Dog Lake

Our A/C went out last Sunday and it has been quite the process getting it fixed. Of course the central air would break the hottest week of the summer. Our house is currently like 85* and I found a fan in the garage to blow on me constantly. Mic and I always had thermostat wars, but even this is too hot for me. We crashed my dad’s house the second night because we couldn’t take the heat anymore, but since then we’ve just suffered through it.  

Saturday Mic suggested we get out of our hot house & go up the canyon for a hike. I’m not sure how a hike would cool me off, but I agreed that we needed to get off the couch.

We dragged Mic’s three little sisters along with us, and Sophie of course, and headed up Millcreek Canyon to Dog Lake.

None of us had done this hike before (and actually I realized I’d never driven to the top of Millcreek canyon- it is beautiful. Best wedding location ever, btw). My mom has done the hike a lot and reassured me that it was “a walk in the park”, this coming from the lady that does difficult 13+ mile hikes weekly.

It was still pretty hot in the mountains, and the first half of the hike to the lake is pretty steep. Or maybe I’m just more out of shape than I thought ;)

There weren’t a lot of people on the trail which I was surprised about since it was a Saturday, but maybe because it was an even day (even days are when Mountain Bikers are able to use the trail).

We sat by the lake and had some snacks and played fetch in the lake with soph- she’s obsessed with fetching and water, and loved it!

The way back was a lot easier, since it is all downhill.

Beautiful hike though, with a lot of pretty foliage.

Note to self: whatever the distance Mic tells you the hike is, double it. This "3 mile" hike was really 3 miles each way = 6 miles. Ya I need to get out more, so I won't be running to keep up with him and his long legs. 

Jennifer, Catherine, Julie, Michael

Dog Lake

love us

cute bridge

love these purple flowers.

"We're pleased to inform you..."

Pinch me, I must be dreaming! I got accepted to nursing school!! 
Getting accepted into nursing school has been something I've been working towards for a long time. The crazy prerequisite classes and working in the best ICU for going on six years now has finally paid off. 


Here's how it happened:
We'd just gotten back from camping all weekend & we were unloading the car. I noticed the mail sticking out of the mailbox on our house but it wasn't until my second trip out to the car that I decided to check it out. Mic was inside the house. In the box was just one envelope & I immediately recognized the return address stamp & my heart sunk. I'd had such a good weekend & I didn't want it to be ruined by a rejection letter. I ripped open the envelope like ripping off a bandaid- get the pain over with as quickly as possible. 
I don't think I even read past the "we're pleased to inform you.." part, all I knew was that it didn't say "we regret to inform you.." 
I placed the letter back in its hacked envelope & came in the house (I'd been standing in the driveway in shock for a good solid minute). I wanted to come up with some great way to announce to Mic our great news but I couldn't form words. So I handed him the envelope and said "do you want to open this?" and he looked at me puzzled because clearly it had already been opened, but he humored me anyway & pulled the letter out. I can still see his face change from confusion at my odd request, to concentration as he read, to surprise/elation. He said " Are you serious?! Congratulations!" and gave me a huge hug. 


Having him there for the good news was so perfect because he's been with me every step of the way, and knows how hard I've tried for this. Cheering me on and having more confidence in my abilities than I had in myself. And tutoring me in all my math courses since he's a math genius. I will always remember being in the basement of the University of Utah's library and crying to him before my statistics exam. I'd made him come with me to help me study before the test, and he was waiting for me when I finally finished. He hadn't even taken the class & was still able to teach me the whole thing and remember what he'd taught me at the beginning of the semester and I was the one going to class and I still didn't know what I was doing. But I got an A somehow. 


But back to my story.. 
We went over to my mom's house to tell her of my acceptance. She cried when I told her. It was cute. 
To tell my dad, I decided we'd have a celebratory bbq and invite my grandma over (Laura & Alex were still at the campground, and Mace is on some crazy roadtrip with his friends). Sophie and I went to my dad's house and Mic went to the store to get the food. When he got to my dad's he'd assumed I'd already told them my news and said something about this being a celebratory bbq and my dad said "what are we celebrating?" and I said "oh ya I got into nursing school.." like it was no big deal. LOL. They were way excited. As he says, "his cutest, smartest, blondest daughter" is going to be a nurse. After I make it through the rough 4 semesters of nursing school that is. 


And just like that, my dream came true!

I don't care that it's too dark outside for the picture, or that we'd just gotten home from 2 nights of camping, I still love this picture. 

{I heart Lake Powell}

Every summer we do an Ashby family vacation. The location varies from year to year. This year I suggested Lake Powell. I wanted to go camping somewhere warm with a lake. The drive was a little farther than we normally go. Mic’s parents and two of his sisters ended up not being able to come. We had 18 people total!

We ended up leaving Tue after I got off work, instead of Wednesday morning. We got there at like midnight. It was too dark to find a good spot for us to set up the tents, and we were exhausted, so we all decided to sleep in Nate and Natalie’s trailer and wait until morning to set up camp.

The forecast for the week was crazy hot. 104* and never fell below 80* at night. However the heat wasn’t the problem, it was the constant wind & sand blowing on you that was unbearable.

We rented two boats for the day on Thursday. We took the boats all the way to Rainbow Bridge. Mic and I had never been to Rainbow Bridge even though we’d both been to Powell. The long boat ride and ¼ mile hike each way in +100 degree heat was so worth it. It was spectacular!

We also rented a tube, water ski, and wakeboard. I’ve only wake boarded a couple times, and was surprised that I actually got up and lasted awhile wakeboarding in choppy water.

We brought canoes and paddled those around the lake a lot, and fished from them. We didn’t have much luck fishing but it was fun anyway.

We took Sophie with us and she loved every second of it. She is such a water dog it is crazy. She played fetch in the lake all day. I borrowed a puppy life jacket from Laura’s in-laws and had her wear that while we were boating. It looked cute on her.

I brought the two cute beach umbrellas and chair that I’d bought at a yard sale a couple weeks ago. Still stoked about that find.

Everyone was planning on coming home Saturday, and I had told Mic that I wanted to stay until Sunday. But Friday night I decided that we’d leave Saturday after all with everyone too. I’d gotten enough sun, and couldn’t handle the wind/sand any longer.

Powell was way fun, and I can’t wait until next year’s family vacation. Start thinking of ideas of where to go now.

I need to get copies of everyone else’s pictures and I didn’t take near enough but here are some of my favorites:

Sara- the tannest one in the group! 

soph wearing her cute life jacket on the boat.

Rainbow bridge

trying to convince Mic to carry me back to the boat

tubing with my cute nieces Sara and Anika

posing with the wake board 

owning it, LOL

look at that blue sky! Took this myself.

Mic driving the boat with Soph. In the background is cute Logan and Jaden.

Mic and Logan playing fetch on the beach with Soph. She was obsessed!

Lounging with Anika and Sara.

Mic pointing out a lizard on our hike,