Sailing the Great Salt Lake

Did you know there are sailboat races on the Great Salt Lake? 

Last week Sam’s friend asked him to help film a mini documentary about the GSL that included a sailboat race.  Sam has been DREAMING about learning to sail for the last year or so, so he jumped at the chance.  Lucky for me, Sam likes to take me along for things like this.  So on Saturday we woke up bright and early and headed out to the GSL Marina.  I expected to just hang out at the Marina all day while Sam was sailing, but when the crews were getting ready to go, the captain of the boat Sam was sailing invited me along, too.

 

The Crew--Temma, LeRoy and Scott. 

Can you believe Sam got paid to do this?

We’re in the lead!  

The water died during the last race.  Since the crew didn't have much to do I finally dared to ask one of them to take our photo.

Our boat came in first place in the first race and 2nd in other two.  The captain, LeRoy, was nice enough to share the loot and gave us this glass.  

Thanks LeRoy, Scott, Temma, and of course Caius (the boat) for letting us tag along!

Biking & Hiking

Sam finally had a free Saturday so we made the most of it and headed south on Thursday for a long weekend.  We hung out with Sam’s family and spent the rest of the time enjoying the epic spring weather. 

We went on one of our favorite bike rides around Sam’s hometown.  I had a little accident, but it was definitely worth it.  

Saturday we spent all day hiking to and from Choal Falls.  Not very many people know about this place -- we didn’t run into a single person the entire day.  We only snapped a few photos on our way to the falls, but we used up the rest of our camera’s memory card when we got there.  Here’s just a few. 

The stream was ideal for wading in and the perfectly smooth sand massaged our tired feet.  The water just under the falls was barely deep enough for swimming, but the water was a little chilly for that.  

This little guy is about the closest thing to a human we saw the entire hike.

We also saw this nifty little house some little creature built.  Hole was about the diameter of a  pinky.

It was about 75-80 degrees on Saturday, but the next day the wind picked up as we were getting ready to leave and a couple hours into our drive home we hit this.

Thankfully we didn’t hit that gorgeous late 60’s model Camero in front of us.  Drool.  

Up To

I’ve kind of been neglectful at writing about that day-to-day stuff we’ve been up to lately.  Sam’s been taking an all-day class on Saturdays which puts a damper on the weekends.  However, there are a few things I’ve missed:

My sister Alli lives in England.  Her husband Shayne came to the states for work and he brought my nephew Josh with him.  We got to hang out with both of them a couple of times.  I can’t believe how much Josh has grown up since I saw him last summer!  I hear he’s already quite the heartbreaker.  One of their visits included a slide show of a two-week mission Shayne and Alli recently served for our church.  They went to India to teach neonatal resuscitation techniques to labor & delivery professionals who then train other professionals all over the country.  The slideshow was heartbreaking.  They were in an extremely impoverished area for most of the time.  In one photo, a woman was trying to shove her baby through the window of the cab my sister was in.  It was obvious her child was malnourished, and she must have been desperate to get help.  Amazingly, Shayne said that in general even the most poor seemed very happy.  They literally live in filth and barely have enough to eat.  Yet they still find good in life and are grateful for what they have.  I can learn a thing or two from them!      

 Once a month we have dinner with my grandmother.  She lives in a big, old house and takes care of my grandfather who requires a lot of attention.  So every second Monday, we visit her to help out with whatever needs to be done.  Last night we took over a pot roast and helped her clean out her basement.  We also got in a snowball fight.  This was awesome because my grandma was on my side and Sam didn’t dare throw anything at an old lady! 

Last Sunday we spoke in Church on D&C 109:8.  I spent several hours working on my talk.  Sam spent about 15 minutes preparing his.  His talk was better than mine.  Although he did say the word “suck” in his talk.  Is that bad?? 

Also, Sam FINALLY posted something! (see next post) When I began this blog I envisioned that we’d take turns posting.  Of course it didn’t really turn out that way.  I guess he’s just not the blogging type.  He really is excited about this whole adoption thing, though.  I PROMISE.  He even made tiny baby moccasins the other day.        

My two cents

Sam here just adding my two cents worth $.02. There you have it!

It's a Small World

Yesterday I received a call from a woman my sister grew up with.  Last year she and I ran into each other at an adoption class (the kind you have to take to become eligible to adopt), and since then we’ve kept in touch.  She has a SUPERCUTE little boy, and she and her husband are hoping to add to their family via adoption. 

She called me because of something work related, but we ended up talking about our adoption efforts for quite a while.  We’ve been able to celebrate the little triumphs (like getting our banners to post correctly on our agency’s old website) and commiserate in the frustrations (such as THE WAIT!) that come with adoption. 

I hadn’t seen her info/profile on our agency’s new website, so I was hoping this meant good news for her family.  Unfortunately, that’s not the case.  Her house was burglarized and they got cleaned out.  She’s bummed that their TV was stolen, and that most of her favorite clothes are now gone.  But she’s most upset that her computer (a.k.a. photo album) is gone.  How do you post an adoption profile without any photos? 

BUMMER!

She has some ideas for scrounging up photos of hers living in cyber space.  I hope she finds what she needs.  And I hope her family gets a new member soon!  So if you are looking for a family for your child and Sam and I don’t seem like a good fit, check out Steve, Suzanne and Wyatt.  They have a blog you can check out, too.  I highly recommend them! 

Annual Home Study/Visit

Yesterday we had a home visit with our new adoption worker.  I was a little anxious because we aren’t 100% done with remodeling.  I was worried we might get in trouble for not having any interior door knobs installed yet.  And what if she looked under our bed where I hide things I don’t know what do with—like a Christmas decoration I’m still making?  Would we get in trouble for not having enough water in our food storage?  Of course I was over thinking things, but that’s what I do.  We spent Monday night completing a list of things I’m pretty sure are important: 

• Install missing heating vents;  check. 
• Buy new fire and carbon monoxide detectors (Sam went out to find some at 2:00 in the A.M.); check. 
• Maker sure neighbor’s cat’s poop isn’t all over the yard; check.

The visit went really well.  There are just a few things we have to take care of like put child locks on the cabinets that hold cleaning supplies.  Best of all, I really like our new adoption worker.  Although I don’t know her very well yet, I really like her a lot.  She’s totally on the ball and seems to realize how important this is to us.  She’s genuine and I feel like she can empathize with the ups and downs that come with this whole thing.  And she didn’t look under our bed. 

      

Slumber Party!

Last weekend my sister and brother-in-law went out of town. We figured this was the perfect time to follow through with a promise Sam made to their kids to have a slumber party where we stayed up all night watching movies and eating popcorn and candy.

We didn’t end up staying up all night, but we did watch a movie and eat popcorn and candy.

And of course there was jumping on the bed that turned into a pillow fight.

The 4-year-old woke up in the middle of the night because she had a nightmare that her daddy was the Grinch. I tried to console her, but I was also trying not to crack up at her nightmare story. She woke up again, but before I could get up, Sam was headed to the living room to check on her. I woke up awhile later and Sam was still gone. Then I found this:

After that I only woke up once because the baby wanted to snuggle (that was heaven!). In the morning I was awakened when Sam and the girls brought me breakfast in bed.

Yes, I married the best man in the world!

We went to church the next day and got some interesting looks. A lot of people know we are hoping to adopt, so I think they thought we hit the jackpot!