Fourth of July Weekend Extravaganza!

I hope that everyone had an excellent Independence Day Weekend. Mine was wonderful, only one thing could have made it better, which means that life is amazing. How often do things go that great?

To start the weekend off on the right foot, I left school at 4:30 on Friday. I made some yummy chicken salad for a sandwich. While eating I read a couple chapters from Harry Potter (I started re-reading the series a couple weeks ago). After dinner I went on short bike ride up in Rock Canyon. The majority of the people in my mountain biking class are very toned and are able riders, so I am trying to get up to a level where I can at least keep up with the slowest people in the class. If that happens, great, if not, great! I am really enjoying my new sport, even if I am slow.

Saturday was such fun. My roommates, Elissa McCullough and Jessica Vandermark, and I rode the Provo River Trail from Utah Lake to Vivien Park and back. Round trip this is about 30 miles. However, it feels much shorter as it is paved and for the most part, shady. The way to Vivien was fun, but fairly uneventful.

 Well, fairly uneventful. Elissa's tire was going flat and needed to be pumped up, so Jess and I had a photo shoot while Elissa worked.

 
Once we got to Vivien we ate our snacks and played...

We did handstands, cartwheels, and dog piled each other. I never enjoyed the latter activity as a kid, but without a brother pinning you down and tickling, it was so much fun.

On the way back down the trail we saw a mama and baby moose! I was super excited about this as I have had a goal to see a moose in the wild. Granted, the Provo River Trail barely counts as wild but in this case I am saying it was in the wild. Goal accomplished! It really isn't very often I get to use those words so I am taking advantage.

A couple miles away from Utah Lake there is a tree with a swing that I have wanted to use ever since I first saw it. On the way down, we stopped on played on the swing and in the trees for a bit. I love swings, they make me feel carefree and young again!

Elissa had never seen the cotton from cottonwood trees before and simply had to play in it. It was so funny to watch her blow it and then sneeze from it blowing around.

After playing on the swing and in the trees, we decided to shake things up and switch bikes. I was riding my mountain bike, Elissa her road bike, and Jessica her cruiser. I tried both Jessica's and Elissa's bikes. Each bike felt so different in every way! After trying their bikes, I can see much better the difference in use for each type of bike. Jess had a great day, she was very exuberant the entire ride, and packing up to leave was no exception!

Elissa rode right behind me the majority of the way and kept commenting on my bruises, and decided that some more documentation of my fall from a week ago was in order.

After cleaning up from our nice, paved ride I packed up and drove to my family's house for the rest of the weekend. Saturday afternoon I helped my dad in his garden and then we had a barbecue for dinner. Sunday was spent at church and then my brother Wayne, his wife Lilly, and their son Connor came out for the evening. We ate, talked, and attempted to play a game but ran out of time... it was a good day.

Monday my dad and brothers, Clark and Daniel, and I hiked to Deseret Peak. According to the website I visited this hike should take about 5 hours. However, this was not taking into account: the road to the trail head being blocked off to cars about 1.5 miles away or hiking with 2 little boys. We took quite a bit longer than the estimated 5 hours, about 9.5-10 hours total.

The hike was amazing! At least I thought so, I am afraid that after this experience my brothers will never again go hiking when I invite them.

To start with, we were confused by the blocked road and ended up at the wrong trail head to start with. This is at the Stansbury Front Trail, we corrected just after this picture was taken.

Daniel was complaining about his shoes hurting his feet, so we stopped and took his boots off and found about 5 fox tail seeds in his socks, no wonder his feet hurt!

The scenery along the way was beautiful! There was still quite a bit of snow as we neared the summit and I asked the boys if they had ever thought they would see snow in July. Daniel said, "No! I didn't know you could." and Clark said something along the lines of how he could have lived without seeing snow in July because snow was his arch nemesis. I asked him to clarify what he meant and he replied that he hates winter, it was making his feet wet, and that he didn't climb all the way up a mountain to slide all over snow. After that, every time that Daniel would slip on the snow he would say that he hadn't come all the way up to slide on snow! It was really funny.

What a beautiful world we live in! I am so sad that I didn't discover the many beauties of Utah long before. I am now trying to pack as many adventures in as I can before I move away from here. Well as wonderful as the scenery was, the association with my family was even better. I miss doing things like this with them.

Here is Daniel hiking up into the first meadow we crossed through on our way up.

I brought up the rear.

At some point in the day, Clark decided he would hide from the camera... plenty of these hiding pictures to go around.

Daniel kept saying, "I just hope we make it home alive!" and Clark kept asking to turn around, until I told him that we were farther away by going back the way we had come than in we went forward and finished the loop. At that point, he just kept asking, "How long until we get home?" I guess that the enjoyment of hiking around on mountains doesn't hit everyone in the family the same way. I know they did enjoy it somewhat based on some of the grins that showed.

PS. I am not saluting, just trying to keep my hat from blowing away!

When I was little, my family would go on hikes through the Adirondack Mountains in New York. Honestly, I don't think I have gone on a hike with my dad since we lived in New York. It was good to break that trend, I hope he will go again with me.

 My dad was kind enough to take many pictures of me while hiking. In the last couple of years I have developed a bit of fear of sun burns and development of skin cancer. In addition to use of lots of sunscreen, my dad gave me a gift of hat that was wonderful at keeping the sun off my face. I wonder why it has taken me so many years to determine that hats are a good thing to wear.

I decided to try taking it and my sunglasses off, and this was my reaction to the full force of the sun on my face...

I almost managed to smile for the camera, almost, but not quite it was very bright up there!

Well as a foodie I have to throw in some food pictures. After all, nothing tastes quite as good any where but in the open air while physically exerting yourself.

Well for better or for worse, we all did make it back safely and no one died. I hope that Clark and Daniel look back on the experience as something enjoyable and have good memories, because I certainly will.