Summer Bucket List Recap

At the beginning of summer I created quite the long Summer Bucket List and have been attempting to check off as many of the activities as I could.  I have to admit I didn't get as far as I wanted.  But some of them can roll over into fall and even winter!  I have done a couple of SBL posts over the past couple of months you may remember them or feel free to take a look through my blogs history to find them.  Here are a bunch that I crossed off but haven't shared pictures from yet!  It's was quite the fun summer!

View my entire Summer Bucket List by clicking HERE!!

SBL # 7 Pick Raspberries

One evening after work, Angie and I went up to Spanish Fork to pick raspberries at McBride's Brier Patch.  I highly recommend this place, it is beautiful and had tons and tons of raspberries for us to pick, and the owners are some of the nicest people I have ever met.  I had a total blast wandering through the rows of raspberry bushes, with a bucket tied around my waist, picking loads of fresh, sweet raspberries.  Raspberry picking is actually a super relaxing activity, we went at the most perfect time of night when the weather was divine.  I can't wait to go back next year!

We left with oodles of berries!  It was so fun to think up fun and different ways to incorporate them into my cooking.  Around the same time, Lu gave me some peaches from her mom's peach tree and Kelly's parents gave us all some of their amazing home grown tomatoes to split among those who wanted some.  What fun!  Fresh produce grown in my friends' gardens.

I sprinkled raspberries on top of almost everything I ate, such as these quinoa pumpkin pancakes

I throw some in to any batters I was making such as these sweet cream waffles, they were sooo good with cooked berries baked inside of them!

SBL # 8 Go to a movie at the capital building

The Movie Under The Stars capital movie series is one of my favorite summer activities in Salt Lake.  This year Lisa and I had dinner at Bruges Waffles and Frites before heading over to a screening of The Sand Lot.  We both got peaches and cream waffles which were delicious!  and the perfect summer meal.  Then we headed over to the capital right as the sun was setting and got the perfect place on the lawn and set out our blanket to enjoy the movie.  The Sand Lot is the quintessential summer movie to me, no matter how many times I see it, it always makes me giggle!  Such a fun summer evening activity.

SBL # 11 Blow Bubbles

No matter how old I get, I will always think blowing bubbles is magical.  The Griffins came over to visit one day so I took the kids into my front yard to enjoy the summer sunshine and to blow some bubbles!  It was a fun memory to create with them!

SBL # 20 Save a Life and Adopt a Kitten

Since I moved into a house this July I could FINALLY get a pet!  I decided to get a kitty because they are so much easier to take care of.  Bethy and I had bonded with a cute Kitty that lived in her neighborhood and would often come spend the afternoon at her house.  He was so sweet and affectionate, but we later found out that he had owners.  About a month later, those owners picked up and moved and left their kitty to fend for himself without a home or source of food.  Our cute little buddy didn't handle this well, he lost about half his weight, developed scabs behind his ears and his fur became dirty and wiry.  It was heart breaking to watch this happen to him.  So I decided this is would be the kitty I would adopt and give him a good home.  I named him Louis and he is now a happy, healthy and super chubby kitten and we are the best of friends.  He is an amazingly good cat and has such a funny personality and charms everyone who meets him.

Jens and Bethy went to the pet store with me since they are both happy kitten owners and know exactly what things I needed to kitten proof my home.

SBL # 22 Go For a Hike

I love hiking!  It is so rewarding, nature is so beautiful and it is such a great way to enjoy some wonderful summer weather.  When the Burton's were in town, the whole family headed up to the Albian Basin to take our annual family pictures.  There are so many gorgeous wild flowers up there in the summer time.  After our photo shoot, my dad and I went for a hike up to Cecret Lake.  It's such a great hike, it's only about a mile long, it's not super steep, you have beautiful views of the basin the entire way and you end up at a gorgeous lake! Honestly, what more could you ask for?  I included some pictures of our family photo shoot because I thought they were too cute not to post.  Look for the finished photo project on this years Christmas card!

SBL # 28 Go to the Aquarium 

I love love love aquariums!  I find them endlessly fascinating.  While I was in Chicago I had the opportunity to go to the famous Shedd Aquarium and check number 28 off my summer bucket list.  I already did a nice long post on my visit with the fish, so head on over and check it out by clicking HERE!

SBL # 36 Ride Bikes

This is one summer activity that I wish I had done more of.  I love bike riding whether it be a relaxing ride around the neighborhood or riding in a 50 mile bike race.  I did both of those once this summer.  I already posted about my amazingly fun experience biking 50 miles in the Little Red Ridding Hood race, to see those exciting photos, click HERE!  I also did a nice long post about my little jaunt around Mackinac Island on a bike ride with my dad click HERE to see that post, I did included a couple of pictures from that ride below.

SBL # 40 Make Cookies For Friends

When I decided to cross this one off the list, I didn't just want to deliver normal, ordinary cookies to my dear friends.  I wanted a culinary challenge for myself, a new recipe to try, and for my friends to find a unique baked good on their doorstep.  So, I went to my "Sweet Treats" pinterest board to pick something fun and exciting to try.  I decided on pumpkin, cream cheese mini loaves. (so it maybe more of a fallish treat then a summery one, but it was getting towards the end of summer and I was getting super antsy for fall...)  After I baked a million mini loaves, I wrapped them all up in cute packages, wrote all my friends personalized notes of love and appreciation and went around and delivered my little gifts to their door steps!  I had more pictures of my little summer gifts but accidentally deleted them ... so this is all I have to represent SBL #40

SBL # 53 Run a Race

Again, this is something I wish I had done more of, but there is always next year!  At least I got one running (maybe it was more walking ...) race in before the summer ended.  A few members of the family ran the 10K and 5K through downtown Salt Lake City on the 24th of July.  Running a race as a family is so much fun!  

SBL # 57 Go Swimming

It's not summer unless you go swimming, this wouldn't be a real Summer Bucket List if swimming wasn't included! While I did make it to the pool a couple of times I also did a lot of fun activities that required a little swimming.  One of those was the natural water slide in Alpine.  This is such a fun little hidden gem!  Then a week later the gang headed up to Provo to tube the Provo river!  While I have gone down the Provo river a number of times, I had never actually gone down in a tube.  It was so much fun!  At one point all 11 of us connected our tubes to create a large floating island.  After floating the river, we all went to dinner at Malawi's Pizza so I included those pics as well.

SBL # 59 Play With Sparklers

Since we were on a boat in the middle of the ocean on the 4th of July, we played with sparklers during our 24th of July celebration.  This year I wanted to try out a couple different types of sparklers, colored ones and HUGE ones.  They were pretty exciting!

SBL BONUS!  Go to Lagoon

I really wanted to put go to Lagoon as one of the items on my Summer Bucket List, but I was nervous I would never make it out there since the fam has been talking about going for about three years and we just can't ever seem to make it out there.  But this summer my work offered all it's employees 8 tickets to Lagoon at half price.  I figured there was no better time to rally the troops and finally give Mike and Reece their first Lagoon experience, and save quite a bit of money at the same time.  It was a fun way to celebrate Mike's birthday!  I hadn't been to Lagoon since I was in Jr. High.  It was fun to finally make it back

I thought this was funny.  You know the famous white roller coaster...?  I couldn't ever remember what it's real name was.  Turns out it's real name is Roller Coaster, not even THE roller coaster, just plain old Roller Coaster.  Hahaha so original

One of Mike's favorite kind of rides are the rapid rides, so we all made sure to go on Rattle Snake Rapids together.  Evie got completely drenched within the first 2 minutes of the ride.  Reece was the second wettest, his entire back was completely soaked.  When Evie heard him talking about how wet he was she walked up to him and clearly stated, "you're not wet you baby!" bahahaha what a little sass face, I love it!  That gave us giggles for days!

*sigh* what a fun summer it has been.  I didn't make it through my list because I was too busy traveling or doing other fun things that didn't make it on to the list.  I am so happy and blessed to have such amazing friends and family that are so fun to be with that make life so full of good times and memories.  I love being with people who share the same excitement for life that I do.  I love getting out and enjoying all the wonderful things that the different seasons have to offer!