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I just like this photo and I haven't posted anything but Polaroid for a really long time, so I just wanted it to be known that I still shoot with my toy cameras!

She Brings Happiness

...just like her flowers do.

Yarrow

There is no flower in the world that I love more than Yarrow. It's so simple, elemental, and beautiful. It's colorful, hardy, and smells woodsy. It's my favorite, especially the patch of it in my dad's garden at the cabin. The cabin itself is one of my favorite places in the world, and the Yarrow just makes it more special. This particular patch is shadowed by a few-years-old aspen tree and the edge of an expanse of scrub oak. A log porch swing sways in the gentle mountain breeze a few feet away, and the creek gurgles just beyond. It's one of many ideal spots at the cabin.

We had a busy weekend, but a nice one at that. I helped my sister and her family move into her new house Saturday, and that night, Travis and I took a nice drive over the North Ogden Divide up to the cabin for dinner. Wolf Mountain ski resort (formerly Nordic Valley, which is what I will always call it!) is just down the road from the cabin, and they were hosting an outdoor concert, so we ate tasty Alpine Pizza and listened to whatever cover band was jamming as the sun went down. It was a lovely night, and one I'd love to repeat.

Muuuueller...

What a lovely weekend we just had. Saturday evening we went to dinner and for a really nice hike on the Mueller Park trail. We hiked about three miles until we realized it was 8 PM and needed to turn back because we were losing light, fast. We lingered for a few minutes, looking down the canyon and out toward sunset over Great Salt Lake, and then headed back down. For the last mile or so, we had to use our cell phones as dim flashlights in the dark because the full moon hadn't risen over the canyon yet. We had such a fun time. Beautiful scenery, lively conversation, and togetherness.
I made whole wheat and oatmeal pancakes for breakfast Sunday morning and we watched a little tv and lazed around for a bit, and then went kayaking at Pineview. We packed up all three kayaks and met our nephew Brandon and his friend Josh on the North Arm (our favorite spot of late) and had a quick picnic and played for hours in the water. We closed out the weekend with dinner up at the cabin, about 10 minutes from where we kayaked, with my dad and sister's family. Yesterday was my sister's 29th birthday. Happy Birthday, Stace! What a great weekend.

Still Warm

It's tough realizing that something is coming to an end, especially when that something is the summertime (and I know it's not over yet), and especially when you feel that it's gone by all too fast, but I learned something new this week about my lovely new house: at 7:30, the summer sun dips below the trees over yonder and leaves my deck under a blanket of shade, still warm with the day's heat. We've been hurrying outside every night this week just at that moment, lighting a lemony citronella candle to keep the mosquitoes at bay, and playing cards or just talking. It's perfect.

Swanky

When you get the chance to see Yonder Mountain String Band three nights in a row, you take it. They played in Salt Lake City last Thursday night, then Friday at the Boulder Theater in lovely Boulder, Colorado, and Saturday night at Red Rocks in Morrison, and we were there for all three.
Usually when we go to Boulder, we stay at the hostel up on the hill and usually, it's decent (just decent). Well, we'd never been to Boulder in August and failed to take the hostel's lack of air conditioning into account. When we got back to our room at 1 o'clock Saturday morning, it was hotter than holy Hell. An hour and a half later, we packed up our stuff and found a hotel room with a/c. By 2:30 AM, we'd been up for 21 hours and we weren't thinkin' quite right, so we ended up at a swanky hotel (instead of say, the Best Western) and paid way too much, but we had cool air, a comfortable bed, a clean bathroom, and absolute peace and quiet, so we really didn't care. Saturday morning when we finally rolled out of bed at 11, we spotted the pool on our way to get breakfast and decided right then and there that we would spend the remainder of our trip in lounge chairs poolside. It was the best decision we've made in some time. I love Boulder.

?!

Seriously. How did it get to be August?!

Do yourself a favor. Listen.