Twenty-Nine Things

If you've followed our blog, you may have noticed that several years ago I started trying to do one new thing for each year of my age. It's just a fun way to make sure that I continue to grow each year and see new things. This is my last week to be twenty-nine, so here is a list of what this year of life has brought me:

1. Ran my first marathon
2. Saw a baby elephant nursing with its mother
3. Heard Beethoven's 5th Live
4. Went Snorkeling off the coast of St. Thomas
5. Made my first cheesecake
6. Mastered the one-handed egg crack
7. Tried out new hikes to Doughnut Falls, Hidden Falls, and Cecret Lake
8. Ate Sudanese Food
9. Drove a rental car
10. Learned how to thread my own sewing machine and made bean bags and pajama pants
11. Flew International with a child
12. Finally read "A Christmas Carol"
13. Visited new Salt Lake City landmarks: Red Butte Garden, Utah Museum of Fine Arts, and Discovery Gateway
14. Ate Somali Food
15. Started doing Zumba dance classes
16. Saw monkeys in the wild
17. Swam in an underground cenote
18.Went to a Big Bad Voodoo Daddy concert
19. Went to Holi Festival
20. Shared my adoption story with high school students
21. Went to an Estate sale
22. Ate Conch
23. Watched a butterfly emerge from its chrysalis
24. Improved my knitting by learning how to increase, decrease, and purl stitch
25. Went to Coba
26. Toured through caves in the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico
27. Painted my own pottery
28. Went to Ogden's Treehouse Museum
29. Ran the famous Canyonlands Half-Marathon and beat my previous half-marathon time by a full 25 minutes.

Alright, so now it's your turn to help me out. As I approach the big 3-0 I'd love to hear your ideas for things to try this next year!

Cecret Lake

Last week, we had a fun hike to Cecret Lake, up near Alta ski resort. Persy loved scampering across the rocks near the lake and watching the many chipmunks. She is my little adventure girl!

Sitting near her friend Ethan

The scenery was incredible and the trail was surrounded by summer wild flowers. This picture doesn't do it justice!

Beat the Heat

We've had a wonderful summer! There has been a lot of hiking, gardening, swimming, exploring, and playing. We also had several super hot days this summer filled with art projects, reading and science experiments. I had 42 activities I wanted to do with Persy this summer, and we completed 37 of them! Whew. Here's just a sample of what we've done:

Painting with Water- Persy loved watching the lines disappear in the hot sun.

Squishing Bag and then painting with it- Persy was bothered by the texture. The green food coloring might have grossed her out too.

Indoor 2 Litre Bowling - a huge hit that we'll do again this winter.

Big Girl Bed

After just one rough night, we've transitioned to the Toddler Bed. Persy seems to love having the "Big Girl Bed" in her room, but then every night she climbs out and sleeps on the floor. Not sure why.


This is how we find her after each nap and each morning. I never hear a "thump" or a cry, so I'm pretty sure she is climbing out and preferring to sleep on the floor. Puzzling. I wish she had told us her preference for "roughin' it" before we bought her the bed. We could have saved some cash! :)

St. George

We had a blast last month in St.George with extended family. Persephone had a wonderful time playing with her older cousins and I had a delightful time seeing several productions at the Utah Shakespeare Festival and also Tarzan at the Tuacahn. It was pretty much an ideal vacation to suit both our interests and I'm thankful to all the extra help that I got from the grandparents and cousins.Lots of Swimming

Snail Collecting

Cousins