19? Adventures

Psssst!! Summer is over. I hate to be the bearer of bad tidings, but there it is.

I know summer is over, because school has started. So, not by the calendar, but by the schedule ... that's how I know. So say so long to the carefree days of freedom, and everyone find their grindstone again.

Actually, I don't mind the scheduling. But when it's still summer weather outside, I feel like it should still be summer vacation. Oh well.

Emma made a list of "Summer Adventures" again. We started this two years ago, with 17 Adventures. Last year, she wanted to add another adventure, and make it "18 Adventures". (I can see where THAT'S going!) This year, she just titled her list, "Summer Adventures for 2019!!!", and then quietly went about, putting 23 items on her list. The stinker!

We didn't complete all the adventures, and I think we'll try for another one tomorrow, anyway. But we did get a lot of them done, and had some additional adventures, that weren't on the list. So I feel like we balanced it out. Here are a few shots to summarize our summer:

Not an "adventure" but she liked feeding Aunt Penny's horses. When she wasn't afraid of them nibbling her fingers.

We signed up Emma for softball camp at BYU, and she had a great time there:

Then Darcie took us on a campus tour. These turtles live at the duck pond.

Also while we were there, her newest niece (and Grandbaby #4) made her arrival. Miss Emma was very patient about waiting her turn to hold Baby Harlee.

And from two different occasions, Emma loved playing with Giselle - the oldest niece:

So, Darcie showed me the hiking trails at Hells Gate State Park, and we added that to our list of adventures. Does it count for more points if we did this adventure more than once?

Emma and I decided that we like this hike to Charlie's Peak the best. We thought that the Gunpowder Ridge trail should be re-named, "Powder Ridge" for the dustiness. And the Winchester Trail should be called, Wear-Long-Sleeves-And-Watch-Out-For-The-Thistles-That-Are-Taller-Than-Adults.

Darcie wasn't around for our hikes there, but Alyssa and her pups came along for one of them. It's way easier going uphill when the dog is half-dragging you.

(P.S. I don't wear makeup for early-morning hikes. The End.)

We wove the Huffaker Family Reunion in to the Summer Adventures List, because ... well, because we can. There were so many fun moments. This pool shot happened there. And then, we went four-wheeling:

We had planned to go back to the same fire tower as we had visited when camping here last year, but the road there was closed. So we did a little investigating, and went up some other trails. One was a super-fun, over-the-humps, narrow kind of trail. The other one (the next day) took us to a different fire tower:

132 steps to the top -- we came, we climbed, we saw amazing views (including the other fire tower!)

And we floated the river in the afternoons, to rinse clean of trail dust, and to cool off:

Emma loved it. We drove up to the falls (21 miles, winding along the river), climbed on the huge rocks, and took pictures with the family there.

Loved seeing our far-flung family!

Cousins:

Not an "adventure", per se, but jumping on the trampoline with the sprinkler is always fun:

Some of Emma's chosen adventures clearly came from her recent experiences in 4th Grade. With the Rendezvous activity, she had made some homemade butter. So, the Adventures because Making Homemade Bread, and Making Homemade Butter. We were in a cook-things-one-the-grill-mode, so the bread was baked there:

And butter in the blender.

I wasn't up to doing that completely by hand!

While were were in Utah [again] in August, Brandon arranged for us to do an Escape Room, as a family group. This one was a Harry Potter-themed room, and we had fun puzzling out the clues:

(When I took that selfie, I had no idea that we were being photobombed by a skull, until I looked at the pictures later on my computer!)

Playing with the nieces and nephew.

Actually, dogpiling on Darcie:

Also not on the list ... Alyssa and I took Miss Em to Roaring Springs water park, while we were in Boise. The weather was perfect and we had a blast. This video is Alys and Emma going down one of the water slides. The pool at the bottom is 10' deep!

Back at home, water play is a little more tame, when we go visit Aunt Penny's house (and pool!)

Some of her other adventures included Geocaching (with Kids College), making raspberry jam with mom, our annual Shooting Star Sleepout (for the Perseids Meteor Shower), cooking lessons with mom, and more.

Some of the ones that we just didn't get to were making magnetic slime, sewing lessons with mom, an outdoor movie night, making paper, and making candles.

As I look back over it, and think about it, it was a good summer, and a busy summer. Did we go to amazing, faraway places? Well, no.
But it was a ton of fun, and she enjoyed it! I count it as a "win" in my book.