political science

The summer between my junior and senior years of high school I attended Girls' State. It's a leadership and citizenship program for high school students and in the course of a week on the Southern Utah University campus we set up mock city, county and state government. I throughly enjoyed it and gained a real appreciation for the democratic process of electing representatives and leaders. I better understood my civic duties and rights as a citizen and ever since I have been kind of nerdy in love with America (but I will never like that 'God Bless the USA' song or Kristy Lee Cook for singing it).

So some months ago I really appreciated Megan's coming out politically post. You see, I voted for George W. Bush the first time around. A few years later I listened to Colin Powell present to the UN the reasons we needed to invade Iraq and I agreed based on that information. Days later I was off to Armenia and heard bits here and there but was largely unconcerned and uninformed about American politics beyond knowing some version of a war had begun. A year and a half and I found myself home in Utah a mere three months before the 2004 elections. And what a mess that was. Maybe those reasons for declaring war weren't completely complete? Colin Powell was resigning? John Kerry was the Democratic candidate? God was owned by one political party? All of these things were surprising to me. A few heated discussions with my father later, a lot of discussing with other people and a bunch of informing myself led me to not vote for President Bush again. Who knew?!

I was 18 the first time I voted and 22 the second time. I made political choices at those ages based on what I felt were the best decisions. This exciting election year I am 26. I understand more about economic issues cus guys, I'm totally an adult. I care about tax changes and I do think we need a more socialized healthcare system. I wonder about the future of social security. I think the gas tax holiday is a bad idea and I am really interested in energy proposals that require utility companies to use a percentage of renewable sources. I think we need to get out of Iraq. I don't think Jesus is a Republican or a Democrat because remember how he's perfect?

I know the President doesn't magically solve problems, I know often he or she has little control even and I totally know my little vote is lost. But I believe in democracy so I think it's important that I do my part to be informed and vote for what I believe in just because I love America. I think on either side of a political line and everywhere in between people mostly just want to live their lives and want kids to get nice educations and sick people to get care and terrorists to stop being a-holes. The means to those ends might be different but that's okay.

I was never on board with any Republican candidates, so the past five months have been intense. I thought Hillary was pretty alright and in the words of Tina Fey, bitches get things done, so I think she could have made it. But last night when I heard Barrack Obama is for real the Democratic candidate I felt a sense of excitement for this game to be on.

Teenagers may look way hotter than me in swimsuits this summer, but come fall I'm totally pumped up to be the one who gets to vote! Snap!

baby boy

The baby boy Christasha have made is going to be the first baby born unto the Clifford family so far. Roast on my parents for having 5 adult children who are mostly Mormon and no grandkids yet. Mikey took some great photos, but to get you started Katie, behold:

Rebekah did the flowers and Julia made the world's cutest case for the party favor CD mix I made.


this guy is about to be a father


enchiladas


face game


this is what Danny thinks the baby will look like


parents


friends


family


Chuck and fetus key chain prize


Elizabeth and Jeremy taste testing baby food


party people

wait, what?

don't we have a family blog already? do we now have 2?
awesome.

canyon arrow

My grandparents own the house in Logan where my grandmother was born. They don't live in it, it's currently a guest house for visiting friends and family, but it has played host for all kinds of family events for as long as I can remember so Cache Valley feels comfortable to me and I figure its about as beautiful a place as there is on this earth. Once you pass Davis County, the lake and mountains are beautiful and Sardine Canyon takes my breath away in any season. On your way into Logan, as you peek out of the canyon and over into the valley...well I just love it every time.

My grandparents have lived in California and St. George during my lifetime and while I'd visited (and loved) those other places, it was just a few years ago in the autumn when I caught up with them in Logan for a weekend visit. With them I went to the wedding reception of a distant cousin and sat and laughed at a table outside with people I didn't know well but who, remarkably, came from the same place as me a generation or two ago. I went for a run in the quiet neighborhoods surrounding the old house. We ate salmon tacos under that big blanket of a sky at a local restaurant in the cool fall air. My grandma told me about the car rides she used to take with my grandpa when they were dating and my grandpa talked about how quickly he fell for her. My grandparents are a delight; they are hip and young acting and have always been so much fun to kind of show off. But suddenly, their whole lives felt more real...alone with them in those few days their stories of life felt so real to me and I think finally as an adult I could look at them beyond being my grandpa and grandma.

The weekend really stayed with me and I have since found myself looking for ways to spend more time with them to soak up who they are. Last Memorial Day I went again but was with just my grandpa. He took me to his tiny hometown of Clarkston just North of Logan and with his siblings we laid flowers on the graves of my great-grandparents at the little, windy hilltop cemetery there. My grandpa then drove me around showing me where he had lived and the places where he used to cause trouble and I heard more about his live and how much he loves my grandma. Sitting at lunch with great-aunts and uncles and watching them all interact I thought about a grandchild of mine hanging out with my brothers and sisters sometime far down the road and I was overwhelmed by the circularness of the family that came before me, the one ahead of me and the physical places that have been at the root of our generational bonds.

This year Elizabeth and I together spent a lovely little while with them for the Memorial Day weekend. We stayed up until 1 o'clock with our grandparents and then slept in my favorite bed in the guest house. We were told multiple times that there was plenty of Diet Coke in the fridge. We went to the Logan cemetery with a couple of my grandma's brothers to visit the only great-grandparent I ever knew and in the course of our stay my grandpa kept his arm around one or both of us almost constantly. It was rainy enough that the bikes Elizabeth and I took never even made it out of the car, but oh well...that place and that couple of old people are worth it a million times over.

gently take my skull for a ride

This Indiana Jones week has worn my old body out. But also, fun! We haven't started anything before 11:00 so I passed out like 1/2 hour into The Last Crusade the other night (which was fine cus I'd watched the second half on Sunday). I had to drink my weight in Diet Dr. Pepper yesterday to prepare for the 9:45 screening of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull we went to last night but boy was it worth it because Christopher actually did this.


The movie was fine, the jungle Tarzan branch swinging part should not have been allowed and hello, aliens? There were some eye-roll parts, but you know, whatever...Harrison Ford was awesome and I think Shia LaBeouf is a great choice for the future of Indiana Jones. Plus Marion!! I didn't know she was in it and I thought how she fit was really great.

But perhaps the best part of the evening came after the movie when everyone enjoyed what we will call "Stranger Corn".


Enjoying Stranger Corn, opened up Janelle's mind and eyes and she zeroed in on a giant candy bar in the theater (it wasn't opened, she had opened it at this point). It was like a Bible story candy bar because that Milky Way just kept feeding everyone and didn't run out.


This one is just (mostly) a joke. (For what it's worth, Kristen does always try to get Logan to think when we egg him on to do potentially harmful things)


And then outside we realized my brother must be an alien!!!!!!!!!!

momsong

I have a really pretty great mom, for lots of reasons really, but also because apparently she knows how to put up videos on YouTube. Alright Jayne!

So this is what I missed on Mother's Day. She's so cute, I love it when she laughs.



I'm sure sometimes it's exhausting how much Cliffords are all "We're awesome! We love each other! We're so funny!" But we really think those things and I personally think Logan and Christopher are an especially great combination.

holly rollers

Wyatt, I am rolling. That is what the t-shirts will say. We are a bike gang officially.








Summer please begin.