Last Days of Summer

Summer is coming to a close for us. Not because fall weather is coming...that won't happen for another two months. But because Todd starts teacher meetings in a week and I'm in the midst of fall camps for football, volleyball, and cross country at the University of Utah.

In the middle of July, we took 18 high school runners up to Park City for a 3 day cross country camp. We stayed in a cabin near the Park City Mountain Resort that is owned by the family of one of our athletes. We filled our time with team bonding, games in the park, goal setting, and (of course) running. We did a challenging trail run up in the mountains one morning. All of the girls ran a 8 mile loop and all of the boys ran a 11 mile loop. It was hard work, but they were proud of what they had accomplished! We also took them to the alpine slide at Park City Mountain Resort. This was the first cross country camp for Olympus High School. We'd do it again!

Games in the Park

A few of the girls at the highest point of the trail run

Playing spoons

The ride up the the alpine slide (L) and the group at the top (R)

Beat up after a wipe-out on the slide (check out the burns in the shirt)

 The whole group

A day after camp ended, Uncle Bruce came to Salt Lake City for a long weekend. We drove up into the Uinta Mountains one day and hiked around at the Provo Falls & Mirror Lake. Both were very beautiful! Todd was pretty beat up from his wipe-out on the alpine slide, so he wasn't up for a hike; but Uncle Bruce & I did a hike in Big Cottonwood Canyon past several alpine lakes. We even saw a moose! We also took a trip to Antelope Island to dip our feet in the Great Salty and see some bison.

Provo Falls

Mirror Lake in the Uintas

Lake Mary in Big Cottonwood Canyon

Moose sighting!

View of Lake Martha and Lake Mary from above

For Pioneer Day (the biggest Utah holiday!), we cheered on 4 of our cross country athletes in the Deseret News 10k. They took 4th place in the high school team division. We went out to brunch with friends, and then spent the evening grilling out with friends from church.

Last weekend I camped for two nights in the Uintas with 10 other ladies from church. We had a great, relaxing weekend with great hiking, conversation, food, and wine. I'm so blessed to have met all these wonderful ladies in Utah.

Our tent by Butterfly Lake

Hiking the Lofty Lakes Loop

The lovely ladies

Burgers & Shakes on the way back home

Todd's mom & friend Becky made a quick stop in Salt Lake City on their way to California this past week. I was able to join them for dinner one night, and Todd took them on a downtown tour and hike up in one of the canyons. A quick, but great visit!

Our cross country season is now officially underway. We held our team time trial on Thursday and had 30 kids participate. Counting the ones who were out of town as well, it seems like we'll have a large group this fall! Times were faster at this year's time trial than last year's, so we're very exciting for what this season may hold!

At the starting line

And they're off!

Time Flies When You're Having Fun

Summer is flying by! Hard to believe Todd's been out of school for 5 weeks already! He's enjoying some downtime, and has picked up some tutoring to keep him semi-busy. We're also holding cross country practice 5 mornings a week. The turnout at these practices has been better than expected! We've had as many as 27 kids!

Chocolate Milk and Donuts awaited the team after their run on Thomas' Birthday! Thanks Odells!

We've enjoyed having more time to relax, hike, trail run, & see friends now that school and the track season are over. We spent a Sunday afternoon in Park City with friends of ours, Dave & Sherry Spence--ate brunch, checked out the Park Silly Farmer's Market, and hiked around the Park City Mountain Resort. We also hiked up to Desolation Lake with Jessie and Brian Strike.

View from hike in Park City

Beautiful Day for a hike!

Local food & music at Millcreek Venture Outside

Desolation Lake with Jessie Strike

The highlight of our summer so far was our 2 week trip back to the Midwest! We celebrated Grant and Allison's wedding on June 27th. The day was absolutely beautiful! We're so glad the weather cooperated. Welcome to the Mitchell family, Allison!

The beautiful couple

Todd gives his speech as Best Man

We were able to spend time with the extended family on Saturday after the wedding. It was nice to catch up with family we don't see very often! On Sunday, my parents met us for church & brunch. Then, we left with my parents for a road trip through northern Minnesota, Wisconsin, and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

Our first stop was Duluth. We spent the first night walking Park Point & watching ships go under the Aerial Lift Bridge. We skipped stones in the VERY cold Lake Superior and ate delicious Mexican food outside. On Monday, we hiked around Gooseberry falls and checked out Split Rock Lighthouse. On Tuesday, we made a quick stop at the Glensheen Estate before heading to Wisconsin.

Skipping Stones

Aerial Lift Bridge

Gooseberry Falls

Split Rock Lighthouse

Glensheen Estate gardens

The mansion we toured

On Tuesday, we spent some time walking around Bayfield, WI. We got ice cream and looked around in some bookstores & gift shops. We also explored the maritime museum. We took a sunset cruise around the Apostle Islands. The islands were really neat, but we were also very cold. The air temperature was in the 50s and it was quite windy! We really enjoyed Devil's Island with it's sea caves & lighthouse.

Bayfield, WI

We saw several Bald Eagles on our cruise

Devil's Island Lighthouse

Devil's Island Sea Caves

On Wednesday, we drove into Michigan. Our first destination in Michigan was the Porcupine Mountains. We hiked along the Escarpment Trail which overlooks the Lake of the Clouds. We spent the night in Houghton, MI and ate a great pizza place downtown.

Lake of the Clouds

Hiking along the Escarpment Trail

Pictured Rocks was our next destination. The water along the shoreline was so beautifully colored! We did a short hike to a lookout for Miner's Castle and then walked to Miner's Beach. The hike to Chapel Rock & Beach was much longer, but worth it! However, the bugs were bad for the 3 miles back to the car, and we hiked very quickly!

Miner's Castle

Bridal Veil Falls

Chapel Rock

Chapel Rock Beach

On Friday, we drove to Tahquamenon Falls. I was there once before when I was young, but didn't really remember it. The upper falls has the 2nd greatest volume of water (1st is Niagara Falls) east of the Mississippi River! We ate lunch and walked around on the beach at White Fish Point before driving over the bridge to the lower peninsula to stay the night in Mackinaw City. We sat on the shore of Lake Huron and watched the fireworks--we could be Mackinaw City, Mackinac Island, & St. Ignace fireworks all at once!

Upper Falls

White Fish Point

We lit Chinese Lanterns before the fireworks

Fireworks over Lake Huron

Saturday, our final day of our road trip, we took the ferry to Mackinac Island. We enjoyed walking around the Grand Hotel and past some beautiful cottages. We rented bikes and rode around the island. Todd and I were on a tandem! We also rode up the big hill by the Grand Hotel and came speeding back down :). We drove back to Grand Rapids that evening.

The Grand Hotel

Mom made a friend

Riding bikes around the island

We were able to spend 2 days in Grand Rapids before flying back to SLC. It was nice to my parents new house in the summer and see the work they've done so far. Dad has planted a lot of trees and Mom has a very large garden. We were able to see Uncle Bruce, Grandma, and Ben as well!

We're looking forward to a full week next week! We will be taking 20 athletes from the Olympus High School XC team to Park City for 3 days and 2 nights for a team camp. This is the first time doing something like this, so we're pretty excited! Then, Uncle Bruce is coming out to SLC for a long weekend! We're excited to do some hiking with him. And, on top of all that, Todd and I will likely become Aunt Anna & Uncle Todd next week!! Holly and Matt's baby will most likely be coming soon! We can't wait to meet our niece/nephew!

May in SLC

May has been a full & exciting month for us as coaches! We finished up a successful track & field season 4 individuals & 4 relay teams making it to the State Meet at BYU. It's exciting to think where our team will be next year since many of the competitors are underclassmen, but it's also hard to say good-bye to the seniors! We really enjoy working with these athletes. However, there's little down time seeing as we've already had a parent meeting for the upcoming XC season as well as beginning XC practices after school.

Olympus Track Team at the Region Championships

At the Track Awards Banquet with some of our wonderful seniors

We celebrating Todd's birthday at the beginning of May. He wanted to spend his birthday outside--grilling & playing yard games. The Spence family invited us over to do just that, and the Moffatts joined us. It was a relaxing, sunny day. We just recently shopped for his birthday gift (Todd doesn't like surprises, and I usually don't get him exactly what he wants) and he picked out a two-burner car camping stove and the board game Carcassone. 

We spent the afternoon on Mother's Day helping the Moffatts pack up their apartment. We had a picnic in the park later in the week with all of our New Song Pres friends to say farewell to this wonderful family. We will truly miss Mark, Jenna, & Harper as they are moving back to South Dakota (luckily that's not too far from Minnesota). We are so thankful for their friendship and great times we've had!

I spent 4 days in Scottsdale, AZ for the annual CPSDA (Collegiate & Professional Sports Dietitians Asssociation) conference. I learned a lot as well as had the opportunity to meet some collegiate dietitians from around the US that I hadn't met before. A large group from our conference hiked up Camelbak Mountain on of the mornings we were there. Luckily we started really early since the weather was 90-100 degrees while we were there!

View from the top of Camelbak Mountain

Coworkers and I at the top

University of Utah Dietitians & Interns--Past & Present

Despite plans to camp at Capitol Reef National Park over Memorial Day weekend, Todd and I stayed home and tried to catch up on sleep & work instead. Todd's been swamped at work (and is very eager for this school year to come to a close). So instead of a camping trip, we had a BBQ with the Spences, spent some time at the Murray City Pool, tended to our garden box, and attended a graduation party for one of the seniors we coached. It was a great, refreshing weekend.

Todd building my garden box. It's now filled with salad greens, tomatoes, bell peppers, squash, & green beans.

Hope y'all are enjoying your weekend!