god bless america!

*beware! long post ahead*

so, this summer has definitely been a busy one with me in school pretty much full time and working at nights and josh putting in over 40 hours a week at work. but we have definitely found some time here and there to play and have a little bit of fun. a week ago, josh's brother spencer and his dad came up to go rock climbing and shooting with us (poor kristi wasn't feeling well that day and missed out on the fun). but we did lunch and headed up logan canyon to scale some rocks.

exhibit one... the rock we climbed...

it was one hot day so we didn't climb too much, but we had a great time. josh and i have really enjoyed going climbing lately and will probably continue to make it our one hobby of the summer :) oh, and if anyone talks to dave about this climbing trip and he tries to tell you i pushed him down the mountain, don't believe him. don't you think i would have come up with a better way to take my father-in-law out??

josh climbing

spencer climbing. notice how he's using his knee to make his way up the rocks?

yeah, not the smartest idea. it wasn't that bad, but spence is a wuss :)

yep, that's me climbing. dave was kind enough to take a bunch of pictures while we were climbing (like 150), but the close up shots were just my big ol' booty and i'm sure you're not interested in seeing that.

after climbing (and after heading to the gas station for some large powerades and water), we headed up blacksmith fork canyon to go shooting. dave and spencer brought up a 30-30, a 12 gauge, 20 gauge, and a 9mm pistol and plenty of ammo to shoot.

this is me holding the 30-30. that thing was a beast to shoot, but i kinda liked it!

we also had a competition to see who could shoot the most discs with the shotguns... and guess who beat out all the boys?? that's right... i did! none of those guys had ever seen me shoot a gun and they clearly didn't know what i was capable of! we had a great time that day (and were absolutely exhausted by the end of the day) and look forward to them coming up again.

so, here's an update on josh's health. he has had a couple of dr appts in the past few weeks with his oncologist here in logan and his surgical oncologist in murray. here in logan they did a cbc and everything looked good and normal and the dr didn't have any concerns. awesome! josh got an ultra sound of his lymph nodes (where they initially found the cancer) and they all looked great and none of them had changed in size (which would indicate that cancer was still located there and was growing). more great news. josh's dr in murray also did a full body check on him and didn't find anything abnormal. the only weird thing is a cyst (or something like that, they're not sure what it is) that has grown between josh's eyebrows. he was concerned about it, showed it to the dr, and the dr decided to take a biopsy of it and send it in to be tested. i'll spare you the gross details, but in the process of sticking a needle in it, it popped everywhere (fluid went everywhere) and the dr is no longer concerned about it (it is clearly not a tumor). josh will need to go to huntsman sometime soon to get it removed, but hopefully it is just a cyst and not something we need to be worried about.

the friday before the 4th of july was a school holiday so i decided to do something... ANYTHING... but homework. so i made these little beauties...

cupcake hamburgers! aren't they adorable?! made with white cupcakes buns, sugar sesame seeds, brownie hamburger patties, colored frosting for the ketchup and mustard, and green coconut lettuce! i saw this idea on bakerella and let me just say, i was dang proud of how they turned out (my photo skills aren't quite up to par, but know they looked a lot better in person). and believe it or not, they were quite scrumptious too!
friday night i had to work and ended up working later than planned, so sadly enough we missed watching the logan fireworks with our friends (why do they do them on the 3rd of july?? it's a mystery). we decided to load up the car and head to murray that night and just catch a glimpse of the fireworks in the rear view mirror. early the next morning, we hit up the murray parade. what a classic. josh isn't a big fan of parades, but i enjoy them. and my sister was dancing in this one (and was at the very end of the parade) so we stayed for the whole thing so we could cheer her on. i'm excited to have kids one day and take them to parades. maybe then josh will have fun. maybe.

my little sister katie is on the first row, furthest to the left. we always hoot and holler and try to distract her and make her smile. that's a big no-no in the world of spartonians.
(i was terrible at taking pictures so most of my 4th of july will be documented by words only)

after the parade we went over to the sponbecks' house for some fabulous sour dough pancakes. kent has some sort of secret, special recipe and they are seriously amazing. especially with a little whipped cream and a whole lot of fresh raspberries. it was also fun to catch up with collie and see her stinkin cute boy easton.

after breakfast, we picked up our new car. i don't have any pictures of it, but it's a crv that we purchased off my parents because my mom is all sorts of worried about me driving around in logan in the winter on icy streets in my light-weight civic. and lucky for her, by selling us her crv, she was able to get a brand new one. everyone wins! but we're definitely grateful to have a new, bigger car and i'm excited to not have to drive a stick shift anymore!

we then met up with our friends brett and amber and spent the afternoon at the pool. it was so fun to catch up with them (and catch up on my sun) and it was a much needed lazy afternoon.

after swimming, josh and i headed jaynann and adam's 1 year birthday party for their daughter emma. oh my goodness, that girl is adorable and it was so fun hanging out with our friends and their fun family. the bbq was fabulous and look how cute her birthday cake was?? jaynann impressed me with her cupcake decorating skills.

after the party, we got back together with brett and amber and headed up little cottonwood canyon to have a fire and roast marshmallows. (again, we caught a glimpse of fireworks in the rearview mirror). it was a fun filled day and we crashed out as soon as we got home.

the next day we met up with lindsay, ryan and their cute little boy reagan (who also turned 1 this past week... same day as emma) at murray park. i feel like i never get to see the cute bailey family and it was great to catch up with them. well, as lindsay and i caught up, the boys caught up on their bocce ball skills. chana and megan also met up with us at the park and we talked about wedding plans and about megan's big move to washington dc (she moved today to be with her loverboy and who knows when we'll see her next!) i'm sure going to miss that girl but i wish her the best in her new adventure and starting a new life across the country.

we finally headed back to logan late sunday night and neither of us were looking forward to school and work early monday morning. but we survived (barely) and have spent the last 2 nights being lazy and taking naps to catch up on our sleep!