Well it’s been over half a year since I logged in and blogged in. I have no official excuse except that we have been too busy actually living life to take time out and document it. So in order to get back on track, I now present you with “Swensons’ Summer in a Nutshell.” (Well, our hiatus actually started in April, so I’ll start there). As usual, click each picture for more.
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April 14 – Shane’s brother, Derek, was in a roller hockey tournament in Colorado Springs, so we met the whole family (minus Tyler) out there for a little hockey, sight seeing, rook and milkshakes. Please excuse Shane’s awful facial hair. He wanted to savor the remainders of the Manly Month of March. I was not a fan.
Sheldon, Shane and Aunika enjoying Rook and Milkshakes
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April 19 – I was bragging to Mark Williams that we got a few feet of fresh powder, so he called back and said he booked a ticket for the next weekend. He and Shane had a blast hitting up the backcountry during the day and then at night we hung out with all the people who converged in SLC for the weekend, including Maria Siegel, Todd Richtsmeier, Brynna Zinniker, Lindsey Pontious and Heidi Henderson, in addition to the regulars.
Shane and Mark, post ski/hike.
After meeting on Sunday – people visiting from 5 different states.
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May 16 – Taking advantage of the close proximity of a ton of National Parks, Brynne, Sam, Shane and I hit up Arches, Moab and Canyonlands one weekend. We slept under the stars, hiked (despite Shane’s arm in a sling from dislocating it a week before), saw some really neat indian drawings and saw the Wall Arch just a month or so before it fell down.
Here we are, recreating our license plate.
Our campsite under the stars
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June 5 – It started out as a bachelor party trip last year, but it’s turning out to be an annual trip, regardless of if anyone’s getting married. Shane and a bunch of other guys and workers (I suppose they are guys, too) from CA and NV prove their manhood by taking a backpacking trip in the Palisades Basin, the South Fork of Big Pine Creek.
Shane, Eric, Brian, Greg, Lane, David and Kevin. The others were hidden or cut off by Shane’s signature “Swenson” photography technique.
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July 3 – Brian Frandsen drove up from Vegas for the holiday weekend. We went climbing about 15 minutes from home in Big Cottonwood Canyon (my first multi-pitch!), played some impressive potluck volleyball (they’re really into it here. One guy draws diagrams to help people know where to stand to receive a serve), and had a great time. If only the drive were a little less boring and long, I’m sure we’d see a lot more of Brian. And although we have no photographic evidence of this either, Charlie Wilson, a college kid from CO, stayed with us for a month in June and helped fix our fence and remove the ivy. I think he would have stayed longer but we had far too much yard work with his name on it. If you want to stay with us, watch out. We just might put you to work. =)
Even though Brian was here the whole time, we don’t have any real photographic evidence except this shot of my bum. I guess you could deduce that I would not have done this except if Brian was here, since he’s the only one who would have volunteered to lead climb the three pitch climb. Actually, I’m not sure, Shane might have led part of it. All I know is that I sure didn’t.
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July 12 – Call in the press! Every member of the Lee family AND the Swenson family were able to meet up in Hawaii for a week of non stop fun. We spent a few days in Oahu and then the rest of the week in Kauai. We walked across the beach and snorkeled, hiked, ate lots of mangoes and shave ice, hiked in slippery mud and just had an amazing time. Who knows when everyone will be able to get together at the same time again. Quite a feat.
David, Jeff, Glen, Barbara, Jayna and Shane
Aunika, Jayna, Shane, Derek, Sheldon, Mitzi, Tyler and Kjirsten
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August 9 – We seem to get company in spurts. Marshall & Mollie and their dog-children, Nyah and puppy Ko stopped by for the night on their way up to Spokane, and Shane’s family and cousin Cara came out to visit us and see our house. We hiked up to the Timpanogas caves and toured around downtown. Kjirsten stayed with us for the rest of the month as she finished up a rotation at the University Hospital. Never a dull moment in our house!
Jayna, Cara, Aunika, Mitzi, Sheldon, Tyler and Kjirsten with a view of the SLC valley.
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August 30 – Mom came to visit for Labor day and my birthday! We had a lot of fun – shopping, wakeboarding with Clay Gilliland and Darryn Kracht in the hot summer weather, having it hail and then snow (!), taking the Snowbird tram up to the top of the mountain and freezing to death. Lucas’s parents from Albuquerque and his girlfriend, Heidi Shay from CA were here, too. All in a weekend!
I was always too slow or too quick in catching Shane’s jumps. My wakeboarding skills might need to improve a bit before they get documented here. Notice how warm it looks.
Mom and I in the backyard
That would be snow on my birthday up at Snowbird. Don’t be fooled by my smile. It was freezing. Literally.
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September 6 – Shane, Marshall and Keith met up in the Ruby Mountains outside of Elko for Keith’s bachelor party weekend. They hiked several miles in to a lake, where they went boating, fishing and other manly activities. And when I say that they boated, I mean they carried the dreaded Club 200 raft (purchased for $7, and that’s just the beginning of the absurdity of this raft) and oars on their packs.
Marshall, Keith and Shane. Note the oars on Keith’s pack and the rolled up raft on Marsh’s.
Marshall and Keith “fishing.” They’re really close friends, as you can tell.
After they got back from the trip, Shane found this ad for the Nevada State Tourism Board. Note what’s written on the side of the raft that the last Blue man is in. That’s right- The Blue Men Group roll in a Club 200. AWW YEAH!
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As you can tell, we were really busy all summer. We had a lot of company on the weekends and our weekdays were filled with Ultimate frisbee in the park behind our house every Tuesday (about 10-20 people every week), Volleyball, hikes, etc. Our house seems to be a central meeting place for the kids in the area. It’s not uncommon for 5-10 college-aged kids to be at our house a couple times a week, either stopping by before or after playing frisbee or football in the park, or playing a big round of mafia, computer games or halo downstairs. We’re having a fun time!
Great update! Good to hear that you’re managing to keep busy about all the time. Some day Danielle and I really are going to come visit. Unfortunately it might be a while.
Tim
Good deal, we’ve missed this blog
Can you comment on the durability of the Club 200 raft? I’m interested in maybe buying one for backpacking trips. Thanks!
The Club 200 has performed admirably over the years we’ve had it. It has two inflated compartments: the primary buoyancy tube and a thin segmented floor. We punctured the floor while dragging the loaded raft over rocks a couple years ago, but an external duct tape patch worked pretty well on that. As you can see from the photos, it happily held two grown men.
Having said that, the Club 200 is on the lightly/cheaply built side (I think we paid $7 for it), so I would be cautious about using it for safety critical functions, such as long distance floats out of the backcountry, critical swiftwater crossings, or big water crossings where a failure would mean loss of gear or life. For recreational use where the consequence of a failure is a wet swim to shore with no loss of important gear, I’d highly recommend it.
Also note that we did not have backcountry use in mind when we purchased the raft, and thus I haven’t compared it to other options for backcountry suitability (capacity, weight, durability, ease of deployment, packability, etc.).