Read My

I don't use this blog anymore, but I do update my Noggins blog with random stuff all the time. So, check that one out, it's http://nogginsbeanies.com

Out With The Old

Keeping up two blogs has been getting annoying lately, so I'm moving everything over to my Noggins blog.

I'll leave this blog up, but don't plan to update it. All of you lurkers should change your sidebar links to "www.nogginsbeanies.com" if you want to keep up with all our exciting (or rather not so exciting) Miller family happenings. :)

Lander Trip

I think this is the first summer in years and years that I've spent only 4 days at Louis Lake. I've either lived/worked there or been there for more weekend trips. Now that I'm home and very well rested (Penelope doesn't sleep on vacation, but last night at home she slept from about 9:30 p.m. to 9:30 a.m.!) I can say it was a great trip.

This is where we spent most evenings after dark and two very cold and rainy days. My dad is working on the rock around the bottom, then there's the kitchen and the basement to complete, but overall the lodge looks amazing. It was soooo nice to have the couches to lounge around in!

If you look closely those two dark spots by the shore are a moose and her baby.


Penelope called the moose a cow.

We brought the kayaks over to the beach and had fun paddling around.

Penelope was spoiled and got carried around a lot. James and Chelsea meet us at the beach after their mt. bike ride.

Penelope even went for a ride in the kayak with Papa.

I dont' know how she managed to get so much dirt on her face.

Everyone made fun of the little gloves I made her wear because it was so cold.


Eric and I tried not to freeze on an evening canoe ride.

Great Weekend

Saturday morning Eric ran in the Jupiter Peak Steeplechase. This race is insane if you ask me. Although I may be getting the urge to start trail running if I keep going to all these finish lines and seeing all these insanely fit people. The race is 16 miles total with 3,000 feet of vertical gain. Yeah, a little crazy. 8 miles basically to the top of Park City Ski resort, and then 8 miles back down the 3,000 feet. Did I mention this is done by 250 people? Eric finished 9th in his age with a time of 2:41:06. A few guys and a girl from Backcountry all ran and tried to beat their times from last year. Eric's time was just 49 seconds faster than last year. He did awesome and didn't seem too sore afterwards.

After the race we went to Eric's family reunion up Big Cottonwood Canyon. It was nice to hang out outside all day and just relax. Penelope was really friendly with everyone and made her aunts and uncles run around with her a lot. I was just glad that she wasn't clinging to me all day. She especially had a great time with the balloons and her cousin Aidan.



The highlight of my weekend was seeing one of my best childhood friends, Becca. We grew up together in Alabama, now she lives in Nashville so we haven't seen her for at least five years. She came over for dinner with her adorable little daughter, Lindsay. Poor Lindsay kept getting her toys taken by Penelope, but then they figured it out and had a fun time playing together. Lindsay is only 2 and a half months older than Penelope and look how tall she is and at that amazing hair, I just love it! We had a great time chatting and catching up. It's fun to see that since we've known each other for so long, even after all these years we still get along and have such an easy time talking.

I also took some photos of Penelope right after church. This was actually her Easter Dress that I never got pictures of because she fell asleep on the way home from church that day, so I wanted to take some pictures of her in it. As you can tell, she isn't very good at looking at the camera...

Bear Lake Adventure

We went up to Bear Lake on Saturday and had a great, relaxing day by (and in) the water. Penelope wouldn't let us sit much and would always say, "mama, dada, water" and pull our hands to get us out of our comfy camp chairs. Eric posted photos and a video on his blog.

Also, I started a new blog for Noggins. Right now, it's www.nogginsbeanies.blogspot.com but I'll be switching it to just nogginsbeanies.com in the next week or so. I'm having more business cards printed up and I wanted a site that I could keep the same and link to my shop. Check it out if you have a minute.

HUGE Slacker...

I blame my lack of blogging on lack on excitement in the last month. We haven't done much of anything lately, so I haven't had a reason to blog. I'll throw up this cute picture of Penelope and Ryan at our 4th of July BBQ up Millcreek just for fun though.

Slacker...

We were in Colorado for my family reunion all last week so I didn't have a chance to blog. Overall it was a great trip. We stayed at James and Chelsea's base camp for OWA expeditions. OWA is an adventure company that guides rock climbing, mt. biking, fishing, etc. James and Chelsea bought the company last summer and run it from Austin during the winters and Colorado during the summers. They are just getting things going for this season and have a really cool base camp in Colorado where we all crashed.

Here are some photos...

Me climbing somewhere in a place called 11 mile Canyon.

Penelope followed her cousin Jaden around the edge of the water, throwing in rocks and sticks for hours. The rock face you can see across the river is one of the places we climbed. Eric and James were on a 2-pitch trad route while we sat there. We watched them with my dad's binoculars, it was fun.
Yo, yo, waz up. Apparently Penelope thought she was a thug for the evening.

On top of Crosswind peak right behind the lodge.

Penelope likes to sleep in the backpack when we go for "rides".

Every mom's dream

What's the one thing all moms say they want the most? A day off. Well, I took myself an afternoon off today. This morning was my last day of work, my replacement (who I've already trained for nearly two weeks) is up to speed, the office was dead, so I was able to leave early. It's Penelope's last day at daycare and since I've already paid for the day I decided to leave her there and take the afternoon "off". I'll just say it's not all that it cracks up to be! It's very quiet and boring here without her. I did run a bunch of errands and packed some more stuff for our trip tomorrow. I'd rather be interrupted 20 times by Penelope asking me "ah da wa la ma da?" any day!

Crafty Weekend Part II

Here is the other thing I sewed for Penelope over Memorial Day weekend.

It was the easiest dress to make and actually fits perfect. She will even leave the headband on her head. My friend, Lisa, made one like it for Ryan awhile back and then when we found this fabric at the Pineneedles sale I had to make it into a dress.

Today at church there was a baby being blessed so we told Penelope to be quiet. She sat there on Eric's lap for a few minutes being really quiet. Then a little toddler a few rows back from us started making some noise. Penelope leans around Eric's head, looking behind us, puts her finger to her lips and goes "shhhhh". It was hilarious.


Today was her first week in the nursery at church. She absolutely loved being able to run around and play with toys at church instead of being confined to my lap. We went to the park Sunday afternoon to enjoy the nice weather. She loves to slide and swing.

Crafty Weekend

Saturday my friend Lisa and I went to Pineneedles in Gardner Village for the sidewalk sale. We got some really fun fabric for $2-$4 a yard. Then last night we had a great time sewing shirts for Penelope and Ryan. They came out really cute! I finished Penelope's this morning with a little button on the front. I also made the headband to match. The best part was that we didn't follow a pattern, we just made it up and it actually worked. We were pretty impressed with ourselves. :)

Saturday I also made something else for Penelope but you'll have to wait for those photos until it's completely done. Crummy raining on Memorial Day! All those BBQ's aren't going to be very much fun...guess I'll have to sew some more...