A welcome summer surprise was a promotion at work. One of my best friends on the job, Dave Hoffman, decided to retire, which left a lieutenant job available. Against my better judgment, the chief promoted me to lieutenant. He put me in charge of the Training Division for the police department; in-service training and the police academy. It's been a wonderful challenge. It effectively cemented home the fact that Abigail will be my first child that does not grow up with her father being an operator on a SWAT team.
My family and other police families ushered my friend Dave into retirement with a retirement camping trip to the Miller Flat Reservoir area. We had everything you need for a good time; families, fishing poles, ATVs, trailers, and guns.
Abigail loved it. She has become very comfortable with camping...so this summer we've just kept camping.
Our next adventure was a week at Pineview Reservoir with the Chacon family. The campground, Anderson Cove, is a beautiful and clean place to relax next to a mountain lake. The lake is surrounded by the peaks of the Wasatch.
The plan for the trip was to spend time boating in the lake with the kids. However, the Chacon's boat had a catastrophic engine failure on the lake which ended the boating at the launch; at least with the Chacon boat.
As luck would have it, a good friend of mine, Brandon Hansen, showed up Wednesday afternoon with his family for an evening boating trip. He recognized our trailer and came over to say hi.
After hearing our boating story, we were invited in the water with his family. The kids loved it. Brandon came up two additional days to boat with us. Sam not only learned how to knee board, but he learned how to do a 360 maneuver on the knee board. And, for the first time in my life, after over 30 years of trying, I got up on a wake board and was on top of the water. I think I'm hooked...Cristal just doesn't know it yet.
Water, a beach, paddle boards, and a boat...what more could the kids ask for.
Uncle T and baby Pierce came up for one night. Pierce is not as much of a camper as Abigail; although, I hear he's getting better. Pierce was pretty convinced that the tent was not his house, and the cot was not his bedroom, and that he was completely 'STUCK' in the sleeping bag; evidenced by the fact that we went to sleep listening to Pierce yell 'STUCK STUCK STUCK...'
It was very nice to have Ally there. She pretty much packed everything a human being would need for a year. And she played and napped with Abigail.
Uncle T and I did get a bike ride in one day. We rode the Green Pond trail at the base of Snow Basin. The trail eventually led to the resort trails which went straight up the mountain...and in good Vandongen fashion, we went up. We only saw two other bikers the entire trip. It was a fabulous ride. I let Travis beat me by the way.
And if all that wasn't enough, Cristal and I snuck in a private sunset walk near the lake. At that moment, Love was abundantly clear to me. Nothing else mattered but her and our family. I was almost overcome with the feeling of love over flowing at that moment. I'm not sure she realized what I was experiencing; years of masking emotion for survival at work have given me a pretty good poker face. But, I held her, told her I loved her, and allowed the moment to be engraved in who I am for the rest of my life.
Love and life are wonderful gifts, never to be taken for granted and always to be taken full advantage of.
