I should be running. . .

I'm missing a few things from the summer such as my brother Tanner coming home from his mission and Tara's wedding. I'll try to put them on as I get pictures. As it is there are more than enough pictures.

MEMORIAL DAY
We started off the summer with a bang. We got to Utah, I ran the 50k a couple of days later then we went right on to the McDonald family reunion. This is the only picture I have of that. I think I already said that Tyler lost the horseshoe tournament. Terrible, just terrible.


TESSA JUST LOOKING COOL
I just thought I should post a picture of her looking spectacular and ready for the Southern Utah sun.


LITTLE FRIENDS. . . In a perfect world every little kid would have friends that lived right next door and came over at 7 in the morning to play. Max was in heaven living next to these two cute kids during the summer.



PAPA'S HELPER
Max's shorts are about to fall off there are so many "tools" in his pocket. He was SO excited helping my dad work. He even earned a few bucks "helping" get my Grandma's house ready. His favorite thing to say was, "I need to go work so I can earn money so I can buy a backyard!" Umm...sorry about the backyard Max.


MAIN STREET. . .We visited this place quite a few times during the summer.
Max playing with Boston and feeling very cool to be included with the older kids.


LAKE POWELL. . .Sorry we don't have any great pictures of the beautiful scenery.
Max looks so old in this picture.

I'm not sure that Tessa even got in the water. The water was pretty gross because Lake Powell was rising so fast. Can't complain about that though.

My dad's getting soft in his old age. There wasn't a scarier tube driver than him when I was young. This tube ride was so mellow Max fell asleep.


FOURTH OF JULY
Spent at Ty's grandparents' house. Homemade rootbeer, cousins, and a front row seat to the fireworks. Always fun.






MAX AND MITSY
They became great friends this summer. Mitsy liked to come in our room and jump on Max to wake him up in the morning and Max liked to play with Mitsy in her kennel. We were going to take her to Texas but our backyard sort of fell through so she had to stay. Apparently she went into a state of depression for a few days after we left. She really was the sweetest thing.



PIONEER DAY PARADE
A parade should always be attended on the 24th of July. They were throwing bucketfuls of candy to us, always fun.


Sure it was blistering hot in the Smokey the Bear suit, but Tim still had to stop and pose for a photoshoot. We are quite cruel.

We met up with the Lamberts and the Goodmans that night to truly celebrate Pioneer Day in style. Good food, swimming, and Steve's little dance around the fireworks...yep, it was pretty fun.



DODGERS GAME AND KNOTT'S BERY FARM
We decided to take advantage of the fact that gas was 4 dollars a gallon and drive to L.A. Monday and back the next day. One last little shebang with Jordan before he left.
This was at the Dodger's game. We were in the all you can eat section. It was by far the filthiest place in the entire stadium. We should have realized what we were in for when Jordan got his popcorn and found an abnormally long black hair lying on the top of it. Jordan was horrified that he had worn flip-flops and had only a centimeter of cheap foam separating him from the toxic waste of the ground. Although I didn't appreciate the Dodger Dogs as much as Avery (I hear 6 were consumed), I still thought it was lots of fun.



Fun fact: We were at Knott's Berry Farm when the L.A. earthquake hit. Max and I were on a rickety ferris wheel, Tyler has it on film. Jordan and Abby got stuck for 20 minutes on a roller coaster.



CABIN
I can't believe we didn't spend more time up here during the summer. It is, as Tyler likes to quote Tara, "heaven in the hills". Next summer we may be spending every scrap of our vacation in Panguitch Lake. If you want to see us you'll have to come up there.
This was actually the second trip to the cabin. The first one was a bit of a quick trip. It's quite a fun story, in fact. We decided to go up to the cabin, sort of a spur of the moment thing (just the way we roll). I called my grandma to make sure no one was going to be there (everything is coordinated through my grandma as it is actually her cabin) and she said that my cousin-in-law was there Wednesday night but had said he was leaving Thursday morning. I had heard him tell my dad that so I thought we were pretty safe. We got a late start (also, just the way we roll) and ended up pulling into the cabin at 11 PM that night. Much to our horror we realized there was a campfire blazing outside. We were greeted by a bunch of scouts (my cousin-in-law was off picking up a car) saying that there was a change of plans and that they had decided to stay a few more days (oops on letting my grandma know). So we turned around and headed back home (so glad that gas was $4 a gallon). It was okay though, since a pipe broke and my very handy cousin-in-law fixed it. Tyler and I would have only been able to wring our hands and cry. My favorite part of the trip was when we pulled up and one of the guys said, "Um...this is awkward." Yeah, it kind of was, but at least he got to stay. It made me laugh.





MAX'S BED
My parent's house has 7 bedrooms (give or take a few), yet somehow we ended up with all four of us in one room. This is Max's bed. Now that we are back in Texas and he has his own bed he still chooses to sleep on the floor.


PINE CREEK
Jordan and I had a couple of similar goals before he left on his mission and I went back to Texas. One was the cabin and the other was Pine Creek. My camera ran out of batteries so I don't have the pictures to prove how beautiful it was. It was a lot of fun, with lots of cool rappels. Last time my family did this hike there was running water, this time it was stagnant, and judging by the smell there were dead animals in most of the pools, medium-sized buffaloes to be exact. Most of the rappels were right into the water, and I looked quite ridiculous trying to unclip while keeping myself from going under. I could have rolled around in cow manure and felt cleaner than I did after that hike. Honestly, we did the hike smelling like rotting flesh. Still, I would do it again happily. Oh, and the day before before we did it a ranger was doing it and fell 100 feet during the last rappel. She had to have an army helicopter lift her out. Jordan found an IV cap where they had picked her up, he was very excited about that.




GRANDMA FREI
I loved being able to see my grandma this summer. She is the only grandparent that I have still living, and she is just the sweetest. She moved into her beautiful new house this summer that my dad built for her. It even has an elevator! We celebrated her 85th birthday at the end of the summer, but I don't have pictures yet. (Hopefully I will get some as soon as I get on the ball and send a little package to my cousin ;)).


ADIOS JORDAN
Jordan was honestly the sweetest uncle to Max and Tessa this summer. We really miss him and can't wait for two years time to be up. Those San Fernandians are pretty lucky to be getting him.