July and August: Could it get any busier???

July and August were probably my busiest months of the year! It was amazing!! My family had an exchange student, I surfed and competed, I climbed a mountain, and school started back.

Every July, my family stays at my grandmother's beach house in Tybee Island, Georgia. At Tybee this summer, we had a foreign exchange student from Germany named Laura! Laura was super sweet and she taught me to play tennis. We played almost every evening together. I taught her to surf and she picked up on it fast. It was sad to see her leave. 

A group from our church here in Tennessee came down and picked up trash on the beach every day for a week. It is revolting how much trash people just leave on the beach. Typically my family picks up the trash we see on the beach around us, but our group walked several blocks and filled up trash bags!!! It was amazing to clean the beach!! 

The waves this summer were super fun! They were always small, but they were clean and opened up for at least one maneuver on the wave. I was able to practice hanging ten on my longboard. I surfed most days (unless it was completely flat, then I paddle boarded for a few hours). I also volunteered at the YMCA surf camp (where I learned to surf). The kids this year were super cool and really wanted to surf. We were also able to squeeze in one Georgia District ESA contest in July. The waves were pretty decent and it was sunny. I had a lot of fun.

The first week of August, I climbed and summitted the Grand Teton in Wyoming with my dad and my cousin (for our 16th birthday). The trek up the mountain was sketchy, but super fun. It was six hours to base camp, where we spent the night. The next morning we got up at 3am, got dressed, ate a little food and had some hot chocolate, and started hiking. The hike and climb up the mountain took six hours. We spent an hour at the summit, soaking up the sun and eating some food. I was able to call my mom and best friend from the summit!! The climb down was even scarier than the climb up because you had to DOWN CLIMB. It was really cool to repel 200 or so feet down this cliff (150 feet a free-repel). When we got back to base camp, I'm pretty sure we ate most of our food left!! We got a good night's sleep that night, woke up the next morning, and were hiking down the mountain by 8am. What took us six hours to get up took us four hours to get down. After we got to the car, we headed to get some food: burgers and pizza! I absolutely LOVED climbing the Grand and I am looking forward to my next big climb.

We were also able to squeeze in two more Georgia District ESA contests at Tybee! I'm excited because the more we do now, the less we have to do in November and December when it is freezing outside. The last contest, I WON Jr. Womens Longboard!! I was super excited. 

August means the start of school for us kiddos in Tennessee. I have a difficult schedule (FOUR AP classes..... AHHHHH) but I am in classes with friends, so that always helps. My favorite class is probably my AP Psych class; my teacher is fantastic and the information is interesting. I also run cross country for my school with my sister. We just had a race and I finished 19th for the JV race (there were over 200 girls running)! I also got a new personal record (PR) and shaved 45 seconds off of my previous time. I enjoy running cross country and the girls are super nice. I also enjoy going to the football games with friends on Friday nights. Our football team won the State Championships last year... hopefully we can do the same this year!

July and August were super busy but jam-packed with lots of fun things to do. I enjoyed surfing, competing, hanging out with friends, having Laura join us from Germany, and the start of the cross country and football seasons. I can't wait to see what happens in September. Until next time, save me a wave!