July Happenings

 We had some good fun in July.  Even though Zack had just left for his internship, he came home to hang out with us.  Jake was extra glad to have him along because he's starting to feel extra outnumbered with girls in our house.  We ended up heading to the Uintas for some camping.  We met up with some friends and had a great time.  It's beautiful there, as always.  It was good to get away and not have cell service!  We did a crazy hike up a mountain, fished, and relaxed.  It was wonderful.

On the 4th we continued our new tradition of going boating at Starvation Reservoir.  It's a great day to go because hardly anyone was there.  We were able to water ski until late in the day, which never happens.  We got home in time to eat some good food and enjoy the neighborhood fireworks.  There are so many people letting off fireworks it feels like we're in a war zone.  Gratefully, nothing started on fire.  We ended the night with the Memorial Hill fireworks.  All in all a good weekend, just no pics to document.

The girls went to girls camp.  Without me.  This was Kate's last year of girls camp and her first year of camp without me there.  Kind of crazy.  They got to go canyoneering up above Cedar.  They had a great time.  While Zack was home we celebrated his birthday.  Kind of weird not having him home on the actual day.  Jake's birthday was going to happen while we were in McCall, so we also celebrated that early.  These summer birthdays tend to not be home on their actual birthdays.

We went to McCall with all of the Spjute Family.  A great time was had by all.  The cousins loved playing together.  The adults loved talking, and playing.  It was a beautiful place.  We spent most of our time on the river with paddleboards and kayaks.  We attempted a slip-n-slide, but that was a fail.  Fun to watch though!  It was great to spend time together!

The road to where we camped was a true Jeep road.  But our trailer made it just fine!

Sometimes tress are across the road so we have to get chainsaws out to clear a path.

Zack wanted apple pie for his birthday dessert.  Random.

Jake's the only one who had cake this year.

We dropped Jake and Sage off to ride the rest of the way to the house.  They didn't quite make it, but they did manage 30 miles!

Everyone loves Beckett!

We went exploring on our bikes one evening.

Cousin fun!

The beautiful river where we played.

The usual line up in our chairs.  In the shade of course.

We waited in a long line for ice cream that wasn't that great.

Fun spot for jumping off a rock

Our latest project ripping up our driveway to fix the drainage problem.  There's a reason we've taken 8 years to do this.  It's not a fun project!

June Happenings

June was good.  Nice to be out of school and get into the swing of summer.  Zack ended up being home for most of June, which was a little frustrating for him but a nice surprise for us.  Kate continues to teach piano, and both of the girls got a job coaching younger kids in mountain biking.  I think they've enjoyed it for the most part (I'm sure they'd be quick to tell me it's not fun, it's a job...)

We started the summer off with sending the girls off to trek.  They had an overall good experience.  They would both say definitely type 2 fun.  They were sure dirty when they got home!  We started up mountain bike practices.  This year Sage is the only one on the team.  Kind of weird to just have one kid participating, but kind of nice too.  She's been biking up a storm and is turning into a good little rider.  

I got a job!  This was not planned.  Kind of fell into my lap, but I'm hoping it's a good thing.  I'll be working in same day surgery at the Park City Hospital.  Surgery means no nights, weekends, or holidays.  Once I get through training I'll be working prn, so I'm only required to work once every pay period.  I'm thinking I'll probably end up working once a week.  So far I'm really enjoying it.  I like the people I work with and it's been nice to use my nurse brain again.  Fingers crossed I don't regret this decision in a month.

And the big news of the month, really the year, is that we finally finished and moved into the office!!!  Hallelujah!  That just about killed us.  Really.  I would like to say that since it's been done everything's been much more calm and stress free.  Unfortunately, it seems like there were lots of things that quickly took it's place.  But we're still so happy to be moved in to a permanent location.  Yay!

Kate was obviously very excited...

I went with Kate and her friend Presley to Cedar and St George to tour SUU and Utah Tech.  Kate really liked Utah Tech.  I think she's seriously considering going there!

This year the team is doing 6 hour rides at each race location.  Basically you ride the course as many times as you can in six hours.  A great way to get to know the course really well.  The first one was at Eagle Mountain and Sage and I rode 40 miles.  Longest ride ever for both of us!

Sage did her first time trial.  She did great!

While we were at the time trial Kate made a cake for Jake to celebrate finishing the office.  Yay!  Also, Kate has dinner ready for us when we get home from practice at 8:30.  This has been life changing for me.

Hopefully the last time we move this table.

Jake in his fancy new office.

 

Lake Powell

 We headed to LP over Memorial Day weekend.  Second time we've gone this weekend.  Hopefully it can become a tradition.  This year we did it a little differently.  We have way too much going on right now to even try to prep for LP camping.  It takes so, so much prep to camp.  So we decided to head to Page, Arizona and Wahweap.  We drove to our St George place Thursday night and then the rest of the way Friday morning.  This time we stayed in a hotel, which made the prep a million times easier.  Leading up to the trip I'd been working every day doing landscaping at the office.  I had zero time to do anything.  I got done working at the office at like 12:00 Thursday, and we left at 3:00.  So much better than the days and days of camping prep.  

Anyway, LP always has adventures, to put it nicely.  Everyone who's been there has multiple stories of things going wrong.  So you go and just hope that it's not too bad.  This trip we had quite a lot of adventures.  No one got hurt, and the boat didn't sink, so I guess we should call it a win.  These are the things you really remember down the road, right?

We got on the lake in the afternoon on Friday.  Everything seemed great.  Beautiful LP.  We made it!  Then we noticed that our bilge pump was draining water out of our boat a lot.  Like way more than it should.  There was obviously water coming into our boat somehow.  Never a good thing.  However, the pump was working great.  Seemed like we were doing ok.  So we decided to keep boating and hope for the best.  Right after the stressful moment of figuring out our boat was leaking, we got pulled over by the fish and game people.  Horrible timing.  I was driving, Jake was surfing, and Zack was sitting on the back platform of the boat working the rope.  That's why we got pulled over.  You're not supposed to sit there unless you're wakeless.  So they gave me a ticket.  Told me I should be able to call and pay it online.  Annoying, but not the end of the world.  Until I called to pay and they told me it's a misdemeanor and I have to appear in court.  What???  So I get to attend court, over zoom gratefully, later this month.  Triple ugh.

Saturday morning we got back on the water and Jake and Zack immediately set to work to try to figure out where we were taking on water.  They got it figured out, used their creative brains, and realized that Ace had the part they would need to fix it.  We decided since we didn't sink the day before we would enjoy the day on the lake and fix it that evening.  Saturday was probably the funnest day out.  So relaxing.  Everyone got to do everything they wanted, and it was beautiful and sunny.  We got off the lake, and Jake and Zack managed to fix the leak in the Ace parking lot.  Hallelujah.

Sunday we were excited not to have to fix anything on the boat.  Except we got in the water and the boat wouldn't start.  Nothing.  We checked everything we could think of and finally looked at the battery.  Somehow a wire had come off during the repairs the day before.  Hooked it back up and the boat was good to go.  Phew.  We had a nice day, but everyone was so worn out from all the water activity that we didn't even do that much.  Zack and Sage usually never want to stop being pulled behind the boat.  They'll do pretty much anything.  So if they won't go out you know they're really tired.  

We headed back to St George Sunday afternoon and pulled up to Dairy Queen for dinner at like 8:30pm.  Zack got out of the truck, looked down at the tire, and there was no tire.  At some point on the drive one of the tires on the trailer blew and we didn't notice it.  Still don't understand how that happened.  There was nothing left of the tire, just the hubcap.  The boys changed the tire, and we finally got back to the house.

We went home Monday.  Because of the holiday we decided to just risk driving home without a spare.  I mean, what are the chances we'd have two flats in one trip?  Good apparently.  We were 5 minutes outside of Beaver when the spare that we'd put on blew.  This time we felt it and pulled over.  There was literally nothing we could do without a spare tire.  We called and found that Big O Tires was open, so we turned on the hazards and headed in on the shoulder.  In holiday traffic on I-15.  Got to Big O and learned that although our tires looked good, they were like 15 years old.  That's why they kept blowing.  So we replaced all of our tires and got a new spare.  $900 later we were out the door.  With traffic and the tire it took us 7.5 hours to get home.  

So that was our trip.  And if you read this far you get a prize.  There were goods and bads of not camping.  We definitely missed the quiet nights and glass water of the early mornings.  However, we really enjoyed being able to clean up at night, go out and get food, and sleeping in a normal bed.  I told Jake I might be open to camping again eventually, but until things calm down it's not happening.  

Also need to give a shout out to Zack.  As much as his Jeep being broken really frustrates me, he's learned a lot about mechanics.  We couldn't have handled everything that went wrong without him.  He came up with great ideas and was the one in the tight spots, fixing things.  He definitely earned his keep on this trip.  New LP rule, no going without Zack...

We paid to launch at Antelope Point so that we didn't have to drive so far in the boat every day.  The launch ramp is pretty cool.

A really fun BBQ place we went to for dinner.

Finishing off the trip at Big O

May Happenings

 May was fairly low-key, which is odd for May.  Zack finished his first year at Utah State and moved home for a bit before he starts his internship.  He's so happy to be home.  Not really.  It's always so awkward to move back home once you moved out.  We're all trying to make it work.  Zack's been killing himself trying to fix his Jeep.  Sometimes I hate Jeeps.  They seem to mostly not work.  When they do work they're fun, but the moments seem brief.  

Kate and Sage finished school.  Sage survived middle school and is ready for high school.  I'm thrilled to be done with middle school.  Those years are rough.  Kate is officially a senior.  I'm not ready to let another kid leave me.  But I can't wait to see the fun things she'll get to do her senior year.

Everyone went all out for Mother's Day.  I told them this year will be hard to beat.  Jake and Kate worked hard on delicious fajitas.  They were so good.  Zack and Sage worked hard cleaning up.  Sage did her usual magic for special occasions with the nicest card, a video with pictures, peanut M&Ms, and she even wrote me a song on her guitar!  They all humored me with a long walk after dinner.  Best day ever.

We continue to kill ourselves trying to get the cursed office done.  It feels so close, yet still so far.  The latest craziness has been doing the landscaping.  We've been screening the dirt to get cobble rock to put in the front.  Jake dumps rock at the front and I spread it out.  I never want to touch a rock again.  However, my dad raised me for this job.  I was born for this (but I'm never doing it again).

It's always bitter sweet when another school year ends.  So nice to have a break, but always crazy how fast it goes.  My kids are growing up too fast!  Soon Sage will be the only one home (she's not looking forward to that by the way).  Now if my kids are getting on my nerves I remind myself that I'll soon be missing these moments.  Sometimes it helps.

Sage made me frosting for Mother's Day.  She knows the way to my heart.

Jake and Kate making me deliciousness.

Sage got braces!

April Happened

 April was busy, but fun.  The week after we got home from our epic spring break Kate got to go to prom.  Her date was super nice and cute.  The actual date was somewhat of a marathon.  Dates these days are so long.  For sure exhausting.  But she looked beautiful and got to wear her NY dress.

Jake and I got to go to Michigan for a builder group thing.  I was super excited to see this part of the country.  We went to Petoske, on the banks of Lake Michigan.  By the way, Lake Michigan is huge.  It was like looking at the ocean, but a lake.  So pretty.  I wish we'd been able to go in the fall because it was definitely shoulder season.  The weather didn't cooperate and the last couple of days were snowy and really cold.  We did manage to get in a mountain bike ride.  My first time on a trail outside of Utah.  We had fun, but it made me appreciate the amazing trails we have here.  Hard to beat those.

I obviously don't do food pictures much, but this may have been the best chocolate cake I've ever had.  So so good.

The lady from Michigan (Jamie) took me to the lake to look for Petoski rocks.  It was so fun.

On our way to dinner one night.

There were so many leaves on this trail we could hardly see where to go.  I mostly followed Jake.  

We barely fit the bikes in our rental car.

Trying to clean up from the longest winter ever.

Kate and her date, Daniel

We have a system down.  Sage does makeup, I do hair.  And good thing we're fast because we only had like 45 minutes.