We’ve been extremely busy this year. Sometimes the pressures of going to school, having full-time jobs, and trying to remodel a house leaves us with so little energy we just want to watch Parks and Rec on Netflix all day. Something that has really helped us is planning a weekend get-away every month and a half or so. Our September relaxing-time was spent waterskiing at Bear Hollow. Just the act of getting on the freeway and driving away from your home for a couple days relieves a lot of stress. Or, at least, puts off the nagging dishes and undone laundry for a while.
September is especially beautiful in Utah. Autumn colors start to come in, the last summer blooms come with a vengeance, and reds and yellows start creeping down the mountains. Our freeway drive was rather pleasant.
We loved Bear Hollow so much last year (post about that in the near future) that Colton’s parents and aunt and uncle rented out two houses for us this year. The house we shared with Colton’s parents and siblings was very nice.
One bedroom
Theater room downstairs
We spent a lot of time playing around with Colton’s younger cousins, paddleboarding, and jumping off the dock. As much as I hate Colton wanting to jump into every little puddle he sees, I have to say I’m not as pansy when it comes to cold water anymore, because I know what glacier-cold water truly feels like. And because of that, I can have more fun in the water. It helped here that the sun was very warm and there was a hot tub twenty feet away.
This year we hired a ski-instructor to teach us some tricks. I abstained from the lessons because I already know I’m terrible and I don’t care too much to get any better. I felt like everyone else could get a lot more out of the lessons. Before they even got in the water, he had them practicing leaning on the rope. Apparently everyone was doing it wrong.
Then they took turns in the water as he continued to coach them. He brought some super fancy skis for everyone to try out. I tried one out after everyone had a turn, and it was the first time I’ve ever been able to cross back and forth between the wakes. It was really fun and the first time my muscles got completely exhausted from waterskiing. I couldn’t quite get all the buoys on the course, but next year I’ll be even better. (Yes, we already have next year’s weekend booked again.)
The instructor telling Colton to stick his chest out.
Not only was it a relaxing weekend on the lake; the bird-life was awesome. We saw the bald eagles from last year again, an osprey (we think) and at night we heard barn owls and great horned owls. It was so amazing. I walked up to the house with Bree toward dusk and we heard a hoot of a great horned owl and the screech of a barn owl. It was as if they were talking, or at least singing along with the cacophony of crickets surrounding us. We scanned the trees and saw several of them take flight. Colton is an owl fanatic so I rushed back to pull him away from his soccer game with Ben and his cousins, and he got there just in time to see it take flight.
Can’t wait until next year!
