Broadway Here We Come...

I think possibly the cutest thing Helena's done ever is start to sing. Completely adorable. She's got the basics in her repertoire - Wheels on the Bus, If You're Happy and You Know It, the Wonder Pets theme song - but here you see her morphing a couple of other basics together. She gets off to a rough start, but it ends up pretty priceless.



After Ash watched this he said "I never really realized those two songs were the same tune."

-Emily :)

Alcoholic Tirade

I think I might start writing a series of "Seriously, Utah is Weird" posts... there's so much fodder.

Here's my pick of the week:

Utah restaurant liquor licenses going, going . . .

I have a hard time swallowing why Utah has this quota system for liquor licenses based on population. You'd think they would welcome any new investment in the community in these difficult economic times...even if they want to serve...GASP!...alcohol. Why in the world would you let the state and not the market decide how many liquor licenses to issue in a given year? And there's only 1 full permit left for this fiscal year, and they expect 80 requests statewide. They only adjust the licenses based on the population growth once a year (the last official count was in June), so that's 79 potential business owners that aren't able to execute their business plan for their establishment as they would like to, and if they do open then their business may well suffer until they're able to get their liquor license.

Ugh...I could go on. But I won't. And I thought Kansas liquor laws were weird! Nope, Utah takes the gold medal on that one. Wonder what they would all think if they knew Ash & I shipped three cases of wine back from Napa this summer and didn't pay taxes on it. Oops! Hope the DABC isn't monitoring my computer.

-Emily :)

Six Years Ago...

This month, Ash & I celebrated our sixth anniversary. I know, how have we been married SIX YEARS?!? I think that means we're getting old.

Anyway, my wonderful co-worker Gina agreed to babysit for us and we headed up to the mountains to go on a more strenuous hike than we usually can with Helena in tow. Sounds romantic, huh? We packed up a picnic, some wine, and headed up to Dog Lake.

We definitely achieved our goal of challenging ourselves on the hike. At one point I wasn't sure if we were both going to make it up or not. (Sidenote: as our anniversary present to each other, we got a membership at a gym by our house, and Ash had just worked out really hard earlier that day.)

I kept cheering Ashford on, at one point saying, "Just think, this hike is a great metaphor for marriage. You keep trudging along, and sometimes it's not fun, but in the end it's so worth it." Ash replied, "You mean it's hard, it sucks, and then you die?!?" Good to know he still has a sense of humor when he's about to pass out. That 0.6 miles at a pretty steep incline wasn't very pleasant. We got to the lake, and scarfed down our well-deserved food while watching several people's dogs frolick in the water. One continuously swam after a group of ducks the entire time we were sitting there. It was very entertaining.

The way down was much easier terrain (as with most hikes) and we also spotted our first Utah moose!

Happy Anniversay, honey. I love you six times more than when we got married! ;)

-Emily :)

The Gies' Have Landed...

A couple of weekends ago, my Aunt MariAnn and her family (Uncle Bill & cousin Conner) came to visit us. We were really glad to have them (we love visitors, obviously!) and tried to show them all the sights while they were in town. My favorite outing was the hike we did in Big Cottonwood canyon to Lake Solitude. The wildflowers were in full bloom and it was just gorgeous.

Helena loved my aunt and seemed to be a bit confused that she looks a little like my mom. She called her "MeeMaw" for most of the visit. We hit up the local brew pub downtown, too. Uncle Bill was very enthusiastic about his beer sampler.

We also took them on the obligatory jaunt to the Great Salt Lake. Ashford decided to try to get us a better view of the scenery and ended up taking us out in the middle of nowhere (we saw a guy test shooting his MACHINE GUN!). But we also saw the Morton Salt plant which was kind of cool.

I decided after this bout with visitors that one thing I really like about not living close to everyone is that when people do visit us, we get to spend more quality time with them. I can't remember the last time (if ever) I got to spend 3 days with my aunt and uncle-- and it was really great. We had conversations we don't usually have time to have, Ashford and Conner bonded over bowling, and my uncle had the chance to chide me for cussing too much on my blog (I was just glad that he was reading it! And, I think it was only once and it was pivotal to the story I was telling). :)

Thanks for choosing to spend your summer vacation visiting us!!

-Emily :)

P.S. - Aunt MariAnn, send me your pics from Arches!!! I want to see them!

Flickr picture update!

Pictures on my flickr site are fixed now from my San Francisco post.

Flickr and I do not get along...arrgh. You guys are so polite for not saying anything about it being totally messed up!

-Emily :)

Helena's Days of Summer

Helena's really starting to get to be a fun age. I can already tell the terrible two's will be a constant negotiation, but man, I have to say she keeps getting cuter. :)

Here's Helena utilizing the new backyard. She enjoys emptying the pool more than actually swimming in it.

Miss Attitude showing off her penchant for Hershey's kisses and her most recent accomplishment of two ponytails utilizing some actual 'back of the head' hair.

Eating chocolate cake at dinner this past weekend.

It's hard to take a pic of Helena without food on her face since the only time she really sits still is when she's eating and strapped down. Here she's exhibiting part of the full cup of refried beans she ate for dinner. Yes, my kid won't eat any fruit but applesauce and bananas, but refried beans are always a go!

As I was uploading the pic above, this one below was right next to it in my computer files and I realized that we took this almost a year ago today. Definitely less hair, teeth and a little paler than last summer. I can't believe she's going to be two in just a couple of months.

-Emily :)

P.S. -- Thanks for snapping a couple of these, Aunt Mariann!

Wine in the Family

While in Northern California, we stopped and had brunch with Ash's Aunt Deb & Uncle Bob, cousin Lisa and her husband Brandon and 2nd cousin Anthony. Ash's uncle is an official vinter and we had the privilege of asking him all sorts of burning questions about grape farming and wine. Their winery is called Broman Cellars, and man, it's good stuff. We definitely made sure to arrange to send some back to Utah (Thanks for helping us break the law, Lisa!). Our late morning wine tasting also went well with the fabulous breakfast casserole Deb made.

It was neat to finally see their property and small vineyard. We're definitely going to go back and visit in the near future since they are one of our few 'western state' realatives!

Some pics from our visit:

Bob's "Scientific Tasting Table" in the winery office- at least that's what I'm going to call it. I'm sure he'd call it something else. ;) As a layperson, I thought it was pretty cool. Kind of reminds me of making perfume.
Lisa & Deb in the vineyard.

Cabernet grape vines on their property.

A lotus flower blooming in their backyard pond. I had a great time shooting all of the fabulous flowers around their house.

California is so beautiful and so diverse. I can't wait to go back!

-Emily :)