Summer Happenings

Fall just started, and I realized I haven’t posted anything from the summer! Where to begin…

The theme of our summer was probably eFoiling. An eFoil is sort of like an electric surfboard. We spent many hours eFoiling, paddle boarding and kayaking on the nearby Deer Creek and Jordanelle reservoirs.

We also enjoyed learning how to sail!

Jim’s parents arrived for a month-long visit in July. One of the highlights was marching in the Park City Independence Day Parade with our church and viewing fireworks that night at the base of Memorial Hill in Midway.

We hiked to Lake Catherine with Angie, which was probably the most beautiful hike we’ve done in the area.

And we hiked Noblett’s Creek while my mom was visiting and attended an outdoor community theatre productions of The Sound of Music.

Jim and I also accomplished my goal for the summer, which was to summit Mount Timpanogos: the tallest peak around our valley and second highest peak in Utah. We had to start the hike at 4am to ensure we finished before afternoon thunderstorms rolled in. It was a 15.3 mile climb, with +4000 ft elevation-gain to a summit of 11,752 ft, and took us 8.5 hours to complete.

Jim’s sister, Joanna, and her boys visited at the end of July. We spent time at the lake and hiking some of our favorite areas, including Scout Falls, which was a new one.

After the Archers and Cappy and Grandma headed back toward Texas, we re-grouped for our summer vacation to the Pacific Northwest, where we spent most of August.

Our first stop was Hood River, OR via Boise, ID for some delicious Basque cuisine.

Two of Jim’s close friends (and part of the Dronelink team) live in Hood River, and it was nice to see them. We enjoyed staying at an AirBNB on a vineyard, where we could pick loads of wild blackberries. We also watched the local kite boarding scene, eFoiled on the Columbia River, hiked, and visited Lost Lake (one of the trip’s highlights!).

Our next stop was a night in Owalla, WA with friends before heading into Olympic National Park. We stayed in the Sol Duc Hot Springs Resort for four nights. We did some gorgeous hikes, eFoiled Lake Crescent, and spent a lot of time in the natural hot springs.

From the Olympic Peninsula, we headed north to the San Juan Islands. We stayed on the main island (San Juan) near Roche Harbor across from Victoria, BC. Highlights included crabbing with our AirBNB host (Bob), a sailing day-trip where we saw minke whales, seals, and sea lions, Jim eFoiling in the Puget Sound, and visiting the local alpaca farm.

We left the San Juans and headed for Mazama, WA just outside of North Cascade National Park. Our highlights during this part of the trip was eFoiling Lake Diablo and hiking to and jumping in Blue Lake.

We left Washington and headed back to Hood River for two nights before heading straight to Utah.

Our school year started up and we are glad to be part of a new coop (Heber Valley Classical Christian Cooperative) this year. The coop meets once per week, where the kids do chapel, history, science, and fine arts together (and Evelyn does a writing class in the afternoon). We’ve already made many friends in the last month! The other four days per week, we do our normal home school time together, and we are off to a good start!