Since we have been back from Utah, we have been hit with some amazingly heavy monsoon storms. Every day for the past week or so, our backyard has been pretty much submerged in water. After the water goes down, Julie enjoys seeing the bark from under her roses redistributed ALL over the backyard. The thunderstorms have been crazy. Instead of the random crack once in a while, it is a steady growl of thunder. I'm just glad the kids have slept through it! It has been interesting to see all the road closures (due to there being rivers where roads used to be) and all the mud sliding everywhere. Julie went out and snapped some photos of the usually tiny Santa Cruz river by our house.
http://helquist.com/gallery/july2006
In other exciting news, I shaved all the hair off my face in time for my conference this week. Julie convinced me I should do it a couple of days early in case of a horrible tanline situation. After three plus years of hair on my chin, it is very disturbing to see myself in the mirror. I look like a deacon again. I can't wait to grow it back out again. The funny thing is I would always forget that I had shaved... until I happened across a mirror. That was always good for a shock. When I first emerged from the bathroom, Alia asked me right away where my hair went. I did wear the fu for two days and a mustache for about 4 minutes (that was all I could handle of that) but the pictures are far too odd to post online.
Lastly, Alia has now taken to referring to all of us by our sizes -- big (me), medium (Julie), little (Alia), and extra small (Ashlyn). Whenever you ask her who should do whatever or whose turn it is, Alia will say "extra small" or "little". Good thing Julie clued me into these code names or I would have been so lost.
Provo is a fun place to be on the 4th. Thanks to all for the good times. We don't have many pictures from the parade, so someone needs to post some!
PS - New pictures in our gallery... I don't know how to post the URL.
http://helquist.com/gallery/album12