A Quick Recounting of a Few Things I Meant to Blog About Over the Summer But Was Too Dang Tired to Do So.

So here I am, sitting on the couch, staring at least towards the television with my eyes glazed over. You see, it happened.  Summer came and went and school actually started.  If you had asked me on June the 6th I would have told you that today was not actually ever going to get here.  But it did. Summer was great, summer was good, and now I'm exhausted and need to sit down for at least three to five days to recover.  It's occurring to me that my list of things to blog about is growing longer rather than shorter and that the details of these topics are fading in the haze of my sleepiness.  I think I'd better just pull a cram-it-in post and move ahead.

Thing I Vaguely Remember #1:

Crawdad Fishin' Take 2, in which trip I did not take part, since this time was an over-nighter.  I did, however, find myself the next day boiling several gallons of salty water; just enough to sufficiently cook all 110 crawdads caught on said trip.  As it turns out, there is such a thing as "too many crawdads."  We invited a few neighbors over to enjoy the tasty (though hard-to-dismember) morsels along with some jambalaya and corn bread but even with the extra mouths, 110 crawdads were just too many.  Never before have we had leftovers, and I am going to confess to the fact that I did not even check to find out if crawdads "keep well" in the fridge. I don't want to know, in case the answer is a definitive NO. Goodbye, extra crawdads.  Next year, we will only go for 99 or so. It did make the kids proud, of course, to hit the century mark on their catch.

I am very happy to report that Troy returned from this trip with nothing but glowing reviews for his two older children who joined him on the trip.  At least as far as I can remember.  Maybe I have already blocked out a challenging detail or two.  If memory serves, they just had an absolute ball, staying up until nearly 11:00 roasting marshmallows by the campfire and doing other very fatherly/camping/happy kids in the outdoors kind of stuff.

Don't YOU look at that and instantly think, "yum" ?

Thing I Vaguely Remember #2:

Cousins!  I'm pretty sure that cousins are one of the reasons that I got so behind on my blogging.  My brother Adam and his family moved to the Seattle area a year ago and they needed some Utah time so they came for like four weeks or something.  Well, everyone but Adam did that - he was able to join his family for the last weekend. Anyway, with four weeks of nearby cousins we had all sorts of adventures including two sleepovers, a birthday party, lots of dinners and lots of playing.  We love cousins.

One of the first evenings we spent together was in my parents' backyard, fondly dubbed The Glen.  We ate some pizza or something and mostly just watched the kids go nuts on the lawn, rolling down the hill in these big tube tunnel things.  We were very entertained by our niece Lainey's ability to "go zombie."  Also her little sister Rosie who is potty training and who likes to say, "Feast Yourrrrr Eyes!!" in a Scottish brogue and waggle her bum at you every time she drops her drawers.  (If you haven't seen Brave, that's where she's getting this unusual but hilarious behavior.)

Thing I Vaguely Remember #3:

My dear friend Emily has been trying for many months to get her family up Millcreek Canyon for a cookout dinner and for some reason or other, time after time, it just hasn't worked out.  So when I asked Troy with just 10 or so days of summer left what activities we wanted to pack in and he mentioned dinner up the canyon, I couldn't help but call up Emily and invite her and however many members of her family as were able to join us.  We ended up having such a good time.  There is nothing like taking kids to a place in the mountains with fresh air and a stream running near by with lots of rocks to throw, adding in some good old hot dogs and smores; the kids just dive into the atmosphere and never want to leave again.  We did this with some Preslar cousins a couple of years ago and I'm beginning to feel that every end-of-summer deserves a family cookout dinner up Millcreek Canyon.

Thing I Vaguely Remember #4:

I never mentioned how much I was going to miss two very, well...dear friends I lost this summer.  Maurice Sendak and Nora Ephron.  Truly, they did feel like friends.  Mr. Sendak was a massive part of my childhood and Ms. Ephron a major part of everything else.  I love them both and appreciate what they gave to us over their wonderful years.  I'm going to miss them both.

And...The Thing I'm well aware of at this very moment:
The tomatoes are ripening.  Some one go and get me some BACON.