August Happenings

 I'm slowly trying to get through everything.  At least I made it to August before November happened.  Looking back at pictures, August was a busy month.  We had the girls' birthdays (always way more intense than the boys'), boating, school starting, and bike races.  It was packed with fun and business.

For Kate's birthday she invited some friends over and enjoyed our theater and hangout room.  The next day we took her to Nordstrom's and spent the day with a personal shopper.  It was great.  She helped Kate find good clothes that fit her and were super cute.  She also helped us spend lots of money!  For Sage's birthday we got lunch and went shopping.  Like all afternoon shopping.  When Sage shops she spends a lot of time looking, trying on a million outfits, and wants to visit all the stores.  It's not a fast process.  I had to take lots of deep breaths.  But at the end of the day she told me she was proud of me for my shopping abilities.  I'll call it a success!!

The weekend before school started we went boating at Starvation.  We love going there.  We had a great time.  At the end of the day a random storm blew in.  It was crazy.  Lots of wind and just dumping rain.  We were in the boat freezing while Jake was getting the truck.  It's a miracle we got the boat on the trailer.  Lots of prayers were said.  Boating is fun, and sometimes really stressful.  

And school finally started!  I can't believe I have a senior this year.  My heart is a little bit sad.  I mean, I'm so excited for Zack and everything he has ahead of him, but I'm so sad he's going to be leaving us.  We keep experiencing lots of lasts, and my heart is sad every time.  This weekend will be his last high school mountain bike race.  I'll try not to cry.  Kate is a sophomore, which means she'll be leaving me before I know it.  And Sage is killing it in 7th grade this year.

Kate and her friends Erica, Lauren, and Gabby

At Nordstrom's with a personal shopper!

Sage will deny it, but once in a while she had fun on the mountain bike team.

We got a personal tour of the BYU engineering building and walked around campus.  Crazy to think Zack might go there!  If he can finish his essays that is...

Angels rejoice!  It's Sage's birthday!!

Back-to-school fashion show

Sage did all kinds of weird moves with every outfit she tried on.  She had to make sure she could move in it before she would buy it.

YW mountain biking.  With every other youth group on the water that night.  It was crazy.

Zack got up on a slalom ski!

7th grade Sage looking way to old

A senior!  With his mullet forever documented

Sophomore!

We went on a team "fun ride" one Saturday.  Sage insists it was not fun.

The Heber graffiti tunnel

July Happenings

 July wasn't the most exciting month this year.  We did fun things, but no big adventures.  Jake and Zack had birthdays.  Zack got to experience an adult birthday by working all day.  And then going to mountain biking.  We celebrated in the late evening.  We had youth conference.  The highlight was renting out Seven Peaks so there were no lines.  Our kids experienced their first demolition derby.  They all agreed that it was better than a rodeo.  Zack was smiling the whole time.

Farmington Festival Days Parade!  At least Claire is excited

What happens when you forgot to buy candles

Jake finally got a new slalom ski

Zack working on his car again

This picture doesn't do justice to how dirty Zack gets while working on his car.  I made him throw away his pants.

Sage scares everyone with 'heavy heavy hang over'

Tracy gave Jake (and me) tickets to Garth Brooks for his birthday.  So fun!

Youth Conference

Jake and Zack got stuck at mountain bike practice in a huge rain storm

Demolition Derby

June Happenings

 I knew I was behind, but I didn't realize I needed to go all the way back to June!  I've posted a couple of bigger things we did, but I need to cover the random things that happened.  Mountain biking started in June.  This always makes life exponentially busier.  This is the only year that all three kids can be on the team together.  Zack's last year, Sage's first year.  Sage wasn't exactly happy about being on the team, even though she's a really good rider.  I told her she has to do it this year but after that she can decide.  Jury's still out on whether or not she'll participate next year.  I think she has kind of a love hate relationship with mountain biking.  Anyway, I got to be a coach with Sage on the devo team.  Jake is one of the head coaches on the high school team.  So every Tuesday and Thursday, from June through October, is spent at mountain bike practice.  As busy as it is, it's pretty fun that the whole family is involved.

Girls Camp also happened in June.  I need to get more pictures from people.  This was my first camp as YW president.  Definitely not my first camp as a leader.  I think the adults had as much fun as the girls.  Probably because two of my best friends were there (you better believe I got them into YW with me).  We went river rafting in Moab for three days.  It was unlike any other camp I've been to.  A lot of the girls had never been to Moab before, and some of them had never slept in a tent!  We had great fun every day on the river.  It was nice to be able to trust the guides to get us down.  The guides also took care of our meals, which was beyond amazing.  One of the hardest parts of girls camp is figuring out the food, so that was a definite win.  I think the girls all pushed themselves to do new things, which was great to see.  There was lots of laughing and fun had by all.  I especially loved having both Kate and Sage there with me.  Overall I'd say it was a success!

First time of the season on Jordanelle

Long Saturday mountain bike ride

This is a horrible picture.  Oh well.  Obviously I'm getting to the top of the climb.

Kate and Sage did some kids camps this year to earn some money.

Sage and I went to the concert in the park

Zack becoming a carpenter

Girls Camp!

Sage and her new mountain biking friends

Overlanding

 We took the trailer out for the first real overlanding experience over the 4th.  We headed to Cottonwood Lake, outside of Star Valley, Wyoming.  It's become a tradition to go there every year, and we love it.  So beautiful and quiet.  We got to use our paddleboards and just enjoy being there.  For a second anyway.  We decided to break camp and head towards the Palisades to see what we could find.  We had to stop in Afton for a Jeep repair (it's not a Jeep trip if you don't have to repair something), and a shake.  Then we drove up a random road and found a camp spot.  Also green and beautiful.  The next day we headed somewhere else.  I don't even know where we were, but it was a great camping spot.  We did some mini hikes, enjoyed our hammocks, ate yummy food, and Sage had some games planned for us.  In hindsight, I wish we'd stayed two nights at Cottonwood Lake.  It's fun to explore and doesn't take too long to break or set up camp.  But I didn't love doing that every day.  So lesson learned for next time.  Still loving the trailer though.  Especially when I was able to shower.  

Sorry for the photo dump.

Blowing up our SUPs

This view never gets old

Zack fished out of the tube for his first time.  We thought maybe he'd be stuck out there forever because he couldn't figure out how to move with the flippers.

Waiting for shakes and the Jeep to be fixed

View from our second night

We went on a Jeep trail that took us to an old cabin on the top of a mountain.  It was pretty cool

Sage somehow turns the hammock into an adventure sport.

My favorite camp spot

A hike-a-walk