Summer Wrap-Up

I guess it would be good to blog about the rest of summer since all I've written was about MMT (Massive Moab Trip) back in June. So here's the story...
July~What a great month! Me, Car, Kate, Ky and Collin drove down to Mesa to visit my mom's brother's families while my mom, dad and Candice went to Olympic Trials in Omaha, Nebraska during the first week. Candice qualified for OT's last summer at Nationals in Indianapolis (I got to be her coach out there!) in the 200 backstroke and was able to compete for HAST (her club). While we were down in Mesa, we finally got to meet Mackenzie Worthen who is John and Shammah's little girl. She is precious, but definitely has her own agenda. I love her! We also were able to spend time with our cousins and awesome aunts and uncles having BBQ's, shopping, going to see Hancock and other fun activities. My favorite day was when Candice swam her event and all 16 of us were crowded around my little 15-inch computer screen watching her take second in her heat. We were all screaming our lungs out, but trying to listen to the commentary. It was hilarious! We were so proud of her, she swam her heart out.
July was also crazy busy! I started teaching swimming lessons every morning and supervising the pool at night. Needless to say, 50 hour work weeks during summer vacation are NOT fun, but I was grateful for the much-needed cash. We celebrated Kate and Candice's birthdays with the typical Smith family parties (they're legendary) and also shot off some sweet fireworks for the 24th of July. Pioneer Day for all the non-Utah folk.
August~WAS AWESOME! Carly's 22nd birthday was on the 3rd, so we had a little family shindig for her. I think as we get older the birthday parties kind of diminish in coolness, but I think she still had a good day. Monday, the 4th was very cool. As some of you know, our family is very into James Taylor and he came in concert that day. We, the sibs, bought our parents a couple very good tickets for their anniversary and then Car surprised me with cheaper tickets to the show as well. I was stoked! (and also felt bad about not getting her something better for her birthday!). The man is a genius. I was so excited to hear JT play live especially after listening to his music my entire life. I cried when he played Fire and Rain, its by far my favorite song of all time. (Hence the name of my blog). Thank you, Car. You made my whole life!
Later that week, I took a group down to Moab for 'mini-Moab'. We hit up Ken's lake for starters, and then the heavens opened and it rained the entire night! It actually turned out to be really good for us, though. We went to Zax Pizza for dinner (delicious) and then walked around main street in the rain and checked out all the shops. That was fun for me because I always go for the nature part of Moab, so seeing the commercial portion was pretty sweet. Some of the boys bought some wicked awesome shirts, too. Ha. We drove into the canyon to our campsite later on that night just to find a flash flood had washed out the road, so we turned around and camped at the mouth of the canyon near an abandoned building we lovingly called "Chateau 'dif". Creepy, creepy.
In the morning we grabbed breakfast from McDonald's, then hiked Delicate Arch. I love it there. Its fun to go see landmarks that Utah's known for. We took tons of pictures, then peaced out to Left Hand for cliff jumping. It was fun to go with a bunch of people who have never cliff-jumped before. They were really apprehensive at first, but once they finally went for the first time, we couldn't get them to stop. A couple of the kids actually started doing flips off the cliffs. Scared me to death, but they were fine. After Left Hand, we hit the long road back to American Fork. I hate leaving Moab. Its by far my favorite place in Utah.
Along with all the fun adventures of August, came the CRAPPY one. We decided to hike Mount Timpanogos at night a couple weeks ago, and it totally sucked. I usually love hiking and have hiked Timp a million times, but never at night and never after running my highest-logged mileage ever. It was FREEZING all night and I totally hurt myself in the first mile of our 18-mile journey. But being the determined/stubborn person that I am, I completed the hike and then couldn't walk for three days after. Stupid. And to top it all off, when the sun finally came up, there were clouds blocking the view! That's the whole point of hiking at night, to watch the sunrise! Ugh, whatever. My group of friends that came all conceded to never do that again. Timpanogos is much too pretty to hike in the dark, so I'll go during the day from now on thank you very much.
All in all, its been a pretty good summer filled with adventures, sleeping in, shopping trips, lots of swimming, and good times with family and friends. Now it's back to school, but I guess school and cold weather are necessary for us to appreciate all the goodness that comes with summer.