Our August in a Nutshell

Thank goodness school is back this week.  I am exhausted from all of the events we have been doing this summer.  We really hit it hard, doing an adventure almost daily.  Our most common event was going to 7 Peaks and using our passes there about 1/week.  We went to both the Salt Lake and Provo locations pretty evenly, and we definitely had our fill of water slides this summer. 

 

We had two major races in August.  The first Saturday is the annual Bair Gutsman and Chad celebrated doing his 26th Gutsman with being able to take his daughter on the journey.  She was a tough 10 year old hiker.  She finished the whole thing, despite being VERY tired.  She got a medal for finishing as the fastest 10 and under female in the race (also the only one!).  She showed so much determination, and if you ask her about it, she says that she knows she can do hard things now because of it.  It is a grueling 10 mile course that climbs 4500 feet at over 1000 ft/mi.  Impressive, girl!

 

I did my second ever triathlon this summer.  It was a sprint (I am nervous to go any farther!).  It was the Blackridge Triathlon in Herriman, UT, and I got to do it with my sister-in-law, Marianne.  That was a very fun thing for me.  Chad and the kids and Marianne's family all came as spectators. Anyway, I had a great race.  The swim was pretty congested, but the bike went great and I passed a lot of folks on the run (2nd fastest run time of the women).  My age group was the very last to start, so there were so many people ahead of me, and it was hard to gage where I was versus the other women.  But, when it all shook out, I had the 4th fastest time for the women and was the 1st in my age group!   What a cool thing.  I think that racing could be pretty addicting for me, but now that I am back in my real world, I am happy with my one podium walk a year!

Okay, now for the summer activity catch up.  The kids went to the last radio Disney party this month, and had a blast, of course.  We always stay the whole time and they don't tire out even in the near 100 degree weather.  This time we won 4 prescreen tickets to the "Odd life of Timothy Green", which was a fun adventure to attend a prescreening event.  It was all very exciting.



We went to the Sandy Balloon Festival, ate doughnuts and read books.  It is always a cool thing to watch those huge balloons fill, and lift off.  The kids love picking their favorites.  This year, we got to get in one of the balloons and do a short lift off and return.  What a fun experience for the kids.

 





We did $2 Tuesdays at Thanksgiving Point.  One week we did the flower gardens, the next was the Dinosaur Museum.  We love both locations, and it was really fun to go see the dinosaurs.  We haven't been in a couple of years.  Good summer times.


 During the last couple days of summer vacation, I started to get sad, realizing that summer was winding down.  I am really going to miss having Kate around all the time.  She is a big 1st grader now.  But, I am also going to love having more time with just Graham.  I decided to do something big - become Aquarium members again and go together.  We never have seen the otters, so it was a good time to go, and then I will be able to use the pass for just Graham and I this winter. 

  Graham, as suspected, LOVED the aquarium, and we had a great time showing it to him.  The whole family LOVED the otters.  They are so adorable, and later, we caught them wrestling and playing and that was very exciting. 

Anyway, what a good summer.  Now we are back to the homework, carpools and sports practices of the school year.  It is a bitter sweet transition, but we are chock full of memories.

July is fun with a bang!

 Well, I am just going to write about a few things, because the month was so busy.  On July 4th, we ran the Sandy City 5K with the kids.  Chad and I each ran with one child and Audrey ran with her friend (Graham got a cushy ride in the stroller).  We had such a wonderful time.  We are proud of those kids doing hard things, and finishing them.

Later in July, Chad went to scout camp, and the kids and I took a trip to Idaho to visit Great-Grandpa King.  It was nice to be in a slower pace and sit and visit with them.  The kids did marvelous using their imaginations and playing peacefully.  It seemed just like what old time summer vacations should be about.  We took a day trip over to Craters of the Moon as well.  The kids loved the caves, we spent almost all of our time in the caves there.  Good times exploring with the kids.

Audrey, Chad and I joined with Chad's brothers and others on a trip to the top of the world.  We hiked Mt Nebo - and wow!  I could really get hooked on getting to the top of mountains.  This wasn't too strenuous, and it was an amazing feeling being at the top.  The kids loved signing in at the log book.  Makes me wonder what mountain peak will be next.

What 24th of July would be complete without a trip to the float preview?  We had a blast looking at all the floats and voting for our favorite one.  This year there was a ton of candy handed out and games to play at the floats.  We also got to request exotic balloon twisting from our favorite clown.  Good times!

The girls attended the Real Salt Lake Soccer camp, and they had such a blast.  We drove several of their friends over, so we had playgroups, fun and friends every day for a week.  The girls are begging to do it again next year, which is awesome.  I don't even think they realized how hot it was, and that it was hard work.

Well, the best part of the month (and summer) was the Iverson Family vacation!  What a pleasure to have so many friends and role models to spend time with.  I am so grateful everyone took time out of their schedule to get together (and travel from CA!).  Good times and good memories.  I loved every minute.  Thanks guys!