The ridiculously belated summer wrap up post

Seriously, ridiculous.

In spite of the lack of blogging activity, we had a fantastic summer! That is probably why there wasn't much blogging going on - we were too busy having a great time. But I need this now for my records - don't worry that it's Thanksgiving next week.... :)

Although there were no fantastical vacations or family reunions (again... dang cancer), we had a blast taking it easy and spending lots of time together. We really enjoyed the little things this summer -

picnics in the backyard

Eric not having any summer classes

going to the splash pad

trying new recipes every week

working in the garden together

taking drives up the canyon

roasting hot dogs and s'mores

dreaming up and planning a future house

watching every firework show we could get within range of

enjoying visits from family

and watching our girls be their silly, sweet selves.

Reveling in simple pleasures really was the theme of our summer this year. It was wonderful. Eric and I commented several times to each other as summer was coming to a close how peaceful and relaxing it had been for the most part. Boy, not having school in the mix sure does change things!

Here are a few snippets from our Summer that didn't get caught in previous posts:

Picnics in the backyard

We took every opportunity to grill outside or just to take our meal cooked inside to the backyard. Thanks to our hard working landlords, we have the most beautiful, peaceful backyard. It was wonderful to go outside after the heat of the day, have dinner, and let the girls play around.

The CureSearch Walk

This happened all the way back at the beginning of July, but I can't let it pass by without making mention of it. Eric and I were on the walk committee and I'm pretty sure we are still tired from all of the preparations. :) But it turned out absolutely wonderful and exceeded many people's expectations. Our Salt Lake City Walk raised over $72,000. There were over 4,000 people in attendance, as well - a great number for an inaugural walk that almost no one knew anything about starting out. Between Eric's "Greengo" team and our "Team Elena", we raised a little over $2,000! A huge thank you to everyone who donated and supported us! This cause means so much to us and we can't tell you how worthwhile your donation is and how much it means to us. THANK YOU!! It was so great to have found our "niche" and a cause we are 110% behind. We are enjoying the little rest from planning :), but are really excited for next year's walk as well. We hope this grows and grows and grows and becomes as well known as some of the other "big" walks (like the Race For The Cure, etc.).

**Thanks to Amy and Penelope for the pics! I forgot my camera.... as usual. :) Some of the pics are a little blurry/glowy because there was a fingerprint on the lens. Please excuse.

A small sampling of some of the many fighters in Utah

Lily clapping for herself when they recognized siblings of the cancer kids :)

Elena's awesome wishgranter, Kent, came!

Look at all the people! There really were a ton of people walking - such a beautiful sight.

China

So, way back in June I mentioned that Eric had returned home from a three week engineering study abroad to China. A group of about 30 engineering students from BYU went to study the buildings, bridges, transportation systems, and other structures in China. As Eric's professors put it: China is like engineering on steroids. Many of the tallest buildings, highest and longest bridges, fastest trains, etc. are found there. I sat in and followed along with a lot of Eric's pre-study abroad China studying/projects and I have to say, there really is a lot of fascinating, impressive stuff there. And I'm pretty sure Eric and I can both tell you anything you ever wanted to know (and a lot you didn't) about the Yichang Bridge, 2IFC, the Hong Kong Convention Center, or the history of the E-Bike in China. :)

Eric had a fantastic time - it was a once in a lifetime trip! They went all over China - Beijing, Tianjin, Yichang, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Hong Kong. I can't remember exactly now, but besides the flights to and from China, I think they had something like five flights just within China! They did it all - they saw everything Civil Engineers could possibly want to see, visited and presented at a couple of universities, rode planes, trains, buses, boats, and walked their feet off, and saw every cool tourist-y thing you can think of. There are a million things that could be said about the trip, I'm sure, but I'm not even the one who went, so I'll just let these pictures do the rest of the talking.

A few of the MANY sights

In Beijing

Eric said that all the Chinese people were fascinated by them and kept coming up and asking if they could get their pictures taken with them. :)

Eric and some of his group on the Great Wall

Not sure what they're doing here.... :)

Yichang was their next stop- Eric loved Yichang! He said is was beyond gorgeous and it was such a stark contrast to the hustle and bustle of ginormous Beijing.

The Yichang Bridge - here is proof that it actually exists. :) When Eric was doing research for his project on this bridge, we couldn't find ANYTHING on it. But his professors assured him that it did actually exist.

Eric and the group in Yichang

I think this was in Tianjin - here is Eric presenting at the first university they visited.

The BYU group with their Chinese student partners at the university in Shanghai.

They saw a super cool acrobat show in Shanghai. Shanghai has quite the night life, apparently. That and people whispering in your ear to "Come get massage from pretty Chinese girls. They treat you nice." Crazy!

Walking over a very large bridge

Eric and his bud, Ryan

In Guangzhou, they got to tour a factory. To prep for the trip, everyone had to read the book, The China Price: The True Cost of Chinese Competitive Advantage. Eric and I read it together. It was very interesting. While we didn't agree with every point presented in the book, it certainly did teach us some new things and open our eyes. You see "made in China" on just about everything, but few people realize what that actually means- some good things, some bad. I was very interested to get Eric's report and pictures from the tour after what we'd read.

A girl's dormitory (room and board is part of the pay at many factories). Those beds aren't missing mattresses - that is what they are given to sleep on.

Women at work

The last leg of the trip was spent in Hong Kong. Eric really enjoyed Hong Kong - he said it was quite pretty and such a breath of fresh air leaving communist China. He said he didn't really realize the difference until he was out of it (censorship, seeing labeled church buildings, etc.).

(Pictures courtesy of Eric's various engineering buddies)

"New Recipe Sunday"

We started a new tradition this summer without realizing that we'd started a tradition until the end of summer, which we affectionately dubbed "New Recipe Sunday". In keeping with our low-key, quiet summer (and also because of Elena's low counts...), we stayed home for Sunday dinner. Eric and I hunted down a new recipe each week and cooked it together. Yummy food and a cooking buddy - a win-win situation for me! :)

Chicken and Strawberry Salad with Toasted Baguettes and Cheese - mmmmm. So simple. So light. So good. And also very summery. So try it out next summer. Or anytime if you live in a hot climate. :) Go here for the salad recipe and here for the baguettes.

(photo from Cooking Light)

Chipotle Flank Steak Tacos with Pineapple Salsa - Mmm Hmm. That's what I'm talking about. Eric handled the grilling of the flank steak and I handled the pineapple-pepper salsa and this one was a cinch. Go here for the recipe.

Purple Potato Crusted Tilapia - Not every recipe was a success. (That would have been amazing!) One Sunday we had fresh purple potatoes and carrots from the garden. We found this recipe on the Food Network and thought it would be perfect. Blegh. I love fish and I love potatoes, but this was just plain gross. The potatoes didn't "crust", there were way too many spices, and it was super oily. But, as Nacho says, you can't win 'em all! :) I'm not giving you this recipe because it was sick.

Latin Grilled Pork Chops with Fire Roasted Tomato-Corn Salsa and Black Beans - Love a duck. These were as amazing as the name sounds. Maybe more amazing. I highly recommend you give this one a try when it's grilling season again. Go here for the recipe (there's no written recipe, it's a video).

Working on plans for our future house (like way in the future... this isn't an announcement or anything.)

We went on a family date at the end of July to the Home Depot (that's an impromptu date where you take your kids along and buy them Pringles from the checkout stand to keep them munching quietly while you and your husband window shop:)) and browsed the aisles for design ideas. I found some delightful tile trim for our future bathroom to match the "beach house" theme of our future house: Cedar shake shingles and wood posts on the facade (I'm thinking dark grey and white for the facade colors) and white and a sandy khaki color with light, turquios-y, sea blue accents throughout the inside. And lots of windows - light everywhere. Ahhh, doesn't that feel relaxing just imagining that?

We also picked up this lovely book:

Someday when Eric has a good job that we know we want to settle down with, Eric is going to build our house. It is our dream to buy a big piece of land and make our own little paradise. We have plenty of dreams and schemes between the two of us and the nice thing about having a structural engineer for a husband who spent several summers building cabins and buildings is that he can take care of all the technical stuff. Our dream house plan isn't going to be found in any book, but this particular house plan book has provided us with hours and hours of brainstorming and idea-finding. I think we spent every evening after the girls went to bed in the month of August pouring over this book and discussing and sketching and bookmarking. Sometimes we get discouraged at how far away buying a piece of land and building a house is, but we've found that we can work on the design now and do something productive while we wait. There is so much design to be done - the outside, the floor plan, all the inside, the landscaping, and Eric would add - the elaborate underground salt water tank filtration and wiring set-up. :) We have plenty to keep us busy.

Visits with family

In August my brother, Dallin, graduated from boot camp in California. On the way back up to Washington for his leave, everyone stopped here for a few days of fun. We had a ball roasting hot dogs and s'mores up the canyon, exploring Hill Air Force Museum, eating lunch at Tucanos, and using a sweet Groupon for mini-golf.

Granpappy and Aunt Channie being airplanes with Elena

Our computer is possessed and it randomly deleted a bunch of picture from the weekend. Grrr... I had some super cool ones of Dallin, the new Marine at the Air Force Museum. :( Boo. But, anyways... they were neat and we are so proud of Dallin!

The grandkids pretending like they are super important on the stage in the museum. :)

Mini-golfing

Grammie, Elena, Aunt Samantha, McKenzie in a stroller, Uncle Dallin, and Aunt Channie

(Mom, if you have any more pictures of the weekend, I'd love copies!)

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Three cheers for a wonderful summer 2011! This one far exceeded our expectations - we can only imagine how wonderful summer 2012 will be with all the GREAT milestones we will have reached.

And now, back to Thanksgiving... :)