July 2024

 

July was such a great month.  Coming home from Iceland was hard because I knew it would be go go go for a while.  Iceland had been so laid back.  So here are some highlights.  

Abby- always changing her room around.  Digging for buried treasures under all the stuffed animals.  School shopping. Darren got her a new bike.  Much lighter then her old one.  

Darren's beautiful hikes.  

A weekend at the cabin.  We worked on projects and then went on a hike to the cave.  I was finally able to get five of us down to the bottom of the cave.  I love a good adventure.  Ella and Darren rode their bikes up to Smith and Morehouse.  We all drove and got out on the beautiful lake. 

Aunt Whitney was in town for Tyler's first temple session.  How fun to have a family group there to go with him.  Jeana, Renee, and Candace also came but missed the picture.  

A dear highlight for me was the Larrabee wedding.  Keaton and Sadie tied the know.  I love that family.  

Darren and Ella enjoyed the SoHo race.  Ella is super strong this season.  She has worked hard.  Also, fun to see her hit the gap jump in Corner. 

Nolan and Sandra got engaged.  So excited to have Sandra be my sister in law.  To have Sam and Jess (and Chris) call me Aunt Amy is awesome.  They were my young women girls so many years ago.  

Three High Points in a week- Devils, Raymond, Lone

 What a great summer. So many fun things!  I wanted to do some big fun hikes and this was the summer to make it happen!  Amanda, Jeana, and I went up to Devils Castle at Alta.  What a great ridge scramble.  I loved the more technical spots where you had to do some rock climbing moves.  

Then Katie, Ang, and I went up to Gobblers Knob and Mnt Raymond.  Ang is starting to move that ankle some more. She wants to see what she can do.  This was a good elevation kick in the butt hike.  So many flies.  We got eaten alive.  

Then Lone Peak.  I wanted to take all three of my kids.  I was so grateful Darren could come also.  Ella and Tyler invited a dozen friends.  I had a few lady friends come also.  We started hiking just before 3:00 AM.  The groups all moved at different speeds but we all made it to the top.  Abby was such a strong hiker.  She made it to the top before many others.  The hike down in the heat wasn't too much fun!

Naturalist Basin in the Uintas

Sisters getting together to go backpacking with our kids.  Our Dad would do this with us so it was fun to do it with our kids.  Lots of cousin hiking time.  Hiking in was about 6 miles before we got to a beautiful campsite. There was room for all of our tents and fresh water.  Hiking through the burned forest was sad and beautiful.  

The next morning we had a nice fire and a hot breakfast.  We planned on exploring many lakes.  Swimming in some and fishing in others.  

We started by Gatman Lake and went counterclockwise.  We swam and fished at Jordan Lake.  Hiking up to Shaler Lake was an optional fun rock scrambling.  Faxon Lake had some leaches we discovered.  LeConte Lake had some drizzles.  Blue Lake was great for fishing and cold swimming.  Then coming down from Blue Lake and seeing the waterfall and the Morat Lakes was beautiful.  We hiked out the next day and stopped in Oakley at the Dinner.  We all loved the good food.