Savoring the Last Few Weeks of Summer

Hello dear friends and family,
This last few week has been a good one for Oliver and me. We're starting to realize we only have a few short weeks before the leisure of summer ends and we return to the every day (sometimes) drag of school. However, we're excited to get back to Provo and see friends and family (in addition to having more people our age to hang out with).

This was my last week working with the YES Corps. However, next week I'll be helping with the "I-care" camp which involves working with kids from the age of 5-11 years old. That will be an adventure.

About 2 weeks ago there was a small and harmless spill at the division where Oliver works. Of course they shut down the entire division and no one can perform any work with chemicals whatsoever until every safety procedure is reviewed and tested. This means that about 400 very expensive employees have now been twiddling their thumbs at work not being able to do anything. It's especially frustrating for Oliver who needs to get results to his various tests before we leave here in 2 1/2 weeks. We're hoping the ban is lifted soon.

On Friday we were graced by Katie and Heather with her two very active kids. It was great to see them and Oliver made his famous "Pastel de chocolo" (A chilean dish), which is my favorite! It's made up of ground beef, chicken, olives, raisins, and a corn topping. It was delicious!!! We then took Katie and Heather to the overlook. I've posted picture of it below.

Saturday was a busy day! Los Alamos had their annual parade at 10:00 and Oliver (who is becoming a fantastic cook!) made some banana walnut pancakes and surprised me with them when I got home from my aerobics class. We then ate pancakes and watched the parade from our front lawn. I have to admit however, West Jordan must have spectacular parades because this one in comparison was kind of lame. It only lasted about 15-20 minutes and there weren't any floats. However, it was fun all the same.

Later that day we went to the fair which had a huge arts and crafts section. There were local jewelers and other artists selling their crafts. I bought some earrings shaped out of a yellow stoplight. We also purchased some home made apple-cinnamon jam and enchilada sauce.

After the fair we decided to make use of our last day pass to Bandeleir National Park. Upon our arrival we gave the receipt that had been sticking to our windshield all week to the park guard, but we realized that all the ink had completely worn off during the week, and he had a hard time believing that we had just come the week before. Luckily, he let us in we got there just in time to hike the 3 mile round trip to a waterfall. It was beautiful, but we couldn't stay there long for fear of getting stuck in the park since it closed at 7:00PM.

We finished off the day by going to the local diner for dinner. We were both appalled when we asked for shakes, and they told us they didn't carry any! What diner doesn't serve shakes? Isn't that the definition of a diner!? Anyways, we settled for country friend steak and banana cream pie instead.

That evening we went home and were resting up when around 10:00PM our neighbor knocked on our door. He had gone out for a smoke break and locked himself out. We tried to get a hold of the manager, but she didn't answer and so Oliver tried to use some floss and an electrical cord to jimmy the door open. It wouldn't budge, but luckily the manager finally answered her phone so the guy didn't have to sleep on our couch.