House O' Sullivans

Several months ago I challenged my sister, Mary, to get off the couch and run a half-marathon with me. She didn't disappoint, even though she'd only trained up to a 3 mile run. I'm still amazed by that incidental fact.  The race (Drop 13) starts near Solitude up Big Cottonwood Canyon and we'd hatched an epic plan to stay the night before at the Silver Fork Lodge, just a few blocks form the starting line, thus avoiding ridiculously early wake up times, obnoxious busing up the canyon, and freezing at the starting line for hours. The night before we leisurely dined at on of our favorite restaurants, the Kathmandu, then ditched Mary's car at the finish line. From there, we put our things on our backs and walked a couple of miles to the mouth of Big Cottonwood Canyon and proceeded to hitch-hike up to the lodge. Give it up for the Cottonwood High School girl's basketball team for giving the ladies a ride. Three middle-aged women must have looked intimidating beca...

One of our favorite family summer traditions is attending free concerts at local parks.  Every Monday night in July and August, Liberty Park hosts international musicians in front of the Chase Home Museum.  Last Monday was the first of the year.  We invited the Miners to join us for a romp through the water features, a potluck picnic, and the concert.   Kim, Izzy, and Joseph, staging for the concert Zeke and Hal, enjoying the ambiance. Last Monday's fare was a Cambodian dance troupe, performing traditional dances that were over 2,000 years old, followed by these energetic Japanese taiko drummers.  We loved it! Watching the taiko drummers with rapt attention. Soph. Wednesday morning, Casey and I drove up to our stake's girl's camp above Francis on the south fork of the Provo River.  Ilean and Kay benevolently agreed to watch the kids so that we could stay overnight and I could be there for two days.  Normally I do the over-ni...