Our mountains are on fire here.  Lots of evacuations on the south side of the valley.  Over 75,000 acres have burned in this lightning caused fire.  Wind gusts up to 50 mph are fueling the fire and caused its explosive growth.  This is the #1 fire in the nation and lot’s of fire crews are on scene.  No structures have burned yet though.  This has been a really bad fire year and I’m looking forward to the end of fire season.

Hard to believe that we’ve basically put a wrap on summer already. Here is some bonus content not covered in some of the previous posts.

Last dirt bike ride with Kevin. We conquered a huge loop up American Fork canyon that gave us trouble last year when Kevin’s chain broke and we had to ditch his bike. We didn’t have any problems this time and we really enjoyed the beautiful overcast day and epic views of the mountains.

I just love this picture. It’s my new favorite desktop background.

Pioneer day.  Wagon treats and Fiesta Days Rodeo in Spanish Fork.

Good bye celebration for Kevin and Bethany.  We really enjoyed all the time we got to spend with them and we sure miss them.

Austin and Karina’s wedding.

This girl LOVES to dance.  Especially at weddings.  I can’t say that getting out on the dance floor is really my thing, but it’s hard to resist when you get pulled out on the floor by your daughter!

Swinging!  The girls have absolutely loved this swing this summer.  So do all of the friends that come over.  We’ve worn a pretty huge bald spot in the grass as proof.

Just loving my girls.

Swimming lessons!

Boating and cabin weekend.

Backyard violin concert and BBQ.

Kevin’s Graduation.

Packing up for an Idaho weekend.  Ashley was helping me load up the dirt bike into the truck.  There was lots of swimming, family pictures, lots of airplane and drone flying, green beans, dirt biking, and just all around fun family time.

Adam is such a great uncle.  These girls really love him!

Back to School!  And that’s a wrap to summer 2018!

We had the privilege of going to the Hairpin Ranch again this year for a Kirk family reunion. We really enjoyed the trip and had a fantastic time. It was a good wrap up to summer proper.  To top it all off, we were invited to ride on Spencer and Kristen’s plane.

Here we are on the ride up.  It made the trip so much shorter, cutting 4 hours of driving out.  Plus, it’s just really cool.

We had a lot of fun on the beach and the little lake. The girls played in the sand for many hours making their creations and soaking in the goodness.

Ashley has wanted to go fishing for so long too.  I told her she was born into the wrong family and maybe uncle Stan would take her out sometime.  Well, she finally got a chance to fish.  We didn’t catch anything, but we did have a bite where a fish stole our worm!

We basically foundered on good food over the entire trip.  We helped with the Hawker Hawaiian Chicken lunch. This was a pot of around 18 cups of rice that we cooked up for a sense of scale.

As an early birthday present for the girls, Grandma Suzie got them both these sleeping bags.  The girls love-love-loved them!  In fact, when we put them to bed that night, it was the first time in history that we’ve put them to bed together, in the same time, in the same room.  Granted, they were super tired from all the day’s activities, but when the experiment ended in sleeping girls instead of yelling, laughing, or someone coming out, we were astounded.  The sleeping bags had to have something to do with it.  They were so cozy!

Ashley naturally gravitated to this little guy, only three months old.  I think she’s really going to like having a baby brother of her own.

Pics at the ranch yard after church at the nearby branch.  It was a great meeting.  I always like going to other peoples church and getting their perspectives on the gospel and on life.  We basically inundated the little building and there was standing room only in the chapel meeting room.

We really enjoyed driving around on the side by side.  We might have to get one of these sooner than later with how much fun we had on it.  It was a lot smoother than the four wheeler, and we could take the whole family.  Maybe once we have a bigger garage someday.

The traditional family games.  This year it was the Viking Games, with the Norwegians vs the Swedes.  There were a variety of games including king of the balance beam, axe throwing, bow and arrow shooting, and tug of war.  Then there was an inner strength game of blowing a boat across a little pool and then eating a sardine.  Luckily, the sardine was boneless and skinless, so it basically tasted like strong tuna.  Still though, sardines have a very bad connotation and tend to bring on the gag reflex, so I’m glad we’re not in the sardine business.

She nailed it.

Ashley and I went on the hike up to Peterson lake.  It was a really pretty hike through the forest and Ashley did a great job.  She was a trooper.  It was great to get out in the forest and get up to a mountain lake.  I missed doing that this year.

We took the Mavic up too and got some fun shots and videos.  This is one of my favorites of the big house at the Hairpin.  I love how open and remote the area is.  It’s just so peaceful and relaxing to be there.  This really is Big Sky Country too.  I couldn’t believe how many stars there were at night.  I haven’t see the sky like that for several years and I forgot how mesmerizing it is.

And here we are on the trip home, loading up.

This was a great trip.  So much fun went undocumented too.  A big thanks to everyone who made it possible, especially Spencer and Kristen.  We really enjoyed the chance to spend the weekend with the extended family and connect with all the aunts, uncles, and cousins.

Happy Birthday to Eliza!  Three years old!  Inconceivable!

Side note here.  Ever since the girls saw cousin Laura’s mermaid tail, and then they went to their friends mermaid themed party, the girls, especially Eliza, have been supper obsessed with mermaids.  Sometimes Eliza will start daydreaming and then all of the sudden start talking about Marina the mermaid from that party.

So in light of that, this was a mermaid themed party.  What this girl doesn’t know, is that she is about to open her very own mermaid tail.

Before we could go and put that new mermaid tail to use in the water, Ashley had a soccer game.  Gomp Tim and Grandma Suzie joined up with us at the game, and then played with us for the rest of the day.  The girls both loved it.

Oh the anticipation and excitement!

After swimming for multiple hours and then getting lunch, the girls where fine, but the adults needed a nap after all that swimming!

This girl loves her mommy, and mommy sure loves this girl too!

Kitty cat cake.  Well done babe.

So much joy.  This was a successful day.

And to top it all off, we decided to make this the day to move the girls in together in preparation for little boy blue to come join the family.  Fingers crossed that this will be a good thing.  haha.

Happy birthday Eliza.  WE LOVE YOU.