No real story, just Emma (my cousin's daughter) waving from the boat. It was a good day.
I have a pretty intense fear of water. I never learned how to swim and over the years have become increasingly frightened of even being near a large body of water. How then, you ask, is it that my favorite place on earth is a lake? Well, I usually keep my distance. This year however I decided I would change that. So when my cousin Cari asked if I was going to go out on the boat this year, I said yes. Besides, I wasn't about to miss out on some great photo op's. 
The Wednesday before I left I got a phone call. It was my sister-in-law Stephanie and she was a bit panicked. You see, a little over 2 years ago my niece Chloe was born, and being the good auntie, I knitted her a blanket. Well, she fell in love with the blanket and hasn't let it out of her sight...that is until Wednesday the 23rd of July. They were shopping and she dropped her precious blanky. Needless to say, she was a bit distraught. 
This, my friends, is my favorite spot in the world. Yes, it is beautiful, but my favorite part of this place is my family. My Aunt & Uncle (Carol & Lew) own a cabin on this lake and every other year (sometimes more often) we spend a week playing and getting to know each other. Because of this, my cousins are some of my best friends in the world.
Day 1 of my Vacation was a bit of a work day, but not the yucky kind of work. My aunt (Naomi) and her family live about an hour away from the Lake, so we stopped there on the way to take their family photos and Garret's senior photos (Garret is the one on the far right). It was a lot of fun and I think we got some great pictures.
As most of you know, I moved back to my home town at the beginning of the month and as you also know, this weekend is my 20 year high school reunion. So tonight as I was coming home from work I passed the drive-in that has been a beacon of news since I was a little girl, and saw this sign. As much as I've gone on about how I didn't like high school and how it was ridiculous for me to revisit a past that I was not a fan of, I've been in touch with several of my old friends and it's been great. I've loved hearing about their lives and their families. This sign touched me. So to all you "Class of 88" friends reading this, it's good to be in touch again, you've always been in my thoughts.
For those of you unfamiliar with Utah History, the 24th of July, 1847, Brigham Young and the Saints (the Mormon Pioneers) entered the Salt Lake Valley. So the holiday (complete with a big old day off work) is a pretty big deal. Lucky for us Fireworks vendors leave their stands up through the month of July...or as my friend Mark Saal say's "Twenty-one days of perilous patriotism." So tonight I went to my brother's house and took pics of the celebration. This is Taylor dancing with her sparklers.
The girls and I went to see The Police in concert tonight. Hello, great show! We were only a few of 15,000 trying to recapture our youth. *Sigh* 
This is Katie, she belongs to my friends Sarah & Michael and boy did this little girl love the camera (and it loved her back). We had fun tonight!
This is my cousin Dani. We had Sushi and a mini-photo shoot tonight. For Mom's, Grandma's, Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, etc...here's the rest. Isn't she pretty?
My 20 year High School Reunion is in less than 2 weeks. So I drove the old and oh-so-familiar route to my High School to snap a pic. It's rather fortress-like isn't it? Is it okay to feel old? Is it okay to feel like I haven't accomplished nearly enough in 20 years? 
We had a concert tonight at Wolf Mountain (formerly Nordic Valley, if you're familiar with the area) which is to say that "we got the funding that brought the Symphony to Wolf Mountain." Anyway, it was a great night and very family friendly. They had face painting and games for the kids. This kid was cracking me up all night. He started out pretty horrible at the hoop, but by the end of the night he was teaching all the other kids.
It seems like a new flower blooms every week for me to shoot. Isn't that nice of the flowers?
As part of Ogden's Pioneer Days celebration, several local artists have been commissioned to paint life size horses. They are all over downtown and 25th street, if you get a chance check them out, they're very cool.
