Blog Catch Up...

Obviously we have neglected the blog recently, so here goes a quick re-cap of our summer.

We did a lot of things this summer, but all that I have evidence of are our hiking trips. And we did a TON of hiking. As I am on my journey to skinnyville I realized how important it is to exercise as well as eat healthy. My husband and kids have been so supportive in helping me with this goal. Hiking with them has been so much fun, it has become something we truly enjoy doing together as a family. I hope we can find something active to do together in the winter months that are fast approaching. I will list the hikes we have been on and some pictures of each.

9/28/08 - Desolation Lake, 6.7 miles, our longest hike yet. The fall colors were gorgeous. It is such a beautiful time of year to hike to this lake.

9/13/08 - Ferguson Canyon, 3.4 miles, this canyon was awesome because of the large granite slabs that form the canyon walls. They are extremely popular with the rock climbers. Rock climbing is a hobby of Jess' that he has not done in many years. After we hiked this canyon we got all of Jess' rock climbing gear out and dusted it off. This winter we are going to do some training so next year we can climb that canyon.

9/7/08 - Bell's Canyon, 5.6 miles, by far our most favorite hike, it was difficult, but the falls made it all worth while.

8/30/08 - Murdock Peak, 6.6 miles, this was a hard hike. Especially the last mile and a half to the peak, we were scrambling in some areas. When we got to the top we could see all the way into Park City. Gorgeous views.

8/24/08 - Sunset Peak, 4.2 miles, was probably the furthest for views, you could see all the Brighton Lakes, Dog Lake into Park City and Heber.

8/17/08 - Stewart Falls, 3.6 miles, the hike was great, and the falls were amazing...that doesn't even describe it. The kids had a blast, it was a very hot day and when we reached the falls they played in the water.

8/2/08 - Doughnut Falls, 1.4 miles, the kids really liked this hike and thought the waterfall was cool.

7/27/08 - Cecret Lake, 1.6miles, this hike was so beautiful with wildflowers. It was our first hike and started our summer of hiking.
And somewhere in between we went to Dog Lake (4.6 miles), Silver Lake/Lake Solitude (3.5 miles) and the Brighton Lakes (4.2 miles) and maybe more, I don't remember. I forgot my camera on those hikes.

Fun at Snowbird

July 24th - Jess and I wanted to do something fun with the girls today but couldn't think of something different to do. I was watching the Mike and Juliet show that morning and heard of a website, http://www.gocitykids.com/, to find fun things to do in your area. So we logged on and were scrolling thru things to do, movies in the park, story time at the library, then we see:

Snowbird Summer Thrill Rides Snowbird's warm weather thrill rides are open for the season. Rides include the ZipRider, Alpine Slide, Bungy Trampoline, the Peruvian Express Chairlift and tunnel, a mechanical bull, inflatable kids' rides, a four-station climbing wall, and the Aerial Tram.

That sounds real fun, let's go. We don't tell the girls where we are going but that we are going some where fun. I guess we have tricked them in the past because they were very skeptical. Every other minute, "just tell us where we are going, pleeeaaassseee!" The suspense was killing them so we just let them guess the whole way there.

Once we arrived they still were not sure what to expect until we got up to the tram, then they were all smiles. They saw the inflatable games, the bungy trampoline, the climbing wall... "can we do this, can we do that" began.

Jess and I wanted to do the tram first, "it is leaving in 10 minutes" the ticket man told us, so we go over and get in line. Again, "what are we doing, why are we waiting here, are we doing this, are we doing that"... oh what fun we had with them, tehe.

The tram was awesome, suprisingly I have never been on it. The views were so beautiful, the girls were a little scared at first, but since the ride was so smooth their fears relaxed after a few minutes. Then it was dad look at this, mom did you see that. We were so proud of them for being brave.

At the top where the tram stops we explored for about 20 minutes, took lots of pictures and just enjoyed the views.

Next we went over to the Alpine slide. The line was forever long and there was no shade. We waited of course because that is what we were here to do. We all complained a lot about the heat, listened to the conversations going on around us, and just anticipated the ride. When it was our turn we planned to go down as Lexi and Sydney racing and then mom and dad racing. Well it didn't turn out that way, there was an odd number of people in the group in front of us so Lexi had to race one from their group, Jess and Sydney raced down together, and then I went down alone. I felt a little silly, but it was fun.

After that we needed something to eat, we went down to the Pizza shop and enjoyed an extremely large veggie pizza and water. After we started to get our energy back we went back up for bungy bouncing and wall climbing.

Again the wait in the lines were very long, but we all had a really good time. So we definately recommend taking a day to explore Snowbird in the summer.

Cascade Springs part deux

Saturday, July 12th we took the family to Cascade Springs. Lexi said, "this is the best place I have ever been!!"



Some interesting facts about Cascade Springs. 7.5 milllion gallons a day of water flows thru Cascade Springs a day, that is 1800 glasses of drinking water per second. The water comes right out of the ground, seriously, we walked around the entire springs and there was no river or anything flowing into it. Ok enough learning... enjoy the pics. :)

PAIGE, SYDNEY & ALEXIS

GRANDPA MERRILL (TOM), GRANDMA MERRILL (VAUNDA),

PAIGE, SYDNEY & ALEXIS

Goodbye RE/MAX...I will miss you!

July 10th was my last day at RE/MAX Results. I am going to miss all the fun we had together. Please keep in touch, I will miss you all terribly. Thank you for everything, it was an awesome 12 years... WOW!!! Augest :)

Our New Passion

Sunday, July 6th we took a ride with Augest's mom, Sherrie and her step-dad, Lee. Some other friends joined us as well. We started the ride heading up American Fork canyon, went around the Alpine Loop and down to Cascade Springs, it was so beautiful. It's funny how you can live somewhere your whole life and there are still so many things you have not seen. We will definately take the kids back there for hiking and a picnic.

After we walked around Cascade Springs we headed down to Provo Canyon, where we stopped off at Wingers for lunch. We decided then that we hadn't had enough riding so we jumped back on the freeway and headed down to Santaquin and drove around Utah Lake to get home. We just can't get enough.

4th of July weekend

This year we spent our 4th of July weekend with our friends Robert and Brittney in Logan. Every year in Logan they have the "Cruise-In" which means a car show. You all know how much Jess is into cars and motorcycles so we headed up there.

The kids were so excited on the drive up. Every 5 minutes, are we there yet. :)

When we arrived on Thursday Robert and Brittney had the picnic basket full of goodies and we headed out to the park for a picnic and a dip in the "river".






It was very hot at the park so we decided to go back to their house and turn on the sprinklers for the kids, they had a blast with the water under the trampoline.





We have always wanted to see if the "mentos in diet coke" really works. Eat your heart out Mythbusters.

Later that night we went to a different park to watch the fireworks. OOOOHHH....AWWWWW




On the 4th the boys, Jess and Robert, went to the cars show while the girls, Brittney and Augest took the kids to the swimming pool. They had so much fun we couldn't get them to leave. Everyone was very water logged, Brittney and Augest were fried. Put sunscreen on the kids but not yourself, not so smart.

Robert and Brittney were wonderful hosts, they fed us VERY TASTY food and are so fun to be with. Thanks guys, we miss you!