Flooded

     One day as I was leaving to pick up McKay from school I noticed water seeping out under the road right by my side yard.  There was a crack in the road and it was bubbling up so I called the water company and went to pick up Mac.    The guys came out and were checking things out and it really started coming and then there was a pop (that I could hear while inside my home) and the 24 inch water pipe burst. 

 

     It's pretty crazy to see 2 inches of water covering the road in front of your home.  We were fortunate that our house sits up higher on our lot.  Our neighbors were not so fortunate and had water running like a huge river through their yards and sheds.  Luckily the inside of everyone's homes stayed dry. 

 

They got the water turned off and it receded pretty quickly. 

 

 

Everyone came over to check it out, teenagers seeing how deep the water was by wading in it.

 

 

The 24inch water pipe burst open.

 

 

     Our water company was wonderful to work with.  They had a crew removing all the mud on our lawn by hand to preserve our grass.  Then they actually had a big vacuum machine to get as much as possible.  Now you'd never know anything happened. 



Cabin Adventures

 

     We had a few fun adventures at the cabin this summer.  On one of our July trips we hiked to Salamander Lake.  It's a pretty good hike so I went with the twins planning on turning back when they got tired.  They were amazing!  They made it the whole way. I was so impressed with them.  It's a beautiful place and we even caught a salamander. 

     Late in the summer we went with the Larkins.  They brought all of their fun toys and we had a great time teaching our kids how to drive motorcycles and paddling paddle boards and kayaks.  It was pretty cool watching my 5-year-olds drive a motorcycle and I even took a spin around the block myself.  Across the lake their was a pretty crazy rope swing that Corey & Kevin did.   Great times at the cabin!

PCP2P

     Park City Point to Point is Corey's favorite race of the year.  There is something about it that just clicks with him and he loves it.  Usually we get my parents to take the kids and I bounce from aide station to aide station to support him.  It's not relaxing, but it's fun and I've enjoyed supporting him.  This year Corey wanted our whole family there.   I was a little nervous at first, it's an early morning and a bit of a long day, but my kids were awesome and really fun to have around. 
     We started out by picking up Corey's closest competitor in Salt Lake.   He's married but doesn't have kids so we got a pretty good reaction to our car full of kids.  I love that Corey and AJ get along so well and sincerely enjoy pushing each other. 
    

 

       The first aide station is at Silver Lake at Deer Valley.  It's about 30 miles into the race.  In order to get there we had to take the lifts.  It's beautiful and fun and the kids thought it was a blast.  Corey was about 4th Place Singlespeed at that point.  AJ Linnell and Tom Flynn and Quinn Bingham all in front of him. 

 

 

 

       We were treated to the start of fall leaves and fun swings to swing on.  At PCMR (about 50 miles in) Corey was 2nd, a couple minutes behind AJ.  He gave me a look like he wasn't feeling it.  Corey's parents and our friends the Larkin's came up for the finish.  Brittany was the first to see Corey coming in first, way up high on the mountain.   This man always amazes me.  The longer the race the faster he gets and AJ was nowhere in sight.  The past couple of years there has been controversy at the finish of the singlespeed race.  It never had anything to do with Corey, but he was there in the front so it lessened the win a bit.  This year he won it free and clear of any drama, I'm so happy for him. 

 

 

AJ and Corey with their favorite recovery drink

 

 

Drew and Corey

 

I tried to capture just how dirty his bike was...not even close.

 



 

 

Hooray Corey!!





Back to School

     This year the kids were pretty excited about going to middle school together.  They may have been a little less excited when they realized how early they'd have to wake up.  Still, I can't believe I have two middle-schoolers.  Lucky for us the brand-new school is essentially down the street so while the weather is good and bright outside the boys ride their bikes. 

     Tate is the lone-ranger of elementary school in our family this year.  He was a little nervous about that, but he's doing fine representing our family on his own. 

     These two cutie patooties have a late summer birthday so they're doing Pre-School at Miss Sue's this year.  They were pretty excited. 

Lone Peak

 

        The last big hike of the summer was Lone Peak.  Here is their start picture. Pretty great group.  A few started with the intension of only doing part of it.  It's a really intense hike and pretty exposed so I wasn't sure how it would go and how Tate would do.  As usual he was an awesome hiker!

   

      

     Here are the summiteers!  The top is crazy high and exposed and Tate had a hard time, as you can see.  So proud of him for doing it even when it was hard and scary for him. 

    
     The celebration apple is a long-standing tradition in Corey's family and that tradition was upheld and documented on this hike.

 

Way to go boys!!  

Beloved Driveway, and Keaton's Sweet Bike Moves

 

 

     When we bought our house the driveway was a modge-podge of craziness with asphalt, cement, dirt..... About 2 years ago we had to take it out to put in our basement sewer line & thus replace the entire driveway.  We were a little nervous about it because our driveway is long and cement is expensive, but I never thought about the value of having a driveway for my kids.   So I was feeling extra thankful as I looked through all these pictures made possible by the new driveway. 
    

 

 

Random Summer Fun

 

     Couldn't wrap up summer without including this awesome picture of Corey...haha.  We did have a couple trips to the cabin over the 4th and 24th of July.  The crazy coincidence was that we saw fires from Rockport Reservoir both trips!  Pretty wild.  On the fourth they closed the road and we had to get back to the cabin through Park City.  On the 24th we were actually evacuated off the lake..pretty exciting stuff. 

 



 

 

   

We did get in some good fun on both days in spite of the excitement.

 

 

Mac's after picture on his first weeklong boy scout camp....we won't mention how he smelled. 

 

 

The kids felt a little left out with Mac camping all weekend so we did some backyard camping activities. 

 

 

Our trip to the new discovery museum at Thanksgiving Point had the kids going crazy taking pictures of things they could research for the trading post there. 

 

      Lastly, I couldn't help but post a picture of these two handsome boys.  Mac's best friend Brad (shown below) is about a year younger than him so they were super excited when Brad turned twelve so that they could go to the temple together to do baptisms for the dead. 

 

     Lots of random, lots of fun.