West Rim Girls

The West Rim Trail is one of my favorite places on earth.  I was pretty disappointed when our late April reservation got snowed out, so I booked another spot for the beginning of June.  It worked out well because Brooklyn missed the  youth backpacking trip in May but was able to come this time.  Our friend Jamie also joined in the fun.  Ms. Delfin is our favorite art teacher at West!  Not only is her classroom fantastic, but she is always up for adventure.

Brooklyn's last hiking hurrah before graduation.

Mother-daughter selfies

We ran into some park rangers at the trailhead who wanted to see our permits.  Sure glad we had them!  They also warned us that thunder showers had been passing through every afternoon.  Indeed, their predictions were correct.  We hiked through rain and hail until we were soaked through.

Fortunately the weather cleared in time for us to dry out a bit and see some of the best vistas.

BYU Cougar in a Utes hat.  What has this world come to?

This friendly deer welcomed us to our campsite.

Chilled from all the rain, we were grateful for our extra layers.

Amazing sunset...

...coupled with a beautiful moon rise.

Our camp in the morning light.

On the trail again.  Gosh, I kind of wish I could spend every morning like this.  Keep your fancy mansions--I want trees and wildflowers.

One-on-one time with my kids is always precious, but even more so as they grow.

The desert blooming like a rose.

Girl gumption!  While both Jamie and I have amazing husbands that we adore, it's empowering to recognize that we women can have adventures without them.   While I certainly prefer to backpack with Jason, work and church obligations keep him super busy.  Life's too short to put on hold until he's available.  There's so much world to see!

Wrapping up with some cute animal photos.  The chipmunks at Scout's Lookout were super cheeky but adorable.  Just don't leave your pack unattended!  They will chew through it in no time.

Thanks Brooklyn and Jamie for the best backpacking weekend!  Hope to do it again some time.

Chugging Along

You've gotta admit, I gave it a valiant effort.  26 posts in the month of July so far.  I wanted to catch up SO BADLY before leaving on our next giant trip, but alas, it didn't happen.  I am composing this from Quebec City where Jason's family is gathered for a family reunion.  (Just for the record, Quebec is both beautiful and a really long way from Salt Lake.)  Life keeps chugging along so quickly!

Stepping back to our Florida trip, our plane arrived an hour before Papa Kay needed to catch a plane back out the other direction.  (He was in Salt Lake helping Callie and Adam move into their new home.)  Not wanting to miss each other completely, we all met up for dinner at Santo Taco near the airport.  Yum!

Charles and Susie were also in town.  Charles had been helping Jason tear out our lawn so that we can re-sod.  Thank you!  

All in all, it felt great to sleep in our own beds again.

Okay, now for the random smattering of Wheeler life.  We're cover model famous!  In May they featured our family in our neighborhood SALT magazine.  Every month they pick a different family to highlight.  A friend asked, "So did they pick you because you did something special or anything like that?"  Nope, not at all.  We just got (un)lucky enough to be referred.

Jason went on a cool bike ride with our friend Denver.

ASSIST had its annual barbecue at Lindsey Gardens.

The cute girl on the left is a refugee from Afghanistan who is interning with ASSIST.  She's super fun!

The end of May had its hard moments too.  Talia made this Stitch for the family of Nala, the little girl whose room was next to ours in the CICU.

We also drove up to Lava Hot Springs for the burial of our friend Rhett Carbine.  Rhett passed away far too young from short-rib polydactyly syndrome.  They had to postpone this graveside service for a couple of months because there was too much snow in Idaho.  In the end, he was buried on what would have been his 24th birthday.  

Rhett's siblings and family sign the casket.

The weather was perfect with bubbles everywhere.  While I don't know if there is anything harder than burying your child, Andrea did her best to make it fun and light--just as Rhett would have wanted it.  

While not as silly as swigging bubble solution, Annika's homemade bow cracks me up too.  I'm pretty sure she was inspired by Avatar.

Hanging with Ruby at Gardner Village.  Ruby was selling perler bead jewelry at a fun children's fair.

Nothing more charming than a gap-toothed entrepreneur!

Other adventures: Brooklyn's friends went on a Senior campout to Fifth Water Hot Springs.  Always an amazing sport, Jason tagged along as chaperone.  It's hard to believe this crew is now headed off to college and on missions!

The rest of the kids wrapped up the school year in June as well.  Here's Annika with her fantastic fourth grade teacher, Mr. Mitchell.

We love Wasatch!  In a district with declining enrollment, we are praying for the school board to please keep the school open.

Here'are a few highlight pictures from their Fourth Grade year that I snatched off Class Dojo.  This is the end of the year root beer float picnic at Reservoir Park.

A class photo with all the desks cleared out.

The hand-painted cornhole game that the class designed and painted for the Art Auction, funding the exceptional Wasatch arts program.

Finally, some pictures of our cute pioneers as they wait to perform their song and dance numbers for their Town Hall Meeting.

Back to May, here are a few pictures with Papa Kay.  With West High graduation on the horizon, he and NomiAnn drove out from Nebraska for the special occasion.

Hanging out at Liberty Park.  Papa Kay ended up with Anders' guitar.

Happy Days.