Adventures Galore

 July has been as crazy as expected, mostly in good ways. 

Aani got her driver license, but hasn't had a lot of chances to use it since she's been so dang busy and gone for most of the month. Still exciting. Today she drove herself to Ulta and it was pretty weird that she can just do that. 

What a Schweetie

For the 4th of July, we took the camper trailer up to Fairview and camped overnight. We made peach cobbler in the dutch oven over the fire, worked on the property a bit to make a better fire pit and a trail, chopped some wood, rode 4-wheelers, enjoyed the pretty scenery. Then as we drove home that evening, we got to see all the fireworks in the valley and it was insane. We stopped at In-N-Out for dinner and it was kind of a nice li'l moment. Utahns love their fireworks, which works well for us, since we don't ever buy them. 

Fairview is awfully pretty! We had a fun 24 hours. :) 

The following week, Aani and Ava went to girls camp at Heber Valley Camp and had a great time. Here's a couple of pictures I got off the ward FB page, hehehehehehehahahaha.

Later that evening, Nils and I realized that we only had the adult children at home, and WHAT WERE WE EVEN DOING WITH OUR LIVES? We decided to take a trip by ourselves, but to where? We talked through some options, did a li'l internet research, and within the hour decided to leave for Jackson Hole and the Grand Tetons. 

On our way up at dusk, somewhere in the wilderness of Wyoming, a few deer ran out into the road right in front of our car. I was driving and had a little panic attack. I slammed on the breaks, and then was able to maneuver in between the deer and didn't hit any. It was quite a moment of terror, but all was well. All we need is another car accident in the middle of nowhere, amiright? 

We had lots of fun after that. We went on a 6 mile hike in Grand Teton National Park, to Taggart Lake and Bryant Lake. It was so beautiful. We stayed in a crappy Super 8 Motel, which was stupid expensive (everything in Jackson is crazy expensive). However, the best part of the motel was that there was a movie theater in the same parking lot. So, each night we were there, we went to a movie. We saw Mission Impossible and Indiana Jones, and it was pretty awesome.

We drove to Granite Hot Springs where there's a swimming pool. The setting was quite breathtaking, and the pool was pretty mediocre, but it was an adventure anyway. We drove all around the Grand Tetons and loved the beauty. We made a goal to see all the national parks, and we have a really long way to go. We've been to 12 together, and there are 60-something, so we've got some work to do. 

Thanks, Nils, for taking all of these pictures. I just show up and enjoy, and then summarize at the end of every month.

This place is too gosh darn beautiful.

SHOT OF THE YEAR!!!

I have a little problem with nachos. They are everything that's good and true and I can't get enough. 

We came home for one day, enough time to do everyone's laundry, and then it was off to Bear Lake for our Raggy Family Reunion, which we've been planning for a year. 

Oh man, we did all the things and had all the fun. I think this reunion was a success. The kids and adults had a blast. We were all able to stay in one big house, which made for lots of together time and connections. One main bad thing was there were only 3 bathrooms, and we have A LOT of teenage girls right now in the Rasmusson family. That was a genuine problem. 

Lots of beach time, lake time, we rented a boat, jet skis, went see The Little Mermaid at the Pickleville Playhouse, which was actually really, really awesome and well done. We did a cave tour of Minnetonka Cave, we played a lot of pickle ball, tennis, some corn hole, ping pong, ate lots of good food and enjoyed a great week. Shiloh and Brian brought a cooler full of about 60 lbs of See's Chocolates, so that was a total highlight of the week. 

Photo dump:

Bear Lake: 10/10

Aani and Ava went straight from Bear Lake, with a day in between to do laundry again, to FSY. I don't have any pictures, but they loved it and had a great time. 

Now Ava is at tennis camp until Friday. Geez Louise. 

Nils started converting our garage into a wood shop this month- hopefully we'll be able to make more progress on it next month since we will be home more. We do have a little trip to Kauai coming up, however. No one is sad about that. Then school starts. INSANITY, I TELL YOU!