Math Nerd

... and finally, not math related, but specifically for Willie and Parker

That'll Do Car

On our Idaho trek over the weekend, my good little trusty Honda made it to a huge milestone in it's life . . . 200,000 miles!!!!

We reached this extraordinary mark just a few miles west of Arco, Idaho on Sunday, July 31st. We stopped and took some pictures of where we were. Molly even woke up for the occasion!

This car is the best. It's getting a little old, creaky, and rattly, but it is still hanging in there and safely driving us places that we need to go. I've had this car since it was just a teenager at

35,000 miles. It has been with me ever since and taken me all over the place. We had great times driving back and forth to Tooele for 5 years and I swear that my car, like a trusting horse, new the way by itself because some mornings I wondered how I got there.

I bought this car in May 2002 when I realized that my final year of school was going to be completely paid for by a cushy scholarship from the Education Department. With no more tuition, I was able to stop driving borrowed cars (my parents' cars, my sisters' Ford Escort, my Grandpa Huber's red Honda Accord, or my Grandma Petersen's white Buick with the blue afghan in the back window) and actually buy my own.

Here's to many more miles little Honda! (knock on wood and keep our fingers crossed)

On the subject of cars . . . one more thing. As much as I love my little Honda, there is another car I've been dreaming of for most of my life. We saw three of them in excellent condition over the weekend. I think it was some type of omen.

James promised me (we even shook on it while driving on the freeway, no lie) that if he ever gets his "dream car" that he would find one of these for me and even rebuild it if necessary. He said yes! The car he wants and has drooled over since I've known him is some model of a Jaguar, pronounce Jag-u-war, not Jag-wire, according to my Grandma's Scottish friend, Mora. I guess it is time to start saving for James' Jag so that I can get my mint condition VW Bus. Don't laugh. I'm serious.

Biorn Reunion and Idaho Drive

This weekend we headed to Idaho Falls to a Biorn Family Reunion (Mary's family) and to hang out with James' mom, dad, and sister Annie's family. Last year we went up and back in a day for the reunion, but this year we decided to turn it into a little 3-day vacation (since we hadn't really planned any other summer vacations).

On Friday, Molly and I got all ready and waited patiently for James to come home from work so we could leave. Eventually he did get home and we left around 7:00 p.m. We hit invisible road

construction and 1-lane freeways in a couple of spots on our way up and pulled into Idaho Falls around 10:30. James worked all the way up in the car. He stayed in the parking lot of the motel working for another half hour while Molly and I got settled in our room. At midnight she was still wide awake and not sure what to do with her new surroundings. I suggested to James that if we were to just turn out all the lights and be quiet, she'd probably fall asleep in a couple of minutes.

Unfortunately, my husband and I have communication issues sometimes (lots of the time) and

whatever I said was then interpreted as, "I will leave the room with my computer and go hang

out with the Cotton Tree employees in the lobby all night long while I work and watch them

prepare breakfast at 2:30 in the morning." Molly was asleep in literally 2 minutes. James was back in our room when we woke up around 7:00 and he was tired, but oh well.

We headed to the reunion around 10:00 and were at the park where it was held for most of the

day. It was hot, but otherwise a nice day. Molly kind of likes to do her own thing and just

wanders around, but she is always pleasant when other kids are around.

She did fall several times. The step from the grass to the concrete of the bowery was tough and she has a bit of a raspberry on her face to prove it. She survived, though. I think I said this last year, but Molly definitely blends in to Mary's family. She really resembles a lot of them. In fact, here is a picture of Mary as a little girl. I think you can see the resemblance.

After the reunion, we invited Annie and her family over to our motel for a swim. I think the kids had a lot of fun. James and Annie were trying to give RyAnn and Issac swimming lessons. Morriah only wanted to hang out in the smaller hot pool. Molly squealed at everything. Elizza even got in the pool after Grandpa let her play with a tootsie pop (she was pretty sticky and a

quick pool bath did her good).

We left the pool, picked up pizza, and had dinner back at Annie and Jared's house. The kids played with bubbles, LaRon tried to fix their tiller and lawnmower, Jared rigged up a wire for giant bubbles, we ate, and had a good time. Molly had a lot of fun, but was pretty dirty, though. She had a spit bath in Annie and Jared's kitchen sink and rode back to the motel in her undershirt. Needless to say, she and James were both pretty wiped out and were asleep fast once we got back to our room.

On Sunday, we headed out of Idaho Falls on a longer ride home. We drove to Arco, the first

town in the United States to ever be powered solely off of nuclear power (and also near Jared's

hometown). It was just outside of Arco that my car hit a major milestone of 200,000 miles (but that gets a post of it's own).

Next, we stopped at the visitor center and drove through Craters of the Moon National Monument. Neither of us had ever been there and it was interesting. It's just a dark, sullen black landscape in the middle of nowhere in Idaho. It was caused by the lava runoff and underground volcanic activity thousands of years ago. Interesting.

Afterwards, we drove to Twin Falls over this enormous bridge and ate dinner at a Perkins.

We visited both Shoshone Falls (pronounced Show-shown even though the Indian tribe is pronounce Show-shoney)

and Twin Falls (which used to be two matching falls on either side of this rock, but one of the twins was assassinated and turned into hydro-electric power)

After the falls, we stopped in Snowville, Utah for gas and then continued on. We got home a little before 9:00 p.m. Did you know there is a Mollie's Diner in Snowville?

It was a good weekend. I like to go for drives in the car. With the exception of a few minor meltdowns, Molly was really good. It was fun to hang out with our nieces and nephew who we don't see too often. It was great!

Maybe next year we'll make it a 4 day weekend and go to Yellowstone on the way home. We haven't been there for quite a while.

House Update - Foundation

Our house has a foundation now and today they were backfilling it. A couple of days ago, they were also putting the rough plumbing in the basement. It is now plumbed and full of gravel. I imagine they will probably poor the foundation floor this week and then we are less than 90 days out before it is finished! It's exciting. They also said we should start to see framing go up withina few more days.

There has been one problem so far that may delay things just a day or two. The back footing and wall for the 3rd car garage was mis-measured and poored 2 feet short of where it should have been. They had knocked that part of the wall down today and looked like they were preparing to re-pour it.

Things are moving along nicely.

24th of July

The 24th of July landed on a Sunday this year. It seems like that should be a perfect day to celebrate Pioneers, but instead I think they may have been a bit forgotten. We had a youth conference report in Sacrament meeting and didn't get to hear about pioneers there. Monday was the parade, but it didn't really feel like it. James had to work and it just seemed like a regular Monday.

The only real thing we did to celebrate was to have a big Petersen Family Pioneer Party. Annie hosted it at her new house and most of us were able to attend. It was hot, but we had good food, good conversation, and a nice time. It ended with a water fight, shavy's, and a puppet show. It was great to see my dad's family and we had nice time.

Oh, and on the Thursday before the holiday, we went and visited some of the floats in the South Town Expo Center. That was the best paraded I've ever been to, seeing the floats in a nice air-conditioned building.