stewart falls

PIONEER DAY WEEKEND.

Friday. Skated. Painted.

Saturday. Boating = wakesurfing & sun all day long. So so nice.

Sunday. Church. Walk with Dave.

Monday/Pioneer Day. Woke up early. Read stories about the real pioneers. Assimilation: our own pioneer hike to Stewart Falls. Seven Peaks. X-Men.

Living in California, I don't know  that I ever fully appreciated Pioneer Day...still had work and school, sometimes the ward would do a picnic. Living in Utah? Completely different experience. Provo SHUT DOWN, including school and work. We had a full three-day-weekend, it was glorious. It was a great day to be out enjoying nature...All the time I have lived in Provo I have not hiked Stewart Falls. It is a beautiful hike and the mist of the falls is so refreshing. Love Sundance, still need to go on one of those moonlight lift rides sometime.

the decemberists

Utah really does have a lot of things going for it...one of those things is the Twilight Concert Series in Salt Lake City. This concert series is free to the public and is held every thursday during the summer. This was the first of the series I have been to, and after how much fun we had I'm sure we'll be back next week. They said there were 35,000 people there last night. So things definitly got a little close and personal (please refer to the picture luke above). Luckily we got there waaayyyy to early so we were super close. We took naps in the grass we were so early.

One of our favorite bands, The Decemberists, was headlining. Couldn't miss that, especially since it was free. They were amazing live, and one of those bands that is best seen live because of their insane music skills and vocal uniqueness. They were great entertainers too and had us laughing. I don't know why you would ever expect to see crowd surfing going on at a Decembrists concert..but believe me, it happened. At least 30 people crowd surfed. Collin, the Decemberists lead, kept making comments such as: "You guys are like the crowd at a 1993 Red Hot Chili Peppers Concert." "THis is the most crowd surfing we've had at one of our concerts by like ..10." And during the middle of one of his songs he made a CHili peppers shout out by reciting "Give it away, Give it away, Give it away now." Man it was good.

The opener was also so rad. Typhoon is the name. They are about a 12 person band including 3 trumpeteers, 2 drummers with dueling drum sets, 2 violinists, 1 celloist, 3 guitar, 1 percussion girl. Honestly it was incredible. Great fun.

finally the fourth

Finally what we did on the fourth..

Sad to say we did not spend the day at Churches (San Clemente/San Onofre area), as has been tradition since I can remember. The 4th is one of the days in the year that our family, thanks to our other family - -the Tusieseinas, gets on the military base at camp Pendleton. It is a day full of barbequeing, volleyball tournaments, surfing, swiming, bocce, music, and good times. Back in the day we used to wake up at 3 or 4 am just to stake out our usual spot (not that that beach is super crowded like others on the 4th), but for the past ten years we roll in around 6 a.m. since we live so close. Luckily mom says the waves were small this year anyway., it helped soothe Dave just a little bit hehe. It was hard to be away this year, but we managed to have a great time here in Provo, and it just makes us look forward to it that much more next year, yes...we will be going!

Provo really goes all out for the 4th. We decided to embrace the "culture" that is Provo and we walked about a block from our house to watch the annual 4th of July parade...complete with bag pippers pipping, drummers drumming, ladies dancing, ...wait, wrong holiday? Well, you get the idea. We stayed for only an hour and then went on a bike ride down the Provo River trail.

Two BBQs ensued...2? Yes...For lunch we had a great BBQ at the Haymonds and for dinner we went to a BBQ with the Facers. We like having family up here :D And for fireworks we watched the Stadium of Fire show from cousins lawn and set off some of our own until it started to rain. Good times.

lake powell - haymond reunion

dave

this is either beav or luke

me

 cliff jumping excursion crew

 camp

Lake Powell was a blast. We were there for only 2 days because of school and work but it was so worth it! We got to cliff jump, wakeboard, wakesurf, tube, swim, explore, and just be with family. Wakesurfing is my new favorite thing to do, I even dream about it. It makes missing the ocean a little more tolerable I think. Dave shreds, and it's pretty fun to watch. 

I have married into a great extended family, and it is always so fun to be around them. I couldn't ask for a better time! Thank you Haymonds!

california, i hope that it wakes you...

About a month ago we went to California for our birthday weekend. It was just enough time to surf, have a family barbeque, and catch some rays between school semesters. We were also down there to pick up Luke (Dave's little bro) to bring him up for school. We have had so much fun having him in Utah with us.

These are the only two pictures I took that weekend, but I feel they sum it up quite nicely.