Haircuts

The kids were in desperate need of haircuts. Today, I took Keely and she chose to get a few inches cut off. This style is much easier since her fine hair tangles so easily. At least we won't have many hair battles for a few weeks :)
Yesterday, James gave Quinn another buzz cut. This is really the best hairstyle for him -- when his hair gets long, he ends up with a cowlick in the back. I'm all for style free boys hair. I know there will come a day when he may want it longer but for now, I love that we can cut it short so it never looks like "bed head". Also of note, Quinn said he was posing like a pirate.
Lastly, here they are displaying a moment of sibling love. It doesn't seem to happen often but when it does, it fills my heart with joy :)
Oh, update on triathlon training: 30 minute swim complete today. Must work on flip turns though. And a quick request...I know I am mostly writing this for me and my records of our family life, but it's awesome to receive comments and feedback so I know someone is reading. Thanks to those who have already commented, I know it may be annoying to make a Blogger account but once you've set it up (it only takes a minute) it always remembers who you are for posting on blogs. And who knows, you may be inspired to start a blog of your own?!?!

Snowbird

This weekend in SLC was H-O-T, HOT! We actually turned our A/C on for the first time all summer and that's notable. We spent most of Saturday at the pool (with a couple of Home Depot trips mixed in) and today, the place to be was up in the mountains! For those out of area, we can drive 20 minutes and lose at least 10 degrees, if not more by just heading up one of the canyons adjacent to the Wasatch Front. Today, we headed up to Snowbird in Little Cottonwood Canyon after church for some relief from the heat. Once we got up there, we decided to take the Peruvian Chair Lift and Tunnel over to Mineral Basin. We've never once been up there when it's ski season but this tunnel was put in last season to open up a whole new area of skiing. It's fun to take the chair lifts in the summer, opening up views and hiking galore. Here we are at the entrance to the tunnel, Keely being a silly girl.

And here's a view out the other side of the tunnel. This is a pretty cool mining and civil engineering achievement so it appeals to James and me both.
Once we got to the other side, we decided to hike up a ways to get a view from the saddle to both sides of the valley. It wasn't a long hike, and here's Keely posing for the camera on the way up. Notice she's actually wearing shoes and socks, which is a huge accomplishment for us!
Here we are hiking up, and now Keely is tiring a bit but still walking.
Finally, I had to resort to putting her on my shoulders -- imagine walking uphill with 40 lbs. extra weight on your shoulders! Notice how annoyed and tired I look in this picture. But we made it to the top and she walked the whole way back down to the tunnel.

Then it was time to travel back down by chairlift. James snapped this shot unbeknownst to me or Quinn.
We made it down just in time, there were thunderstorms moving through the valley and they were headed up into the canyon.
Try as we might, we couldn't find any excited wildlife on the hike or looking down from the chair lift. We did spot these two little ones, but were disappointed not to see any deer or moose. Oh well, maybe next time!

Lastly, I wanted to post a couple of really cute pictures from last weekend, while we were reading before bed one night.
Grandma and Grandpa arrive on Tuesday AM, and then Nana on Thursday night. Also, another thing to note...I have officially begun training for a mini triathlon. It is 6 weeks away and I am hoping to get in shape with a training schedule I found. To start, I did 30 minutes on the treadmill tonight. I'm hoping that by recording my progress, I will stick to the training and complete the race on September 6th. For those curious, a mini triathlon is a 400m swim (in a pool in this case), 9 mile bike ride, and 5k run (3.1 miles).

Pet Peeves, Utah Style

Okay, I don't mean to complain and this may not help the stereotype of Utah but here are two things that annoy me lately.

1. People that comment on the type of soda I am drinking. Why do they care if the soda has caffeine in it??? I'll make my own choices on drinking caffeine, alcohol, etc. thank you very much. And I don't comment on the need for Utahns to eat snowies (ice covered in colored syrup) like they are going out of style!

2. People who display the American flag on the Utah State Holiday, Pioneer Day. And further a state that observes a holiday on the day they settled this state (because of a religion). And one more thing, businesses that close on this day (no, not my company because then maybe I'd like it more!).

We've lived here for 3 years now and these little "quirks" as I call them have really begun to get to me, especially after I leave the state and then return home. Good, now that I've got that off my chest, I can get back to the reasons we do like living here!

Car Trouble!

For the better part of our marriage, James and I have only owned one car. We were fortunate that this worked for us in the several states we have lived in (Virginia, Arizona and now Utah). For the first couple of years here in Utah, we were still able to manage with one car despite James working 20+ miles from our house (he either bikes or takes public transportation). However, last March, I was in a car accident (not a story I want to retell, just know that it was my fault and my car had a good amount of damage although the kids and I were fine). James was stranded at home and we were lucky that I was able to drive it home. That was the last straw, we figured it would be practical to break down and buy a second car. This felt horrible because it was now a principle of our lives, a bragging right if you may...but I digress. We looked for weeks, James did lots of research (remember, he's an engineer too) and ended up purchasing this, a Land Rover Freelander used from 2002, only ours is silver.
I never felt great about the decision, but I trusted James. Since we bought it last April, we've had lots of minor little problems with it. I won't go so far as to say it's a lemon but it's not fantastic. Flash forward to yesterday. James calls at 4:45 PM to say he's stuck at work, the car won't start and can I come pick him up with jumper cables? Well sure but I'm stuck at work, still have to get the kids, and then get up to campus. I don't get to leave work until 5:20 and with traffic, make it to the kids school with 6 minutes to spare (they close at 6 PM). We drive to campus and attempt to jump his car. No dice. Unfortunate but we head home and buy a battery tester on the way. The battery turns out to be fine so we're in for something more complicated and most likely more costly.

And to top it off, his parents come into town on Tuesday and he just told them not to rent a car (Murphy's Law at its finest). Lastly, James tells me that his plan was to change the oil one last time and then go look for another car to replace this one. And then this happens! Let's just hope it's not that much money to fix it up...

Weekend Update

Well, now that I've caught up on exciting past events, it's sort of strange to blog about normal life. It's not that there isn't anything happening in daily life, it's just hard to see posts develop from those types of activities. I hope I will get better at that.

So, our weekend summed up -- Home Depot trips and hot weather. We have a few outside projects ongoing these days at the Donovan household. The first is the backyard and the patio that James is constructing himself. It is definitely a work in progress but I am glad to be seeing any progress! The second was a minor project that we were able to tackle in a few hours. It's glad to see something complete and not have it hanging over your head. I can actually say that we completed this project together (I'll have to explain another time how I am really not allowed to do much of anything, home improvement wise around the house). I am though allowed to plant things so I got to help with this project. As you can see in the pictures below, we replaced the grass in our parkstrip with xeriscaping. We are attempting to eliminate as much grass as possible from our yard, both front and back. This is a simple and effective way to do that and I am happy to see it every time I look at the front of our house.


So, aside from four trips to Home Depot, I got Quinn's room cleaned (Keely's was done last weekend). We took a trip to the pool on Saturday and also had a lovely dinner out at Porcupine's. If you are in town visiting us, chances are we will suggest dinner at this restaurant, it's yummy and a local fave.

This week is a short week for the kids at summer camp as it is Pioneer Day on Thursday (Utah State Holiday). Next week begins family visits, starting with Grandma and Grandpa (James' parents) on Tuesday and then Nana (my mom) on Thursday. Hard to believe July is more than half over and the kids go back to school in 4 short weeks!

Book Review: Comfort, A Journey Through Grief

While we were in San Francisco, I read this book by Ann Hood. Actually, since it is a very quick read I read most of it in the airport while we were waiting to depart on the trip. This book sparked my interest years ago when I read an early excerpt (or I think actually one of the first parts of it before it was made into a full book) in a magazine. This is a true story of the author's daughter dying at the young age of 5 from a very common children's ailment, strep throat. The book is about the process of healing through the years that follow this tragic experience. I can't honestly say that this book will appeal to a lot of people I know. Why it appeals to me is mostly my fascination with death (and consequent fear of death of myself or my family). I enjoyed the book, it has a happy ending despite most of it being frankly a little depressing. I think anyone who has lost a family member, and especially lost a child, would find this book helpful and be empathetic with the author and her experience. But I also think that any parent can relate to this because every parent's worst fear is losing their child. I think it was a good book, and it will certainly make you thankful for what you have and hopefully have not lost.

Book Review: The Rule of Four

This is my latest read. A book that my mother-in-law sent in a box sometime a while ago and I didn't even know we had on our book shelf. I'm thinking she sent it for me, thinking I would like it and she was right, I did. This is a book similar in plot to The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons, both books by Dan Brown. I enjoyed both of those books as well.

The main premise of the plot in this book is an ancient writing that the main characters are trying to decode. However, it's not the only part of the book -- there are two strong subplots that make it even more interesting. The first is a friendship between four college roommates as they prepare for graduation, and the second is a romance between the main character and his college sweetheart. All of this is intermixed with murder and intrigue. This really is a page turner -- and if you liked the aforementioned similar books, I definitely recommend this one.

Summer Vacation #2: San Francisco

Day Zero: SLC Airport

What was supposed to be the first day of the trip turned into an adventure in the Salt Lake City International Airport instead. We arrived at our gate at 1:30 PM for a 2:15 PM flight. What we found when we got there was a delayed flight and a plane with mechanical troubles. Not to worry though, the plane would be fixed in a jiffy and we'd be on our way. No such luck and the flight was canceled about an hour later. At which point Delta Airlines was courteous enough to book us on the 8:55 PM flight. Oh sure, I'd love to stay in the airport for another 6 hours with two kids and nothing to do. We could have left and come back home but by the time we got our car out of parking and drove home, we almost would have had to turn around to get back to the airport and get through security. Plus we had the possibility of standby for two intermediate flights and we decided to hang around to see if we'd get on one of those. Of course the chances of 4 people getting on a standby flight are ludicrous and we were forced to stay in the airport. They were gracious enough to provide $56 in meal vouchers so we ate an early dinner at Squatters (yummy!) and let the kids play in the kids area for a long time (that's the good thing about this airport and living in SLC, there are so many kids in these families here that they have play areas in almost all terminals of the airport). The kids made friends with two lovely Italian girls and we subsequently talked to the friendly parents who were also stuck with us. So thanks to the family from Bologna, the Rabbis and their two girls, Maria Christina and Cecchia (sp?) for keeping our two kiddos entertained for quite a while. Finally we took off on time and arrived in San Francisco at about 11 PM, now almost midnight for us. Then we took off on the adventure of using the BART and getting to the hotel. The BART was very popular and quite crowded for that time of night so it was not scary at all. We made it to the hotel and checked in, I was a little annoyed that we didn't get bumped up to Executive Level (spoiled me!) but they gave us free breakfast every morning so that made up for it. We then collapsed into bed where I swear no one moved a muscle until at least 9 AM! This is the view that greeted us from our window on Saturday morning.
Day One: Touring the Town
We decided to walk down to the cable car and buy our Muni passes. The cable car line was long but we waited. Keely and I went into what became her favorite store, Sephora while we waited. After about an hour I think, we finally got on a cable car and took it to the end of the line, where we took this picture.
Then we walked down towards the pier and Fisherman's Wharf. This is a picture of us in front on The Rock, barely visible in the fog and smoke of the day. Keely's cold, as would be obvious to most by her lack of desire to wear anything but summer clothes (remember, she was born in Tucson).
We then decided to tour the battleship Jeremiah O'Brien. Quinn is thrilled to get on an actual ship, even if it doesn't move.

After the ship tour, we walked back up to the wharf and picked up some fish & chips for lunch. In what seems to be commonplace, we ate on the curb in a parking lot to give our feet a rest for a few minutes. We also happened upon the Bush Man, who waits along the street hiding behind leaves to scare people. We weren't scared by him but we watched him give others a few scares. He's a SF legend, and it was fun to see him that first day -- we looked for him the rest of the trip and didn't see him again.


After eating our lunch (yummy fish!), we walked down the main road toward Ghirardelli Square. The kids were getting tired but we bribed them to walk the whole way with the promise of ice cream sundaes. This trip wouldn't be complete with them. Here's a picture of the famous ice cream shop but silly me didn't take a picture of the kids eating their sundaes. James and I shared a banana split and it was divine!

And here's a picture of us sitting outside in front of Hyde Street pier, just resting before the final trek to the cable car turnaround.

Day Two: Chinatown and More Boats
On the second day, we walked up the BIG hill to Chinatown and to visit the Cable Car Museum. We went to the fortune cookie company where we watched the ladies making the famous cookies from scratch and bought a nice big bag of them to snack on (both regular and chocolate flavors!). The Cable Car Museum is really cute, not that big but it's cool to see where the cables actually turn to keep the cars running smoothly. Riding the cable cars became not just a means of transportation but an activity for us. Next up was Lombard Street while James headed off to his symposium (the reason we were in SF in the first place). We got off the cable car at the top of the famous street and then I challenged the kids to count the steps on the way back up. Quinn got 134 steps, and it certainly kept them entertained and not complaining about walking back up. Here they are posing on the steps.
Next up was the end of the cable car line and a trip to Hyde Street Pier. For just $5 an adult (kids under 17 are free), you can tour 4 ships including a ferry boat, schooner, tug boat and pirate ship. Quinn loved them all, pirate ship best though. Keely was a good sport, though not enjoying them as much as Quinn.



After that, we walked down the pier and toured the USS Pampanito, a submarine docked in front of the Jeremiah O'Brien. This was fun (sorry I didn't take any pictures) and Quinn asked the intern on the ship lots of inquisitive questions (how fast can it go?, how many people can ride on it?). Keely's only question -- how long is this tour going to take? Her reason to ask is that she knew once it was over, she could have lunch :) Lunch was corn dogs for the kids and clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl for me...can not go to the wharf without it!

Day Three: Golden Gate Park
The last full day, we took the Muni bus (again, sans James) to see Golden Gate Park. Had I known how much walking this would involve, I would have planned differently. Nevertheless, we walked to a huge childrens' playground and then on to an interior lake called Stow Lake. There we rented a paddle boat for an hour and I paddled the kids around the lake (yes, that was good exercise for me!). After that, we walked back to the bus and took it to the end of the line which is Ocean Beach so the kids could play in the Pacific. The water was cold but we stayed for about an hour and played. Here's Quinn playing by the water...

And Keely posing for the camera, as she typically does...
That night we went down to Fishermans Wharf for a fish dinner. The kids also got to choose their souvenir. Quinn is displaying his below and Keely chose a change purse. This ship that Quinn chose had to be hand carried all the way home since we were afraid it would be crushed in the suitcase (the fortune cookies on the other hand didn't fare so well in the suitcase so that was probably a good idea!).

Day Four:
The last day was spent near the hotel in an area called South of Market. We walked around a huge park called Yerba Buena. This waterfall was fun for the kids to walk under. If you look closely, you can see them in the picture.

Then we let the kids play on this nice large playground for a while. They loved this long slide and went down in over and over. Quinn challenged me to get pictures of them when they came out at the bottom.

Keely always seemed to come down on her belly...


After that, we headed back to the hotel to grab the luggage and take the BART back to the airport. Luckily, the plane was on time and we all made it home in one piece. It was good to be back home and we had a fun trip! Next time I visit SF, it won't be in June...too much gloomy weather but it's a fun city. Very easy to get around and lots to see and do, regardless of age!

Hiking at Donut Falls

This past Sunday, we went hiking in Big Cottonwood Canyon. For those of you not familiar with Salt Lake City, this is one of the canyons along the Wasatch Mountain Range that has skiing in winter and hiking in summer. We have been wanting to do this hike for a while but it's quite popular so we chose to do it on a Sunday morning. Crowds are less apparent on Sundays (because a good portion of the Utah population can't do anything on Sundays) so we knew this would be a good day. It's a relatively easy hike, about 3/4 of a mile each way and not too steep. The trail follows water most of the way -- this helps when you're hiking with kids. Quinn continues to be an excellent hiker and we are still working on Keely. She complained a bit but we managed to get her to walk the entire way up. When you reach the waterfall, this is what you see at the end of the trail.

There isn't much room to sit on that side of the trail so the only option is to cross the water. And that is COLD water. About 40 degrees!

Once we got across, we sat and ate some lunch. Notice that I've taken my shoes and socks off and am wincing in pain from the practical frostbite it feels like my feet have experienced from the cold water.

Quinn is becoming a ham with the camera. He wasn't always this way but now that he is older, you can't get him to smile at the camera without that cheesy grin!

Quinn also enjoyed playing the shallow water at the base of the waterfall. Once his shoes were wet and feet were cold, he could have stayed there for hours playing! And here's Keely being silly...she must have been tired from walking the entire way up!

Once we had enough and trudged across the water again to the trail, it was time to make our way back to the car. This is a view as we were walking through the meadow. I scoured the hillsides and trees for moose but didn't see any this day.
And one last photo...Mama always seems to be picking up the rear. As Quinn called back to me, "Mama, pick up the pace!".

Fireworks Fear

I know, I am all over the place with these posts but you'll have to bear with me these first few days while I get all of my recent thoughts out into the blog world. The subject of this post is our most recent family addition, our golden retriever mix named Callie. Her full name is Caledonia and we got her from the Salt Lake County Animal Shelter about a month after we moved to Utah in 2005. So she's been with us for almost 3 years! She was 8 months old when we got her, and she is a great dog. I'm not sure why she was at the shelter but we are blessed to have her. She completed our family as we had spents months looking for the right dog for us. Anyways, the point to the story...

On July 4th, we left the house at about 9:45 PM to go see fireworks. We left the back door open with the screen door locked (we never do this, not sure why we did that night) and Callie was outside in the backyard when we left. When we got home, she was in the house. After initially worrying that someone had let her in, we found a gaping hole in the screen door and realized that she had run through it! She's not usually one to misbehave and is always content to be in the backyard so we weren't sure what happened. However, the next night it all came clear. She was in the backyard at night with the French door closed and some local fireworks started going off. We then heard her furiously scratching at the door to get let in. So it clicked --- she is afraid of fireworks! Strange since this is not her first fireworks holiday with us and we've never noticed her care about them before.

So now on to a new screen door and keeping her inside for the 24th (a Utah holiday that typically involves fireworks). And here's a picture to show you just how cute she is...

The New Couch

Okay, again I am out of order but I don't have time to tackle our trip to San Fran yet. So here's another niblet in the meantime. After months of looking, measuring and comparing prices and styles, we chose a new sofa for our family room. We had some pretty specific requirements and were glad to find something that fits perfectly (remember we are both engineers so that should explain why we were so choosy). We were glad to replace the old sofa which was about 5 years old and pretty worn. Of course, we moved it to what has become the most furnished unfinished basement in the world. And without further ado, a picture for the visual...

We've had it for about a week now and we love it...so comfy and it will only get better as it ages!

Summer Vacation #1: New Jersey

The week of Memorial Day, we headed back east to our hometown for a much anticipated visit to see family and friends. This visit was the first in nearly 14 months and the family was itching for some quality time with the kids (and I guess the parents too). We spent a full week there to try to avoid the rushing around that usually comes with a trip back home. So what did we do while we were there? The usual visiting with family and friends as well as some fun things too. First of the mentionables was a trip to the Staten Island Zoo with my grandmother, aunt and cousin Daniel. The kids enjoyed the zoo, especially the petting area.

The next day, we took a trip to the Jersey shore. The weather was gorgeous, in the 80s with practically no humidity. Actually we had good weather all week with the exception of Tuesday when it was rainy and 100% humid, exactly what I despise about NJ weather. So back to the beach, we were joined by my mom and sister, cousin Greg, and later on cousin Suzie and her kids, Danielle and Michael. It was a fun time, we ate lunch and spent a few hours relaxing in the sun while the kids played around the water. Notice I didn't say in the water, because the water temp was in the 50s that early in the summer.



Other activities included a family BBQ on Memorial Day (complete with pulled pork sandwiches and homemade potato salad, both recipes courtesy of Emeril), a trip to NYC for me to spend time and have dinner with Jessica and then a drink with cousin Dan, swimming at Karen's house with "the boys" as Keely calls them, and dinner and play with Shannon, Derek and their adorable little girls. The kids also had a sleepover with Nana and Annie one night. All in all, we had a great time!