New Adventures in Moab

We had a great trip to Moab for fall break.  We decided to try something different and stayed in this little cabin way up the canyon near the river.  It was awesome.  It was so peaceful up there - no wifi, hardly any cell service, and just all of us together.  I had originally planned to run a half marathon down there, but after three straight weeks of illness, I made the decision not to run.  Which was fine - it left more time for fun adventures.

We ended up having some great company down there because Brett was camping with his kids, and my parents were down there as well for the first real trip to Moab.  We were only able to meet up with Steve and Bubba for dinner one night, but it was fun talking about our day's adventures.

When we first got there, we had fun exploring around the ranch where we were saying.  The cabin was on the Hauer River Ranch, which is a real working ranch with horses.  We took the dogs down by the river and Cash decided there was no way he wasn't going for a swim. All was fine and good until the current starting taking him away and we all freaked out.  Luckily, he's a lab and dude can swim, so he eventually made his way back to the shore.

The next morning, the Naisbitts came up the canyon and met us for a hike up to Fisher Towers, which was right across the road from where we were staying.  It was a beautiful day and the kids and dogs had a great time.

 I couldn't help but snap this picture of the happy couple.

Our dogs have never been to Moab before.  They were hot and happy.

 We met up for dinner that evening at Eddie McStiff's.  The girls always love playing with Leah.

The next day, we decided to try something different and go on a little raft adventure down the river. The river is pretty low key and perfect for kids.  Our guide was great, although I'm not sure how much the other people on our boat appreciated all the kids.  Oh well!

The next morning was supposed to be the race day...we had to be out of the canyon by 7 a.m. in order to avoid being trapped up there when they closed the road for the race.  This was great because we got going early, had breakfast at Love Muffin, and went on another hike, this time to Corona Arch.  This was 3 miles round trip with a few tricky spots where they have ropes placed to assist you.  That didn't help the dogs much, so we ended up boosting them up some of the trickier places.

 There was a sea of cairns about halfway up the trail.

 Family pics in front of Corona Arch.

 The girls made their own cairns to contribute to the selection.

 We hopped right in our car and headed right home.  We be headed down there one more time this fall before winter sets in.

The Pfeifferhorn

Josh and I like to do at least one hike or two each summer together.  This year, we decided to tackle the Pfeifferhorn.  It's part of the Alpine ridge and the trailhead starts up Little Cottonwood Canyon.  We took a vacation day because this was definitely an all-day thing.

Those yellow leaves were in all their glory.

 We first hiked about 3.5 miles into Red Pine Lake, then its another 1.5 or so to the summit.  We also caught a glimpse of Upper Red Pine Lake.

 From Red Pine, there's no clear trail and you have to pick a route up a steep boulder field.  That got us up to the ridge line. There's Utah Lake clear down there.

 From the ridge line there's still quite a bit of rock scrambling over the ridge to go and up to the summit.  This part freaked me out just a bit.  Josh was a rock ninja and cruised right over.

 This is the final push to the summit.  It's kind of stepep on either side of that ridge, but not as bad as the early section called the "knife edge".

 On the top of the world.  11,300 feet with lots of other peaks off in the distance, including Lone Peak.

Summer of Trails: Part 2

Before we end the summer, we have been trying to sneak more time in on the trails.  We had a great time hiking up to Lake Mary at Brighton as a family one Sunday.  The girls were troopers because this one was a little steeper than the other hikes we've done this summer.

 Once we got to Lake Mary, Piper was a little angry.  She was chasing squirrels, but they wouldn't let her catch them, and there just weren't enough of them.  Bummer!!

Later that week, Brynn and I went back up for a long run in the mountains.  We did a fun loop course that started at Alta, ran up Grizzly Gulch and Twin Lakes Pass through Solitude to Brighton, then up to Lake Mary, Catherine, Catherine's Pass, and back down to Alta.  Three ski resorts, 10 miles, and about 2700 feet of climbing.  Super fun morning.

10 Fun Things: Summer 2014

Summer is halfway over and we have been busy busy busy every weekend getting out to enjoy everything Utah has to offer.  Here are 10 fun things we've done so far.

1. Soda Row music and splash pad.  One evening we met our friends the Cannings down in our "downtown" here in Daybreak (SoDa Row) to listen to a local band, splash around in the splash pad, and eat some dinner at Granatos.  I'm not sure what the girls were doing surrounding this tree, but whatever it was, they were having fun.

 2. Bees Game!  We ventured out one evening and had a lovely time at the Bees Game, again with the Cannings.  We rode Trax there, which the girls loved, and had a great time hanging out with the Bee, and riding the little train around the baseball stadium.  I'm not sure how much the people sitting around us enjoyed their evening...there was an ice cream spattering incident.  Oops.

3. South Jordan Country Fest.  The girls rode all kinds of carnival rides, as well as ponies.  They still ask about the ponies they rode two years ago, Gil and Midnight.  We asked if any of the ponies were Gil and Midnight and the lady told us Gil was resting that day, but he's normally there.  Bummer for Piper!

4. Oquirrh Lake Paddle.  We have been meaning to take advantage of the free boats we can check out here at Daybreak to paddle around the lake and we finally got around to it one Sunday afternoon.  It was relaxing.  The girls asked why we were doing it.  I don't think it was quite what they had in mind.

5. Cherry Hill and the Oaks with the Rapers.  Our good friends the Rapers came through town on their way across the country to move to Monterey. They were camping up at Cherry Hill, so we met them up there for some waterslides and other various activities, then drove up the canyon in Ogden to eat at the Oaks.  The girls loved hanging out with Peyton and Colt and it was fun to see Jason and Ali.

6. Last day of school at Daybreak Academy and school carnival.  The girls had their last official day of the school year at Daybreak Academy in the Blue Jays class and the school celebrated with a small carnival with a bounce house and some face painting.  They celebrated with their two BFFs, Ava and Ireland, the Buttercup Gang.  And of course, Ireland's baby sisters Sloane and Kendyl are honorary Buttercups.

 7. Golfing with Grandpa.  My dad bought the girls their first set of golf clubs this summer.  Piper was very excited to get the yellow bag and Josie got pink, of course.  One afternoon we went over to the driving range and they had their first golf lesson with grandpa.  So fun for them to have some special time with grandpa.

 8. Zoo day with Ava.  We headed up to the Hogle Zoo for our annual summer trip with Candice and Ava.  The animal statues were a highlight - I think they liked them better than the real animals.  We also rode the train, the merry go round, and played on the new splash pad.

 8. Water fight!  One hot day at soccer practice, Coach Matt decided it would be a good day for a waterfight.  We all came prepared with water guns and the kids went to town when they were done with practice.

9. Liberty Park.  We had no idea how much fun there is to be had at Liberty Park.  We spent a whole afternoon there playing in the little streams and fountains, riding a few rides, and eating ice cream cones with Emery and Brynn.

10. Dog Lake hike.  We finally made it up Millcreek Canyon for some hiking.  We didn't make it all the way to the lake because the girls hiked the whole thing on their own, but we were out there for more than three hours.  Josie pretended to be camouflage with a giant leaf and ran ahead to jump out and scare us.  Blue boy had a great time greeting the other dogs.  The girls were troopers because they also went on a long bike ride earlier in the day.  Next time we'll make it to the lake!