Take A Hike

Utah. What do I say? It's beautiful. There are some aspects of living in Utah that I question whether I like or not, but the mountains surrounding us are an easy answer. I love them! From the time the snow melts, I look up at the mountains every day wanting to be up there. We are such a short drive up the road from two awesome canyons. I'm so happy taking the kids hiking in them and this year we even got to camp in them!

Donut Falls Hike

This is one we do a lot. It's pretty, it's close and it is so easy for the kids. Brie and Ava quite literally ran the whole way to the falls. Zachary held his own hiking the whole way. It was cloudy and about half way there we started to hear thunder.

As we took this pic in front of the falls, it started to rain. It rained our whole way back. Once Ava was assured that rain drops would not hurt us, it was really beautiful walking through the woods in the down pour.

Camping at the Spruces

The Spruces Campground is just up Big Cottonwood Canyon. I have been wanting to get up there with my tent (Christmas present) and my new camp stove (Birthday present). We waited until everyone else started school and then headed up to a not so crowded campground. The tent was great (it's huge) and the camp stove seemed like high class living compared to how I watched my mom and dad cook meals over the fire growing up. We had such a good time.

After lunch and a nap we went hiking to Lake Blanche. Now, let me say, this is a long hike with a fairly good elevation gain. We knew we would just be going as far as the kids could go and then turn around. It's a hike Scott and I have been wanting to do so we just went to check it out. To our surprise, the kids trooped on for soooooooooo long. It was pretty steep and they hiked up at least 1.5 miles. Zachary walking all on his own. I was so very proud. One day Scott and I will make it all the way to the lake.

Seriously, this kid (23 months) lead the way almost the whole time. We just tried to keep up with him. I sang the "Following The Leader" song right behind him and he swung his arms to the beat and marched up the mountain like he was having the time of his life. Awesome.

Soaking our feet in the river at the bottom.

Back at camp we made tin foil dinners. Mmmmmmm, were they good. That is one of my favorite things to eat camping. Scott decided to make a tin foil dinner the size of his head. As we were making dinner we heard some weird noises and then saw a HUGE moose walk right into our camp site. We got the kids to walk slowly to my side of the table and where we could get in the car. We watched him quietly. HUGE. He walked around our tent and then headed off. So cool.

S'mores for dessert!

In the morning we woke up to a good fire by Scott and of course, had "Eggs In A Frame" for breakfast. That breakfast is what makes camping sooooooo good (even on a hoity toity camp stove).

Forgot a spatula, so I used a stick.

Delicious!

Some had already filled up on cookies and orange juice before the rest of us woke up for breakfast. Rude.

Cecret Lake

Just this past Saturday we made our way up Little Cottonwood Canyon to hike Cecret Lake. This is the time when usually the wildflowers are really going strong.

We had to stop for 10 minutes at any glimpse of water so that Zachary could throw rocks . . . and then drag him away crying . . . . until the next water sighting.

We made it up to Cecret Lake . . . (It was BYU game day. Can you tell?)

which turns out isn't so secret. It was packed.

Love it and I'm looking forward to more. Hiking when the leaves are changing colors is just as beautiful.