Saturday, August 22, 2009

Exploring and destroying

Addy seems to be in this exploring and destroying stage. She loves to crawl around the house and find things that she can destroy. I bet you can't guess where her favorite place of destruction is?






At least she is willing to share :)

Camping



Last week, Mitch got work tied up by Thursday afternoon so we decided to take an early weekend and went camping at McCoy Creek which is over by Palisade's. We went with Mitch's brother and family and had lots of fun.




Thursday we pulled in just in time to set up camp and then roast some hot dogs and s'mores. Sadly I didn't pull out my camera until the last day so I don't have pictures of our grand activities. After breakfast on Friday we took the kids on a little hike. Actually it turned out to be a little longer than we thought and after following the trail for awhile we decided to cut off and make our own way but we eventually made it to the top of a small mountain and could look out and see the lake below. We certainly wore the kids out and they were complaining about sore feet and when I asked them if they wanted to go on another hike the next day they all said no. I know deep inside they had fun :)



Later that day we did a dutch oven dinner and just as we were getting the coals ready to put on the tops it started to rain and then hail so it was quite the adventure. I noticed that the kids tent was still open and sent one of the girls out to close it but she only closed the screen part so the sleeping bags and stuff got quite wet! But our dinner still turned out to be delicious.



Saturday was a cold and cloudy day so we didn't go to the lake like I was hoping. Instead we wandered over to the creek and made little boats out of sticks and leaves and had contests to see whose could go further. It reminded me of Oak Creek in Arizona when I was a kid. Fun memories.



Now we are back home and the laundry is all finished and put away and we are thinking of other places we can explore. Anyone have a fun place they like to camp?

Saturday, August 8, 2009

One fun filled week!



A few weeks ago my parents came up for a quick visit and we decided it would be fun to go hike up to Mesa Falls. I'd heard somewhere that if you park at the lower falls there is a trail that takes you to the upper falls. When we got there we saw that the trail just goes right along the road and then eventually connects with the road so we decided it wasn't really worth it and just drove instead.


It was absolutely gorgeous and had plenty of water like always!




At the end of the weekend I decided to go back to Utah with my parents and stay the week. While I was down my mom, Alex and myself went and hiked Mt. Timpanogus (not sure of the spelling). We sorta got a late start so we only made it up to the lake. Now I keep trying to convince Mitch to go back down and hike all the way to the top with me but we shall just have to see.


This was the view of the mountain as you are driving up. It looked quite intimidating.

Alex and me at one of the first waterfalls.



It was such a beautiful hike. I had never seen so many waterfalls and wild flowers on one hike.

And yet another waterfall.



Just over this little hill is the lake and I really just about died trying to get up it. The elevation was just a little too much. The other rock in the background is the actually summit which is where I still want to go.


Mom and Alex at the lake. In the background you can see the glacier that you slide down once you make it to the top :)


Just look how high we are and yet it still wasn't quite to the top.


There are even wild mountain goats at the lake. When in your life have you seen those just wandering around. Hopefully in a few weeks I will have another picture from the actual summit!