we didn't start the fire...

so this last weekend, we had the babies and some friends over to the clubhouse here to swim and play games and such. we decided to do burgers for dinner, so cade and i thought it would be fun to use the tiny bbq grill thing eddie and kylee keep out on their balcony. we figured that since we live here now- everything is free game. so we stole their charcol and brought the bbq down to the clubhouse for some serious grilling. it took the boys a good hour to get the thing hot enough to cook on- but finally we were enjoying some tasty food and having a great time.


being addicted to the game splash, the fun lasted until 12:30 in the morning. as we were packing up, cade discovered that the briquets had cooled and he could carry the grill back to the apartment without burning himself one bit. i headed up to the apartment to work on my relief society lesson- which was less than 8 hours away-as cade took the trash to the dumpster.
we were quite pleasant in our cozy apartment for about 20 minutes until all hell broke loose outside. i heard sirens and worried that since i was the only on-site manager i would have to go help. i asked cade if the sirens were here or at the property next door. cade suddenly went a sickly, white color and just ran outside without saying anything. weird, i thought, but it's cade. he comes BUSTING back in the door and frantically starts turning out all of our lights, all the while screaming- 'it's us! it's us! we started the fire!'


i run to the window to see what is going on, only to see residents running around everywhere and the fire department dousing the dumpster. it was then i put it all together. we had, in all actuality, started the fire. the briquets must not have been as cool as we once thought. so immediately i get a call from my manager who is out of town. she said a resident called her in tears claiming that the fire was spreading and about to burn the trees or perhaps the building. i calmed her down and told her it was all taken care of. the authorities had arrived. meanwhile cade and i hid in our pitch black apartment.


honestly- the damage was minimal. we did come clean and admit that we were the instigators- and it seems as though we have avoided any charges or fees. but i included some pictures for your enjoyment.



the lid to the dumpster melted...but nobody likes lifting those disease infested lids to toss their trash anyway, right?



i include this picture to show you the small burn mark and how ridiculously far away the 'endangered' tree and building are from our fire. i think our neighbor downstairs needs a little more excitement in her life. this was nothing to cry about, dear janice.

read this post while you can- we may have to delete it if some sort of investigation flares up again- and if that happens, you'll find us sneaking around a dark apartment.

hobbies and hopes crushed

Growing up I got tired of hearing how domestically-challenged I was. It seemed that my brothers could always cook better than I could and were insanely crafty. The persecution continued when my 300 pound, football star brother started cutting and highlighting hair for all the neighborhood kids in my mom’s salon whenever she was gone -just so he could make a few extra bucks. At this point in life, I couldn’t even do my own hair., let alone cut and highlight someone else’s.

Well- due to the fact that cade and I are “freakishly tall” (a direct quote from my grammy) I considered taking up sewing to alter some of our odd fitting clothes and to start making purses…..oh how I love purses. Just when I thought my domesticity was on an upward slope, my dear brother one upped me again.

Yes, what you are seeing is an actual camouflage sleeping bag for his 2 ½ month old daughter, addy. I can’t beat that. This belongs in Martha Stewart’s outdoor magazine or something.

Wish me luck on finding a new hobby.

*disclaimer- you may be wondering why jeff didn't make this bag in pink with small embroidered daisies on it, considering addy is a girl. please know it is camouflage because we grew up with the notion that everything you take camping must either be camo or hunter orange . we are not white trash, just well educated.

island park for life

summer so far has been pretty busy for cade and i, but just recently we were able to take off to the annual family vacation. this year we headed up to island park. i had heard we had rented a nice cabin in the woods that would be perfect for all 22 of us headed out there. to my surprise, we showed up to find our "cabin" was really just a huge room with 15 beds, a fridge, an oven and a table. yes- all in one giant room. what a great welcome for cade to the family. he was so great to be just fine with grandpa's sleep apnea and aunt lynette's snoring- not to mention the two new babies. despite the FLDS-esque housing, we still had a great time.


after seeing this picture, i feared being the last ones to wake up.

yes cade actually did drive this close to a buffalo. yes i did fear for my life.

the real adventure started when we took the atvs out for the day.

this is cade on speed. seriously, he was a mad man on the four wheelers.

grammy gets pretty rowdy late at night.



while the rest of the world may not like my singing, my little nephew, owen, loves it. he just goes into a trance as i quietly sing cold war kids into his little ears.

our trip finally brought us to beautiful bear lake.
cute little addy. we stayed in logan on sunday for her baby blessing.

we really did have a great time. i loved every second of it...pretty much. cade was such a champ. hopefully with a little coaxing, i'll convince him to go again next year.

le jadin- le wedding reception...oo la la

again.... sorry about how late these pictures are hitting the press... but they just take forever to upload. our reception was great. so fun and so fast. i can't believe how quickly the whole day went by. but here is a brief picture tour of the night.



the dapper groom looking ever-so-natural...

a
the family cade inherits is quite smaller than the...

TAYLOR CLAN. seriously look at this picture. i love it.



the ol' bouqet toss led to a few pulled hamstrings and my twelve year old cousin dreaming of sam boyle for the rest of the night. quite the catch.

after climbing on a strong set of shoulders, jason snagged the prize away from the rest of the boys... who's the lucky girl, jazzy?

then came the tunes. and we danced.

and danced...

and danced.

and finally, thanks to all of those who participated in turning the aztec into a complete honeymoon mobile. what would we have done without the hundreds of condoms and insane amount of dinner mints. i think our air conditioning just recently stopped spitting out small bride and groom confetti.

pictures prove it all

so i realize that it has tken me a lengthy amount of time to get some pictures on here... but cade and i have been pretty busy as of late. so here are some of my favorite pictures... and i'll post some reception pictures later.

here is dear dad looking so stoic.



even though the temple staff wasn't exactly happy about the "who let the dogs out" cheer, we love you guys

father's day

dear dad,
thanks for teaching me the importance of honesty, good morals and pink floyd. you are the greatest. i love you.
sincerely,
toad

cade and kevin have become one in purpose

here at the taylor home... we support the celtics.

L O T O L I

Some of you may have heard of the LOTOJA, where bikers take on the trek from Logan to Jackson, WY - well, I took on my own little version of the LOTOJA, shortening it about 80 miles and changing the last two letters from "JA" to "LI" to represent "Lindon" (the ending destination). This is a goal I've had for some time, especially on my new single-speed bike, and nothing would stop me - not even three flat tires. So I did it. I left bright and early at 7:30 a.m. and unfortunately did indeed have three flat tires, which take some time to repair, but I didn't let them stop me. 14 1/2 hours, and 120 miles later I pulled up to my parents home in the cozy town of Lindon.
Though my body was beat and worn, my spirits were high, and I felt in that moment as though I was somehow distantly related to Lance Armstrong himself.

mason, brett and missy

married life just keeps getting better for cade and i. we are both back into the swing of work schedules and now we are fully wrapped up in our new 'lost' schedule. yes...cade has me hooked and i am half embarrassed and half proud to say that we pretty much watch a season a week. we are that nerdy. we are already looking up 'world of warcraft' subscription prices and cade suggested we 'tin foil' our windows so we actually never see the light of day. this must be one of those newlywed phases, right?
anywho... one of our recent outings led us to salt lake to see a great concert. we met cade's friends sam and brett down in slc's paladuim, a quaint little club just off 600 north. we initially went just thinking that mason jennings was playing, but we were pleasantly surprised to see such a great line up. for those of you who are perhaps unfamiliar with any of these geniuses, may i encourage you to educate yourself. your quality of life will soon improve.
the concert was very intimate and the only thing not to like was the man in front of me who insisted on tapping his feet to the beat of every song in a very obnoxious manner. plus he was wearing a jean hat and a jean jacket- how cute...
all three artists did a great job. we had never seen brett dennen and were surprised to see that he kinda resembles a pubescent fourteen year old girl- very interesting...but i love love love his music. mason's new cd is great and he played a handful of songs from it. we loved every minute of it. and i end my review.



so life is great. we love logan summers. in other quick news, we bought our tickets for belgium yesterday and we are really wanting to get some planning done. if anyone has been to europe and has any suggestions about where to go and what to do...educate me. we want to know!
you are all great.

it really happened

yes, it's true. cade and i are officially married. the wedding was so great and i really appreciate all the love and support from everyone. we had no problems and seriously, everything was so perfect. we had a short honeymoon in park city (we are really saving up for our second honeymoon this fall in belgium) and we are now back at work for the man up in logan. it has been fun living together although i have recently discovered that cade has a sleep-talking issue. the other night he woke up in a panic asking me where his mom is... we are working through this together. pray for cade. also, pray that i may be able to stop eating the left over wedding cake that fills a huge tupperware tub in our kitchen. yikes.
life is sooo great. i promise i will post more pictures as we get them, but if your tastebuds are tingling more than you can handle, our photographer put some shots on her website you can look at. knock yourself out. she said there are more to come...yee haw.
http://www.photographybybrittany.com/taylor
married life is fabulous. when i have a smidgen of time, i will write more but just know we are happy and, as always, striving to be politically correct.