Friday Flashbacks - National Parks Edition

This is my family circa 1983 about to embark on the kind of adventure where you load up four kids in a motor home and spend a few weeks driving around the western United States visiting National Parks and (hopefully) you don't lose any kids and no one kills each other. We look super prepared - I hope we have some shoes packed in the motor home somewhere, and a shirt for Tim. I know I saw a lot of great sites on these annual trips, but to be honest, I don't remember much about them. I remember an appreciation for the beauty of our country. We always hit up Zion and Bryce and Yellowstone. We went to the Grand Canyon and the Petrified Forest and Glacier National Park. I remember being amazed by the Northern Lights. I remember heating up soup out of a can on the stove in the motor home.

I posted this picture instead of one of the gazillion view shots my dad took because of the memory I do have of riding in the back of that motor home with my three siblings and spending HOURS pumping our arms up and down out of the back window trying to get truckers to honk. They almost always did, I guess we were too cute for them to ignore.

Nixon and Easton (Sara in her younger days too) love to wildly pump their arm in an (often vain) attempt to get truckers to honk their horns. Are truckers less friendly today? Where did my children learn to do that? I don't ever remember showing them that. I don't remember anyone showing me that as a kid either, but I sure thought it was fun!

We're so lucky to live in Utah - this state has incredible landscapes and fantastic recreation opportunities. My poor husband grew up here and his parents exposed him to very little of it. I saw more of Utah as a child then he did, so we work hard to take advantage of as much of the outdoors as we can. I wonder if my kids will remember specific trips and happenings or just remember that we loved to be outside. Here's some photos to help them remember how much fun we have had enjoying the sights and the company!

Zion National Park

Bryce Canyon National Park

Bear Lake

Lake Powell

Moab

Provo Canyon
Unitah Mountains

Friday Flashbacks - Let's Go Ride A Bike Edition

In honor of the greatest time of the year in Park City - it is warm enough for bike riding!

Jennifer - 1980

Geoffrey - sometime in the 1970's

Sara - 1995

Easton and Nixon - 2007

“There are no grades of vanity, there are only grades of ability in concealing it” -Mark Twain

How vanity gets in the way of me being in shape:

Exhibit One:

In December I signed up for a triathlon. A few weeks later, I decided to switch up my gym routine by biking AND running on the same day. I biked 10 miles and then rushed over to the treadmill and started running. After one minute, I had run a whole .1 miles and every breath sounded like a desperate gasp for life. After one and half minutes, a woman got on the treadmill next to me. Still gasping for my life, I could not focus on anything except my intense worry that she would glance over to see how far/long I had been running to be working so hard. I was so torn by my internal struggle of whether or not I should tell her I had biked first and was not this out of breath from 1 minute of running that I finally just gave up and decided to go home instead.

Exhibit Two:

There are a lot of things about this triathlon that should worry me. I cannot swim a freestyle stroke without dislocating my shoulder, so my wimpy adaptive swim style is weak. I enjoy biking, but often lose focus while I am out with the boys and end up swerving into their paths and/or bikes, usually resulting in my falling over. Now I expect to bike with a group of people? I hate to run. However, the thing I am most concerned about is what I will look like during all of this, more specifically, what I will be wearing, what I am doing with my hair, you know - the important stuff. Also my only goal for the race besides finishing? Not having anyone over 300 lbs. finish before me. Set your goals high kids.

Exhibit Three:

My training partner and I went shopping for swimsuits on Saturday. See Exhibit Two for why this is so important. We went to two stores that had suits and five or six really cute consignment/gift/vintage stores that we saw while we driving in between those two sporting good stores. It was a super fun day, but no suit has been purchased yet!

I'm not sure how the whole tri thing is going to turn out for me, but I do foresee plenty of laughable moments. As the French philosopher/author Henri Bergson said: "The only cure for vanity is laughter, and the only fault that is laughable is vanity."

Friday Flashbacks - Wish I Was There Edition

We had a beautiful day in Park City - I think we might have even hit 60 degrees! I ran around all day in a skirt with bare legs and no coat. Why did that make me miss Disneyland so much today? There are some pretty fond memories from Disney from my childhood, but FOR SURE the tug on my heart is from all the fun times I had hanging out with my buddies - Sara, Nixon, and Easton. I could have months of Flashback Fridays and not post all of my favorite Disney pictures!

1987 with Kathy Hardin

2002 - That's right, a World Series celebration!

2004 - First Tower of Terror Ride

2000 ish? Geoffrey surprised us by coming home early from work, loading up the car and off we went for 3 glorious days of Disney hotels and parks. Best vacation ever!

Friday Flashbacks - Bad Hair Edition

We're having too much fun on Spring Break for blogging. So far we've experienced 3 feet of snow, serious powder skiing, snowman making, driveway shoveling, temple trips, air soft wars, the least amount of homework possible, and hanging with friends! Now for the bad hair ...

Jennifer 1980 - Easily the worst hair years of my life.

The Barber Family - 1986. I'm not trying to say any of these cute girls have bad hair, but check out the crooked, too tall flat top on Geoffrey!

Friday Flashbacks - Wedding Bells are Ringing Edition

Geoffrey and Jennifer (and Sara running in the background) - 1995:

?, Carol and Greg Barber, ?, Margery and Larry Cozzens, Phyliss and Lowell Barber - 1971:

(Love both of the Mom's big hair!)

Jerry and Karen Markin - 1970: