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Summer vacation is over, but we're in the middle of a HEAT DOME and it's hot, ya'll. It's going to be around 100º for the next week, and that's just gross. #indoorsy

Nils and Anders went skydiving with our friends Carol and Ryan. No one died, and they all had a great time and loved it. Carol sent me minute by minute updates when Nils and Anders were jumping, free falling, chutes out, and landing. She's a good friend. 

You may be asking yourself, "Why didn't you go skydiving, Katrina?" and you're in luck, because I will tell you why. 

1) I didn't want to.

2) I partially dislocated my shoulder doing indoor skydiving in April, and my shoulder is still struggling from that little incident. Imagine doing actual skydiving and how that would have been for me. If I had a fully functional body, I probably would still not want to go skydiving. The more you know! 

Nils bought reading glasses and whips them out sometimes, and it tickles me to no end. 

Went on a little date last week to Gilgal Garden and the SLC Cemetery. It was kind of awesome. 

Beat that view with a stick.

Nils bought a Tesla. He's been dreaming of buying one for so long. Justification: It can fit the family, it can tow, and LRN2DIY viewers like Teslas. 

I would like to not buy anymore cars for awhile. Also... anyone want a Lotus and a Toyota Tundra? Both are for sale!

Addie sunning herself like unto Pip. 

Addie being a silhouette

Addie's first day of senior year! She's going to MTEC for medical billing and coding in the morning, which is a 20 month program. She has swim, seminary, and mythology at the high school. She still does her courier service, works as a lifeguard at the outdoor pool and babysits. She just got certified as a lifeguard instructor and wants to certify as a swim lesson instructor. All of these things pay more and are less of a time commitment than lifeguarding. We shall see! 

Aani is in 10th grade! She works as a lifeguard at the pool like Addie and is staying quite busy. She wants to get a different job for the school year, but we'll see how that all shakes out with swim team, since it takes up so much time when the season gets going. 

Ava started 7th grade! She also joined a tennis club that practices three days a week for an hour and a half. She still tumbles, and she's learning to play the clarinet, which we're all really enjoying. Winky face. 

For Nils' birthday, we took the fam to see Singin' in the Rain at Hale Centre Theater. 'Twas amazing. Even Anders, who normally doesn't appreciate this sort of thing, was impressed. 

Snaps from a walk one night. 

Did an escape room with these crazy folks: Odekirks, Marriotts, Sabeys and us. The lady in charge let us go until we escaped, which took us 1 hour and 8 minutes. It was nice of her to let us do that; it would have been pretty annoying to not finish. Fun friends!  

THE MAYFLIES ARE OUT OF CONTROL. They normally come for a few days, but it has been weeks of this and it's disgusting

We finally got our concrete! Glory hallelujah! After waiting 4 months because of concrete shortages, it's so nice to have that done. We were able to get a shed as well. We paid a guy to come put it together, which he did by himself in 3 hours. Nice side gig for that fella! Now we just have to figure out a carport, and then the garage transformation can begin. 

Oh, you beautiful concrete jungle. 

Anders has had a girlfriend all summer, and has really fallen hard for her. She's a good girl, but man is this messing with his brain and heart. He's tortured. We have spent so much time with that boy giving him therapy. Kinda can't wait until his mission starts so he'll be nice and busy with being a missionary instead! He's scheduled to go through the temple in less than 2 weeks. So crazy and cool and mind boggling and all the things. 

Completely changing the subject, but I had a stupid tooth break on me a couple of weeks ago. The endodontist said it can't be saved, so I have to have it pulled tomorrow! And then I have to get an implant! It's a whole thing! And I'm a flosser! It makes me think bad words.  

So that's kind of been August. Oh, Nils and I went to Dallas for 2 days at the very end of July for a YouTube mastery workshop. We flew in, took an Uber to a hotel, had the meet-up at the hotel, left the hotel once to get Taco Bell, got another Uber back to the airport, and flew home. The excitement was delayed flights on the way home, and running as fast as possible in the Vegas airport to catch our connection. I was shoving my way up to the front of the first plane, yelling, "Our connection leaves in 10 minutes, make way!" It was stressful, but we made it after making some people angry. We weren't about to spend a night in the Vegas airport, Satan, not us! Never spent so little time in Vegas and we weren't sad about it. 

I ne'er knew thee, Dallas. 

Juillet: All the Things

This meme makes me laugh, so let's begin with it:

Ralph Wiggum is the best.

Anders got his mission call to Copenhagen, Denmark! He'll begin in late October. He doesn't like this picture, because he says he's making a dumb face and his "dogs are out" which means his bare feet are showing. I think he's adorable, and his dogs are also adorable. 

He didn't want an opening party- he wanted to open the call when it came in the morning. It came at 9:29 am, but he had a work meeting at 9:30. He managed to step out of the meeting at 10:30 and open it- luckily we were all home and could be there. He then had to go back into his meeting at 10:35. Hence the one picture with bare feet. Oh well. :) 

He's super excited to go to Denmark- lots of family history from both of our families. Obviously, Anders Rasmusson is quite a Danish name coming from the Rasmusson side, but my mom's ancestry is largely from Denmark as well. The mission president sent us a letter stating that most of the missionaries that get called to Denmark have ancestors from there. Pretty cool! 

Got to have breakfast with some old friends. Always good times! 

We went on a cruise to Alaska for 8 days and it was amazing! All I have right now are pictures from my phone, but here's a video Nils put together with good pictures from his big boy camera, as well as video. You know you want to watch 11 minutes of our trip- you can put it on 2x speed if you want, I'll allow it. ;)

Watch here

Anyway, it was really a fabulous trip. Alaska is an incredibly beautiful place. We loved every excursion we did. We also all loved having a break from the heat, I think! Alaska: 10/10 would recommend! 

We kayaked in Hoonah and watched the salmon jumping around in the water, training for when they swim upstream. 

Went to the Mendenhall Glacier and Nugget Falls in Juneau; we also visited the smallest Costco in the world in Juneau, and hit up the Fred Meyer because Nils forgot to bring sneakers on the trip. He only had some flimsy slip on shoes, which is insufficient for Alaska indeed. 

From Skagway we took a ferry to Haines and went on a wildlife adventure tour, saw lots of bald eagles, some swans, salmon, rivers, lakes, glaciers, waterfalls, etc. 

In Ketchikan we drove a Zodiac boat around for a couple of hours and got to see bald eagles, harbor seals, glaciers, and waterfalls.

Our ship sailed through the Tracy Arm Fjord; we got up close to the Stewart Glacier, and got to see the big chunks of floating ice. It was really amazing. 

The cruise was good. We loved our waiters at dinner, Igusti and Tutut. The kids loved 24/7 ice cream and pizza all day every day. The older kids got bored on sea days, but that's their fault because they mostly didn't leave their room. Whattayagonnado?

We averaged around 17,000 steps per day- Nils and I tried to never ride the elevators on the ship, so we did a lot of climbing up stairs, and got lots of exercise on the excursions. 

I loved this trip. It was so fun and we saw incredible sights. Hopefully we'll be able to go back! 

Behold the photo dump! 

Kayaking in Hoohah

We painted these cool bags on the ship

We did Build A Bear on the ship, because we were bored on a sea day. 

The children's cabin was always a mess. Always, always. 

Ava didn't want to hold the crab, but we made her.

'Twas nice

Ate some fresh Dungeness crab. Lots of work for a little meat. 

Gotta love the towel animals

Looking for a shoe store in Juneau- it wasn't up these stairs!

This bear is at the state capitol- the only bear we saw in Alaska, unfortunately.

We hiked to Nugget Falls and skipped rocks in this cold, cold glacier water for like an hour. 

Then Addie started throwing sand and being impressed with how many ripples she could make. :) 

Mendenhall Glacier

Nils doing a jig because he got some new shoes at Fred Meyer! We had to hitch a shuttle to take us there. 

After we left port in Juneau, a passenger had a medical emergency, so they had to turn the ship around and evacuate the person. I watched like a creeper because it was pretty interesting. 

Exploring in Haines

Lunch in Haines- it was coooold and windy!

Downtown Skagway- since we were in Haines all day, we missed all the shops being open, but that's A-OK.

Tracy Arm Fjord, Stewart Glacier. Amazing, amazing. 

Old salmon cannery in Ketchikan

Old Man's Beard, which only grows in pure air. We liked breathing in the pure Alaska air! 

Nils piloting the Zodiac like an old pro

If you've ever wondered if you should go to Alaska, the answer is yes, yes you should.