Snowbird

Darin's company party was at Snowbird this year.  I was over the moon happy! Last year we went for my birthday and just road the Tram, ski lift, and hiked but this year (thanks to Darin's company) we got to try everything! Plus...they catered lunch.

Not pictured was the obstacle course and drop tower.  The obstacle course was my favorite, but no way was I going to take my hands off to take any photos! Darin and Miriam braved the drop tower.  

It was fun running into a Darin's colleagues as we were adventuring.

Darin and I would have stayed for the outdoor concert, the band sounded great during the warm-up, but the kids were exhausted...and so was I. 

Mountain Air

My parents let us have a weekend at their cabin just in the nick of time.  The endless 98 degree days were stretching way too long, and we (I) needed a break from driving everyone around to their summer classes, and then getting the kids to do their summer chores. 

Oh those blessed mountains! I adore the ocean, but I am at my core, a mountain girl.

We hiked

Darin and the older two biked partway between Fairview Reservoir and Huntington Reservoir.

Soren and I dropped them off and drove lunch down to meet them.

Soren took a little dip in the water....

Here they come riding to the dam.

We picnicked, Darin helped a young fisherman untangle his line... 

The kids got way too wet after "just dipping their feet in" (except for Byron...that boy stays dry and clean if at all possible).  Darin and I have determined we need to have towels in the car at all times for moments like this.  

We biked, and 4-wheeled around the subdivision to the swings, and to the lake.  There were tons of pelicans, egrets, and great blue herons at the lake so we kept going down to the lake to watch them fly in, fly out, and swim around. There was a toxic blue algae bloom in effect so we just watched from the shore. The weather was perfect, never getting higher than 80's with afternoon sprinkles, and one fantastic hail storm that lasted 15 min.

We played games, slept in, watched bats or hummingbirds from the hammock chair,  watched a movie or two.

I had packed books, and creative activities for each kid so that there would be plenty to fill our lazy days, and also to entertain the kids the morning that Darin and I went on our mountain bike adventure.

Darin and I rode up to Monument Peak. 14 miles up and down the mountain, but mainly up.  Just under 2,000 feet of climbing to reach an elevation of about 10,400 feet.
It was HARD, but I am so glad I went.  I didn't know if I should even attempt it, but I just plugged along...silently.  I guess I get really chatty when I am nervous, and super still and silent when something is hard.

The views were beautiful but I loved the scenery on the way up and down the best.  It was cool with trees and wildflowers, it smelled so great. One of my favorite memories of the summer!

Freedom

I do love our "young scrappy and hungry" country.  

Centerville sets off our fireworks on July 3rd, as does North Salt Lake. We drove Miriam North to watch their fireworks with friends (madhouse...I don't enjoy firework traffic...I will stick close to home thanks...but she had a blast so I am happy she went) the rest of us went up on the roof!

We can see the fireworks from our deck but this seemed an even more exciting way of viewing.  We have never been up there in the dark before. The boys were kind of freaked, Darin had to walk them around until they got comfortable.

All kinds of fireworks on the roof!

The next morning the kids and I grabbed a back pack full of frozen water bottles and walked down to the parade.  We asked a nice man if we could sit in his driveway in the shade (he was sitting in a chair in his truck) he said yes, and then brought us a blanket!  How nice is that? People...they are good I tell ya. The boys caught tons of candy and brought some back to him. 

We stopped by Dick's Market for their amazing blueberry glazed ribs, but they wouldn't be ready till 11.  So we trucked it on down to the park to watch Centerville's got talent until they were ready.  Such a fun show, lots of our friends had entered and we had no idea! 

We almost picked up a watermelon as well, but remembered just in time we were walking....whew!

Ribs veggies pita + hummus for our Independence day lunch.

Miriam made sheet s'mores for dessert. 

It was blasted hot by that time so everyone else watched Black Panther in the cool basement and I took a nap. 

Miriam and I then watched Love, Simon...by that time things were cooling off and we were ready for some excitement.  The boys and I let of one of the many many military smokes they have and we danced around the smoke until Darin said it was coming in the windows and making the house stink.   

It was dark by that time, so we played with all our sparkers instead.

And then had another delightful evening of FIREWORKS ON THE ROOF with Miriam too this time. We watched the first stars appear and then BOOM! The explosions started! We can see displays from Bountiful all the way to Farmington and there are a lot of people in neighborhoods who spring for the big ones as well.  I made everyone sit still for a while to grab some snapshots (thats why I am not in any).

One of my summer highlights for sure.

I wonder if I could hire someone to climb up there and take a photo of all of us?

I

Just Stuff

Byron earned his Arrow of Light!

Byron really does love scouting. 

With 2 new bikes in our garage we needed to address the storage situation STAT.

Darin had a Friday off which he spent in the basement epoxying PVC pipe.  Saturday he and I took a quick mountain bike trip on Firebreak.   We came home, cleaned out one side of the garage and brought out the chaos solution!

I LOVE it, and we can add other bikes in if/when we need.

Then we were off to the Rasmussen Reunion.  

My dad, Aunt Helen, Cousin (who feels like Aunt) Maureen, and their great friends the Mathis family shared beautiful stories of my Great Grandparents.  So fun to see cousins and connect our children.

Soren was the only Wolf attending Cub Camp so I offered to go rather than have his leader (who would need to get a babysitter) go with him.  Such a beautiful area! So many butterflies fluttering all over...and wild flowers galore (but I didn't dare go take photos because I would have to leave the path and those Scout Leaders were very strict with the rules!!)

Soren's favorite parts were archery, fishing, the trading post and the obstacle course.  He wants to try bee bee gun shooting without a power hungry hormonal teen barking warnings at his back.  We all loved canoeing with a muskrat!