August Trails and More

I'm bummed right now.  I'm supposed to be in Europe (COVID-cancelled), or at least on a plane to see Lance in Chicago (also COVID-cancelled.)  Utah is back on Chicago's mandatory quarantine list, thanks to our rising case counts, plus Talia has a minor sore throat so we are playing it careful.  Jason and I both ended up cancelling our trip just a few hours before takeoff.  Ugh.  Careful may be responsible, but it's certainly no fun.

On a positive note, at least we have our internet restored.  Yay!  Nine days without was pretty rough, especially with online school.

You know what isn't rough?  Spending time in the mountains.  Connecting with nature puts life's little hiccups into perspective.  I haven't been up into the canyons since the storm, so I think it's time to make a trip and mend my soul.  

Here are some photos of a lovely hike Brooklyn and I took up Sunrise peak.  The trail begins up by Alta at the top of Little Cottonwood Canyon.

Gorgeous wildflowers!

Somehow I blinked and my beautiful gal grew up.

At Catherine Pass you can see down into Lakes Mary and Martha.

A selfie with my girl at the peak.

From the very top you can see Silver Lake and Lake Catherine as well.  So pretty!

Other adventures: kayaking!  We met up with Talia's cute friend Clara and her mom for a fun afternoon at Causey Reservoir.

Talia lived the good life as Clara towed her around in a tube from her paddleboard.  Sometimes you have to be creative when social distancing!

Here's Clara's Mom, Lisa.

Talia takes a turn as she preps for paddleboard yoga.  Hilarious!

Back at home, here's Annika with a pile of books.  I think this kid is going to absolutely adore reading as she discovers how it unlocks so many imaginary worlds.  She already loves reading Harry Potter at night with Jason.  They recently finished Book 3 and are onto Book 4.

When it comes to Harry Potter, Eli outpaced us all this summer, reading all seven books over the course of five weeks.  Way to go!  We'd originally planned to host a Harry Potter party for Eli's birthday, but decided to hold off a bit to give us more time to plan.  As he turned eleven yesterday, may I just say, Yer a wizard, Harry!

This summer Eli got to spend a bit of time with Grandma Susie and Grandpa Charles in Hyde Park.  So fun!  We joined up with Charles and Susie in Ogden for a short but steep hike up to Waterfall Canyon.

Annika joined us for the adventure.

While Eli was in Hyde Park, we amused ourselves by making a paper maché hedgehog piñata in honor of Aunt Callie's birthday.

The fate of a piñata is hard.

Talia stayed busy by crocheting some cute bunnies...

...while Annie crafted some bunny beds for them.

Between practicing musical instruments and their online coding courses, the bigger kids stayed pretty busy even over the summer.  Occasionally Annie and I would slip away just the two of us.  Here we are at This is the Place.

And here we are at Cecret lake.  As soon as I heard that the lake was full of salamanders, I knew we needed to make a trip.

Brooklyn joined us for this adventure.

Fortunately we really could see dozens of tiger salamanders.

The frill at the base of their neck definitely surprised me.,

The perfect way to spend an afternoon.

Continuing on with our random photo collection, here's Jason trimming the ivy.

I trimmed Talia's hair.

Goodbye Goldilocks!

Beautiful as ever, just a little more grown up.

An evening stroll at Liberty Park...

...and a morning hike up Grandeur Peak.

Coach Kim hiked with us.  

Kim, Sean, Talia, and I with views out both sides of the valley.

While I still wish we could have gone to Europe or Chicago, may I remember that life's great here too.