Jason didn't have any vacation time to use this year since he was taking a full month off to go to Brazil in August so we had to try to fit in vacation when he was off. We took advantage of the long 4th of July weekend and went camping at Flaming Gorge. Three nights in a tent is about as long as I can stand with kids but we had a good time. We did end up stranded out in the middle of no where one night. We were fishing a small lake and the kids had left the lights on in the truck getting in and out so many times. We went to start the truck to head back to camp and the battery was dead. The small shop by the lake was closed and everyone else had left and we had no cell phone reception. Our campground was a good walk from there but I was starting to think it was our only choice when someone came along. They didn't have cables but were finally able to track down someone that did. We kept having to jump the truck every time we had to go anywhere and someone at church finally gave us a set of cables until we could get home and replace the battery. We had a lot of fun running and biking the overlook at Red Canyon. Andrew enjoyed photographing the canyon and the boys had fun sleeping in their hamocks and didn't mind the deer walking right through the camp all night. There was also a herd of big horn sheep running around we were lucky enough to spot. Before we went home we spent a day on the river below the dam. Jason, Andrew, and Jared fished while I hiked with Kaitlyn and Skyler. Well, until the thunder storms rolled in and we kept running to the truck to get out of the downpour!
My niece, Danielle came to stay with us for a few days this summer. We went to the rodeo and Lagoon. Neither are my favorite but the kids had a lot of fun. Melanie, with her kids, and Brittany met us at Lagoon and the big kids and little kids were all entertained so it was a win! Kaitlyn wanted to go on all the wild rides with the big kids. I think they rode just about everything there. I think we left with a few motion sick kids by the end of the day!
In August we had my sister, Rebecca, visit with her family from Ohio and my brother with his girlfriend and Calvin here from California. We went to the pool to escape the heat and to a Real Salt Lake game since Calvin loves soccer. It was our first game at Rio Tinto and it was a lot of fun although I felt like I spent half the game in line at the concession stands. It was a crazy week because I was helping with cross country camp, Jason left for Brazil, and I was trying to get everything arranged so the rest of us could join him. We didn't get as much time as we would have liked to spend with everyone but it was fun to have all the Brown cousins together.
Andrew's high adventure with the scouts was in the Wind River mountain range in Wyoming. They camped at the Green River Lakes and backpacked a long trip into Square Top. It was a much longer hike than they anticipated. The weather also turned off quite cold for the middle of July. Many of the boys ran out of food but luckily Andrew caught some fish to keep them alive!
Jared went to Camp Newfork for scout camp the same week Andrew was backpacking. The scout camp wasn't far from where Andrew was in the Wind Rivers so they also had to deal with the frigid temperatures with many mornings below freezing. He braved the cold though and even swam in the lake for the swim check and canoeing merit badge. One night they took canoes across the lake and spent the night. He was able to finish up all the merit badges he needs for his Eagle except camping. Jason was able to spend a couple days at camp but couldn't get any more time off work and spent so much time dealing with the administrative issues that he didn't get any pictures of the boys.
The Blackham backpacking trip had to be cut short this year due to the lack of vacation time Jason had. He took advantage of the long 24th of July holiday weekend and took Andrew and Jared with Brian and Brian Jr. to Red Castle in the Uintas. Jared was thrilled to finally be included on the big backpacking trip and Andrew didn't complain about another weekend in a tent. They caught a lot of fish and had a lot of fun.
