Abbott's Habits

These are my long time buddies, Tammy and Barbara. For the past (I really don't remember how many) years we have been getting together for each other's birthdays. We usually go out for lunch but sometimes we do something different. We have visited at Thanksgiving point gardens, had pedicures, hiked and now...biked. Barbara bikes every day and is an amazing super cyclist. I was dying, trailing behind, huffing and puffing and she looked like this was a nice leisurely ride. My bike had a flat tire so I was on one of the kids' bikes that probably hasn't ever had a tune-up. It was a serious workout. I thought I was going to die after riding up Palisade about 8 blocks. We got to the first water fountain and Tammy volunteered to switch bikes. Wow, her bike was amazing compared to what I started on. So she got the killer workout and I kept up a little easier. In spite of the equipment challenges it was super fun. The weather was perfect and the canyon was gorgeous. After the ride, we walked around riverwoods and then had lunch at Bajio. I was sad to see the day end, it was wonderful.

Phone pics, gotta love it.

another try...

oops!

We asked a nice jogger to stop and take our picture. After a 4 mile hike and then a 14 mile bike ride today, I am kinda sore!

More birthday celebrating! Ok, this wasn't for my birthday but let's just pretend. I figure if I get together with friends and people are wishing me well, it counts as a birthday party even if it's book club. We got together at Suzette's and soaked in the sun by her pool for the last few minutes of summer. We had super yummy food and a fun time. We don't usually take pictures at our monthly get-togethers but it's rare that all 10 of us can make it. It was the real birthday of Jennifer so it was her party also! Love ya ladies!

Katie got to sing the National Anthem at the start of the girls varsity volleyball game. The new principal asked Chamber choir to sing it at the first football game and then decided we should have someone do it at all the varsity games. He asked Chamber choir kids and Katie signed up for this. She wants to do a swim meet also. This is a pretty tall order and she did it with not a lot of notice, way to go Katie!!!

School is pretty much in full swing now and we are all getting in our groove. Caroline is doing a fabulous job of getting herself up at 5AM to be in her carpool ride at 5:15 as they head to the pool for early morning workouts. Because of it, she is getting to bed with no problems either, she is so tired!

Katie got a calling this year to serve as a special needs mutual counselor. Here she is with her buddy, Kayleen. She goes to our regular mutual and then on Thursday nights she goes and helps Kayleen at the special needs mutual. When Katie found out she was getting this calling, her response was " Really? I have always wanted to do that!" She is also in the special needs seminary class this semester at school. She is really enjoying doing this for the year.

The scouts in our ward had a special treat last night. They were working on the personal fitness merit badge and had as a special guest BYU football player Brian Kariya. Here is David catching a pass with him.

All the scouts with Brian. What a fun time for these boys!

Wow! Are you allowed to use that word when speaking of your own children? I hope so. Katie looked just stunning tonight as she waited for her Homecoming date to arrive.

Ok, maybe a little bit sassy also. Do you love her dress?

Here is the cute couple. Drew is so tall (6'5") so Katie was really excited to wear heels and not worry about coming close to the same height. Not even close since she is a foot shorter that him. Now on to the dejavu....

Yes, this is me. Katie is wearing my Senior ball dress tonight for Homecoming. We are pretty close to exactly the same age in these pictures. Again, do you like the dress? Not to bad for being a 26 years old dress!

If we had hot-rollered her hair maybe we would look even more alike. Anyway, this post should be more about her and her dance but I am having fun looking back and forth at the pictures. I think it's so fun that she chose to wear my dress.

Have a great evening, Katie, you're gorgeous!

We have some great friends, the Schill family. Each year for the past several years the girls have been invited to join Steve and his 3 girls on a unique adventure. The mountain man rendezvous in Fort Bridger Wyoming commemorates the history and stories of the pioneers, fur trappers and Indians who merged in this location. Steve is a true mountain man and pitches an authentic civil war period tent, cooks over a fire, and dresses in period clothing. Because of this, they camp in the primitive area. Everyone there dresses in period clothing, sits on wood chairs, use cast iron to cook, can't have anything plastic showing, etc. You get in for free and get to stay after the crowds have gone home. It is home for 3 days for them with lots of food, booths, entertainment and activities. We have heard so much about this trip that we decided to go ourselves this year. We stayed in our motorhome, more our style. David mostly hung out with all of the kids, carving sticks and tying arrowheads on them with sinew, throwing knives, shooting guns, wading in the creek, catching crawdads, drinking homemade root beer, trading items at the trading post and making leather pouches to hold stuff.

Caroline and Katie with Aubree and Brian, a Schill cousin.

Who knew teenagers would have so much fun doing this?

At dusk on Saturday night after the crowds have gone home, there is a Buckskinners Ball. They have a live band and square dance caller. There are other teenagers they have met over the years who, like them, return year after year.

Swing your partner!

Caroline and her awesome coonskin hat. She made this herself. Stay tuned for that story following this post, you won't want to miss it!

I didn't know David could juggle! What a discovery!

Campbelle Schill

Getting ready to throw some tomahawks.

David throwing a knife with a tomahawk in hand.

Black powder rifle shooting.

Caroline's turn

This picture is a bit bright. I hope you can see the next one well. Katie's eye's are closed after the shot goes and the smoke hovers.

Aubree, Laura, Brinnan, Brian, David, Katie and Caroline after the shooting.

At the end of the weekend, the kids like to dress up even more and have a little photo shoot. Here are my girls looking all serious for their old time picture.

Caroline and Brinnan

That homemade root beer is good! If you buy the bottle refills are pretty cheap. The kids live on the stuff all weekend.

The three amigos!

David and Nelson trying to catch crawdads.

Whoa! Steve offered an awesome shirt and some accessories for picture time. I think we may have found Nelson's new facebook profile picture, don't you think?

What fun!

It's that time of year again! With school comes dances and with that comes the creative date asking and answering that goes on here in Utah. Maybe it happens elsewhere? It didn't when I was growing up in Alaska. When I came to Utah it was a totally new concept to me. So those of you outside of Utah, let me know if it's just a Utah thing or not.

Well, anyway, Homecoming is a little early this year so I think it has taken everyone by surprise a bit. Katie got this big Orem High decorated envelope left on the doorstep last night. It says "Kaite, who wants to take you to Homecoming this year? "wash" and find out!". Inside the envelope was a shirt with about 20 boys's names from Orem High. She washed the shirt and then one name remained, Drew Hatch. Katie has know Drew since elementary school and I have known his mom since my single days at BYU, a long time. We knew she had to answer fast since the dance is in 10 days and we are leaving for the weekend. So, she and I got up pretty early this morning and went to work.

We made dollar-size blueberry pancakes spelling out the word YES along with a bacon smile, orange juice, syrup, some fresh-cut flowers and a folded napkin with her name on it. We drove over to where he lives and she was getting nervous she didn't quite know which house was his. He lives in a townhouse, all in a row, and she thought it was one door but then I recognized his mom's car and she was parked in the stall with another door's number on it. So, she decided to ring the bell of the door that matched the number of the car stall. As she was going to get out of the car, a man opened the door and left to take a little dog on a walk. Oh no! we didn't cover the food with plastic wrap or anything so she hurried so maybe Drew would come to the door before the dog returned and wanted the breakfast for himself. Katie rang the bell and ran to hide behind a car not far from their door to make sure they answered before the dog came back. His mom came out and found the surprise, took a picture with her phone and then went in and left the door open. Apparently Drew was in the shower so his mom kept just waiting outside on the steps, going in and out to get her better camera, guarding the breakfast when the dog ran back, opened the blinds, etc and Katie thought she would never get the chance to get out of there! I was waiting around the corner and wondered why she was taking so long. Well, she finally found a moment to run and we made it home in time to get ready for school. What a lot of fun, now on to the dress!