Our Summer Adventures

So what have the Clarke's been up to? 

I know it's been a while since I've updated the blog, but Derek and I have been thoroughly enjoying our summer! The biggest adventure, you could say, would be our trip to Asia with my family, which will get it's own blog post (I promise it is coming, it's taking a while to compile pictures and organize it). However, we have done a lot of fun stuff this summer, whether it be some planned trip, or getting together with friends for dinner and games. But here are some highlights of our Summer(: 

JUNE

We were gone most of June, but Derek's birthday is June 8th, and we were in Asia for it, so we celebrated it with some friends once we got back to the states. 23 looks good on him(;

JULY

Red, white, and blue(:

A very poor picture of the fire waterfall that is a part of Saint George's firework show.

We then went to Saint George for the 4th of July and spent some time with his family and enjoyed the fireworks. I love fireworks, and Provo doesn't really do a good show, so it was nice to see a nice show for the first time in a couple years. 

We also celebrated my sister's 24th birthday, and since it's the day after independence day, her birthday pie was very patriotic (featuring my cute momma).

Our next relatively large adventure was spent over Pioneer Day weekend, where we went with Derek's brothers and friend Danny on a backpacking trip up to King's Peak (the highest peak in Utah). It was a really fun, although strenuous, hike. The mountains were beautiful, and we set up camp right by this small lake away from anyone else, which was really nice because the trail was packed with it being a holiday and all.

This is our before picture.

This was some cool rock-chuck or something that we saw. It was cute(:

So we didn't quite make it to the top, because it got super steep and Derek's knee started really bothering him, and I got a headache (maybe altitude sickness). So we headed back down and waited for the others by this cute stream. The cool water was very nice(:

This was us heading back at the end of our adventure, very sunburned, and very sore. But it was a fun experience. I decided that it was probably too hard of a hike for my first experience backpacking, but I'd do it again(:

AUGUST

We went and saw Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" done by a local play group with our married friends club. It's one of my favorite Shakespeare plays, and it was a fun outdoor showing in a really cool outdoor amphitheater that is designed like a castle. It was a fun evening. We had a picnic dinner and played card games before the show.

 O.C. Tanner

So I started my new job at the beginning of the summer, and it has been a fantastic experience so far. O.C. Tanner is a great company (I've talked about the company and the job in a previous post). I just finished my final presentation for my training program, and am now moving forward with a permanent assignment within the company. 

I've made some great friends so far within the company and I'm excited to keep moving forward and learning with such a great group of people. And yes, my boss has a selfie stick(;

So this is kind of a summary of our summer(: It doesn't cover everything, but it's a good summation of some of our fun. However, summer is not over yet. And we plan on living up the next 2 weeks until schools starts. First with our Anniversary this weekend, and then with a trip to Saint George right the final weekend.

Hope you've enjoyed this little update on what we've been up to. It's been a great couple of months, and I'll hopefully post our Asia trip soon!