The Country Club Life!

For the most part of July, we lived what many would refer to as the country club lifestyle. Many of our planned activities consisted of swimming, tennis, golf, and enjoying a movie.  On July 9th, we had the Hill family over for a pool party at the Aix La Chapelle apartments.  We provided pizza and they provided the party.  We swam around, played tag, and even had an "entry into the pool" contest.  In the contest, you had to provide your most entertaining, most excellent, entry into the pool.  Though there was no clear winner, it was rather enjoyable to watch.  A favorite activity though was the human ladder.  We would stack on each other's shoulders and got up to four or five people tall.  Mike or Big Jon would be on the bottom, then tall Jon, myself, and the kids on top of me.  It was a riot to see how tall we could go without tipping over.

This summer, Mike was kind enough to let me join a tennis league.  I had not played tennis in a long time and so it was interesting to say the least.  My first match was awful.  I played an older lady which I should have beat rather easily had I been playing.  Instead, I couldn't keep it together mentally and had a major breakdown.  Looking back it was rather embarrassing, yet, I learned my lesson going forward that I cannot act like a baphoon on the court.  After a couple of matches, they paired me against the former U of U tennis coach.  She had played professionally back in her day.  She was the best in the league.  Even though I did not win it was a great match.  I believe I lost 6-3, 6-4.  However, we had great points and it was a lot of fun.   I aced her several times and I was the one to make her frustrated. Though it may be prideful, I was excited to do so well seeing she didn't even take a second look at me for a scholarship to the U of U.  Mac was also playing in a league as well.  She was on a team with Sarah and the regular group of older, well-to-do, and very entertaining ladies.  They always had their snacks and alcohol to accompany the match.  They are always good for a laugh and added to Mac's enjoyment of league.  It was fun to be able to party with her at tennis as well.  We even celebrated our losses with a dinner at the Training Table.  Can't get much better than that.

Mid month we took a trip to Cedar City to view the live theater. My parents had two extra tickets to see Les Miserables at the Shakespearean festival.  We were invited to join them since Levi and Michelle had other plans.  Prior to the show, Mike was able to locate a couple of North Face shirts on clearance. Obviously, we couldn't pass that deal up.  We then went to Top Spot Drive-In and enjoyed not only some ice cream, but a few games of Monopoly Deal.  We then made our way to the theater and saw the famous Les Miserables. At intermission, Mike and my Dad were able to sneak us in some ridiculously hard pretzel, which the snack shop would have been better off throwing away.  It was well done.  However, one of the actors, who was in love with Cosette, was a little over the top at times.  When Jean Valjean was carrying him after he had been wounded, he had the craziest bug eyes and weirdest facial expressions we had ever seen.  At a climatic point where we should have been serious, we couldn't help but laugh.    

In keeping with our country club lifestyle, we frequented the movies on a couple of different occasions, had a dinner date at Jim's restaurant, and on the 21st, Mike and I went golfing with many of the Hill men.  We were paired up in teams to do a little bit of scrabble golf.  The teams were as follows: Mike, Curt, Papa, and myself versus Big Jon, Danny, Marty, and Ben.  Mike was pulling in the long shots for our team where Papa was filling in on the mid range.  Curt and I got our occasional shots in and even though I would love to say we won, I'm pretty sure we lost.  Yet, we still had a great time.  Since we were at the Eaglewood golf course, Uncle Curt was gracious enough to invite us all over for pizza.  He also let us try out his hunting bows in his backyard.  He created a little shooting range for himself.  It is marked out every five feet or so and shoots into a big target.  The boys were pretty good.  Mike and some experience shooting bows.  Jon owned his own bow and had been practicing for the big hunts.  As for myself, the target wasn't always big enough for my arrows.  I may have even lost an arrow in the back woods.  Though it did get significantly easier when they let me use Kenna's bow.  I think the pink camo really helped me out.