Pioneer Day hiking

Bill had a miscommunication with his hairdresser and ended up with the shortest haircut he’s had in years! I actually think it looks great. He looks good with short hair! 

 Chloe asked me to French braid her hair last night. Her hair has finally started growing in and thickening up and it was super easy to braid. She has so much hair that had grown in throughout her hair and along her hairline.

We headed out to Lamoille Canyon, near Elko, NV to hike this week for Pioneer Day. The camping didn’t work at all. We couldn’t find a place, so we stayed at a hotel. But the hike was great!  

New plant that just somehow jumped into my cart at the store. Too cute not to own and I had to buy some plants to fill it and some other empty pots, of course. 

Chloe collected these flowers as she deadheaded the day lilies. They were cute even all dried out and dead. 

New bike organization in the garage! Super nice to have them not falling all over the place in the way. 

This plant has the prettiest leaves and it turns out the blooms are plain white and I adore the balance that provides. I love when it blooms. 

Spencer has caught some nice fish lately! Particularly this 8-lb catfish! 

Progress on the basement workout room. Drywall is about 2/3 done. 

Saw my sister while she was in town for a family wedding and got this fun shot of all the girls. I dunno how I ended up being the tallest of the girls in my family. We’re all still shrimps, though, hahahah! 

Wedding and racing

Genevieve made this flower out of pipe cleaners the other day. It looks so cool!

Someone in Utah knows what’s good in life. South Carolina BBQ!

My niece got married yesterday. It was a lovely day. A lot of family done see very often came for the event. 

We took a poll and decided freezing everyone out in January is preferable to frying everyone out in July, hahaha! It was HOT! January weddings don’t really work for teachers though, so summer wedding it was. We had a great time, despite the temps. 

At the ring ceremony. 

Pretty table decorations. 

Bill is involved in a really cool thing today. He’s doing a team Spartan event with his f3 friends. They are being sponsored by Spartan because one of his f3 friends is also a ridiculously good Spartan competitor who regularly used to win Spartan events. A few years ago he had a huge health crisis that has completely changed his life. He can’t compete anymore and it’s so bad, he can barely walk. They decided to put a team together to carry this friend through the Spartan course, to honor him. They’ve got a 4wd wagon of sorts that they’re pushing and pulling him in through the 5k Spartan course this afternoon, and I think it’s pretty cool. These guys Bill works out with are such an amazing part of our life. 

Traveling

Happy 9th birthday, Chloe! We celebrated the day after we got back from our family reunion. We ate at Black Bear Diner and Chik Fil A and swam even though it was randomly cold. We opened presents and went shopping and just had a great day.

I left the following Saturday for a work conference in Washington DC. It was a really good conference. I enjoyed it, and as is normal, was totally ready to be done by the end. The conference was Sunday to Wednesday, which is a little wild schedule for work. It was a long week! 

I ran or walked the Mall three or four times while I was there. I haven’t been to DC since the 2000s, so it was fun to go back. It was so flipping hot and humid. The conference was walking distance from my hotel, but we’d all still be so sweaty when we arrived after walking just a few blocks. Ha! 

My sister lives in Dover, which is only a couple hours from DC, so I extended my trip post conference and went and spent a few days at their house, including celebrating 4th of July. It was delightful. Still hot, but not as humid, and super fun to hang out with my sister and her whole crew. I rode out to Wilmington on the Amtrak train and my sister picked me up. Since I work for a transit agency, it’s nice to go use some elsewhere. They have great transit our east!

We went to the beach one day. 

We celebrated the 4th with her in-laws, who I’ve known for almost 20 years and they’re like bonus family. Her mother-in-law made this delightful dessert. 

The last day we went to a museum at the local Air Force Base. It was cool! 

My family went to a water park while I was gone. Our mortgage lender does events every six months or so and we’ve had so much fun going to a trampoline park and now to a water park with them for free. 

It was a fun time. I’m back home now and pretty pleased about that as well. It’s good to be back!