Overhaul

You may have noticed that my blog looks different.  It's been needing a change for quite a while now.  I made that Vegas-like Scott family blog for a class, and never really meant for it to be a permanent fixture on my blog.  But the look isn't all that's changed.

I started this blog about four years ago, which seems like about four lifetimes ago by now.  If you can think back to 2006, you may remember that in those times everyone and their dog didn't have a blog.  A friend of mine shared with me a link to a blog--the first that I had read--of a guy in our ward.  It was funny.  He came up with the most random things to write about, and then he'd get like 37 comments on each post...and each comment was funny.

Well, as I was reading this blog, the thought hit, "Hey, I'm funny too!  I think I could make a blog at least as funny as this one."  And thus began the Critique of Pure Reasons.  (And I'm sure you all recognized that title as a play on Immanuel Kant's famous work The Critique of Pure Reason...or am I the only one whose father is really into German philosophers?)  Anyway, the idea was to write funny things in the form of a top 10 list.  Well, if you scroll through my archive, you can see that I ran out of funny topics somewhere in 2007.  So I've been trying to think of a new title for my blog since then...to no avail.  Blog titles are tough!!  I mean, do I make it a "family" blog, because I'll be honest, this is MY blog.  I'm the author and star.  Justin and Colton are main characters, but it is definitely the world as I see it.  I literally couldn't sleep the other night because I couldn't stop trying to think of a name for my blog.  I know.  I'm crazy.  Anyway, I finally just decided on a new title and made the switch.  I'm pretty sure I like it.

And even though I've given up my quest to entertain the world and rack up 37 comments per post (although it is still kind of my dream), hopefully there is still a laugh every now and then as you "glimpse into our happy little life."

Dr. J's Death March of Fun (a.k.a. The Subway)

I love family vacations.  Growing up, our family vacations usually consisted of either a beach or poolside destination--most often, St. George.  Activities usually alternate between swimming (and by swimming, I mean lying next to the pool), watching movies, and playing games--and eating way too much.  I'm not going to lie.  Our vacations are usually not very active.  In fact, they are deliciously inactive.  Despite our proximity to Zion National Park and my dad's love of "beauty," his desires to get out and see some of it are usually ignored as we head to the pool.

This year, Justin decided to take matters into his own (very active) hands, and took a small group of us (Me, Emily, Dan, and Margaret) canyoneering down "The Subway."  It was a small group because some people had to stay behind to babysit, and some apparently only go "hiking" if it's on horseback.  

We had an amazing time.  Justin and Margaret in particular came much closer together through this experience.  Let's just say that in a tricky maneuver climbing down a tree, Margaret sat on Justin.  And let's also say that it's a good thing that Justin turned his head at the last second so that she straddled is shoulder instead of his face...  We now like to refer to this as Margaret and Justin's cheer-leading move. I almost peed my pants.  It was really that funny.

Anyway, I had to officially document the Durham's getting active on vacation.  The pictures were taken with a disposable under-water camera, so they aren't the best quality...but you can use your imagination.

This is technically the last picture taken when we finally found the trail marker to get out of the canyon.  (The hike out of the canyon is really long.  Some might even call it a death march...)  We were really happy. Really.

We just stopped for a casual rest along the way.

I look like a total girl in this picture, but that water was seriously cold!!

Now can you tell why this canyon is called "the subway'?  In the distance, you can kind of see (from left to right) Margaret, Emily, Dan, Me.

This was the part when we saw the angel.

There was a lot of swimming...in really cold, murky water.

We posed like this together to show that we are sporty and in love.

I soooooo wish that you could see Margaret's facial expression in this picture.  This was the first swim...and the water was shockingly cold.  Her look was priceless.

Those are two wild and crazy guys!

Blondies

Despite the fact that these three boys live as spread out across the country as possible (VA, UT, HI), I see no reason why these little blonde cuties can't be best friends.  Isn't it great that three sisters can have three little boys all the same age?

And isn't it also great that a brown-headed girl like me can belong to two cute blonde-headed boys like these?  I think so.

Going in for the kiss

Colton's reaction to seeing himself in the mirror:

He's so darn cute, he can't even resist himself.  At what point in life do we stop wanting to kiss ourselves when we see ourselves in the mirror?

Surprise!

I really wasn't going to throw Justin a party.  He's not the kind of guy who wants a party.  I mean, I'm the kind of girl that wants a party and lots of recognition on my birthday (November 30th hint, hint), but Justin has always been pretty low-key about his birthday.  When I found out his parents would be flying in the Saturday after his birthday (September 2) thereby providing the perfect excuse to get him out of the house, how could I not throw a surprise 30th birthday party?  It was a small affair, and one that I know I forgot to invite many people to attend.  (Do you know how hard it is to come up with a guest list without being able to brainstorm with someone else?)  Anyway, to those I forgot to invite, I'm very sorry!

But it was really a huge success.  The only hitch was that they got back from the airport WAY sooner than anticipated.  People were supposed to show up at 6:30, and I got the text from Barbara (Justin's mom) at 6:10 that they were ten minutes away.  Yikes!  She did a great job stalling.  She told Justin that she'd been craving Dairy Queen all day.  Too bad the good folks at DQ are so efficient because I got a text at 6:25 saying that they were on their way home.  That's when Justin's sister Cortney (just arrived from NY) helped out by calling them and telling them they had to go back to DQ to get her a blizzard as well.  Two trips to DQ later, and we'd made it long enough to have a nice group of people at the house to surprise him when he arrived.  Too bad I forgot to get out my camera (or take any pictures at all), but I can assure you that my 30-year-old hubby was completely surprised!  I suppose the decor pictures I made for the event will have to do for this blog post.