26 Years Old!!! - July 28, 2007

I celebrated by 26th birthday this year! We started off the day by waking up bright and early at 5:30 AM to go volunteer at the church cannnery. Through the course of the morning we discovered the fascinating process of canning green beans. Jayson got to be a sweeper outside where they load all the green beans into these huge sorting/washing/cutting machines. Sometimes some of the beans would fall out of the machines onto the ground and Jayson got to sweep them up! Exciting huh? I started inside on the conveyer belt as a "quality control" person. As the bean would roll by on the belt we would pick through them and pull out any bad ones. That assignment did not last long however because about 10 minutes into it my motion sickness kicked in. I couldn't take all the beans moving along in front of my eyes and I started to get really nauseous. Figuring that throwing up all over the beans would not be the most appreciated contribution I asked for a change of assignment. They sent me over to the boxing and labeling division where I made sure the flaps on all the boxes were folded down so the cans could get dropped into them. While it wasn't the most exciting thing we have ever done it was pretty interesting to see the whole process of canning beans from start to finish.
After 4 hours of working at the cannery we came home and tooks naps :) Then Jayson surprised me with my birthday celebration activity. We went up Ogden canyon, near our house, to Wolf Mountain ski resort. During the summer they have a program up there called Music in the Mountains. They have various performers come and you get to just sit on the mountain side and enjoy the music. It was very cool! They had the ski lift going, so before the concert started we took a scenic chair lift ride. It took us up to the top of the mountain where we had an incredible view of the valley below. The concert was a lot of fun. We took a cooler with a picnic dinner, so we got dinner and a show all in one! The name of the group was Harry Lee & the Back Alley Blues Band, they were a local blues band with a lot of energy. The lead guy was the picture perfect blues singer with a lot of soul. He was a great entertainer and could tear it up on the harmonica! Jayson hasn't failed yet to plan a fun adventure for my birthday. Last year it was a 20 mile tandem bike ride, this year a mountain side concert, I can't wait to see what next year brings!