Kick-Off to Summer

Memorial Day is such a fun holiday. It's totally the kick-off to summer. And summer is all about picnics, playing outside, painting your toenails, swimming, hiking, and much, much more.


We had a couple picnics on Memorial Day. Our first one was at Nelson's Grove Park in Orem (best park ever!).

We had fun watching this mother duck with her nine babies.

This was our second picnic at Fox Field. We went to Wendy's and Arby's which was a pretty big deal since the last time we went out to eat was on Valentine's Day.

Now we just have a 4-day work week ahead of us before yet another weekend. Woo hoo! Love holidays!

Long Weekend

I'm so excited to have Monday off! Not sure what we'll end up doing, but whatever it is, I know it will be fun.

Not so excited that our neighbors bunny ate our tomato plants this morning. :(

Meet Kristen

Most of you that know me know my sister Kristen. But some of you may not. Well, this last weekend she had a birthday. She is now 21 with 8 years of practice. :) I thought about finding a bunch of embarrassing pictures of her and posting them on here but #1, I am lazy and #2, she never looks at my blog so it wouldn't have been as cool. So I'll just post some pictures of her birthday.

This was on Sunday, the day after her birthday, blowing out the candles. She got all of them in one shot. Strong lungs.

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The beautiful ice cream cake Amy made.

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On Friday night they had a big birthday party at her house. We ate some amazing home made pizza and then got the big screen set up (she makes these, she is so freaking talented, and they are HUGE) outside for rock band.

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Before all the festivities started, Amy and I had fun flying kites. I LOVE flying kites! The weather was perfect for it that day.

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Kristen getting the charcoal ready for dutch oven cobbler. Yum.

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Me and two of my three amazing sisters, Amy and Kristen (who is wearing really tall shoes while me and Amy are in flip flops, she's really not that much taller than us).

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I don't have enough good things to say about Kristen. She is the best big sister anyone could ask for. We have always been best friends. She has always been so nice to me, even when I don't deserve it. I love you Kris! Happy Birthday!

It's Gonna be an Awesome Summer

Because we have this sweet lawnmower to use! Yeah, you're seeing right. It's a push mower. Totally old school. And totally awesome.


Quick history: When we moved into our house last year there was a lawnmower in the shed. So we used that till near the end of the summer when it broke. Instead of buying a new one, we decided to see if we could borrow my Grandpa Bishop's old push mower. So a couple weeks ago I went over there and got it. It is so fun to use and totally perfect for us since our back yard is barely bigger than my office!


Now it's even more special that we have it since my grandpa just died.

PS. Happy 100th post to me.

The Rest of the Vacation

Well, our trip to Phoenix is over. Time to blog about the second half of the week. So, I believe I ended off with the zoo. Thursday was another pool day, Friday we swam in the pool in the morning and in the evening we went to In-N-Out (probably not the best thing to eat the night before a race).

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After In-N-Out we went to the Diamondbacks baseball game. My first major league game. It was so much fun and the stadium was awesome. The top was open and it was perfect weather.
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The babies after a really good play. Sorry Brynlee and Austin, we couldn't help but to laugh.

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Our seats were really high up but it made for an awesome view.

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Saturday morning we got up at the crack of dawn to drive to the zoo to run a 5k. It was the first annual run/walk in the zoo and it was pretty unorganized, but we still had a lot of fun. It was WAY hot so I am proud of us for doing it and for finishing with such a good time! Brandon and I crossed the finish line at just under 33 minutes.
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I'm still waiting for TARA (hint hint) to send us race pictures, but for now, I stole this picture from Jess's blog. Thanks Jess.

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After the race we made a stop at a QT gas station. They have the best variety of drinks that you will ever find ANYWHERE. I think we made two or three trips there while we were in Arizona.

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We swam in the pool again on Saturday after the race and then Saturday night Ross took us all out to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner to celebrate Mother's Day. The food was so good and we got to sit outside. It was so perfect.

(Check out my Mexican husband. It's a mystery to all of us how he gets so darn tan.)

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Chocolate coconut cream cheesecake. Best. Cheesecake. Ever.

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We drove home on Sunday and got here after midnight. Then me and Bran both had a busy day at work and after work (2 days after our last race), we ran another 5k. I ran this race last year with Ben and Kristi. It's my favorite 5k by far and I plan on running it every year forever. We finished this one in 29 minutes 48 seconds. I have no idea how that happened. :) But we are excited for a few more races this year.

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There are a ton more pictures I wanted to post but in the interest of time, I'm stopping here.

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Just to sum up our trip, I totally loved it! The swimming was amazing, we had plenty of time to relax (enough for Brandon to read 4 books!!), we got to do some really fun things, and it was so fun to be with Brandon's entire family for so long. We are hoping it was good enough to get those who live out of Utah to move back home. Soon. I'm sad I missed my grandpa's funeral and that I didn't get to go see any of my cousins or friends while I was in Phoenix, but I think it was the best trip I've been on. Ever. Thanks Ross and Karen for making it happen!

Back Home

We are back home. Got in around midnight last night and today it's back to the grind. I have a million things to do at work and then another 5k to run tonight but once I get a minute, I have tons of pictures I want to post from the rest of our trip. It was the best trip ever!

So stay tuned...

Pool Fun

Alright, here are some pictures of the pool. We have spent so much time out there. I love it!
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We can't get enough of this water slide. :)

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The 6 brothers playing football. Sweet shot, eh?

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There are SO many more pictures I can put on here but these will have to do for now.

The Phoenix Zoo

Wednesday we went to the Phoenix Zoo. It was a super hot day but I love going to the zoo so much that I had fun anyway. They had misters and drinking fountains all over the place and lots of shade but there really is no escaping the heat.
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Bran and I in front of the "Savannah."

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All 8 Salmon siblings.

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Me, the Rhino, and the Rhino's beautiful hind quarters.

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Some crazy palm trees.

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Steph, Bran, and the big tortoise. And if you click on the picture and look in the background you will see the hind quarters of an even bigger tortoise. Animals at the zoo are definitely not shy.

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I have a bunch more pictures from the zoo and also some pool pictures. I might do another pool picture post and later today we are headed off to a Diamond Backs baseball game so there will definitely be pictures from that.
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I am having the time of my life on this trip. It's so sad that it's now coming to a close. Only 2 more days of fun and then 1 day of travel. Then back to work. Yikes.

Paradise

Well, I decided to stay here in Phoenix instead of go home for the funeral. I'm way sad that I will miss out on being with my family during that sweet experience (I really love funerals, you learn so much about the person, even if it was someone you already knew well), but I am having a lot of fun here. This resort we are staying at is soooo nice and the pool is amazing.
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It's almost 10 p.m. and I just put on normal clothes for the day. Here's why: (This is the view from our balcony.)

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We have been living in our swimming suits. Tomorrow is another pool day. Then Wednesday we will go to the Phoenix Zoo. Friday we are going to a baseball game and Saturday we are running in a race. It should end up being a really good week!
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The pool at night:

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We are having so much fun playing with these two cuties:
Mady. She absolutely loves the water.

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And Austin. He smiles ALL the time and is so cute!!

Bitter Sweet

Well, I am writing this post from Flagstaff, AZ. I have no way of uploading my pictures so I will have to add them later. We headed out today for our week long vacation to Phoenix with Brandon's family. We are staying in Flagstaff tonight on our way to Phoenix. I'm excited to be gone on vacation, especially to be away from work for a whole week, but I also recieved some news today that makes this time a little bitter sweet.

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My Grandpa Bishop passed away this morning. Kristen called me to tell me at about 11:00 this morning, when we had been on the road for about an hour. He would have been 95 on the 21st of this month. This was a long time coming. He has been going down hill for years now, and we knew he wanted to die, but it doesn't make it any less sad.

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The worst part about it was that he died the very day I left town for a 9 day vacation, meaning I will miss the funeral. Unless I fly home for it. Which I am still considering doing. Especially since my two brothers are flying in for it (one from California and one from Iowa). This is a really hard decision to make.

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I love my grandpa. He lived 3 doors down from me my whole life. It feels good to know that even though I don't visit him that often anymore, I did visit him about two weeks ago. The reason for my visit will definitely be a blog post later, we borrowed their old push lawn mower for our tiny back yard and are absolutely LOVING it.

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But anyway, today was a good day, besides the bad news. The trip to Flagstaff wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. We stopped a few times to break it up. Once for lunch and once at the Canyon Glen Dam, which was pretty amazing. We took lots of pictures there and I will add them to this post once we get home.
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The road trip. Jordan was intently watching Phantom of the Opera. Ha ha ha.

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Me and Bran at Canyon Glen Dam (Lake Powell). He and his siblings were going crazy with the "Dam" jokes. It was awesome.

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This thing is HUGE!

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