I keep trying to capture pictures of the paragliders when I see them flying. I would love a great reflective shot over the lake, but usually I am too late by the time I grab my camera or phone.
They are fun to watch and seem to love flying low above the lake and along the river.
If you know Amy well, you know that she geeks out over airplanes and cars.
She attended the airshow at Hill Air Force Base and loved the flyovers. There were a number of air performers, planes to explore, and excitement for her.
She came home just a little bit sunburned!
Chris and I hiked one of favorite hikes in RMNP above Alberta Falls and Bear Lake—Lake Haiyaha.
The hike to Lake Haiyaha passes by Nymph Lake and then Dream Lake. With almost 1000 feet of elevation to climb, it does have a few steep sections.
Nymph Lake
Apparently, it is a popular hike and a favorite for many people.
It was a cloudy day, and we were hiking in the clouds for a much of the afternoon. We arrived at the lake around noon and sat down on huge boulders to eat our lunch.
As we were getting ready to leave, we heard a huge rumbling and crashing sound that lasted for 3 to 4 minutes. Hikers who were just arriving at the lake asked out what the noise was. The sound had reverberated loudly through the canyon. Since the lake was cloaked in clouds, we hadn't seen the source of the noise.
Until the clouds suddenly began to lift. We started hiking away from the lake and the rumbling started again. We looked up Chaos Canyon and could see huge boulders crashing down the mountain with dust rising above them.
It is hard to differentiate between clouds and the dust cloud but the dust cloud is in the left upper portion of the picture below.
We stayed at the lake watching for about ten minutes.
Apparently what we heard was just the beginning of many rock slides and RMNP closed all areas around Chaos Canyon and west of Lake Haiyaha to hikers and climbers due to the significant damage and potential for more damage.
Pretty cool to see it though. Once in a lifetime kind of moment.
You could say that Kristen takes after me in that she is not really a camper. I am definitely not.
Kristen had a great time at Girls' Camp, but was happy to come home and shower and be done with her last Girl's Camp. (That is, until she is called as a Young Women leader!)
Kristen at target practice.
Amy purchased a new tv for her apartment and successfully hung it on the wall mount in her room. Kind of her first big purchase for her own home and the beginning of having too much stuff to easily move in her car! (At least in just one trip!)
Good thing she doesn't have plans to move anywhere for awhile.
I finally tested negative from Covid on June 20th. That was over a week after we arrived home from London. So grateful we didn't have to spend the time quarantined in London.
Kristen set off early this morning on her last Girls' Camp.
Her last Girls' Camp and the last of the camps for all of my girls.
I remember how excited she was with her first year camp. She was pretty spoiled for two of the years to be able to go to the YMCA camps and stay in rooms with bathrooms attached.
This year she is at the church's Camp Batel. There are tents and outdoor toilets. She might not have been quite so excited for that!
She will have fun though. She was riding up to the camp with her friends and should have a lot of activities and good food to keep her busy this week.
Have I ever mentioned that you should sign up for United rewards when you travel? Especially if you plan to travel significantly for business as Chris does?
As Chris and I sat down for our flight to London, England last month, he was greeted with a card taped to the seat back in front of us.
It was a congratulatory card for achieving Premier 1K status on this flight!
What are the requirements to achieve Premier 1K?
1. Sign up for MileagePlus with United Airlines
2. Begin to qualify on the value of the tickets you purchase
3. Qualify on the number of flights you take
On this flight to London, Chris passed the 1 million mile mark which gives him Premier Gold for his lifetime now and Premier 1K for this year and next.
"MileagePlus Premier status give you an elevated travel experience at every step of your journey. Premier members enjoy benefits like complimentary access to Economy Plus and preferred seating, waived fees (especially for baggage fees), upgrades, priority travel services and more." United.com
And the bonus for me, his status becomes my status!
Happy Father's Day to the great dads in my life.
I am blessed to have a father who has always been an awesome example to me.
I was even more blessed to have Christopher come into my life. He embodies all that is good and is simply the best dad for his girls.
We knew before we left for London and Paris that our fridge was dying. We had an appliance repair guy come to look at it and he suggested that the coolant was leaking somewhere and the problem could be over $2000 to fix.
Since we put over $800 into fixing blown circuit boards a couple of years ago, another $2000 didn't seem worth it. And even the repair guy didn't recommend it.
The appliance repair guy even suggested that fridges these days are built to last TWO YEARS! That's crazy.
We didn't have time to buy anything before leaving for vacation, so we emptied out the freezer (which wasn't freezing much anymore) and left a few things in the fridge portion.
By the time we returned home, the fridge was having a hard time maintaining its temperature.
We had narrowed down our search to Whirlpool and picked 3 or 4 models that would work. Even with sales for Memorial Day, we felt like we should just wait until after vacation so that it wasn't rushed at the last minute to install.
Good thing we waited. No, our fridge was still broken, but Costco was having a June sale on appliances and one of the ones we had looked at was $600 off. Not really wanting to buy a new fridge, but knowing that we needed to, we ordered online, sprung for the extra warranty (which you really need to do these days), and had a new fridge delivered within days.
It is amazing the muscle memory you learn and have to relearn. I find myself grabbing the top of the vegetable drawers to try and pull them open and then have to remind myself that these drawers pull from the bottom.
We got a fridge that has french door uppers, a separate drawer for cheese and such, and then a bottom pull out drawer for the freezer. I'm kind of loving it.
Fingers crossed it performs well for much longer than two years!
And, it is nice to have ice again.
Kevin and his family were in Utah for a couple of days on vacation and stopped by to see Amy at work.
Kevin is awesome to love our girls so much.
Misha and Kristen planned a sister date to go see Moulin Rouge at the performing arts center in Denver. As students they were able to buy $10 tickets from any of the seats that remained.
The big deal is that Kristen drove down to Misha's apartment in Denver all by herself. She hasn't had a lot of freeway driving and might have been a touch nervous (me as well), but she did great.
We were happy to finally be heading home.
We had been praying for a miracle so that we would somehow test negative, however, the blessing came in another way. President Biden announced the end to the requirement for a negative Covid test for international travelers. It ended at midnight Sunday morning, that was around 7 am London time. We flew at 11 am.
While we still all chose to wear masks on the flight home (ugh), we were going home! Yay. Miracle granted.
We had breakfast at the hotel and then caught the train to the airport. We arrived two hours before our flight and probably should have been there three hours before. Good thing we had access to the quick security.
Gotta love my thumb!
The flight was long but uneventful until we arrived in Denver to tornado warnings at the airport. We had to wait about an hour before the ground crew could unload our luggage.
Misha came to the airport to pick us up and ended up having to wait as well. She was lucky to be able to park on the 6th floor at departures and not get spotted by security.
Kristen had to go to the bathroom once we got through customs and so Chris sent her on ahead to the bathrooms. That's when the tornado warning required her to shelter in a bathroom!
Fortunately, she was able to meet up with Misha after the "all clear" and wait in Misha's car with her.
