July

July 3 Lumber Delivery

Waited 6 weeks for the lumber to come. I remember Jesse shopped around for bids to find out the best price for everything that was needed. He like the bid from Burton Lumber the best, but we weren't in a situation to have it delivered yet and we didn't know it would take 6 weeks to get. So when we waited until we were ready for it we had to wait even longer AND the price went up $5000 in 2 months. Oh what a stab in the gut. If only we would have ordered it when we got the original bid. Then we wouldn't have had to wait 6 extra weeks and pay $5000 more. Hind sight is always 20/20. 

 July 4-
One of the earlier memories I have of Harm is her inviting us to watch the Centerville Parade with her family. Their house is really close to the start of the parade and we could just walk up to the corner and camp-out. Then after the parade we would go over to their house for breakfast.

Well since this year she was gone, her dad, Bill found me at my new salon and invited me to come over to their house. I was really excited that he would think of me.

Jesse worked a 24 hour shift the day before and when he got off at 8am he met us at the parade route. It was a crazy shift. He went on 21 calls in 24 hours. He was exhausted when he met us that morning and he still had a smile on his face. The boys ran to hug him when they saw him.

This was Fynn's reaction when the jets flew over the parade route to begin.

That evening I wanted to try something new. An hour or so before sunset we started a hike. I wanted to get to a peak to watch the fireworks over the whole valley. We went for Twins Peak in Salt Lake City. It was on my bucket list for the summer to hike to a peak and watch fireworks. So I brought my whole family along.

I was dying over Fynn's little cammelbak on his cute little body.

The sun was setting right as we were almost to the top and it was just so pretty.

Little Fynnie got tired after awhile and required a ride. I was giggling so much at the crack that was peaking out of his pants.

It was quite a magical night watching the entire Salt Lake Valley twinkle with fireworks. I think we might have to make this a new 4th of July Tradition.

July 6
This is a very common sight to see Fynn outside in the dirt with all of his dirt toys. This kid played non-stop for hours. I had a built in babysitter.

No shoes or shirt required.

Taking a lunch break in his den. (Gosh he's brown).

 July 9- Framing on it's way

We have a floor people!!!

 July 12-Pentatonix Concert

A few months before this I came across cheap Pentatonix tickets on Groupon.

I took Ryker and Cy with me.

... and Chan because Jesse had to work.

Mike and Heidi watched Fynn for me and since they live pretty close to Usauna Ampitheater.

I loved being able to spend our summer nights like this with my boys and my sissy.

July 16-
Every year that I do Little Red in June I tend to hang up my bike and never ride it through the summer again. I find that when I sign up for rides and races that I force myself to go out and ride. This year I signed up for Wildflower and there was a big climb challenge in that. I talked with some of my biking friends and wanted to learn what I needed to do to get better at riding up hills faster... they all said to just ride on the hills.

I had a couple of friends that invited me to go with them and I sure felt schooled. I feel like a decent rider and I was shown differently that morning.  But that's ok. I needed to be humbled. lol. Also it got me thinking really why I was out there anyway. I talked about it with my friend and we both agreed that it was all about Sharpening the Saw. All the aspects of sharpening your saw are physical, emotional, spiritual and mental. We were commenting how biking was a way to sharpen our saws. Even thought getting up early in the morning is rough, it puts my spirit at ease and I'm ready to conquer the day. I take care of hundreds of clients, 3 boys, a husband, a calling in the YWs.  With all that is required of me I do need to fill my bucket so that I can use it to fill others buckets.

And who can't love that sunrise early in the morning going up Emigration Canyon?

Ryker picked up his football equipment and he was so excited to try it on. He felt like his helmet was really tight at first, but it really was just him needing to get used to it.

Fynnie wanted a turn too.

Then that evening Ryker got to go a Football Camp. Some of the players from UofU Football team were putting it on. I loved watching him be so giddy to go.

At the end of all the drills they had a tug of war

...and a big huddle of manly bondness. The UofU players were really great and encouraging to these young boys.

July  17-20 Girls Camp
 Girls Camp was one of the highlights of my summer. It was one of the best experiences I've had. I was able to tap into my younger self , yet still have the confidence of my older self. I connected with the girls and other leaders by sharing stories, testifying of truths, making friendship bracelets, hiking, drawing henna tattoos, playing "signs", staying up too late talking, listening to the most self growing firesides ever.

Driving the girls to the head of the hiking trail was so much fun. Everyone was laughing and we had such a blast.

The top of the hike was the random broken Buddha statue.

Oh the level of dirty I got was document-able.

And Best of all... we danced so much the last night at the dance party(DJ included).

I will never forget what I experienced there. I came out of camp with more cherished friends.

 July 24- Pioneer Day

Keeping with tradition we rode our bikes down the Rails to Trails trail. This time the Bohm family joined us.

After the trail was over we all shuttled over to the river to float down. I don't have any pictures of this because  I was afraid of getting my phone wet. But had so much fun. Jesse put a lot of effort into picking up rafts on his way home from work. He and his mom planned the whole day. 

 July 28- Iron Lung

I kinda signed up for this at the last minute because I thought it would be a good prep for Wildflower in August. I got Kelly and RaeLynn to sign up for the relay. We found out that the relay was new for this year and apparently we were the only relay team. But we still had fun.