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!!

A letter to my sister

Dear Kyra,

Wow!! I sure do miss you. I (partly)composed this post while eating (read: scarfing) my lunch. I know you are asking yourself, "What did Mandi have for lunch?". I will tell you: lettuce that I grew in my own garden, tomatoes and avocados that I got from the Co-op pick up on Saturday, cheese that I MADE from yogurt that I MADE (oh, yeah, it's YUMMY), and balsamic vinaigrette that I bought from the store. Aside from the dressing, I am kinda starting to sound granola. Next thing you know, I'll be wearing Teva's, forgoing deodorant, and driving an Outback (sorry, Beef!).

I just got back from Girls Camp up in Wallsburg, Utah on Friday. I cannot believe how much fun I had. Apparently I still think I'm 16, so I fit right in. We had a blast... but as I'm sure you remember, there was a spiritual side to it, too. On the very first night, some of the girls and I had a great talk around the fire (that I built! Thank you, Dad.). As I have thought about the things we discussed, I have no doubt that I was prepared for that discussion.... even as much as 9 months ago. I am amazed at how Heavenly Father works in all of our lives, and knows what we need... and puts it into place for us. We also had a musical fireside by a group called One Clear Voice. One of the ladies in my ward is in that group, and I love to listen to her sing. I am even her Visiting Teacher. How lucky is that? I don't know why I didn't take my tissues everywhere with me, 'cuz I was sure crying a ton that night. Maybe I'll post some pictures later... they will have to be kept on the "D - L" because our YW president is a ball of fun, and has requested that "What happens at Camp, stays at camp." We'll see about that. (hehe)

Mitchell is off to Scout Camp today. They are spending the week at Bear Lake. Bishop asked last night what his goal was for earning Merit Badges, and he said, "At least one." The little stinker. I dropped him off this morning, and as I was leaving, he just gave me a wave from the middle of the group, and I said, "That's not gonna work for me." So I made him come over and give me a hug (I didn't want to embarrass him too much with a big fat kiss). Yeah, I'm THAT mom. It will be a sad thing to have him gone all week. I'm kind of looking forward to less fighting between him and Austin, though.

Austin (finally) learned how to ride his bike. He's still very wobbly, but we took a ride last night to the circle, and he did a good job. He was being a bit defiant (read: VERY defiant) last night, but otherwise, he's such a great boy. He always has funny things to say, and the neighborhood loves to hear it. A week or so ago, Rachel was being a chatterbox in bed while Austin was trying to go to sleep, and Austin finally pipes up and says, "Rachel, help a brother out." So great!

Rachel is still the cutest thing ever, but she sucks at cleaning her room. I swear I have to ask her at least 20 times a day to work on it. She has gotten a little better once I took all her toys away, but she can still find things to leave all over the floor. As you may remember, she rides her bike like a champ. We do have lots of scraped knees, though. She's tough. She also has a little body builder body. I think her biceps are way more trim than mine, or even Mitchell for that matter. I wonder how tall she'll be. She has such long legs, but she also got Mike's long body, too. It's so interesting to think ahead as wonder what your kids will become. Last night (and almost every other night, for that matter) she prayed that she would get a backpack for kindergarten, and that she would have fun at kindergarten... which doesn't start for 63 days, mind you.

We are heading to St George next week with the Blacks. I think we are going to do a couple hikes (VERY early in the morning), and the usual massage and pedicures, and shopping and swimming... lots of swimming. I'm a little worried about how hot it will be, but that's when we get the best stories! Then the week after that, Mitchell and I head back up to Bear Lake to Youth Conference for just our ward. I think I am even more excited about that than I was before Girls Camp. The first day we get to do the ropes course at USU. We'll see if I am coordinated enough to not trip all over my face.

I hope everything is great with you. I love to see all the stuff you're up to (even if I have to read mom's blog to do it). Hope to see you soon. Don't really know the plan yet, though.

Loves, Mandi

I'm only posting to get all the pictures off my camera

WARNING: THIS WILL BE PROBABLY THE BIGGEST. POST. EVER.

In the (how long?) time since my last post, there have been things happening here, but not mentioned. I really would hate to post everyday with nothing to say, and that means I make monster posts. Sorry, that's life for me.

I am going to back track a little bit, just to make sure you get all the pictures. That's all you care about, I know. Who wants a post with all words? Not me. Sometimes I wish I could talk in real life with pictures. Crazy.

Wow, I am going to really go back here.

Back in November, Mike and I went to San Fransisco. It was a fun trip, and mainly resulted from Mike (being the Tenneesee Titan's fan that he is) wanting to go watch a NFL game. Titans played the... who? I can't remember (maybe the pictures will remind me) in Candlestick Park (which Mike informed me was a hole in the ground yucky field)on November, so we made a weekend of it.



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We got there on the night of Thursday, and were cutting it pretty close to make it to the best show...ever!!... Wicked. I got the soundtrack from the library and spent a couple weeks learning all the songs, and it was great to finally know what the story was. The Orpheum Theater was AMAZING.

We were starving after it was over, so we asked the first cabbie we could find (after trying to find one forever) what the best place to go was. He took us to the Grubstake and we had the best dinner!

The next day we and went to Alcatraz Island.





We went there on our honeymoon, but since that was so long ago, we decided to go again. It was rainy the whole time, and thankfully we bought an umbrella after we were done... because it stopped raining. We got a good soaking, though. Had some clam chowder at the Sourdough bread factory (YUM-O), and Mike fell in love with Boylan's diet black cherry soda (we even had to go back a couple days later just to get a soda.)