OH MY STARS… AND STRIPES

The holiday started off half over—Tyler and I have been sleeping way too far in these days. It must be our too-luxurious trip to the Lake last week that put us in this rut. We had so many ambitions for this day, especially because we are venturing off and away from life tomorrow. We got no such things done, all except this one: a lovely patriotic trifle. Tyler did most of it, I just helped. He is such a genius: the store was completely out of blue jell-o (go figure) so instead he bought jell-o cups and the dessert took half the time. The night was topped off with all the finger food you could ask for at the Lynches' and a dear-to-my heart movie. . . Fantastic Mr. Fox. Now, off to pack late into the night.

POKEMON SNAP!

Jordan left his N64 at our house from last night and we decided to take full advantage. Tyler has been wanting to show me for the longest while a little game the world likes to call Pokemon Snap. Ever played? I thought I was pretty good at it, until I realized that he and his siblings had passed the whole game. Any picture I took could not compare to the amazing ones that they spent years taking. Although, and might I say how proud I am of it, I did get the best photo of Jynx. Eat it Professor Oak!

TWIN-SKIEES

Guess who has four thumbs, got a combined 2% raise, has four eyes and needs glasses to see? THESE GUYS! That's right, now we are a rich man—er woMAN…s. You get the idea. Tyler and I both got raises today, what are the odds? Pretty great if you ask me! Also, my li'l Aubrey Duncan of a sister came over to play. Tyler made a terribly delicious meal that we shared with one and all. Our neighbor upstairs came down and challenged my husband to Pokemon Stadium—Tyler conquered the Holmberg clan and all was well in the land!

TYLER, CAN I HAS A KITTY?

Tyler and I ventured to Morgan, UT for a little summer time grub with some people from my department at work. Our photographer from work invited us to dine with his family and made an succulent meal and took us on a tour of his amazing home in the middle of nowhere. They just inherited a litter of kitties that they were more than happy to pawn off. I am not much for animals, but kittens are the cutest, I think.  Only for a split second—then they grow up to be mean, ornery and a not-so people person. This little black kitty was my favorite, but alas, Tyler still said no. Yes, even to that face (but don't be too hard on him; he is allergic after all). Would you have said no?

JUNE JOCOSITY (A RECAP OF MONTH SIX)

With the exception of one minor incident halfway through, June was a month filled to the brim with nonstop fun. We enjoyed a slew of great times with lots of family and friends. Indeed, the jocosity was abundant. What's that you say? "Jocosity" is yet another word you've never heard of? If you don't know what this one means, I'm not going to tell you. Try Google for a change.

On the very first of June it was Tyler's friend, Bryan's art show in Provo. It was super rad and I almost bought some of his work, but it was too hard to choose and we already have two of his pieces hanging in our apartment. After his show we went to Burger Supreme and talked the night away.

The next week it was Tyler's little brother, Kevin's high school graduation. It was also my company's employee appreciation day and they had paid for all of us to go to Lagoon. The day before it had been the hottest day of the year, so we prepared accordingly and wore short sleeves and shorts. Well of course the next day the temperature would drop to half of what it was the day before. It was so cold they started shutting down rides, which was almost as amusing as the hordes of ninth graders who were there for their own Lagoon day. We ended up leaving even earlier than planned and made it to Kevin's graduation in plenty of time.

The speakers at the graduation, in spite of their promises to be brief, talked our ears off and made the ceremony three hours instead of the scheduled two. Afterwards we all headed to Chuck-A-Rama for some grub. We got there an hour before closing time; they told us they would be putting the food away by 9:30 but we could stay until 10. It was a mad dash for all of us to get as many plates as possible over to our table full of anything and everything that we might want to taste before it got put away. Let's just say that night Tyler and I were so full we didn't even want to touch each other.

That weekend my cousin came home from his mission; he was serving in the Marshall Islands. When he and my sister, Aubrey, were little they looked exactly alike. I took a picture of them when he left and I took one of them when he got back. He was greatly missed and still just as funny as ever.

The weekend after was the tradition of all traditions in the Lynch family: father and sons. Every summer the boys go on a camping trip and the girls go on a shopping spree.

Earlier in the week I wasn't feeling well and I was experiencing similar symptoms to my kidney infection from  February of this year. I left work early and could barely drive. My mom got me into a doctor and they said that it had not yet become a kidney infection; I had caught it early. They gave me a three day antibiotic and sent me on my merry way.

Friday was the beginning of father and sons and also the last day of my antibiotic. I met Tyler's mom, Suzanne, and sister, Nicole, at the mall. We did some shopping and then went to Sizzler for dinner. At dinner I wasn't feeling too great, but I thought it may have just been because of the week I had had.

After dinner we went to Wal-Mart to get swimsuits for everyone for a family trip later in the month. While in the store I felt like the ultimate crap, I was pale and my kidney was killing me. Suzanne offered to take me to an insta-care, but we had no luck finding one open so late. Finally she told me that she was taking me to the ER again. I protested, but realized that was probably the best solution.

We got to the ER around midnight and it was almost an exact replica of the night I spent in the ER back in February. Suzanne and Nicole kept me company and offered to call Tyler, but I didn't want him to worry or come all the way down off the mountain for them to just say that yet again it was a kidney infection. They did do a CT scan this time and found that I had cyst on my kidney that was filled with debris which was why this infection would not go away. They told me to get into a urologist and wrote me some prescriptions. After a long night we went back to the Lynch home and fell dead asleep by 3 AM. Tyler had a great time camping, but was surprised to see the hospital bracelet I had forgotten to take off.

On Father's day, Nikki's little brother, Alex, had his farewell for his mission; he was called to serve in Chile. While we were at the house for some grub, Alex played us a little ditty on the accordion he had been borrowing from my Dad. I was going to take it back, so we all demanded a performance.


Also for Father's day we made these awesome cards that I saw on pinterest for our dads, only we modified them with nail polish. Hooray for veggie bow tie pasta.

The last week in June we all traveled down to Lake Powell for the Lynch Family Reunion. Tyler's family had never been to Lake Powell and I had only been there once just last year. We left on a Friday for the long drive down. Tyler and I sat in the back of the hot suburban while Kevin, Nicole and Peter sat in front. Kevin played Who Wants To Be A Millionaire on his Gameboy the whole way down. What a crack up.

Lake Powell was such a blast. We had a super swanky house boat, two speed boats and lots of fun. I didn't really get in the water, but it was fun to get to know the Lynch side, because I haven't really gotten to know them since being in the family.

One day we went out wakeboarding. I didn't get out on the water (no surprise there), but I did take TONS of shots of the Lynch men getting their water-gliding groove on.

from left to right: Tyler, Kevin, Jeff and Peter

It should be noted here that June was also filled with many birthdays: our niece Kylee on the 1st; my sister Tiffany on the 6th; Kevin's birthday on the 7th and our other niece Olivia on the 13th. Happy birthday one and all. We love you guys!

June was busy, but it was great! We each had fun getting to know our new families a bit better and, as always, just had a blast being with each other.

MAY MERRYWEATHER (A RECAP OF MONTH FIVE)

May was very merry and the weather was quite nice too. Many things happened in May, so please, bear with me as I enlighten you with our merryweathering.

The very beginning of the month was Tyler's birthday. Why in fact, it was the very first of the month. He was very busy with finals and I was also quite busy with work things that I will explain later. I tried my hardest to make it a very special day, but we hardly even saw each other that week. So I made do.

I stayed up late the night before making a lovely display for him to wake up to. You see, his desk is in the second bedroom and that is where he studies hard core. So I knew that he would be in there early on his birthday to study for a final. I proceeded to make that lovely display deep into the night, it looked a little something like this:

The speech bubble reads (if your eyesight is that bad) 'Happy 25th! Pop us to find 25 reasons your totally awesome, hot wife loves you! Choose your weapon of choice wisely.' The three weapons were a chewed up pencil, a white thumbtack and pepper spray. I was so excited for it that I tried to wake Tyler up, but he was out cold. 

I decided to go to bed after I wrapped his presents: king sized Reeses peanut butter cups (because I always eat his); a homemade (good ol' balloon filled with flour) stress ball made with his favorite color, purple; a k'nect Mario Kart motorcycle and a present that I didn't quite have finished in time for the actually birthday, so I shall document that later once it is in his possession.  

As I mentioned before I had some work things that were going on the same week as his birthday. I was on site at our catalogue photo shoots for three days straight. They were basically in the middle of nowhere because the theme of the catalogue was Australian-outback-ish.

On the first day we were at White Rock. I had never heard of it, but it took us two and half hours to get there. We had to rent a little RV for hair and make-up and a place for changing. It was beautiful out there, but dang it was hot!

On the second day we went to Five-Mile Pass, a lovely little place that my family likes to go four-wheeling and my friends like to go jeeping. Tyler even came down for the last part of the shoot to bring Jade in for a couple of shots. She's so photogenic.

On the third day we had to wake up at 4 AM to be on location out by I-80 for some sunrise shots. Goodness me it was definitely freezing and too early. But it was a breathtaking sunrise, and I'll admit, that was worth it.

That weekend we drove down to Snow College for Aubrey's graduation and to help her move on home. We are so proud of our li'l Aubrey Duncan! She is so grown up, now with her Associate Degree and all. Speaking of an Associate Degree… my loving husbandry just graduated with his as well from SLCC and will now apply for the PA program at the U. 

The next Saturday, we were invited by Sara, Bob and my Dad to go out to Antelope Island. Sara and Bob will be moving at the end of this month and they have never been there, so they planned a little trip and invited us along. We did a little hike, then did a tiny stop in to the Visitor's Center and then had a picnic on the beach.

Funny story: while we were at the Visitor's Center for a potty break. Tyler and I were walking Duncan from the car and we noticed there was a bison statue close the entrance. We kept asking him if he wanted to see the bison, but he didn't seem to get what we were saying. As we got closer Duncan exclaimed, 'Oh! A cow!'

Once we got home from Antelope Island, Tyler and I got ready for a very special event: a barbershop quartet concert. Tyler's grandpa had been practicing with a barbershop chorus and they were putting on a show down at American Fork Middle School. It was fun to see, but it was super long. We were all a little barbershopped out by the end of the night.

The next day was Mother's Day. I had plans to surprise all of the women in the family with a handbag from my work. I told them all that there was a wicked-ly low-priced sale going on and that they should choose some things as a way to know what they would want. I took their 'orders' and then surprised them on the day of with a new purse!

That morning we went to church and then left early to go to Tyler's parents' house to Skype with his brother, Jason, who is serving in Brazil—it is crazy to think that he will be home in September. We then went to my parents' house to give everyone their gifts and then dashed back over to the Lynches' for a phone call from Tyler's other brother, Matt, who is currently serving in the Philippines. Matt is so funny; apparently he was quite the picky eater before he left. Now he has tried all sorts of things and told us all over the phone that he wasn't picky anymore. He called it a miracle!

Memorial Day weekend we went to Park City with Nikki, Spencer, my dad and Aubrey for a couple of nights. We played games, saw the sights and even got some lovely treats from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory.

That weekend we also came down for a night of Desert Star with the Lynch family and nursery on Sunday and then went back up to Park City to finish out the weekend there until Monday morning.

Monday afternoon we spring cleaned the house and finally got my ears pierced at the mall, which took forever because there was only one girl working the store and the computer wouldn't accept credit cards. That night we celebrated Tyler's dad's birthday where we all pitched in to get him an iPad.

The last week of May, you'll never guess what happened! We finally got back Franklin—Tyler's car! Oh what a glorious day that was. Of course we got it right after the semester ended, but we were happy nonetheless. I cannot tell you how many people we owe for letting us borrow their cars and bum rides off of them. Thank you, thank you, thank you to one and all for your pity and charity towards us silly Lynches.

And now I shall leave you with this lovely video of Duncan (man I am going to miss those guys):

APRIL ADVENTURES (RECAP OF MONTH FOUR)

We definitely had some adventures this month, nothing wild and crazy like Indiana Jones himself, but still enough so that the word made it into the title of this post.

Have you ever heard of the show Once Upon A Time? Tyler and I officially became hooked this month and couldn't be happier with our new ABC drama. In fact, we are as giddy as gnomes whenever it comes into our hulu queue.

General Conference was at the start of this month and it truly was a lovely bunch of coconuts. With conference weekend came Easter. I was initiated into the great Lynch family tradition of looking for your own easter basket as well as hunting for colored hard-boiled eggs that had been hid around the house. It goes from youngest to oldest, so Tyler, his dad and I definitely had our work cut out for us. Once the eggs had been found and the baskets had begun to get lighter we watched a movie the family had gotten for the occasion. 'Twas a good day.

April also brought Bijou Market; a wonderful market down in Provo full of DIY booths and kiosks with things just waiting to be snatched up. Tyler's good friend Bryan lives in Provo and we had been meaning to hang out with him for some time, so we turned it into a day of both (it also helps that Bryan is a mucho talented artist and would totally be in his element at one of these things).

I made out with some good finds: first I found a pocket watch necklace with the most intricate details; a square sketchbook with a fabric cover, hand-bound spine and deep toothed paper; a landscape (tee hee pun intended) map sketchbook that no matter which way you turn it, the map is upside down; and the perfect pair of earrings that made me want to pierce my ears just for them.

After Bijou Market, we had Bryan pick a place to eat. We had the most amazing Thai food just down the street from the market where I had the most to-die-for pineapple curry. After our curry-cravin' tummies were full, we gave Bryan a ride home. On our way to his house we were coming up on one of those silly intersections that are all over Provo that make you second guess whether or not you should stop. We didn't have a stop sign, but the perpendicular traffic did. As we neared the intersection a bus turning right from the crossing street took a VERY wide turn and almost smashed straight into us. Luckily Tyler slowed down enough that we just missed her. As she passed us, she smiled and put up her hand as if to say, 'Oops, my bad'. We died laughing the whole back to Bryan's apartment.

A couple of weeks after that it was Tyler's sister Nicole's birthday celebration. I had decided once I knew how much of a sweet discount I get at my job, that I was going to get everyone a handbag for their birthday. She really wanted a bubble gum pink one that we didn't have for very long, due to popularity. One day, we were looking through the catalogue and she mentioned that she liked another style. My office was almost out of that particular style as well. I worked my magic and managed to get them to let me have the display one in the front. Nicole's birthday was a huge success, ending with a much overdue game of Video Clue by the whole family and delicious cake made by their neighbor.

The next weekend, Tyler and I were asked to meet with the second counselor from the bishopric in our ward. He asked us if we would be willing to accept a calling in the nursery. We both said yes, of course, and cannot wait to play with kids on a weekly basis.

So, Tyler's car, it has officially been in the shop longer than we had it before the accident. Yeah, it is definitely getting to be a little ridiculous—cross your fingers that we will be getting it next month, eh?