I know it's been far too long since I last updated the blog, and you'd think that with as much time as I spend on the computer it'd be easy! But I just haven't made the time to do it. It's been such a fun summer and we've had so many things going on. I'm warning you now, this one is going to be a novel. I guess I need to start out with the rest of my trip to Florida!
It was a blast, and to see what happened on day three, check out
my sister's blog. Day 4 didn't really have much going on other than a failed attempt at para-sailing (stupid time constraints) and checking into our hotel in Tampa. Day 5, however, was a blast! My sister left the night before, so it was just me and Mom. We decided to bite the bullet and pay for a cab ride to
The Lowry Park Zoo. It was well worth every cent we paid! It was the best zoo I have ever been too, and believe me, I've been to some pretty cool zoo's. I'm not sure what the best part was. It could have been the playful animals, the feeling of being right in on the action, or possibly even the sweet Transformers cars we saw! My favorite animals were the twin white tiger cubs playing with their mom, the baby elephant, the pelicans, and of course, the manatee's!
This zoo really was fantastic, and if you are ever in the Tampa area it is a MUST see!
(Fore more fun zoo pictures, check out my facebook albums!)
Nick and I also spent some fun nights at home having backyard barbeque's! He's a great cook and to prove it I had to post a picture of our shish-kabobs. Wow, were they tasty! He attempted to teach me how to golf at one bbq, but it was highly unsuccessful. I can barely hit the ball, let alone get it going in the direction I want it to!
Luckily, our niece Pearl lives close enough to us that we got to spend some quality time babysitting her over the summer break! We usually try to do something fun with her when she comes over, and usually that means we end up at the park feeding the ducks!
We also try to fit in a treat whenever Pearl comes over. I think Juno likes this time of the night better than Pearl does!
We spent the 4th of July up in Logan watching the firework show, which was highly disappointing his year. It made it even worse once I found out that Nick doesn't like fireworks because he can't see the colors! They all look yellow to him because he is colorblind. Very unfortunate.
Then over the 24th of July was the Peacock family reunion. This was the fist year I've attended it, and it really made me wish I had gone to all the previous ones! What a fun (and crazy) family I have! Every year they have a family auction in order to raise money for the food for next year. They have some really awesome things at the auction, and most of it is all hand made by someone in the family. This year Nick and I made off like bandits after winning an amazing afghan made by Barbara Peacock and a beautiful musical jewelry box made by my wonderful Grandpa Jewkes! We have some amazing talent in our family!
While the adults use real money to pay for the winnings in the auction, the kids use monopoly money! They get their money by shooting pop cans with my Grandpa's homemade rubber band guns. This picture was just too cute to pass up, it's me helping Pearl earn some auction money!
Nick and I borrowed his family's boat for this trip and hauled it up to Joe's Valley Reservoir. It's pretty small but absolutely gorgeous! We all tried water skiing, even my Mom and Dad! I unfortunately tried to wake board and absolutely sucked it up! I'll avoid posting a picture of my failure, but will let you see everyone else rocking it!
Jenny
Nick
Jeff
My Dad showing off his muscles!
I honestly have never seen Pearl have more fun than she did driving "Nick's boat". Still to this day she talks about how "cool" Nick's boat was and how he let her "go so fast!" I mean, just look at that smile on her face. I think Jeff and Jenny are in for some trouble when she is able to drive and speed her way through the roads!
Pearl and Grandpa
Pearl and Grandma
It was beautiful country and we were sad to leave. We had such a good time...until the drive home. That's right, on the way home Nick's Dad's suburban decided to overheat. Luckily we were the first ones to leave and our entire family (3 cars full) were able to find us stranded and pulled over to help us out. The first savior's were Zac and Marcy! Then along came Jeff and Jenny, followed shortly by my Mom, Dad, and Kurtis. After discovering white smoke billowing out from the tail pipe, my Dad and Jeff told us the head gasket blew. If you know anything about cars, you know what that means...the car is shot. Luckily my Dad kept the water in the trailer and we were able to limp it the rest of the way out of Spanish Fork canyon. Nick's Dad met us there with a borrowed suburban and was able to get us (and the boat) home safely. (The suburban was later handed over to the cash for clunkers and replaced!) It was a close call and without Jeff and my wonderful father, Nick and I would have been SO SCREWED!
I think the best part of our summer was the many trips to Bear Lake! I know I've posted about one already, but I'm going to focus on Raspberry days and our last sha-bang before school started. The first weekend of August was Raspberry Days. My whole family packed up their stuff and headed up to my Grandparents' beach front property at Bear Lake! What a fun trip. We went to the craft fair, got some jewelry, ate some raspberry milkshakes, and spent some quality time on the beach. Not to mention the water fights, and golf tournaments. We even got to watch our neighbors get their truck stuck in the water after trying to launch some jet ski's from the sand! Idiots.
We sure had a lot of stuff to take down to the beach...this is what I had to carry. I think that since I don't have children, I got a little screwed.
Ruby having a tea party in the trailer.
Yum, raspberry milkshakes.
Everybody gathered around watching the neighbors' desperate attempt to get their truck out of the water. Ha, the water was already up to the headlights! I think they finally pulled it out with an old tractor, but hopefully they learned their lesson.
The water fight. I obviously lost.
Aside from the many trips to Bear Lake we were able to take with my family, Nick, Juno, and I took one last trip up there before school started. We spent most of our time hiking, biking, and just hanging out. We didn't even make it down to the beach! The weather was kinda cloudy, and we just weren't really in the mood. We did get some fun things squeezed in though. Our first trip was to an old army plane wreck site. There isn't much left aside from some scrap metal and a little monument that tells the story, but the drive was gorgeous! I even drove the jeep for a little bit on the way back, but I got really scared once I saw a truck coming the other way so I made Nick take over after that.
The next day we went to see Minnetonka Cave! It was so much fun! On the way up there we almost hit a huge female moose that was just hanging out in the middle of the road! Once we got to the cave we realized that we were going to get really cold in there, so we wrapped up in jackets and headed down into the darkness. I think the coolest part was at the very end...they turn off all the lights and you are literally in complete and utter darkness. They told us it was the closest you could get to blindness.
We also went on a short weekend trip with Doug and Nick's Dad to the Goodrich family reunion! It was a lot of fun, but my camera died, so I don't have any pictures of it. But Nick and Doug did make this excellent Elk stew! ...or maybe it was venison. Whatever it was, it sure was good! Great cooks definitely run in that family and any girl is lucky to snatch one of them up!
Sadly, summer is over and now it's back to school for Nick and I. We are both taking about 13 credits and working. Hopefully it won't be this long before another post, but with our busy schedules you never know! Sorry for the novel of an update, I hope you either quit reading it before it got too boring, or at least didn't fall asleep on your keyboard trying!
GO UTES!!!!
