Summer Lovin'

One of Annika's major goals this summer was to go fishing.

Thanks to the expertise of a friend, Matt Huntington, Annika's fishing dreams came true.  He took Annie, Jason, and his own two daughters up to Pineview Reservoir for the ultimate daddy-daughter date.

From what I hear, they caught lots of fish, but threw them all back.  Annika was so excited to use her pink fishing pole.

And who says Dads aren't super heroes?  Here's Matt getting a fish off the hook, all while holding an infant.

So cute!

Also on the animal front, Brooklyn's cello teacher hired her to help watch her five huskies for a few nights.  It was a big job, so both Talia and I spent some time helping as well.

Talia and Cora, the husky with the most gorgeous chocolate brown eyes.

Taylor and Lila, followed by a photo of the whole crew.

Meanwhile, Brooklyn was spending her mornings, afternoons, and evenings playing cello as part of ISSI (Intermountain Suzuki Strings Institute.)  The experience was far more intense than expected, but deeply rewarding.  She practiced so hard, particularly as she learned the Handel/Halvorsen Passacaglia duo.  It was extremely challenging, but she played great.

Here's Amy Barston, the guest artist and Brooklyn's masterclass instructor.

Brooklyn played in two different orchestras and a performance class (also led by Amy Barston.)

Getting ready to play the Handel Halvorsen with cute Jasmine.

Celebratory Tikka Masala from the Indian Oven.  The treat was certainly well-deserved.

Meanwhile, Talia fully recovered from COVID and was able to attend FSY.  Rescheduling her was super problematic online, so we finally went  up to the University of Utah in person where they were able to find her space as a "walk on."  She had a great time!

Attaching her room key to her lanyard.

Surprisingly, she had a room all to herself, perhaps for the first time in her life!  Not that her single room kept her from being social.  Rumor is she danced with nine boys.  :)

Back at home, I was missing everyone fiercely.  So I ordered this photo project from ThunderBunny Labs and got to work finding pictures of our family travels around the United States.  Looks pretty cool, right?

 
Talia's home!  And our family grew by a Rosie pup.  (Just kidding.  We were borrowing her from a neighbor, but she's still adorable.)

Truth to be told, we see a little less of Talia these days, even when she's home. She has a great friend group that keeps her quite busy.  In this first picture, they are playing night games where they got dropped off a mile away from a friend's home, and then had to find their way back.  A truck bed full of blindfolded teens--nothing suspicious about that!

Annie, Danyn, Clara, and Talia at their silliest.

So what else says summer...how about movies at the park?  We headed down to Riverton to see Sing 2 on the most beautiful evening.

Summer is also for swim lessons.  I love the Olympic size pool at the Salt Lake City Sports Complex.

The taste of summer..raspberries straight off the vine.  We have LOVED our small raspberry patch.

Watermelon is great too, although that usually come from Sam's Club.  Sometimes we send Annika deep into the freezer to grab us some orange juice as well.

Yup!  Summer is beautiful and exhausting.