The summer bucket list

I'm the kind of person that spends most of the summer dreading the inevitable approach of winter and panicking about not taking full advantage of the summer. I start every summer with an informal, unwritten bucket list of things I want to do before death winter arrives. As the months pass, if I'm not making progress on my list, I start panicking about the ever looming end of my life summer.

This summer my bucket list was in big, big trouble. So was my sanity. June and July were spent working or in Chicago, or else inside hovering over the air conditioner during our abominable heat wave. By August 1st, my skin still boasted its pristine ivory hue leftover for winter. Because it had not seen the sun.

Translation: My summer was being wasted away indoors.

Then Isaac finished his internship, we went to Utah, and the last 3 weeks have basically been an exercise in condensing a summer's worth of bucket list activities into a few short weeks. And in being happy to have Isaac home.

We

hiked a mountain
went camping at 9,000 feet
ate sushi and we loved one of us loved it
went on a bike ride
went canoeing
played frisbee golf
went to the Iowa state fair
went camping sort-of camping again (story to follow)
got slightly tanner
had a barbecue
swam in a lake
made homemade ice cream

Things are looking up for the list.

Although, for the record, I'm still dreading winter.

Here are some pictures of use checking things off my list:

Bless your heart, Iowa, but these are what real mountains look like.

Isaac's family. I don't know who the pink shirt is.

This is the famous butter cow. It's life size and it's ALL butter.
I hope they put that butter to a good use afterwards.
Except for the udder.

That massive hunk of flesh is, believe it or not, a bull.
And it won.
And I'm pretty sure it's too fat to come after you if you touch it.

Our awesome friends Jershon and Shelly standing by the first place pumpkin.
If you can't read the sign it says 1295 lbs.