Beginning of July

Also at the beginning of July we spent time at Grandma and Grandpa Nelson's, Nate spent countless hours fixing the sprinklers in the front yard (which included cutting out a giant tree root that had grown around the sprinkler pipe), Laura picked out some new glasses, Megan went to a young women activity, and we watched Rachel and Justin while the rest of their family was at pioneer trek. 

Nelson 4th of July

On the actual 4th of July we went to the parade and had breakfast at Nelson's. Then Nate and Josh went on a mountain bike ride with all the men (and Cam and Easton Farmer) to ride the Crest Trail. That night since we weren't going to BYU, we had some of my family over for a BBQ and to watch our neighborhood fireworks (which we rarely get to see and which are pretty impressive). 

Barson 4th of July

We love the 4th of July! We celebrated with the Barsons a few days early because of when BYU's Stadium of Fire was. So we had my family over for breakfast and then some of the boys went on a dirt bike ride up American Fork Canyon and the girls and the rest of the kids went on a hike to Scout Falls up American Fork Canyon. Everyone came back to our house afterward to get ready for that night. And then we went down to BYU for my Dad's annual party. It was such a fun day!

 

Hiking Timp with Lia

Lia had been wanting to hike Mount Timpanogos for a couple years and it just hadn't worked out. So we found a day and made it happen before she left on her mission. It was so, so fun to hike it with Lia! I had hiked it once before, but later in the year when there wasn't any snow. This was a whole different experience. Most of it was fine, but we had a few snow fields to cross on the way up and the way down. They terrified me! I was so afraid I was going to slip when we were crossing them and slide down the mountain. Lia was as cool as a cucumber and helped me through it. I should've been the one helping her as the mom, but that's not how it went. I was so grateful for her confidence and help. We also had a thunder storm threatening that I was worried about, but we followed a dad and his son up and I checked in with them every so often to see if they felt comfortable continuing on and if they did, we would keep going too. When we finally got to the top, it had cleared. Lia was totally comfortable on top... I on the other hand was trying to contain my nervousness. I'd been there before and I was still nervous! We signed the book (and saw where Matt and James Elmer signed the wall), had lunch, enjoyed the view for a little bit, and then headed back down. We saw some mountain goats on our way which was super cool. The snow fields on the way down were not as bad and when we came to the last one, we decided to slide down. There was a path already made for us and I had an extra pair of pants and Lia had a bag to slide down on so we would be dry for the rest of the hike. It was so fun! And so much quicker! I don't have any photos of that, but we have a couple of really great videos. It was a long day, but I'm so grateful we were able to go. It was so fun to be with Lia. I loved the time we had together and the conversations we had. It was a day I will always remember!