It’s back to school time already. Here are the girls on their first days of 3rd and 1st grade.

And Landon started preschool too!

I hiked some more mountains. Here is Timp:

And Lone Peak:

Very large hat.

Josie, Jimmy, and family came to visit us and we got to celebrate Laura’s birthday with them.

In spite of stormy weather, we made it to Splash Summit and we got the boat out too. The weather didn’t look to bad down in the valley, but it was pouring rain up in Heber. We headed over to Strawberry Reservoir and had a window to put the boat in and get some runs in before we were rushed off the lake by more rain and lightning.

Freezer corn assembly line. So much less mess doing it outside!

“Walking the dog”

Homemade pesto pizza. Pesto made with basil from the garden. So delicious!

Washing the dishes.

Weekend visit to Idaho.

Early birthday party for Eliza!

Kid sponsored concert and dance party!

Eliza’s birthday morning.

Cupcakes for the chicken themed friend birthday party.

We might need to put this girl in softball. She really wacked the piñata hard.

Seven years old. Crazy.

I’ll admit I’ve been a little focused on posting about my hiking endeavors. That doesn’t mean that’s all we’ve been up to this summer. Here is a recap of some of the highlights.

Backyard fun with the kiddie pool and slip and slide.

Basically every day playing on the swing set

A Stop at Hill Air Force Base on our way to visit Idaho for the weekend.

Cousin time!

Grandpa Gerald time!

Pool time!

Sunday breakfast with Grandma Nancy and Grandpa Gerald.

Monkey time!

Check out this doggie corner! This girl’s dream is about to come true…

Picking out a puppy…

Pickup up a puppy! Welcome to the family Kacho. He is a mini golden doodle.

Showing off to friends

The Fiesta Days rodeo

Popsicles

Costumes

Art and crafts. Check out this person that Landon drew 100% on his own.

Such a cutie

Parades

Backyard glamping and smoores

Sunday cookies

Grandma Suzie visits

Hanna and Sam visits

Adam and Todd visits

Hosting our Romanian girls for the World Folk Fest.

Celebrating 11 years of wonderful marriage to this super kool kat.

Monster Truck Madness!

Laundry madness!

Oh, and what’s that out the back window?? Why yes, that is the Cobalt heading out to the lake.

The Fairy Princess Puff Cloud returns

Wait, who’s driving the boat?

Grandma Suzie!

Knee board throwback

Launching kids and then just chilling out in the lake

Cutest baby ever

Visiting friends and feeding the alpacas

Grocery shopping with Ashley, blowing her mind how much the bill was, and causing her to ponder on the need to get a better paying job than working in the yard.

Necessity is the mother of invention. No more getting off to push Landon.

Bodacious garden

Cooking up 10x worth of pancakes for Kathryn’s backyard violin concert and brunch event.

So proud of Kathryn and the impact she has on all these kids’ lives

Enjoying the left over pancakes with my boy.

Giving Thunder a wash. I almost don’t recognize him now. Kinda like Harry the dirty dog.

One night when Kathryn was out, I looked around at our cute kids, and couldn’t help but grab the camera and document what was going on. And no, life is not always like this, but every once in a while it is, and it’s sweet.

Life is not always easy, especially in the moment, but when you look back, you know it, life is good.

It was back in 2017 that we hosted some folks for the Springville World Folk Fest, details here: World Folk Fest 2017. After a few year hiatus, the Folk Fest was back on this year, and we decided to give it another go and be a host family again. This year, we had two Romanian girls stay with us, named Ariana and Antonia. They tagged along with Kathryn and kids for the week. We were impressed by all their costumes. They had a unique one for each of the 5 performances.

Our girls were in the front row, stage right.

It was a lot of fun hosting them and having this splash of culture. We wish these two girls the best! Thanks for visiting.

I had a last minute chance to hop in with some friends from work and head to Yosemite to hike Half Dome. I’ve always wanted to go, and I jumped at the chance. It was a whirlwind trip lasting just 46 hours. We left at 5:30 am Sunday and were back at 3:30 am on Tuesday morning. Unfortunately, there was a fire that broke out near Yosemite that blew quite a bit of smoke in the valley. Fortunately, this kept quite a few people away and the crowds were much lower than normal.

Merced river

El Capitan. This was fun to see in person after watching Alex Honnold climb it in Free Solo.

We stayed in Curry Village. These were the type of tents we stayed in. Not too bad.

Monday morning, start of the hike. The moon was rising over Half Dome.

This was the most manicured trail I’ve ever seen. Where else do you have granite steps like this. And it was like this for a lot of the way!

Vernal Falls

Nevada Falls

There it is! Half Dome.

The cables!

I took a careful look over the edge at the 1800 foot cliff and 4000 foot drop off to the valley floor. I think the picture makes me more woozy than actually being there.

On the visor. Again, approached with extreme caution.

Nevada falls from the John Muir tail side on the way down.

Then the long drive back home. What an awesome trip! Thank you Kathryn for you support and letting me go on this great adventure.