Our Fabulous Summer

Well, I have a lot of catching up to do again for the past three months. Someday I'll keep this updated and won't have to post these huge long posts.

Our summer was absolutely awesome full of lots of fun activities.

On our way back from China in June we stopped in Los Angeles to visit Grandpa Jim in Palos Verdes. The one thing that Jonny wanted to do was go to the Staples Center to see where the Lakers play hoping to see someone famous.

The closest they got to seeing someone famous was this statue of Kobe Bryant.

Gavin was able to sit next Chick Hearn and do a little bit of commentary.
We spent most of our time visiting Grandpa Jim and his girlfriend Giselle. We took them up to a park overlooking the ocean in San Pedro.

After a few days in Palos Verdes, California we finally arrived in Utah on June 18.
Our condo near BYU was vacant for the summer so we had a place to stay. These are views from our balcony. We loved waking up to this view each morning. Just south of the condo about 200 yards is a huge water park called Seven Peaks. The annual pass was only $49.99 so we took advantage of that and went at least 5 times a week.

For those people who seem to not understand why we like Utah or America so much rather than China, these are perfect examples. Traffic is light and people know how to drive and stay in their lanes.
The sidewalks are not all torn up with cracks and trenches. They are free of debris and people don't spit, pee, or poop on the sidewalk. Notice no trash and you can actually walk without having to go through obstacles. No bikes with riders ringing their bells for you to move out of the way. The sidewalks are built for people to actually walk on and feel safe.

For Gavin's birthday we went on a motorcycle ride up to Flaming Gorge Dam with my sister Ranell and her husband Mike, and my brother Keith and his wife Steph from Arkansas. It was a beautiful ride through the mountains and just an awesome day with my family. The only down side was we got caught in a thunder and hail storm coming from Vernal to Roosevelt. We had to pull over on the side of the road and wait out the storm. Fortunately it was only a few minutes but those few minutes drenched us. All and all, it was an awesome day.




Now they look like real biker's.
Gavin loves pie so for birthday's we usually have pie instead of cake. The kids decorated the house and had it ready for a little party after we returned from our bike trip.

This was an unusual year with tons of snow in the mountains when we came back. Snowbird Ski Resort was open until July 4th so Gavin was able to get some skiing in. That is one thing we have missed about Utah. It wasn't the best snow but after not having the real stuff for three years, it was still worth it.


We love the lake and take any opportunity we can get to go. Our good friend in our ward in Lakeview, Tommy Deaver, took us out for some time on Deer Creek.

The view is just amazing with tall mountains in the background. Just another reason why we love coming home to Utah each summer.
The water was a little cold which isn't surprising since there was still snow in the mountains but the temperature was hot enough outside that it actually felt good jumping in.
Tubing is always fun and the kids have just as much fun doing this than wake boarding.



Coree's better look with hair flying in her face.
Rachel always has to do some sort of pose or face. Not sure what she was trying to portray here.
Vika loves just about everything and is always the cutie pie.
Another favorite thing and tradition we have is to walk through Provo Canyon on Sunday afternoons. The river was so high this year because of all the snow. Still the most beautiful place on Earth.
Nicole.
Vika
and of course Coree and Gavin.

The kids at Provo Canyon.
Yes, there are times when we can get pouty and bored but it usually doesn't last long.
Thanks to my awesome sister and niece we were able to go to a Real Soccer game. They had an awesome firework show after the game to celebrate the 24th of July.
One rather irritating thing this summer was trying to get our visa's for Saudi. We had a visa company doing this for us back in Washington D.C. who were awesome but the lady who needed to approve our paperwork in the Saudi Embassy was a huge pain....Our passports were stamped with an exit stamp from China but since we are US citizens they didn't stamp our passports when we entered back into the United States. They have never done this when we have returned.

Well, the lady in the Saudi Embassy didn't believe that we were actually in the United States because we didn't have an entry stamp. Where else would we be? She would not approve our paperwork until she had proof that we were here. Even though we had notarized documents from the Provo Police Department giving us clearance, medical reports from our doctor here in the US dated after we returned, lab reports from a hospital in Utah, and various other documents; she did not believe we were actually in the US. HUGE PAIN! So we sent bills we received along with this picture of Gavin holding his Utah drivers license, a recent bill addressed to our Utah address, next to a car with Utah plates, and a date stamped. After this and actually talking to Gavin on the phone, along with another notarized document, she finally accepted the fact that we were actually in the United States and not in outer space.
Our renters moved into our condo August 18th so we had to move out and were homeless for about a week before we left for Saudi. We drove up to Rexburg, Idaho to show Rachel around BYU-I. We did some camping on our way back home. We camped out at the Sand Dunes near Rexburg and rented a few ATV's. It was the funnest time. Jonny is definitely hooked and we plan to do this again next year. Maybe even get our own ATV's. This might be something we can do in Saudi since they have an entire country of sand.
Gavin doing a little bit of hot dogging.

Coree getting a little braver doing donuts.
Jonny LOVED it!
Nicole and Rachel both became sand bunnies.

Vika just liked the park at the campground and was happy just doing this but also had her fun on the ATV's.
Vika even drove one with a little help from Rachel.
After camping at the dunes we stopped at this park near the river in St. Anthony, Idaho. They had a little swimming hole with this slide into the river.
It was a nice little beach and swimming area.
Jonny and Rachel would rather just play on their phones.

They even had a diving board into the river.
Gavin and his perfect dive????
Nicole was a little scared to jump but after lots of persuasion, finally made the plunge.
After a few days in Idaho we headed to the Grand Teton National Park and camped a few days near Jackson Lake. Another beautiful part of the US.

We weren't quite as prepared cooking wise but the foil dinners are always a hit. Doesn't matter where you are, foil dinners and S'mores always taste good.


A little storm came through the Tetons our last night there. It only lasted a few minutes.

We headed home from the Tetons on Sunday morning thinking we were going to be able to spend some time in Roosevelt with Ranell and Mike but ran into a little bit of a problem about 30 miles south of Pinedale, Wyoming. We didn't notice the car was overheated until it had already done some major damage. We pulled over and fortunately had some people stop to help us.

We thought it was just a simple fix of some hoses but couldn't get parts until Monday morning so a State Trooper stopped and called a tow truck for us and helped us get back to Pinedale in a hotel for the night. Pinedale is in the middle of nowhere and expensive because it is a oil town. The tow truck driver helped us get the car back but informed us that it sounded like we had blown the head gasket of the engine. Not good especially in a small oil town. We discovered the next morning that the mechanics were booked for weeks and it was going to cost us $2500.00 to fix.

Our suburban is over ten years old and barely even worth that. It has been a great car and we have loved driving it all over the country for the past 5 years but it just wasn't worth fixing. We were desperate because we had to get back to Provo to get ready to leave to Saudi a few days later. We tried to figure out how to get it back to Provo where we possibly could have gotten it fixed for cheaper or at least sold it for parts but it would have cost us nearly $1,000 with renting a car, towing, hotel, gas, etc. so we just left the car in Pinedale. Sad to leave it but we had no choice.

Gavin's sister in Salt Lake rented a car to pick us up in. Since we had 6 people stranded and a suburban full of camping gear and suitcases, we needed a bigger car than they had. Her son Riley drove five hours out to pick us up on Monday. We said goodbye to our suburban, loaded up the rental and drove back to Provo. Not a great way to end our summer but no big deal. We were leaving to Saudi in a few days and don't need a car until we return next summer.

We love Utah and enjoyed every minute we spent there with family and friends and can't wait to go back next year.