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On our trip out to Utah a few days ago, we stopped at Little America in the middle of Wyoming. Why? 75-cent ice cream cones, of course. They advertise for about two hundred miles across the plains, building the tension until you can’t stand it and simply have to pull in to get a helping of soft-serve bliss.

Before heading in, I couldn’t resist a picture of Zaque riding the dinosaur.

He looks a little off-kilter because the dinosaur’s skin was approximately 150 degrees after baking in the hot afternoon sun. I was going to have him take my picture as well, but climbing onto that boiling-hot green didn’t work out.

While we were there, we continued our time-honored tradition of trying on a few hats. There’s nothing quite like over-priced, poor-quality hats sold at a gas station.

And then, to top it all off, I loved this little gadget:

Now I know the secret of those “alluring wind in your hair selfies”. It’s Hollywood magic!

I brought my point-and-shoot camera to pickup ultimate today and took some pictures of the action. When I was on the field I handed it to a bystander and asked her to capture a few shots of me being awesome. This is what came of it:

Wow.

So that’s me throwing to… someone. And my defender, Trevor, apparently strolling up to mark me. And two people in the background, also taking a nice easy walk. I’m sure there were plenty of people running around, and the throw was probably amazing, but boy, in this picture it looks like the most boring sport ever.

I guess I’ll bring a camera next week and see if anything better turns up.

Zaque’s been officially working at Chick-fil-A for about a week now, and yesterday we decided to visit and see him in action. Given the choice of working in the kitchen or handling customers, he opted for the latter. It’s perfect, given his outgoing and somewhat goofy personality.

Of course his name tag says “Zaque”– I wonder how many people ask about that. And his hair is… well, enough said. He told me if anyone at the restaurant forgets their name tag for the day, they have to wear the “backup” name tag, which says “Earl”. I think it’s pretty funny that Chick-fil-A has a backup name tag, but even funnier that it’s Earl.

As far as summer jobs go, this is a great fit for Zaque and he’s excited to work. I can’t ask for much more…

At Laralee’s suggestion, I decided to grow out a beard. For about two weeks I trimmed my neck hair and let the rest run wild. This morning, as I evaluated it, I realized that I simply can’t grow a sweet beard: the hair on the side of my face is too sparse, so even though it had grown a reasonable quarter-inch, it looked like it was barely five o’clock shadow.

I took a razor to it, but of course had to experiment with a few options first. Here’s the Amish look:

And the “chin stubble”:

But in the end, I just went back to the clean-shaven look:

Maybe my goatee will make a reappearance someday, but I’m pretty sure the beard won’t.

Kyra has nervously been monitoring the mailbox for the past few days, and finally her mission call arrived in a big white envelope. She invited a few friends to come over and join her for the Big Moment.

She started reading the letter:

“Dear Sister Schroeder, you are hereby called to serve as a missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. You are assigned to labor in… the California Bakersfield Mission!”

She paused for a moment to let it sink in.

Then, of course, she had to pull up a map to find out where Bakersfield is.

She’ll be heading out on September 13… unfortunately less than two weeks before Alex comes home from Peru. So the two of them won’t see each other for about three and a half years. That’ll be a fun reunion in March 2019.

We’re really excited for her, and proud she decided to serve.

Laralee’s frustrated because we’re sitting right next to each other and my phone (same model, same service provider) has full reception and hers has none. So she ran a quick web search:

Sadly, there’s no easy explanation. Now she’s off looking to buy a new phone.

I’m not sure what’s special about the window well beside my basement office, but once again it claimed a victim: this afternoon there was a bird trapped in it. Either it was a young bird still learning to fly, or one who’d been injured somehow, but it was flapping wildly and unable to clear the four-foot well to get back into the wild.

Zaque climbed down to rescue the little guy, but was taken aback by the mad fluttering.

He put on a pair of gloves (safety first!) just like all of the professional avian handlers, and eventually he was able to catch him and lift him back into our yard.

Who knows what critter will be next?

Driving home last night, I saw a spectacular sunset. The sun was dropping behind Longs Peak, and a cloud floated just above, so the light illuminated the back of the cloud and shone in rays up into the darkening sky.

I snapped a picture with my cell phone, through my windshield, as I was driving along the highway, but of course it hardly does justice to the scene.

I was down in Denver last night, and as I drove home I passed a restaurant whose name always makes me laugh.

Zaque always calls it “Pope Yes”, and now I can’t even read it as “Popeyes” any more because his name is stuck in my head. What a weird (but clever and funny) kid.

Some people think my family is weird because we quote movies a lot. But hey, it’s so funny to have a thousand inside jokes… like this…

Of course that’s a reference to Rhino’s hilarious phone call with destiny in Bolt: