paint me a summer

(suspenders to sling shot)

thank you summer, we enjoyed your stay. back to school tomorrow. new adventures ahead. 

Compareosis

Made up word? Maybe. A little. Just let me break it down for you.

COMPARE meaning, to examine the characters or qualities of -especially in order to discover resemblances or differences 

OSIS (Greek) meaning, disease, morbid state, abnormal increase. 

I could not be more blessed, or have a happier life. But still sometimes I can feel a bad case of Compareosis coming on. Why? Because I am only human. And as humans we have a keen sense of our own inadequacies, failures and short comings. We also have a knack for being blind to those faults in others. It is a mental sickness that can be deadly, and no one is immune.  

Life can get hard and as we gaze out from behind our own problems we tend to see that the people are surrounded by have it easier, better, that they are smarter, their lives more glamorous. Because they have this, and we don't. Because they can do that and we can't. Compareosis, may be a made up word but it is a real state of mind. It will creep up on us suddenly can be difficult to get rid of. The symptoms are horrible. Lack of self confidence. Decrease in motivation. Bitterness. Jealousy. Unable to recognize the good right in front of you. When left untreated symptoms can be infectious and spread to every area of our lives, school, work, relationships, family and faith. 

The cause is human nature, the cure is gratitude, self appreciation, realistic realization and love. 

This has been on my mind lately because everyone I know seems to be dealing with it in one way or another and I discovered something that I believe. It is not doing incredible things that make you an incredible person. 

Newly Weds and Empty Nesters

It is a universal truth that the best spot in birth order is last. Those of you out there who are not the youngest (sorry can't win them all) I am sure have noticed the unfair advantages given to your younger siblings. This is one of them. Without the daily duties of having children at home our parents are free to be as spontaneous as we are, which makes for great double dating. 

Last night my parents swung by Logan on their way home from Idaho and on a whim we hit up the Demolition Derby. 

Parker and my mother had never been to a demo derby before. I knew Parker would love it because its basically real life really loud bumper cars, but we were all taken back by how much my mom loved it. This is the woman who went sky diving for her 50th birthday, I guess we shouldn't have been surprised when she suggested that next year we skip the girl run and drive in a derby instead. 

Parker said it was the most fun red neck thing he had ever done.

Penguin Encounter!!!!! (and the aquarium)

So first off this is my first blog that I've written. (That's right this blog is written by Parker.) This past Friday Jess took me to the living planet aquarium. After we ate a delicious breakfast at Joanna's Kitchen, which unfortunately we don't have a picture of, it looked like a dive but tasted delicious, we headed to the aquarium. Although we looked at everything they had there we only got a couple of pictures.

Both Jess and i got to pet the sting rays ( we were definitely the biggest kids in the aquarium)

They feel way different than you would think. They kinda felt like a squishy velvet rug.

Then we saw this:

Which is a disgusting tarantula. which raises the question... Why is it at the aquarium???

Okay now for the main part. The coolest thing ever. Something that I've wished i could do since reading the book Mr.Poppers Penguins. THE PENGUIN ENCOUNTER!!

That is the back of the very cool jackets we got to wear cause it was going to be freezing.

We also got to wear these awesome penguin encounter badges, which we wore around the aquarium all day.

After we were prepared for the cold room and watched the safety video it was time to enter the penguin encounter room which was kept at a brisk 40 degrees, which I loved and Jess... didn't enjoy as much.

I can not tell you how awesome it was to be in the same room as penguins! It was so cool! almost all the penguins came into the room at one time or another we got to spend 20 minutes in the room and could take all the pictures we wanted but couldn't touch the penguins, but they could (and did) touch us.

Let me introduce Ghost rider the trouble maker of the penguins, who soon became my best penguin friend.

 This is him resting his head on Jessica's leg and checking her out.

And here he is biting her leather shoe laces... apparently they were chewy and he liked that.

Here is the part where he found that if he went under the bench where i was sitting it could be his own personal cave.

here he is fighting off another penguin from his cave.

and again getting another one out.

I was lucky enough to get a video of him "fighting" one out from under my legs. although it cuts short ghost rider does win.

And finally here he is just protecting his cave.

In the end it was the greatest birthday present ever. It was an early one from my wife. I love her so much i mean she went into a freezing cold room so i could watch penguins like a small child would want to do. I am the luckiest guy in the world.

Run Like A Girl

The "Pink Series" had its Run Like A Girl 10k in LOGAN this weekend. Also this weekend was my sister Jill's 29th birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY SISTA. Jill is a runner so this was the perfect family get together to celebrate. This was a first for all of us but Jill. And all of us went into this with high aspiration and goals of training, which none of us met successfully. It's hard for my sisters with all of their kids and all that family stuff going on to jump into this running a lot thing. And it is hard for me because I have...... so many things I would rather be doing that this running a lot thing. But all of us did pretty darn good! 

The Hustons stayed at HOTEL ROBERTSON and Friday night before the race HOTEL ROBERTSON served doughnuts. Lisa and I made sure to wear our headbands so that eating doughnuts could count as part of our training. 

(yes that is grace jumping in the background.) 

Early the next morning... and I mean early... we all met up at the hotel where the rest of my family was staying to catch the bus and be taken a little over six miles away so that we could be dropped off and then run right back to where we started. :)

(yep you called it, pink sweat band totally my idea, THANK YOU all for being so good about wearing them but i mean come on... we look awesome just like i said we would right?)

We started at the mouth of Logan Canyon and we had to wait for a long time (it was freezing) in a tunnel. So here is our pre run huddle. 

it was dark and its hard to see in these pictures but here they are, my best friends, my mom and all my sisters. I love it when we are all together. Even if we are all together in a tunnel at 6 in the morning and it's cold. 

Jill finished 4th place over all and 1st in her age group. Yeah she's pretty cool.The rest of us also crossed the finish line! Yeah we are pretty cool too. Best Part? Parker being at the finish line. Try being the youngest of 4 sisters that are all married and try to not feel like the  (much loved) 11th wheel at family functions. It was great to finish it up and have someone waiting there specifically for me.

(please note the stack of cookies in sarahs hand. sarah, you are the best)

This was our first girl race.. and I don't think it will be the last. It was a lot of fun. Who knows maybe next time I'll even run a little bit before... you never know. 

Beside the race we did other fun stuff too. Went swimming at the hotel, played at the park, the girls went out to Olive Garden and my whole family got to see mine and Parker's apartment.

It really doesn't feel small when it's just Parker and me... but squeeze in a big family like this one and there is not a lot of elbow room. Thanks to some camping chairs given to me but some pretty sweet London girls (thanks nikki and sarah) we were able to add some extra seating, and it was fun to have them all here. 

 Pretty sweet weekend, ran like a girl and loved it. 

So Darn Domestic

we  made jam

with a little help from our friend 

and it turned out pretty good