June 2008

I don't exactly have a good reason for my blogging hiatus. Let's just say that aside from being sick most of this past month, we have also been rather busy. However, I know that's no excuse and people who update their blogs only once a month really irritate me too, so I apologize :) Let me take a minute (ok, probably more like an hour) to give a little update since my last post.

May 28, 2008 - Landon's Graduation
I know I am going to sound like a parent when I say this, but Landon graduating from high school makes me feel old! He is my little brother and I just can't believe how old he is, and how much he has matured in these past few years. I'm also going to sound so sappy when I say that I got teary eyed during the graduation ceremony! Seeing him all dressed in his graduation gown was just too much for me, I guess. But he was so proud of himself and was happy to be the center of attention all day long. He had so much support from everyone who just loves Landon. Along with the five of our immediate family, he had Grandpa Al & Susan, Aunt Diane, Skylar, Aunt Lecia, Aunt Janalee, Colton, Tami (the brave soul who brought her 3 young kids: Isaac, Caleb, Mackenzie) and most of Doug's family including Jill, James, Wes, Kensie, Mackenzie, and Brooklyn. 2 money necklaces and a diploma later we all headed to The Old Spaghetti Factory to celebrate. If you can believe it, the crowd got even bigger when Aunt Sue, Mark, and Joyce, joined us for lunch. Landon was so incredibly spoiled and showered with gifts. His loot included a cell phone, police scanner (Doug's idea, which I couldn't believe we hadn't though of up to this point in Landon's life!), engraved money clip, tickets to multiple Orem Owlz games and Owlz apparel, and a bond from G & G Johnson. It was so fun to watch Landon open his presents - needless to say he hasn't put the scanner or cell phone down 1 minute since he got them! Later that night the party continued when Doug's family had Landon over to celebrate with cake and ice cream and more presents. Aside from the Carlson's losing their keys at the McKay Events Center, everyone had a great day. Especially Landon - and that's the most important!


June 1, 2008 - Mackenzie's 13th Birthday Officially a teenager! Mackenzie turned 13 on June 3 and we celebrated with a family dinner on June 1. Doug and I decided to add her to the list of concert-goers and gave her a ticket to come with the girls to the Martina McBride concert in August. I thought I'd drop a few lines about Mackenzie, it being her birthday and all:
1. She is so patient! Had I grown up in a household with the 4 brothers she did...well, it wouldn't have gone well.
2. She is the PERFECT aunt. Her 2 nieces absolutely adore her. I promise, Kenz, one day Doug and I will give you a niece or nephew - we just haven't been in much of a hurry :) And I'm sure they'll love her too.
3. She is incredibly smart. Mackenzie is such a good student and so smart for her age. I think she'll be the Carlson child who graduates high school with high honors, college at the top of the Dean's list, and someday become a doctor who saves lives! However, if she chooses "mom" instead of "dr" she'll be great at that too! (Or perhaps, maybe a Creator...inside joke (wink, wink).

Happy Birthday Kenz!

May 31, 2008 - Landon's Horse show

My brother is really becoming quite the little jockey! We have been to quite a few of Landon's horse shows over the years, and he is getting better every time I see him ride. He always competes in a few different races. His first was, while mounted on a horse, bending over, filling up a cup of water, trotting across the arena and dumping the water in a bucket. Whoever filled up their bucket the most by the end of 5 minutes won. Landon had the best control of his horse by far, and if he hadn't gone to the other side of the arena and missed the bucket 3 times in a row (!), he would have won for sure. He took second, though, and was proud. Plus, the kid who took first cheated - he was helped by his trainer get the water and dump it in the bucket. So we say that Landon really deserved first place. His second challenge was walking, trotting, and loping his horse and proving he has control of his horse. He always does good in this one, and even though he had a horse who was absolutely not cooperating, I believe he took second in that event too. It really is amazing to see these kids get on their horses and be able to control them. All I could say is I don't think I could do half the things Landon does on his horse!




June 7, 2008 - Eagle Mountain Concert
What can I say? I'm a sucker for 90's country music. So I was really excited to hear that Little Texas, Restless Heart, and BlackHawk were coming to the Silverlake Amphitheater for Eagle Mountain City Days. I will always have a fondness for Eagle Mountain, since Doug and I lived their our first year of married life, and it was fun to drive up there and see how things are developing (they have joined the rest of the million cities in America and are building a WalMart). The concert venue they have up there is really fun too. You just take blankets and sit on the grass surrounding the stage. They always have local merchants selling the goods like funnel cakes, scones, and good old fashioned hamburgers. It is just a fun setting - and the concert wasn't half bad either! In fact, I loved it. This sounds a little pathetic, but this was my 4th time seeing BlackHawk in concert, but just my first seeing the other 2 bands. Little Texas was a tad disappointing, trying to bring in a bit of rock & roll to the twangy country concert. Know your audience people! A bunch of rednecks sitting around in cowboy hats and butt-tight jeans are not expecting electric guitars screaming anything but what sounded like their good-old country sound. But, it was still fun to hear some of their hits, even if they were jazzed up a bit too much. Unlike Little Texas, BlackHawk and Restless Heart stuck with their country roots and sounded just like I remembered them. They both have so many great songs and I loved listening to their greatest hits. Following the concert Eagle Mountain always puts on a pretty good fireworks show. However, we didn't stay to watch since the concert ended around 10:30 and the weather was bitter! Utah chose to give us a late summer, so even though it was June, it was too cold with too few blankets to stick around. This is now our 3rd time attending the concert at the Amphitheater for Eagle Mountain Days (The first year being BlackHawk solo, last year Sawyer Brown - who was awesome, and this year the trendy trio). Like our family does best, it seems we've turned this into a tradition!


June 8, 2008 - Landon's Sermon
A lot of things we have being lately revolve around Landon, hu? Well, this one had to be my favorite. He went to Youth Conference with his ward and then was asked to speak in sacrament about his experiences. This is the first time Landon has ever been asked to speak in church and I was so nervous for him. Sometimes when Landon gets in front of people, especially a large group, he gets really shy and embarrasses easily, so I was worried he might get up to the pulpit and choke. But nope, just the opposite. He did AWESOME! And if I thought I got a bit emotional at his graduation, boy was I terribly wrong. I bawled through his entire talk. I was just so proud of him! He got up and would say a line and then my dad would repeat it. However, there were a few lines Landon said that I swear everyone understood and he didn't even need my dad there to help him. Landon entitled his talk "Things I did and did NOT like about Youth Conference." Of course, he went through his likes - the dance, helpful leaders, making new friends, etc. Then he said "things I didn't like about youth conference" and when my dad repeated it so the congregation could understand everyone started laughing. Then Landon said "Getting whipped in the face with a tree branch." When my dad repeated it the congregation laughed even louder and you could just see on his face that Landon was so proud of himself for making a joke. I couldn't believe how good he did and it was so fun to watch. Good job Landon!


June 13-15, 2008 - Joe's Valley Reservoir
I was so sad to admit that mine and Doug's first camping trip of the season just happened! We love camping and have been waiting to go since April. Unfortunately, there is always so much going on surrounding the weekends, and besides that, Utah has thrown us some harsher than usual June weather. But, we finally did it. For our first camping trip of the year we decided to go somewhere neither of us had ever been. We chose Joe's Valley Reservoir in Emery county as the place. It is about 2.5 hours south east of Spanish Fork, but it was definitely worth the drive. The reservoir was absolutely beautiful and surrounded by tons of trees and great camping spots. The best part about this place is it is so far from everything, so it's really private. The whole weekend I think we saw maybe 5 cars and just a handful of people. We had a great time setting up our little camping spot - we have the best camping equipment which makes it so fun. Doug even had a new outdoor grille to set up, which made for great outdoor eating. On Saturday we spent the morning down at the reservoir trying out a little fishing. I must admit, this was my first time ever fishing - Doug made sure I was set up with my own pink pole and everything. He found a spot in a little marsh-land type thing where the fish were just jumping everywhere. I was so proud that I caught the first fish of the day. It was by no means a trophy fish, but it was my first ever, so I was happy with it. That turned out to be the only fish I caught that day, but Doug caught 4 of what are called splake fish - the most popular in this reservoir. After about a half an hour we ran out of worms before we ran out of fish! They were just squirming all over the place. Following our fishing escapade we spent the entire afternoon on our 4-wheeler. There were tons of trails surrounding the mountain, which makes for such a fun ride. I even found something I just had to take a picture of - "Carlson Lane" which I am now sporting on my blog! We spent the whole weekend without a watch, and it was so relaxing just running on our own time. Even though we spent 2 nights up there, it always seems way too quick that we are packing up and leaving. It's just not that often I get to spend the uninterrupted, quality time with my husband and I just loved it!










Check out how beautiful this place is!











Amazing what you can find in the middle of nowhere - an abandoned car and an old mine cart


June 15, 2008 - Father's Day
For Father's Day this year we spent part of the day with my extended family at my Grandpa Al's and the other part with Doug's family at his Grandma Higginsons. At both places we had great meals and opened presents. For both of our fathers we got gift certificates for 2 to the Little America brunch, which was a big hit. Who doesn't love that brunch? We are so lucky to have great fathers who contribute so much to our family. Happy Father's Day!