July 28, 2022

Made homemade huckleberry shakes from our Teton huckleberries. Mmm. 

July 27, 2022

Some mornings Sadie and Baylie like to sit outside on the tramp. Some afternoons you just need to run away to the mountains for a quick hike. The white flowers just past the shelf on the Timpooneke trail were in full blooming glory. I made it just past there to a rock where I listened to and watched a few pikas. Sigh. I want to remember the field of white flowers - so much white. 

July 26, 2022

Quick Wyoming trip for me. It was great but to say I’m disappointed may be an understatement. The biggest thing I was looking forward to this summer was backpacking in Teton NP. I worked hard to get in shape and Darren got the permits and then my knee. Ugh ugh ugh. So I went for the pre backpack stuff (again - feels like strike 2) and then drove home while D and Matt went on to backpack my trip.

But square top mountain was cool and the Tetons were pretty and I loved chilling in String Lake. Plus we found huckleberrries. 

July 23, 2022

Park City getaway with the girls for two nights of fun. We walked like tourists to the grocery store and dinner. Wasatch bagels was not as advertised. Some swimming with hot tub. Ben and Jerry’s with Jimmy beast. Sadie laughing a ton. We shopped till we dropped and had to refuel in the middle. Some SkyJo playing and then we finished our Survivor season - oh Keith. We made dinner in the tiniest “kitchen” ever. We visited Dolly’s bookstore. It has books and one cat. I think the younger girls were hoping for cats and one book. Good times.

July 19, 2022

Re-entry from Alaska. Good to be home and see the girls. 

July 18, 2022

Thoughts on Alaska:

-Rain rain and more rain. We had one partly sunny day where we discovered that there are actual mountains in Alaska. -Fireweed flower is everywhere. Pretty. -Hatcher pass was cool. Clouds were cool. Would have liked to have also seen it without clouds but see above thought on rain. -The lack of night is really interesting. Is it 10am or 6pm? Hard to tell. -Talkeetna and Whittier are weird towns. Talkeetna is not far out of the frontier and Whittier is not far out of the Cold War. But Whittier was pretty if you didn’t look at the town aspect of it. -26 glacier cruise was fabulous. The glaciers were cool and the wildlife awesome. Bald eagles, sea lions, seals, a whale, and sea otters! The raft of sea otters was my favorite. -Fireweed ice cream does not taste like a flower. Pretty sure it has minimal flower in it. The random Alaskan lady wanted me to take my picture with her and my ice cream. -Anchorage has awesome fries and good burgers. And of course good seafood. Ate at Simon and Seafort’s. And Humpy’s. Both expensive. I liked The Salmon Spot in Talkeetna the best with a salmon chowder bread bowl. -Saw a bear! Only got to watch for a few minutes before a bus tour showed up and scared bear away. The whole drive to Denali was magical. No mountain but the clouds plus scenery were awesome. -Swans!!! :). So funny that we saw swans. -Saw more wildlife near the visitor center than on the 40 mile bus ride in Denali. Moose and rabbit. Did see Dall sheep way up on the mountain. I got credit for finding them. -Hatcher Pass was again awesome on round 2. A little less clouds this time. I loved this drive. -Fishing was way fun. “Fish on!” D and Kelly caught while I casted and watched. -Moose and bald eagle we saw while on the river for fishing were way cool. Top animal sightings along with the bear and sea otters. -Nightmare coming true as the big salmon our guide had hooked on his line comes right at me standing in the river and swims right by me - way too close. -We’ll need to come back. 

 

 

July 8, 2022

Celebrated a little more with another comedy show. Alex Velluto was so funny. The 3 openers were horrible but Alex made us laugh and laugh and laugh. With D plus K and T. 

July 7, 2022

Happy my birthday! Breakfast with the girls was delicious at The Original Pancake House. So much food. Then we came home to play some Mario kart. Since I am bad at that game and K and C dominated, I made them play Dr Mario so I could dominate. Bam! Then we made some video Star videos to pass the time until Ry got home from work. Then we all headed to Spring City to meet Mason and Rachael at Roots 89 Grill. They humored my idea of driving almost 90 minutes to a burger joint since it was my birthday. After eating we played “chop” on the lawn before heading home. Presents and then a movie in the Randall basement concluded the birthday. 

July 4, 2022

Thankful to spend some time with family on Independence Day.  Small town Richfield celebrating for the win.  

 

July 2, 2022

This week was moving along and progressing with my knee feeling better and then bam! Something else has flared up and I can barely walk. Super frustrating to say the least.

Thankful that even after frustration there was the most wonderful summer evening sitting outside watching the kids (including Mason) play Chip and then chatting as the light rain falls and the sun fades. Sigh.

 

Also got to go the the movie with Ry. We love movies and Top Gun round 2 was awesome. Also Darren took me to see a comedian I like (Steve Soelberg) and I laughed and laughed - especially when he told the hoarders story.