Back in the Saddle . . .

This past weekend, Josh's brother Michael was nice enough to pump up the tires on Josh's old mountain bike, and the two of them went for a ride down the Bennie Creek Cutoff trail in Payson Canyon. The trail has changed some in the last few years (seems like more people are riding it lately), but it was as much fun as ever.


















It was a great time to be in the canyon. The leaves have really started to change. It's beautiful.

Josh had such a good time getting back out on his bike that he wants to go again this weekend. It's a good thing he didn't get hooked like this any earlier this year. Nobody knows how much Josh, or his bike, can take. They're both a little out of shape . . .

Josh's Getting Old . . .

We had a great weekend. It all started on Friday evening when we went for a big birthday dinner with our friends Rick and Natasha Harris. We've known Rick and Natasha since the Villa Maria days, and it was lots of fun to spend an evening of delicious food with them. On Saturday Adam and Angie were down from Logan, so we got together for a little dinner at our apartment. It was lots of fun to catch up with them and Sue. And, as if it wasn't enough fun to just get together, Sue gave everyone souvenir socks that she picked up on her recent trip to South Dakota. The three of us got some great, matching Wall Drug socks (it's hard to beat "Free Ice Water").

On Sunday evening we headed south for a little party with Josh's Mom and Dave. Although Ainslie was excited to see everyone, it was pretty hard to get her away from the trampoline in the backyard.

Put that little girl on the trampoline and she can really go . . .
Josh's mom made his favorite soggy lemon cake, and Ainslie helped him blow out the candles. She's got this birthday thing figured out.

It's a little odd to think that Josh is 27 and Janae's 27th is just around the corner. We're starting to get old . . .

Rise and Shout

Last week, Janae's brother Jordan invited us to go to the BYU-UCLA football game. We had lots of fun watching BYU cream UCLA, but it was even more fun to spend a little time with family.

When we left to get Ainslie the score was 42-0. We may not be the biggest football fans around, but there's something very fun about seeing the team play so well this year.

Kite Festival

Last weekend we headed south for the first annual Spanish Fork Kite Festival, held to celebrate the completion of the new "wind farm" at the mouth of Spanish Fork Canyon. We weren't really sure what to expect (it was the first annual, after all), but we figured that, at the very least, it would be a great location for a kite festival. The wind is always blowing up there . . .

A little while back, Janae picked up this nifty Elmo kite for about 80 cents at K-mart. Anyone who has spent more than two minutes with Ainslie in the last month or so knows that she gets pretty excited about Elmo on the TV, computer, doodle pad, coloring books . . . and this kite was every bit as awesome.
Janae helped her get it going . . . Turns out, Elmo was a great kite, and we all had fun taking turns with the kite.
Josh got it to fly clear to the end of the string. Right next to the public kite flying area, there were some professional kite flyers. Ainslie loved watching the big, fancy kites. Her favorites were the "kitty" and "fsh fsh fsh" kites that were getting pulled around by four wheelers.

It was lots of fun to see all of the cool kites. Over on the little reservoir they had some great trick kites that were being pulled by a wave runner.

There were also lots of windmill-esque decorations all over the place. Ainslie was pretty excited to say hello to this fish. She loves fish, almost as much as she loves Elmo.
There were lots of friendly city employees who were offering golf cart rides to get from the bottom of the hill (where the kite flying was) to the top of the hill (where the promotional booths were). We were probably a little too happy to skip out on walking up the hill . . .
We definitely thought the kites were fun, but the best part of the festival may have been the free Segway rides! Josh has been trying to figure out how to test drive one of these for quite some time now, so when we heard that the demos at the festival for free we knew we had to do it.

It's a bit awkward at first trying to figure out how to manuever one of these, but they turned out to be a lot of fun. Even Grandma Jan gave it a try. Ainslie was a little too small, so she just worked on her yoga moves while we took turns on the Segways.
They called it the "first annual" kite festival, so we think that means it will be back next year. And if it does come back, we'll be excited to go again.

Shakespearean Festival

Last weekend we headed on down to Cedar City with Josh's family for the Shakespearean Festival. Unfortunately, quick overnight trips with family aren't quite as easy now that Ainslie's getting bigger, but we still had a lot of fun spending time with family and enjoying the play. Thanks to Mom and Dave for making it possible!Janae's been to the festival before, and sitting on the stage in the middle of the replica Globe Theater brought back lots of fond memories. Ainslie didn't get to go into the play, but she had lots of fun running laps around the campus at SUU.And she loved playing with the girls. Saturday afternoon we got to see Cyrano de Bergerac. Janae missed the first half of the play while she and Ainslie were taking a nap, but Josh thought the play was great. We're pretty lucky to have the Shakespearean Festival so (relatively) close to home, and we're looking forward to going back (once Ainslie's old enough to enjoy a play or two).On a different note, Josh inadvertantly caught this humorous series of pictures while we were in Cedar City. Binky falling in mid-air - distress over fallen binky - wiping it off - putting it back.

There's some problem solving skills for you. We're trying to be good parents by helping Ainslie realize that she doesn't need to have a binky in hand all of the time. But, that little green monster (the binky, not Ainslie) is proving to be quite the foe . . .