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"I would rather start out somewhere small-- like London or England."
-Britney Spears
This morning I woke up to open windows and the air was all chilly and crisp the way September is suppose to be. Our stolen summer sunshine is pretty much gone, but even though I'm fiendishly excited about sweater weather, a quick scroll through my phone photos is enough to make me nostalgic for London summers.
Over the past couple of months vintage has made a safe landing on Oxford street. Everything was in polka dots and in Pinterest-y pink and mint... I know it is at the point where it is driving people crazy, but I still love it.
We also had some great parties with friends-- especially the Blocks who are always amazing to host the best dinner parties, including the fourth of July (below).
We also got to spend a bit more time with Auntie Claire, who did us the great service of narrating our contribution to the family film festival. Her voice was quite the hit! But that is to be expected when you have a voice is that all velvety and beautiful like hers.
We also went to a Taylor Swift concert... sorta. We decided one Sunday to take a stroll through Hyde Park. There are always big concerts playing on the weekends, but they cost a pretty penny. Anyway, we walked around the venue and found a whole slew of people in this one particular place where you could see pretty perfectly into the concert FOR FREE. It was fantastic. And did I mention free?
As part of Jon's job, he gets invited to spiffy events, like a dinner cruise down the Thames. They said fancy dress, so Jon came in a suit and tie. However, Brits are pretty serious when they use the phrase "fancy dress." Everyone was wearing tuxedos and evening gowns. Jon was even teasingly chastised for wearing "funeral clothes" to the party.
Jon's favourite part was the magician (which is really no surprise as he gets crazy excited anytime he sees one). He literally went on for a solid hour after got home about Troy. All in all he had a pretty smashin time.
Pictures can be deceiving.We know that most photos are probably not as perfect as they seem, but somehow we still get sucked in. Here's a little story about the epic disaster that was my 27th birthday. I had intended to do a photo-documentary style post, but in the end, the photos were just telling the wrong story. This post needed words.So, here's the brutally honest truth.
The day started out ok. Jon had given me a fantastic new book (Sleuth by Philip Mould), which I was having fun reading, and I was still recovering from opening my mother-in-law's b-day gift.
I had unwrapped it slightly confused. This large white plastic step stool peered out at me while I tried to determine it's purpose. Finally, Jon explained it to me.
It now resides, quite proudly, in the bathroom-- a great testament to both the humour and practicality of my mother-in-law.
The rest of the day passed quietly and uneventfully, that is until it came time to make the pie.
I love pie. Why someone would choose the often dry, spongy texture of cake, over the glory that is pie is completely beyond my understanding. So, with the promise of pastry to come, I got things together to make myself the perfect birthday pie. Afterwards, I gave her the once over.Lopsided. Darn it. The only thing to be done was try to cover it with pastry flowers. Pleased with the result, I popped my beauty into the oven. That pie was in there for FOREVER (a full hour and a half at 200*C-- is that normal?!), but in the end this gorgeous little number came out and all seemed to be as it should.
I made dinner (soup and watermelon salad), snapped the photo below, then laid all the food out. Perfect timing! I finished just as Jon opened the front door. As always, I pulled the table away from the wall. But strangely, the two legs opposite me decided that they no longer wanted to be legs, and promptly dropped to the floor. In an instant, the far end of the table dropped, the soup and salad slipped down the surface, and smashed, rather violently, into the wall. I screamed. Jon rushed in to find my mouth agape. Soup had sprayed 10 ft up the wall in either direction, while the moist remains had begun to seep into the carpet. The injustice of such a travesty happening on my BIRTHDAY suddenly hit me and I burst into tears, rushing past my bewildered husband to find refuge with the squatty potty.
When I finally composed myself enough to emerge, I found Jon, on the floor, trying to salvage the situation. But there is no way to sugar coat it, it looked like Fate had just barfed all over our floor.
Somehow we saved enough for each of us to have a small portion, unanimously deciding we'd fill up on pie instead.
We sang happy birthday (yes, I sang it to myself-- I needed it.), then cut in.
... and yes, the bottom was utterly raw.
So there you go. Perfect 27 was fraught with life lessons. Things like:
sometimes pies come out raw
sometimes you need a toilet stool to sit on while you cry
sometimes birthday dinners suck
and sometimes the story of a photo is a lot more entertaining than perfection.
It has been one busy summer full of lots of travels and families and... well, a bit of fattening up. But what is life if you can't eat your weight in peanut butter m&ms, right?
Our epic sojourn back to the States started in Utah, where Jon's family lives. As our Young Family reunion was gearing up, we had family slowly trickle into town, which meant we got to have little adventures before everyone arrived. Check out our vlog below:
The journey began with a killer flight from London. It was... horrible. Between the layovers in both Germany and Portland and the 11 hour transcontinental flight with four screaming babies, it was a doozy. It was, however, made exponentially better by the goober that photobombed our video.
Right off the plane, we got to go see my brother-in-law Tom perform. The boy's got a mean trumpet... Excited to see where his career will take him. I'm certain it is going to be someplace mind-blowing.
I've always known Jon will make a good dad one day, but I have to say, watching him with kids is enough to make anyone's ovaries do backflips.
Check out 0:58 in the video above and you'll see what I mean. My babies will be little geniuses!
Anyway, he promised the kids that we'd take them lizard hunting up Little Cottonwood Canyon. The lizards, naturally, had other ideas, but we still managed to have quite the adventure. From climbing boulders (Lincoln-- in red-- is a little mountain goat!) to sloshing through rivers, it was quite an exciting time.
Double rainbow. Need I say more?
One night we all went downtown to go Swing Dancing at the city's Big Band Night. Tom was playing (in the band) and we met up with Matt, Lisa, Mary and her kids to learn some sweet moves.
If one thing can be said for my bros-in-law, they for sure can play a little ball. As one of the more uncoordinated humans on planet Earth, I find their skills pretty impressive. Still, even if I were blessed with some semblance of athleticism, I'd probably still be the one videoing on the sidelines. Playing with boys terrifies me. Truly.
So, I was fairly well baffled by my sister-in-law, Lisa, who is completely undeterred by the sweaty, pushy enigma that is the world of male basketball.
During the game, a couple of Dave's friends gave her some serious grief, going on and on and on about having to play defence on (heaven help them) A GIRL. I was sitting on the edge, about to boil over about the whole thing, but Lisa just brushed it off-- completely unfazed by the apparent fragile state of masculinity these days.
Anyway, she is a rock star. And I adore her.
So, as I get the rest of these reunion videos done (and celebrate in a really serious way because it's BIRTHDAY WEEK), I'll just recommend a quick subscribe of our site as well as checking out this documentary (because it is life-changing and will alter the way you look at art). Enjoy!
Alrighty world, here's this big ol' film festival I've mentioned more than a few times. It sort of took over my life this summer, but here are the fruits of it.
When I first came up with the idea of doing this, I was sure it would be me, and MAYBE one other family member contributing, but I couldn't have been more wrong. EVERY single sibling put in at least one film. I couldn't believe how much everyone participated.
There was laughter. There were tears. But most of all, there were lots of memories. And while this is pretty special now, I can only imagine how great it will be 20 years from now.
Our first film comes from 30 years of digitised video footage. Several family members warned (apologetically) about what I'd find. Somehow, I think the only proper response to that is to put every embarrassing moment to music.
This groovy piece was done by my Bostonian nieces and nephews thanks to their auntie (on the other side of their family, Kate). Cuties.
You never really realise how many inside jokes a family has, until you marry into one. After watching basically every filmed moment of their lives, I can finally laugh along, which I must say feels pretty grand. This one was done by Matt and his lovely wife Lisa.
I'll probably never be able to say enough about how much this kid inspires me. Andrew is a real gem, and while I've said it before, his bravery inspires me.
For a change of pace, here's Tom's Ode to a fart machine.
My nieces in Wisconsin, definitely don't back down from a solid roasting of the Young brothers. Here's there skit inspired from Kid Snippets.
Because Kathryn, Jason and their girls couldn't be at the reunion, they made this second film and I have to admit to being totally blown away-- the idea was BRILLIANT. I love how she got everyone up and moving, and the whole family interacting. I filmed the reactions of everyone at the reunion and edited it in to the original video. Together it makes this film one of my all time favs.
When Jon and his bros were little, they weren't really allowed to do much by way of playing with friends on Sundays. They did, however, have a video camera, and --to fight boredom-- they got creative and started filming each other. This video is a remastered set of those little films. After seeing the fruits of a this rule, my children will definitely get to look forward to no friends on Sunday.
This one was a big fan favourite at the reunion. It chronicles the early days of Dave and Rachel... who may or may not have put their son in a wig and dress. It's epic. Please watch.
This film was a beast to get finished! It took about two weeks longer than anticipated. I learned quite quickly that trying to implement green screen (when you have a Christmas tree in virtually every shot) is just pure masochism. In the end this is where we arrived-- this is what Christmas Eve looked like in Jon's house as a child. Also, a big shout out to Auntie Claire for being such a killer narrator!
This film cleaned house. It probably would have won every award if we would have let it-- and even a few we didn't do (like special effects, for example). Dan put so much work into this, and I seriously get more impressed with it with each viewing. Friends, I give you the coolest home film you've probably ever seen...
And then there is this one. I've talked about it before, but it really is one of the things I'm most proud of watching. Please watch it, share it and enjoy...
So that is this years film festival. For family, I know there are a couple of recommendations on how we can improve things for next year, so please do let me know what those things are! Also, for a little nostalgia, check out our 2013 reunion (one of my very first videos ever!).
As for the awards, here's the offical list for posterity:
Best Young Filmmaker
Winner: Come and Get Your Love (Christensens)
Runner-up: Wedding Jitters (Woods)
Best Drama
Winner: Daydream (Dyers)
Runner-up: Youngling Bunch (Jon + Jess)
Best Musical
Winner: Home (Andrew)
Runner up: Freeze Dance (Woods)
Best Comedy
Winner: Come and Get Young Love (Dave + Rachel)
Runner up: Thank You Notes (Matt + Lisa)
Audience Choice Award
Winner: Daydream (Dyers)
Runner up: Come and Get Young Love (Dave + Rachel)
Best of Show
Winner: Chairs (Jess)
Runner up: Daydream (Dyers)
Also, for my loyal readers, I know I've been MIA this summer, but all that is about to change come September 1st. Watch out cuz there's gonna be a whole lotta bloggin going on.
This is a little film Andrew and I put together while I was home for Matt's wedding. It's a really vulnerable and brave song choice and subject matter given where his life is right now and I'm awfully proud of him. Happy to say there were a couple of tears when we showed it at the family reunion, which is always a pretty killer sign of success.
This morning I woke up to open windows and the air was all chilly and crisp the way September is suppose to be. Our stolen summer sunshine is pretty much gone, but even though I'm fiendishly excited about sweater weather, a quick scroll through my phone photos is enough to make me nostalgic for London summers. 
