized the way I do laundry and I feel good using less energy) and measuring the detergent with the measuring cup.  It has gone well enough, but never does ALL the soap come out into the dispenser, which leaves a dry, soapy mess IN the cup and the driplets that fall outside the rim of the cup end up getting the shelf gooey.  Now, for an average joe person that probably wouldn't be a problem, but it BUGS me. 

We're almost to the genius moment.  I washed off the shelf and the cup and was about to let it return to the ooey, gooey, sticky, measuring method from before when I thought . . . I should just drop the cup INTO the dispenser and let the water wash it out each time.  At first it didn't fit, but after a few tetris-like rotations I got it to fit.  I thought, there is no way it could mess up the cycle, because I am sure water just splashes up into the dispenser to get all the soap up and it will just clean this little measuring cup while it's at it.  And alas, after waiting the 37 minutes for the cold, delicate cycle to complete.  I was right.

Genius. 

Utah Summer Games 2011

On Friday I drove down to Cedar City to compete in weightlifting in the Utah Summer Games. I camped in Cedar Canyon a few miles east of Cedar City and then lifted on Saturday. It's always fun to compete at meets and gauge how my training is going, as well as hang out with other weightlifters.

Snatch:

Great day in the snatch. Best snatches of my life.

Clean & Jerk:

Terrible day for clean and jerk, at least on the platform when it counted. I didn't miss anything in warm ups, including 110 kilos. The more I watch my first attempt, I honestly can't believe I was red-lighted. It should have counted. Oh well.

My friend from the U also lifted. While he bombed out in the snatch (missed 102 kilos three times, a weight he can easily get) he had a monster day in the clean and jerk.

I also got a few of the big lifts from Saturday on film. I wish I would have filmed more but I had to warm up sometimes and just plain forgot other times. A fun day though.

Baby Mama Love

hilarious.




 (excuse the language in this next one).

Good Weekend

Tree - Bush - Spaghetti - Confetti!

Famberly

Me and Clarkie

Throwing!

"Mo, Mo, Mo!!!!!!" (mo = more)

Kelsey's 26th B-day Celebration

Icing words by moi.

definition of happy.

Love

This is what I am loving right now. Jane and Cam watching Jungle book.

"Da Bir"

In case you haven't noticed, this child LOVES animals.  Especially birds.

Thankfully, he is the luckiest child in the world, and has an Aunt Sarah who has a bird.  A bird who sits on her head.  After attempting MANY nighttime showings (a no go), Sarah figured out that we may have better luck in the morning hours.  So last week we tried again.  After multiple attempts of getting Twilight on Cam's head, SUCCESS!!  He was loving it.

Twilight picking at Camden's hair.  :)

On Sarah's head.

Feeding him graham crackers.

And as luck would have it (kidding), there was a wounded/shocked/scared/immobile bird on a VERY low branch at the Kaysville Cemetary when we went memorializing on Monday.

"A Bird."

"On my head?"

I think we have a future Zoologist on our hands.  Make space Hogle Zoo.