A Few Summer Memories

We had such a great time in Utah this summer!!  I was so excited to have so much time to spend with family and friends out there!  In total we spent 2 1/2 months there and it was great!  During that time we did so much, and I documented most of those things on my camera.  When I got somewhere near 500 something pictures my card memory was full.  With about 5 weeks left to go, and no computer to put them on, I switched out the card for another one and carefully placed it in my camera bag.  I thought it would be safe in there, no big deal, I would just put them on the computer when I got home.

Last week when I got to the part on my list that said, update blog, I thought I would get to it.  I got out the SD card and put it in the computer and NOTHING!  Stuck it in the camera and NOTHING!  Panic started to sink in at that moment when I realized the card wasn't being recognized.   I tried a few trial versions of some recovery programs and still...NOTHING.  I have given up for now until I have the time to figure out if there is someone out there who can fix this problem and get all those pictures back.  I am hopeful that one day I can find that person and get all those pictures and memories back.  Until then, I wanted to post on here a few of the things we did while we were in Utah so that even if I don't have the pictures to remember it by, I will have it written out on here!

In no particular order with a few pictures I found online:

• My mom invited us to the Summit County demolition derby.  Growing up we would go to these in Morgan quite often and it was always fun.  Watching cars crash, snow cones, and the crazy crowd that comes along with a derby makes it what it is!  I had a babysitter for Gracen and took Brynlee with me, hoping she wouldn't be afraid of the loud, crashing cars.   She loved it!!  When the cars first came out into the arena it was loud and she had the best look of uncertainty on her face.  It didn't take her long to warm up to it.  When the cars would crash, she would just laugh and laugh, she thought it was great!!  Between heats they played songs and let the kids run out into the arena to dance.  Brynlee didn't make it out the first time, but on the next song, which was the chicken dance, she had help climbing the fence and went out into the middle with Shyley and learned the dance.  She had so much fun!!  I loved watching her laugh and smile throughout the entire night!  It was a pretty good derby and the drivers in it put on a good show!

(I'm not even sure if this is from the same derby, but I added them anyway!  It's fun to see the cars go up over the bank or catch on fire, etc...)

• Grandpa Thompson took Gracen on his first 4-wheeler ride!!  He wasn't too sure of it at first, but once we got him on there he LOVED it!!  Brynlee and Gracen both got spoiled with lots of "fweeler rides" while we were there!

• My sister and I wanted to go to Bear Lake and take the kids swimming.  We headed out on a day that wasn't really hot, it was actually a little cool for being the first part of August, found a beach and let the kids have fun!  We made sand castles (aka...little piles of sand that don't really look like much of anything), buried my niece Shyley and my sister in the sand, jumped in the water, collected shells, and had lunch!  And of course, you can't go to bear lake without stopping for a fresh raspberry shake, so we did that too!

• We went with Grandma and Grandpa Thompson, and uncle Jason and my nephew Bracken to Golden Spike.  This is the site of the driving of the last spike of the first transcontinental railroad.  The kids all loved seeing the trains, as long as they weren't blowing their loud horns!  When the first locomotive, Jupiter, came up it blew it's horn and scared all 3 kids pretty bad!  It was kinda funny to see their reactions to it!  All 3 of them had to cover their ears, and when the second locomotive, 119, came in Bracken and Brynlee went inside the building with Grandma to watch where it was much quieter!  Brynlee and Gracen loved seeing the trains!!

Jupiter

119

• We went to the zoo with Grandma Woolsey, aunt Amy and Shyley.  Brynlee and Gracen love the zoo and Grandma spoiled them with slushies and a toy to take home!  Gracen called just about everything a camel and we rode the train!  When we saw everything, we walked outside to find that a guy in a big truck (with no insurance!) parked his lisence plate right into the hood of my mom's brand new car.  So we got to spend about and hour waiting for a police officer to come and write up a report.  While we were waiting the security guards came and gave us 6 free zoo passes!   Too bad that doesn't equal the couple hundred my mom had to pay to fix her car, but I was still excited for free passes!

There are so many more things that I am sure I have forgotten....

LESSON LEARNED...

Don't procrastinate updating the blog!