This has been the summer of "What the Hell..." for the Berry family.......you know what I mean: ) It's that perfectly descriptive phrase that comes out when we are too busy, too tired, over-run, sick from excessive pregnancy vomiting, dealing with stressful work issues, feeling the bear market blues, and still waking up to do it alllllllll over again. It's what you say when your children ask for their 5th popsicle of the day - "oh W-T-H, get another one!" It slips out when you just get out of the hospital from receiving IV treatments for dehydration and STILL go on the family adventure outing you've been planning - "oh W-T-H - let's go anyway!" It's on the tip of your tongue every night when your company's stock prices sink lower and lower into the toilet and yet carry undying faith for your 12 years allegiance with them, "oh W-T-H, let's see what happens tomorrow!" But amid all the little challenges that come with life, we always manage to put a smile on and enjoy the beautiful and wonderful things that we are soooooooooooooooooooooo greatly blessed with and love. They make all the other aspects disappear, if just for a moment. So enjoy a few of our cherished moments from the summer:













Extracting the one, lone, gigantic weed that grew in our window well.




















A hike to Temple Quarry trail in Cottonwood Canyon when Chad and Colter visited from Cedar City when they went to see Thomas the Train at Heber Valley railroad.





A gorgeous hike up to Timanogous Cave with Steve, Tyler, Nathan, and Josh. See the "guys" picture and the "girls" on that adventure. We also camped that weekend with that crew, Mike, and Grandma & Grandpa Voss. And if you EVER do anything with the Berry Boys, undoubtedly the word "high tech" is involved - thus the blow up screen in the middle of the wilderness. You've never experienced nature like that - a raging river 10 feet away while watching "The Count of Monte Christo" in your sleeping bag!




























Jared's Olympic Gym Graduation


Rachel's Dance recital at Kingsbury Hall



Grandma's Birthday Celebration - Rachel made a "throne" from various chairs and brought the presents and cards to her on a pillow. It was pretty cute!



A dance outfit from MY youth that grandma brought to pass along to the next generation: )


A gorgeous summer mountain storm whose rainbow landed right above our house. What better pot of gold than home and family!










Boys will be boys - need I say more...

Great friends - the Dougall family that visited from London - whom we knew during the NY years! (Rob's finger was in the way so sorry about the bad picture)

Our trip to Great Basin National Park - we had 3 days break to getaway with Darren given his school/work schedule. So we traveled 4 hours southwest of here to the middle of NOWHERE! The town of Baker, NV (just across the Utah border) had only a population of 25 and only 2 places to lodge. The place we stayed was soooooooooooooooooooooo horrible. Dirty, disgusting, and as Darren said - rivaled his life in 3rd world Dominican Republic. No A/C, ceiling and walls peeling off, window frames held by tape, gapes in the doors, and so many bugs and grimy dirt - not the nice dusty dirt. Darren went on raids to kill all flying things before bed both nights, but you still woke up with moths and pincher bugs next to you in the morning. And yes, this was all while I was worshiping the white, porcelain god. We almost just left after the first day, but it was pre-paid so....what do we say here????? "Oh, what the hell, let's tough it out!" So day 2 we spent up on the mountain at 10,000 feet to escape the heat and bugs. There were pine trees nearly 4,000 years old and gorgeous geologic caves with temps in the 50's - we could have stayed forever there!

Jared went nuts with his flashlight in the caves "exploring" just like those that found them in the 1800's. We also hiked a trail to this beautiful lake almost at the timberline level which was exquisite. Along the way we were swarmed by myriads of butterflies of all colors and sizes. There were so many that the kids re-named the place "butterfly mountain." We got quite close to many of them and you could tell this area was untouched by tourists.

So there you have it, the conclusion of the summer highlights. More adventures ahead for sure....

The Berry Family - Darren, Nicole, Rachel, Jared and Baby Berry