Utah Lake Festival

Saturday June 2 was free fish day, as such, the Provo Utah lake Boat Harbor hosted the Utah lake festival. 

There were various booths set up; kite making, casting practice, hat making, free food, photography contest. Every member of the family was given a "passport" that needed to be stamped at each event. When the passport was full, they could redeem it for a free Utah lake Festival t-shirt. Above they are digging for shells in the sand, they found some pretty cool ones. 

Even the oldest got into the casting practice.  A few of onlookers may or may not have been hit in the head...a few times...until they moved. 

Making sand paintings with oolitic sand from the great salt lake. 

They released two hawks during the festival, it was very impressive, the kids loved it.

Cross marine projects, who do work all over the lake, offered free rides on their barges. It was pretty cool and informational...apparently the lake has an average depth of 9.5 feet which holds true just about everywhere. 

The littlest was pretty excited about this picture. 

This was a fun event with free food and plenty of activities for the family. 

We are looking forward to Orem Summerfest next weekend, one of the kids favorite city fairs.

Aaronic Priesthood Ordination

This Sunday Joshua was ordained a Priest and Joseph a Teacher. To began their service, Joshua blessed the sacrament and Joseph went home teaching for the first time, he  tught the lesson and did great. I figured the best way to learn is by doing.

All the Children, Oldest to youngest.

If you are reading this and have no idea what I am talking about, We are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day saints, you can learn more about what I am talking about here at Mormon.org or LDS.org.

Spring Break Moab 2012

Spring break in Moab Utah has been a tradition in our family for years.  Sometimes it involves all the brothers and sisters with their children other years just a few. This year, Gavin brought down his two children and my father came along. We left Orem at 6:20 AM (we were on schedule for 6 but a light left on in the Van derailed that), arriving in Moab around 9:30.

The first thing the children wanted to do was hike Cable arch (or funnel as some know it). It is a short hike, with a very steep section, that leads to a neat arch including an opportunity to climb a steep pitch with a cable hand line to the top of the arch.

This is what the climb to the top of the arch looks like from the bottom. I was very surprised when the entire family, including the youngest and mom wanted to go to the top.

For safety purposes I roped the two youngest to me and we ascended and descended together.

Climbing to the top, as seen from above. This is our 8 year old daughter climbing. After reaching the top we explored the area a little then returned to the car.

By the time we got back to camp Gavin and Grandpa had arrived so we decided to climb in the back of the truck and drive up Kane Creek road past Hurrah pass to the Moab wind caves. The caves are located in a cool rock formation that stands separately from the surrounding area. We spent hours exploring the caves, climbing over rocks and trying to link caves together.

After exploring in the caves, we climbed to the top of the formation which provided great views of the surrounding area. It is always a little unnerving being close to cliff edges with children who fear nothing, but they love it.

Friday we woke up and decided to explore a new area in arches which is upstream of courthouse wash. We searched for a place called the tunnel, which is a natural tunnel that goes 53 feet through the mountain, but could not find it, so we found ring arch instead.

The kids of course wanted to get as close as they could so we created a hand line enabling them to get closer to the arch. I love this picture of our 8 year old climbing and our 7 year old waiting his turn. After hiking about 9 miles exploring and finding these new places, we spent the rest of the afternoon swimming in 50 degree weather (kids idea). We all swam, minus mom who sat in the hot tub.

That night, around 8:30 the kids decided they wanted to hike delicate arch. So off we went, in windy, semi-cold weather we reached the top in 45 minutes. They were a little nervous at first, especially after passing the "creepy" cabin, but relaxed as we hiked on. All of them hiked the entire way. 

It was pitch black with no moon or stars. We were the only ones on the trail and just stayed long enough to see the arch (via flashlight) snap a few pictures and head back down. We made it down in 30 minutes, not bad for kids that young, in the dark and wind. They loved it and those who went said it was thier favorite part of the trip.

Saturday morning we headed into the Onion Creek area, which is near fisher towers, to do some exploring. The canyon was beautiful and provided hours of fun for the children to explore, climb, jump and just mess around, and for the adults because it is a gorgeous area. We stopped  briefly for a quick  family photo, no pre-fab photos for us.

It is as steep as it looks, we have good insurance...

Waiting thier turn to climb an obstacle.

We ended our weekend of hiking with a traditional trip to corona arch, one of our favorites. It is pretty, short at 3 miles round trip, and the kids love it.

Saturday night we hit up the Moab Diner and spent the evening perusing the shops where the kids spent some of their well earned and saved money.

It was a fantastic trip and on the way home the kids were talking about what they loved the most, and what they want to do next year.

You may be thinking, what no biking???

Well that is correct...my brother and I are going next Saturday, to Moab, on a biking trip. That's right two weeks in a row...I could get used to that.

It's funny, while in Moab  we ran into a family from Australia - yes, that was Australia -  who were there for their second trip because they loved it so much and a few weeks before that my brother and I ran into a husband and wife from back east who visited once and decided to retire there.  It is an amazing little town that was essentially created by Uranium mining and has now become the adventure capital of the world.

We will never tire of it...

Just Riding - Provo Canyon 3.31.12

 Saturday was one of those days where we almost have to force ourselves to ride and it turns out amazing. Guthrie and I had been struggling with a stomach flu the week before, but with possible 80 degree temperatures (which we did hit and broke a long time record), we couldn't miss a day like that.

We began very slow and climbed and explored new trails, the following is a picture summary of the trip.

Due to the wind the night and day before, the air was clear and we could see for miles.

Hard to believe it is late March and such little snow in the mountains, this is the GWT climbing up from the altar to the pass at the top of Dry creek for a descent, alas the snow stopped us.

Gorgeous blue skies and bike (2011 Specialized Stumpjumper EVO).

We decide to take a few pictures descending Dragon's back...Guthrie pinning it.

This year we have explored these trails more than ever before, and we couldn't be more happy with them. They provide good training, variety and some technical portions (you can find them on this website Timp Foothill Trails).

Long live Utah biking...

Antelope Island 3.24.12

Antelope Island sits peacefully in the Great Salt Lake and is home to much wildlife. In the past, every spring, we have camped there as a family. For the last many years we have missed this trip as a family. When the older children one day were taking about antelope Island the the younger ones showed interest, we decided to go again.

We left right after work, and arrived about 6:30. The campsites are nice, but basic. No running water or lights. We enjoyed it like that.

That night we attended a Solar System presentation at the visitor's center that the kids loved. While driving there nature wished us goodnight with a beautiful sunrise that reminded me more of California or Hawaii than Utah.

Saturday after Breakfast we went on a cross country exploring hike on a hill above camp. We saw any animals including hawks, bison, antelope, deer, rabbits and others. The kids and I loved it.

One of their favorite things was exploring the many tunnels and caves made by the the rocks and rainwater eating away the material.



I love this picture because the entire Hike the older children helped the youngest navigate the rocky terrain.

After the hike we headed down to Fielding Garr ranch, which is farther south on the Island. There you can tour the old ranch, practice roping and just explore what it was like to live on the Island.

I had to add it...

Dawn ended up with the stomach flu, but was adamant that we stay. She laid in the tent while we spent the day exploring.

For Lunch we sampled the Buffalo Burgers from the Island Buffalo Grill, they loved them and pronounced them sweeter and more filling than beef. (I have no idea what that means)

After lunch we Played in the Lake and bubbles, made sand castles and skipped rocks.

Notice the rock in this picture...

After the beach, we tried to rinse the sand and salt off us, which was utterly fruitless. Then headed out for our last adventure which was to explore the rocks on lady finger point. This point is very important in the park's history as it was on the end of this point, after a short hike, when it was decided to make a park here on the island. Finally it was time to bid farewell so the children played sharks and minnows while I packed the van.

On our way home they were all chatting how this had been one of the greatest camping trips ever. We saw tons of animals, explored, played, ate simply and had a great time.

 This time of year is a great time to visit the Great Salt Lake Park.

Ol' Jack's Treasure

St. Patrick's day is usually a fairly calm Holiday for us. Sure there is a visit from a mysterious leprechaun set on wreaking havoc, but other than that, some green waffles and other green items, non-eventful.

So in the morning I decided to go for a ride... I figured it would be the last day for a while that the trails would be dry with the storm coming. It was fantastic.

I took this picture with my tripod, and forgot to put my helmet back on...the trails were dry.

When I got home I invited the children to help me clean out my car, and much to our surprise they found a rolled up, rather ragged looking, piece of paper jammed in a bush. It appears the wind must have blown it there.

It was hard to make out as it was rather faded and dirty, but the children did see a faint scrawling which read,  "Ol' Jack's treasure, don't be touchin".

They screamed for excitement and joy (I'm sure all the neighbors were now aware of the find) and ran in the house proclaiming, "We found a leprechaun's treasure map". Clothes were quickly changed, break feast hastily eaten and off we went. You see, they wanted to find the treasure before Jack did. We followed the clues, which were not simple I might add, to Provo canyon. Eventually ending at the squaw peak road closure gate, so with map in hand we headed up the road.

Following the clues we were led off the road into the scrub oak.

After a little searching we found the resting place of Ol'Jacks goods. It turned out to be 42 chocolate gold coins and 42 1 dollar "Gold' Coins.

The older Children played along while the younger children relished in the fact that they had indeed found a leprechaun's treasure.

They were some excited children.

They spent the rest of the day practicing fighting skills and building traps  in case the leprechauns attacked, wanting to regain their lost treasure. Fortunately no such event occurred.

Although they said they found another treasure map that had blown in...

Happy St. Patrick's day!!!