august roundup

august was a busy one. here is a rundown of the rest of the month's events- all packed into one post.

xactware updates
cade's department made a move in the building in august that left cade with a far better view. he was sure to take a before and after photo of the move...
 

xactware also broke ground on their new building site here in lehi! we are thrilled to have cade's work moving closer to us. it will be an impressive new building- and cade is really loving his work there. they had a large groundbreaking ceremony- and cade was lucky enough to get a photo with the x. looking like a boss.

trafalga
 those pass of all passes are alright. they work wonders on our little daredevil who kept telling me to go faster on the go-carts. she is crazy

 pinyon fire fame
cade had a fabulous view of the pinyon fire from his new office so he decided to make a little movie out of it. the movie turned out to be pretty cool so he just passed it along to kevin eubank over at channel 5. nbd. turns out the video was really cool- cool enough, in fact, to show for 2 days on the news during the weather section! cade is such a local celeb these days.

here is the link to the video he made: Pinyon Fire

summer time and the livin's easy
ivy is pretty much the cutest thing ever in august (at least when she doesn't have sidewalk chalk in her mouth). summer has treated the taylor girls well.  vi is getting so grown up. that is an easy way to sum up how she now all of a sudden insists on doing everything herself and has an opinion about everything. could not love these girls more.

 

 volleyball
i play volleyball quite regularly here in lehi- which has been awesome. we have quite the talented group of ladies in my neighborhood so the level of play is always pretty good! we made a team and entered into a city league. i love playing competitively. i also love hearing the cheers from the sidelines. "go mommy!" and "go violet's mommy" (which i often heard from a neighbor boy). loved the fans. 

our team played all the way to the championship match and barely lost. such a bummer. but we did get these great, pink tees.

good friends
we love time spent with those we love- and we love the nortons. 

 bloom
bloom is the annual charity gala that cade and i volunteer at. this year, i was on the board and that sure kept me busy getting the decor ready and the place sparkling. luckily, the head start employees are a talented bunch of busy bees and the event went on without a hitch! the centerpieces turned out great- and we sold a ton of them! they were filled with edible microgreens (and of course the bloom daisy). it was nice to see it all put together that night.

 cade is always in charge of the video recap. lugging in all of his equipment left him looking like this:
 


































but the end result was this video: BLOOM VIDEO

fun bus
cade had a date with the roulette table this month. and since i wasn't there, he cozied up with some interesting characters...

cornhole lives on
august was full of neighborhood parties, friend tournaments and battles between cade and i. we couldn't get enough. and look at the sky! we had to take advantage of such beautiful weather!

byu
football started up again. byu ain't really my thang, but somehow cade ends up going to a few games each season. cade and ray even managed to sneak up to some pretty awesome seats during the "white out" game.

dancing queen
violet started dance this month with a little neighbor girl. it is a fairy-themed dance class (which is right up her alley). she may be a little young to start dance (most places wait until kids are 3) but she LOVES it. she listens well and follows along. i wasn't worried in the least after seeing her at her first lesson.

top of utah... and i miss logan

 although i have come to love where i live, i still miss logan a whole heckofalot. so, you better believe i jumped at the chance to head north in august to run the top of utah half marathon with some friends and family. not only was it a great training run for my upcoming marathon, but it was in LOGAN with people i love. the perfect combination. 

cade and i were late getting into logan on friday night after a busy, busy day helping with a charity event in salt lake. i had been on my feet for fourteen hours and i questioned my judgement as i sank into the car after such a long day. cade told me to zonk while he drove me to logan- and even though i love that drive, i obeyed. it was dark anyway, i guess...

we quietly slipped into our hotel room and fell asleep as quickly as we could. i knew i would only have a few hours of sleep before the long day hit. alarms went off and my mom, heed, and i were up at at 'em- ready for the race.  after the buses dropped us off at the top of the mountain, i remembered something about logan that isn't my favorite thing: it was cold! REALLY COLD. so cold that people were huddled into one another and snuggling into trees. the three of us crammed our way onto an overloaded bus who had stayed back to collect runner's items and such. there really wasn't room but we were getting on that bus come hell or high water. we were sardined in there but it was far better than freezing our butts off outside. i still can't believe how cold it was! 

i easily forgot this one thing i hated about logan as soon as the race started. logan has a beauty that is unique. you can smell the loveliness there. we took off down the mountain and ran. and ran. and ran. it was a great race! my new favorite thing to do at a race is to take my ear buds out as soon as i am a few miles from the finish. i love to hear people cheering the runners on- and honestly, i sometimes tear up. with my ear buds out, it made it really easy to hear my cheering section going crazy for me as i crossed the finish line. really, i have great support. 




after finishing the race, i grabbed violet an ice cream sandwich from the runners corner, rested for a second, and then went back looking for my mom. i really wanted to run in with her at the end. she had been struggling with some injuries and i knew that the end of this race was a tough one. i found my dear mom running her heart out with the biggest smile on her face. she is awesome. we ran it in together at the end and i loved every second. did i mention how much i love my mom?


in summary: a great race. a great day. a great support group. a great place.

 oh, and i can't forget to mention cade. he has been the biggest supporter of this whole process. he's the tops. the number one. the best.

my best friend's wedding

it isn't everyday your best friend ties the knot- so when the day came to see laney marry the man she loves, we really took the opportunity to party with her. i wanted to celebrate as much as i could, and that celebrating came easy because she was radiating happiness- enough for us all to share in!

through the years, laney and i have always had our own, unique relationship. we understood one another when others didn't, we stuck by one another when times were hard, we picked up where we left off despite living on opposite sides of the world and did so again when we lived on opposite sides of the country. i love laney. she is strong, faithful, funny, unique, honest, and a little crazy. i look forward to being 79 with laney and laughing our butts off together at something that everyone else thinks is stupid.

because laney lives so far away (think DC) we rarely get to see one another. she had called me once to tell me she had met "the one." she had told me all about him. i could picture him- but it became necessary that i meet this jerry. so, when the couple finally made their way to UT for the wedding, we jumped at the chance to go to dinner together.
i have seen laney date boys here and there as we have grown up together. i have seen her happy- but i had never seen her quite so changed as i saw when i first met jerry+laney that night at dinner. janey, if you will, is giddy. janey is open, loving, and kind. janey is a laney+jerry in love. i could not be more thrilled!

a few days later, cade and i were lucky enough to watch this incredible couple be sealed in the Salt Lake Temple. i loved it all.

then we partied.

the reception was on the ground of the SL capitol building. it was awesome. best reception spot i have ever been to.

at the end of the reception, there was an open mic. laney had asked mj and i to perform something for the crowd. we thought through a few of our favorites (backstreet boys, kid cudi, ingrid) but in the end, we performed a rap medley describing laney and jerry's courtship. cade filmed the event- and even though you can barely hear it on this video, the crowd loved it. watch it here. 

a great day! here are links to the videos cade made about all the day's events. these videos were our real gift to the couple- and we hope they can look back on the day and remember all the fun.

laney+jerry
wedding
reception