Jack, Dave, John, Peter... the gang's all here!

Contrary to popular belief, I actually do not really like concerts. My first concert (besides the Mid-State Fair... those don't really count, right?) was a Bon Jovi concert up at Wolf Mountain... at which I bought a t-shirt. Mike now relentlessly teases me about that. (I secretly wish I still had it. I would wear it everywhere just to annoy him.)
However, this summer was my turn to make up for all the concerts I have not gone to.
August 13: Jack Johnson. This was the one I was most looking forward to.... and it did not disappoint. We arrived pretty early (like, 5:30 pm early), and were walking around in the grassy area. Mike leads us over to a stage they have set up, and says "That sounds like G-Love." Well, sure enough it WAS G-Love (did you know his real name is Garrett? Just learned that on Wikipedia... everything on Wikipedia is true.)! So we are about 5 feet from the stage listening to his hip-hop blues and kinda weird singing voice, and thinking how unreal this is. He plays a couple songs with guitar and harmonica (how does he DO that?), and introduces Paula (somebody) for a song. Then he says, "Welcome Jack Johnson up to the stage." REALLY? IS THIS REAL LIFE? Yes. It was.

The rest of the concert was good, but a bit of a disappointment after being SO CLOSE.


August 17: Dave Matthews. Going anywhere with Mike's siblings always makes for a fun time. Amie, Ryan, Becca, and Matt joined us for this concert. (Missed you Beef & Megan!!) Lots of fun just hanging out on the lawn talking without interruptions from kids.

August 31: Owl City & John Mayer. Nikki & Ian joined us for this one. Fun times... especially listening to the girls behind us complain about less talking, more singing... and they wanted less jamming, and more songs sounding like the CD. Interesting.



September 10: Peter Cetera. Nikki, Janelle, Liberty. We had a GREAT time making fun of the bio they gave us for him. His witty comments about how Sandy was fortunate, and Salt Lake City really missed out on his concert kept us rolling in the aisles. We may have been on the younger end of the age range in this crowd. I say that because we were the ONLY ones standing at all. At one point Nikki says, "I'm getting my money's worth out of this concert." This was especially funny because the tickets were free.

one year

no tears were shed, except when Miles bit Rachel. Followed by a slow dinner at El Farol.

This sums up Austin to a tee.

This was from last year... Third grade with Mrs North. She was such a great teacher for him, she told us she even wanted to take him home.

Mystery Dinner in YM/YW

It's a little hard to tell, but everyone is eating random food with random utensils: spaghetti noodles with a toothpick, anyone?

Rachel's Kindergarten class

Is it just me, or does this seem
Like 2023 is forever away? I know it will go by in a flash, though.

"Hike" at Silver Lake

Friday we went for a "hike" around Silver Lake. Mitchell was at scout camp, so it was just the 4 of us.

SOURDOUGH BREAD, you're the best!

I love sourdough bread. Like, REALLY love it. It's my favorite. I have tried for years and years and years to make a good SOUR sourdough. It just was not working. No matter which recipe I tried. Recently, I had given up. I decided that our Utah dry desert air was not conducive to the yeast the bread needs.

Well, a month ago, I got a book from the library called, "The Breadbaker's Apprentice" by Peter Reinhart. I in no way consider myself a full time baker, which this book requires that you be, since the first loaf of bread I made from it was a Ciabatta bread that took 7 hours to complete (and I even left out a step). It was good, but not 7 hours good. I decided that I would give the book 1 more try, and chose a Sourdough recipe. From start to finish, it took about 2 weeks worth of care to get this bad boy. I made my own seed culture (the fermented flour and water that catches the yeast in the air), from that I made the barm (or mother starter, if you will), and finally the dough to make a loaf of bread. If you already have the barm going, it will still take 2-3 days to finish this loaf.

So without further ado, here's my finished loaf:
A little underwhelming, I know. I sliced it, and it made breadsticks, but HALLELUJAH! It was SOUR. Even Mitchell said I should be a professional bread baker. um, no thanks. But it was great to FINALLY have a sourdough recipe that was nice and sour.

Dear Whitney,

Remember how Girls Camp was fun back when you were in Young Women's (What was that about 3 years ago?)? Well, I have news for you. It's even MORE fun as a leader.

As requested:
By the way, Nikki and I did this balance challenge, and rocked it in about 5 minutes. As if anyone needed any more proof, we're awesome.They just could not figure this one out.

I was the cheater on this balance beam. I'm a great example, I know.

This wall was fun... except I am not really that tall, so it was a struggle to reach all the holds.

Dance Party/service project
One Clear Voice came to perform for us.

At the top of our hike.Does this picture surprise anyone? Not me. These cute girls are AWESOME!!