July

 July ended up being a pretty busy month!  Started out with the 4th, of which I have very few pics to document.  We have a tradition of going to Starvation Reservoir the morning of the 4th.  This year was a randomly cold and windy day.  We spent our time huddled under towels and trying to handle the choppy water from the wind.  The first time we've ever not had a great boating day there.  Poor Kate had to work after we got home.  She got to experience her first not fun job this summer working at the gate at Jordanelle State Park.  I felt bad for her, but also think that every kid needs to experience a not good job so that they can be motivated to go to college.  Sage went to the neighbors and lived her best life with them.  And the rest of us relaxed and watched all the fireworks going off around us that night.  

We also got to go boating with my cousin Season and her kids.  This was monumental because she just got a heart transplant, plus a million other hard health things that she's still dealing with.  We had so much fun with them and were so glad that Season got to come out with us and have some fun.  She's gone through so much lately.  I really admire her for her ability to keep smiling through it all.

And then Jake, Zack, and Sage decided to do one of the weekly races up at Wolf Creek.  Things were going well until Sage wrecked and cut her shin really bad.  We had to take her to get stitches.  Sage does not like needles, so she really didn't like stitches.  But she was very brave.  We learned that shins don't heal well.  Not much blood flow and tight skin that gets stretched.  Here we are in September and it's just barely mostly healed.  Poor girl didn't get to boat for the last 6 weeks of summer.  She finally got to go yesterday.  I'm just glad it healed and hope it stays that way.  And even though it took a bit to heal, I'll take stitches over broken bones any day.

We went boating in the morning on Jake's birthday.  He got to ski on glass.

Sage wanted to eat before we went to the hospital

June

 June was our fairly low-key month of the summer.  Sage went to a day of girls camp and a week of FSY.  She had an interesting group at FSY.  She says she had a really good spiritual experience, not so much of the games and social.  I'll take that, even though I wish she could have had both.

Kate and I went to St George in the heat so that she could go to freshman orientation.  The orientation was not great, and St George was hot, but it was still nice to take a quick trip.  

Another year of high school mtb team started up.  I think this is our 7th year having a kid on the team?  We enjoy it, but it's busy and one day I'll be glad to have a break.  

Zack got a great job at an engineering company in Park City.  He spent his summer working full-time.  He got to experience the joys of being at a desk all day.

Kate and I finally stopped at Cove Fort.  We've only driven past it a million times.

I love the lily pad flowers we get on our pond

Sage and I went on a sunrise hike

Lake Powell

 I love that Lake Powell has become our traditional summer vacation.  And we've found a time that works pretty well for us, so it's nice to just know it's on the calendar.  We're slowly getting it figured out...  Anyway, we went to Page and Antelope Point again.  Every year we debate about camping.  And every year I get too busy and stressed and say there's no way I can handle the prep of camping.  So for now, this is how we do LP.  And I think it's pretty great.  We managed to rent a slip for a couple of the nights which was super nice.  So we only had to get the boat on and off the lake twice.  Speaking of the boat, we got a new one right before LP!!  Jake took some convincing, but we went for it, and I have to say it's been pretty great.  It was so nice not to worry about what kind of mechanical problem we were going to have.  And our new boat is bigger, so it cut through the waves in the channel much better.  All in all a good decision, I think!

Another way our trip was different this year is that Jake's sister and family came with us, along with Tracy.  It was so fun to have them along for the ride.  They grew up going to LP, so it was like a mini LP reunion.  Everyone had great fun doing all things water.  It was good times.  

And finally, another way our trip was different this year is that nothing broke or went wrong.  This is a miracle for LP.  There's usually some kind of problem.  Not this year!  The only thing that was a little off is on our drive home.  There was a fire right outside of Kanab (where we were going to eat) and they closed the road for a bit.  When we finally got through and arrived in Kanab starving, everything was closed because the power was out.  So we finally ate in Panguitch.  That's the worst thing that happened, so pretty great trip if I do say so myself!

Here are a million pics...

The boat had a lot of people.  But we wouldn't have even all fit in our other boat.

It was good for Sage to be around her cousins.  Sage like to dish it out, and they weren't afraid to give it right back.  Sage made it clear that she hates the sound of chewing, so they spent like 10 minutes chewing in her ear as loud as possible.  It was great.

This sign was in the marina store.  Somehow it ended up on Sage when we walked out.

The fire we drove through.  Was actually way worse than this pic shows.  Flames on both sides of the road when we drove through.

This was a major wreck.  Notice Sage's hair flying sideways in the pic.