October Part One

 October was such a busy month!  I think we were away from home for most of the month.  Like actually.  So it was a fun busy.  Jake and I started off the month heading to Golden, Colorado for a builder meeting.  It was so nice to not have to fly!  We went a day early and stayed a day longer to take advantage of Colorado time.  We also drove the Jeep.  This is both good and bad.  Good because we get to go fun places.  Bad because the drive is much slower and less comfortable.

Our first stop was Steamboat Springs.  Such a fun little town.  Then we headed towards Rocky Mountain National Park to find a place to camp.  It's been a long time since I slept in a tent, but it wasn't horrible.  The area we ended up in had recently had a fire so there were actually no trees.  And thus not much wildlife.  I don't think I've ever been anywhere that quiet.  It was so quiet it felt loud, if that makes sense.  I slept great.  The quiet woke Jake up;)

Then we headed to the national park.  I've always wanted to go and it didn't disappoint.  So beautiful!  The road through the park goes up to almost 13,000 feet in elevation.  Crazy!  It felt like we were driving on top of the world.  So cool.  We drove through a lot of the park, did a hike, ended on a Jeep road, and then headed to Golden.  

Golden was a cute little town.  Not as pretty as our little Midway, I think.  But I was jealous of all the trails they had along the river.  I went on lots of trail runs and hikes while Jake was in his meetings.  It was awesome.

And then the meetings ended.  We headed to Breckenridge and found a fun Jeep trail.  This trail actually hit 13,000 feet elevation.  The mountains in Colorado are definitely more tall and rugged.  We were going to camp again, but found ourselves outside of Beaver Creek and decided to stop there for the night.  We stayed in an amazing hotel right at the resort.  We've gone there for a lot of years to ski, but never been there in the summer/fall.  Still beautiful.

We made it home and all in all had a great trip!  What about Sage you might ask...  She was living her best life here on her own.  Pretty sure she was with friends every night.  There were reports of being in the hot tub at 2:00 in the morning.  Bottom line is Jake and I can leave and Sage won't cry.  

Beautiful Beaver Creek without snow

Super cool trail I ran on in Golden

Where we camped.  Notice the lack of trees.  Made for good views though.

The whole way to Steamboat there were signs for this store.  A lot of signs.  Guess their advertising worked because Jake got some boots.

September Fun

 September was busy, but fun.  We were of course consumed with mountain biking.  Sage finished out the regular season and did a great job.  The season didn't go quite how she wanted it to, but I was proud of her for sticking with it.  She worked hard!  

We enjoyed the beautiful leaves and took a Jeep ride up to the Uintas.  Good thing we went when we did because a week later there was a big fire and that whole area burned.  

We finished out the month on the 5th row at a University of Utah football game.  I've never sat that close at a football game.  It was pretty cool.  Unfortunately, the actual game wasn't great.  Utah is struggling this year.  But we still had a great time.

The Johnson's joined us for the game.  Sage kind of learned how football works.

The girls from our team who race in Sage's group

Sage is getting to be a decent fisherman

Kate's living her best life at Utah Tech.  We miss her, but we're glad she's having fun.

We added another car to our family.  Not a Jeep, but as close to a Jeep as you can get without being a Jeep.  Sage said it was better than Christmas.  It's yet to be determined how good it really is.

We went with friends up to Cascade Springs.  Always beautiful.  That's Sage with Cade and Oakley.  They're like the younger siblings she never had.

We finished off the summer with a Labor Day trip to Starvation Reservoir.  Always good times on the boat.  Well, most of the time...

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