My Birthday Hike

My birthday was August 7. I turned 35 years old. Crazy! I told Scott beforehand exactly what I wanted to do for my birthday - get a babysitter in the morning and hike Catherine's Pass. This is a hike I've wanted to do ever since Scott first told me about it a few years ago. It goes from Big Cottonwood Canyon to Little Cottonwood Canyon. I was excited to finally get a chance to do it.

So, just as I had hoped for, I woke up to "Happy Birthday" shouts from the girls, a birthday present from Scott (an IHome) and a babysitter that arrived at 8:30am. Yahoo! Scott and I left and went up the canyon to Silver Fork Lodge for a lovely breakfast on the outdoor patio. It was beautiful and oh, so peaceful without three little kids to wrestle during our meal.We started our hike at Brighton heading over to Albion Basin. The first thing that absolutely thrilled me were the wildflowers blooming. Wow and Wow! They were everywhere in every color. It was just so pretty. I couldn't get over how beautiful it was and Scott couldn't wait for me to be quiet about the flowers.We hiked up to Mary's Lake and were shocked at how low the water was. It looked VERY different than when we were there last time. We tried to take a self timer picture at Mary's Lake. Scott set the camera on a rock and then ran to stand by me. I was on a rock that was too small for both of us, so he lost his footing and we have three rapid fire shots of us falling down the rocks and this boy watching it all unfold in confusion. Hilarious!
The trail continues on to Lake Martha. This was a very nice, little, peaceful lake. We hung out for a while and then kept on moving.King of the World!
Next stop was Catherine's lake. This lake was surrounded by wildflowers. We stopped on a rock for my "birthday cinnamon roll" that Scott pulled out of his backpack and put a candle in. Scott also took some time to ponder the matters of the universe and the fact that I am now 2 years older than him. What to do with such an old wife? From Catherine's Lake we climbed up, up, up to a ridge right before Sunset Peak. We got to the top and the view was amazing. We could see forever into our valley and the Heber valley.
As we were enjoying the view from the very top of the mountain, the clouds rolled in and turned really dark, we heard loud claps of thunder and I wanted down off of the top of that mountain (fast) before I was struck by lightening on my birthday. So we started down and it started raining. Rain is ok. It was a light rain and it actually quite nice.Then we were being PELTED by freezing cold ice! It was hailing and it was so cold. We hiked quickly down the mountain in the hail and I felt what frostbite must feel like in the beginning.The rain and hail cleared and we were left with a gorgeous mountain all to ourselves. The rain cleared all the people away, made the colors so bright and everything smell so good. The calm after the storm.Scott and I came home to a house completely decorated for my birthday. Caitlin and the girls put up streamers and a banner that they painted. They painted the window and were ready for a party. So exciting.
After resting up and taking a shower we all went to Fred and Rama's house to join up with Brian and Rachel, Alan and Laura and all the cousins for dinner and birthday snow cones. What a perfect way to end a really good birthday day!