We just had the two little girls with us this day so we hiked around the trails along the slopes. It looks so different without snow but brought back many good memories.

Yes, I can remember skiing down this slope. Awe....the memories.
While we were hiking around we heard them practicing for the outdoor dinner theatre that was going to start the end of July. They were doing a musical theatre version of Huckleberry Finn. We didn't even know they had a little theatre up there.

We LOVE Utah.

Hiking the "Y"

Thanks to our friend Chris, we were able to stay at his house which is right under "Y" mountain. This was our view every morning. This year I made a goal of finally hiking up to the "Y". Rachel, Chris and I started up one morning but we had started from his house which is about a 2 mile hike just to the base of the "Y". So I was extremely tired before we even got to the start of the "Y" trail. I only made it half way up that morning.
A few days later we decided to go again but starting at the base of the mountain. Gavin, Nikki, Vika and I started out about 7:00 at night. The trail is about a mile of switch backs all up hill. Vika was nice enough to stay back with me while Nikki and Gavin were up ahead.
The views are amazing from the trail. It was still pretty hot at 7:00 at night but well worth it for the views.
Nikki and Gavin had to stop quite a bit to wait for Vika and I. Fortunately they have these nice benched rest spots all along the way.

I kept going and finally made it. My old wornout tired body was able to hike the "Y". Not saying much since my 5 year old easily made it to the top.
The view was beautiful. We made it to the top just in time to enjoy the sunset over the valley. The "Y" is painted and is about a football field in length. Looks like snow. Wish it was.

Just Stuff

We spent a lot of days just having fun. Gavin's motorcycle was always a fun thing to ride on. We ended up selling it at the end of the summer but enjoyed it while we had it.
One day I took the girls shopping and in the little girls dressing room in JC Penney's they had these crazy mirrors that Rachel had fun with.

Of course we spent a lot of time shopping since we can't do much of that here in China. Well, we can shop but it is all junk. On one of our shopping sprees Rachel found these pink shoes and just had to have them. Fortunately they were on sale so why not? The problem now is finding something to wear them with. We don't wear these type of shoes here in China because we have to walk so much but they still are fun to have.
Nikki had a nasty planters wart that she didn't tell me about until months later. Fortunately we were in the States and could get it taken care of quickly. I first took her to our normal Pediatrician who really didn't do anything. He put some freezing compound on it and said if it didn't go away then we would have to go see a specialist. Not what I wanted to hear since we only had a few months in Utah.

Our friend Chris, who we were staying with, had a neighbor that was a pediatrician so he came over to the house to look at it. He said he could take care of it. We were able to make an appointment within a week and within a few minutes in the office it was gone. He had to cut it out and it was the size of a large pea. YUCK!!!! We felt so blessed that he was able to do this for us. We probably could have gotten it taken care of in Hong Kong but it would have been a huge hassle.

Tradition.....

Our tradition of walking through Provo Canyon on Sunday evenings quickly resumed. How can you not love Utah? Everything around us was absolutely beautiful. Our walks through the canyon really make us appreciate all that we have and have been blessed with.
Utah really seems to agree with us. We needed makeovers both physically and emotionally and what better place to do it than in Utah.

We were so glad that Jonathan and his family were still able to join us on our walks. We have some great friends in Utah that we always enjoy getting together and catching up.
Vika always is our poser.

How can you beat that scenery?

Our days out in Vernal

July 6, 2010

The girls and I drove out to Vernal to spend a few days with Heidi's family. Gavin was in Seattle for the week and Jonny in Texas so we decided to have a little bit of girl time. Heidi needed someone to watch Deegan and Sy while she had a booth at the Dinasour Days. We left on Tuesday night and enjoyed the beautiful Utah scenery on our drive to Vernal.
During the three hour drive Rachel got a little bored and started just taking random pictures.

Strike a pose......

Originally I was only going to stay one night and leave Rachel and Nikki out there for the week to babysit but they were having so much fun. I didn't want to go back to a lonely house in Provo so I ended up staying most of the week out there with them. One day we had water gun fights and the kids had so much fun just running around the yard getting wet.

They spent a lot of time on the trampoline. Even Sy loved to be on it.

We took the kids to a splash park in Vernal. It was pretty hot so we spent most of the time in the shade.
Vika and Deegan did run through the water a few times then would go chill on the lounge chairs.

Rachel was quite the good little mother for the few days there. I just felt like the Grandma but I have to say, I really enjoyed just playing with the kids for a few days.

Locks of Love

Nikki had talked all year about donating her long beautiful hair for locks of love. They need at least 10 inches of hair to be able to make a wig. Locks of Love is a great organization that makes wigs for cancer victims. Rachel had donated her hair when she was 13 so Nikki wanted to do the same. She was so excited but a little scared.

The braid was pretty cool to play with.
Nikki with her new dew holding her braid before we mailed it off.

4th of July

We love to celebrate the 4th of July in Provo. We have tried to make it a tradition to watch the Provo Freedom Parade. Our friend Chris has a free pancake breakfast and hot dogs in front of his business right on University Ave which is the parade route. Every year there is a long line waiting for the free food while they watch the parade. This year was a little sad because Jonny left early in the morning for Marine Military Camp in Texas. Lots of tears were shed earlier in the morning but it still was a fun day celebrating the 4th.Always fun to Cosmo, BYU's mascot.

Another tradition we try to keep is going to the lawn in front of the Provo Temple with friends to watch the fireworks from the Stadium of Fire show in the BYU Stadium. Each year we say that we wish we were in the stadium but we always have a great time just watching the fireworks.
Vika, Nicole, and Aspen waiting for the show. We take a picnic to eat while we wait for it to get dark.