It's Raining, They're hiking, The Girls Have Gone Shopping!

Salt Lake City Vacation Continued 

7:00 am Thursday morning, Richard, Sam, Josh, Tim, Sara and Nate began hiking the Timpanogos Trail.  There was a 60% chance of rain and it was going to be a high of 68 degrees.  NOT perfect hiking weather.  

It was beautiful for most of the way up.

Richard always has the kids stop at this tree for pictures.

This puff thing made me think of Horton Hears a Who.

And then in creeps the storm.

It's coming!

Tim with some really dirty snow.

It's HERE!

By the time they reached the shelter, which is almost to the top, they were FREEZING!  It was such a bummer, because this was the year they were finally going to make it all the way to the peak,  all 11,749 feet of it.  They were so close, but the wind was so strong and cold that the rain drops felt like ice pounding against their faces and they were chilled to the bone. They rested for about 45 minutes and tried to get warm and then headed back down.  They finished their hiking at 5:00pm.  10 hours of hiking!!!!

Meanwhile, back at the house we had a relaxed morning.  Kim and I took Laney and Bethany out shopping for a bit.  Laney wanted some new flip flops, hers were getting too small.  We went to Down East, Old Navy, Shopko and Payless.  We founds some dazzling, sparkly pink ones and I found a couple pairs I couldn't leave with out.  Kim got some pretty sunglasses and a cute green case for them and Bethany got a pair of flip flops too.  It was fun and it rained a little bit on us.

When we returned we grabbed the rest of the kids and  took the crew to Dollar Tree to get some treats.   Drew, Daniel and Susanna got some sunglasses.  They looked super cool!  Then we went to the dollar movies. We were hoping to see The Lorax, but we were a few minutes late and it was sold out.  We opted to see The Pirate Movie, a clay animation.  It had some funny parts, but I can definitely live without ever seeing it again.

That evening our hikers came home, still cold and in need of hot showers.  Josh went to piano lessons with the Bytheway kiddos at their grandparents house and I took a few of my kids to Target while Richard and the rest of the kids watched movies and rested.  Kim and I watched an episode of  "Who Do You Think You Are?" late that night.  We were both deliriously tired, so we had to break out the Fuego flavored Takis (they are super spicy, hot, and delicious!) and some ice water to stay awake.  It was a full and fun day!

Picnic, Pegasus and Parade

Tuesday was a pretty mellow day.  I went with Kim and John to Deseret Book and Richard and the kids went to the church ball field to play some baseball and have a picnic.  When we got back from the bookstore, Kim and I took Susanna and Timothy to Walmart and  Sam's Club for some grocery shopping and to get fireworks for the kids.  When we came back the kids were all home relaxing and cooling off.  They were completely absorbed in the "classic thriller" Barbie and the Magic Pegasus.  If you look closely you can see the Pegasus flying on the TV.   

That evening Kim and I went out for a while with out any kids.  We went to Pier 1 and looked at all the beautiful things (Thanks Kim for the pretty ring!)  and then went to Cold Stone for a treat.  While we were there we got word that there was an awesome fireworks show about to start.  We hurried home, piled all the kids and Richard in and head off to see the show.  We parked at a car wash, jumped on top of our vehicles and watched the best fireworks show I have ever seen.  It was fabulous and we were almost right under them.  As soon as it was over we pulled out of the car wash lot and got home with almost no traffic delays.  It was great spot!

The next morning we all got ready for the 4th of July breakfast and bicycle parade at the church.  Sam, Josh, Tim and Andrew B. went out early with John to put flags up in yards around the neighborhood.  Rich and Sara went early to the church to help set up for the breakfast.  Kim and I straggled along with the rest of the kids.

Sara and Andrew with their patriotic shades on

 Susanna swept off her feet by big brother Daniel

 Timothy and Natalie

Everyone loved breakfast, pancakes, ham, eggs and melons with juice and milk.

Then the kids decorated their vehicles with streamers for the parade

Me, in my red, white and blue

 John getting things started

 The parade!

Nate and Laney

Kim and Matthew

Nate and Susanna

Bethany, such a pretty smile!

 Josh and Zanna

 Sara and Natalie made a bunch of dazzling rings and bracelets for the girls.

After the breakfast party we hurried to clean up and make our side dishes for the Loveridge (Kim's family) BBQ.  The Loveridge family is a ton of fun and welcoming.  We feel so at home with all of them.  It feels a lot like hanging out with the Ely gang at home.  We ate steak and hot dogs and all sorts of other yummy foods.  The kids played with all the cousins.  It was a great time.

Daniel, Laney, Timothy, Bethany and Susanna worked for a long time to build this amazing thing out of Duplos.  They were all so proud.  I let Daniel take the camera downstairs to document their creation.

Sweet Timothy

That evening we all went different directions.  Drew and Daniel went with John and Kim's gang to a rodeo show.  Sadly, the fireworks were canceled due to fire hazard.  (There were several massive wild fires burning across Utah already.)

 The boys said their favorite part was the rodeo clowns. 

Richard took Sam, Josh, Tim, Sara and Nate to Provo for the night in preparation to hike Mount Timpanogos early the next morning.  They stayed the night at Richard's sweet Aunt Marilyn and Uncle Randy's house.  They parked a few miles away from BYU's Stadium of Fire and watched the show.

It was a full day, even with out evening activities, so I stayed home with Laney and Susanna and we showered, turned on La La Loopsy on Netflix and went to bed by 9pm.  It was WONDERFUL!  We were exhausted.  The Rodeo group didn't get home until midnight.  I was grateful to get a good nights sleep.

Father's and Son's Camp Out

I started a post and loaded all the photos for the camp out, then I realized that this would be much better coming from someone who went on the outing.  So...   I handed off to Richard to fill in the words.  Take it from here Honey!

We had a great time on our Father's and Son's outing this year.

Here was some kind of ground spider

And some caterpillars spinning silk in a tree

They are pointing to the caterpillars in the tree.

We talked about the contours of the land and how to pick out landscapes in case you get lost.

Here is the crew serving breakfast.

The breakfast scene with Bro Barry's van on the side.

We went to Beaver Creek as we came home.

They had a blast swinging out into the creek.