Back to School 2014

Our first day of school was a success!

 Haley is in 5th grade!

 Morgan is in 3rd grade!

 And my little Piper has started Preschool!

P.S.  That scrape on Piper's nose and forehead is carpet burn.  Yeah, she totally dragged her face on the carpet and that was the result.  I'm pretty sure she won't do that again.

Last day of summer.

Last night, walking to grandmas's house.  Of course we have to stop and visit the horses.

So, this is it.  The last day of summer.  As of tomorrow morning it's back to getting the girls up at 7:00 (and me too)...back to packing lunches, homework, and earlier bedtime (that also goes for me too!).  

I'm ready, but I'm not ready...does that make sense?  It's time for the kids to back to a normal routine, but to be honest I'm not ready to stick to a normal routine...and I'm not ready for homework!!!  Oh the homework!!

But the kids are excited...although that wasn't the case two weeks ago when Morgan cried for an hour because summer was almost over.  But now that she has new school school outfits and new school supplies, she has since changed her mind and is now excited for a new school year.  That's good because I really don't want any tears on the first day of school!  

We have back to school night this evening, and even Piper is meeting her new preschool teacher this afternoon.  She also starts tomorrow!  She is thrilled!

Photos to come!  Happy Monday!

Mt. Timpanogos Anniversary Hike

I told Ryan that I wanted to hike Mt. Timpanogos for our 15th wedding anniversary.  I hiked it when I was a teenager with my dad and brother, but we only went to the lake (which is still pretty darn awesome).  So after 11 years of living here, I finally hiked to the summit!  Ryan, on the other hand, has hiked it several times.  But in my defense, I was always pregnant or nursing a new baby for all those missed opportunities.  But anyway, yeah, it was a long but really fun day!!  To hike Timp, it's a little over 15 miles with a 5,398 ft elevation gain, topping out at 11,749 feet!  I'm still sore today...and we hiked it 3 days ago!  Oh, and if you're wondering where our children were that day, they got to spend it with my mom (thanks mom!).

It was absolutely beautiful!

And there were lots of wildflowers still!

We took a little break at the lake and had something to eat.

Now, at this point, you have two options: 1) Hike to the summit via the glacier (although, there is not much glacier there right now).  It's steep and slippery, and no trail, but it shaves off a mile or two, so it's much faster!  2) Hike to the summit via the trail.  This way is a lot longer!  

The glacier looked a bit perilous, so we chose the trail.

Little known fact:  Ryan has a fear of heights. 

I didn't realize to what extent until this hike...but it certainly doesn't stop him!

A little bit of a hazy view, but there's Utah County and Utah Lake.  Our house is down there somewhere...actually it's more to the left, probably out of this photo.

 I love this picture because you can see the lake where we sat to have lunch (at the very bottom and middle of the photo) and the trail system we walked on.  That's a long way down!!

We tagged...rebels.

It wouldn't be complete without some selfies on the summit!!

While we were on the top, it started to get really dark with clouds and we heard thunder in the distance...yeah, not good when you're sitting on the peak of a mountain!  We decided to take the glacier down to save time.

This is a view of the little shelter on the summit as we started walking down.

A picture right before we slid down back to the lake...and when I say slid, I mean actually sat down and slid on the snow.  

 Almost down!

If you look behind me, you can see the "trail" on the glacier where we slid down.  And you can also see there is a gap between the ridge line and the where the glacier starts consisting of basically loose sand and rocks.  Yeah, I fell on that portion and slid on rocks for about 10 feet.  It hurt.

So while we were making our way down the glacier side we apparently missed a massive down pour!  By the time we got back to the lake everything was wet.  We got lucky.  It's a good thing too because we didn't have any rain gear!

The rest of hike down was smooth sailing, although I was kind of hobbling at the end (my darn bad knee!!)  

We ended the day with a fabulous dinner at the Foundry Grill at Sundance, dirty and all...it. was. so. good.

I've decided to make this an annual thing.

Happy Anniversary to us!

Happy Anniversary!!

Happy Anniversary to us!!

15 years today!!

Morgan's Baptism

 Morgan's baptism was beautiful!

The dress she was baptized in was made by my mom and I wore it when I was eight, then Haley wore it, and now Morgan...and Piper and Rory will wear it too.  I love that dress!

Check out those "puffs" on the dress..."the puffiest in the world".

(Anne of Green Gables reference)

I gave the talk on baptism and my mom gave the talk on the Holy Ghost, and of course Ryan baptized and confirmed her.  And Campbelle (Morgan's bestie) along side her two older sisters all sang to Morgan.  

It was such a special day!

We are so very proud of our little Morgan!

And I might add that she was baptized on August 2, which just so happened to be Haley's birthday.  Haley shared her day like a champ and she was very adult about it.

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to my Haley!!

Today she turns TEN!!

We've hit the double digits...my goodness where has the time gone?!

We love you!

Lake Arrowhead: Part V

My brother, Andrew, went on an African hunt last summer and scored a wildebeest, impala, and a blesbok. Well, that was last summer and his trophies finally came in straight from Africa in a huge wooden box that week.  He brought them up to the cabin to mount them above the fireplace.  The cabin is becoming quite the hunting lodge as he has a bear rug (from a bear he hunted in Montana this summer) that will no doubt be living at the cabin as well!  And I'm sure there will be more to come!

Hanging them up was a team effort!

But when it was all done it looked pretty darn good!

Haley handled to whole process very well.  She is my little conservationist, and has made it clear that she is NOT a fan of hunting.  She's my little hippie...Ryan's daughter for sure!

 Rory, exhausted...fell asleep on the bar chair.  

Probably not the safest spot...don't worry I moved her after I snapped a picture.

I think that was how we all felt by the end of the trip...exhausted.

I'm still recovering.

Driving home.

But it was all worth it!

Until next time.