Counting down the days...

One of the terrific people who trusts me to clean his/her teeth 

is a happy, optimistic man 

who is approaching the age of retirement 

(though you'd never guess it.)

 Most people I get to visit with who are nearing retirement 

are excited at the prospect 

and are counting down the days, weeks, or months. 

When I asked about his retirement plans, 

his response surprised me. 

Counting down the days 

is not in the plans for this awesome guy. 

Not that he's planning on working forever, 

 he just wants to live today to it's fullest.

 Counting down the days would distract him 

from enjoying what today holds. 

He says he'll think about retirement when the time comes.

How smart is that!

I've heard Thomas S. Monson call it

"finding joy in the journey" and "living in the present."

We have a lot of "counting down the days"

 opportunities in our family right now.

There's

counting down the days till we get to have Zac back with us, 

counting the days we'll all be together 

before Hunter heads off to Timbuktu 

(New Hampshire), 

counting down the days till vacations

and parties

and reunions

and the temple

and homecomings

and farewells.

So many counting down the days!!

I'm really trying not to count down the days. 

(It's harder than it sounds!)

I'm trying to follow my friend's wisdom and enjoy what today holds!

I gotta tell ya though...

the green grass of summer

with it's accompanying 

 evenings devoid of the scene above is calling my name...

with a bullhorn! 

;)

Big-eyed salamanders...

This was the second little hike we got to do before school began
 when we took off to go play in the woods.

A few years ago, Zac's friend hiked to Cecret Lake
and her pictures looked so fabulous I put the hike on our bucket list.

This hike had a little of most everything we love,

bouldering, 

 

rocky trails,

 water,

and much to Hunter's delight, salamanders!

Hunter loves salamanders and has since 1st grade.

He's caught frogs, lizards, and snakes
but hasn't ever had a chance to catch a salamander. 

When he heard there were salamanders in Cecret Lake he was pretty excited!

He's a patient guy and just kept working to get the little critters to swim toward the surface 

and the next thing we knew he had one. 

What a cute big-eyed critter!

We took a detour on the way down to look at a waterfall Hunter found - cool!

Our girlie loves big dandelions
and took this picture as the sun was setting and the moon was rising.

We made some good summer memories to tide us over the upcoming homework filled months.   :)

The friendly month of August...

We've had the best luck with family and friends coming to visit this summer!!!  :)

In August the Temus Family stopped by...

with Alex just barely back from his mission to Romania...

 on their way home from the most recent leg 

of their Continental Divide Trail bike tour. 

Alex recalled that when he was last at our house, 

three years ago, our counters were stacked full of yummy peaches. 

We hadn't picked the peaches yet

but just a few weeks later
Alex stopped by on his way to college 

and we loaded him up.    

Good luck at school Alex, see you soon. 

:)

Footwear and a flick...

One of our upcoming summer activities the twigs are most anticipating is "Trek." We felt the need, after seeing pictures of handcarts plunking down steep river rock covered trails, to get the twigs some appropriate footwear now and start breaking them in.

The twigs have some relatives who would get a smile out of this picture. One of them worked at REI for a time and said REI stood for "Reinvest Employee Income."     :) 

I suggested that our girlie send a picture of her new boots to her Aunt Marti and daughters. The girlie rockin' these boots would bring a smile to their faces just as quickly as a pic of the girlie in a gorgeous prom dress.      :)

After the favorite footwear was chosen, we headed up the canyon to watch a wild ski movie. Wow, I love this beautiful world!