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.