Art City Days

One of my favorite memories of growing up in the small town of Springville is Art City Days. It was the first real weekend of summer vacation. The sun was out and I was free from school for another whole three months. As time went on, I wasn't free, but it was still the beginning of the summer fun season. I have tried to be there every year the first weekend of June.
In the Cook family we have a tradition to go to Art City Days. Our day starts very early at 6:00 am where we go to the Jr. High School to watch the hot air balloons take off. One year I was able to go up in the balloon courtesy of my father, (cross one off the bucket list). It was amazing. The air was clean and there was a slight breeze. We got to "help" fill the balloon up. This is hard work. My little sister Kim and I went up together. The view from the sky was beautiful. Springville is a great little city, lots of trees and well kept yards. Thank you Dad for helping me cross out one more of my things to do before I die.
We usually we go to the Fireman's breakfast at 8:00 for pancakes, eggs, and orange juice. We then drive over to the hardware store to watch the parade that starts at 10:00AM.
I have pictures over the years of us at the parade in front of Utah Service, now Sunroc. I have pictures of my children over the years sitting & watching the parade. The motorcycle police start the parade every year, followed by the American Flag carried by soldiers or scouts. My heart always fills with pride as I watch everyone along the parade route, remove their hats and stand with their hand over their hearts. There is a hush over the crowd as the American Flag passes.
The Springville marching band follows soon after and the parade really begins. The cute thing about my folks is that they know everyone in the parade and shout out things to the people in the floats or cars. I really do mean everyone. They are more vocal with grandkids on their laps, or now with a teenager, my nephew, we all try and get him to waive at the pretty girls. There are high school reunions that are always passing. This year it was 1965, which my brother yelled out to me, "Hey, isn't that the year you graduated?" Payback will be fun next year.
After the parade we usually go to the carnival. We go there specifically for the scones that over the years have become part of the tradition The grandkids ride the rides and I usually shop for miscellaneous stuff that people are selling.
Around 7 or 8 we go over to the Art Park by my old high school and we watch the program. Sometimes the Army band is there. There has been comedians & dancers and singers over the years. At 10:00pm the lights go out and the music starts up. We all "ohhhhh and ahhhhh" over the fireworks. It is a long day, but so much a part of what we do every year.
This year was very rainy. It didn't rain on the parade but it was a downpour after. We waited for a while to go to the carnival. The fireworks almost didn't happen, due to the weather. But they did.. this year was awesome like every year.

We did it! We bought a huge truck. We bought a 2007 GMC Sierra Classic with 4 Door Crew Cab, Duramax Diesel 4x4, Fabtech Lift Kit, Leer Custom Shell w/Browning Limited Edition Custom Kit. That’s right I have a gun rack in the shell- I don’t own a gun, but I have a rack. The sound system is so awesome! Premium Sound Kit 6 Disc Changer, Alpine In-Dash DVD, & XM Radio. This is just about the nicest vehicle I have ever owned. The best three things are Automatic Floor Rails, remote start, & the leather interior. It is a pretty color, inside and out. We can go camping and not be eaten by bears.

Side note: Going camping is not my favorite activity, I have always been afraid of being ripped out of my tent and being mauled and eaten by a bear. Irrational you say? No it happens all the time. August 28th, 2009 a 78 year old man was attacked in Carbon County. April 13, 2006 a black bear broke through a camper shell in Strawberry. I could go on & on but I can’t find any more news stories on KSL. OK, so maybe it is a LITTLE irrational.

Back to the truck

I am very excited to drive it & even a little nervous to drive it. I can’t wait to tow stuff. I just have to find stuff to tow. More pictures to come… hopefully with short little Natasha standing by it.

Carnage

I love the word carnage. It is fun to say, not so much fun to witness.
Recently I wrecked my Jeep. This is the story:
I was going southbound at Redwood Rd at 7:50 AM. The light turned green and no one was in front of me stopped so I went through the light. I was going under the speed limit, around 30 mph. A white truck turned from the red light at the intersection and black car followed closely behind. The white truck noticed me coming and slowed down to let me pass on the left lane before her lane merged into mine. The black car was in a hurry and didn’t notice me and went around the white truck to do a U Turn to go northbound. (To beat the red light he would have been waiting for). He slammed into my passenger side engine area and the drive train, the steering column and the struts were broken on impact. The impact sent me through the dividing line & through northbound traffic lanes and came to a rest on the northbound shoulder of the road. There are many reasons that I am lucky or blessed. There wasn’t any traffic going northbound at the time of my accident, this is rare. There are many concrete trucks that are always on the northbound lanes due to construction in Davis County.
Troy had not left the house for work and I called him. What is the most awesome about this whole thing was that he rushed over right away. He was there within minutes, comforting me. I was in slight shock and he helped me use English to put my report on to the paper from the police. When I saw him coming from his car, I was at peace like everything was going to be ok. The witness in the white truck had stopped to give a statement and was there when Troy got there. She said to him, “I hope you still keep her after this.” He laughed and said, “Of course”. Side note: When ever Troy is extremely nice or says the right thing, I always say, “I am so going to keep you” or “That’s it, I am keeping you”.
Life changes in moments, seconds and even milliseconds. I am very glad that I have the family and the love of a very kind man. Sadly I do not have pictures of the carnage. I wish I did. Upcoming, will be the first real big purchase as a couple. We are deciding between a BIG redneck truck and another Jeep. Stay tuned for that fun story.

Roughing it Easy

One of the best things about being married is that I have someone to hang out with that doesn’t suck. I love hanging out with Troy doing just about anything. One of our first dates was going to a birthday party that started out with go-kart races. This was something that I have never done before on a track. I learned that night that Troy is super competitive and that going around a track over and over and over again clockwise makes me very nauseous. My little fingers were frozen by the time I was done & my nose was bright red.
I love how Troy “makes” me do things that I don’t normally do, like camping. It isn’t my most favorite thing to do but he seems to like it, so we go. On the last camping trip I used a recurve bow for the first time since college. I have to point out, that I think I know how to do everything and I thought I could do it. I pulled back the string and let go and WHAM!! Huge bruise on my arm, where the string hit it. It was not super sexy. I love my new sister and brother in-laws and I really love that they let us stay in their 5 star RV, nothing beats camping with a queen size mattress that has a pillow top. Roughing it easy! YAY! Here are some cute pictures of Troy camping. The weather was perfect and the stars were so bright. This camping trip rocked.

Harley Paint Show

The one personal possession that Troy has always wanted, since he was little, has been a Harley Davidson motorcycle. We have been looking at bikes for a month now. Every time I start to talk about a motorcycle someone tells me a story about some horrific crash that they were either in or have witnessed. Troy's Grandpa Cook was in a motorcycle crash, the helmet saved his life. This gives me hope that Troy will be safe. People also say “It isn’t IF he gets in a crash., it is when.” This freaks me out to no end.
Troy has been so good about helping other people’s dreams come true, and helping other people in general that I thought I would be ok with his dream coming true. I still want him to get the bike that he has always wanted but I want him to get the loudest pipes available. I want people to hear him coming a mile away. Stay tuned for the bike saga….
One of our weekend outings recently was a Harley Davidson custom paint show. The bikes were beautiful. My husband fit right in. (Scary, I know) A few of my co-workers were there, and they ride all the time. (So I would fit in, scarier, I know.) My coworkers are very excited to take us riding with them. My friend Jeannie Hatch took these pictures.

Our Story

Our story.
I met Troy in 1997 at Packard Bell/NEC. He was a single dad of a 3 or 4 year old. I was just coming off my second divorce and I had three young kids to raise. He was a nice & funny guy, the two terms describing him that are the kiss of death to a divorced mother of three. He was fun to talk to and I loved flirting with him. We went out a couple of times, but a nice guy wasn’t what I was looking for at that time. I wasn’t looking for anything serious and neither was he. I soon left NEC to pursue other employment & the years began to roll by.
Every year around my birthday I would get an email from Troy, wishing me a happy birthday. He would always ask how I am doing and we would stay in contact a little after each email. Troy would call me and leave messages that his single adult groups were doing activities to try and get me to go out. I would decline. After 10 years of emailing back & forth I received an email from Troy wishing me a happy birthday (August 2007). I wrote back immediately asking him how the heck he remembers my birthday after all these years & nothing back from Troy…. For months.
November rolls around and I get an email from Troy and he wrote, “I don't know about you but I have literally hundreds and hundreds of emails in my inbox and I was going through deleting the garbage and saw this email from you. Sorry I didn't see it sooner and therefore didn't get back to you sooner. Anyway, you asked how come I remember your birthday. Two reasons, the first of which is that yours comes right after mine so that makes it easy, the second one is that I think of you as 'the one that got away', being as such, you kind of bounce around in my head once in a while.”
Troy had just turned 40 and was sorting through his “midlife” crisis. He whipped his body into shape and was feeling great. But, he was bored with the women that he had been dating & he wanted to see me again. I felt that same way. I wrote him back on one of the many Saturday nights that I stayed home. This is November 2007. We made plans to go out that next weekend.
He came and picked me up & was a perfect gentleman. We went out and had Costa Vida, Fresh Mexican food. We talked until they closed. I don’t say this very often, but I knew that he was the one that night and I knew that I would fall in love with him. His eyes were so beautiful that night and his smile genuine. He kept me laughing all night.
We have been inseparable ever since.