4th of July '09

I neglected to post about the 4th of July. It was such a blast, spent in Huntsville with the Buttars fam. I absolutely adore the Buttars family, and I love their hometown of Huntsville, aka paradise, so I couldn't have asked for a better 4th of July. Our dear friends Holly & Aaron Gough joined us with their cute kids. It was so much fun.

Volleyball:




Rhett & his brother Wyatt:


Dallin came down from Logan - love you Dall! Miss you.

The gorgeous Gough family:



Kohyn's self-portrait which I found days later on the camera :)


Rhett & his bro Nathan:


My darling sister-in-law Olivia w/a sleeping Asher:


Close-up. How does he sleep like that?



Olivia and I having an intellectual conversation on the tube.

We're so deep.



And the finale of our day: fireworks from the lake.

I love the reflection of the fireworks on the water.

Happy 4th of July!

happy birthday handsome.

Yesterday was Rhett's birthday!

We celebrated tonight with dinner at Fleming's. There's a little candle burning on that dessert plate, see? They melted the candle right onto the plate. I thought it was cute.

And for Rhett's birthday, I wanted to highlight some of his sexiest moments. (Please, read on. I swear I won't make you barf.)

I love it when you make me breakfast in the morning.

And I love how you always try to prove that you can crack the eggs with one hand.

I love how intelligent you look in glasses. And I love how much you love your dad.

I love that you always slay the spiders for me.

I love how you danced with your Grandma at your brother's wedding. She had the time of her life.

I love you as a one-handed pyramid base.

I love how much you love your family.

I love how other people's kids always love you. I know you'll be a great dad someday.

I love the dimple on your right cheek.

I love how much you love the RhettSki.

I love that you're not too big to sit on Santa's lap with me.

I love that you pedaled the tandem bike pretty much the whole way across the Golden Gate Bridge, since I was much too distracted taking pictures to contribute.

I think your karate kid is hot.

I love you because you love me in all my nerdyness, and I love you because you're just as nerdy as me. I'm proud to have you as my man.

more fat rolls please

I cannot get over the cuteness of this puppy. She belongs to a good friend of my sister, Sarah. She's an English Bulldog named Kokany, but I like to call her Kenny for short. I have several new holes in the bottom of my jeans and puncture wounds on my ankle from her sharper-than-piranha teeth, but I still love this rolly poley chubber.

look what I found

Loooook: Documented proof that I actually DID particpate in the mandatory slip-n-sliding against my will on the celebrated day of my birth. Don't let the big fat cheeser on my face fool you. I hated e v e r y m i n u t e of it. And not because I'm some kind of fun-hating killjoy either. I'm the first to stand up and defend the coolness of a slip 'n' slide. But because I am a cold-hating, anti-cold, body-heat-loving kind of girl who doesn't like to be cold. And this was the first day of June, in the shade as the sun was setting, and I don't know if any of you remember an entire straight month of rain... It was not warm on June 1st. So I don't want any of you haters suggesting that I'm being a big baby. It's my party and I'll cry if I want to.

Stole this slip 'n' slide pic right off my sister-in-law Venessa's blog, by the way. She snapped this shot on her camera, but I thought this along with all her birthday pics were lost forever locked inside her camera at the bottom of the Snake River in Burley, Idaho. And it was!

So sad.


But they went back up there ten days later and snorkeled for it, and Eureka! Nate found it! The camera strap was wrapped around a reed or something. And this is a testimonial to the Olympus Waterproof Camera, my friends.

{{The Olympus Stylus 850 SW - there are hot deals to be had on eBay right now, I highly recommend it.}}

That thing was at the bottom of a murky muddy river for TEN DAYS and it still works perfectly, no pictures lost, no battery damage! I found this most amazing camera at Best Buy several years ago, and I've had a blast with it ever since. And I've convinced many family members that it is worth purchasing: Nate & Venessa got a cool orange one, Chance & Emily got the blue one, Nate & Angie (the Nate from the Buttars side) have the original sleek silver one. And Rhett and I just got a new blue one to boot since I "lost" ours in Park City. (I didn't lose it. I left it on the nightstand in our hotel room, but it was never "turned in" by the housekeepers. I called many times and finally gave up.)

So my bro Nate just ordered an official Olympus floater-thing to hold the camera up. Which brings me to the worst part of the whole story:

They had a keychain floater thing attached to thier camera just in case! They tried to be prepared!

But it was not enough to keep it afloat. The camera was too heavy. So now we know that it takes 2 floater keychain things OR the official Olympus-made floater. And I love saying the word floater. It just sounds gross every time.

what the google?

I went to google something today, and their google logo was this cool crazy lightning business. I like it. But is there something significant today that I don't know about that this funky design relates to? Is it the anniversary of wind energy or something? Jekyll & Hyde's birthday? I'm stumped.

I guess it's possible that they can do fun things simply for the fun of it. I'm just sending this out there to see if anyone knows the significance. I'll take your best guess.

so I like pink cupcakes.

A few birthday highlights:

They're gorgeous, aren't they? (the cupcakes, I mean)


I like to wear my birthday hat unicorn-style!
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I feel like, in this picture, I look like the wicked queen in Snow White (a stylish blonde version please) offering you an apple (cupcake).

Pink cupcakes - cherry chip to be quite specific - are all I asked for for my B-day. It's not all I got, but it's all I asked for. I also received the orange half of the yellow and orange slip n' slide, which my dear father gave to us and REQUIRED that we test it out to show him our appreciation. 8pm in the shade is not very warm, I don't care if its June. My participation is not documented. But I swear to you, it happened. Just imagine RT in the middle of the family BBQ, and that's how wonderful it was.

The twin bro:

My darling husband Rhett:

Ginger the master mind-melter, politely asking for a taste of my food:

And, in true big-brother style, here's Nate blowing out all but one of the candles. He started before the birthday song was over! You can see the disappointment written all over my face.

Maybe the rest of you have never had to share your birthday candles. But in twin-land, that's bad form.

A few choice shots of Nate breaking in the slip'n'slide:


(he's totally hogging my orange side)

the shelf life of mustard

Dear Friends,

We have a fascinating topic to discuss. As you may well know, mustard has a lengthy shelf life. Seriously, what is it? YEARS. Really. I don't think I've ever seen it go bad. Do you ever find yourself sniffing the mustard before you use it... "Honey, smell this - is it still good?" No. You don't. And so today, as I squeezed out the last unwilling splatters of mustard upon my delicious soon-to-be sandwich, I was amazed to discover that my mustard is best by JUN 11 09..... that's TODAY! What are the odds that I would use all of my mustard (which has traveled with me to two homes now - what a dear friend) on the very day that it is "best used by?" That's what I call amazing amazingness.

Yours truly,

Amazing Natalie