July fun

Other July activities included a free trip to the zoo to take advantage of our last military perks. The girls loved seeing the baby elephant but their favorite part was watching the mama elephant eat a whole watermelon. They also loved riding the carousel.


We enjoyed a trip to Utah lake to do some boating.



A hike to Dog Lake above Brighton ski resort with our friends Taralee and Leah. There were still patches of snow along the trail and even a mini snowman.



A trip to This is the Place State Park where they had pony rides and we got to tour an original pioneer house that a family of 11 lived in (can you imagine?) in the recreated pioneer town.

A trip downtown on the train to watch the Days of 47 parade.

Flaming Gorge

Jim still had a few days off after my trip to CA so we headed to Flaming Gorge to do some boat camping. Flaming Gorge is located on the UT/WY border and much of the sheer rock walls are red and orange in color. We spent our time exploring the UT portion of the gorge which consists of about 23 miles of winding, narrow canyons with water depths up to 400 feet. We spent the night camping on an island in the middle of the gorge that has developed campsites that you can only access by boat. The kids enjoyed taking turns on the double dog and Jim and I loved loving for glassy water to carve on the wakeboard. Jim also enjoyed trying out the rope swing we found.

Whitney tried out the kids waterskis for the first time with Jim pulling her along the shore and Jonas wasn't afraid to show her how it was done. Jonas woke up early in the morning so I took him down to the shore so the others could sleep and he sat and threw rocks in the water for a good hour.

It was a fun exploration trip and our first attempt at boat camping. We'll have to go back and spend a few more nights next time.

Crossfit World Games

I flew down to Los Angeles to meet my team mates from Crossfit Hampton Roads in Yorktown, VA to compete in the team competition of the Crossfit World Games. We had qualified as one of the top 6 teams out of the Central East Regional to compete in the World Games. Teams and competitors for the games came from across the world to compete.

(I could make a great collage of all the crazy faces we make when lifting.)

The team competition began Friday morning with the first event being 2 rounds of 75 thrusters, chest to bar pullups and a buddy carry. The thrusters were 105# for the ladies and 155# for the men. We had to clean the bar from the ground to a front rack position and then begin the thrusters which is a full depth squat followed by pressing the bar out overhead. Only one athlete on the team could work at a time. Next we moved onto the pullups and then to the buddy carry. You had to carry one team mate across the field and they had to carry you back.

(We failed to get a team picture at the event so this is the only shot where you can clearly see us all. The team members were Nicole, Jeremy, Brent, Courtney, Jay, and myself.)

The second event began a few hours later and was a ladder event where each member of the team worked through different stations to get maximum number of reps in a minutes time. The events were deadlift (175# for ladies), one legged squats, and row for calories. As we finished the last event then we had a few minutes as a team for everyone to get a max weight from shoulder to overhead.

We didn't do as well as we would have liked as a team but were burned by how we ran the logistics of the events and not our work capacity. We just missed the first cut which kept us out of competing in one more event as we would not have made the final cut. It was a great experience to participate in the event and watch the many amazing performances by both the team and individual competitors. I was most impressed with the Master (50+) competitors. Here are the ladies busting out Fran which is a workout consisting of a total of 45 reps each of 65 pound thrusters and pull-ups, now that is some serious motivation.

While I was out of town, Jim and the kids headed to American Fork canyon to do some camping and hiking. They hiked into Scout Falls on the back side so Mt. Timpanogos.

Climbing by the creek

One of the things we really love about where we are living now is our close proximity to the mountains. Whitney wanted to go climbing so we headed up for a few hours to enjoy some climbing by the Big Cottonwood Creek. Whitney enjoyed climbing, Jonas loved throwing rocks in the water, and Maren loved the exploring. What a great way to spend the day!

Giant Roasters

The kids can't wait to make s'mores with these Giant Roasters we found at the store this week. The marshmallow in the picture is a regular large one for size comparison.

Check out the recipe for a s'more made with these suckers:

Yes, it calls for an entire chocolate bar! I had to laugh because the package also included a warning about marshmallows being flammable. They could cause some serious damage if sent flying through the air in flames.

Happy 4th of July...

Our weekend started off with a hike in Park City with our good friend and mentor Hester. We then hurried back to meet our good friends the D-15's for some ice cream before they continued on their drive.

We were lucky to be able to celebrate the holiday with family this year albeit a day early. My grandparents were returning to Arizona from a month in Oregon and decided to come via Utah to visit us. We lived close to them for 3 years while in Arizona and have missed seeing them very often.

Each day we started with the traditional Ferguson seven fruit (minimum) breakfast. Whenever you visit their house they always have tons of fruit which I love. Each morning we had raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, cantaloupe, honeydew melon, apricots, nectarines, cherries, and pineapple. The kids were spoiled rotten by getting to go shopping for toys, going to See's to buy chocolates (for mommy!), and going to ChicFilA for lunch. Whitney had fun collecting pine cones and acorns from the backyard and making a pine cone heart with Nana. I remember as a little girl collecting pine cones from all types of pine trees so my grandma could make these beautiful pine cone wreaths.

That evening we had a BBQ of hamburgers and brats and then set off our own fireworks out front. That was a new experience for the kids because they've been illegal were we've lived before.

The evenings have been awesome here lately with the sun's setting light painting the mountains and no bugs to eat you alive!

After bathing and putting the kids in jammies we headed up the hill to where we could overlook the valley and watch seven different fireworks shows across the valley. It was fun but I missed watching them on the pier with friends last year! I'm slowly working through getting some older posts completed so keep checking back.