Summer In Review

Last night I was at working lamenting the end of summer and was thinking back to what I did to enjoy this season. First, it must be said that summer is not my favorite season as I do not have a favorite season, but I have a least favorite season...fall. Anyway, I decided I want to blog about this summer and the things I did.

To kick it off I went with my family to Antelope Island State Park. It was terrible and great all at the same time. A bird pooped on the windshield of my car, not such a big deal until you realize I saw this poop coming toward my car and the top was down. I was waiting in line to pay to enter the park and I screamed. LOUDLY. People started, the poop splattered on the windshield, I felt stupid. At this same point I saw a sign warning people about the biting gnats. "Whatever I can handle some bugs." I thought. Nope, these bugs were relentless. They bit any and every part of exposed skin. They got trapped in your hair and tried to bite their way to freedom. They went in your ears, your eyes and if you tried to breathe they went in your nose and mouth. Natalie and I took refuge in Stephanie's van while the other brave souls hiked to find a geocache. I got sunburned, gave my nephews rides in my car and got in trouble for ringing a bell too loudly and too often. It was a fun time.

For the Fourth of July my friend, her mother and I took a trip to Mount Rushmore. We flew into Rapid City, got a rental car and spent four days terrorizing the Mid-West. The point of the trip was to see fireworks launched off the monument but due to a beetle infestation the show was canceled, we were all bummed but had a great time anyway. We stayed in a cabin at the Flintstone Village, we toured a cabin built on a "mystery spot" which was really a cabin built on the side of a very steep hill so your bearings were thrown off causing cool optical illusions...and sea sickness. We did a ton of other trashy-cool stuff like went to Sturgis, a donkey with a hump fell in love with me, I stole some crap left on "Wild Bill Hickock's" grave, we got a picture of a bear pooping and I learned more than I would ever want to know about motorcycles from my friends mom, who used to ride with a bike gang. It was great.

Next up was the Eddington Family Reunion. Due to my work/school and more work schedule this was the first time in YEARS I have been able to attend the entire reunion, and I am glad I did. It was a very fun drive, about 3 hours from Logan, and it gave me a lot of time to think and listen to music way to loudly. There were canoe rides, hikes, and swings to play on; and play on them I did. I relearned and played *a very fun card game that has a very difficult name that I have tried to spell 10 different times but have failed so miserably spell check can't even figure out what I am trying to type* This is such a fun reunion and I look forward to seeing my cousins and aunts and uncles each year. I am already looking forward to next year...although I am still unsure about the mice that roamed the lodge. It just doesn't seem safe.

The next trip was to Yellowstone. This trip is another annual trip I take each year; the first being with the friends I went to S. Dakota with, and this one. This trip is with Shawnee and Ryan. This was our fifth year. Year one was Moab, years two and three were Zion National Park, and years four and five have been to Yellowstone. This trip is always a blast. This year we stayed near in the south end of the park since we wanted to see the Tetons as well. Shawnee likes to ride bikes and hike. I like to complain about it. Ryan likes to document it. There are many many many pictures to prove this. We rented a pontoon boat and cruised around Jackson Lake while I worked on my golden red sunburn. Shawnee dragged us on a very lengthy bike ride where I hit 40mph on my bike...which is freaking fast on a mtn. bike. We hiked to the top of Mt. Washburn and had an amazing view of Yellowstone (even if I did make us hike up the wrong trail and we missed all the wild flowers). We then watched Old Faithful erupt and had dinner at the Snow Lodge. I love this trip for several reasons but the biggest one is the company. Shawnee and I do a good job keeping in touch, Ryan and I struggle. I have see Ryan maybe 3-5 times a year, and yet when we go on this trip it's like we haven't missed a thing, we have a great time.

After Yellowstone was Lava Hot Springs. This trip had a lot of potential going for it. It was to include camping, cooking out, floating a river and a waterslide...all of these activities were canceled for a freak hurricane. Well, it was more of a microburst that dumped probably 3 inches of water on the campground. The fire was smokey because it was wet. The campground really did have 1-3 inches of standing water and it was to cold to float the river or go to the pool. We did go to the hot springs, which was pretty neat but ended up staying at a bed and breakfast. The company was so great though, and we played Phase 10 for a few hours so that made up for any cold and wetness that we endured. The next morning we drove through Soda Springs to Bear Lake and got raspberry shakes and waded out into Bear Lake. It was shockingly cold...I screamed, then complained, then screamed some more, then went under water so I could say I played in Bear Lake then made a mad dash for the beach. It was a great time.

I think that is all of my trips...but I did do a bunch of other really cool things; Raging Waters, Seven Peaks, Saturday's Voyeur, drove from Emmigration Canyon to Morgan, Bee's game, a Chelsea Handler show, met a ton of new friends and had a lot of really fun nights swimming in pools and eating at great new restaurants. It's been a pretty great summer and looking back on it I'm not sure how I managed to work at all.

So that is a very long post that covers where I have been for the past 3-4 months. I have pictures but am to lazy to post them, they are available upon request. Now that the colors are changing I will prepare for some seasonal depression and 8 long months of winter.