Other Stuff We Have Done in July

The boys are really improving with their American Ninja Warrior skills. They take weekly classes with a coach and practice any chance they get outside of the gym. We have a pull up bar in our kitchen that they hang on and do pull ups on multiple times a day. It is fun to see them conquer new obstacles.

Danny and I went golfing at Hobble Creek. We only played 9 holes and I didn't totally embarrass myself. We got paired up with 2 men in their 70's and I was worried about how I would play with an audience since I haven't golfed in over 6 years. They commented a few times on how impressed they were with the way I played. I think the highlight of the morning was when I parred a hole by missing a chip onto the green and having the ball roll really fast right towards the pin and dropping into the hole. I couldn't have repeated that shot if I tried a hundred times.

We met up with Shannon and her girls at American Fork's Splash Party. They played on inflatables, waded through foam, got wet under the fireman's hose, and at some dippin dots. It was a fun afternoon.

Danny and I went up to Sundance for their summer theater production and BBQ. This year the play was "Newsies/" This is probably the 5th time we have seen this play in the past year. It was well done. We got rained on a little bit, but it wasn't too bad so we stuck it out to the end. There was a little bit of a delay so we got home later than usual. Sundance added in a nice little trail from the upper parking lot to the theater, so that was nice to take that instead of riding the tram down the hill to the lower lot and then walking back up the hill to the theater. It was about a half mile walk and really pretty.

 

Ashley's dreams came true this past week when she and Lula performed on a stage in front of a big crowd. Before COVID, Lehi used to have an animal talent show and the last time they held it was in 2019. Ashley had been working on some tricks with Lula, but she didn't feel like they were quite ready for the show that year, but she decided to work hard with her and enter her into the show the following year. Well, as we all know, the world shut down that next year so Lehi did not have their animal talent show. Unfortunately, they didn't have it in 2021, 2022, or 2023 either. However, in 2023, I noticed that American Fork had a talent show in July. So I looked up talent shows for both cities this summer and Lehi still did not have theirs, but American Fork did. So Ashley put together a demo video of some of Lula's tricks and sent it in. They accepted her and Lula into their talent show a few days later and she was sooooo excited. So the next week and half was spent putting together a 5 minute routine and testing it out in different public venues. Some places did not go well and Lula ran away. Fortunately, we tested it out in the park where she would perform a few times before the show and she always did well there. But as the night arrived, we still had not had a successful run through with an audience. So Ashley was really worried. We also did not know if they would have an over-the-head mic for Ashley since she needed both hands to do tricks with Lula. She was really nervous it wouldn't go well. The time arrived to go on stage. Tyler and Camden helped Ashley with the tricks and Danny and I stood guard on both sides of the stage to keep Lula from running. The 5 minutes went pretty well. They did have the head mic and Lula cooperated with almost all of the tricks. She got a lot of cheers and Ashley was happy with how she did. 

My childhood friend, Desiree, came into to town, so we got together to catch up on life. It was good to see her. 

Camden was in "101 Dalmatians" at the Lehi Arts Center. He was one of the dalmatian puppies and had so much fun singing and dancing on stage. We will see if we can get him into the fall production of Nemo. One of his best friends, Eliza, was in the play with him. They were so cute.

Both of his grandpa's got to come see the play.

It was only a half an hour long, but they only had 2 weeks of rehearsals, so it is probably good that it wasn't longer. It has been fun having Grandpa Miner here to visit.

4th of July

We had a nice Independence Day. We skipped the parade in the morning and just hung around the house and played games together. I was feeling ambitious and made some last-minute gluten free sugar cookies. They turned out super cute and they actually tasted good, too.

I especially loved the flag ones.

We had an early BBQ because we had tickets to Stadium of Fire. Alyssa was working the event and asked us if we could drive her so she didn't have to deal with parking. We weren't going to do it, but Danny decided that he would rather not have her driving herself home so late on the 4th of July. Since we took her early, we had a couple of hours to kill. We went over to the convention center with our drone and laser tag guns. We played around in the expo hall with both for a bit and then we played hide and seek throughout the whole building. Then we went up on the rooftop to enjoy the views. Last, we headed to the kitchen for some drinks and snacks. Oh, we also stopped in the ballroom and Danny took the kids for a ride on the lift. Tyler was a bit nervous, but Ashley and Camden loved it.

When we felt like we had killed enough time, we left the car parked at the Convention Center and we rode the bus over to the stadium. Our seats were on the north side and we had plenty of room to spread out since we had 5 extra tickets that we didn't manage to give away before the event. The show was good, besides the mishap with the fireworks at the beginning that shot into the crowd and sent some people to the hospital. 

I thought I would know a lot more of the Jonas Brothers songs than I did, but I enjoyed singing along to the ones that I did know. The fireworks were cool, as always. This year they added colorful drones to the show that would fly around and make different shapes and words in the sky. They continued to appear in the middle of fireworks throughout the show. It was pretty cool. After the show, we hung out with Alyssa for a bit, knowing that she was going to have to stay until the stadium was clear. This was a mistake as it put us behind a lot of the crowd. We piled onto a crowded bus but were able to snag the seats across the back. Then the bus started moving and proceeded to crawl away from the stadium next to the Marriot Center parking lot. I think it was almost an hour before we were actually moving again. By that time, Alyssa was done working and had started the mile and a half walk to the Convention Center. We caught up to her about 6 blocks from the car and got off the bus so that we could walk the rest of the way with her. We got home close to 1pm and we all slept in late after getting to sleep so late.
 

Uncharted Worlds at Thanksgiving Point

There is an exhibit in the Thanksgiving Point gardens that takes you back in time. We decided to go check it out with Shannon, Kennedi, and Abbi. There were a lot of dinosaurs like in past years, but there were some new fun things like giant insects, giant water creatures, and other land animals. They also had a little scavenger hunt to keep the kids engaged and learning about the different creatures.

After completing the scavenger hunt and walking through the gardens, they picked up their prize at the front desk. They were pretty disappointed that it was a left-over sticker from tulip festival and not something more exciting.

Some Random Things from June

One of my good friends that I play volleyball with moved to Florida. We had a going away party for her. I miss seeing her at volleyball, but she looks like she is really enjoying their new home.

Alyssa went through all of her school notebooks and threw away a bunch of stuff. She was happy to get rid of all of that.

Ashley went to FSY at BYU with a girl that used to be in our ward. They have kept in contact since she moved and decided to go to FSY together. Ashley regretted this decision as FSY drew closer. They haven't been as close lately and Ashley dreads hanging out with her because she is a bit pushy about making Ashley do things that she doesn't want to do. And the girl won't take no for an answer. So Ashley finds it is easier to just ignore her texts and keep her distance. But she could not do that at FSY. It was a pretty miserable week for her and We thought we would have to pick her up early many times, but she was able to stick it out the whole week. She said her company was not that close and she didn't really make any friends. She said it was that way last time she went to BYU/, too. Next year we will send her somewhere different.

The Knudsen's came into town to drop Connor off at the MTC. It was fun to see them and give Alyssa and Connor a chance to hang out a little bit before not seeing each other for the next 2 years. It was kind of sad to see her say goodbye. He is going to be a great missionary.

We got to have Claire for a day while Becky and Jake went to a work retreat. We took her to Labyrinth and we all had fun trying to find our way through the rooms. I think we only actually got to the end of 3 of the rooms, but we still had fun.

Alyssa helped me organize our pantry. This is the before picture. There was a lot of expired food and it was hard to find things in the chaos. It is nice to have it organized and clean now. 

I took the boys to the curiosity museum at thanksgiving point. They have a new room that teaches all about Argentina. It was fun to visit the library, school, grocery store, etc and find out what life is like in Argentina.

The kids have all enjoyed being on summer break. We have also spent a lot of time at the pool and they have played with friends a lot, too.

Nprthern Lights in Utah?

In May, the news happened to be on as we were getting ready for bed and they kept talking about the Northern Lights being visible further south than usual. They were making a really big deal about it so I peeked out the window to see if the sky looked different. It was about 10:30 and I didn't see anything unusual, so I told Alyssa about it and went to bed. She happened to be in Colorado at the time so I wondered if she could see it better than us. I went to bed and didn't think much of it until the next morning when I saw a string of messages from my neighbors. They had captured these photos from our neighborhood. I also learned that they are not visible with the naked eye.

I also had a text from Alyssa and she was able to capture this picture from a window in Colorado. She said that she couldn't see a difference, but thought that the sky looked different, so she took a picture and this is what it looked like.

I tried a little harder the next night to see it since there was a chance of seeing them again, but there was still nothing. No one else saw them around us either that 2nd night.

Swig Summer Party

Swig hosted a summer party at Thanksgiving Point. It was a free event that included free drinks and cookies, inflatables, a bungee jump, and a rock wall. We went as close to opening as possible and still had to wait for 25 minutes in the drink line. While we were in line, the kids did the bungee jump. After we had our drinks, they went on some of the inflatables. They loved the wipeout one.

After that, we decided the lines for everything were too long, so we took off. But we did enjoy our drinks, cookies, and ice pops.

Inside Out 2

I took the kids to see "Inside Out 2" Ashley was there, too, but I guess she didn't get into my picture. We went on opening day. I don't normally do that, but they were really excited about this movie. They all enjoyed it.

Emerald Bay State Park

From the very beginning of our research of Lake Tahoe and the things to do and see around the lake, we knew that we needed to spend a day at Emerald Bay State Park. So many websites said that it was one of the most beautiful parts of the Lake and it definitely did not disappoint. 

We decided to get there early because our research told us that the parking lot fills up. Originally, we were going to shoot for 7 am, but Danny talked us into going around 8:30 instead. When we noticed that the kayak rentals were not available until 10 am, we were convinced that we did not need to go at 7. I would have loved to do a hike before going down to the lake, but I knew that there were a few in our group that would not be up for it. I am glad that we didn't, since it was a mile walk down to the lake and then another mile walk back up. Plus, I was worried about not being able to get a spot in the lot if we tried to park at a trailhead first and then come to the lot that had the path down to the lake.

We got down to the lake with plenty of time to claim our spot and to let the kids play in the cold water. We weren't the first ones in line for the kayak rentals, but we were close enough to get what we wanted, 3 two-person kayaks for a 2-hour rental. We split our group into 2, so that six of us could use them for the first hour and then the other 6 could use them for the 2nd hour. It worked out well.

The kids had fun with this log until another group of kids came in and started playing on it too.

The goal for the kayaks was to go out to the little island in the middle of the bay and then to kayak around the bay. 

The first group to go was Danny, Tyler, Alyssa, Robbie, Brian, and Tommy. The other 4 kids played or sat in the water. Maryn and I watched the kids and the wildlife.

 When it was our turn to use the kayaks, we paddled straight out to the island. It was a little tricky pulling our kayaks up onto the rocky shore, especially in our flip flops, but we managed. I did tweak my back a little sometime in the process which made the rest of the day a little more uncomfortable.

The climb up to the top of the island was fun.

At the top, there was this little structure. I think the website said it used to be a tea house, but now it is just 4 stone walls and a couple of windows. There was a little fireplace in one corner.

The view was pretty incredible from inside.

After exploring the island, we paddled all the way around it and then explored more of the bay. We got back before our hour was up, so Alyssa, Robbie, Danny, and I went back out again. Ashley and Lydia also stayed out exploring.

The younger kids played some more in the sand and water.

There was a mansion house on the beach that you could pay to tour, but it was like $18 a ticket and we decided to just enjoy the view of it from the outside. We didn't think the kids would love the tour anyways. Plus, we were all hungry by this point and ready for lunch.

The hike back up to the top was more difficult than the hike down. Danny and I got stuck with all of the kids' extra shoes and towels. We felt like pack animals. Once we were at the top, we decided to drive a little further to South Lake Tahoe for lunch. We ate a little burrito/taco shop and then headed back to the cabin. It was a fun day enjoying nature and the beauty of the lake.

We left for home early the next morning. The drive home was uneventful until the last hour. We were in Magna, UT looking forward to being home when our car started doing funny things. At a stop light as I started to go, the car just switched into park and wouldn't drive. We could not get it to switch out of park again and we were in the middle of the road. Danny quickly looked up how to get it into neutral while a guy on a motorcycle pulled over to help us. They got it into neutral and then pushed us over to the side of the road and down the side street. After going into neutral, we were able to switch it into drive again, but not into park. After a phone call to Danny's mechanic friend, we tried to find an open mechanic shop close by. No such luck. There were shops close by, but they were all close to closing and none of them would look at our car. So, we called Danny's dad to come pick us up. Then Danny figured out how to switch the car into park and we decided to try driving it home. We hobbled our way home and only had it threaten to stop working once on the drive. We were happy to pull into our driveway about an hour later than we should have. Grandpa Wheeler met us halfway and followed us the rest of the way home. We're very thankful for him!

After getting home, we had to solve our air conditioning problem. The air/heat had stopped working for us back in May, but with the weather changing from cold to hot, we were able to live without the AC up until a few days before we left for Tahoe. When we got back, Danny climbed up into the attic to fix the air and had it cooling within a half an hour. We took the car into the mechanic after the weekend at home and he was able to fix it within 24 hours. Now we are thinking about selling it since it has had multiple problems over the past 2 years, but the kids are all whining about losing their car.