August

 August had a lot going on, as always.  Kate started us off by having a birthday.  In Zimbabwe.  One she'll never forget, I'm sure.  Really I need to have her do a whole post of all the things she's been up to.  Sage had a birthday and, unlike year's past, wanted nothing to do with it.  Which made me sad.  Why do kids have to grow up?  She ended up coming camping with me and Jake.  She did drive the Jeep a lot, and she got to go fishing.  And even caught a birthday fish!  I'm sure she'd tell you it was not a good birthday, but at least we did something.  I guess...  Jake's birthday surprise was to drive a race car around a race track.  We all had fun going with him and seeing the fast cars.  Jake had a lot of fun going real fast.  And Zack and Sage and I got to ride in a drift car driven by an actual race car driver.  I've never gone so fast around turns.  Pretty cool.

School started with everyone at different locations.  Zack in Logan (I never get any pictures of him, or texts, or any kind of info at all).  Kate in St George.  We miss her.  A lot.  And I'm a horrible mom and was so consumed by the heat when we dropped her off that I didn't even get any pictures.  Kate is great at communicating with us, so that's a plus.  A big plus.  And poor Sage is stuck at home, alone with her parents.  She's in her sophomore year of high school.  I knew it would be an adjustment having just one kid at home, but man it really threw us all for a loop.  Sage hates it.  A lot.  She frequently says, "Stop asking me questions!"  Sorry Sage.  I feel like it's slowly getting better (Sage would probably disagree).  I wasn't sure we were going to make it.

On top of all of these happenings, race season started for mountain biking.  The races always make our fall season really busy.  But we love it.  Sage is having a great season and we love watching her race.

Sage getting her bike fit to her.  

I'm grateful the HXP leaders made Kate's birthday special.

Birthday fish!

She even cleaned it herself

First race of the season in Cedar.

Sage got her driving permit!  We're all counting down the days until she has her license.  We have a ways to go...

The only first day of school picture I got

Fast cars at the race track

These three deer were living at our house all summer.  Now that hunting season is in full swing we haven't seen them for a while.  Hopefully that's not a bad sign.

Jake driving

The only picture I have of Swiss Days.

Proof that Kate really is at school

Sage killing it at the Soldier Hollow race

Couer d'Alene

 We spent a couple of days in Glacier and then headed to Couer d'Alene, Idaho.  I personally could have spent a full week in Glacier, but we'll have to go back.  CDA is beautiful.  I love the huge lake and wished we had our boat there.  The highlight of this part of the trip was the Hiawatha Trail.  So fun and beautiful!  I've heard a lot about this trail, biking through tunnels with lights, beautiful bridges, etc.  It was amazing to finally be able to experience it ourselves.  The trail is 15 miles long, and most people just go from the top down.  Sage and I decided we wanted to ride from the bottom to the top and then back down.  Sage really wanted to ride back down with her cousins, so we tried to time it so we'd meet up with them.  This was definitely a challenge though because there's no cell service and we really didn't know how long it would take us.  I'd also like to add that I'm again proud of myself for my navigation skills.  Jake is usually our navigator, for good reason, but I did a good job on this trip.  Patting myself on my back for sure.  Anyway, by some miracle (like an actual miracle) Sage and I pedaled out of the last tunnel where everyone starts coming down and all of the cousins were right there getting ready to start!  We couldn't have planned it better if we tried.  So we all got to enjoy the ride down together.  I was also grateful we brought our own bikes because, as Sage would say, those rental bikes are not it.  Anyway, as before, lots of pics...

Sage tryna lock in to her football throwing technique (can you tell Sage wrote that)

The beautiful spot we went for our last night

Running along the path around the lake

Oh yeah, we went to an amusement park while we were there.  It was like all amusement parks.  Sage loved it.

Starting up the Hiawatha Trail

Turns out if you ride really fast through the wet, muddy tunnel you get covered in the mud.

We went to Spokane for a couple of hours because who knows when we'll be in the area again.  Turns out they have lots of waterfalls

Look at all of these teenagers

Glacier!

 I've always wanted to go to Glacier National Park, but it's quite a drive so it's just never happened.  Tracy and Laura mentioned they were going this summer and I decided to tag along.  It ended up being just me and Sage.  Jake couldn't get away from work, Kate was in Africa, and Zack also had to work so he can pay for school.  So Sage and I headed off for an adventure.

We broke the drive there into two days.  Really nice since I was the only driver.  We took our time on the drive.  I showed Sage around BYU-Idaho, and the next day we stopped at a really cool spot right before Glacier.  It was fun to make some detours.  

We got to hang out with Greg and Tracy, Mike and Laura and their boys.  There ended up being 6 teenagers on this trip.  5 boys and Sage.  I have to admit that there were times when I really wanted a break from the teenage attitude.  They can be great, but you know, also teenagers.  We all managed to survive each other, although it might be a bit before I travel with that many teens again...

Glacier was beautiful.  Unfortunately very smoky, but even with the smoke amazingly beautiful.  We did a couple of hikes, Sage and I went on a fun mountain bike trail (I was proud of myself for navigating this and not getting lost), and paddle boarding in the most beautiful lake ever.  We also managed to get delicious ice cream every day.  It was pretty amazing and I definitely want to go back with the rest of the family and spend some more time there.

Here are a whole lot of pics.  Completely out of order, but I'm not taking the time to fix them.

We got to see mountain goats right off the trail

Avalanche Lake.  The water was so cold, but perfectly clear.  Really pretty.

Our first morning in the park we waited in line for like 2 hours for the shuttle.  Not the highlight of the trip.