Random Summer Happenings

So I am one of those people who LOVES year-round school. I also blab about how great it is, to anyone who asks. It is one of my favorite things about my job.

Except in July. July is the part where everyone else is halfway through their summer and halfway through their tan, and I am just starting my summer while also about to end my summer. In my school, teachers get 2 weeks off, then go back to school to set up our classrooms and sit in meetings. Kids come back after the third week.

(Secretly I still kind of like this, because I don't feel like I need a huge long summer if it means fewer breaks throughout the year. But I like it in kind of a hateful way. Like I like it, but I hate it. It's a love-hate kind of a feeling.)

Anywho, here are some random pictures of things I squeezed into my summer:

1. Shimp family reunion! We stayed at the Westgate Hotel in Park City, which was really fun in and of itself, and also put us close to Olympic Park. Our first room was about the size of my living room. (I'm not kidding.) There was one pull-out couch bed, one king-size bed in a private part of the room behind some pocket doors, and a shower that we couldn't figure out how to operate.

Being in such close quarters for 10 minutes made everyone go a litttttle bit crazy. Brandon trapped Logan in the sauna shower. Logan started screaming that he couldn't breathe. Stephen mooned his brothers. Michael commented that at least the view wasn't bad and we all got confused because the window looked out on some cement stairs. Mama Shimp sent us out to the car to bring everything in, and texted us to not forget the  marshmallow sticks so we could roast marshmallows.

When we had cleared out the car and brought everything into the eensy-weensy room, the Shimp parents went downstairs to get a different room and Stephen and I took the kids to the pool. We came back just in time to help move everything to the other room, which was on another floor and in another section of the hotel. This room was awesome!! It had some quirks, but at least we were all able to recover our sanity in here.

The main quirk was the bathroom. It was a huge bathroom, with a double vanity, sauna shower, jacuzzi tub, and obviously a toilet.....and a window looking in on the bathroom from the master suite. When I say window, I don't mean a dinky little thing with frosted glass. I'm talking about a 5'x5' hole in the wall that you could climb through and you'd wind up in the tub. From window to wall, the bathroom was set up like this: tub, shower, toilet. So the toilet tried to hide, but when you took a seat, you'd be staring into the mirror over the double vanity. And whatever that mirror showed also conveniently reflected off the mirror next to the tub, so no one got too much privacy during this trip.

*Pictures soon to come of this anomaly of a bathroom.*

One time, someone - who will remain anonymous - fearlessly tried to take a dump in these conditions. Then some cousins came to visit.

"Wow, it's really nice in here!" they said.
"Look at all this space!" they exclaimed.
"You guys got a cool room!" they said.
"Oh yeah, except the bathroom has a window in it," Logan said. "You guys have got to see this." And he led them back to the bathroom.

Locked. So he led them into the master bedroom to show them the window.

"What??" they said.
"Why would anyone put this here?" they wondered.
"Oh, hi Stephen," they said. And continued to stand there marveling at the bathroom with a window in it.

While we were there, we roasted marshmallows, swam, played ping-pong, went to Olympic Park, had a baby shower for Stephen's aunt who is our age, and went to lots of things for Stephen's cousin's wedding.

We went on the drop tower at Olympic Park in Park City!

My other favorite part about staying in this room was the sleeping arrangement. Stephanie and Craig got back from a different vacation just in time to spend a night in the hotel, and Natalie got back from a student council retreat on the same night, which meant that 3 more people had to fit in. It was quite an adventure trying to find spots for everyone! 

In the end, the parents and Natalie slept in the bed, Stephanie and Craig slept on the worst couch-bed I have ever felt, Stephen and I slept on our sides squished on the couch, and Logan and Michael made beds out of pillows and blankets and slept on the floor. Brandon started out on the padded bench at the kitchen table, but that got old after about 5 minutes, so he came in and started gathering up bits and pieces of Logan and Michael's beds to make one for himself. Obviously that didn't go down too well. At first, Stephen and I didn't have a pillow, and Logan was highly frustrated when Stephen tried to take one of his five, but eventually it all worked out. 

Until someone farted and Logan almost had a meltdown, but then things got quiet again!

Until Brandon started to feel like "dude I'm seriously either about to throw up or poop for like 5 minutes straight dude, I'm not even kidding," and Logan just about lost his Shimp telling him to be quiet.

Okay and then things were pretty much quiet until poor Brandon got uncomfortable again.....and you guys, I don't even know what happened, I'm pretty sure he just ended up sleeping on the floor with no blankets or pillows or anything. 

Through all of this, I could not stop laughing! And Stephen didn't help because I was trying to be considerate by laughing silently into his shoulder (which was jammed in my face anyway because remember we were both trying to sleep on a skinny little couch), but every time I started to calm down, he would start shaking like he was laughing, just to get me to laugh again. It just reminded me so much of that scene in Snow White, where all the dwarves give her their beds, and then they have to find a place to sleep, so they all go in cupboards and tea cups and fireplaces. 

#2. Jackie's wedding. Stephen's cousin Jackie got married at the end of the Shimp family reunion, so a lot of our activities revolved around that. She and Aaron got married in the Bountiful temple, which I had never been to before, but it was beautiful! 

The wedding reception was a lot of fun. It was at my new favorite venue, the Bungalow. The food was good, Jackie's parents danced the legit tango, there was a photo booth, and I had the cutest dance partner in the whole place. 

We love the Bruners!

It is really hard to get a good picture of a photo booth picture.

I guess the only person who didn't have fun was Logitos, when he didn't catch the garter and he had to get under some coattails. 

#3. Studying. Most of our summer was consumed with studying. Stephen was preparing for the DAT, which he's actually not going to take until next spring / summer, and I was preparing for the Praxis, which I didn't think I needed to study for originally but then I got freaked out when I read some stuff online about it the week before my test. So some of our days looked like this:

PS I just got my scores back and I passed :)

#4. Lagoon. Remember when I won something with 97.1 ZHT, and I got to jump in a big....pen kind of thing full of lucky charms with 20 other people, and somebody won Taylor Swift tickets and everyone else won something a little less cool but still cool? Well I won Lagoon tickets that day! Stephen and I went with Natalie and Brandon, and it was so much fun. 

#5. Stephen's birthday! I already blogged about the most interesting part of that, but I also want to share a few pictures here.

In our house, errbody gets to wear a crown on their birthday, even the boys. 

I made him this delicious (kinda yellow) breakfast and was very proud of myself.

Remember the candles I got that were a 2 and a 6? I tried to redeem myself here. 

This "cake" was amazing! It was basically a peanut butter chocolate cheesecake. You can find the recipe here.

#6. We erm......broke our scale.

I literally don't even know how this happened. I just walked in to find it like this. Stephen said he just nudged it and it shattered into a million pieces.....but I mean why?!

#7. Mob. We love Moab because, well, because it is Moab, and also because it was where we took our first mini-vacation together! This time, we went with Stephen's family. We found a cool little lake that I'm assuming was man-made, rented some paddle-boards, hiked to the Delicate Arch, and did a few other mini-hikes.

We were unaffected by the Dad-Bod trend, thankfully. 

#8. Lady A and Hunter Hayes!!! (And Sam Smith but no one really cared about him. #rude? Maybe, sorry.) Caitlin won tickets to all the shows this summer, and even though Stephen meanly rejected her Toby Keith tickets, since he hates country, she was still nice enough to take me to Lady Antebellum. We fangirled it up and I'm now even more obsessed with Hunter Hayes than I was when Stephen picked his song for our first dance.

Um, we were pretty excited.

Sorry that my phone camera is not the best TERRIBLE, but that is Lady A. I thought they were in love, but actually, the girl is just in love with the drummer in the band. And the boy lead singer who is tall and way better-looking than his poor brother that let him live in his basement years ago and came onstage to sing because he LIVES IN UTAH so why not, is actually married to someone else who had fertility struggles but is now pregnant. (Where would we be without Google, amiright.)

And there's Hunter Hayes! Stephen said that if he pulled me onstage and kissed me that would be cheating. So I guess that will never happen. 

Lady A came out into the audience! They were right at the end of our row and it was so great.

#9. Babay shower! So many baby showers. So many, guys. I guess it's just the phase of life I'm in. I love it because baby clothes are fun to buy, especially baby shoes. Ahhhh I die every time!! Anyway, the only one I got a picture at was Christine's.

#10. Back to school!

Here was my first day of school bulletin board! I'm still doing a circus-themed classroom, as you can tell.

And now I'm in Week #2 of my first 3-week break of the school year. We just got back from galavanting around the West coast, and I'm working on those blogs now too. Howwwww was everyone else's summer!?

When Boys Watch the Bach

They say some funny things. Over the course of this season, the Shimp ladies (and one Lively lady) had gotten to the point where we were a leetle done with those comments, and we were thrilled to just have a girls' night with the finale. We got our root beer floats, popped our popcorn, and set up on the couch 60 minutes after the show started so we could watch with no commercials.

Then......the men trickled in. And the comments began.

When Kaitlyn and Nick were lounging on a boat, on their date: "Are those two married?"

When Shawn showed up after that: "Hold on, is that the same guy?"

When we explained that no, they're not married, and no, they're not the same person, but rather the same girl dating two different guys: "It's a dating show?.....You like, watch people date?.......Sounds pretty dumb."

When Chris Harrison met Kaitlyn at the mansion: "Is he dating her, too?"

Mama Shimp: Alright bye! We know he chooses [Winner's Name], now you can go to your friend's house.
Logan: No wait!
Mama Shimp: Huh? Honey all that's gonna happen is that he'll walk up and talk, then she'll talk, then he'll get down on one knee, and that's it.
Logan: Well I wanna see them kiss. Push play.

When Kaitlyn started crying....you know, one of the times she did. "This is the dumbest show."

When [one of the guys] said: "You took things from me."
Me: What did she take from him?
Mike: His virginity, I think. Is that it?

When the commercial for Bachelor in Paradise comes on after the finale: "Ooookay, we don't watch that. Come on guys, let's....let's take a break. Bachelor, Bachelorette, that's enough. Just those two. Let's keep it simple. Keep it clean. Just that, we don't need Bachelor in Paradise." (I think he was a little worried.)

Don't worry, we're not Bachelors in Paradise kinda people. And, as much as we love them, we wouldn't require our boys to watch it with us anyway :)

Dinnertime Humor

My Facebook exploded this weekend, I don't know about yours.

In discussing this over family dinner on Sunday, I decided to share my favorite status that I read, posted by my cousin. I pulled it up on my phone and read it aloud:

"The American people have been served a great justice this week and we are a stronger people for it. My heart is full and I will proudly tell my children and their children how I lived in a time where wrongs were righted and brave people stood on the right side of history. In short, thank you, Disney, for banning selfie sticks."

I looked up, excited to see everyone's reactions. Logan and Michael had stopped paying attention by the second sentence. Brandon too. Natalie was still waking up. Stephanie and Craig chuckled. Stephen's parents blinked at me.

"Isn't that funny?" I prompted.

"They don't get it," Stephen said. He shook his head. "Read it again."

I did. This time Natalie gave a little laugh.

"So do you get it this time?" Stephen asked his parents, who were still looking blankly at me.

"I just....it's crazy, the way this world is going," Mama Shimp said.

"Okay, but do you get what he was doing, with that status?" Stephen said. He grabbed the phone. "You don't get it, because you probably weren't on Facebook this weekend. But seriously every other status was something like that, but talking about gay marriage."

"Oh, I heard about the new bill, I know that's what you're talking about. I get it." Mama Shimp did not get it.

"No. Diane." Craig tried to jump in to explain and got interrupted by Mike.

"Wait a minute, wait a minute, now I'm going to sound really naive here....but what I don't get is, what is a selfie stick?"

The whole table erupted with forehead smacks, groans, and cries of "A selfie stick?? Oh my gosh, DAD!"

"I know what that is!" Mama Shimp cried excitedly. "Mike! You are old!"

Once everyone knew what a selfie-stick was, we had to then explain that Disney just banned selfie-sticks.

"Okay, but," Mama Shimp frowned, "What does that have to do with gay marriage?

"It's just funny," Stephen said feebly. "It doesn't really have to do with that. He was trying to make it sound like he was talking about gay marriage, but then you get to the end and realize he's talking about selfie sticks at Disney parks, and it's funny."

Jokes aren't usually funnier when you have to explain them. Usually, they just kinda turn lame. But in this case, I think it was the opposite. The joke was much funnier after our half-hour explanation of it.

Black-ish Diamonds

Stephen used to get a snowboarding pass every year. I used to try and date expert snowboarders who didn't mind shelling out the $60ish it cost to take me snowboarding. Stephen is kind of an expert snowboarder, and he didn't mind taking me to random snowy places where we could hike-board for free, so that worked out great when we were dating.

But then we got married and started sharing money and came up with some lofty goals for saving and investing, so a snowboarding pass just hasn't made the budget.

So the other day, when Stephen told me he had bought us tickets to Sundance for MLK Day, I was super-excited. Also a little nervous. Snowboarding twice on real slopes and 3 times in the mountains does not a snowboarder make.

{This is very true. Go back and read it again if you had any doubts the first time.}

Still, it was a great day, and I am pretty sure I improved at least a little bit. There was even one time when I got off the lift without completely wiping out! If lift operator is as entertaining a job and full of as many hilarious falls as safety duty on an icy day - and I strongly suspect it is - then congratulations to all those lift operators out there on your job satisfaction. It can't be too bad with all the slapstick you must witness.

The top three things I would like you to notice about this clip:
1. Brandon fell before me.
2. Stephen dropped me.
3. But then he helped me up again, so we're okay.

Margot and Gonzalo met up with us there. Margot is a skier, and like an expert skier, but it was nice to have Gonzalo so I wasn't the only newb snowboarder!  

Sundance is beautiful.

Brandon also came, and it was only his second time. But somehow, he picked it up a lot faster than I did!

Since it was MLK Day, we celebrated by going on some black diamonds. I probably wouldn't survive on black diamonds in Switzerland, but here in Sundance, I did alright.

doing alright, verb: when you start out standing, and make it about 10 seconds before falling, and once you have fallen and can't get back up, you don't cry when you continue zooming down the mountain on your butt, and eventually it turns into a nice relaxing ride so you stop trying to get up, but you keep going down, and it's totally fine, and probably some people judge you but isn't that what this day is all about?....not judging and forgetting the haters, I mean. So you don't curr and you just enjoy your ride until the slope evens out enough for you to stand up and attempt to finish the run the more traditional way, and then when you get to the bottom you still get to tell everyone you have done a black diamond.

No celebrities were spotted.

Also of note, I got some pink goggles, and Brandon got some new bootses.

Shimps for Dinner

We've been spending a lot of time recently at the Shimp home in Lehi. Aside from my own home growing up, and probably tied with mine and Stephen's home now, this is currently the homiest place in the world to me. Here's what a pretty typical night there looks like.

We walk in without knocking. B is playing some game in the living room. He looks up and smiles at us - he is so congenial - and makes some nice welcoming comment.

M and L are

a. in their room, playing with the geckos.

b. eating, or

c. playing on the computer.

When we get there, Logan usually starts yelling. Something like, "HEY, what are you guys doing here??" [Angry breathing for emphasis] "You don't wanna mess with ME!" [Southernish accent he picked up from who knows where]

Michael usually tries to ignore us until Stephen starts antagonizing him. 

Natalie is 

a. out with her friends. 

b. watching makeup tutorials, or 

c. putting on makeup.

Sometimes we see her right away and she says hi. Sometimes she just stays in her room until she feels like socializing. Sometimes "socializing" starts with her saying "Okay, here's why I kissed a gay guy."

All is generally peaceful. So of course, Stephen has to 

a. pick up an airsoft gun and threaten M&L with it

b. start chasing M or L, or
c. ignore them and start eating.

Today he ate, then attacked Michael with this wooden machete thing, a souvenir from a cruise.

"Stop. It!" screams Michael, squirming in his seat at the computer, trying to keep playing his game. "I'm serious! Heather, make him stop!"

"Dude, I'm just playing, I'm just messing around," Stephen says. This is always hilarious to him.

With the first scuffle to announce our arrival, we settle into our routines. I go upstairs to say hi to Mama Shimp. Today she is feeding peanut butter crackers to Logan. We make it about five minutes into a Lifetime movie before Stephen comes up and attacks me with a metal spring clamp, trying to clamp it on my butt. (What.) I fall off the bed and somehow we wind up with Stephen thumping my collarbone with his knuckle and Logan wrapped around his neck, trying to help me, I think?

Eventually Stephen gets off. "He loves to play with people," Mama Shimp explains happily. I am annoyed. I leave to do laundry. Stephen follows me to tell me how sorry he is for crossing the line and how cute I am. Whate'er.....but I stop being annoyed.

Stephen goes to take a shower. He's obsessed with showering here. He says he can't remember the last time he showered at our house.....uh.

I start doing something on my laptop, or making food in the kitchen. Today it's blogging and Facebook stalking a boy the Jew is going on a date with tonight. Brandon comes over to help me make fun of admire the horrible hairs we find on the Facebook. (He is the perfect little brother).

Eventually it is time for dinner. So, twenty minutes after it's ready, everyone has finally made their way into the kitchen. Mama Shimp is exasperated. "You'd think, because it's food, everyone would want to come in and eat, but no!" We marvel together. Logan punches Michael in the ribs.

Brandon says the prayer and everyone runs around the island in slow-motion franticness. We are too lazy to rush, but everyone's survival instincts have kicked in, telling us that there are lots of competitors for our food. Even though there is plenty, we can't seem to walk in a patient single-file line around the island to fill our plates.

Dinner is always a little different, but it seems like these things must all happen at every dinner, at least once.

- Logan saying "Moooom, can you help me??"
- Michael bringing one or both of the geckos to the table
- Everyone yelling at him to get the animals away from the table
- Logan standing up on his chair and screaming while smacking his own butt
- Brandon telling Logan to "Dude, sit down, freakin idiot"
- Mama Shimp telling Brandon not to say freakin in her house
- Logan falling on the floor / gasping dramatically / running away because he is worried he's not going to get enough food
- Michael complimenting himself on something or sharing some deep thought

i.e., "My up is that I looked good for family pictures today."
also "Rock Obama is our president....wait. Ock Obama? I don't remember!"
and, "Mublicans believe in cutting open babies."
also "It's actually really pretty impressive that I got the part of Romeo, because there's only one person from each class who got it, so."

- Natalie taking a selfie. She is kind of immune to the chaos
- Michael burp-saying something (it's actually quite a talent)
- Stephen and Brandon reminiscing about the last time they played Airsoft
- Mama Shimp sighing that all she wants is one dinner without yelling
- Brandon snapping at Michael to "Stop being so greedy, there are other people who need to eat!" when he goes to get seconds or thirds
- Mama Shimp shushing everyone, putting Padre Shimp on speakerphone, and having him repeat whatever romantic thing he just said to her for everyone to hear
- Someone excitedly forecasting the farts that are about to commence when they notice the slightest amount of cheese in the meal
- Logan asking if there are almonds in this
- Mama Shimp assuring him that there are not
- Logan spotting something that looks slightly like an almond and indignantly accusing Mama Shimp of trying to kill him, since he is allergic.

I don't know if this kind of dinner would be alarming to someone who grew up in a smaller family, because I have only been apart of big families. But it reminds me of my family in a way that makes me love it here. 

Merry Shimpmas

So, Reese Witherspoon is pretty much my homegirl. We know this. But she and I differ on one thing - Christmas.

Actually I have no idea how she feels about Christmas. But in her movie with Vince Vaughan, "4 Christmases," she hates Christmas with her own families, and Christmas with Vince's families, too. I, on the other hand, love having Christmas with both families.

We had Shimpmas the weekend before real Christmas. It went like this:

Friday
-Michael's birthday
-Presents and cake
-Aaaand a scavenger hunt to the best present: leopard geckos!

Lacy and Leo :) Hopefully they make some leopard gecko babies soon!

Saturday
- Wake up in a twin bed. Actually on the floor, next to a twin bed. Somehow Stephen and I fell asleep in Logan's bed, and Natalie fell asleep in Michael's bed, and Brandon fell asleep in his own bed, and the birthday boy fell asleep on the couch, and who knows where Logan slept. All I know is, he had to have been more comfortable than I was.
- Go home to shower and gather up presents.
- Go to lunch with the Shimp parents and Craig and Stephanie. We are adults so our lunch consists of talking about our goals, discussing relationship secrets, and shared fries and cocoa.

- Go home to get ready for ice skating. We have planned to leave at 6:30.
- It is 6:30 and the parents are nowhere to be seen. They are last-minute shopping.
- It is 7:30 and I'm almost done curling my hairs.
- It is 8:30 and the parents are back! We pile in the car.
- See the lights at the temple

- Go ice-skating at the Gallivan Center
- Watch a couple break up on the bench next to the skating rink
- Get taken down on the last lap around by Logan (aka Pretzel-Legs)

- Get videoed by some guy standing on a trashcan and recording falls, laughing hysterically each time he catches someone
- Hold hands with errbody else because sometimes, Stephen likes to leave me behind and ice skate as fast and dangerously as possible without me holding him back

We are now at the level where we do tricks, like this one. Which I like to call, the headless lifter.

- Watch Michael pro it up all over the ice and decide that he needs to take hockey lessons

- Go to eat dinner (at 11:30pm) at The Pie, where we were probably the only BYU fans in the whole joint
- Everyone gets a little freaked out and asks if I was "wild" in college and if I am "trying to kill us" by bringing us to this "sketchy place" where no one "has ever even heard of kids or something"

- Then everyone sees the pizza and gets a little freaked out because it is the biggest pizza anyone has ever seen and we can't even eat half of it
- Drive home and promptly pass out

Sunday

- Wake up and get Christmas jammies!! Logan was NOT happy about this, since it is a Christmas Eve tradition and we were opening them early and breaking tradition. But they are my absolute favorite thing.

- Christmas gift exchange with the kids
- Christmas for the couples who are leaving. We got prettttty spoiled with clothes, a Shark something-or-other that cleans our house, gift cards, and for me, workout clothes that I am so thrilled about I might just work out next year.
- Go to church
- Play Scum, which one of these times, I am going to write a blog post exactly transcribing what happens in a game of scum up in here. It is so hilarious.....even more hilarious than dinner here.

So Christmas #1 was great! We've somehow managed to do 2 out of 2 married Christmases with both families, and even though I know it can't be like that forever, I've loved it so far :)