Hike to Lake Mary

Robbie did a unit on family in his CTE (Career & Technical Ed) class, and had to organize a family outing. He planned a hike and picnic to Lake Mary. We picked up sandwiches at Jimmy Johns and got started around five. A highlight for Ainsley was seeing her swim teacher, Claire, on the trail. We missed the wildflower peak season, but it was still pretty and fun.

From the archives

Today was a nice lazy day, and I couldn't be bothered to take a photo of the day. So here's one more photo taken in Zion National Park...fifteen years ago. Rob and I met on August 6, 1995, and less than a month later joined our two groups of friends for this hiking trip. Char, Nikki, Anna, Jen and I stayed at a hotel in Mesquite while Rob, Troy and Chris stayed at Jim's house in Hurricane. We hiked the Orderville Narrows on Saturday, September 2nd and the Subway on Monday. Tuesday when we got back we had our first official date. After that we saw each other everyday. Good times. And doesn't Rob look hot? Would he be kicked out of the bishopric if he grew a goatee now?

Hike to Donut Falls

Today while I was dropping Joey and Will off after drama camp Becca mentioned that they were planning on hiking for Family Night, and we ended up tagging along at the last minute. It was a short, easy hike, but somehow the girls still ended up riding part of the way.
Not so many wildflowers on this hike, but the water was pretty.
And the company was great—we love the Breinholts.
A big bonus for me is the chance to take photos of the kids without too much of a fight.
This is at the top, but the Falls were out of my viewfinder.
There they are (the lower falls, anyway).
So who wants to go hiking with us next week?

Birthday hike

I should be doing fourteen other things to get ready for youth conference tomorrow and Robbie's birthday on Friday, but we had such a fun hike last night I want to get it posted. I had to turn down an invitation to hike to Cecret Lake with a friend yesterday morning since we had swimming, but decided that would be a perfect way to celebrate Rob's birthday. The Stringhams were game (as always) so we grabbed sandwiches and drove up to the Albion Basin. Here's what it looks like from the base (it's worth the drive even if you don't want to hike):

Everything is more fun with cousins.

The wildflowers were so pretty. I didn't get any shots that do them justice so we might just have to go back up—I hear they're at their peak mid-August.

At the trail head:

One, two...

skip a few...and we're there:

Food always tastes better after a hike:

By the time we got up there the sun was down.

So we hurriedly lit the candles on the mangled brownies (by the way, that's a 4, not a 9)

and sang happy birthday:

As photo nazi, I couldn't leave without a few family photos, which Shawn kindly took:

And I tortured them too:
We hustled back down the mountain:



And made it to the bottom just as it was really getting dark. If only I had brought a tripod, you'd see how pretty it was.
It was definitely something we need to do again, and often. Thanks for the idea Julie, and thanks for coming along Stringhams!

Zero for Two

Joey was so excited when Rob said maybe we could hike up to the living room on Saturday that he had his jobs done in record time. I was looking forward to it too, since hiking up to the living room was the first date Rob planned for us that didn't also include Troy and the ski centurion (NOT that I minded those dates). We had planned on hiking after we both got off work, but when I went to leave, my car wouldn't start, so I called Rob and our hiking date turned into a run to Ralph & Judy's to borrow jumper cables, and then back to Crossroads Plaza parking for my Acura. Judy wasn't home, but it was the first time I met Ralph. Although Rob and I saw each other pretty much every day after that, we never rescheduled our hike to the living room. That was almost thirteen years ago. We knew our second attempt wouldn't be the romantic, watch-the-sunset and make-out kind of hike—we were just hoping to get all four kids up with a minimum amount of whining. It was a perfect day, blue skies but not too hot. And amazingly, we didn't hear much whining (just Ellie, when she saw a bug on her hat or one of the many dogs we met on the trail). However, we did not make it to the living room. We forked left when we should have gone right. We did make it up on a nice ridge overlooking the valley though, and we had a good time. We're thinking about trying geocaching next. We may even try to get to the living room before another thirteen years flies by.