Heber City, Utah

Last weekend we took our annual trip up to Heber to stay for the weekend. We've been doing it for several years now, and have made some great memories (like Kristen breaking her leg while roller-blading). Anyway, we stay in a cute little family owned hotel called the Swiss Alps Inn. It's homely, but we love it. This year brought some good memories as well, including, but definitely not limited to, the following: watching LifeFlight land right in front of our hotel to pick up a man who was hit on his motorcycle; seeing a man driving his half motorcycle/half volkswagon bug (seriously--and if you don't believe me, see the pic below); getting up and leaving from a restaurant because the kiddie meals (I repeat, kiddie meals) were like$15.00; me getting up early (like 4:30 am early, and having to wait in the car for an hour before the dang sun would even come up so I could see) to go fish in the beautiful Provo river; raspberry shakes every night; church on Sunday. It's always a great little trip for our family, to spend time together, and feel like we're a million miles away--even though we're just up the canyon.

Beautiful Mt. Timpanogos from where I was fishing

The park after church for a picnic

going to church

loving the hottub

"motor-bug"

CRASH!

Unfortunately, yesterday I had my very first ever car accident. It was really more of a fender-bender, but now I can no longer say I've never been in an accident. Bummer! And let me tell you, I'm not real happy about it either. I was patiently waiting at a roundabout for a car to go through when a big, white, jacked-up, monster-like Dodge Ram (with big teeth and red, glowing eyes) decided not to see little ol' me, and ran right into my backside. Fortunately, a little whiplash and a scrunched up rear-end, was all that happened. My necks a little stiff today, but not too bad.
I also had another first today, I went to the chiropractor. Honestly, the only reason I went was to say to my insurance that I actually went in to get checked. Now I might get in trouble for saying this, but I'm not a big believer in chiropractors. All they seem to do is yank your body into all sorts of contortionist positions, wait for your body to make strange noises, make something hurt that didn't hurt when you got there, and then tell you to come back in a week for some more "adjusting." I felt like a rice krispy--snap, crackle, and pop! Now, if he'll stick to the ultra sound, heat packs, and massages, then that's worth going back for. And I guess I did get a cute little pillow and a high-tech-gel-ice pack-type-thingy out of it. So who's complaining?

June 22, 2008

Happy Birthday 9th Birthday Caleb!!

Born June 22, 1999

8 lbs 14 oz.

21 1/2 inches

A few things I love about Caleb:

He is the best helper in the world--I know that's why Heavenly Father sent him first

How good he is to his little sister

He makes the best pancakes in the world

His poems

He turns off lights around the house to "save power"

He is rsponsible

His laugh

The way he takes care of Mom when Dad is gone

He is a great friend

His courage

His tender care of animals



We love this boy so much and are so proud of him. Time passes so quickly. It seems I was just rocking him in the rocking chair and singing "I am a Child of God". He would point at his crib and want me to lay him in his bed and I just wanted to snugle him longer. Caleb is our little athlete. He loves soccer, baseball, basketball, football, and skateboarding--just to name a few. He is going to be in fourth grade this year and we can't believe it. This has been a busy summer, but we wanted to celebrate our first little boy and let him know how much we love him.

SHARE YOUR LIGHT

Kaden came home from church on Sunday very excited about his primary lesson, and he wanted to share it with us. He said, "We learned about sharing your light with everyone." When I asked him what that meant he said, "To share all of our good stuff." I liked it so much that I decided to make it our family theme for the week. For family night we talked a little more about it, sharing scriptures about letting our light shine for all the world to see and not hiding it under a bushel. We also read about when the Savior told us that He is the light to hold up, and all that He did. Or, in other words, all our good stuff! It's been a good reminder each day to ask ourselves if we are sharing our light. Thanks, Kaden.

Très Jolie Original Designs

As most of you know, life never seems to slow down. So what do we do when life gets so busy we possibly can't do anything else? Well, if you're like us, we just add something more to do. Which is exactly what I did. As if I wasn't already busy enough, I decided to buy a jewelry business. Actually, a good friend of mine and I bought it together, about 2 months ago. It's a wholesale jewelry business owned by 3 moms here in Alpine, Ut. They had been exclusively at Nordstrom for years, but it just got too much for them, so they wanted out. That's where we came in. Although we are no longer exclusive to Nordstrom, we still sell through the Rack. Our goal now is to open up many other avenues. It's been a lot of work, but a lot of fun at the same time. Check out our new website at www.tresjoliedesigns.com A few weeks ago Kaden asked me if I was still an eye doctor. Yes, I'm still an eye doctor. This is just something else fun to try on the side. And no, I don't wear jewelry! And yes, Kristen sure enjoys the new venture!

WHAT THE HECK!!

OK, so my 3 year old has a new favorite phrase, "What the heck". Yes, I know, that's not something you expect to hear out of the mouth of a 3 year old. And trust me, we've tried to give her plenty of alternatives, but to no avail. In retrospect, I guess it is a step up, considering that a few weeks ago while fixing the sprinklers, I hear a loud and exasperated "holy crap, dad!" "Excuse me?" I exclaimed, "That's not nice to say." "No, dad, holy crap!" as she pointed to several scratches on her legs. My only excuse is to say that she has 2 older brothers. Heaven help us!

HELP WANTED

So we're hiring for a new receptionist in our Saratoga Springs office. On Monday we started interviews. Since I am out of the office on Mondays my partner did some interviews. Here's an exerpt from one of those interviews (probably not exact, but pretty close):

"So do you have any experience in optical?"

"Yes."

"Tell me about that job."

"Well, it was only about a month. They had 3 different people that were trying to train me. And come on, how am I supposed to learn anything with 3 different people trying to train me at the same time. So they let me go after 30 days."

"Oh, OK. Uh, how about your previous employment?"

"Well, I was on a lot of anti-anxiety medications, so I was always real sleepy and had a hard time making it to work on time. So they let me go too."

"And you honestly think we would even consider you for a second for this position?" (OK, I made up that part, but if it were me, I probably would have said it.)

I can't imagine the interview lasted much longer than that. Needless to say, I didn't see her the next day for a follow-up interview. Thank goodness for great employees!