What I Did on My Summer Vacation

October 7, when did you get here? Wasn't Memorial Day just last weekend? How does this happen every year? This morning I woke to find a family e-mail about Christmas festivities in my inbox and all I could do was stare at the screen. I blinked and shook my head, like I'd just been bonked on the head. I collected myself and responded, but I'm still in disbelief that we're discussing December. Time is going by much too quickly. And I realize how neglectful I've been of my blog, despite wanting to post here weekly. I was pretty good at keeping up for a few months, but then I got a brilliant idea to go back to school and well, that's where my summer has gone. I'm not complaining though. I'm very excited about it still, even though I've got my first midterm in about 10 years coming up next week. Eek!

So where have I been all summer? What have I been doing? What have I seen? Take a look! I...

biked to/from Antelope Island in Great Salt Lake and photographed boats while I was swarmed by bugs


hung out with my favorite nerdy photo pal, Heather, and her giant Mamiya that I'm going to steal from her house while she sleeps


hiked, climbed up and down ladders, and shimmied through tunnels to see Spruce Tree House, Cliff Palace, and Balcony House at Mesa Verde National Park


huffed and puffed up to beautiful Delicate Arch in Arches National Park (my third visit!)


started a super cool double exposures project with Vanessa


began traveling for some of the classes within my Master's degree and ended up in Seattle for a week


drove 70+ miles of dirt to see otherworldly Cathedral Valley in Capitol Reef National Park


remodeled the kitchen into something I thought I'd only ever see in a magazine


hiked to Bell Canyon Reservoir with friends


picked raspberries on lovely little Sauvie Island with Elizabeth


went on a photo frenzy on the Oregon Coast with Vanessa


photoboothed it up with these cool kids after dinner at Clyde Common


wandered Portland


backpacked to the Grizzly Ridge Yurt on the Ashley National Forest (best weekend ever)


kayaked


toured Rocky Mountain National Park in a day (never enough time, but it's all we had)


traveled a bit for the Forest Service again

Besides all of these great happenings, I cheered on the Ogden Raptors with my dad on many a warm summer night, joined and immediately became obsessed with Instagram (thanks Vanessa), hippie-danced at an Infamous Stringdusters/Railroad Earth/Yonder Mountain String Band show at Red Rocks, flew home and back to Denver the very next day for school for the week, met my brand new nephew Grady in August and immediately fell in love, grilled a delicious steak for the first time in my life, conquered homemade pizza dough! (I'll never buy Boboli again), visited family in Texas at Lake Travis and just about got chased out by the Spicewood wildfire (we were packed and ready to evacuate but were safe in the end), walked around Austin, spent a week in Boise for school, then another week there for work... Rest assured I have many photos of these adventures, but I haven't posted them on Flickr yet, nor have I edited them, but I'll update this space when I get to them. It was a fantastic summer that may have been a little too busy, seeing as it's October and I'm blindsided. Such is life. Hope you had a great summer too.

Finally posted to Flickr, so now I can share here...

lazed about for five days at Lake Travis despite the nearby Spicewood wildfire


explored Austin


wandered Boise for four days during a class for school