Focus.

So the past couple weeks have been crazy. I decided to get serious about being a nurse. It's about time. In order to apply to UVU in January I have to finish a prerequisite class there, so I made the dreadful move. Leaving Logan was such a hard thing for me. Leaving these girls (shown below) was even harder.

I am now living in my aunt and uncles basement in Orem. They are some of the greatest people I know. Everyday I think about how grateful I am to live here. The other day I was talking to Janelle about what I had done that day and she said, "jeez, it's like you're living at a resort", and it's true. Pool and Tennis court in the backyard, air-conditioning, a house keeper, having a shower to myself and a grand piano to myself are only a couple of the benefits. The company is even better. Anyways, nothing holds a light to Logan but this is the next best thing. School is great so far. I never thought I would enjoy coming back to UVU but it's treating me pretty good. Strangers are getting used to me saying hi to them. I guess being friendly is just an Aggie thing. I'm gonna make it spread down here.

Other highlights of August:

Jessies bachelorette party on the fun bus was such a good time. Her showing up in a wedding dress was such a treat. Wendover could not get enough of her.

Favorite quotes of the night:

"You guys wanna see some crack?"

"Set those boobies free!"

(The first quote was from a drunk lady who could not wait to show us her crack, and by crack she meant cleavage. What a weirdo. The second was from a guy who won at the speedway earlier that day. )

Here is a pic from my first Demolition Derby. I just had to document it. It was so great, I'll never forget it.

Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it.

When I was a little kid my Dad would set buckets out in our yard and for family night we would practice casting. Fly fishing was all he ever really wanted to do. (Quote from Norman Maclean, "One great thing about fly fishing is that after a while nothing exists of the world but thoughts about fly fishing.") Every General Conference he sets up his fly tying stuff on the kitchen table and ties flies for two days. He has feathers and materials from all over the place and takes great pride in creating flies that may look strange to the naked eye but when you hold them under water they will look exactly like the fly they are supposed to be. It's crazy how his giant fingers can be so perfect at tying tiny flies and tiny knots. I don't get it.

When I invited my friend Pat to our family's cabin with us he asked if he should bring his fishing license. When I asked my Dad he got so excited. My little brother is not a fisherman in any sense of the word and he was so stoked to have someone who wanted to go. I don't get to watch my Dad fish very often so I quite enjoyed it.

Pat ended up being a natural (like with everything else).

I was at Deseret Industries last week and I found a copy of A River Runs Through It. I love the movie so much and the book is just as wonderful. I feel like I could be a great fly fisherwoman after reading it. It is about more than just fly fishing though. In fact the person who owned it before me marked it up as if it was a Psychology textbook. It made it so interesting to read and now I appreciate the story so much more.

The imagery in the book is so great. I have to write some of it down so I won't forget.

-"When her hair glistened, though, she was worth it. She was one of the most beautiful dancers I have ever seen. She made her partner feel as if he were about to be left behind, or already had been. It is a strange and wonderful and somewhat embarrassing feeling to hold someone in your arms who is trying to detach you from the earth and you aren't good enough to follow her."

-"Yet even in the loneliness of the canyon I knew there were others like me who had brothers they did not understand but wanted to help. We are probably those referred to as "our brothers' keepers," possessed of one of the oldest and possibly one of the most futile and certainly one of the most haunting of instincts. It will not let us go."

-"Many of us probably would be better fisherman if we did not spend so much time watching and waiting for the world to become perfect."

-"One of life's quiet excitements is to stand somewhat apart from yourself and watch yourself softly becoming the author of something beautiful, even if it is only a floating ash."

-"You can love completely without complete understanding."

-"Help," he said, "is giving part of yourself to someone who comes to accept it willingly and needs it badly."

-"Poets talk about "spots of time," but it is really fisherman who experience eternity compressed into a moment."

Thanks Norman Maclean.

Ya'll should read it.

"It's a double complete rainbow! What does this mean?"

I hope this makes all of you as happy as it makes me.

Cabin Time.

Grandpa and Pat busy being twins.

One of many scrabble games, but the only one I was able to take a victory in. That's quite an accomplishment when you play Pat.

Good times. I wish I could play Sjoelbak right now.

Wow, this blog is getting lame.

Summa

This post is in reversed chronological order.

The gnomes put together a birthday BBQ for me last night and it was perfect. Great food. Great friends. Only the good ones showed up and I was so happy about it. You know those friends that make you feel like you have to entertain them?... well none of those friends came. We all just sat in the driveway and laughed all night. Thanks friends. And Matt, thank you for the cereal and thanks for the burritos Kyle!

Janelle and I took a trip to St. George. It was everything a 4-day weekend should be. Laying by the pool, reading, eating, shopping and making fun of Eclipse with Pat and Janelle.

On Saturday Pat called and asked if Janelle and I wanted to help him make thai food for his fam. We made thai pizza, (which is honestly heaven) and Patrick made curry and lettuce wraps. It was so tasty.

His little sister Katie insisted that we have homemade fortune cookies and while her mom slaved away on the cookies Katie and I came up with awesome fortunes. She asked specifically for me to type one that involved Micheal Jackson. When I asked her why, she said in a sassy voice"Um... because we're the Utleys." This girl is so great.

Puppies were everywhere and I was in heaven. I wanted to sneak one home so bad but Natalie would have been ticked.

Look at those lettuce wraps! Patrick rocks at cooking. And look at how big my mouth is these days. Geez.

George Washington (a.k.a Kimball) stopped by on the Fourth to give us his blessing.

Cruise In 2010 was great. It was my first car show and I loved it.

Anyways, things are good. I'm tired of typing stuff.

Enjoy summer people!

June

This has been such a great month. The rain finally stopped and summer arrived! Natalie, Hayley and Janelle and I braved the elements to run the Bear Lake 10k again this year and it was great. I shaved 11 minutes off last years time so that felt wonderful. I loved running with Janelle. Half Marathon- here we come!

Cousin Day at Lagoon was wonderful. I love these guys so bad! I'm so proud to call them family.

Patrick decided to invite an almost stranger (me) and a real stranger (Hayley) to Lake Powell with him and his Fam. Good thing we are such great travel companions. They wouldn't have known what to do without us. kidding! Pat, Taylor, Hayley and I became the A-team. I somehow got chosen to be the leader and they all just followed me around the time. It was weird. We wake boarded early and late. We tubed. We cliff jumped. We ate 100 pounds of swedish fish. We had book club. We played 1,000 games of scrabble. We never fell asleep courtesy of the full moon. We hiked. We stopped being punch bag virgins. We got wood all over us. We kayaked and we basked.

I'm already ready for round two.

Thanks Utleys!

(There. It's updated. Jordan you better stop complaining now)

Novelty

Every Sunday before Memorial Day the Laemmlen family goes to visit this wonderful lady. People probably think we are nutso when we show up at the cemetery. We don't just drop off some flowers, we stay all night. My Grandma Grace wouldn't have it any other way.

The only thing we didn't have this year was the "guy with the hangars". I still don't know his name but I think its my dad's cousin or something. He usually shows up about the same time as our family and pulls out two metal hangars and bends them all weird and will start walking over the graves with them. He says when they cross each other you're over a body. Yeah, like I said, we look nutso at the cemetery. This years festivities included building a human pyramid, playing football while dodging headstones, catching the Swiss girl and taking fake engagement pictures with our cousin Adam who will be leaving on a mission this fall.

It's always a good time. We love you Grandma.

Part 2

My first Saturday back in Logan was perfect. I forgot how many activities these gnomes can pack in a day. We hit up the Farmers Market and then decided to do something "novelty" and go out to the Airport and check out the plane stuff. The radio said there were going to be free helicopter riders which got our attention. Too bad free really meant $20. Since we were too cheap for that and too lazy to wait in line for the free helicopter simulator, we decided to do the easiest thing possible and sit in all the parked planes. It's a lot cooler that it sounds.

After we left the Airport we tried making First Dam turn into La Jolla beach. It kind of worked. We followed that with 5 games of volleyball at the park and then finished the night off with dutch ovens and fires up at Porcupine. It was such a great day.

Summer is finally here.