Oquirrh Lake

Friday, September 5

Our new house is pretty close to a manmade lake called Oquirrh Lake. There are nice walking trails all around the lake. We took advantage of the nice weather to walk around the lake a little and let the kids play on one of the playgrounds near the lake.  (M&M was at a football game and Luke was at a friend's house.)

Silver Lake

Monday, September 1

With Monday being Labor Day, we met up with some of my family members at Silver Lake and then had dinner at my parents' house afterwards.

N family reunion - part 2

Friday, August 22

We only stayed at the rental for two nights so Friday morning we spent packing up our stuff and headed back to Mom N's house.  On our way out of the Mt. Hood recreational area we went on another short hike to a waterfall and then we stopped at Grandma N's (Grandma-Great) for a short visit.

The kids - doesn't MJ look happy?

Family picture at the waterfall. 

It's always fun to play in water!

It is crazy how some of these trees grow!

N family reunion

August 20 - August 21

M&M had her last day of marching band camp on Tuesday and we took off early Wednesday morning to drive up to Washington for a reunion with the N family.  DH has a brother that is living overseas with his family and this was the only time that we were going to be able to see them for the next little while.  We were able to schedule in a whirlwind visit in between M&M's band camp and M&M and Luke starting school.  It also worked out nicely that the elementary kids were off of school for the first track break during this time (they went to school for 3 weeks and then were off for 3 weeks).

Unfortunately we had some car trouble on the way up - just outside of Ogden.  So we had to limp back to town and made our way to a Toyota dealership and after spending a couple of hours there, they attributed the problem to a bent tire rim.  They rotated the tire rim to one of the back wheels and then sent us on our way hoping that we made it without incident...  We were a little skeptical, but went on our way hoping and praying that we had no more problems.  Well, thankfully we made it safe and sound to the rental we were staying at in Mt. Hood - although it was several hours later than we were hoping for...

The next morning we ate breakfast and then packed up some lunches and headed out to go on a hike.  The weather was beautiful and it was a nice, fun hike for us all.

Cousins!

Can we make it?  Yes we can!  (Gotta love those switchbacks!)

Goofball MJ!

My walking stick carrying, tree hugging MJ!

She said, "Look, I'm hugging a tree!"  Then afterwards she said, "Ouch, that kind of hurt!"

Made it to the lake!

Mt. Hood

Lunch time!

Look at me Mom!

Again, goofy MJ (I wish this picture hadn't turned out blurry!)

Luke getting in on the fun!

After the hike we headed back to the rental for some family fun!

Getting in some baby loving!  Cute, tiny baby S!

Hot tub time!

Big kids' turn!

MJ and her cousin R playing with another cousin's dolls - there's nothing better than getting to play with someone else's toys!

Hiking the Y

Monday, April 21, 2014

With the weather nice, we thought it would be a good experience to climb up to the "Y" on the mountain down in Provo.  DH and I haven't hiked it since we were students there and we have never taken the kids.  We picked DH up from work and headed down to the trailhead.  I had just switched to a new cancer drug and thought I was going to be alright with this, but apparently not.  After we got up through the first couple of turns, I started to not feel well at all and sent the rest of the family on ahead to finish the hike.  DH felt pretty bad about that but I insisted that I would be alright and that I would follow if I could.

At the start of the hike.

Map of the trail.  Now notice that there is a cutoff point where you can continue on to reach the bottom of the "Y" or you can take another turn and head to the top of the "Y".  Our original goal was to try and hike to the bottom of the "Y".

After my family left me, I rested for a bit and then decided that I would try and make it still - or at least meet up with them on their way back down.  So I slowly resumed my climb and would stop at the start of each switchback to catch my breath.  I was trying to remember in my head what the map looked like and how many turns there were, but apparently I missed the turnout for the trail to the bottom of the "Y".

The kids at the bottom of the "Y".

Cute MJ

DH and the kids took the trail to the bottom of the "Y" and then were going to continue on to the top as well.  So while my family was down at the bottom of the "Y", I apparently took the turn at that switchback and kept going on the trail that goes to the top of the "Y".  On my way up I kept wondering why I hadn't caught up to them yet and how long this trail really was.  Then I got up to the top section of the trail and realized that I was headed to the top of the "Y" and I could see my family all down at the bottom of it.  I tried to wave to get their attention and then one of the kids noticed me up there and they all started pointing and the expression on their faces was pretty funny.  They were all quite surprised (especially DH) that I had made it and that I was all the way at the top.  They yelled at me to stay where I was and not try and join them down at the bottom - although I had no intention of doing that!  I figured that if I had made it this far I was going to go all the way.  They quickly got back on the trail and met up with me at the top of the "Y" where we took some pictures.

Me and the kids sitting on the top of the "Y".

DH and the kids at the top.

Kitty actually shared the story in a talk in Primary a couple of weeks later.  She likened the experience to trying to make it to the Celestial Kingdom and how they were really sad that they had to leave me behind and then when they saw me on the path later on, she related how happy and excited they were to see that I had made it and that we could reach our goal as a family.