almost August!

Has this summer flown by, or what? For the first time in my memory I won't be going back to school this fall! I am looking forward to enjoying my favorite season of the year without homework, commuting, parking, sleep deprivation (involuntary, that is) or exams!

But, before jumping headfirst into fall mode, there's one more month - the best month - of the summer to enjoy! August is my birthday month and we love an excuse to celebrate! I have no big plans as of yet, but I'm confident it will be a great month. Even if the current summer trends continue - late nights of movie-watching, cold cereal eating, lazy weekends, naps, and spontaneous adventures - I'll have no complaints.

Another highlight of July was a quick trip to Vegas. McKay had a work conference there and I drove down and spent a couple days with him there! During the days while he was gone I swam at the hotel, window-shopped at Bloomingdale's, Nordstrom, and other fun stores, and napped. Then we got our evenings together! The best part of the trip was probably watching Cirque de Soleil at Treasure Island. We saw Mystere and were blown away!!

Pioneer Day brought a family barbecue and the last of our Nevada fireworks with some friends (following a day watching 24 in our pajamas). It's been a great summer.

Here's a fun little video clip of a late-night Smith's run to close out this post.

his original plan was to use mini-watermelons for this feat! I think cantaloupe was a better choice!

where have I been?

Apologies for my lengthy absence. While we've had a busy couple of weeks I'm going to blame my lack of blogging on Heroes, season 1. We've been watching episodes in our free time (aka blog time) so I've been a bit of a slacker!

For the fourth of July McKay and I took a spontaneous road trip to San Francisco to visit Kimball, Wendy and Jack. It was so fun! McKay's mom was in DC for a wedding so we had Papa Rob jump in the car with us. It was a blast! We got video footage of the whole adventure, so get excited for a feature length chronicle of our trip.

Highlights of the trip are as follows:

-New CD's for the drive (no iPod connector = old school burned CD's)

-killer fireworks purchased in Battle Mountain, NV

-breakfast at a tasty bakery/lounging and chatting late into the morning

-Santa Cruz beach followed by amazing Italian restaurant

-Pizzeria Delfina

-Meeting up with good friends from Provo - Ben and Rachel Steed - for sushi and A-Team

-Wendy's cooking (bruschetta, fresh strawberries, grilled chicken wraps, to name a few)

-Lovelock, NV: the small town we stopped in for dinner. We went to a barbecue place that was straight out of an old movie! There were old people sitting around eating baked potatoes and listening to the live local artists play old western classics. Lots of denim, big hair and beer. It was CLASSIC

-the creepy "rest area" on the way home: about a half hour outside of Wendover we HAD to take a quick stop and switch drivers. We followed the signs to the "rest area" which turned out to be two camping quality toilets (not exaggerating) behind some barricades with one dim street light overhead. Super sketchy/scary. I decided to wait until Wendover. McKay peed behind the building (shhhhh . . . )

-staying an extra day just because

and the best part of the trip . . .

-Jack started walking!!

The trip was a blast - even the 13 hour drive! Stay tuned for more video highlights.