Hectic August

Andre and I got away for a weekend at the beginning of August. It was to celebrate our birthdays. We both turned 40 ya know. We had too many surgeries and medical procedures around our birthdays- so we waited. (that sentence made us sound really old.)

We went to the Homestead in Midway.

That mountainy thing behind me in the picture, is a cavernous dome filled with water.

And, you can swim in it! They make you wear a life vest because it is about 65 feet deep. In fact there were scuba divers in it too.

It was really hard to take pictures because it was really dark with bright areas.  But you get the idea. It was cool.

Well, it was a good time to get away because August got really really busy. Along with two birthdays, getting ready for school, and starting school, here are the highlights:

We had swimming lessons. Alex and Chase were in the same class. They both did really well. The only good pictures I have are ones with paddle boards (because you can see their faces). But they both learned to swim with the correct strokes.

Same thing with Tanner. The cute picture is with paddleboards, but he became a little fish, learning to breathe correctly while swimming.

I did not sign Jaxon up for lessons, but we swam every lesson and he practiced to get his swimming merit badge.

We hadn't gotten to the resevoir this summer and it is one of our favorite places. So we made time for it.

And... we got to go with friends, so that made it even more fun.

We read the book of Mormon every day during the school year. This year we really tried to do it in the summer too. We had a celebration this day because we finished the book of Alma.
It only took us a year- on one book!

I took this picture of Jaxon and he said, "do you have to take a picture of everything we do?"  "Why yes, yes I do."  that is my job.

I took these because my boys have been mowing for grandma and grandpa this summer. They have really done a good job and really learning how to do it right.

This is Tanner's first year learning how to mow.

We had this guy come visit us! He is so cute. My boys had so much fun playing with their cousin. He has grown so much in the month since I saw him, I can't believe it.

Super cute boy

Then, we finished the birthday parties and school was starting and I was thinking that my life would slow down. Nope, instead, our peach tree exploded.

Every surface was filled with peaches. And, this was only the first picking. We picked more the next week and filled it up again! I love peaches, but that was too many. I gave away as many as I could.

I bottled about 35 jars and made about 30 jars of jam. That took up all my extra time.

My days for two weeks were: drop off kids at school, go to the gym, pick up Chase, do 4-5 hours of peaches and making dinner then pick up kids, do their after school activities, eat dinner and help with homework, I was exhausted. I really love the peaches but I am also glad that peaches are done now. I wish they didn't all come at once.

Then it was Labor day weekend. Andre wanted to go on a hike. I was feeling too exhausted, but I agreed because we hadn't gone on too many hikes this year. This hike was up Corner Canyon in Draper. We had never been there. It was hiking to Ghost Falls (I think that was what it was called). It was a fun hike (but why is it still 100 degrees? Cool down already!)

The trail head was RIGHT by the Draper Temple. You could see it sporadically through the hike.

You could also see the Jordan River Temple

(You could probably see the Oquirrh Mountain temple but I didn't get a picture- and it would just be a blur anyway.)

Behind Jaxon you can see some boulders. It was so tree-y it was hard to get a picture of the falls. It really was just a trickle anyway.

The hike was the fun part of this hike- not the destination. That was fine because we love hiking.

We also went to Seven Peaks 2-3 times. (my memory is failing me). We have never gotten the pass of all passes before- and this was the perfect year. All the boys are good at swimming and three of them can go off together and Chase and I did his stuff. I think we went 5-6 times which was a good amount because we had a lot of fun but they didn't get board of it.

There were so many little things that we had to squeeze in before school started- every day was full of stuff. Like, we had to go to the dentist and the orthodontist, we had 4 different back to school days (before school events), and all their after school events started again-  I will make a blog just for that.

So, I felt like we went from one thing to another just keeping busy. I guess that is what life is all about!