ARCHULETA 4 PRESIDENT!

For family night Kyle and I went to Cornbelly's Cornmaze in Lehi.  Every year they mow the corn into a different picture and this year it is david archuleta! It was fun and they had a lot of different activities besides just the cornmaze.  We saw pig racing featuring tommy la-snort-a, failed the left turn only maze that kyle believes to be impossible, went on a hayride, AND inside the maze we ran into David Archuleta himself!

 

Kyle does a pretty good impression of his hero, David Archuleta

It was bumpy on the hayride so we couldn't really get one in focus.

All of Farmer Kyle's corn is getting stomped on.  He is sad. 

VICTORY!

Matrimony the Ghanaen way

On Tuesday one of Kyle's really good buddies from Ghana got married.  It was a great wedding and the reception was amazing!  It was really neat to see the ways that they meshed the Arican and American Cultures.  Lucy (the bride) had a beautiful dress that had African cloth draped around the back. 

Instead of having a traditional sign in book the had small pieces of paper for you to write a note on.  Also on the paper you could stamp traditional Adinkra symbols that mean different things.

Outside they had drumming and once it got later they came inside and did dance instruction.  It was a lot of fun, dancing, and food.  

More Progress on the Backyard

Thanks Mom and Dad for coming up and helping! We are almost done!

Our Backyard

Our backyard has needed some work since before it was even my backyard.  When we moved back to Salt Lake from St. George we decided to take action and DO IT!  For the last week we have been busy weeding, shoveling, wheelbarrow-ing, leveling, and compacting.  We still have a lot left to do but have gotten a lot done.  Here are some photos of our progress

We also had the stone and sand delivered today.  Because our street is so narrow the delivery truck parked had to park in the middle of the main road and drive the fork lift only up our street.

Back at Home

It has been a long, hot, and busy summer but Kyle and I are back in our home in Salt Lake! I apologize for not posting over the summer. We weren't able to upload photos onto our computers because the cords were left in Salt Lake when we moved. I will do one long blog of the summer update now.

JUNE

I did have one post in June (wa-hoo for me!) One of the things we were excited for while we were in St. George was being closer to Kyle's family in California. We were able to go out there three times this summer. It was great to be able to see his family so much and especially his brother, Travis. Travis was preparing to go on his mission and we were able to be involved of all of that fun stuff. At the end of June we went out to go to the temple with him. We went to the Redlands Temple in California. It was nice, but so small! There was no chapel, which I was not used to, we just waited in the hall until they were ready for us to go in. While Marsha (Kyle's Mom) and I were waiting one of the temple workers brought us some chocolates! It seemed silly to be eating chocolate in the temple.

I was working
and
Kyle stayed
busy doing his
internship at Rite-Aid as well as starting to work at Wal-Mart.








JULY
The first weekend in July was our family's yearly trip to Carpinteria Beach in California. This year Kyle, Sam, and I were going to go down on Friday (July 4th) and see Kyle's family again. On Friday night we went to see a small fireworks show in the city that Kyle is from (Ontario, CA). Saturday Kyle and Travis were going to go to the LA temple and Sam and I decided that we could just wander around the visitors center while they were inside. Well, we got there and went inside of the family history library there for a little while. Then decided we could go into the visitors center and see what that had to offer us. Nothing. It offered us nothing because it was closed. We circled around the temple grounds a few times in the heat taking a few pics before Kyle and Travis came back out. After the temple visit we went to the third street promenade. It was a shopping district in LA and they have street performers and things. It was interesting to say the least. After that we were going to go to an Angels game. We were a little bit late getting their and didn't have our tickets so by the time we got to the front of the line all they had left was $100 dollar tickets. With our heads hung low we headed home sad to miss the baseball game. Everyone else (Mom, Sarah, Chad, Josh, Liz, Eric, and David) were going to meet us at the beach on sunday afternoon. Well, everyone else made it to St. George. In St. George my mom had some car trouble so no one else was able to make it to California. We were really sad that they couldn't make it out because we haven't been able to go to the beach for quite a few years. But we stayed hopeful and headed to the beach anyways. We drove to Carpinteria on Sunday morning. We stayed there for only one night, but enjoyed it. It was fun, but a little crazy. A lot of the camping supplies that Sam needed (tent, sleeping pad, etc.) were still in my mom's car in St. George. Thankfully the Hefters had an open spot in one of their tents that Sam was able to share for one night. Because no one else made it to the beach we decided to make the actual beach portion short and fit some other things in. We left Carpinteria on Monday afternoon and drove straight to Dodger Stadium. After getting a little bit lost in downtown LA we made it to see the Dodgers. It was a great game. It was a no hitter up until the 7th inning and by the end of the game the other team had only one hit! The final score was 3-0. Go Dodgers!
Tuesday was another fun filled day as we headed to the happiest place on earth. Sam was too little to even remember the one other time that he had gone to Disneyland so it was a lot of fun. This year at Disneyland they are calling it "The year of a Million Dreams." Sam decided that it should instead be called "the land of a million ridiculous hats." If you have been to disneyland you will know that this is quite appropriate as there are a lot of ridiculous disney themed hats that visitors wear there.
Wednesday we headed back to utah exhausted after a long and busy trip. It started out a little bit rough, but I think that it turned out to be a fun trip.
My birthday was at the end of July. This year for Liz, Sarah, and My birthdays my mom has quilted bags for us. Mine turned out so cute! I am using it for a knitting bag. With the money I got from Gram and Kyle's Grandma I bought some yarn and am knitting a SWEATER! It isn't quite done yet, but it is coming along nicely. Sarah and Sam bought me 17 sets of needles. They are special needles that are double pointed that you use to make things that are round. Kyle got me a jewelry box and a spice rack. Two things that I much needed! Thanks everyone!

I am going to have to take a break from this, but I will post more a little bit later!

Angel's Landing, Zion National Park

On Saturday Kyle and I went to Zion's National Park. We decided before we went that we wanted to hike Angel's Landing. Neither of us had done it before, but decided we wanted to give it a try. We started up the mountain around 11:30 and didn't get back down the mountain until almost 6:00. The section with all the switchbacks (21 to be exact) they call Walter's Wiggles.

We took a lot of breaks so it took us a while, but it was well worth it. It was a rough hike, but we made it to the top!

Near the visitor's center there was a recycling bin that had this sign on it. Show you care!

We are going on a diet.

For about the first month that kyle and i have been living in st. george its seems that all we have done is eat out. And for those of you who are not aware, there is a new in-and-out in st. george which makes matters just that much worse. So we have decided to go on a diet. the eat-at-home diet. it has been a little bit rough so i am reaching out for help. I don't know what to cook! We are both getting a little bit tired of hamburgers and spaghetti so if anyone has any favorite recipes that you and your families like, let me know! Kyle and i both will appreciate your ideas!