I-N-D-E-P-E-N-D-E-N-T

So... hello again. 

I've been pretty bad about blogging this summer. 

I've been filling my time with worthy pursuits though, one of which was the bright idea to memorize Macklemore's song, "Can't Hold Us." 

If you know it... it's like ridiculous to try and memorize... impossible. The first time I heard it I kind of fell in love with it though, and declared to Taylor that I was going to memorize the whole thing. 

So... that didn't happen. Not even close in fact. But I DID finally master the I-N-D-E-P-E-N-D-E-N-T part, which I'm quite proud of :) 

Anyways, 

Let me catch you up on the wonderful summer we've had! 

We were able to go to Island Park with Taylor's family over the 24th, which was a great time. The most notable thing that happened is that we almost died. 

You see, Taylor's family owns a few rafts that they like to float down the river. We start at the dam and raft for about an hour down the river. It's not exactly a roarin river... so Taylor and I went down once without even close to a mishap, just enjoying the lazy ride down. We decided to do it again, so we went back up to the top and started all over. With one successful ride under our belt, I guess we got a little too comfortable with the river, cause we stopped paying attention and started singing Chicago animatedly ("You bring meaning to my life! You're the inspiraaaaation") 

And after it was too late, we noticed we were headed straight for a big fallen tree that was covering about half of the river. Taylor started yelling, "PADDLE.. PADDLE!!!" So I furiously paddled, but we got nowhere. We slammed into the tree, and it immediately popped a gigantic hole in the raft. I was seriously amazed at how fast the raft lost air and started folding in half, sinking into the river with Taylor and I still trying to sit in it. Now I did say this river was lazy.. and it was.. but at this particular spot it was FLOWIN! I started getting sucked underneath the big tree branch, and I started to panic. So Taylor is yelling for me to perch myself on the tree, which luckily it was big and sturdy enough to do. We both got on the tree, and our raft went under, where it received more holes. So here we are.. no raft, no one around that we know, and nowhere to get off at the banks and just walk down. We were totally stuck. I was trying to move myself towards the bank anyway, but the log was so slippery every time I made a move I slipped in a little, and I was NOT about to take a ride down the river raftless. 

There are 3 rafts in the picture...the top and bottom rafts are inflated, and the yellow and blue pancake in the middle is our totally shot raft. Unrepairable. Whoops.

At this point, I was so panicked I started laughing, hysterically. It all became extremely funny. Other people rafted by us and didn't even bat an eye. We sat there on the log for probably 20 minutes wondering what the heck we were going to do, when a fishing boat finally took pity on us and rescued us. We kind of felt like idiots, but they informed us they have to rescue people fairly often.. so... I still felt like an idiot, but a little less so :) 

So maybe we didn't ALMOST die. But who doesn't exaggerate a little when telling stories? 

Had to get a picture in our randomly matching hats and black jackets. 

The next weekend we went camping with my parents at Massacre Rocks, where we got in some quality boating time. Taylor got pretty comfortable on the slalom, and when I say comfortable, I mean he got up on the first try and is starting to cut a little bit! It's very fun for me...I want him to be as passionate about waterskiing as I am and it's becoming a reality. 

Here is the tent my parents gave us for our wedding! First time trying it out and we loved it! 

Don't be fooled by the short shorts... this is Taylor. 

We also had a fun time running a Pocatello Fun Run Series race. We did the Heinz sponsored race out by OK Ward Park. I ran the 5k, and Taylor ran the 10k. He won it by like 6 minutes and set a new course record. That's my boy! I, on the other hand, got like 50th. Hopefully our kids get his genes :) 

Other than that, we've fit in a little work and serious stuff this summer too. School starts after Labor Day for Taylor, and I dread it. The amount of time we'll get to see each other will go WAY down, but I suppose that's real life. Taylor is at cross country camp this whole week, so I'm getting an early start getting used to it. He's enjoying a lovely cabin in the mountains above Ogden with his team until Saturday. At least he left me with some mementos though! 

What a cutie. 

Well, that's all for now. This post is long and I have an exciting tennis match to watch. Hooray for the U.S. Open keeping me company this week! 

Here's the fellow I'm rootin for

Go Rafa!!