Oh Canadian Ironman!

Tomorrow at five am I'll be wading into Okanagan lake to get a good view of the start of Ironman Canada. Wow-zah. It's impossible to complain about anything at all on this trip--even the wake up call-- since I've been reminding myself throughout the day that I will not be running, biking, swimming from seven am to
midnight. Things on the old blog might be a bit Ironman focused the next few days, but that's what happens when you love go crazy and compete on all day, million mile events. Here are a few pictures I took today from the start where John and Becky stashed their race bags and bikes-- I thought rock climbing had a lot of gear, but this sport also requires quite the spread.

The first photo represents my new favorite location from which to blog.

Birthday Zoo

My family usually does some sort of birthday week brunch since my Dad and I have birthdays in the same week--and, you know, brunch is the best. We decided to go to Ruth's Diner in Emigration Canyon--guess what's on the way to Ruth's? Yeah, it's the zoo. Yes, I recently went to the zoo with Jackson (sans children). Yep, I made my whole family go to the zoo after Ruth's (apparently I should have just gotten a full fledged membership, because I'm so in love with the zoo).

Anyway, it turns out that impromptu trips are the best kind of trips.

Baby Elephant Walk

 

 

 

The polar bear comes right up to the glass, as if to say "what up, yo?"

 The grizzlies, playing like puppies. 

 It's clear that we need a tall friend to stand on the other side of dad.

Nope, you don't, Jackson.

 We look more like a family of airplanes, but we were going for gorillas.

The train was a skipper. Unless you want to see wax models of railroad workers. If they had been real workers, it could have been contemporary art. My dad took the picture of us on the train above--that's 10% of my mom's face on the right.

Well, this is what happens when six adults go to the zoo together. Woo.

Ironing on the Beach

My future in-laws (well, one branch of them) are crazy people; let me rephrase, they're crazy dedicated, crazy worker-outer, crazy goal achievers. Don't believe me? Here's a picture of Becky and John swimming last weekend.

 I'm pleased to announce that I'll have a front row seat to their craziness when they compete in Ironman Canada next Saturday. That's right-I'm the supporter of international athletes. It's going to be great, eh? (That was a Canadian accent joke, for the record.) I am very excited for multiple reasons, most of which include the chance to throw "international" in front of every mention of this trip. Watch this: I can't work tomorrow, I'm catching an international flight; I need to pack for my international vacation. Ooh! this too: I would love to help you with that, but I'll be out of the country. Gah, I know you're impressed.

I only wish my many planning attempts for this trip which included different travel buddies, from Michael to Mandy to Mom to Moose, all feel through, because then I could say, "We will be out of the country," but I'm excited to go, I'll just have to work on yelling as loudly as possible all by myself.

We hung out on the beach while they swam and tried to get a family photo, but Moose the Scamp wouldn't go for it.

That's his pink tongue in the picture, but not his cute face. At least he made us laugh. "Sarah," you say, "maybe he just doesn't know how to look cute in pictures." Au contraire--take a look at this:

What a beach dog.

Dog Lake--A Canine Pool Party

We took a little family jaunt on the mountains today. Dog Lake is pretty fun for Rusty and Moose and pretty pretty for the rest of us. Here's a few iPhone action shots. I tried to pose with the dogs but it wasn't too successful.

Weekend-apalooza

One time we went on a lovely hike. Michael took this time to decompress from his week of networking at a work conference (which caused him to attack the mountain...rawr) and I chatted with Ashley and friends. Twin Lake at Brighton--so pretty!

 

Below is a picture of the victorious hikers at the top. If I could pick one word to describe the group, I would choose "dry."

We marched around the lake a bit, and then KABLAM! it started raining. 

One word? WET.

Here are Michael and I: the one's without rain jackets. Oh dear.

Really fun hiking despite, or perhaps partially because of, the rain.

Then after bidding fond farewells to a fine friend and taking the plunge back onto the world of food-getting (sometime I'll blog about my re-entry onto the world of waiting tables...temporarily I hope), we headed up to Bear Lake for an awesome Sunday super adventure. I had never been to Bear Lake, despite living only 45 min from it for four years. Michael and Jackson regaled us with scouting stories (PS-never want to lead a scout troop, but I suppose I already knew that) and Mandy scoped out the best beach spot and best shake spot. It had been a while since I'd been to a warm beach, since Oregon is not really known for sun tanning.

 My friend Mandy is the coolest. Upon hearing that she's thinking of moving to Salt Lake, Michael said, "Then we can have fun all the time." It's true. 

The most important things to know about Bear Lake is that it is chilly and it affords a lot of opportunities to make 'bare' jokes. For example:

Sarah: Why aren't you wearing shoes Jackson?
Jackson: It's not called 'Shoe Lake' Sarah.

Alright, I didn't say the jokes were good, but it made for a pretty fun day. What a weekend!

 

PS- Here's a picture of Jackson modeling and Michael drying out his Barbacoa card. After swimming around for a while and staging multiple race that should turn into Olympic events (i.e. shuffling in three foot water while keeping your armpits below the surface at all times, or Making snorkels out of reeds like in Robin Hood), Michael said, very casually, 'Oh, my wallet,' and pulled his wallet out of his pocket and commenced to try to dry out his social security card over his head while continuing to wade around. A few minutes later? 'Oh, my phone.'

Home Sweet Apartment

I was inspired by my future sister-in-laws post about her house to give you the miniature tour of my apartment (miniature in the sense that her house is giant and my apartment is small).

Our bedroom isn't pictured due to a bookshelf project and my choice to wash the sheets today, rendering it unphotographable.

The Office, formerly known as Moose's room, was inspired by doing Pinterest searches for "double offices." The only thing we had to buy for this room was the shelf (IKEA) and my chair and the corkboards (only $6 at Target).I must be reading too many blogs, since I feel the need to report the price of everything...

 

Note how much cleaner my side is. Also note that Michael actually uses his office. I was watching the U.S. girls beat people up on the soccer field.

I love the shelf. I gave us a chance to display Darth Tater, the elephants my Nana gave me, HP, Starzz memorabilia (represent!), and some fake plants--don't judge, I bet you don't want to stand on a swivel chair with a watering can either.

When I took this picture the camera recognized Ringo's face--I suppose his is the most, erm, pronounced.

The Main Room, has a dining annex, kitchen, door to the balcony, and living room. It took me a lot of frustrating moments figuring out how the room should fit together (which included a temporary hatred of IKEA, who wouldn't let us return the chaise lounge when we thought it wasn't going to work), but I really like it now. I might need a large, glass vase thing from Pier 1 for my birthday (hint, hint), though, because that little glass vase looks very sad and small.

 There's laundry through that closet--I'm completely spoiled and I'll never be able to go back to laundry in the building.

 Spicy! Golly gee, I'm pin-worthy. IKEA spice racks+sand paper+spray paint = c-rafty.

 

 Hanging on the balcony, gossiping about Moose.

My super herb ladder, which will probably get its own post when I finish staining it.

 I spray painted the coffee table top as well, but I'm not sure if it was quite as successful. It did cover up the moving scratches though.

 

I told you about the vase.

 

Our house guest, Rusty, fits right in. That couch used to be at his house, after all. Note to self: get. a. lampshade. That big blanket was the first thing I ever bought with a paycheck. It was $62.54 and I got it with my Papa Murphy's mad money in September of 2004. Ha!

You might have noticed a furry something in the bottom of the screen in the wide shot above, that's Bear, I had been moving him all around to get him out of the picture, but he snuck up on the lounge and stole my paper. 

Sarah, it seems that you have a lot of free time, you say. What gave me away? The loooong blog post? Was it the ten minutes I spent propping the bear up to make it look like he's reading the paper? Damn, thought so.

Well, I have an interview at a place that rhymes with the ShmUtah Museum of Fine Arts tomorrow. And I'm starting a serving job on Saturday to 1) get me out of this apartment 2) give us the means to start attacking our debt, Dave Ramsey style 3) supplement the ShmUMFA job and teaching at Utah State. Even though I'm back to waiting tables...I think if by the end of next week I've managed to get a teaching position and a museum position (even thought they're both part time), I'll be stinking proud and consider making a T-shirt that says "My Master's Degree is the Coolest" or maybe "Education Sensation" with an arrow pointing to my face. This fair city isn't the easiest place to find jobs in arts organizations. I suppose someone should start some new arts organizations, eh? Maybe that will be my next T-shirt goal. "Art: IN YOUR FACE, UTAH." Woah-that took an aggressive turn.